#yurissa

Yurissa spilled that Mister Krawson and the executioners were a group that fixated on their own perceptions of guilt as a precursor to what had followed.  She told that in calculated conversation the group would attempt to acquire a confession from their targets, and after submit the individual to their own brand of justice.  Death was the only outcome they saw suitable for anything from a minor infraction to treason which was the highest of crimes.  They awaited no official order to enact their self-appointed task and no trial was held for those they subjected to their sentence.

It was not until she met a particular member of Krawson’s group by the name of Mister Haines she had any real concern of the executioners and their tactics.  Mister Haines suffered a particular form of derangement where he believed himself something of an inquisitor. He was armed with vials he would force targets to drink in order to compel a confession.  Yurissa had raised her concerns with Krawson himself of this male on two separate occasions. She could see him toeing the line of even Krawson’s own self-prescribed morality.  Yet, her concerns were ignored and the man was allowed to continue to roam the streets freely as a risk to the public.

She first met Mister Haines while keeping an eye on the elder brother of Lady Aredhele who was having a conversation with her dear friend Velerodra Valesinger, someone Yurissa had known many years.  Haines spoke nonsensical jibberish as far as Yurissa was concerned presenting the vials before Vele and herself uttering the words, “Drink of me.” It was clear even then that the unhinged man was going to be an issue but that night passed without incident.  However, it was the following encounter that had set into motion the events that would forever change the course of Yurissa’s life.

Yurissa enjoyed the game of darts and so in the evenings when she found herself with little else to do she would head to the Golden Keg to unwind.  It was here that Mister Haines without his handler found her. On the upper floor of the facility, he pinned her against the banister and rolled one of his concoctions over her shoulder.  The lunatic ensured Yurissa that she would drink of him and confess her sins soon enough, but the time was not now. He disappeared into the night as Jax the bartender having witnessed the scene checked on Yurissa. 

It was not long after the incident at the bar that Mister Haines was spotted lurking near Yurissa’s offices.  Spying perhaps to see if he could overhear anything he could contort to guilt no doubt. Yurissa admitted she approached him to try and dismiss the male from the area, but it was this night that the confession he was looking for was her own.  It was on this night that Yurissa’s hand would be forced.  Drugged and in the midst of interrogation the male asked of her lover, and it was this that sparked the fight that resulted in Mister Haines death.

She admitted to hiding the evidence and disposing of the body as she feared Krawson and his men seeking her out in revenge for the fallen.  Yurissa in a drugged haze wandered the streets after locating her dear friend Velerodra in order to hide until the effects of the male’s concoction wore off.  It was the following day she reported herself to the Magistrate and warned him of the executioners as she knew an investigation would soon be launched.  Public service or not Haines was dead and Krawson was coming.

For a while, she managed to stay ahead of the suspicions of her involvement.  As she predicted Krawson and his entire team were investigating her organization as they were the last to pique the group’s interest. Circling like vultures getting closer and closer to the truth of the matter, and it was this that must have led them to Grey. 

Grewyn and Yurissa had been together for the better part of a year.  Their relationship beginning over a game of darts Grey had lost and her curiosity got the better of her.  Krawson was aware of their involvement, and this must have been what was used to coax Grey into a confession to the murder of Mister Haines. She explained how she thought Grey in an effort to protect her confessed before the executioner and was marched from the city where his imposed sentence was carried out.  Grewyn Duskstride had been put to death on the second of November. 

She silenced for a long moment as the guard and Lord Bennas discussed the events and where Yurissa stood for her deeds throughout.  They asked where they could find Krawson and it was here the night of Grey’s death played vividly in her mind. “He told his men they would return to Strom.” She answered absently as Grey’s eyes in the last few moments of his life haunted her. “Will I be arrested?” She asked as the discussion of what was to be done with her continued.

Mentions:

Over the past few days, her thoughts had been in complete disarray but perhaps it was needed to find clarity.  The future her and Grey spoke on now fell into a pool of doubts she had always held when it came to family.  Though most remained unaware Yurissa subconsciously was still screaming in the pond where she had been found the night her family perished. She never believed herself capable of having another family, even as she aged. 

In her own mind, certain things were just out of reach for her, and much beyond her work was in fact just that.  Not one person she had encountered after that terrible night had ever convinced her otherwise although they were all given the opportunity to try.  Each time she opened herself for the possibility it only ever ended reaffirming this belief.  A tragic but normal cycle that repeated over and again in her lifetime.

She left a note to her gracious host in gratitude for the place she had been offered to stay the previous eve.  While she had not been asked to leave she thought it best as she had caused enough trouble for the poor man in the past.  Her eyes drifted skyward as rain droplets began to fall from their shelf above.  Of course, it was raining.  

Another laugh escaped as she wandered along the path at how typical it all was. Rather than allowing herself to be consumed by thoughts of her own misfortunes and how things always seemed to play out. She instead, allowed her memory of home to stir within her mind.  She could nearly hear her mother calling to her as she inhaled the scent of the rainsoaked earth. “Life isn’t about learning to dodge the storms, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. Come dance with us Yuri.” 

As a child, she delighted in hearing those words and would rush to her mother's side to dance in the puddle marked yard outside their cabin. However, today… today for whatever reason it did not call the usual smile to her face. Something inside her just detected something was very wrong here. 

“YURI DANCE!” She heard the whispers scream forcing her to turn just in time to see a throwing blade pass in front of her face.  She was not alone, and yet at the same time that is where she knew herself to be. Figures began appearing around her in almost the same instant she turned, and slowly the understanding came… she was being ambushed.

Early Life

Yurissa doesn't remember much of her life prior to meeting Kelyn, having been too young for most of it to stick; her earliest memories are of being alone. She stumbled across the drow one day when she was five years old, drawn by his music. Kelyn was quick to take pity on the girl, and Yurissa was just as quick to decide she wasn't leaving his side unless forced to: after all, he was kind and good to her, and her other option was fending for herself.

Before long Yurissa had practically adopted him, and it wasn't too long after that that a group of dark strangers found them...or more specifically, Kelyn. While Yurissa was never told the details, they soon left their home to travel to Baldur's Gate.

The two of them settled in at Baldur's Gate fairly quickly, with Yurissa delighting in the sights, sounds, and better life offered by their new home. She was never clear what exactly Kelyn did, but she was young enough not to worry about it too much; after all, he was a grown-up, so he must know what he was doing.

For his part, Kelyn did his best to raise her to be clever, well-rounded, and confident in herself: he taught her some of the basic tricks of any rogue's trade (with her taking a particular delight in stealth and pickpocketing), a few different languages so they could communicate without others understanding (she knows drow hand sign but can only partly replicate it, and is also more-or-less fluent in Drowic and Undercommon, and knows a bit of High Drow), and an unwavering sense of her own importance that she perhaps took a bit too seriously.

She was around seven years old when Kelyn first met Gortash, and happened to be accompanying her guardian to that first meeting. While the two of them talked, Yurissa quickly got bored, and it wasn't long before she decided to try and pickpocket Gortash; she was caught almost immediately, but luckily the man found her sheer audacity a bit too charming to be properly angry (perhaps helped by Kelyn's profuse apologies and his own desire to partner with him).

Before long, Gortash was a common presence in Yurissa's life, and it didn't take long for her to question him and just who, exactly, he thought he was, directing her guardian's attention away from her. Despite this, the two got along surprisingly well: they were never around each other long enough for Yurissa to actually seriously annoy him, and Gortash largely found her nosy intensity to be harmless and a bit amusing (and worth tolerating for the sake of staying on good terms with Kelyn).

Eventually, at one point when Kelyn had to be away for a few hours for a job, he ended up leaving Yurissa in Gortash's care; she never knew the exact circumstances of why, but it was in truth to protect her from Orin, who had recently been raising a fuss about the girl and hinted that she might try to cut out her brother's weakness if he wouldn't do it himself. Gortash was the only person Kelyn trusted to protect her, as her usual babysitters wouldn't have stood a chance if Orin had tried to make good on the implied threat.

Yurissa was hesitant at first, but eventually found herself meandering into Gortash's workshop to watch him work. She was quiet enough that he tolerated her presence (and besides, when she was in line of sight it made it much easier to be sure she was safe from Orin), and after she showed more than an idle interest in what he was doing, he gave her some mechanical bits to toy with.

Yurissa took to it with fervent interest, and managed to finagle the pieces into something resembling a functional object. It was essentially useless: a small collection of gears, springs, and other miscellany that didn't do anything but provide an outlet for fidgety little hands. But Yurissa was proud of her little creation, although she wasn't sure what it was for...until Gortash took it from her, made some adjustments to smooth the movement of the various parts out, and crafted it into a pendant for her.

Upon Kelyn's return to pick her up, Gortash was all too darkly eager to warn Kelyn to "watch out...she's a smart one".

For the next decade or so, Yurissa's life was happy and largely unremarkable. She spent more time around Gortash as he and Kelyn grew closer, eventually coming to see him as a sort of vaguely uncle-like figure. As she got older, she started to notice enough to realize Gortash was likely involved in some extremely shady business...and given Kelyn's business partnership with him, he also must be. Nonetheless, she reasoned that it wasn't her business: Kelyn had only ever been kind, loving, and doting to her, and Gortash himself had never treated her poorly, and she had enough awareness by then to know sometimes good people had to do less-than-good things...and surely Kelyn, and anyone he associated so closely and freely with, must be inherently good in the end.

She also met Orin during several of her many visits to her brother despite Kelyn's attempts to keep them apart, and was quick to realize she held no love for Yurissa and would, in fact, leap at the chance to hurt her...and given her shapechanging, Yurissa could never be sure Orin wasn't nearby, only that she wouldn't do anything so long as Kelyn or Gortash were close enough to intervene.

As she approached her teenage years, Yurissa began to suspect Kelyn and Gortash were in fact involved in something very dark, and perhaps the man who had been raising her wasn't as good as she wanted to think: she still knew nothing of his actual work (and by now, knew she probably didn't want to), but she'd begun to put the pieces together over the years, and to take notice that things she'd written off as simply odd quirks of Kelyn's behavior might, in fact, indicate something far darker and more frightening about him.

But still, he was the only parental figure Yurissa had ever had, and he'd never mistreated her...whatever darkness he might be hiding from her.

The Trip to Moonrise and Aftermath

Yurissa was fifteen when Kelyn left to take a short trip to Moonrise Towers. He refused to bring her along (saying only that it was nothing she wanted to be involved with), and left her in Gortash's care (as was now typical, whenever he was away for even a few hours), with the promise that he'd be home in a few days.

He never returned.

A short time after Kelyn was supposed to have come home, Gortash sat her down to inform her of the unfortunate news that he would never be coming home: he didn't have details to tell her (and even if he had, he wouldn't have), only that he had it on good authority that something had gone wrong at Moonrise, and Kelyn wasn't going to be coming back.

Yurissa refused to believe it for a time, until reality settled in and she was forced to accept that Kelyn was gone. She stayed with Gortash while she grieved, and in fact he was intent at keeping her by his side as his ward...because, after all, he had promised Kelyn he would keep her safe, and he intended to do that, since he owed him that much and was in no rush to throw Yurissa to the wolves; Orin had taken her brother's place, now, and would have leapt an an opportunity to kill the girl, sheerly to spite the man she had murdered.

Yurissa didn't much enjoy the additional pomp and circumstance that came with being the ward of such a prominent and ambitious politician, but she wasn't eager to be on her own again, and while Gortash wasn't Kelyn, she did care for him and he was good to her in his way. She never fully accepted the story he told about Kelyn's death, however...it was all too vague, shady, and overall suspicious for her.

It wasn't long after that she was approached by a poetic stranger who introduced himself as Raphael. He soon revealed himself to be a devil...and one who was extremely interested in helping her discover the truth about Kelyn's death, and if she felt the need, avenging him. He offered her all the abilities and knowledge of a warlock, in exchange for Yurissa working for him when, where, and however he needed it...and to start, she could keep an eye on Gortash for him, because the devil was very interested in his doings, and eager to make use of Yurissa's closeness to him.

Yurissa accepted, and promptly set to sticking her nose into Gortash's business: at first, by simply asking if she could help him with something, because after all, wasn't she old enough? She was bored.

Gortash took her sudden interest with a bit of bemused, suspicious humor, but saw little harm in giving her some low-risk jobs to do to see if she might be worth trusting with more important business. This largely consisted of running messages from time to time and other minor errands, which she naturally pried into (which he had been expecting she would, and frankly he'd have been disappointed if she hadn't). The majority of them confirmed her suspicions of him having shady dealings, but it was largely what she expected by now: certainly nothing good, per se, but nothing terribly bad either, and well, he was a politician, wasn't he?

Before she could make much use of either the skills Raphael had granted her or her new involvement in Gortash's work, it was all tossed by the wayside when one man walked back into Baldur's Gate, entirely alive and lacking the majority of his memory, including any recollection of Yurissa herself: Kelyn.