The impatiently waiting crowd roars wildly as she makes her entrance. Dented and scratched metal plates are haphazardly strapped to her body. Her red skin looks bloody in the dim light, marred with scars and bruising, and almost seems to glow from within. In one hand she holds a great sword, dragging the tip in the dust behind her. In the other, a helmet with curling horns. A wicked grin spreads across her face as she surveys the arena. Her red hair, half-shaven and wild, seems to flicker and dance like flames. She raises her arms and the crowd begins to chant her name. She dons her helmet and hefts her great sword. The syllables sound warlike, brash, alive in the mouths of a thousand people eager to see a good show. The iron door at the opposite end of the arena swings open and her lips settle into a grim smile. They're going to get one.

  Cinder is a fire genasi fighter from Waterdeep who specialises in pit fighting and unicorn hunting. She is stern and volatile, although her aggressive demeanour may be more of an act than anything.  

Appearance

  Cinder has red skin that emanates a faint light, short orange-reddish hair with one side half shaved, and dark eyes. She wears haphazard and dented armour that has seen better days but has dutifully served her. She wields a greatsword that is usually strapped to her back.  

History

  Cinder's mother was a human adventurer who, when on a particularly dangerous quest to defeat a fire elemental that had been ravaging the lands to the south, exposed to a deadly blast of elemental energy that killed her party and left her barely alive. Badly wounded and scarred by the incident, she bore a child a few years later – although the elemental energy had altered her body so drastically that the child was not human, but fire genasi. Shocked and terrified to raise what she thought was a monster, she abandoned the child on the doorstep of an orphanage in Waterdeep.   Cinder grew up an outcast, by choice rather than anything else. If her mother thought her a monster, then that's what she was going to be. She isolated herself from the other children and drove people away with her snappy and irritable nature. As she grew older, she took a great interest in fighting, from martial arts to swordplay, as a way to express the fiery anger that seemed intrinsic to her being. She took to solving problems with her fists, and practiced in the back alleys of the city, hacking piles of straw apart with blunted swords. With her self-taught fighting skills and street smarts, Cinder soon find herself drawn into the underground crime rings of the city – most notably, the pit fighting, which she took a shining too immediately.   By the time she was eighteen, she was a prized fighter, earning hundreds of gold in each tournament. But that glory came with jealous and bitter rivals. After an attempted assassination (with the emphasis on attempted, as she beat the assassin to death with their own weapon) she decided to leave the city before one of them actually got lucky. She found work with a travelling band of hunters, who made a living roving the country, hunting all manner of dangerous beasts and selling the exotic products to eager buyers.   After slaughtering an entire village of Aarakocra in the foothills of the Spine of the World, she found and decided to raise an owl aarakocra chick, renowned for their hunting prowess, to become the perfect hunter. She named him Tawny, taught him everything she knew, and became his adoptive mother of sorts.   Cinder's most recent contract was with Eponine Gale, who had her working with Tawny and Kane Kingford to hunt unicorns. In 1232 FR, they were accosted by the party (Ryuk, Altair, Athena and D'Bard), taken to Glimmerwood where they slew Sylvos, then were convinced to give up their unicorn hunting ways.   Cinder is currently residing in Waterdeep and has returned to her previous employment in pit fighting. She hopes to regain her place as an undefeated champion, but has already run into some trouble with the brawny fighters who currently stand as reigning champions.