Kate Benneset

Kate is not her given name which she has told that to very few people, but it is a shortened form of it. Most know her as Kate Benneset.

She has become an M'Chekian citizen since marrying her husband Blake (now deceased).

Kate is most well known as an artisan, co-founder of the KISS clothing brand, and as a Cryomancer for which she is often nick-named Lady Frostbite.

Kate is often accompanied by Aaeryn - a remarkably sociable ice elemental.

Appearance

Kate stands tall, almost as tall as a full-blooded human, although the slightly pointed ears betray her elven heritage. Shoulder-length wavy raven hair and ruby lips frame her tanned face. She is fairly well toned, albeit not muscular, very well-proportioned overall. In her adolescence she has put tattoing on her arms, black and deep blue in color, like the first touches of a camouflage fast avaliable at hand.

Lifepath

Kate was raised solely by her mother. She has no idea of who her father is. Her mother kept both of them constantly moving from place to place; Living mostly in the back alleys of the cities they visited, or in the fields and woods if they were not near a city. Her mother taught Kate how to be a thief as a way to make a living. But after one job, Kate returned to the alley where the two were staying only to find her mother lieing in a pool of blood – a dagger left stuck in her chest.

After this point, Kate has a lapse in memory of a good many years.

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The first memory Kate has of after finding her mother dead was being in an inn in Elysia, with only a few gold pieces and a small sword to her name. After ordering a drink from a waitress, she wandered about the place trying to strike up a conversation with the other customers. When her drink was finished, she went to the barkeep and ordered another one. She was shocked to find that ordering from the waitress cost her near twice the price of ordering from the barkeep and attempted to amend the issue by slipping a hand into the waitress' gold pouch when she was not looking. This attempt was not left unnoticed and from this small issue a rather massive bar fight ensued, in which both Kate and the waitress suffered fatalities.

It was after this incident, that Kate found her soul separated from her body for the first time. She was returned to life at the Elysia Temple of O'Ma. Making her way back from the temple, she ran across an elf named Delurion Imyn. He offered to help the naked and confused Kate find her way to the inn and her belongings. He also gave her a suit of leather armour to wear. After they recovered her possessions, D - as Kate took to calling him – went his separate way.

Soon after; Kate received word that a member of the EDF wished to see her after being informed by D of the happenings in the inn. An EDF officer by the name of Hert Snyder left word for her to meet him in another inn. After a long talk, he pronounced Kate guilty of murdering the waitress and gave her her sentence. A choice of sentences, to be precise; However, it was no real choice as she had no gold to pay the fine. In addition, Kate was informed that she could leave the city without fulfilling her sentence – but would then after be treated like a fugitive from justice anytime she returned to the city. Kate chose the option of manual labour.

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She continued her old habit of living in back alleys as she worked off her sentence. One night as she slept in an alley, she had a very vivid dream. In it, she heard a deep, resounding yet hollow voice telling her he had been watching over her for a dozen years. When she awoke – she found a small beholder-like creature hovering above her. It did nothing but follow her about – and defended her as she worked the fields and fought the rats. She knew nothing else of why it was there.

After she finished her sentence of manual labour; Kate left Elysia and found herself in a place called Ferrell. While walking through a stream; she was hailed by a lady she soon learned to be named Ania. Ania had been curious as to why Kate had been walking along in the water rather than on dry land, and was amused by the answer Kate gave her. Ania then asked Kate to travel with her to a city known as Mikona, and paid for her boat trip there. In Mikona, Ania showed her a shop named Privateer Enterprises – or PE, for short. She offered her the opportunity of a job, if the owner would agree to hire her. Kate accepted, as it meant a means of income other than having to steal gold.

While in Mikona; Kate stumbled upon a youngster in the city that was looking for something as trivial as bugs body parts. While trying to figure out a way to gather them, she ran into D again. After a brief but intense discussion on the hows and whys of Kate being sought by the EDF in Elysia – D offered to assist her in gathering the bug parts. That turned out to be a fateful decision. While gathering the bug parts – they ran into a young human named Blake Benneset, who introduced himself as an apprentice alchemist. The two kept on bumping into each other after that. Blake was impressed that Kate remembered him from their first meeting – and that she also remembered details, such as that he had called himself an apprentice alchemist. The two soon became fast friends.

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One day; as Kate was out in the outskirts of the city – she was ambushed by a band of bandits. She was no match for them; and again found herself needing to make a trip back to her gear and into hostile territory. She met a man by the name of Michel K. that offered to help her recover her gear. After that, he said he was on his way to a meeting; and invited Kate to attend with him. This was the first time Kate heard of the Council of Balance (CoB); and her first meeting with the members of said council. She soon learned that her good friend Blake had inspirations of joining this council; And through him, she became friends with the members of the CoB.

Moira, one of those CoB members, noted that Kate had little real knowledge of why she had creatures following her at times and encouraged her to speak to mages of this. Kate did so, and asked some to teach her of the hows and whys of what was happening with her. She was somewhat disappointed that many of those she asked seemed to be too busy to help her. One in particular irked her – a mage named Sammy (Sammuel Valorian). She tried to speak to him at the Rock; but at that he turned invisible and chase another mage – each shooting Fireballs and Magic Missiles at the other. Enter the infamous Palemaster Sinomi Sii. He was the first mage to explain in detail to her about her gift. She was a sorceress and had yet to truly tap into her talents. Sinomi then spent a little bit of time giving Kate some basic lessons in magic. Before long he had to leave on other business of his own.

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Time went on; and Kate made more friends in and around Mikona. One of these friends was a Half-Nymph by the name of Sakura Darkstar – also known as Suki. The two of them became fast friends, and nearly inseperable at times. Suki also seemed to have a ‘talent’ of telling when two peoples were getting close and planning on marrying. She demonstrated this on a few occasions; and was right on them all. As Suki, Blake and Kate were talking one day at the Rock – Suki asked how long it would be before Blake and Kate were going to be married themselves. Blake said nothing – he just stood there with a silly grin on his face. Very shortly after that, Blake did ask Kate for her hand in marriage – and Kate accepted.

The wedding was held by the willows in the Western Pass. Moira and Kima co-conducted the ceremony – Moira doing the non-religious portions and Kima taking care of the religious sections. Kate had Suki as her Maid of Honour. After the ceremony, as the guests were treated to a few drinks here before heading to the reception in the City Gate Inn; a lone Sereg'wethrin arrived. Weapons were drawn at the approach of such an enemy – and Suki ended up being slain by the Sereg'wethrin before he could explain that he had come in peace bearing gifts for the newlyweds. He offered up a box containing various items – a tea set, some gems, night wear for the bride ... etc. He then left. Suki was successfully raised from the dead – and slightly shaken up by the events; The group headed in to the city for the reception proper. Inside, there were again Sereg'wethrin in attendance. This time however – they were not as friendly. Kate – still wearing her wedding dress – was slain by them; Another guest was taken captive (and later rescued by others). This was also the first time Kate was introduced to the cure for the Spite – and the after effects of taking said cure.

Some days later, Blake showed Kate the old Benneset Manor – which he had hoped to be able to buy back from being lost due to lack of funds when the Bennesets fell from their status as minor nobles of the city. The two quickly made plans to reclaim the manor; and set about collecting the funds to do so. Not only did they plan to reclaim the manor – but also to renovate it and make it their home. During the time that the manor was being renovated, however, Blake started to take trips away from Mikona – leaving Kate behind. The trips became longer and longer – and the times together between the trips shorter and shorter. Kate became more and more unhappy at being married and yet alone. Many of her friends soon advised her it might be best for her to dissolve her marriage to Blake but she refused to do so – believeing that he would return to her.

Blake never did return from his last trip. As Kate was getting ready to move into the Manor as the renovations were finally being finished – she received a note and a small box from a very pale man that stopped her in a dark street one night. The note simply said that Blake was no more; The box contained a few of his belongings. His enchanted armour, his twin 2-runed short swords, his wedding ring and a few other items of his. Kate was devastated at the loss. She soon took possession of the key to the Manor and walked into the long empty building feeling as if it was still empty.

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Also; during the times of Blake's long absences – Kate ran into a halfling in Ferrell by the name of Tinker. Kate befriended her – not knowing the troubles that awaited her. Shortly after they first met; Tinker visited Mikona and soon proclaimed her undying love of Kate. One of a handful of true loves that she had. Tinker continued to proclaim such love after Kate told her that Kate had no such feelings in return; and was after all married to Blake. Tinker and Lyra Tir'eivrilo - a sorceress of the Green Order - took Kate on a trip to visit the earthbergs of Hala on the plane of Ysgard; Once there Tinker tried to convince Kate that since they were now on a different world, her wedding vows no longer held.

During the times that Blake was gone, and after Kate received the word of his death, Suki remained as close a friend to Kate as one could hope for. Then, Tinker took Kate on a mining trip for gems in a mine that Kate had little knowledge of. Inside – Tinker drank a potion in a wild magic zone. Instead of the intended effect, the potion caused Kate to fall madly in love with Tinker. Ultimately, this had a devastating effect. Kate was ‘in love’ and made no attempt at hiding it. This ended up badly straining the relationship that Suki and Kate had together. Once the effects of the wild-zoned potion were dispelled, Kate realized what had happened. But the damage was done. The once very close friends found it hard to be together. So hard at times, that they could not even talk to each other when alone. Over the years – the friendship has healed some; but not to the point that it once was.

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With Kate entering the Red Order of the Flame, and advances in magic specializations being made; The Red Magus Gurth Istar approached Kate with the idea of her working towards becoming a Cryomancer, considering her aptitude for the cold. Kate readily agreed to the idea – having had thought of doing so even without Gurth's encouragement. But this is where she truly found that having had virtually no teacher in the ways of magic to be a pitfall. She had no idea of how to conduct research into anything. Although she had begun to work at becoming a Cryomancer; she found the way slow going. Sarrena, a friend and member of the Green Order started to do her research on Aeromancy. Eventually the two worked together – but even with her head start, Sarrena achieved her breakthrough into becoming an Aeromancer before Kate achieved her breakthrough into Cryomancy. However, Kate did make the breakthrough, and was proud of the fact that she did so. Especially one day when she and Gurth and a few others faced some water elementals and Gurth's (who by then was a co-head of the Red Order) fire based spells had no effect on the elementals; While Kate's now cold based spells had full effect. Her pride in being a Cryomancer is also how she became to be known as Lady Frostbite. She was at Elysia's Elf Gate explaining to those there what a Cryomancer was, and those there started calling her Lady Frostbite. Kate liked the name, and figured that it fit her nature - and began using it.

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At a Ferrell Trade Fair not too long ago; Kate rented out a booth for Suki and herself – the two of them having had a specially clothing business named KISS for some time now. Miriel Xilo, a mage of the Blue Order, also had a booth there at that Fair; However, she made a friendly visit to her ‘competition’ and they exchanged dresses, each made by the other. The two widows had known each other from prior meetings but had never spent a whole lot of time together – Miriel spending most of her time in Visimontium; Kate living in Mikona. This soon changed with their meeting at this Fair. Kate has come to think of Miriel as another very close friend, and lately one that she can confide in.

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Kate recently has joined the M'Chekian Army as a regular, to do her part in helping with the war with the Shaahesk. She is currently still a recruit but has already taken part in a few military expeditions against the Shaahesk.

* * * (To be continued) * * *

PCs:Kate Benneset

Kate Benneset

Appearance

Lifepath

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