Theme: Investigator
(Skills: Clue Finder, Disguise, Insight)
A country girl by birth and a holy woman by accident, Astrid is a young cleric who possesses an enjoyment for the simple things in life.
While she’s reasonably intelligent and capable, she’s also not quite right in the head. She can’t recall the cause of her quirks, except to say that everything changed one day just before she reached adolescence, around the same time her village was fighting off raids, disease, and one very arrogant warlord. When it became obvious how unstable she had become (she frequently carried on conversations with inanimate objects), her parents sent her to the local temple for shelter and employment, which seemed beneficial to all involved: Astrid could handle many helpful tasks that didn’t involve much social interaction, the holy men could cross a few chores off their lists, and Astrid’s parents had a little less worry in their world.
The Night of Flame changed Astrid’s fate again, however. Most of the village caught fire, and eight homes burned to the ground with their residents inside, including her parents. The holy men and women who cared for her felt she would fare better away from reminders of the tragedy and sent her to another temple… but somehow, she got lost along the way…
Astrid’s oddities are too numerous to list, but among her more common habits are frequent discussions with her fingers, staring contests with sky, ceiling, or whatever is above her, and an anxious stuttering of sorts when she’s especially distracted or nervous. She has an unhealthy fascination with fire and can become nearly paralyzed with fear when encountering fleas or feather pillows.
And she can, despite appearances, become frighteningly lucid very rapidly, but she never allows it to last for long. She believes such a visit with reality could be harmful if she lets herself linger.
