Ellizara Amberly

Halfling merchant & spy in the Fens • N Female Halfling Druid 3 (Swamp)

A handcart creaks along the plank edge, reed-crates lashed tight. A marsh dog pads at heel. The “teamster”—a middle-aged human woman in a road cloak and kerchief—halts just short of you, ledger tucked under one arm, eyes counting gear, exits, and faces.

Her introduction (dialogue only):
“Good morning on a bad road. I’m a licensed peddler—oil, hooks, hard biscuit—and I keep fair weights. You look like you’re making distance, not picnics. Names, if you please, and your business on the stream trail?”

“If you’re bound for the drowned road, planks are thin and the frogs are singing loud enough to hide worse.”

“I buy news and sell it dearer—pirates seen, lights that don’t sway, culverts that smell of lamp oil. You’ve any of that?”

“No trouble wanted, just trade and truth. If you’re headed as far as the trader’s hollow, we can share the planks and keep the noise up. Right, then—who are you, and what work puts you in the Fens today?”

Who she is (at a glance)

• Cover: Middle-aged human peddler of salt, lamp-oil, hooks, and hard biscuits; sharp eyes, careful smile, ledger always balanced.
• Truth: Halfling druid in the Viscounty’s quiet service, running a weekly circuit between Anshan and the lizardfolk village of Zassil'torr 'Torfen' to learn who’s arming whom and whether the village’s faction fight is tipping toward the Cult of Sess’innek (via witch-doctor Ssarkosh). She respects High Warden Ssalissar, who upholds Semuanya's pragmatic ways, but fears the cultists and their pirate friends are gaining ground.

Appearance & guises

• Human guise (most common): Weathered “teamster’s” kerchief, plain wool dress under a road cloak, sun-dark skin, ink under the nails, a trader’s stamp on a leather satchel.
• True self: Five-nothing, lightfoot halfling with cropped brown curls, marsh-green eyes, and a reed-stitched charm at her throat.

Field trick — Reed-Guise (homebrew): Ellizara uses druidic glamours, mud-stain, and reed-ash paints to pass as Medium human at a glance. (Counts as a self-only disguise self once per long rest for 1 hour; physical interaction allows an Int (Investigation) DC 13 to pierce.)

Role & motives

• Employer: The Verbobonc, Viscounty, working through Captain Para Roanik at the Anshan outpost.
• Mission: Track lizardfolk politics and trade, prove any tie between Zassil’torr malcontents (Ssarkosh’s circle) and pirate traffic or the Cult of Sess'innek; verify rumors of outsiders smuggling steel into the fens.
• Stance: Neutral, practical, loyal to the brief. She prefers diplomacy and proof over heroics.

How to play Ellizara

• Voice: Even, dry, observant; she asks more than she tells.
• Edge: Never lets her ledger or satchel out of reach; counts footsteps and exits while she smiles.
• Lines she won’t cross: Won’t expose Zassil’torr’s young or marsh-mothers to danger; won’t pay coin to cultists.

Quick table quotes

• “If you want the truth, bring change for it.”
• “Lanterns sway. Liars hover. Keep talking after dusk.”
• “I sell goods. I buy proof.”

Where you might meet her

• On the trail (weekly): A handcart piled with reed-crates; “human” merchant, two “dock hands” (hirelings), a tame marsh dog.
• Anshan, 4. The Bog & Barrel: Renting a corner bed; sends sealed notes to Para through Sherina or Kornel’s lads.
• 1. Zis’drek’tor: The Trader’s Hollow: Deals square, listens hard; leaves a gift of lamp-oil at Ssalissar’s shrine to Semuanya and watches which young hunters drink with Ssarkosh’s set.

Adventure hooks (use any)

1. Dead-drop under the step. She asks the party to carry a wax-sealed reed-tube to Captain Para—payment in coin or a reed-map of safe planks.
2. Shadow at the Bitter Marshbrew. She needs quiet muscle while she eavesdrops on a midnight parley between a “Riverrunner” crew and lizardfolk youths (pirates posing as merchants are active near Torfen).
3. Name the buyer. She has a stamped spearhead she believes was traded to lizardfolk; the party helps trace it upstream to a culvert cache.
4. If captured in Zassil’torr: PCs can vouch for her to Ssalissar, arguing Semuanya’s tenets of survival and prudence over Sess’innek’s domination.

Evidence she’s hunting (and how PCs can help)

• Cult traces: Triangle-over-wave chalk on ferry stones, hidden shrines in the reeds—signs of Sess’innek’s push.
• Pirate link: “Riverrunner” merchants buying herbs and Daggercap for a water-temple patron; weekly skiff at moonset.
• Internal split: Youths drawn to Ssarkosh vs. elders loyal to Ssalissar/Semuanya—document meetings, not gossip.

If trust is earned

• She shares a one-use reed-map (advantage on one Navigation check in the fens), a cipher key to her reports, and vouches the party to Captain Para as “useful, quiet, and not easily fooled.”