History

CHILDHOOD

• Portentia grew up in a small farming village called Dawnglen, in Galleos, with her human mother Melia, halfling father Orren, and older sister Lilia. The family farm was small, and they grew up with modest means.
  
• Before Portentia was born, a famous seer who was passing through the village had a vision that Orren and Melia's next child would grow up to be the most powerful diviner of her age. This vision was overheard by a local noble lord, who proposed a deal to Orren and Melia— he would pay for their child to have the finest magical education that money can buy, and in exchange, upon her graduation she would work for him as his personal advisor.
  
• Poppy lived until she was six at her parents' farm, but once she started showing signs of divinatory magic, she went to live and study at the Seminarcane, in northern Galleos. As stated in her contract, her education was paid for by Lord Keswick, and any spare gold she had was sent home to her family. Poppy would visit home only during holidays and school breaks.
  
• Tension grew between Poppy and Lilia, with Lilia growing jealous of all the attention her younger sister received.

THE TEENAGE YEARS

• When Poppy was sixteen, a group of adventurers came to the Seminarcane in search of a powerful artifact that was being kept there, which they needed to defeat a great evil. The headmaster resisted giving it to them, but the great evil which they were fighting had sent one of his generals— a young blue dragon— and many of his minions after the adventurers, and they attacked the school.
  
• During the commotion of the attack, Poppy used her portent magic to save one of the adventurers from being fried to death by the dragon's lightning attack. From that point on, the battle turned in favor of the adventurers, and they were quickly able to defeat the evil forces, sending the dragon retreating back to its master.
  
• This was Poppy's first taste of adventure, and though she wanted to hold true to her contract, she longed to travel the world and fight monsters, feeling the exhilarating rush that she had felt in that first battle.

( POPPY'S FIRST TIME IN VISIUM GOES HERE )

YOUNG ADULTHOOD

• A few years after that exciting event, Poppy graduated from school, and returned the midcountry to serve as Lord Keswick's advisor. However, Lord Keswick had grown frail and ill by this time, and he had left no heirs. It was not long until a sickness which spread through the land claimed him as well as many of the citizens. Although he pleaded for Poppy to find a way to save him, there was nothing she could do.
  
• Finally, Poppy was free from her contract. She went back to Dawnglen briefly to say goodbye to her family, and then set off to become an adventurer.
  
• She joined up with an adventuring guild called The Aegis Aurora, and traveled far and wide fulfilling quests for them.
  
• Years later, when Poppy was 23, she and her guild party went up against a powerful beholder named Zerox. Unfortunately, Zerox was a bit too powerful for the adventurers, and he easily defeated them, petrifying Poppy and killing the rest of her partymates.

POST-PETRIFICATION

• Poppy would remain petrified for 37 years before another party of adventurers came to defeat Zerox and to free the collection of petrified people he had amassed.
  
• Because she was petrified for so long, Poppy's mind has been scrambled, leaving her with little to no memory of her past.
  
• Having nowhere else to go, Poppy joined up with this party of adventurers:
  • Erlenmeyer Vox, a kobold artificer/warlock
    
  • Celes Winterborn, an eladrin druid
    
  • Tog, an orcish fighter
• After a brief run-in with a bandit camp, Poppy traveled with them to their headquarters briefly, before the group set off again for new adventures.

IMPERIAL INTRIGUE (cw: fantasy racism)

• The party was visited by Helmut Eben-Forge, the brother of famed duergar adventurer Aldrich Eben-Forge, whom the party had had several run-ins with in the past. There was long-standing animosity between Vox and Aldrich, as both were acclaimed artificers, with Aldrich seeing much more success with his inventions than Vox, causing Vox to feel jealous. Celes, however, was a big fan of Aldrich's, leaving Tog and Poppy somewhere in the middle.
  
• Helmut told the party that Aldrich had been arrested in Espara, the Imperial capital, having been framed for an assassination attempt on the Baroness of Zweiland. Despite Vox's protestations, the party agreed to travel to Espara and try to clear Aldrich's name.
  
• Through some careful detective work, the party exposed a conspiracy in which the Baroness' husband, who was secretly a powerful demon in disguise, had been manipulating anti-Underdark, anti-fiend groups to frame Aldrich for the Baroness' muder, when really it was her husband behind it all.
  
• While in Espara investigating this mystery, Poppy visited the Imperial library, where she ran into a man who she recognized. She learned that this man was Archimedes Caladan, an archfey from the Fey Court of Knowledge, who assumes different identities over the centuries, and had previously appeared in Poppy's life as Archibald Caladan, a professor at the Seminarcane.
  
• Poppy asked Archimedes to sort out her muddled memories, but he advised that after nearly 40 years petrified, trying to read her mind would do more damage than good, and that the safest way for her to regain her memories would be for them to slowly return, over time.
  
• The party confronted the demon along with several imperial guards, and managed to kill him and his cultist minions before he could summon more help from the Abyss.
  
• After the battle, it was revealed that the Baroness was eight months pregnant with the (half-fiendish) baby of her now-late husband.
  
• The authorities swarmed in, backed by the same anti-fiend group which had been duped into participating in the demon's conspiracy, and they arrested the Baroness, placing instead their own figurehead as the new Baron of Zweiland— a man who happened to be Aldrich Eben-Forge's second cousin.
  
• The party now understood that Aldrich had been pulling the strings behind the scenes all along, just furthering Vox's hatred for him, and cementing Poppy as firmly an Aldrich hater as well.

TRAVEL TIME

• After a short run-in with a former party member who had betrayed Vox, Tog, and Celes and joined up instead with another fiendish cult, the party decided to leave Espara, and take on a new case, solving a serial murder case in Galleos.
  
• Before they left town, Aldrich rewarded them for their help with a no-holds-barred shopping spree at one of his Eben-Forge Industries stores, where they stocked up on adventuring gear and magical scrolls and potions.
  
• Aldrich also lent the party the use of one of his motorized carriages, to make their trip to Galleos much faster.
  
• While they were en route, the party passes a beach, where they happen upon warships from the Argos Isles, led by a cyclops and a minotaur. Vox, Tog, and Poppy spy on the cadre of Argosian soldiers, where they learn that they are plotting an invasion attempt.
  
• Vox and Tog are spotted and taken down to the soldiers' camp, but Poppy manages to remain hidden. Poppy decides to use her Arcane Eye artifact to follow Vox and Tog and spy around the soldiers' camp while her partymates are being interrogated. She sees their war map, and learns that the Argosians are planning on ambushing several cities along the coast line.
  
• Poppy learns the hard way that her Arcane Eye artifact, which the party had looted from Zerox' hoard, is actually a phylactery, and that Zerox is, in fact, a lich. Zerox speaks into Poppy's mind, and demands that she give the phylactery over to the Argosians, so he can use them to return to power.
  
• Not wanting to enable Zerox's return, nor aid the invaders, Poppy and her friends summon help from Aldrich's Bulette Brigade, who help them fight Zerox in his Death Tyrant form.
  
• Tog lands the final blow on Zerox, allowing him to unlock a new level of abilities in his magical greataxe. Although he seems to have been defeated for good, the party is uncertain whether Zerox will be able to return again, so they hand off the Arcane Eye to the Bulette Brigade for safe keeping, continuing on their way towards Galleos.

( POPPY'S SECOND TIME IN VISIUM GOES HERE )