Altonas the Gray is a man with a “colored” life. His hardship starting at birth one could say. He was born in 1425 DR, his mother a drow woman who had fled from Gallidurth for unknown reasons. During her flight two years earlier she had been captured by marauders and taken north to Memnon where she was sold into slavery.

She would be bought by a wealthy pasha of Memnon who kept her as a entertainer and concubine, having her taught to play various musical instruments and to dance. The day the young drow learned she was pregnant the thought terrified her as her master already had various heirs to his fortune and title and she and her newborn would be perceived as threats. With the help of various house servants she had befriended she escaped one night and fled to the beggars guild where she would spend the next year after her son’s birth. Eventually she scraped together enough coin to buy passage aboard a ship heading for Waterdeep.

The final fate of Altonas’ mother would be left unknown to him. For it was a priest of The Pantheon Temple of the Seldarine - an elven temple in Waterdeep - that found the infant half-drow bawling and hungry outside of their doors one morning. The priests took him in and he would spend his childhood among them, they educated him to great length and a paladin of the temple taught him swordplay.

At the age of twenty Altonas would leave the temple, the priests allowing him to find his own way while assuring him their doors were always open to him. He would spend the next six years (1445-1451 DR) traveling the Northern Sword Coast as a sellsword. While always under suspicion for being a half-drow his growing reputation as a fierce fighter and honoring his commitments earned him better reception as the years passed. He was particularly known in Waterdeep for his escort and bodyguard services and also frequented Thornhold as a rest stop after traveling and contracts.

In 1451 - when Mount Hotenow erupted - Altonas was in Neverwinter. He witnessed the destruction of much of the city and barely escaped with his life. Altonas headed further south after and would spend the next several years in Baldurs Gate continuing his work as a blade for hire and allowing himself the luxuries his coin brought. Around ten years later he left the city and headed east in search of adventure, finding his sword arm growing dull and himself growing bored with the life of a free lance mercenary.

He found himself in Berdusk amid his travels and befriended a member of the College of Doss, a bardic school. A brazen human man named Suhen Mamaig who gave to Altonas his title “the Gray”, due to his skin color paired with the fact that he had no ties or loyalties. “You have no family, no house loyalties, you bare no crest or banner, you are but a mercenary. A gray blade fighting for the most attractive liege” the bard had said. The two became close as they spent more time together, but things would go for the worse when Suhen was murdered the day Altonas prepared to leave the city. Altonas learned that Suhen and various other people in the recent weeks had been viciously killed and their bodies mutilated by a cult of Bane that had taken up residence in the city. Joining with a pair of Harpers who were investigating the cult, Altonas and his companions managed to find the cultists and wipe them out with the help of the city watch, the cult leader committing suicide rather than be taken prisoner. The Harpers attempted to recruit him but Altonas turned them down and left Berdusk to continue wandering.

Altonas eventually journeyed to Westgate on the Dragon Coast where he would run afoul of the vampire lord Rhodanthe of the Dusk after killing several of her best men in an alleyway exchange. This would lead to a long feud of three years between Altonas and the vampire after several attempts on his life caused him to vow not to leave Westgate until she was destroyed. Eventually things would come to a head when Altonas and a handful of sellswords he had hired attacked Rhodanthe aboard her ship The Harpies Call, killing her minions and setting the ship ablaze and watching as it sank into the sea.

After leaving Westgate alone Altonas continued to travel as the years passed by. Going as far south as the Deepwing Mountains where he aided the Lizardfolk in defeating a red dragon that plagued them. And as far north as The Plain of Standing Stones gazing upon the sites it held. In all his journeys Altonas found little wealth or friends to be made. Few ruins he crossed that he dared enter by himself had little in regards to treasure or relics and while mercenary work on the side did keep his pockets full he certainly hadn’t made himself rich off of it. He made the occasional companion on contracts or on the road but for the most part he would always be a loner with no real friends to call on or spend evenings with.

In 1485 DR Altonas would return to Waterdeep for the first time in decades at the age of sixty finding himself road weary. Using the money he had summed together he bought himself a small house to retire to though he imagined this would not be permanent. In his spare time he visited the elves of the temple where he had grown up and frequented libraries and scriptoriums, deciding to take to writing so he could capture his adventures on paper. Though never publishing anything he has written entire volumes of his adventures across Faerûn that he keeps, seeing them less as works of literature and more so as journals.

And now, years later, Altonas the Gray has found his blood stirring for adventure once again. At the age of seventy he is still in his prime for a half-breed drow and while not discontent with life at current he longs to travel the lands again seeking both his fortune and excitement. So he leaves - his home left to a caretaker, his armor and blades polished, and his eyes filled with a fire. Eager to see the lands beyond the north he boards a ship bound for Calimport, the capital of Calimshan. Raised on stories of this ancient realm by the elven priests he can only imagine the things waiting for him in the City of Glory. On his arrival he heard tell of a Calimshite noble - “pashas” as they are called - seeking adventurers to embark on a dangerous expedition into the desert. Seeing this as a golden opportunity, Altonas the Gray makes his way for the estate of this Jakeem Kalil.

Altonas the Gray in his youth was a man of brash vigor, undaunted courage, and aspiration to be something greater than just a man. He bore his swords with a fierce smirk as his foe approached, his eyes twinkling with both bloodlust typical of a warrior and determination not to relent or fall.

As he aged his fire while tempered remained hot and undying. His imperious smirk replaced by a flat expression of unwavering determination and nothing more. The look of a man who has seen much violence and been coated in blood while unfazed to a point of cowardice by such. His desire for more while still present is now laced with a pessimistic cynicism, though a sort of hope remains. Encrusted as it is.

A man who follows his own code, who heeds no gods or lords, a man who makes his own judgments about the world and those that he shares it with. Lawful and just if bleak and unfeeling at times. He does what must be done and relishes the results or mulls over the consequences later when the job is done.

STEEL PLATE ARMOR

Full plate & mail crafted of steel. Altonas acquired this in West Gate after raiding a warehouse belonging to Rhodanthe of the Dusk. Sturdy, comfortable, and effective it’s the finest armor he’s heavy worn.

DUAL STAR METAL SWORDS

While not enchanted these blades have served Altonas well since they were given two him the day he turned twenty. Sharp, flexible, and resilient these twin blades have spilled the blood of bandits, orcs, and even a dragon. Altonas would part with them for nothing.

Trained since a young age by a temple paladin, Altonas is an adept swordsman. While trained in sword and shield combat he has a preference for dual wielding blades. His fighting style is based around counter attacking and wearing down his opponent. Maintaining a steely defense and deflecting and dodging enemy strikes and awaiting an opening.

When he sees an opening he launches a flurry of fast attacks. Even if no connection is made the speed and ferocity of his assault will tire out his opponent thus making them sloppy on both their own counter attack and their defense.

Fighting form aside, Altonas has a chiseled physique from years of training and combat as well as heightened stamina from miles of traveling on foot. His drow blood gives him a natural resistance to magic as well as the drow’s dark vision.