Fumble in the Jungle: The Characters

NOTE: Characters are always evolving, and as they evolve new information is added to their bios. Check back often! These change regularly, and when a new character is added, so is their bio!

***

Ella Steamgear is the younger cousin of Winry Steamgear and Bella's identical twin. Ella and Bella are twin souled; Ella got the emotions and impluses, Bella got nothing but cold logic. She's a Priestess of Gond, and she became such after a freak explosion happened in her lab. Bella was dying, so Ella reached out to Gond for a miracle and Bella's soul was transferred into a gearforged body, saving her twin's life. Before this explosion occurred, Ella was preparing to leave the Friendly Arm Inn and go into the woods to learn to be a druid, with her half-drow wife; her wife was killed in the explosion. Her workshop was the most important place to her, but losing her wife in the lab tainted it a little for Ella, and she decided to leave home for a while to find herself.

The matriarch of the Steamgear clan is an archdruidess, so some of the Steamgear children learned to combine nature and technology. Ella idolized Granny and always wanted to be a druid; she loves all animals and wants to adopt all of the cute, fuzzy babies.

Ella's temple is said to be the oldest temple of Gond in Toril, and upon joining the clergy, she was given a gear that is said to have been blessed by Gond. It is part of her pocket watch.

In the alternate strand of Fate the Raven Queen merged with Ella, she was a wizard because she found a dusty old spellbook in the family library. Ella has a spellbook made of sheet metal and each spell is inscribed on gears. She wants to become the greatest wizard of her generation.

Ella loves to take apart anything mechanical to learn how it works, and she loves to talk at length about her work. While mechanical things are her main focus in life, she still loves people and will do anything for someone she cares about.

When the twins were younger, Bella killed Ella's little pet worm named Squirmy. Ella still carries the dead worm in a pickle jar and often pulls it out to shake angrily at Bella when they fight.

The twins are 61 years old, with Ella 57 seconds older than Bella. They both stand at 3'4 and weigh about 40 lbs. The twins have aqua hair and gray eyes, pale skin. They have a slim, toned figure with minimal curve. Ella has several eyebrow piercings.

***
Bella Steamgear is Ella's identical twin. She is a Paladin to what she believes to be Gond, but it is really to Haagenti, the Demon Lord. Bella is a sociopath, and she kills anything that she thinks might take Ella away from her. She was who caused the explosion in Ella's lab, because she didn't want her sister to leave. She was killing Ella's wife to force her sister to stay behind. Unfortunately for Bella, her girlfriend walked into the lab at the wrong moment, and as Bella went to move her out of the way, the explosion went off. Her girlfriend died, and she almost did. Ella reached out to Gond to save them, and her prayer was answered by Gond.

In the separate strand of fate the Raven Queen merged into Bella, she believed herself to be a Warlock of Gond, but it was truly a Solar of Haagenti she made her pact with. In the alternate timeline, Bella was never turned into a gearforged, so the merging turned her into a cyborg of sorts. A seamless blend of gnome and machine.

***
Tekandyl Al'Tayn is a male drow who was cursed, compelling spiders to attack him on sight. In one fate line he was a Champion Fighter who worked for Bregan D'aerthe. In the other, he was an Arcane Trickster working for the Coldfire Initiative.

He is a private person, as most drow are, so the party knows little about him. Tek is one of the people who mostly leads the party, and several of the guides the party hires end up being loyal to him.



***
Wartle of Clan Koopa is a tortle who is looking for glory and adventure. He uses shields to fight instead of swords, and is always willing to go charging. Wartle is fearless and is overly confident in his abilities, which makes him easy to manipulate into walking into dangerous situations.

Wartle is searching Chult for the lost artifacts of Koopa, to return glory to his clan.



***

The half-elf sorcerer Xandala has come to Chult in search of the Ring of Winter, an artifact in Artus Cimber's possession. Xandala knows that the ring has kept Artus alive for over a century, and she craves its power.

Xandala's magic traces back to a draconic bloodline, and parts of her skin are covered by a thin sheen of protective scales. She has befriended a pseudodragon named Summerwise, who thinks that Xandala's quest for the ring is dangerous but has given up trying to talk the sorcerer out of it.

Xandala asked the party to help her find Artus Cimber, a man she claims is her father. Artus can't be found using magic, but Xandala has heard that Artus left the city with a reptilian man who doesn't talk and smells funny. Both were last seen heading into the jungle.
Artus possesses the Ring of Winter, a powerful artifact that Xandala wants.

Tales from Toril- The Adventures of Critical Bumbersnoot: the Odd Company: Book One, Epilogue

Epilogue

Dramatis Personae:

Winry Steamgear, the Rock Gnome Alchemist Artificer Wizard

"Critical" Bumbersnoot, Winry's Dachshund Mechanimal Construct
Dunderbittles, Winry's Clockwork Ladybug Weave Spider familiar

Oskar Heartforge, the Shield Dwarf Werewolf Priest of Moradin

Jak Foostus, the Minotaur Monk

Bex Thriceorphaned, the Goliath Juggernaut Barbarian Circle of the Crescent Druid
Trip Hazard, Bex's Golden Cat animal companion 

Comrades we have lost:
Mara Quinn, the Water Genasi Revenant Werewolf Sea Sorceress- turned into a vampire, then killed by the party, then risen as a revenant, and killed again by the party

Carmina Taenfeather, the Human Knight- stayed behind
Amara aka Lady Talina Neverember, the Human Noble- stayed behind
Lady Sylvia Sweetwater, the Human Rogue- stayed behind

Gill O'Darby, the Human Ranger- stayed behind
Edwarda Eldersprok, the Rock Gnome Transmutationist- killed in explosion
Alphonsa Eldersprok, the Rock Gnome Eldritch Knight Transmutationist- crushed like a can

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Winry's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the artificer can't be everywhere at once. 

***** Ches 22, 1490 DR (The Year of the Star Walker's Return), Dtakkar, Lantan

       I had Bex shift us back to Lantan, and we were back in that little room with the portal. We surprised the guards, again, and were taken to Captain Tinderflint, again. At least Jak didn't attack the guards this time. Everyone thought we were dead. The time issue that was happening made nine months pass outside of Lantis, even though we'd only experienced two days. Everyone had written us off as dead nine months ago. We told her what all we'd encountered down below, and that Oskar had sent the Demon Lord away, hopefully ending the breaches.

       Once we were done, we were taken to Amara in the infirmary. We finally got to see the beauty of the city, where there were incredible steam-powered airships flying above us. The infirmary was in the Temple of Gond, and we were taken to a private room. Oskar smashed through the doors, to find Amara, sitting between two hospital beds, one with Sylvia and one with Gill. Carmina was sitting near the window. Both Amara and Carmina tackled Oskar as soon as we walked in.

       Amara told us that four days ago, on the Spring Equinox, Sylvia and Gill fell ill; as did many others, including Lord Neverember. Old wounds were beginning to open on everyone, and it looked like Sylvia and Gill were slowly rotting away. She said there was a strange energy in Chult that began on the Equinox. She'd hired adventurers- including my cousins, Ella and Bella- to investigate and hopefully fix whatever was causing this; they just left yesterday.

       Later that night, Oskar attempted to raise Edie, but it didn't work. He said it was like there was nothing there to grab onto. Both Moradin and Gond answered the call in the spell, but her soul was just out of reach.  My heart sank.

       We were able to find a teensy bit of blood of Ali's in that gorget, just enough for Oskar to attempt to bring her back. Oskar then began the 24 hour ritual to raise Ali, and I prayed to Gond harder than I ever had before. The gorget began to rattle as he started the spell, a rune shone through the metal, and he began to see a gnome forming around it, and then her soul was yanked away from him and flew to the southeast- toward Chult.

        Amara sent a message to the adventurers she'd hired, letting them know what had just transpired. Though I asked her not to tell my cousins that it was Edie and Ali that this had happened to, I figured it would only distract them. They're younger than me, and a bit more excitable.

*****
       We all settled in, looking for ways to fix whatever was broken with magic. Hoping we could find a cure before more people we loved died. As I sat down with a book, the baby goat bleated twice and vanished into thin air.

***** Lantis

       In the rubble of the central tower, a single spiderbot, glowing with purple-white energy, dusts itself off, and climbs on top of the gate, beginning repairs.