Bridget

Description:
Facial Description As a middle aged woman she looks good for her age. Her round face has smooth skin other than some light wrinkling under her eyes and subtle crows feet. While she has a delicate feminine jaw it is often hard set and serious, with bright clear hazel eye matching it in intensity. Her mostly straight slightly graying golden brown hair is kept up in a high neat ponytail, falling only just between her shoulder blades and waist when let down. She keeps a tidy bit of fringe out to accentuate her straight cut bangs.

Body Description She is a bit on the short side for a human woman but not exceptionally so. Her shoulders are narrow and feminine with a frame that forms into warm motherly curves. For a woman her age she is in surprisingly good shape but that doesn't mean her age is isn't still starting to show.

General Equipment 

• Chainmail Armor- Clearly old and disused, this armor is visibly rusted and slightly ill fitting, being visibly a bit too snug in the hips.

• Clothing- She wears a linen checkered tabard over her chainmail. It it colored like the sun in honor of Pelor but the colors have begun to fade from age. It is belted at the waist with a simple brown leather belt. Under her armor she wears a simple form fitting light beige blouse, with loose dark brown slacks tucked into a pair of practical and well worn boots.

• Warhammer- A gift from her parents when she began her paladin training, it has the holy symbol of Pelor embossed into the side, a golden sun. It is her most valuable possession but shows signs of age and mistreatment, similar to the rest of her equipment. It is rusted but has a new fresh yellow cloth wrapped around the handle.

• Shield- It is simple with a yellow cross covering a plain metal shield with a golden sun painted on top. The pain is beginning to peel, especially where there is rust.

History:
Family

Angus Thompson: A poor Human cobbler who tried to look out for his family. He was often angry and rarely spent time with his daughters, not wanting them to suffer for it.

Lydia Thompson: Wife to Angus, she did her best to educate her girls and prepare them for life before handing them over to be temple maidens.

Maisie Thompson: Younger sister of Bridget and a cleric of Pelor. She served in the temple with her sister as children. They later traveled together to spread the good word. She tends toward a more fiery personality and often wears her emotions on her sleeve. She was very dependent on Bridget to solve situations that she would exasperate with her temper, that is until she met her future wife and began traveling with her instead of her sister.

Winslow Night: A man too old for her when they met but one that enchanted her none the less.They ended up marrying and having a child together. Although not officially divorced Bridget considered their marriage null after they faked his death. She has not loved anyone the way she loved him since and wishes they could have had an actual life as a family together.

Wynter Marsk: The daughter she had with Winslow whom she left with him as an infant when they parted ways. Because she never made contact with her daughter Bridget knows nothing of what happened to her.

Early Childhood

The Thompson's were peasants unable to afford giving their children any sort of real education and wanting better for their daughters than to simply marry other peasants they gave their daughters, Bridget and Maisie, to the service of Pelor as temple maidens so that they might receive some form of formal education and hopefully improve their marriage prospects.

The girls took well to temple life, working hard in their studies, and excelling socially. Maisie decided early on that she would become a cleric of the church constantly mooning about how glamorous it would be to become a missionary and travel, healing people and spreading the good word. This didn't appeal much to a young Bridget who appreciated what the church had done for them but wanted to make her own life away from the church. She worried about her sister though and began studying to be a paladin.

Their parents were excited and bought the most magnificent gifts they could afford. Maisie received a stole with golden embroidery in the shape of the sun and Bridget was given a war hammer with a golden sun embossed to the side. Both girls cherished their gifts greatly promising to put them to good use.

At 13 Maisie had completed her cleric training while a 15 year old Bridget was not quite an official paladin. They set off though under the guidance of Crispin Abott, an older paladin helping Bridget to complete her training. Crispin was an almost grandfatherly figure to the girls, seeing as he was a human in his late sixties who helped the sisters. Bridget felt particularly close to him. Whereas before she had been greatful to the church but had not wanted to stay in its ranks he helped her to connect to Pelor in a way the temple priests had not. She finally began to feel as though she belonged.

Paladin Days

During her time traveling Bridget met Winslow, a tall dark haired necromancer with a foreign and exotic accent. At sixteen she had never met anyone so interesting in her life. Crispin did not approve of him. Winslow was 57, worshiping a strange goddess who reigned over death, and practicing strange dark magic.Bridget as a young woman was infatuated though. She temporarily left Maisie and Crispin to travel with Winslow and his adopted son, a boy named Luna who had pink hair.

Her travels with Winslow were grand even if she was frequently of very little help to their small party. Both Winslow and Luna were experienced adventurers, temporarily on sabbatical from their guild, the Knights Of A New Order. Even as she grew closer Winslow she felt she knew less and less about him. He was always secretive with her about what they were doing as they traveled. It didn't matter that she was in love with him and that he was starting to fall in love with her. Or maybe it did matter and he was afraid to involve her any more than he had to in whatever work he was trying to accomplish. Either way she was out of the loop. It terrified and thrilled her to travel be and travel with Winslow.

It didn't take long for her relationship with Winslow to blossom into something more serious. She was able to convince him to be intimate and they quickly conceived a child. This led to them returning to North Fort. Winslow didn't want to risk traveling with Bridget while she was pregnant and she would not stay behind without him so he conceded to staying in her home town with her during her pregnancy. While pregnant she took on minor duties at the temple of Pelor in North Fort.

At home her relationship with Winslow was treated with scorn. Her parents were simple people who didn't like their daughter unwed and pregnant with the child of some foreign practitioner of dark magic, her companions at the temple were similarly concerned with her well being. This pressure on Bridget pushed Winslow to concede into marrying her in the eyes of Pelor but only because they could not be married in the eyes of the Raven Queen, his deity of choice. She was elated with him even as those around her continued to treat him with scorn and mistrust.

Not long after their marriage Wynter was born and Bridget resumed her typical paladin duties. She was no longer able to simply gallivant off with Winslow and was required by the church to remain stationed in North Fort, unless sent out on their orders. At this time Winslow also began to reunite with the Knights Of A New Order, which frequently forced him to leave for extended periods. Bridget spent the first several months of her life as a mother torn between taking care of Wynter by herself, and being forced to leave her daughter behind with her own parents. This wasn't the life she had expected and it began to wear on her. She missed her husband and rationally she understood that his leaving to do adventuring work would give them a comfortable, even ostentatious lifestyle, she resented him for leaving her alone to take care of their daughter.

While she grew bitter Winslow continued to get himself and his guild into regular trouble, continuing to build a reputation as a band of mercenaries rather than reputable adventurers. Their reputation made Bridget a sort of social pariah in the temple. Her husband was viewed almost as though her were some mythical beast and Bridget was tainted for being his lover. This didn't stop Bridget from eventually finishing her proper paladin training and taking an oath of vengeance, promising to burn out all evil with Pelor's holy light. As a finally full fledged paladin she did manage to gain some respect in temple. Her abilities, tenacity, and closeness to Winslow led her to being given the church mission that would change her life. Still only just the mother of an almost infant Wynter she was given the godly mission of killing her husband. He was after all an evil necromancer terrorizing the good people of Ludas.

Nothing had managed to shake Bridget's faith like this before. She didn't know that she could kill her husband. She knew him and while he was often terse and arrogant she had seen him offer help and kindness even to people he despised. He wasn't as holy of a man as she would like him to be sometimes but she also couldn't believe he was an evil man. The next time he returned to North Fort she tried to convince herself that she should just do away with him. The church only wanted to do good and if she could not kill him she knew she would be labeled oath breaker. The more she tried to convince herself the more she struggled. She caved and told him what she was expected to do. She asked him to leave and to lay low, certain she could fake his death and she asked him to take Wynter. If they were to separate, their daughter would be too painful a reminder for her of what she had lost. He agreed and left with their daughter. When they left Bridget claimed that Winslow had sacrificed their daughter in an evil necromatic ritual and that she in turn had killed him and set him ablaze with Pelor's holy light.

She spent several years grieving the loss of her daughter and husband. Even knowing they were alive the fact that she would likely never see either again left her in anguish. She was steadfast though and continued her work for the church until it became apparent that she had lied to the church. The Knights Of A New Order had once again become of some notoriety within Ludas and word came back that they were still led by the same foreign dark haired necromancer that they had always been led by. Bridget's blatant betrayal of the church became apparent. She was labeled oath breaker and went in seclusion so as not to bring anymore shame upon the church or her family.

Musical Inspiration: