K

''"You're tired because you've been holding up the shields around Oringrad? How do you think we feel? We had to take a detour because of your stupid shield just to get into the city. Thanks a lot!" ''

K to Council Mage Alaldir, during the siege of Oringrad  K (alias, real name unknown) is a halfling rogue in The Faultless Arrow.

Early years
K was born into an ordinary farmer family in the halfling community of Rolling Hills, Rubia. She has two brothers, both several years older than her and they were already having their own wives and family when K reached the age of 5.

She was raised in the town of Rainbow Falls, a prosperous town even in Rolling Hills, getting its name from the wealth and happiness of its inhabitants. However, she herself never felt real happiness there, and never could conform to the wish of her parents behaving like a decent halfling girl: being a bit obtuse and adoring strong male halflings with large estates.

Motivation for adventuring
K always felt bored, and even a bit disgusted by the simple halfling life she had to endure in the first 17 years of her life. As early as 8 years old, she much rather sneaked around friends' houses to find their secrets than stayed in their living room chatting amicably like a proper halfling girl should. When she was 12 she impressed her close group of friends with stealing a batch of sleep potions from the village apothecary, and they were having fun for weeks making their bullies fall asleep at various times in the middle of the day.

The adventures of K didn't remain a secret for long in Rainbow Falls, to the horror of her parents. She quickly became the village rogue -- not an admirable title among halflings. However, she wanted to leave everything behind her anyway. As soon as she turned 17 -- coming of age for a halfling -- she sneaked out during the night with only a small backpack and decided to make the heist of her life. She broke into the manor of the local lord and liberated part of his wealth, nothing he would miss: a couple thousands of gold coins and a horse from the stables, which she named Billy.

She rode North in the hope of more adventures. She found just that in one of the taverns on the road: a call for adventurers to head for Silent Cliff. K changed direction and headed slightly to the West, until she met a party of adventurers on the road towards her destination: the Faultless Arrow, and decided to join them.

Religion
Even when leaving all her childhood friends and memories behind, K kept one thing from her upbringing: her solemn and unwavering faith in Yondalla, the halflings' god of family and fertility. She might not always act with her deity's approval but she can't shake this one childhood belief.

Real name
The name "K" is obviously an alias. Her real name is unknown, suspected to be a boring, ordinary halfling name that she was trying to leave forever behind her.

The origins of the pseudonym "K" are believed to be in her childhood. In her teenage years K was not someone to be easily crossed over, and she adopted the appropriate authorative tone too, frequently saying "You will never do that again, oK?" So her close friends started to jokingly refer to her as "K", and she liked it enough to keep it. Or so the legend goes.

Learning wizardry
While the party was trying to capture the Beast of Dewport, K received a letter from a friend who was a guard in the county jail of Rolling Hills. This urged K to leave the party after saving Dewport and head to her hometown of Rainbow Falls.

Arriving at the county jail K found her childhood friend, Gilip Haucey imprisoned and awaiting execution. K broke Gilip out of jail and the two halflings made their way to Oringrad, losing their pursuers in the capital city of Rubia.

The two friends reunited, but without money, decided to team up and get some gems and gold coins from drawers where they wouldn't be missed. Gilip and K spent the next month in an adrenaline-rush of robbing the wealthy of Oringrad, conveniently moving to a different district every time they were about to be found. Gilip, a trained wizard showed K some of his tricks, allowing K to acquire basic knowledge of wizardry during their adventures.

After being reunited at the Black Unicorn with the Faultless Arrow by chance, K bid goodbye to Gilip, but not before agreeing to carry a promise ring in memory of their relationship.

Fighting the chaos of war
After acquiring some dwarven greatsteel from Durnas Mynyd K headed to the Barkshield Brothers Adamantine Foundry in Dewport to have some weapons forged and sell the rest of the greatsteel. She also sent word to her on-and-off paramour, Gilip to meet her in Dewport.

But the city has changed since K last visited: the death of the Knights at Kaedwen Crossing created a power vacuum within the city, one that was filled by ambitious criminals and gangs. Count Ruxwin was evidently unable to stop the rising violence, so K and Gilip took it upon themselves to go out every night to protect the innocent (and sometimes rob the guilty).

After a couple of weeks passed under their vigilant eyes, the people of Dewport started to adore and cheer for K and Gilip, or as they called the avenging duo: the "Pair of Giants". Meanwhile, more and more criminals had terror seep into their sleep, and decided it might be better not to steal, rob or rape that night, in fear of the Giants finding them and taking vengeance.

Brief retirement in Aerlcliff
After fighting for Queen Merilda during the Siege of Oringrad, and only avoiding the Imperial enslavement of her whole family by deploying the Edict of Fire in the Orin Valley, long-buried memories of her childhood life have resurfaced for K. She has decided it's time to settle down and try to live a peaceful life with her childhood friend, Gilip.

Still very much averse of Rolling Hills and the too-perfect halfling villages they have decided not to return home, but have instead chosen to move into Aerlcliff Estate. The run-down estate has needed a fair amount of work, so K and Gilip had their hands full with managing the tenants and finances for several months.

During those months, K perfected her wizarding skills, and she can now pull off a fireball without burning off her eyebrows. However, after a while domestic life started to bore her once again, and she couldn't wait for the rest of the Arrow to get back to Aerlcliff. She decided that if anything remotely interesting were to happen, she would immediately rejoin them in their next adventure. The steward can take care of Aerlcliff, it is hardly the job of an experienced adventurer!