Summerfest 1993 Kerrith was born as a character.  His brother, Nimrath (Played by David Johnson) was a part of a small group of adventurers lead by Morgan Dragonslayer.  He began his life as a ‘runner’ carrying dispatches from Drow houses to other member houses within the “Horde”.  This lowly role became an increasingly used tactic at the big events as getting messages across a site as large as Drum Hill was quite difficult.

Kerrith later paid a brief visit to the world of Dumnonii.  Participating in an adventure with a band of surface dwellers at the cost of his services as a scout.  The job was to deliver 2 prisoners to a guard captain waiting at the edge of the forest.  The party he travelled with were quite surprised to see Kerrith crashing about in the woods.  I vaguely remember being asked “I thought you were a scout?  You’re making a f***ing racket!  You’re terrible at the job.” To which Kerrith’s response was…

“You asked for a scout, I am one, I have never scouted on the surface before, there are all these twigs and things that keep snapping…you tend not to get them in caves.”

As they proceeded to escort 2 captives through the woods they came upon a river troll, guarding the only crossing point across a stream.  Kerrith returned to the group to inform them and the bulk of them confronted the troll whilst 2 members of the party guarded the captives.  The troll asked for payment of 2 eyes per person, the leader of the advance group assumed that the troll was not particularly good at maths and offered 10 eyes for the whole group.  The troll agreed, but as he was putting his earnings into his treasure chest he called for the trailing members of the party to pay up too.  He obviously assumed that they were part of a separate group (Not so bad at maths after all was he).  His maths may have been okay, but as he approached the rear group he turned his back on Kerrith….thirty seconds later, he was an ex-troll, and Kerrith reclaimed the party’s money and took the additional monies from the treasure chest for himself.

Further up the trail, as the group delivered the captives to the expectant guard captain he transformed into a huge demon-like creature….probably a demon, seems like a fair guess.  The entire party hurled themselves onto the demon and proceeded to force it back onto a grassy bank, Kerrith was enjoying the turmoil as much as the next man up until the point the demon cast “Repel living”.  Then, in a split instant of madness Kerrith counter-spelled, and found himself the only member of the group fighting the demon.  The demon teleported itself to its home realm leaving Kerrith clutching the wing he had severed from its back.  Needless to say the party were quite taken aback that this lone Drow had single-handedly reclaimed their money, killed a troll, vanquished a demon and claimed its wing as a prize….but then, all in a days work for Kerrith.

Time passed by relatively quietly for a while.  Until it was noticed that Kerrith was the only Drow at Mayfest.  He began to stand out for all the wrong reasons and some people took an instant dislike to him, it was then that his attitude changed.  He was going to leave a mark or at the very least go out with a bang. The mask was forged in its first incarnation.  A half mask covering the lower half of his face with strange silver markings on it.  He discovered that it gave him a psychological edge.  People are inherently unnerved by that which that cannot fathom out, even when it is something as simple as covering part of your face.  He used this to his advantage.  Combat became easier as his opponents momentarily reel from the shock of being confronted by a warrior with no identity.  The deathdancer was born (Based loosely on Dungeons and Dragons Elven Sworddancers).

Inevitably there followed a period of unease from other fest-goers.  This was well founded as Kerrith also began to use his mysterious presence, whispering voice and cynical/self-important demeanour to his advantage.  He began striking deals and arranging contracts, but things were getting out of hand.  It turns out that the contract to assassinate Chiefy McBoar had a detrimental effect.  Chiefy McBoar was successfully assassinated, but the McBoar clan never returned to Mayfest.  (I shall ever ask myself the question, was it one death too far?).

To this day Kerrith has never failed a contract.  He has found ways around the wording of the contract, including stumbling accidentally across an Elven princess and returning her to the Scalatana without actually putting any real effort into the task.  One contract was completed in about half an hour, the event going something like this.

Contract-

We want X dead before sunrise tomorrow please. (8 word contract is the standard requirement)

[Knock on tent door.]

Kerrith - “Yes?”

Messenger – “Have you heard the news?”

Kerrith – “What news?”

Messenger – “X just got killed by a band of Orcs in the marsh, near the Clutii well.”

Kerrith (To contractee) – “Pay up.” (Or words to that effect)

Then there was the move to become a keeper of the House Jegrun library.  But then, that all revolves around the spider avatar and a small pile of defeated combatants…oh hell I like telling this story so much so here it is.

It was Kerrith’s desire to become a keeper of the Library of House Jegrun and to have access to the House itself that spurred him to ask the local Drow house for permission.  In order that this could be expedited Kerrith needed to complete a challenge by a spider avatar.  Now these are scary beasties, and it is not ideal that you face them as an opponent  The challenge was to face it in an arena with all of the fest-going Drow present, lining the wall of the arena…there were 5 in all if I recall correctly.

The spider avatar called for the contest to begin, Kerrith immediately struck the avatar with his blade not knowing what the challenge really entailed.  This just served to anger the avatar and it ordered the nearest Drow to attack him, he did, with tower shield and long sword against Kerrith's two long swords.  After Kerrith took a hit to the leg (Fortunately armoured), the Drow (Played by Toby) fell to Kerrith’s blows.  It was then Kerrith realised that he was going to have to face all of the Drow in the arena one by one.  The second Drow (Toby’s then girlfriend Amy) fell before she could even draw her blade, Kerrith struck her with a scissor attack to her unarmoured stomach.  The third Drow (Played by Kipp), was harder to defeat and hit Kerrith on the arm and other leg before being struck down.  The fourth Drow (Played by Dillon), was one of Kerrith’s protégés and despite several hours of weapons training left a huge gap in his defense and bit the dust before he could blink.  The fifth and final opponent (One of the Starburst crew) was the hardest to beat, because after identical blows were struck Kerrith had sustained too many hits to one leg to stand any more, and had lost the use of one of his arms.  With some determination he managed to get through, however, and the fifth Drow met his maker.

I have to say that was the hardest combat I have ever participated in.  Onlookers witnessed me peeling off my deathdancer mask and puffing and panting as sweat ran down my face.  I was knackered!  The task was completed, after a brief bughunt to feed the avatar, all was well.

These are just a few notes on some of the fun events in the life of Kerrith.  How I managed to keep such a despicable creature alive for so long I have no idea.  All I know is that people have been incredibly supportive of the character, and myself.  Without good roleplay coming from everyone else, the part would not have been any where near as much fun.

Thus endeth Kerrith.  Dave, bid him farewell, he’s had his time and although he shall be missed, he also shall not be :)

“Death isn’t always permanent, but it is often inconvenient.”-Kerrith