Jane is a wise-cracking seamstress. She can be down-right genteel, but she knows both which fork is for the salad and which end of the hammer is for dropping on zombies.

During her adventuring career, Jane fell in with an ambassador's entourage. Although the story below is her backstory, the pictures depict her time adventuring with that group. The original party is pictured above; from left to right: Killian, Everen, Shar, Sylvie, Tanka, and Maire. Imet Goss replaced Killian for Jane's second outing-- he's the shrew depicted below, left.

Personal History

About thirty-years ago, a one-night stand in Bharga between a seamstress and a soldier resulted in the birth of a little girl into extreme poverty. Several years later her father learned of her existence and, although he had a wife in another city, began to send money to help in the girl's upbringing. When the girl was in adolescence, her mother died. The girl tried her hand at a number of jobs, but finding none of them to her liking she went off in search of her father. He had advanced to be captain of the guard for Bhargive's ambassador to Pauntlerot. Although he at first resisted, he finally acquiesced to having the girl stay with him.

Whereas the girl had been quiet and awkward against the Spartan backdrop of Bhargive, she blossomed in the civilized conditions of Pauntel. She gained confidence and, as she became older, became a valuable addition to the ambassador's entourage. The ambassador, although a Bhargan, was cultured, diplomatic, and scholarly. Her father taught her to fight, and the ambassador taught her many other things.

Meanwhile, the political situation in Bhargive changed. The ambassador took the wrong side in a power struggle, and his opponents wanted more than his political demise. They sent assassins, who attacked while the ambassador was vacationing at Green Springs. He was wounded, but survived due to the bravery of his guard captain. The captain, the girl's father, died from wounds inflicted in the attack.

No longer the ambassador to Pauntlerot, the diplomat continued to seek what he thought was the best for Bhargive. He traveled widely in attempts to marshal support for his cause. The girl, now a woman, acted as his right hand. She had no illusions about her own limitations, so she gathered a team of people she could trust to handle matters that she could not: detecting traps, tracking, and so on.

The Fey menace Slurp*Ahh*! sent a zombie death barge against the group.

After many years on the run, the diplomat's enemies caught up with him again. The attack came suddenly and he was killed. The woman knew from the speed of the attack that one of her team must have sold them out, but she did not know which. So, she reluctantly disbanded the group, knowing that she was leaving behind a number of trusted friends as much as she was leaving behind a traitor.

She traveled widely, going by many names and doing a range of jobs. Recently, she has called herself Jane Armstrong and worked as a seamstress. She now has a better sense of things, she feels more confident than she has in years, and she thinks that maybe-- just maybe-- her luck is changing.

Jane and Killian watched each other's back when the death barge attacked.

Personality

From the time her mother died up until very recently, she had a chip on her shoulder. Although she relied on members of her team to do things she couldn't do, she felt fully responsible for the outcome. For this reason, life on the run was very hard for her. There were too many details to be attended to, and she pushed herself to the limit to control as many of them as possible. She viewed the diplomat's death both as a betrayal and as her own failure, doubly so because she was responsible for his security and responsible for the loyalty of her team. She lost some of her sense for how things happened, and for months afterwards it was as if she was numb. As she travelled, however, she came to accept things as they came and act only when things were ready to be acted on.

In the backwoods, Jane was forced to rebuff some unwelcome advances.

After her mother died, she used her given name only with her father. Since he died, she hasn't used it at all. In recent years she has taken on a number of distinct names and personalities. One identity, the only one that's been well-developed, is the Bhargan seamstress Jane Armstrong.

Appearance

Jane is a tall, muscular woman, almost an Amazon in stature. She is attractive, but not beautiful. She tends to wear simple but tasteful middle-class clothes. She goes about town unarmed, carries a staff for walks in the country, and has all the heavier armaments hidden in a trunk of "sewing supplies."

pdm:gaming stuff:jane