Vashti yr Hama el Jassan is a slender and lithe young woman with dusky brown skin. Unlike other
Calishites, she has blue eyes and white hair, which is almost always unkempt. Despite this, she is strikingly beautiful, though she hides this under her hooded cloak and loose, baggy clothes. Some people feel a cool breeze whenever they stand close to Vashti.
Though she did not learn it till many years later, her great great great grandmother was raped by an evil
djinni, resulting in her
elemental powers of wind and cold.
Vashti herself was trained to serve as a
jhasina in the harem of a rich noble. On the night of her 15th birthday, she was brought before her lord. When she refused to grant his requests, he began to beat her. When she still refused, he began to strangle her. It was then that Vashti learned that she did not need to breathe, that she was in fact not entirely human. While her master continued to try to strangle her to death, she managed to grab his jambiya from the nightstand and emasculated him. As she fled, she stole the noble's flying carpet.
Taking refuge in the criminal underworld, she found respect that women cannot find elsewhere in
Calimshan. She survives by theft, usually preferring to take on targets who are male, having never forgiven men for what they did to her directly and indirectly.
Before she met the party, she secretly had infiltrated the group of
Calishite slavers that Leokas Dusktracker and Belvin Boarcharger helped the Janessar ambush. When the battle ensued, she cast several cold-based spells at the slavers and healed one of the slaves who had been injured by friendly fire. In the aftermath, she seemed rather miffed at Lieutenant Rein. She demanded a horse for her assistance and left in a hurry for the village of Baradin's Hill on learning from Leokas that the
hobgoblin they had been pursuing was last seen heading there.
Upon reaching the village, she apparently slew the
hobgoblin, avenging the deaths of two of her friends and taking
Malick's gem for herself. She encountered the party again in the village inn but was not in a particularly helpful or friendly mood. She agreed to meet with the party on the morrow and left a potential
genie bottle as a pledge.
The next morning, she returned as promised, and she informed the three that
Malick's gem was not a star sapphire at all. Belvin, Leokas, and
Mythlos negotiated an arrangement with her where all of them would travel to the town of Copper Hill as a first step in determining who hired the
hobgoblin to steal the gem in the first place.
Only a couple hours after joining the party, most unfortunately, Vashti was slain in battle when the party was ambushed by a raiding party of
goblins. The party would not accept her death and sought to raise her to life at the Temple of Justice in Copper Hill. They found Vashti's mentor, Lady Frost, who was able to raise two-thirds of the required funds; the party raised the remaining money. They purchased a sacred scroll and one of the priests succeeded in calling her soul back to the
Material Plane.
Unable to understand why the party sacrificed to bring her back, Vashti found herself indebted to them. She fought with the group until she felt she had earned her resurrection, abandoning them in
Memnon. When she tried to leave, Hakam tried to arrest her, but she drank a potion of invisibility and escaped.
She later appeared to say goodbye to Leokas and Belvin before they had to flee the city and enter
Tethyr.
Tavis Burdun (Tavis)the firbolg husband of Queen Brianna of Hartsvale
Tavis Burdun is the husband of the Queen Brianna of Hartsvale.
