Karley Rumblemuffin, Wild Mage Sorcerer

[Cointhief]

11.19.13.16.16.18

CG female lightfoot halfling, wild mage sorcerer 1

Background: Witchlight Hand

hp: 7 (6+1)

ac: 14

pp: 13

slots: 2

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Spells Known: (DC: 14 || Atk: +6)

Cantrip (4): mage hand, minor illusion, ray of frost, prestidigitation

1st (2): Chaos Bolt, Silent Image

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Proficiencies:

con, cha, Arcana, Deception, Stealth, Sleight of Hand, thieves' tools

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Languages:

Common, Halfling, Sylvan

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Five Knives Backstory:

★ Karley's wild magic bloodline is essentially a connection to parallel universes. These are not other worlds or realms, but rather duplicates of this universe with slight changes. When a surge occurs, one of the parallel universes overlaps with this one...taking over and creating odd effects. For example, Karley might see another Karley cast a strange spell...or a warped version of the party doing something unusual.

★ There is a 'nemesis' seeking out all these Karley's that share the bloodline, who appears during particularly unlucky surges. Conversely there is a dimension hopping friend that helps Karley out during particularly good surges.

★ Karley has a pet dog named Snook, who was once accidentally turned into a cloud for a few years. They are much better now, but sometimes Snook gets a far off look, nostalgic for that life floating above...

★ Karley once found a ring while fishing, called the Ring of the Grammarian. Now lost, it allowed her to add, remove or replace one letter in any spell she cast while simultaneously looking very hip and stylish. She misses this ring, and hopes to one day find it.

Supplementary Cast:

Gutrender, the Splatseeker of Ended Dreams - one of Karley's throwing knives, a prop for Kotokimi's Impalement Arts.

Raiders of the Settling Speakeasy - alternate universe version of the Defenders of the Dawning Bastion, where they are all pirates.

Kube - gelatinous cube version of Karley that has an alarm clock stuck in it. Karley's primary ally working behind the scenes to aid in her fight against the nemesis. (appears during 'good' surges)

Gnarley Stumblebutton/Harley Humbledozen - alternate universe versions of Karley she first encountered during the Napoleonic wars, both expert special ops soldiers.

Kevin Kostnorf/Dorgan Freednorf - people from other universes witnessed by Karley she at first mistook for daydream memories.

Brain of Baron Rudolph von Aubreckekr - master necromancer encountered in Lamordia, one of the domains of Ravenloft, who taught Karley about Marrowstone and sewing.

Captain Pomj - giff spelljamming expert who showed Karley the basics near the Rock of Bral.

S.C.R.A.pi - modron activist who inadvertently gifted Karley with Cookin' with Coolio cookbook.

Kotokimi (AKA Jack Dagger) - harengon master of the Impalement Arts who was Karley's tutor in her earliest carnival years.

Nemesis - embodiment of Law antagonist (appears during 'bad' surges), systematically destroying all Karleys of all the other universes with their great spelljamming ship.

Lost Item

 

Inventory

3 daggers, arcane focus (crystal), dungeoneer's kit, disguise kit, cards, carnival costume (pink bunny), 8 gp, feywild trinket (Paintbrush made entirely of ceramic, including the bristles)

 

Edited February 11 by Cointhief
Shhh! Spoilers! ;) (see edit history)

[Cointhief]

From those early training days...

Karley watched two water droplets attack each other from the sides, and her eyes crossed as she wandered into a daydream...

"You have to be the cucumber..." the harengon explained, pulling the blindfold tight across Karley's face. "You always know where you are, right? So, if you're the cucumber, likewise you know where you are." Such was Kotokimi's questionable methodology when it came to the Impalement Arts, the carnival performance of knife throwing.

"...pickled?" Rumblemuffin inquired, strained by the exercise.

"...no Karley, quite fresh. You're not concentrating." the admonishment was not as biting as it sounded. Kotokimi (also known as Jack Dagger) was a gentle, wise soul who had a knack for instruction. He could be direct when direction was needed.

The reprimand was taken to heart instantly and Karley relaxed body and mind, letting go of herself and bending her senses into the heightened, artistic realm of performance. Instead of visualizing the veggie, she visualized herself from the veggie's perspective.

Standing in her flashy turquoise suit spangled with teardrop sparkles that reflected the light into a thousand eclipsed suns, she held aloft Gutrender, the Splatseeker of Ended Dreams. In reality it was just a ruddy scrap piece of bronze salvaged from an old shield, christened with a new name for entertainment purposes. That didn't change the fact that its razor edge could instantly slay an unarmored target (like the one now holding the cucumber), should Karley make the slightest mistake.

*thwAK*

The initial velocity was perfect. The angle of incidence was within tolerances. The blade spun about its center of gravity exactly 3.5 times. "Hah! You did it, Karley!" the bucktoothed cottontail exclaimed.

"Huh?" Karley asked, fidgeting with the blindfold. She was shocked and elated to see a cuc' of only half the size it was before held by the target assistant (who only slightly peed their pants, it wasn't really noticeable and could probably be explained away as a spilled snow cone). "Yes!"

It was a great day, she hadn't killed Thac0 after all.

Edited March 1 by Cointhief (see edit history)

[Cointhief]

Witchlight Tour Year 5, Month 7, Embabeh, Banks of the Nile: 

 

When the Carnival nestled into that hushed grave of sands, Karley was much too impatient for the eternity of the sphinx...

"Capeetan!" the Frenchman shouted from actual Earth. "Non! Ze saucisson!" warning her of the primitive fuse (a long tube of pitch-soaked cloth packed with gunpowder, much like a sausage). It was very much near its terminal end...a small bomb known as a petard, ready to surprise the advancing Mamluk cavalry.

Karley and the Carnival had stumbled into the Napoleonic Wars, and astride a white horse she was the only thing visible in a sea of muddied blues, gunpowder flares, and cannonball blacks. How the sorcerer attained the rank of Captain so quickly is a story for another time, but her trusted officer, Aspirant Brun, was warning her out of the blast zone, paces away from the ancient ruins of Giza. It was July 21st, 1798...the Battle of the Pyramids was coming to a close.

Unaware of the petard, she had the cockamamie theory to release a blanket of super slippery banana peels, which would of course cause the thundering hooves to buckle and fall. But the bomb went off just as her spell was about to complete...and it opened forth new lanes of destiny. Fusing with the envelope of Weave magic in her surging aura, the battle and everything in a 100 ft radius transmuted into a heavy wild magic zone.

She felt herself duplicate, then triplicate...then more and more Karleys from hundreds of different parallel universes were all joining the battle as the continuity of the multiverse blurred into absurdity.

Gnarly Stumblebutton was a first class grenadier, and some kind of 'boy' version of the sorcerer. He was first to strafe the enemy on his chestnut destrier, messily tossing a sackful of iron spheres filled with explosives. Horse leg and cracked saber took flight, as the god-kings who could not find their way to Draco rolled in their crypts.

Harley Humbledozen (a Karley with black hair) was a fresh graduate of the experimental French Aerostatic Corps, and was far above in a military balloon. While the unit was designed for reconnaissance, the quick jolt into this universe startled her and she was throwing down glowing green acidic globules that melted horseface and manface alike.

Napoleon for his part never relented with his Canon de 12 Gribeauval as volley after ear-piercing volley crashed into the field. A thousand Mamluks were lost for every Frenchman or Karley.

Through it all, Karley (the real Karley) owed her survival not only to Brun but to the Lipizzan breed she was saddled upon, keeping her safe at great risk to itself.

Petting Cloppington's haunch, she could relate how bittersweet it would be... "...together forever..."

[Cointhief]

Witchlight Tour Year 2, Month 5, The Tablelands, Athas: 

When the Carnival landed near the edge of the Silt Sea on that desert planet out of the reach of gods, the nomadic elven tribe known as the 'Sky Singers' immediately became hostile...

"How are they so fast?" remarked the nimble haragon, shielding Karley with his body. He was called Kotokimi on stage, roughly meaning 'Cold Heart Waiting' in infernal. The rabbit's true name however was Jack Dagger and his kind eyes often looked after the young Rumblemuffin. It was he, after all, who had been there during the first surge...the one that returned her name.

The Sky Singers meanwhile were using advanced tactics but primitive weapons, claiming ground by a skirmishing diversion on one side and cutting in with more organized squads on the others. A few of the tents were already ablaze, and the other Hands were torn between defense and escape. Some had already fallen by spearpoint, and the lithe elves moved like ostriches to avoid retaliatory melee.

Kotokimi was digging through a supply chest marked 'Impalement arts'...implements aiding the performance of dagger tossing. "You better take these...on the double, honey bun! I don't think they're here for funnel cakes!" passing a few slender bronze knives to Karley. She was still a kid, but had taken to the art quickly...it seemed to her coney mentor that if they were destined to fight here and now she would need some claws.

Suddenly a squad of the elves stampeded right over them, tumbling their bodies in the sands. Following in their wake was an enormous black beetle, being ridden by an ornately adorned elf wielding a long halberd. Despite their size, this one took notice of the duo immediately. Karley scrambled to find a small blade (or anything) to throw, and finally let loose a flapping tumbler that on an ordinary day would have the haragon tsk-ing under his buck teeth. It bounced right off the beetle's hard plate.

The commanding elf dismounted "Alle cyanth, korel muk torin?" speaking in an unknown tongue and pointing his blade between the two. "Septhis glydeon, septhis horglydeus." he chanted ceremoniously. Karley had never been more terrified...there was no way they could outrun these elves with the massive thighs.

She saw Kotokimi burrowing into the sands and could think of nothing else but to do the same...but then she felt something cold down there.

Ice?

An ancient power took over little Karley inside, bursting out of her mouth as a terrible song that made the hare's ears slick back. A ringing chorus that shattered the frozen crystal her hand had become and transformed it into an infinite lance, glistening like a diamond in the enormous red sun. It shattered the commander's halbard shaft, striking him square in the flimsily loined groin.

"Run!" she screamed, tugging at Kotokimi's belt. The shards of rime growing on the elf's waist were something both divine and horrible, for nothing like snow was known to his tribe, and for once in his life he sprinted no faster than a turtle.

That's how Karley discovered she could cast the Ray of Frost cantrip. ;D

Edited March 1 by Cointhief (see edit history)

[Cointhief]

Witchlight Tour Year 4, Month 10, Sigil, The Hive: 

When the Carnival came to the city at the center of the multiverse, a rather rude cube stepped up to the young Karley's booth...

"Step right up, step right up..." Rumblemuffin droned nounlessly. Karley was running the funnel cakes that night, as she often enjoyed. The ambiance was rather bizarre, being both extremely exotic but also very obviously extremely poor. She felt as if she were doing a good service by bringing the lighter side of the Carnival to these people and...creatures. They chattered in a dialect she thought was pretty quirky, using words like 'berk', 'Dusties', and 'Thought Guild'.

Star had earlier tried to explain some planar arcana to her "The City of Doors is a torus, like one of your donuts. Hollow inside, but it branches to every other plane...if you can get a key for it anyways." Karley enjoyed the fact that she was inside a donut, not wasting a fear for the beast that would consume it all.

Sometimes, when the smog cleared, she could see streets and buildings far up in the sky. The halfling was folding some dough over on itself, trying to make sense of such spatial geometry when a cube with legs butted to the front of the line. "Inquiry. *click* Explain funnel cake."

"Er...hi." she responded. "Eat and...happier?"

"False! *click* One fowl egg. Zero-point-twenty-five cup mammilian fluid..." it rattled off the ingredients precisely as written in a popular cookbook circulating the Planes, Cookin' with Coolio written by Coolio. "Increase enthalpy of the homogeneous mixture using preheated lipids. *clickwrr* Funnel cake is not cake! Explain! the modron demanded.

"Yeah, guess, but...tasty?" offering one sprinkled with confectionary sugar.

"The false cake shall not be consumed!" it raged. The false cake shall not be consumed!" it repeated, this time many rusty spikes emerged from its body along with a little trumpet that blasted a fat, raspy note as it jambled around in a circle to protest.

"Hey...unfairly talkin'." she tried to counter, but was overruled by the undeniable logic of the cube.

The cube stayed for days and was able to win over most of the visitors to her booth. "The cube is right..." they'd say "...it isn't really a cake after all."

By the end of the Carnival's stay, she was saddened by the failure of her booth. But there was a bright side, when the unpleasant Platonic solid finally left, it dropped a copy of Cookin' with Coolio behind...and Karley's culinary skills rapidly expanded.

Her first mastered recipe? A sweet custard topped with raspberries.