Esoterica's Tail...er...Tale

Introduction:
‘Twas a typically gentle warm and somnolent day late-summer in Surefall Glade when the air was rent with the tiny but piercing yips of a newborn litter of pups. Peace, a druid of 33 years and 46 levels of training, had chosen to take the form of a great wolf for the event. Knowing her penchant for barbarian men and given the size of the pups, she thought she’d made the right choice. Despite what people were inclined to say about human druids she actually did have a strong suspicion of who the father might be. After that romp with the barbarian warrior, Patron, at the Year’s End celebration with her newly-acquired spell, Share Wolf Form, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out. It was highly doubtful that he’d take any interest in the little ones that resulted from their brief tryst but, she thought, she wouldn’t take back an instant of that delightful interlude.

Of the three new additions, there were two girls and one boy. Being wolf pups they developed quickly and Peace waited patiently for several months to watch their personalities develop before bestowing the given names they would carry throughout their days. The last born was a tiny sample of life with the sweet nature of her mother but lacking the underlying toughness that was a dominant part of Peace’s own personality; Peace felt happily comfortable with the name Tryfle for her youngest daughter. Even at this tender age her son showed signs of great strength and, though possessed of a fun nature, his tendency was to be tenderly protective of his sisters. Combining his own personality and his father’s name, and as an omen of his own great place in the world, Peace dubbed him Patrole.

Her firstborn was by far the most difficult to decipher. Alternately, this little vixen would lovingly lay quietly at her mother’s side and in the next moment have one of her siblings by the ear dragging them around the clearing, gently but firmly. It seemed to Peace that, from the start, this young one had an agenda of her own and the firm belief that there was no time like the present. In later years, this tendency would be mitigated by her overwhelming desire to love and be loved, but as a pup it earned her the name of Esoterica from her mother.

The pups grew and thrived under their mother’s loving but firm paw and it seemed no time before she felt it was time for them to travel to Freeport to pursue what occupations best suited them. To this end she began to let their wolfish forms drop for longer and longer periods of time until they were comfortable in their human hides and ready to mingle in society more than the few resident rangers and druids and brief visitors of Surefall.
 

Esoterica writes:
It’s been many years since I’ve seen either my mother or my siblings and my returns to Surefall have been brief and infrequent. Those visits and chats with my childhood friends and mentors however have given me some inkling of their activities if not their whereabouts. It seems that Tryfle and Patrole followed similar paths and found their home amongst the people of Qeynos’ Temple of Life for a time. Patrone chose the warrior’s life but under the gentle influence of his littler sister and the encouragement of the Knights of the Temple, was compelled to join the fight for truth as a paladin under Mithanial Marr. Tryfle’s quieter nature led her to follow a clerical path as a disciple of Erollisi Marr. I was pleased to hear that my bloodkin have selected these brave and noble professions and I like to imagine that somewhere in the world they may be fighting side by side in much the same manner as their chosen deities. My mother I hear very little news of beyond her preferred residence in Halas, a locale that I find too chilly for my tastes. I would like to make the acquaintance of my father there although I know little of him more than his name. Perchance they have rediscovered each other and live each day filled with joy and love. Perhaps one day I will travel there in search of them…I’m rather partial to barbarians myself, truth be known.

As for me, upon my departure from Surefall I was immediately adopted into a motley guild of assorted but honorable occupations known as The Templars and have made my life amid the love and kinship of this adoptive family as a druid of Karana.