Minhyrdan stands 5' 11.75" tall with nut-brown skin and amber-colored eyes. She speaks with the slightest Damaran accent. She carries a massive, magical, composite longbow and a magical quiver of arrows. She recently picked up a greatsword of strangely blue-glimmering steel, with white claw cross-guards, and a white claw clutching a white gem in the pommel. She defends herself to her somewhat suspicious traveling companions as an archer --- not a thief, not a rogue --- an archer. Never mind that she carries some potent poisons and that she has the dubious skill of opening locks and moving silently in the night. She denies being anything other than human, although has demonstrated that she can, in fact, see 60' in total darkness.
As infrequently as Min mentions her home, she let it drop once that her family, who trades in wine and minerals from Damara, is part of a great merchant family based just outside of Procampur. Min's parents live in Damara, where Min was raised for 10 years. Min was sent to the main family due to her skill with the bow. She was marked for the family guard, something of an honor, and trained for another 9 years. Min had other ideas. The bodyguard life was dull to her and her skills lie in sneakier but strangely more honorable areas.
Min was always attracted to the idea of vengeance (those tales were her favorite bedtime stories even when she was a little girl). There are, she realized, many people, who have been justly wronged, and who would never get a chance to settle their scores. As a guard for her House she might even be called on to enact such wrongs. Min thought and thought about this and, eventually, took action to rectify some of these wrongs (for a price). Her family reacted with dismay and embarrassment. One of their proud fighters acting like some common thug or assassin! In the interest of peace Min left the House first and remains a black sheep not to be mentioned outside the family.
The dark archer realizes that she is, in effect, a hired killer; however, she has rules. Firstly, the score must be true and grievous. Secondly, she approaches a target as she sees fit, taking her time with observation; she will not take just a client's word for a target's character. Thirdly, the target will not suffer in death. Lastly, if she judges a target inappropriate, she can cancel a contract without returning the deposit (20% of the total). Min sets the price of a contract as she sees fit: one person might pay 20 gold, another 200 gold. If she is ever lied to or hired in active duplicity, Min reacts with great anger and has once turned and taken contract out on her client. Min is not a blind assassin and not to be hired lightly. In her own mind she makes the world a better place one person at a time. Min is not evil, but she is also not good.
Min supports herself with her great skill with her longbow, which she has been known, once or twice, to refer to as Raptor (as in 'fly, my little birds of prey and peck out the hearts of your foes'). This bow was later recreated as the powerful Ngwalyar by the elf wizard Zhaurandiss (who neglected to tell her that the bow was now cursed to laugh mockingly in her mind whenever she fumbled with it). To earn her keep Min has joined a few adventuring parties and also entered in no few archery competitions. None of her competitors ever suffered any strange mishaps the night before a shoot; she made sure of that. Min hates the idea of foul play ruining a chance for her to honestly trounce her competition in a plain game of skill. Min met her current traveling companions while fighting against the dark cleric Heukriel Malkior. She explained to the curious adventurers that her lover, family, and village were all destroyed by Malkior and that she had declared it her blood quest to see him dead by her hand --- all of which was a lie. Surprisingly, she was believed and accepted into the group --- not that there was any reason to refuse her request. Since then she has shown the occasional (and irritating) lack of restraint about shooting close to her companions during battle.
Her real reason for fighting Malkior, aside from how he was obviously deserving of a swift death, was to settle closer to her target. Back in Procampur Min was approached by the Knights of Tyr. It seems that one of their number had abandoned his comrades in favor of some self-centered, mystical path to greater, almost magical power. Min agreed to exact vengeance from the selfish, power-hungry, former Knight and began to tail him. Upon joining the group he with whom he was traveling, Min studied the oath-breaker monk Jalmour. Over the course of a few months, she came to realize that the Knights of Tyr had been greatly mistaken. The monk in question had been following his heart's path, and he had not abandoned his comrades in the name of power. Regretfully, the monk also perished during a dangerous encounter with a 40' tall fire elemental. Thinking to settle the score the Knights of Tyr felt owed to them, Min sent word of the monk's demise and the end of the contract back to Procampur. She fully intended to avoid the town for a few years to let matters settle; however, as always with these things, her group ended up back in town a few weeks later. Min spent what was to her companions a relaxing few weeks literally (running) one step ahead of the furious Knights. Happily, the group set sail for the north before a formal arrest was made.
Min died during the adventure in the north near the great glacier, in large trap of web spells. Confused by poison and blood-loss, she allowed herself to be caught by two ice spiders and died seconds later. Her companions entombed her in ice and continued on their quest. Min would have found it an amusing aspect of the last few months her life was that, while she was a hired killer on contract against one of her fellows, it was the gray dwarf Khaliban who succeeded in killing one of his own party members (accidentally). Min would have found it doubly amusing that, only a few days before her death, she spent an enjoyable evening out with Khaliban kibitzing in the town they had just saved from an ice-diamond golem (the only enjoyable time she could recall ever spending within hearing distance of the scathing dwarf). The invisible, mischievous pair spent the night looking for drinks, loot, and a window or two to break (loot on his part, and windows on her part). Min lived her life as she saw fit; her skill was never questioned --- only her judgment.
