Mishka Strakeln, Dwarven Artificer

[mildly_competent]

Image: [I am commissioning art for this character]

Name: Mishka "Misty" Strakeln
Character Concept: Better Living through Rune Magic
Race: Shield Dwarf (i.e. Mountain Dwarf-- see notes for changes made via Tasha's customization rules)
Class: Artificer (Armorer)
Background: Rune Carver
Gender: Female (she/her)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Deity: Primarily Moradin, with strong leanings towards Gond and perhaps some subtle respect for Annam All-father.
Faction: Lord's Alliance (but only because her mentor is)
Lifestyle: Modest
Region of Origin: Sunset Mountains of Cormyr
Sheet: DnD Beyond Sheet

Description: Mishka Strakeln is tall and stocky-- for a dwarf, on both counts. Long hours spent with a forge hammer followed by more hours spent sparring with her mother has given her a form that her peers would envy. This is typically hidden, though-- if she is not wearing armor that covers most of her body, she is wearing a leather tunic for the forge. Her face would be forgettable if it were not for burn scars crawling up the right of her neck and curling around her lip. Instead of the beautiful, wispy blonde braided mustache that her mother has, she now has several points tattooed across her face in a geometric pattern. Each morning, she uses alchemical pigments to connect some or all of these points in different geometric configurations. Whether this is her expressing herself or searching for novel runes is a secret that she keeps.

Mishka is practical-- she likes to be useful, and she likes to be busy. Even in her leisure activities, she seems to not be able to really sit and relax-- she practices with urgency and purpose. She reads to learn, not to enjoy. She cooks to eat, to impress, or sometimes even to test things. It can make it somewhat hard to enjoy her friendship, since she won't just be with someone, but feels she must do something for them.

Mishka has a quiet but deep faith in Moradin. Her dedication to practical craft and expertise is a constant worship to the Dwarffather. She has a fondness for Gond, and even a small fascination with Annam All-father for being the first to take Runic Magic from Mechanus. This last bit she wisely does not make known, for fear of what other dwarves would think.

Past is Prologue:

Mishka's mother, Torbera Strakeln, lived in the Sunrise Mountains in the Guaros region of Thay, near Rashemen. Torbera and her husband, Eriks Stormhammer, were warriors, and supported the clan in various military campaigns throughout their lives. This predictably lead to a child-- but somewhat unpredictably, an only child, rather than the twins that had become more common since the Thunder Blessing. For this reason, Torbera always told her daughter that she had "a big soulMother's home explains the Rashemeni / Russian name that I've given Mishka, and I intend to play her with a bit of a faux-russian accent. If I do a bad job of it, it's because this is fantasy russian! Any awfulness is as intended.

Since the Thundering split souls in two, Torbera's suggestion is that Mishka's reincarnated soul was never split.."

Mishka never really knew her father-- he died when she was only eight, killed by ghouls while on patrol. In the early years of the Thayan Civil War, undead became a far more common threat in the Sunrise Mountains, and took many of the clan. As the war raged on and Ssazz Tam took power, Torbera made the decision to flee her home, hoping to find a better life for her daughter. She settled in the Sunset Mountains of Cormyr. While Mishka always believed that this was due to some poetic sentimentality of symmetry, the reality was that Torbera had family there-- a third cousin named Harbek Brawnanvil, minor priest of Moradin.

The Goblin War had ended recently, and dwarven dedication to clan burned even hotter in the dwarves of the Sunset Mountains-- so when it was learned that Torbera had abandoned her clan to brutal war, she was immediately made a pariah. Harbek wouldn't allow his family to live outside the mountain, and kept them housed. But the Starkelns had few friends and fewer resourcesI am using this combined with Mishka's facial scarring to explain her 8 charisma.. Mishka faced bullying from other dwarven children and adolescents. Rather than rise to the challenge and fight, Mishka took refuge in booksSwitching out +2 Str from Mountain Dwarf for +2 Int, as per Tasha's rules for customization.. Dwarven children saw this as a hereditary cowardice, and her aggressors only redoubled their efforts. Mishka soon learned to remain always a bit more awarePerception Proficiency., ready to move as soon as something felt off.

While her reading started with Dwarven History-- as most dwarven nerd-dom does-- it quickly expanded to wildly different topicsProficiency: History-- as most history does. Before long, Mishka was reading of the ancient enslavement of dwarves by Giants, of giant culture, and came across an off-handed remark in Oskar Frostbeard's Compendium of Early Dwarven History, "Da Kazamar'th enslaveanish wath longrumm because eron da runic lordak wielded by da giantth eron old.The clan's enslavement was longer because of the runic magic wielded by the giants of old." Intrigued, Mishka began trying to learn GiantProficiency: Giant to learn about this kind of magic. And she made it quite far-- after all, knowing the language of an ancient foe is a respected skill in dwarven communities. But when she was caught in a library reading a tome on giant cultural practices, she soon found that her allyship in adults disappeared.

It wasn't until one night in early adolescence, when Mishka carved a runeRune Carver Background in the floor which burst into light and caused a table to flip across the room, that some of the clan thought that something was happening. It was quickly decided that whatever skill the girl had should be cultivated, and that she should learn to be of service to the community. It was decided that she would apprentice under her Fourth Cousin Once Removed, Harbek BrawnanvilProficiency: Smith's Tools; Artificer Class.. After all, runic power in armor and weapons was an ancient, if mysterious, art of the followers of Moradin. Torbera, for her part, refused to let her daughter become a smith who didn't understand the tools she made-- for the first time in three decades, the woman cleaned off her armor and began swinging her weapons. After all, what smith could craft a balanced axe if they hadn't swung one? How could they shape a comfortable armor if they hadn't felt the cuts and rashes of a poorly-made one?Proficiencies: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Simple Weapons, Dwarven Weapon Training. Mishka's life was suddenly filled with long hours at the forge, followed by nights of sparring with her mother.

The relatively young dwarf resented it, at the time. She no longer had time for her reading, and learning the wide art of metallurgy left little time for any scribing of runes. But looking back on her life, she cherished this time the most. Between strikes at the forge, Harbek would show Mishka how far away to place a frying panProficiency: Cooking Utensils to grill onions and mushrooms as a snack. During their sparring and drills, Torbera would regale Mishka with tales of old wars and heroes. She gained an appreciation for the way tales used to be kept, and a love of her mother's voice. She saw a light come back into her mother that little Mishka had never seen before.

Like any childhood, Mishka had some harsh lessons. On her first day tending the forge alone, while Harbek was away on church business, her beard caught fire. The dwarf was experiencing her first bits of vanity, and had perfumed her beard with an ointment that was unfortunately quite flammable. While she was able to put the flame out, it resulted in very bad burns. This being her first taste of responsibility, she didn't want to let Harbek down and kept working the forge. If she had sought help immediately, she may have recovered the growth of her facial hair. Torbera gave her a tongue-lashing that she's never since forgotten, and Harbek insisted teaching the girl basic medical knowledgeProficiency: Medicine. He never forgave himself for not teaching her this first. But they were both proud of Mishka; she had shown a truly dwarven dedication and bullheadedness. The girl began learning cosmetics and paintingProficiency: Painter's Supplies as a way to cover her facial scars, using her earnings from the forge work to pay for the pigments.

When the war with Netheril broke out in earnest, all resources in Cormyr were called upon. That included the skills of Dwarven Smiths. And here, Mishka was finally able to marry her two arts-- smithing and her runic magic-- to add protections to military leadership. Surprising the Sunset Mountains clans, Torbera also took up arms. In explanation, all she would say was, "My little girl can now protect herself. I will fight for my home." While no longer a spry young dwarf warrior, she was still capable and even formidable. Each morning, Mishka was sure to add a little extra protection for her mother, whether or not the older dwarf wanted it. As the war came to an end in its second year, Torbera sustained a grievous wound from one of the Shadowvar-- her arm was swept away into the Shadowfell. The warrior survived, but no healing magic that Harbek or others could produce would bring back her lost limb.

Torbera was welcomed back into the clan, her honor largely restored. She had fought alongside her clan and her country, and the clan took care of its own. Friendships and community bloomed, and with it further opportunity came. Harbek insisted that Mishka begin learning other skills of the trade, and sent her to Baldur's Gate, where she began working under the guidance of a gnome alchemist by the name of Elizabeth Gnolmes Hecktoheironimous "Hex" Halfsbottle. The two had been adventuring partners back in the day, and Harbek was sure that Hex could watch over his cousin. It didn't hurt that Hex was an agent of the Lord's AllianceAdventure Hook: Faction (Lord's Alliance), and had plenty of resources. All the gnome asked was that Mishka be willing to work on whatever needed done, no questions asked. When Mishka agreed, she thought that at least the tasks would be related to her work with magic and smithing. But just as often, she found herself driving cartsProficiency: Land Vehicles making deliveries inside and outside the city, and reporting back to Hex about what she saw and heard. Making this whole situation worse, Hex insisted on giving everyone a nickname, including Mishka. He called her "Misty" especially when she wasn't quite picking up on a concept quickly enough. "Feeling a little misty, Misty?" he would say. It was a miracle that the gnome had survived this long.

Still, she learned a lot from Hex. The gnome was an alchemist, working on conversion of metals-- in particular, trying to recreate processes that might convert steel into Mithral or Adamantine. His work involved foul-smelling concoctions of various sorts that he forced Mishka to help him in making and usingProficiency: Alchemist's Supplies. At least one major benefit of it all, though, was that Mishka learned to make a liquid metallic brew-- a thing that could be painted on to skin or a piece of metal. The stuff was particularly well-suited to channeling magical energy, and made an ideal substrate for her runic magic. She called it Argentum Alacritum, and began incorporating the stuff into her daily face painting for a particularly stunning reflective color.Just to be 100% clear, I am suggesting that this is something like quicksilver, i.e. mercury. In keeping with the grittier and somewhat hopeless theme, my intention is that later (perhaps middle-age or early old age), this absolutely comes back to bite Mishka as she becomes less mentally stable.

But in the meantime, I think it makes for a super fun and cool way to flavor her runic magic approach, and I've got some interesting spell descriptions I look forward to making.

It was in this position that the dwarf worked when news of Elturgard reached the city, and Hex said, "I've a new task for you, Misty..."

 

Adventure Hook:

Faction Agent (The Lords Alliance). Baldur’s Gate is part of the Lords Alliance and the disappearance of a major city in the area has attracted the notice of the faction’s operatives.

 

[mildly_competent]

Mishka Strakeln (Dwarven Artificer 1) | HP: 10/10 | AC: 14 | Passive Perception: 13

Active Effects: NA

Spells and Expendables

Expendable	Used	Total	Recharge
Magical Tinkering	0	3	NA
Comprehend Languages (no spell slot used)	0	1	Long Rest
Entangle (no spell slot used)	0	1	Long Rest
Spell Slots Lvl 1	0	2	Long Rest

 

Prepared Spells:

Level 1: Absorb Elements, Cure Wounds, Tasha's Caustic Brew, Comprehend Languages*, Entangle*.

*Do not count against prepared spells, as they are granted by my Rune Shaper feat.

---

"This is how I talk"

This is how I walk.

This is how I thoughlk.