#willow whisp

Pre-campaign, Willow was an assassin that ended up working with an underground organization. They were on a job with a group within said organization called the Ruby Rift, who were like a family, but it quickly went sideways and they fled for their life, their beak being shattered in the escape (which is why they now wear the mask).

They were untrusting and deceitful (classic rogue stuff, I know), though they usually tried to hide behind a 'cute' façade. Rumours of a powerful goddess of death scared Willow into worship due to their constant... uh... liberation of souls from their meat sacks. Anyway, they just wanted to stay neutral with this goddess, or better yet, unnoticed by the goddess. But one thing they knew was intolerable to the goddess was necromancy, so they accepted those ideals as their own. The issue was that they didn't really see the difference between revival and necromancy (both bring someone back from the dead) and believed that any sort of revival meant that the soul was eternally under the possession of whoever resurrected them.

This didn't really pose an issue until maybe a month or two of travelling within the safety of their new group. At this time, they were beginning to let their guard down and really start accepting the party as friends (something somewhat strange to them). Our 'human' bard, Vincent, seemed to constantly partake is risky behaviour while they were travelling together, and Willow called him out on it, saying that he'll never be able to save his kidnapped fiancée if he dies before he gets to her. A short argument about risk and revival lead to another party member, the dragonborn Avoria, revealing that he was revived with no repercussions.

Willow was an assassin, who had killed people for money and survival. They were no stranger to death, and would welcome it when the time came. They were very strong-willed and saw revival as taboo and enslavement. Avoria was a friend, and the only way to free them from the entity that resurrected them was to kill him.

Fortunately, an NPC named Taiv managed to prevent any death that night, but the damage had been done and Taiv knew that Willow would likely continue to pursue Avoria's death. So he made a decision. He confronted Will, challenging them to a fight to the death the following night, and threatened to track Will down and kill them if they fled.

Willow would have fled had they not loved the group they were a part of. They knew that Taiv was stronger than them, and that they would probably die if they truly fought one on one. Honestly, they were on the road to change already but they just needed time. Their whole world-view was being challenged and one does not change that quickly.

The fight was like a test from Taiv. Taiv was looking for signs of change during the fight, but he couldn't find what he was looking for. And in front of the party, Willow was slain.

Their body was taken by the ocean, presumably by the entity that revived Avoria. So, Avoria begged the entity to release Willow, to revive them.

In the chill depths, a giant golden eye with a shattered pupil opened before the kenku. A resonating, thundering voice asked them who they were and who they served. Due to a conversation during their fight, Willow replied that they served themself, rather than serving the death goddess as they would have just a day prior.

Avoria managed to retrieve the kenku, whose feathers were now bleached white. Their eyes opened slowly as they were hauled from the water. The emu aarakocra named Moo hugged the soaking kenku with relief, crying Willow's name and begging for forgiveness for the events that unfolded. But, to everyone's horror, they merely replied in broken, stolen voices "Who's Willow?"

Kenkus are a cursed race, land-bound and silenced. They do not have voices of their own, only mimicking the speech of others or sounds of the surrounding environment. Up to this point, Willow had been using the voice of their beloved, Finnan.

But now, Willow was gone, their mask carried off by the sea. Before the party stood a kenku that had no memory. The face and voice of their beloved was stolen, and they were scared and confused. The party took care of the kenku as they recovered and eventually named themself Whisp (I felt like a fucking genius coming up with that one,, it was totally unplanned that their name would be like Will 'o wisp).

Whisp is reckless, and will put themselves between the party and anything that scares them. They reflect the caring people around them and reach out a hand to everyone and everything, much like how the party reached out to them.

I love them, but for a while its been difficult to rp them. Much like Whisp themself, I'm struggling to find a place for them in the group. I feel like the humanized version of them has really inspired me tho (which is great because I'm probably not going to be able to shove everyone together for another game for a while)