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[h2][color=FF6C5C][i][b]Marita Bärbel[/b][/i][/color][/h2][i][b][color=FF6C5C]Human, Cleric, Level 3[/color][/b][/i]
[color=FF6C5C][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 18/18	[color=FF6C5C][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 18	[color=FF6C5C][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[color=FF6C5C][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] The Infamous Pear->Avonshire (region)
[color=FF6C5C][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[color=FF6C5C][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[color=FF6C5C][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A 
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Marita's expression didn't change as she looked out over the landscape. And she didn't respond to Victoria's question. After awhile had passed and it seemed as if the cleric would ignore the question outright, she began to speak.

[color=FF6C5C]"I grew up Northwest of here, in the Hasburn Mountains. However, I couldn't tell you where. The nest was difficult to find unless you knew exactly where it was located, and it's been so long since I've been there I don't think I would be able to return even if I wanted to. We lived in the mountains, but not in any manner I imagine any of you are familiar with. We lived underground. Deep, deep beneath the surface. Protected by the earth we never had to contend much with the weather aside from some fringe cases. The sun was far out of reach, the only light we had came from flame or magic. There was no day or night, we kept track of time through the use of a massive hourglass that would empty 24 hours after it was overturned."

"Without the sun's light, what we grew for food were mushrooms and other such crops that did well where nobody could see. Sometimes there would be hunting parties formed or summoned to procure some meat from the beasts that lived below. Water we drew from a great underground lake. When I asked my father about it as a child, he told me that pure snow collected on the mountain in the winter, and when spring came, it would melt and some of it would sink into the cracks and crevices of the rock, sinking down further and further until it ended up in the reservoir. I'm not sure how much I was told as a child was true, really. But I know that almost anything I've drank since coming up to the surface has never tasted as clean."

"I doubt that we would have been able to do as well as we had been able to, had we not been able to establish something of a good relationship with the Neighbors. They had existed down below far longer than anyone, and although they didn't have the same kinds of needs we did, I'm certain that by giving them what they wanted they were able to teach what would have required years of trial and error to discover unassisted."[/color]

Marita wondered how this would sound to the others. She had only told one other before about the kind of environment she was brought up in, and he thought it quite a miserable existence. While it was true that as she was now, she wouldn't want to return to such a lifestyle for any significant amount of time, especially since that would have her cut off from all her lord's manifestations in the natural world, she didn't see anything particularly wrong with life below the surface. The dwarves did just fine and nobody batted an eye there. Although her old home had nestled itself much deeper than the depths that she understood dwarven cities were usually situated.

While she definitely had the ability to speak at much greater length about her past and the way her family lived, the cleric decided this would be all that anyone here would get. At least for now. She had decided to trust them, but that would not change the fact that the people she was traveling with were strangers, and there was much of her past that she didn't feel comfortable with discussing with herself, let alone others. It was somewhat relieving however, being able to share even a little bit of where she came from.