Kendra Tallulah

Name	Kendra Tallulah
Race	Human
Type	Monster Hunter
Faction	The Night Stalkers, BDA
Premiere	Desideratum: Blood Bonds
Relative(s)	N/A

Kendra Tallulah

"Right then lass, I hope ye find a land lovin’ monster to hunt down."

Biography

Pre-Desideratum: Blood Bonds

Kendra Tallulah was born in Waterford, Ireland. There on the southeast coast, she grew up with the sea. Her father was a fisherman and her mother made Waterford crystal, a type of glasswork. She loved the endless ocean and the life that it harbored. Growing up her father or his friends would talk of selkies, mermaids, and other strange creatures as they’d drink into the night, but most people did not believe such rubbish. Even the children at school would sometimes speak of ghosts wandering the shore at night and there was even a tale of a large Viking zombie, which she would later learn was a draugr, which haunted a cove at night and would kill anyone foolish enough to come for his treasure. In truth, fanciful narratives such as these instilled a passion in the girl and she worked hard to become a marine biologist. It was only after a few years of searching the sea’s mysteries, that Kendra would find a truth to the superstitious sailor stories.

Kendra was out on the ocean when, one night, she was awakened by the crew. The watchman swore that he had seen a mermaid, and others then saw it too. Once on deck, she also saw what looked like some women swimming out in the moonlight, but they were in international waters and no ship sailed in sight. She tried to shrug it off as a trick of the light or that they were just manatees, but her crew urged her to study whatever this was. Shaking her head and laughing, the woman dressed and entered the on board submersible. Her team lowered her into the sea. At a kilometer below, there in the bright lights of her craft, an honest, real mermaid stared right at her through the shield of her submersible.

She had only a few seconds to stare at the creature, shocked and unable for her rational mind to make sense of it, before the mermaid suddenly began singing. Something in the enchanted tones of the mermaid spurned a reaction in Kendra and she tried to open the machine but due to fail-safes, it would not release her. She even kicked and punched at the view shield in an attempt to smash her way outside. However, as she did this, she could make out the shapes of her team, splashing into the ocean and swimming down as mermaids sang and swam to greet them. Then, as the singing stopped, a feeding frenzy began and she watched as the creatures devoured the drowning men from the ship. The Kendra that came up from the sea that night was very different than the one that had entered it.

She was the lone survivor from the study and when she returned, she was questioned at length by investigators attempting to understand where a dozen men had disappeared to. They refused to believe her stories and she was discredited after a lifetime of hard work and even put into a mental institution for a time. Once out, she single mindedly pursued mermaids but soon discovered that lakes, rivers, ponds and all other bodies of water held other monster types as well. The woman trained and became better at swimming and capable of holding her breath for very long periods of time. She also learned to fight wearing full scuba gear and practiced every day, the scene of the crew always haunting her. In her own town her parents were forgiving. Her father had always swore that he had seen some monsters on his years at sea, and he was sure that his daughter was telling the truth. One night as they talked, she brought up the old tale from the schoolyard about the Viking, and her father told her that he had seen the creature himself.

She went out to the cove and it was her first encounter with a draugr. However, as she prepared to go down and face the monster, a ghost ship suddenly sprang into view. From its glowing bows a swirling fog suddenly surrounded the cove, but she could still see down into it. It appeared as if ghost pirates flew down and attacked the draugr. As some pirates kept the monster busy, other ghosts pilfered a treasure that had been guarded, apparently in an underwater cavern. After the treasure was on board she watched the other ghost fly back to the ship and it disappeared. As the fog dissipated the draugr screamed with rage and fury at the night air. The Flying Dutchman was real, and Kendra had seen it. Now, she had another purpose and intended to find the ghost ship and try to get the treasures it held.

She studied every report from around the world, and slowly saw different patterns. Most places were where legends or tales spoke of buried treasure or cargo lost at sea. Others were places where Vikings and Norsemen had formed settlements. Little by little she solved the puzzle and deduced where it would next appear. Sure enough, it appeared. However, she was unable to reach it due to a storm that night, but she now knew that she had determined a pattern to its behavior, there was a purpose here. So, she made her way to Portland, Oregon, and plotted the night that the ship would come to Sauvie Island. There, in Portland, she encountered the Night Stalkers and joined them. They were a misfit bunch of people, but they hunted monsters and she soon found that they mostly had sad tales such as her own.

Desideratum: Blood Bonds

In Desideratum: Blood Bonds, Kendra is one of the Night Stalkers. During the time period, Absinthe Van Gothen arrived at Sanctuary. Katerina Mordova summoned the alarm. Kendra grabbed her harpoon and rushed to face whatever foe had come to Sanctuary. However, she was quickly disarmed and soundly defeated as Absinthe defended herself. After the fight, Kendra held no hard feelings towards Abby. She could tell that the woman meant no harm agreeing with Roy McCoy that Absinthe could have killed them all, she included, if she wanted to. So, rather than carry a chip on her shoulder, she befriended Abby. Eventually, she confided in the new hunter and invited Absinthe to come with her to Sauvie Island. The pair was separated when a kraken rose up from the sea to devour them, attracted by the Blood Suit made from the blood of Vlad Țepeș. Once Kendra hit the water, she quickly put space between her and the behemoth. In truth she was spared because the creature only wanted to consume Absinthe and add Vlad’s power to itself. Kendra watched the massive beast come down on Abby and assumed the worst.

Steeling herself, she swam all the way to shore, into the thick swirling fog that she knew signaled The Flying Dutchman’s arrival. She followed the coastline, but the fog was so thick that she could not see her hand in front of her face. Until, suddenly, a bright light cut into the fog. It was being generated by a lighthouse on the other end of the island, but it gave Kendra the ability to see.

She eventually located it at an old, abandoned dock. There were no signs of her crew, and she assumed that they must have gone inland in search for draugr treasure, for, she had even tracked the draugr and knew they haunted the island, thus proving to herself that the ship would come. Leaping to board the vessel, she found it to be incorporeal and simply fell through the boat, splashing back into the cold sea. She tried a second time before standing at the dock and trying to ascertain a way aboard. Absinthe suddenly appeared. The sight filled Kendra with joy. It turned out that Absinthe had managed to use the light from the old Warrior Rock Lighthouse to open a path in the fog, but Kendra explained that there was no way on board. However, using the artifact, Gleipnir, a magical rope Absinthe had been gifted by the dray, Draeope, for saving Forest National Park from the plague witch, Baba Yaga- Absinthe managed to latch onto the ship. Amazed, Kendra watched as Abby climbed up the rope and boarded the ship. However, again, when she tried to board, she fell through the ship.

Thanks to Vlad’s blood, Absinthe walked between the dead and the living in some dimensional frequency, and this allowed her to interact with The Flying Dutchman as if it were a corporeal vessel. She went below and found a treasure trove of cursed items. She was assaulted by Captain Hendrik Van Der Decken. She managed to defeat him and thanks to a blessing from a sea god named Takuaka, Absinthe even procured some cursed treasure. However, once Kendra was informed that Hendrik was really sailing the seas and attempting to hoard cursed items to protect mankind, she called off further searches for the ship and remained at Sanctuary promising to aid Absinthe in the fight against the Nightbred.

Kendra held true to her word because on the night that Nuit was to be summoned, Ivor ordered an attack on the Night Stalkers and their Sanctuary. Harpoon in hand, the salty sailor rushed about the battle, impaling the vampires through their hearts. At one point in the battle, Kendra even managed to save Absinthe’s life against a Priestess of Nuit. After Absinthe and Evelyn Addams left the fight to stop the conjuration of the goddess, agents from the Bureau of Demonic Analysis arrived and aided the hunters in their defense. Afterwards, Kendra and the other Night Stalkers were placed inside the building’s foundry and given a choice to aid the government or be considered a terrorist group and face prison. When Absinthe and Brone arrived victorious, Kendra agreed that to aid the BDA was better than the alternative. Later she piloted a boat on a mission to Ghost Nook Island, bringing Abby there to seek the relics hidden under Ravenhurst Manor.

Appearance

Kendra is a fiery haired Irish woman. She has a cheerful demeanor.

Abilities

• Fire Arm Proficiency
• Melee Weapon Expert
• Shadow Daggers
• Invisibility

Notes and Trivia

Kendra is able to be corrupted and transformed in several Bad Ends. The themes of corruption are: Bimboization, Plague Witch, Shadowed Transformation, Blood Suit Transformation, Ice Clone, Bugged.