Hadley Harrington

Hadley Harrington, also known as Heve Starrington, is a Human Bard from Luskan and a member of the Dream Team. He is played by Jack.

Appearance
Hadley is a nineteen year old human man standing six foot, one inch tall with fair skin and extravagantly styled brown hair. He has brown eyes. Since gaining the bardic trait of Unbreakable Majesty, his appearance is ethereal in nature.

After journeying from Luskan to Neverwinter at sixteen, Hadley began the tradition of giving himself a new piercing with every city he visited. Since then, he has given himself eight ear piercings. He also has piercings on both of his nipples.

Personality
Hadley is generally a pretty easy-going guy with a somewhat sarcastic and self-deprecating nature. His sense of humor relies on heavily on puns and references, though this is mostly due to his player's inability to actually be funny.

He is overall grounded but can be a bit of a worrier, often lashing out in anger when, in reality, he's scared. He is very self-sacrificing, even going so far as to tell the Raven Queen he was willing to trade his life for Tyrandé Greenleaf's despite having never met her.

It takes him some time to get attached to those around him, mostly due to the fact that he has lived the past few years of his life in constant upheaval and hasn't been able to let himself get too close to people.

Luskan
Hadley Harrington was born on 26 Flamerule, 1471 to Stockton and Hana Harrington in Luskan. He has three older brothers: Hale, Sterling, and Stuart.

The Harrington family had fallen from grace about thirty years before Hadley's birth and, because of this, he grew up in poverty. His family spent most of their time training for, and fighting in, Luskan's rigorous Gladiator Pits. Hadley, like his father and older brothers, was meant to fight in these pits. However, unlike the rest of his family, Hadley was completely inept at fighting and failed to complete his training.

This led to strain on Hadley and his relationship with his family. His father, who was always a violent man, began attempting to toughen Hadley up with more aggressive methods. His mother and brothers were mostly complicit in this abuse; Hale and Stuart sometimes partook, but Sterling never did.

When Hadley discovered an old lute in the attic of his home (which also happened to be his bedroom), he began secretly teaching himself to play. It didn't take long before Hadley realized that he had magic ability tied to music, and a natural affinity for music itself. Upon learning of this gift and gaining proficiency with the lute, he began to teach himself how to do spells. Though he was gifted, he needed someone who could train him beyond what little he felt he could teach himself.

At fifteen, Hadley met Keir'an Willowbranch when he had begun seeking out someone to train him in magic and the two quickly began a romantic relationship. This relationship remained secret and ended when Hadley left Luskan for Neverwinter at just shy of seventeen.

Just shy of seventeen, Hadley's brothers brought him to the Ruins of Illusk, an older area of Luskan rumored to be occupied by undead. After he was forced to spend a night in the Ruins, where he managed to kill three undead, Hadley's secret was discovered when Stuart found Hadley's lute in his bag. When Hadley arrived home, he was reprimanded by his father. Stockton broke Hadley's lute and threatened his son, which prompted Hadley to decide to finally leave Luskan for good.

It is on his trip from Luskan to Neverwinter that he comes up with the moniker Heve Starrington after panicking when he realized he didn't pick an alias before he left home.

Neverwinter
Hadley used money his brother, Sterling, had given him to buy his way onto one of Luskan's High Ships for passage to Neverwinter. He arrived in the city three days later, on the morning of his seventeenth birthday. Once there, he got a job at the Driftwood Tavern as a server while he started taking small gigs at other taverns and busking on the street.

His natural talent as a musician garnered the attention of Æsh Tarly, a half-elf violinist, who invited Hadley to join her group of friends –– all of whom were also bards.

This new group of friends taught Hadley a lot and, after a few months of learning, the group decided they wanted to go to the Feywild to learn more. Through one of the group members, Darby Brickword, they were able to contact an Eladrin woman named Yani Everspring, who helped gain them passage to the Feywild.

In spite of Hadley's growing popularity as a musician in Neverwinter, he decided to join his friends to study the bardic College of Glamour in the Feywild.

The Feywild
Hadley and his friends spent six months in the Feywild learning from Yani, who took extra time with Hadley, noting his aptness for bardhood. This extra guiding hand helped Hadley become more powerful

His time spent in the Feywild was invaluable and his relationships with his friends deepened. It was during this time that Hadley and Darby decided to go on tour when they returned to the Prime Material Plane.

Daggerford
After returning from the Feywild, Hadley and Darby began their journey south. While they mostly played in exchange for dinner and boarding in the small towns they passed on their way to the next big city, Daggerford would prove to be the place that thrust Hadley into a life he had never been expecting.

On one fateful drunken evening, Hadley had claimed that he could infiltrate the impenetrable tower where Padan Fain lived and steal something to prove he'd done it. Always one to live up to his word, Hadley broke into the tower. However, he was not successful in stealing from the mysterious High Elf, who punished him by using a Moon Relic to send Hadley careening through the multiverse. He would remain bouncing from one Universe to the other until being thrown into a gladiator ring with The Dream Team.

Notable Items

 * Truther: a magical lyre purchased in Elysium.

Abilities

 * Unless otherwise noted, the following abilities are assumed from the standard Dungeons & Dragons materials:

Quotations

 * "I'm beefy on the inside!"
 * "In my humble onion..."