Adryn

NOTES: The information on this page will be up-to-date to the latest installment of Sleeper in the Cave (well, the latest installment when I last edited this page...). This means both that a lot of information will only show up over time - in particular, at the moment certain sections are quite vague and extremely incomplete - and also that if you haven't read Sleeper in the Cave, here be SPOILERS! In fact, there might even be spoilers even if you ARE up-to-date with the story, because I might put certain hints together which you hadn't added up yet. You have been warned!

Currently contains information to: Chapter 8.1

Overview: Adryn is a nineteen-year-old Dunmer alchemist ex-thief who is currently living in Balmora after having been released from prison in Seyda Neen and given a strange package to deliver with NO explanations at all! Adryn would like you to know she does not approve of such shenanigans. Or: Adryn is a Morrowind protagonist!

Appearance and personality[]

Appearance[]

Adryn is a Dunmer, meaning red eyes and grey skin. She's quite skinny, both naturally and from having been on very meagre rations in prison, and on the short side of average in height. Her most striking feature is her hair, which is bright, coppery orange-red. She keeps it relatively short (to around her earlobes); she would prefer not to keep it very messy, but all her attempts at changing that have failed thus far.

Adryn usually wears wool or linen robes over plain shirt, trousers and sometimes skirt. Her wardrobe consists of common clothing with maybe one expensive robe she'll pull out for special occasions; she currently has few enough clothes that she still has the horrible sackcloth thing she was wearing in prison buried beneath everything else, but she's looking forward to getting enough clothes that she can afford to throw those away.

Personality[]

Adryn is high-strung, volatile and generally quite grumpy (the word "irascible" comes to mind), with an acerbic wit and running inner monologue that has to be seen/heard to be believed. She is also somewhat hapless, impulsive, easily distracted and has a tendency not to think things through (in particular the little thing called consequences) and will sometimes blurt out what's going through her head at inopportune moments. All of this combines to mean she attracts trouble and is prone to getting in over her head. She often gets lost in tangents of thought and interesting problems (especially alchemy-related) and has something of an academic bent.

Adryn thinks she is and would definitely like YOU to think she is jaded, cynical and selfish - she tends to disparage concepts like honour and selfless dedication - but has a tendency to talk herself into doing altruistic things a la rescue a lost scholar from kagouti if given the opportunity. She is, however, not inclined to combat and will basically try to deal with potentially violent situations in any and every way other than fighting... running away is a particular favourite of hers.

Adryn also has a tendency to repress her problems and unpleasant memories rather than confront them.

History[]

Pre-story[]

Adryn was born in Daggerfall someday in Sun's Dawn (putting her under the sign of the Lover) and lived there for most of her childhood - for at least part of it, she was at the orphanage attached to the Temple of Kynareth in the capital of Daggerfall City. Adryn doesn't know who either of her parents were, a fact made obvious to the world by her lack of family name.

She started living in Solitude (in Skyrim) when she was twelve and stayed there until relatively recently. Adryn speaks Tamrielic with a Skyrim accent thanks to her time there. She was also a thief for at least part of this period.

At some point, she ran afoul of the Thieves' Guild, in particular of the "self-styled Thief-King of Skyrim". This man is now hunting for her and wants her brought back to him alive, although his reasons bode ill for Adryn. People guess he plans on torturing her before killing her.

Shortly before the start of the story, Adryn moved to Imperial City, where she was subsequently arrested and imprisoned for yet unknown reasons... although people who know Adryn assume it was thievery. She was brought to Seyda Neen and released from prison there.

In-story[]

Adryn joined the Mages' Guild in Balmora her second day on Vvardenfell, and is currently busy making herself at home there in between misadventures oh the misadventures.

Skills[]

Stealth and Speechcraft[]

Adryn is an extremely skilled thief in the technical aspects (hiding and moving quietly, opening locks, disarming traps, picking pockets without being noticed). She does, however, have difficulty with little things like thinking her plans through properly, for instance leaving herself an escape route, and on top of that is used to working with back-up and prone to forgetting it's not there anymore. This led to her nearly getting herself arrested again right after she was officially released and is one of the reasons Adryn has now sworn off criminal activity and considers herself retired in that career.

She is a good and experienced haggler and eager to squeeze every last drake she can out of a transaction! Her abilities at persuasion are somewhat polarising; when she tries to talk people into things, she tends to succeed greatly part of the time and make them incredibly angry with her the rest. (In gameplay terms, one could describe this as a high Speechcraft skill coupled with an inability to accurately distinguish between the Persuade and the Taunt buttons.)

She is quite acrobatic and limber and takes great advantage of the agility bonus afforded her by her birthsign, although at the moment some of her abilities have taken a hit because she is in bad shape from prison.

Magic[]

Adryn is a good alchemist and pursues this skill with some level of zeal. Her other magical abilities are more basic. She does seem magically talented in most areas and, for the most part, takes to new spells quickly. Of note is that thanks to her being a Dunmer born under the Lover, her magicka pool is quite small.

She considers Mysticism to be her best school and claims she is excellent with Detection spells, but struggled to learn an Almsivi Intervention spell and later managed to misfire it to an unprecedentent extent (casting it in Vivec and managing to transport herself to Venim manor in Ald'ruhn). She is relatively good when it comes to Alteration and can consistently cast a Water-Walking spell and a shield spell to keep off rain. She can also use some minor illusions. Adryn learned her first Destruction spell at the start of the story but is showing some degree of talent there, most likely due to native Dunmer predisposition in that direction.

At the moment, Adryn has no experience with Restoration or Conjuration magic, and extremely little with enchanted objects.

Combat[]

Adryn has no real combat skills at all except being good at dodging. Her one offensive tactic is...

Birthsign ability[]

Due to her birthsign, Adryn has a power she can use once a day for no magicka at all - the Lover's Kiss. This allows her to touch a person or creature and freeze them in place (paralysis magic) for a full minute. However, using this also magically drains Adryn's fatigue, knocking her out just seconds after the spell takes effect. Without medical intervention in form of a restore fatigue potion or spell she'll stay unconscious for several hours, be effectively bed-ridden from exhaustion for about a day and need several to recover fully. With such intervention, she'll be very tired but functional for the rest of the day and fully recovered after her next night's sleep. Adryn prefers to avoid using this if she can, but will go for it in emergencies - especially if there are allies nearby who can take advantage of the opening.

Relationships[]

People[]

Ajira: A Khajiit alchemist at the Balmora Mages' Guild who is currently Adryn's closest friend. The two bonded instantly over alchemy and their relationship has been deepening since. Ajira is somewhat serious and dedicated to her work and carries an unfortunate family history with her - her mother died some years back and afterwards her sister was captured by slavers. She tends to be understanding of Adryn's foibles and they get along very well.

Ervesa Romandas: A Dunmer Buoyant Armiger who rescued Adryn from kagouti near Lake Amaya and who she then spent a night in a brothel in Suran with. They bonded over cheating at cards and their asexuality, and Ervesa got Adryn planning to learn more about the Tribunal Temple; later she sent Adryn a bouquet of flowers and an enchanted amulet, which has left almost the entirety of the Balmora Mages' Guild convinced the two of them are lovers. Ervesa is friendly and quite easy-going for a dedicated religious knight, but it's clear her faith and duties as a Buoyant Armiger are very important to her. She and Adryn got along quite well, and she's made it clear she plans to keep in touch.

Jobasha: A Khajiit bookseller in Vivec who boasts both contacts to the Thieves' Guild and a vaguely paternal relationship with Ajira on basis of his close friendship with her deceased mother. He knows that Adryn is being sought by the Thief-King and has declared that he doesn't intend to forward the information, provided Adryn shows herself not to be a threat to Ajira.

Caius Cosades: an Imperial spymaster who forcibly inducted Adryn into the Blades. Caius isn't very impressed with Adryn. Adryn is somewhere between angry at him for refusing to take "no" for an answer and absolutely petrified of him. She still has the money he gave her tucked away in a corner out of some desperate hope that if she gives it back to him one day she might untangle herself from whatever scheme he has her trapped in.

Factions[]

Mages Guild (member): Adryn joined the Mages' Guild and is currently in the honeymoon phase here - very starry-eyed, very proud of being a member! - although it's becoming clear to her that not everything in the guild is perfect. Meeting Trebonius may have been a hint!

Thieves Guild: Adryn is trying to avoid this guild and its members at all costs in order to prevent reports of her getting back to the Thief-King; she is banking on being one Dunmer in a land full of them and hoping that will camouflage her as long as she keeps her distance.

Blades (member): Adryn is trying to pretend her meeting with Caius never happened, letting the Blades remain the shadowy organisation she's heard stories of rather than one that's forcibly inducted her. This is sure to go swimmingly.