Meredith
"I live my life as I see fit. Sometimes you lose people along the way..." - Meredith.
"I live my life as I see fit. Sometimes you lose people along the way..."
- Meredith.
Overview
Born on the planet Toril in Realmspace, Meredith was an incredibly powerful pirate-mage who had been plying the spacelanes for well over 200 years. An eminently practical and pragmatic woman, Meredith was known to aid others when it suited her (or when she had been paid to), but she could also be cold, ruthless, and even cruel, when she felt it necessary to achieve her goals. Meredith was a mercenary for hire and a pirate, but above all else she was a powerful and talented wizard. Due to her amoral and uncaring nature, combined with her raw magical power, the archmage Elminster of Toril considered her a threat to the cosmic balance.
Meredith's true name was Larabet Vintara (Lara for short), although it's possible that only the elves of the Elven Imperial Navy and her son Bors knew her by that name.
Description
Meredith appeared to be an attractive human woman of average height, with dark blue eyes and long black hair with a distinctive white stripe running down the center; a feature inherited by her son, Bors, and her granddaughter, Tenah. Meredith typically wore a long red cloak over a blouse and leggings, and was armed with a variety of magic items and spells. As a spelljamming mage, Meredith was often unable to cast spells, and to compensate, she wore numerous rings, each of which stored a single defensive or offensive spell, including prismatic wall and prismatic sphere.
According to rumor, Meredith's career in wildspace had begun some 200 years prior, though her son Bors believed that she was well over 700 years old.
Possessions
Over her long career, Meredith acquired a vast hoard of treasure, including both valuables as well as magical items, which she secured in an extradimensional space known as a dimensional closet. The only way to access this extradimensional vault was by using a key-shaped pendant, which she gave to her close friend Rose for safekeeping. After her death, Roses' daughter Jasmine inherited the pendant, wearing it around her neck until Meredith chose to reclaim it. Meredith also possessed a crown of the stars which she received from the elder's of Unipaxala as an inducement to accept their commission to rescue the high priest Pax Ahlmuhn from neogi slavers.
History
Lady Chaos
Before the dragons had left the continent of Ansalon on Krynn, and at the time when the city of Waterdeep was still a fishing village, Meredith was known as Lady Chaos. Lauded as the Queen of the Stellar Main. the pirate-queen and her aide-de-camp, a giff known as Chancel, were based on the Rock of Bral.
Nimone
After Lady Chaos had assumed the name Nimone, she negotiated an alliance between three trade worlds and the mercantile world of Barrara, with the sole purpose of conquering their sister planet, Astrylon, and plundering its riches. She then approached Astrylon's Diet of Elders and proposed an alliance between them and the same three trade worlds, with the intention of conquering the planet Barrara. She eventually coerced (or seduced) the Knights of Astrylon, known as the Order of the White Plume, to support the initiative and even lead Astrylons' fleet in the coming war. However, when Astrylon's armada reached the proposed rendezvous point where they were to join their erstwhile allies, they sailed right into an ambush, and were annihilated by the combined fleets of the three trade worlds and that of Barrara. Nimone even used her magic to ensure that all but a few of the Knights of Astrylon were put to the sword.
Later, Nimone had a son named Bors, and together they raided through the universe. Before Bors was even out of his teens, his name was as feared and reviled as that of his mother. He was a creature of his mother's will, and her grip on him never faltered, until she sent him to rob the Citadel of the Keepers of the Flame. As Bors was stealing precious gems from a statue of the Holy Flame itself, he was discovered, and in his efforts to escape he was captured by the High Priest, Kouros, who placed an enchantment on him that never again would he be able to ignore the difference between right and wrong, and that he would either be a force for great good or great evil.
Fleeing from the Keepers of the Flame, and an irate Arcane merchant they had robbed, Nimone and Bors were driven off course by a blazozoid and ended up in a sargasso known as the Sea of Lost Ships. Trapped within the strange sargasso, Bors became determined to no longer rely on magic, and seek his own path, away from the influence of his mother. While Bors hitched a lift with a friendly delphinid, Meredith was captured by a group of cannibalistic pirates of gith. Bors, who had enlisted the aid of the Arcane merchant from before, managed to rescue his mother, only to watch as a group of ancient mariners slaughtered the gith pirates. With no other choice, Bors agreed to cast one last spell, and together he and his mother summoned the einheriar (heroic undead) of the Knights of Astrylon to save them from the ancient mariners. Once they had defeated their opponents, the noble undead gathered to look upon the face of their betrayer one last time before departing.
Meredith
Shortly after Bors had struck out on his own, Nimone changed her name to Meredith and pursued a career as a mercenary captain. Some years later, she was hired by priests from Unipaxala to rescue one of their own, a high priest named Pax Ahlmuhn who had been captured by neogi pirates. To ensure that Meredith rescued Pax, and to convince him of her credentials, they sent along his nephew, a young acolyte named Tember. After Meredith and her crew infiltrated the neogi's asteroid base, they managed to rescue Pax. Unfortunately they were discovered, and in the ensuing battle between the pirates and the umber hulk warrior-slaves of the neogi, their damselfly-class ship was destroyed. While her crew fought off the umber hulks, Meredith, Pax and Tember boarded a smalljammer they discovered in a vault. Meredith used her crown of stars to forge a link with the vessel, and abandoning her crew to their fate, fled the asteroid, along with Pax and his nephew.
In an effort to avoid the pursuing neogi mindspiders, Meredith escaped into Krynnspace and made her way to the planet Krynn so that she could rest, while Tember secured fresh provisions. After a run-in with some goblins and members of the Tiger Clan, Meredith made her way to her home planet Toril in Realmspace. Hoping to secure funds from her extradimensional vault, Meredith made her way to the Selûne's Smile tavern in the city of Waterdeep, where she learnt from the proprietor Luna that her friends who held the key to her vault had been murdered five years prior, and that their daughter, Jasmine had now gone missing. After discovering the whereabouts of the missing girl, Meredith, Pax and Tember assisted the crew of the skyship Realms Master in rescuing Jasmine from the lecherous clutches of the lich Viranton. Jasmine decided to leave the Realms Master, and accepted a position with Meredith's crew.
When Meredith and her crew were flying back to Waterdeep, their smalljammer was attacked by an enormous creature which tried to devour the vessel. Overcome with fear, the living ship overrode Meredith's control and fled into wildspace. Unfortunately, the mysterious creature pursued the ship all the way to the crystal sphere and into the phlogiston. When the creature attempted to use its fire breath to capture its prey, it caused a catastrophic explosion, killing itself and damaging the vessel. In an effort to avoid the brunt of the explosion, Meredith was forced to enter an unknown crystal sphere. Overcome with fatigue and the fear, pain and trauma of the living ship, Meredith landed on the closest habitable planet before falling unconscious.
Kirstig's World
The smalljammer was discovered by a tribe of humans known as the People of Song and Story. When members of the tribe entered the vessel, they were confronted by Pax, Tember and Jasmine, who had been cocooned within softwood spells to prevent injury during the crash. Jasmine drew her weapons and prepared to fight, but Pax managed to diffuse the situation. Kirstig, elder of the People and priestess of the Mother of Songs offered the hospitality of her tribe and to transport the smalljammer to the nearest body of water. When they reached the shores of the lake, Meredith regained consciousness, and overcome with thirst, demanded water. The smalljammer responded by immediately taking off and diving into the lake to collect drinking water for its captain. Once she had quenched her thirst, the near delirious Meredith declared her intention of returning to Unipaxala: again the smalljammer responded to its captain's wishes and immediately headed into wildspace. Kirstig, wishing to avoid an arranged marriage with a man she despised and prompted by a vision from her goddess, had stowed away on board the vessel, accompanied by her retainers (known as regents), and members of the tribe who had chosen to remain loyal to her.
Once Meredith had recovered from her ordeal and had been appraised of the situation, she agreed to allow Kirstig and her companions to remain on board until she had returned Pax and Tember to Unipaxala. Once she had fulfilled her contract, she would then undertake to return them to their home world. However, as they journeyed through the phlogiston, they were attacked by a neogi mindspider. Meredith and her companions were being overrun by umber hulks but luckily the owner-captain of the neogi vessel, possibly senile due to old age, cast a fireball spell, destroying his own vessel. Once Meredith and her crew, and Kirstig and her companions, had driven off the last enemy fighters they entered Unipaxala's crystal sphere, only to find that the asteroid settlement had been overrun by neogi.
Unipaxala
Using the smalljammer's ability to disguise itself, Meredith and her crew were able to land on Unipaxala without being challenged. Making use of secret tunnels and caverns unknown to the invaders, Meredith, Pax and Jasmine made their way to the central chamber of the main building in an effort to activate the Ice-Ring Projector, a magical device used by the pacifistic inhabitants to encase their asteroid home in an impregnable sphere of ice. While Jasmine engaged the neogi and their umber hulk slaves, Pax and Meredith made their way below the central chamber. However, before they could reach the Projector, Pax discovered that Unipaxala had been betrayed by one of their own, a mad-woman named Seren. In the ensuing fight, Seren broke a support column in an effort to prevent Pax and Meredith from reaching the Projector. Fortunately, Meredith was able to protect Pax and herself from the ensuing collapse with a prismatic sphere, but the neogi were now aware of their presence.
In the meantime, Tember, Kirstig and her companions came to the assistance of Jasmine, who had nearly been overwhelmed by the umber hulks. In the ensuing melee, Tember managed to activate the Ice-Ring Projector, encasing the asteroid in a sphere of ice and isolating the neogi from the bulk of their fleet. Meredith convinced the neogi to surrender and to withdraw their forces from Unipaxala. With Pax safely back on Unipaxala, Meredith had fulfilled her contract, and the Unipaxalans even agreed to transport Kirstig's people back to their home world. However, before she could leave, the Unipaxalan leadership asked Meredith to take on Tember as a crewmember, as they feared he no longer adhered to their pacifist beliefs. In addition, the priestess Kirstig and her regents, Hannous and Rupau, asked to join her crew.
Boroda
In order to prepare Tember for a life of adventure, Meredith decided to travel to the jungle planet of Boroda. There she introduced her crew to her son, Bors, leader of a community of primitive humans. She convinced Bors to train Tember as a warrior, and in exchange agreed to assist him with several monstrous creatures that were threatening his people. When Bors first arrived on Boroda, he designed and built a barricade to keep the planet's large population of monstrous creatures away from the human village. However, something had destroyed the barricade prior to Meredith's arrival, and the monsters were once again threatening his home. Bors proposed that scouting parties be sent out to drive the monsters away from the village.
What Bors didn't know was that a powerful spellcasting red dragon by the name of Wyldfire had arrived on Boroda, and was intent on subjugating the world, and ruling it as a god. When he first arrived, the dragon destroyed the barricade which had kept the monsters away from the human village, hoping to keep the humans too busy to notice his presence on their world. He then began fomenting rebellion amongst the youth of the village in an effort to recruit loyal followers. When Meredith and her crew arrived, he decided to act before they could intervene. While Bors and his hunting parties were out in the field, Wyldfire destroyed the village, having already summoned his young admirers to his cave. There he transformed the rebellious teenagers, including Tember, into young adults in the physical prime of their lives. When the children, now grown adults, returned to the village, Bors exiled them for consorting with the evil dragon. When Bors and the remaining hunters returned to the field they were confronted by Wyldfire, accompanied by his now loyal followers, who demanded their fealty and worship as their new god. Bors refused to bow down before the arrogant creature and was about to be immolated when Meredith intervened and killed the dragon with a finger of death spell.
The Citadel
When Meredith first used her crown of stars to helm the smalljammer, she forged a link with the mind of the living ship. She was constantly inundated with the vessels fear, anxiety, and pain, and as a result had become increasingly erratic, absent minded and even unstable. Subsequent to the events on Boroda, Meredith's crew became concerned by her mood swings, preoccupation with the ship and her almost callous indifference to their wellbeing. In addition, the priestess Kirstig had become convinced that Meredith had purposely cut her off from her goddess, the Mother of Songs, and was determined to either be free of Meredith or defeat her. However the situation became incredibly dire when a distracted Meredith flew the ship into a field of stone golems which attacked as soon as the vessel came within range. During the resulting melee, Meredith was overcome by the ship's pain and fear, and Kirstig was knocked unconscious. Both Tember and Hannous were thrown from the ship into the void of wildspace, followed soon after by Rupau and Jasmine in an attempt to rescue them. When Kistig returned to consciousness, she found that Meredith had also recovered. When Kirstig demanded they turn around to retrieve the crew, Meredith declined, commenting that as far as she was concerned they were merely passengers and that their physical wellbeing was less important than the mental equanimity of the ship; Instead she chose to explore a strangely familiar derelict citadel that she had discovered. It was at this point that Kirstig realized the full extent of Meredith's callousness and amorality.
Onboard the derelict citadel, Kirstig and Meredith were captured by the resident dwarves, who had recognised Meredith as the Dark Mistress who had plundered their home long before and brought death to most of the inhabitants. They now chose to torture her to death in revenge for all the misery she had caused. Kirstig was faced with a choice: she could allow nature to take its course and watch Meredith die, or she could intervene and save her life. Realizing that she could not live with herself if she allowed the woman to die, Kirstig instead chose to heal her wounds. Unfortunately, Meredith had no such qualms and cast a meteor storm spell, destroying the citadel and killing all on board, except for Kirstig whom she chose to save. Once they had returned to their ship, Meredith agreed to turn around and rescue the rest of the crew; only to find that Jasmine had flown off into the depths of the void and was now missing.
The Grimmjack
When Meredith refused to go in search for Jasmine, Kirstig used what magic she had left to forge a link with the smalljammer itself. Meredith reacted with violence, turning Kirstig's regents to stone before attacking Kirstig with a vampiric touch spell, forgetting that she and the priestess were now both linked to the ship and shared each other's pain. With Meredith rendered unconscious by the effects of her own spell, Kirstig was able to control the vessel and calm its fears, in the process learning its name was Pip. Restoring Hannous and Rupau to life, Kirstig was now determined to end Meredith's. However, before she could cut Meredith's throat, their ship was attacked by a gith pirate vessel, the man-o-war Grimmjack. Sensing that Jasmine was being held captive onboard the Grimmjack, Kirstig sent Tember to rescue their friend while she and her regents held off the pirates. With Jasmine free, Kirstig and her companions returned to their ship, only to find Meredith waiting for them. However, Meredith welcomed them aboard warmly, acting as if nothing untoward had occurred between her and the priestess.
The Armada
A few days after rescuing Jasmine from the gith pirates, Meredith and her crew were compelled to dock with an Elven Imperial Navy Armada. Meredith's crew were allowed to procure food and supplies while she met with the capital-ship's resident Council of Wizards, who knew her as Larabet Vintara. Instead, Meredith found herself attending a raucous party. When Meredith and her crew returned to the dock, they discovered their ship had been spirited away by the elves. While Kirstig and Meredith confronted each other on the Armada's main concourse, Tember and Jasmine split up and went in search of the smalljammer. When Tember found the vessel, he immediately attacked the elves guarding the ship, only to be captured. Jasmine returned from her patrol to find him suspended by his arms and his legs from four flitters, about to be rent limb from limb. Jasmine immediately went on the offensive, destroying two of the small ships, before handing Tember a ring of strength, allowing him to smash the two remaining flitters into each other and then into the crystal dome covering the Armada's main concourse. Reunited with their ship, Meredith and her crew were allowed to leave the Armada without further hindrance.
After the events on the Armada, the atmosphere onboard the smalljammer had become incredibly tense. Meredith, under increasing strain due to the demands of the smalljammer, the incessant bickering between Jasmine and Tember, and the naked hostility of Kirstig, finally reached her breaking point. Lashing out, she incapacitated the crew and, determined to be rid of them for good, decided to return them to their respective home worlds, starting with Jasmine.