Kurt Hartgrave, Illusionist

Kurt Hartgrave was born to middle-class parents in the City of Icefell. His parents were both involved in the Kafay production business that allowed them to raise a family comfortably and ensure that all their needs, and most of their wants, could be satisfied. Kurt's childhood was unremarkable, but as he grew, he came to realize that he did not desire to follow his parents into the Kafay business - he wanted something different. He was always a studious sort - he loved to read anything he could get his hands on - and he was fascinated by what he read of the Arcane Arts. He decided that he wanted to pursue study of these arts/ Perhaps he would become a Wizard and see the world.

As soon as he was old enough to be admitted, Kurt began attending the Endmere University of Arcane Arts. Perhaps it was his vivid imagination, but he showed impressive aptitude for the arts of Illusion from the very beginning. As his studies progressed, he continued to have difficulty in mastering the more complex arts that required the careful weaving of the primal energies to alter the realities of things around him, but he never seemed to have any trouble in mastering the ability to weave those forces in ways to make the minds of observers perceive different realities - even though they weren't really there.

Before even leaving the University, Kurt knew that he was not a reliable enough master of the many facets of the Arcane Arts to succeed as an Adventurer - unless he found the right adventuring party. He knew from his reading of the many famous adventuring companies that generalist wizards were those most suited to the unknowns and vagaries of adventuring. The Conjurers, Evokers, Transmuters, and even Abjurers were successful as well - they had mastered Arts that offered them solid offensive or defensive magical support. There were very few Illusionists in the annals of great adventurers.

But there were some, and those that were in the Annals were imaginative, and remarkably successful. And so, Kurt left Endmere and traveled south to Dryad Falls - a city where he hoped to find an Adventuring party with which he could successfully make a mark upon the world. In the meantime, he made a meager living performing Illusion magic for rich folk who hired him to entertain their children at parties. It was demeaning, but it paid for his room and board.

Just before midsummer in the year 2162CR, Kurt's old friends Andreas Highcastle and Elianna Altuliel sought him out in Dryad Falls to ask if he wished to join a travelling group of entertainers that they were assembling. After hearing the pitch offered by Andreas, and seeing the talent he had already accumulated, Kurt decided that this might be the best (and safest) chance at Adventuring that he was ever going to get. He agreed to join the group.

With the group now complete (according to Andreas), they purchased, outfitted, and customized a large covered wagon to serve as their home away from home as they traveled and performed. Kurt explained that he always wanted to tour the deeper Feywood, and explained to the others that this was an area that not long ago was wilderness - except for the Elves and Fey living there, of course. Now, though, it was being settled, with more folk arriving all the time. These folk needed entertainment, why shouldn't they provide it?

And so they did. Their first journey was so successful that Andreas decided to move their originally planned winter home base from Meadow's End to Dryad's Falls, and they have been traveling the same circuit twice a year ever since.