Finding Haleen: You never knew your parents—perhaps
they died when you were a child, or maybe you were taken
from them and raised elsewhere as a slave. You owe your
sanity and your life to a woman named Haleen. She could
be your sister or merely a childhood companion, but
whatever your relationship to her, she took care of you
and protected you. She’s always been a part of your life,
and although her temper often kept her from making
friends or keeping a job, she’s always been kind to you.
Haleen was instrumental in securing your freedom from
slavery or making sure you got a good apprenticeship or
job in society—but recently, she’d been growing strangely
morose and depressed. You and Haleen normally kept no
secrets, but whatever was bothering her wasn’t something
she shared with you. One night, she vanished, leaving
you a brief note, begging you to forget her and to get
on with your life, but something about the note
bothered you—something in the way she phrased
her words struck you as forced. You may be convinced
she’d been kidnapped, forced to leave against her will, or
even magically controlled, but you also suspect that she
left you to protect you from something—that was ever her
way. You’re now convinced that it’s time for you to step in
and protect her, but you had no idea where she may have
gone until recently. Several months have passed since she
disappeared, and you’ve spent those months searching for
clues to her location, and you’ve finally found a lead—a
mysterious note, a strange dream, the result of a back-alley
divination, or a report of a sighting of a woman matching
Haleen’s description has come to you, placing Haleen in
the vicinity of an old ghost town named Kelmarane. What
she’s doing there and how she came to be there makes no
sense to you yet, but the lead is the strongest one you’ve
had. This and Garavel’s advertisement for mercenaries
to accompany him to the region is all the omen you
need. You joined Garavel’s group and eagerly await the
day you’ll be leaving for Kelmarane. Although Haleen
chose to become a swashbuckling adventurer, she always
encouraged you to seek your own path, and her support
is the primary reason you chose the class you did at 1st
level. This class is always a favored class to you, and your
dedication to it is such that every time you take a level in
the class, you gain +1 hit point and 1 additional skill point
over and above what you would normally gain. If multiple
PCs take this trait, they should be siblings who were both
protected and raised by Haleen.
