Duergar lay dead, bodies scattered across the cavern floor. Chest heaving with each breath drawn, Nikki surveys the situation. It seems hopeless. The cure is lost and Daeler is slain, all in a single fell moment of ambush.

Having watched Steel and Harrow fight on so many occasions, Nikki has picked up a trick or two...and they are the only reason she still lives now.

Nikki brushes her matted hair from her face, and kisses Daeler's bloody brow gently, smoothing the wrinkles away with her hand. "I love you with all my heart, and you were a father to me...you taught me to survive and taught me what life truly meant. I'll never forget these things...ever."

With great sorrow, she takes Daeler's beloved bow from his broken body, and whispers a final prayer to his passing spirit.

Nikki's mind flicks to her past companions, somewhere far below her. She must find them, and aid them in their effort. The cure must be found, whatever the cost.

It is time, she now knows, to leave behind her troubled youth and step into the adulthood that stands before her.

"My name," she whispers into the still Underdark air, "is Nicole Taylor. I accept my past...and I embrace my future."

~History~

Nikki Daeler (nee Nicole Taylor) is a quick witted, normally outgoing and bright young woman. Underneath this facade though, she has many emotional scars that run long and deep, even at her tender age of 16. Her life has been a hard one thus far, with the loss of her mother shortly after birth. To help her father make ends meet, Nikki worked as a serving girl for several years. This went well until one day, she stumbled and spilled a drink on a particularly tempermental member of the militia. A black eye and several bruised ribs later, the fight was broken up by a flamboyant dwarf named Daeler Firebeard. The kindhearted rogue took Nikki under his wing and taught her about the silent arts, along with a bit about self defense. She became his protege, and managed to bring in a little money here and there to help keep her father and her afloat, without his ever knowing it. For a while life was good, but things like that never last. Nikki caught the eye of a very powerful and prominent local noble, and seeing his best chance to finally make some money, her father sold her to him for the night. Nikki was devastated by her father's actions, and when the noble attempted to take her to bed, she did the only thing she could think of...in desperation she tore one of the steel barettes from her hair and slashed his throat. His death was far from swift, and Nikki was terrified by what she had done. Ashamed of herself for failing to support her father, and fearing for her life, Nikki fled her hometown and never looked back. To help protect her identity, Nikki has taken the name Daeler as her surname, in honor of the master she now searches for. Her eyes sometimes have a haunted look to them these days, and she is fearful of men, particularly those of power and prestige.