A principal character from the Ring of Steel, a Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign set in and around Harrowdale. “Very aware of the drow’s stare, Coren took a fur from a pile near the door and draped it around his naked form, then offered another to her. “It’s a little late for modesty, isn’t it?” she cooed playfully with a look of mock disappointment. He couldn’t help but let his eyes roam across her naked form as she stretching out on the pile of furs by the fire pit that served as his bed. Small, slender and lithe, she seemed almost delicate, yet at the same time well toned. “Who are you and what are you doing so far from the Velarwood in deepwinter?” “So far from where?” she asked in return. Coren had been gathering his wet cloths, but stopped dead at her question. “You are not from the temple of Eilistraee!?!” he accused more then asked. Though shocked that she was drow at first, he had assumed that she was from the temple of the dark maiden in the Velarwood. But now he realized she had come from the Underdark, and that was why she was so unprepared for the winter cold. He rose to stand over her, the fur slipping from his shoulders, but he no longer cared about his nakedness. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” he demanded. “I am Sabrae Xarann,” she responded meekly, recognizing the cold bit in his voice all too well. It was the sound of hatred and disgust. She had heard it in every voice that had spoken to her since she was a child and saw her mother murdered before her eyes while she hid. “I fled Maerimydra and followed a troop of males to the surface. I had heard tales of green, sunlit forests free of the matrons, and the spider queen. But not this,” she motioned to indicate the wintry forest beyond the cave, her voice cracked with betrayal and hopelessness. Coren stared down at her, now curled up on the furs, afraid to meet his gaze. A moment ago she was coy and seductive, now she almost seemed to be a lost child. Like a stranger in a strange land. She was drow, but something inside him told him that did not make her evil. He hoped it was not just that she was undoubted the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Coren could feel her stiffen as he sat on the bed beside her, but she let herself uncoil as she sensed his mood had softened. ““The forest is green, alive and warmed by the sunlight in spring and summer. But this is winter, when only the foolish are about,” he said comfortingly. Sabrae rose up to sit beside him, the capricious sparkle back in her eye, as she could clearly see his attraction for her. “So then, how can I repay the fool who happened to be about just when I needed him to save my life?...”” Surviving by theft and cunning, Sabrae saw her own mother murdered as child, when her family was destroyed by a rival house. Often living in ruins, and scavenging the fringes of the Dark Wastes when she couldn’t steal enough to survive on, she fled Maerimydra when the city fell. Following a troop of drow males to the surface, in the hopes of finding a life free of the rule of the matrons, and the spider queen, Lolth. Drawn into the Ring of Steel as it formed around Coren Cormaeril, Sabrae has found little acceptance beyond that circle, with even the sisters of Eilistraee suspicious of her refusal to embrace any faith. But, her spontaneous, and hedonistic, nature often puts her at odds with the more lawful of the companions, including Coren. The second image from my second pass through the Ring of Steel characters... It's been quite a while since my first attempt at these characters and I was never happy with the quality of my work, so I figured it was time for a revisit.