Past and Present: Part Four: Ezmerelda d’Avenir
Known to most as ‘Ez’, Ezmerelda is a monster hunter of some repute. Trained by a master of the trade, she seeks out the worst of beasts (in any form) with her unique ability to traverse the domains of dread.
Born to a family of treacherous highwaymen, Ez was raised with coldness, manipulation, and distance. Indeed, she’d never have known any different if her parents hadn’t kidnapped a very particular teenage boy.
He was held by them for merely a few months, but his presence changed her entire life. The boy, despite his situation, treated the young Ez with novel kindness- often telling her stories of his family. Starved for genuine affection, Ez listened to his tales hungrily, seeking him out again and again to hear what a loving family was like. The dissonance between her harsh reality and his warm tales left her with an aching sense of dissatisfaction.
She resolved to defy her family, to help her kind friend escape- but too late. Without warning, he was gone- sold to an ominous figure with an axe to grind with the boy’s family. She never forgave herself for waiting.
Not long after, the boy’s father came upon their encampment in search of his son. A hunter of great skill, he interrogated the highwaymen fiercely- but left them alive. Deeply affected by this unearned kindness, Ez decided to find this man and help him find her first friend.
Years of searching led Ez to the master hunter at long last, where she eagerly offered her assistance in finding the boy that changed her life. After a brief misunderstanding, the master hunter broke grim news as kindly as he could. His son had been sold to a vampire by her parents, and turned before he’d had a chance to rescue him. The kind boy she remembered had begged for death upon seeing his father, and the most loving thing he could do was oblige.
Ez, devastated by the news, asked to be trained by the master hunter in order to help more people avoid such a fate. He obliged reluctantly, and for a time they worked together as master and apprentice.
That is, until their similarly forceful personalities caused...difficulties. Difference in opinion on what constituted a monster, what required their interference, what kind of plan to use tore their partnership apart. They decided they'd be better off working separately and parted as friends.
Despite their differences, Ez loves her mentor like a father- a difficult, stubborn father, but a father nonetheless. As an adult and fully fledged monster hunter, she still keeps an ear out for his antics- which is what has drawn her to Barovia.
**I’m running CoS for my friends and decided to rework some NPC art. I heavily referenced Ez’s outfit/pose from 4e art, but added some eastern-european-esque pizzazz.
