Vera Ven'talia
Vera Ven'talia
First Appearance: December 2, 2021
Campaigns:
1) Thursday Night Wildemount
Status: Alive
Thursday Night Wildemount
Creating the Wayfaring Wanderers
Vera was first introduced in the third session of Thursday Night Wildemount (December 2, 2021), along with her traveling companions (Xemnon, Helubrum). The three of them were seeking aid for their friend, Cora, who had been trapped in a bottle by some sort of witch prior to the campaign's start. They met up with and joined Mike, Zara and Kirk to take on a cave filled with possessed dwarves who were being controlled by worm-like mind controllers. The team survived those caves and made it into the neighboring city, where Xemnon and Helubrum would take on the guards, resulting in Xemnon's arrest. Vera remained hidden during that fight, recognizing it as a terrible plan. By Session 6, Xemnon was released, Zara turned in her team's information and the newly formed "Wayfaring Wanderers" accepted a mission to travel into Port Damali. Tracking a Parrot
The Wayfaring Wanderers begins to bond, first by hanging out together and drinking outside of their first tavern stay. While Vera doesn't drink, she does reveal around this time that she was married at one point, she used to be a waitress and a merchant of some kind, and she is interested in adventuring for the "payment" of having songs written about her. While her party sleeps the next morning, Vera shows that she is not a sweet, innocent grandmother by deceiving a local into giving her a steam-cast dagger made from Gwardan. We learn later that Vera had bad experiences with wealthy tourists who would visit her hometown of Gwardan, likely leading to her willingness to doop the woman into dropping such a valuable item. This dagger would go on to accompany her for the rest of her adventuring career. Vera gets lots of information about a local lumbering rights feud, including the likeliest culprits for a murder that took place against a recently engaged young woman and her girlfriend from a rival family. Vera goes along with a plan to disguise herself as a "Priestess of Melora" (along with Zara), giving the two of them a chance to interview the family of the recently deceased at the viewing, as well as inspect the body for clues. Vera is on board for the plan until she meets the grieving mother, who it is likely she can relate with, thus changing her tune on the matter. Vera also meets Trinidon (the living fiance) and after a lengthy chat together Vera offers the woman her rat companion, Margot, to keep her company. It is unknown what the ultimate fate of Margot might be, but it is possible she is still with Trinidon. A high-elf wizard named Theoden joined the group around this point, and Vera took an initial liking to him as he was a "high elf" as was Vera's mother and siblings, so she saw him as "family" right away. Clues began to point toward a strange entity known as "The Parrot" who it appeared was behind the murder (and who framed it to look like a family rivalry to perhaps incite a war). Vera and Xemnon were unable to take part in the fight against the Parrot, but the rest of the team fought the villain to victory. Slaughter at the Nest
Leaving the town, Vera and her friends began their quest toward Port Damali. Vera spent a lot of time on night watch with Theo, eventually asking if he'd help her with not getting taken advantage of at a potion shop she intended to visit. Theo agreed and appeared sympathetic toward her, but this turned out to be a ruse. The team eventually made it to an area called "The Nest" where Old Draconia stood at one time. Mike, however, is unable to continue forward with the team and chooses to opt out. Unbeknownst to the rest of the team, Mike is seeing strange things in the air and it is possible he is dying. He tells them he will go to Port Damali and find aid for the team and then makes his departure. Fortunately, the team picks up a friendly acquaintance named Jack who is intent on helping them face the Nest. Vera accompanies Helubrum, Xemnon, Cora, Jack, Theo and Zara into the Nest, but it doesn't end well for them. A major fight ensues, resulting in the deaths of Xemnon and Cora. Vera rides Zara (who has wildshaped into an animal during the escape) while Theo and Jack make it out alive. While resting after the fight, Zara and Theo decide to leave the group together. And shortly after that, Jack chooses to leave, as well. Jack does offer some parting gifts in the form of books before he exits. This leaves Vera with Helubrum, unsure of whether they will make it to Port Damali alive. Vera's Family / Vera's Exit
Mike fortunately came through in finding aid, and he sent three of his friends from Port Damali (Bharrik, Spark and Ham) to help. Bharrik and Spark are siblings, while Ham is a family friend of theirs. With their aid, Vera and Helubrum make it into Port Damali. Along the way, they meet a group of merchants and learn about the existence of a woman named Safyra. It is hard for Vera to hide her shock over hearing this name, and even harder when she learns Safyra has children. Upon getting into Port Damali, the team meets Ignaceous and Righteous. Ignaceous puts on local brawls for show, while Righteous appears to be his manager of sorts. Vera goes on to purchase magical enhancements to make her temporarily "smarter." The team goes with Bharrik to where his mother works, at a "Safyra's Place." While there, Vera sneaks away, takes the magical enhancements she purchased, and confronts the woman in the backrooms known as Safyra. This is when we learn Safyra is the daughter of Vera. We also learn that the "payment of songs" Vera has been constantly talking about referred to her wanting songs made about her so that they would one day reach Safyra's ears and she might not believe her mother was a horrible person. Safyra has clearly been brought up to believe that Vera murdered her father, which appears to be untrue. The two do not immediately make amends, but Vera enjoys having a moment of "clarify" and "clearness of mind" with her magical item to be able to talk with her daughter. We also meet a man with a heavy accent who is keeping tabs on Safyra. After witnessing him being rough with her daughter, this man becomes a target for Vera's words each night from then forward. She consistently sends a Sending to him every night with the words, "Not today...but soon." This motto is meant to imply that she has not killed the man nor intended to confront him on that particular day, but that she will soon show up and finish the job, so he should always be prepared for her inevitable wrath. Vera makes a deal with a local to protect and watch over Safyra while she is away, and she joins the team in taking a job to find a spear in the Ruins of Sepesca. The group uses the name "The Septenary" to accept this mission, which was Vera's suggestion. On their way, the team travels through Gwardan (Vera's old home) and stops at the Clever Dragon Inn. This is where Vera's mother works, and we soon meet her in-game. Vera and her mother appear to have ended things on a not-so-happy note, but they do make amends and Vera accepts a gift that includes a headpiece to make her more intelligent and a potion to make her younger. She is told by her mother not to take the potion unless she intends to return to Safyra, as it is meant to buy her some more time to be with her family. Not long after, Vera ultimately decides to do just that. She wishes farewell to the Wayfaring Wanderers / The Septenary, drinks the potion and leaves for Port Damali. Vera Guest Appearances
Around Session 30 of Thursday Night Wildemount, Vera returns as a guest star when the team is heading through Port Damali. She meets up with her old friend Helubrum and learns he has been married to a woman named Evalina Everton. She also sees Bharrik and Spark are still with the group. The other members are gone by then, but the team does have an artificer named Rowan and soon has two new members join up to help take on The Nest (Silent Wave and Arash). Since they are heading to The Nest, Vera offers to accompany them. One of the largest reasons the group is heading there is to find out what happened to Rowan's parents. It is the first mission this group ever takes for a mysterious organization known as The Storehouse. At the Nest, the team fights back the entities who reside there, including a group of kobolds. Arash doesn't stick around, perhaps because of how difficult the fighting is compared to what he thought they were getting into. Instead, a fighter who is already in the Nest named Mordecai Kane teams up with the crew to fight against a Blue Dragon. Together, the team defeats the dragon, finds evidence that Rowan's parents left for Darktow and puts together clues regarding the hellish experiments Helubrum's father had taken part in. Another important scene for Vera comes when the team finds a strange box with different colored moons on it. Spark is almost killed by it when she fiddles around with the locking mechanism. Vera almost dies from it, too, and in fact was basically giving her deathbed speech. After the team goes back to Port Damali to find their ship for Darktow, Vera and Helubrum share a sentimental moment together. She wishes the team luck in their next journey, not realizing it will lead to the deaths of all her remaining friends. We learn around this time that Evalina Everton found evidence of who was behind the setup job for The Nest (an old high elf wizard friend of the group). It is likely this information was also given to Vera, based on the direction of her character arch afterward. Vera's final appearance (so far) in the Baloghverse came on September 30, 2022, when she guest-starred on Friday Night Wildemount. During her session, she was hunting an old "friend" (a high elf wizard who had murdered members of her old traveling party) that the Friday Night crew had recently come across. She agreed to help the team in traveling to the Deadlands in exchange for help in defeating the wizard, but the group later decided not to pursue that route. It is unclear where Vera eventually might have gone from here, as she has not been officially mentioned again since that time.
1) Thursday Night Wildemount
Status: Alive
Thursday Night Wildemount
Creating the Wayfaring Wanderers
Vera was first introduced in the third session of Thursday Night Wildemount (December 2, 2021), along with her traveling companions (Xemnon, Helubrum). The three of them were seeking aid for their friend, Cora, who had been trapped in a bottle by some sort of witch prior to the campaign's start. They met up with and joined Mike, Zara and Kirk to take on a cave filled with possessed dwarves who were being controlled by worm-like mind controllers. The team survived those caves and made it into the neighboring city, where Xemnon and Helubrum would take on the guards, resulting in Xemnon's arrest. Vera remained hidden during that fight, recognizing it as a terrible plan. By Session 6, Xemnon was released, Zara turned in her team's information and the newly formed "Wayfaring Wanderers" accepted a mission to travel into Port Damali. Tracking a Parrot
The Wayfaring Wanderers begins to bond, first by hanging out together and drinking outside of their first tavern stay. While Vera doesn't drink, she does reveal around this time that she was married at one point, she used to be a waitress and a merchant of some kind, and she is interested in adventuring for the "payment" of having songs written about her. While her party sleeps the next morning, Vera shows that she is not a sweet, innocent grandmother by deceiving a local into giving her a steam-cast dagger made from Gwardan. We learn later that Vera had bad experiences with wealthy tourists who would visit her hometown of Gwardan, likely leading to her willingness to doop the woman into dropping such a valuable item. This dagger would go on to accompany her for the rest of her adventuring career. Vera gets lots of information about a local lumbering rights feud, including the likeliest culprits for a murder that took place against a recently engaged young woman and her girlfriend from a rival family. Vera goes along with a plan to disguise herself as a "Priestess of Melora" (along with Zara), giving the two of them a chance to interview the family of the recently deceased at the viewing, as well as inspect the body for clues. Vera is on board for the plan until she meets the grieving mother, who it is likely she can relate with, thus changing her tune on the matter. Vera also meets Trinidon (the living fiance) and after a lengthy chat together Vera offers the woman her rat companion, Margot, to keep her company. It is unknown what the ultimate fate of Margot might be, but it is possible she is still with Trinidon. A high-elf wizard named Theoden joined the group around this point, and Vera took an initial liking to him as he was a "high elf" as was Vera's mother and siblings, so she saw him as "family" right away. Clues began to point toward a strange entity known as "The Parrot" who it appeared was behind the murder (and who framed it to look like a family rivalry to perhaps incite a war). Vera and Xemnon were unable to take part in the fight against the Parrot, but the rest of the team fought the villain to victory. Slaughter at the Nest
Leaving the town, Vera and her friends began their quest toward Port Damali. Vera spent a lot of time on night watch with Theo, eventually asking if he'd help her with not getting taken advantage of at a potion shop she intended to visit. Theo agreed and appeared sympathetic toward her, but this turned out to be a ruse. The team eventually made it to an area called "The Nest" where Old Draconia stood at one time. Mike, however, is unable to continue forward with the team and chooses to opt out. Unbeknownst to the rest of the team, Mike is seeing strange things in the air and it is possible he is dying. He tells them he will go to Port Damali and find aid for the team and then makes his departure. Fortunately, the team picks up a friendly acquaintance named Jack who is intent on helping them face the Nest. Vera accompanies Helubrum, Xemnon, Cora, Jack, Theo and Zara into the Nest, but it doesn't end well for them. A major fight ensues, resulting in the deaths of Xemnon and Cora. Vera rides Zara (who has wildshaped into an animal during the escape) while Theo and Jack make it out alive. While resting after the fight, Zara and Theo decide to leave the group together. And shortly after that, Jack chooses to leave, as well. Jack does offer some parting gifts in the form of books before he exits. This leaves Vera with Helubrum, unsure of whether they will make it to Port Damali alive. Vera's Family / Vera's Exit
Mike fortunately came through in finding aid, and he sent three of his friends from Port Damali (Bharrik, Spark and Ham) to help. Bharrik and Spark are siblings, while Ham is a family friend of theirs. With their aid, Vera and Helubrum make it into Port Damali. Along the way, they meet a group of merchants and learn about the existence of a woman named Safyra. It is hard for Vera to hide her shock over hearing this name, and even harder when she learns Safyra has children. Upon getting into Port Damali, the team meets Ignaceous and Righteous. Ignaceous puts on local brawls for show, while Righteous appears to be his manager of sorts. Vera goes on to purchase magical enhancements to make her temporarily "smarter." The team goes with Bharrik to where his mother works, at a "Safyra's Place." While there, Vera sneaks away, takes the magical enhancements she purchased, and confronts the woman in the backrooms known as Safyra. This is when we learn Safyra is the daughter of Vera. We also learn that the "payment of songs" Vera has been constantly talking about referred to her wanting songs made about her so that they would one day reach Safyra's ears and she might not believe her mother was a horrible person. Safyra has clearly been brought up to believe that Vera murdered her father, which appears to be untrue. The two do not immediately make amends, but Vera enjoys having a moment of "clarify" and "clearness of mind" with her magical item to be able to talk with her daughter. We also meet a man with a heavy accent who is keeping tabs on Safyra. After witnessing him being rough with her daughter, this man becomes a target for Vera's words each night from then forward. She consistently sends a Sending to him every night with the words, "Not today...but soon." This motto is meant to imply that she has not killed the man nor intended to confront him on that particular day, but that she will soon show up and finish the job, so he should always be prepared for her inevitable wrath. Vera makes a deal with a local to protect and watch over Safyra while she is away, and she joins the team in taking a job to find a spear in the Ruins of Sepesca. The group uses the name "The Septenary" to accept this mission, which was Vera's suggestion. On their way, the team travels through Gwardan (Vera's old home) and stops at the Clever Dragon Inn. This is where Vera's mother works, and we soon meet her in-game. Vera and her mother appear to have ended things on a not-so-happy note, but they do make amends and Vera accepts a gift that includes a headpiece to make her more intelligent and a potion to make her younger. She is told by her mother not to take the potion unless she intends to return to Safyra, as it is meant to buy her some more time to be with her family. Not long after, Vera ultimately decides to do just that. She wishes farewell to the Wayfaring Wanderers / The Septenary, drinks the potion and leaves for Port Damali. Vera Guest Appearances
Around Session 30 of Thursday Night Wildemount, Vera returns as a guest star when the team is heading through Port Damali. She meets up with her old friend Helubrum and learns he has been married to a woman named Evalina Everton. She also sees Bharrik and Spark are still with the group. The other members are gone by then, but the team does have an artificer named Rowan and soon has two new members join up to help take on The Nest (Silent Wave and Arash). Since they are heading to The Nest, Vera offers to accompany them. One of the largest reasons the group is heading there is to find out what happened to Rowan's parents. It is the first mission this group ever takes for a mysterious organization known as The Storehouse. At the Nest, the team fights back the entities who reside there, including a group of kobolds. Arash doesn't stick around, perhaps because of how difficult the fighting is compared to what he thought they were getting into. Instead, a fighter who is already in the Nest named Mordecai Kane teams up with the crew to fight against a Blue Dragon. Together, the team defeats the dragon, finds evidence that Rowan's parents left for Darktow and puts together clues regarding the hellish experiments Helubrum's father had taken part in. Another important scene for Vera comes when the team finds a strange box with different colored moons on it. Spark is almost killed by it when she fiddles around with the locking mechanism. Vera almost dies from it, too, and in fact was basically giving her deathbed speech. After the team goes back to Port Damali to find their ship for Darktow, Vera and Helubrum share a sentimental moment together. She wishes the team luck in their next journey, not realizing it will lead to the deaths of all her remaining friends. We learn around this time that Evalina Everton found evidence of who was behind the setup job for The Nest (an old high elf wizard friend of the group). It is likely this information was also given to Vera, based on the direction of her character arch afterward. Vera's final appearance (so far) in the Baloghverse came on September 30, 2022, when she guest-starred on Friday Night Wildemount. During her session, she was hunting an old "friend" (a high elf wizard who had murdered members of her old traveling party) that the Friday Night crew had recently come across. She agreed to help the team in traveling to the Deadlands in exchange for help in defeating the wizard, but the group later decided not to pursue that route. It is unclear where Vera eventually might have gone from here, as she has not been officially mentioned again since that time.
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