Appearance

Physical Description

Small and rather weak, a craftsman gnome who relies more on his mind than his body.

Body Features

White streak in his hair, strange mark on his chest

Facial Features

Eyes will often twitch

Identifying Characteristics

Short, crazy look in his yellow eyes

Apparel & Accessories

Leather armor worn on top of regular clothing.

Mentality

Personal history

Kellen’s father, Glimbo, was a tutor for the human Noble Fuedos family, working for the family for several centuries. His mother, Nissa, was an herbalist who made healing potions, scents, and decorative effects. They had two children - a daughter, Ellywick and son, Kellen.  Glimbo was employed by the house of Viscount Fuedos; the Folkors lived on the premises.
 
 
Kellen was a prodigy with tinkering and did not formally apprentice with anyone.  His skill earned him the nickname CrazyFire the first time he had made Alchemist’s Fire at much too young an age to be making such concoctions.  Kellen did not seal it in time - so it was exposed to the air and caused significant damage to the shared workshop a few of the young Gnomes in the city set up. Due to his natural potential and personal experimentation, the Guild of the Crescent Vale accepted Kellen as a prodigy with the recommendation of Lord Fuedos.
 
 
One day while exploring the Fuedos household and looking for ingredients he could use in alchemy, he opened an old and unused shed which had a yellow glow shining out from it. Kellen was enticed in by inspiration a craftsman could only dream of, with thoughts of new inventions and alchemical creations filling his head.
On entering, Kellen discovered that Lord Fuedos was sacrificing one of the house servants - a Halfling girl named Kithri to try and gain favor with some eldritch abomination. 
Lord Fuedos caught Kellen and decided to use him to help cover up the girl's death. Lord Fuedos bound Kellen in a relic of his patron, a set of ancient chains rusted and covered in ooze and scraps of tattered yellow fabric.  The chains had previously caused any who were bound to go mad, cause a scene and invariably either kill themselves or get themselves killed by the guard.
 
 
 
Kellen’s mind was assaulted by knowledge no mortal should ever know and could never comprehend. Feeling the madness rush over him like a rowboat in a hurricane, he found his will was not strong enough to resist and that would only bring him further down. So instead, he tried to ride the waves of madness and knowledge. 
 
 
He awoke about an hour later, tired and sweaty, and not entirely sure what was going on, but felt drive to create. Using the ritual ingredients in the shed, he felt driven to create one of his old favorites, alchemist’s fire. In his condition, Kellen once again forgot his safety precautions and lit the shed on fire, Kithri’s body still inside. Self-preservation kicked in and Kellen ran outside, ranting and rambling on about the Noble Lord, a servant girl, a king in yellow, and speaking what seemed to everyone else as gibberish.
 
 
 
Eventually, Glimbo found Kellen and was able to help calm him down by giving him an old clockwork toy he used to play with as a child, a clockwork dragon. Glimbo spoke to Lord Fuedos and tried to figure something out. Fuedos saw something unusual in that Kellen was able to retain any sense of control, but realized he was too dangerous to keep around because he knew too much. So, an agreement was reached, Kellen would be banished from their Albatorium and would not truly be welcome in most of the Northern Star Empire, but in a way that his reputation would remain intact and he could maintain his standing with the Guild of the Crescent Vale. In exchange, the Folkor family would be bound to serve the Fuedos House. Glimbo is nearing the end of his natural life and would pass before the next century, but Ellywick would then take over as tutor for the Noble house soon and the clan of Gnomes would be available the next time the noble lord felt like experimenting with his eldritch patron’s power to see if it was a familial trait that allowed him to survive. Until taking over, when not studying and learning to take her father’s place, Ellywick is forced to be a servant for the noble family.  Unbeknownst to Kellen or his family, the reason he was able to ride that wave of power was because of his creative spark and artistic spirit - while corrupted that is what kept Kellen to some semblance of sanity.
 
 
 
 
 
Kellen left the city, spent some time in the Council of Wolves trying to practice his craft, but would still suffer from episodes of madness as well as feeling uneasy in the very controlled environment of the city.  Kellen split his time between the COW and the Crescent Vale's roaming workshops. 
Eventually while he was aboard one of the Guild's workshops, he’d had enough and just tried to ignore the madness and build something, something amazing. Almost blacking out while he was making it, Kellen seemed to draw on the eldritch knowledge and using his tinkering abilities created a clockwork orb that not only seemed to bring order to the chaos of his mind, it could withstand intense arcane power and focus it. 
 
Fidgeting with this orb would grant a short reprieve any time he felt the madness coming on, but he couldn’t put it off forever. He’d found he could now manifest bursts of power and create illusions by focusing through the orb as well as share his thoughts with others without speaking, many found this to be disconcerting and he hid the nature of his abilities - particularly in the COW.  Because of the relative peace that the clockwork orb would bring, Kellen began spending less and less time in the COW and when he did he would try his best to sneak in his clockwork orb.  He succeeded once, but the idea of trying again and potentially losing the Orb was too much to bear and after buying some supplies, decided to spend more time aboard the Guild's workshops.
 
 
Kellen was growing tired of the madness and just wanted to find some way to find a purpose and try to move forward with his life, so he moved all his crafting supplies, weapons and anything dangerous to his workshop, then locked himself in his quarters on the workshop. Using some incense he bought in the COW to help keep calm, he let the madness overtake him, but kept hold of the clockwork orb. He was able to use it as an anchor and guide himself in this alien mindscape that he realized was far more than just his own thoughts. After spending what felt like an eternity in this state, Kellen sought answers to control his mind.  While not recalling any details of what he experienced, Kellen awoke to find his mind unusually clear and a pseudodragon on the floor looking up at him looking much like a real version of the clockwork toy he loved as a child.
 
 
From this experience, Kellen also felt a new sense of purpose. He needed to gain power, power to kill Lord Fuedos, power to destroy the entirety of his noble house and free his family from their new chains – and he could only break their chains by using his own.
 
 
The familiar is a Fey spirit who was caught in the grasp of the Great Old One and trapped in Carcosa for millennia. After the first Find Familiar ritual was complete and Kellen pushed his madness into the Fey spirit, he asked what it was, the response was a surge of primal thoughts and madness, but as best as Kellen could put it into words, it said Great Young One, so he named the spirit GYO. Kellen misunderstood for the Fey was trying to explain what the cause of the madness was, that the goal of this eldritch entity which held them both was to experiment on Kellen and see just how far a mortal could be caused to ascend – though this project is merely something to amuse the Great Old One, something like training a small beast to perform tricks for food, while it may prove useful and could grow into something worthy of consideration, that is ages away. While humans have reached godhood, it's not been seen in any of other races, much less a strange little gnome.
 
 
 
The new desire to kill Lord Fuedos is a case of interests aligning. The Great Old One has grown tired of his frequent pestering, like an insect chittering just outside your window, Kellen has been tasked to remove the annoyance and stop those pointless rituals. He was driven to go to Scylla to gain the power he needs to accomplish this, for what is a few centuries for something older than time?

Education

Primarily self taught and educated by his parents as an artisan, he learned and practiced his skills with other Gnome and small folk children in the Northern Star Empire.  Later practicing alchemy and basic tinkering (as much as can be done without the use of metal) in the Council of Wolves, but had much greater avenues for experimentation on the Guild of the Crescent Vale's roaming workshop.

Employment

Dues paid member of the Artisan's guild, but most of his work comes as an adventurer.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Prodigy accepted into the artisan's guild very young and without an apprenticeship

Failures & Embarrassments

Cast out from the Fuedos household and his home in the Northern Star Empire Kellen has not seen his family in some time and his episode of madness caused his family to wind up in indentured service to the Fuedos House.

Mental Trauma

Forced into a ritual with his patron, Kellen's mind fractured under the pressure and is mostly able to keep himself sane via his connection to his Familiar

Intellectual Characteristics

Extremely smart and interested in power

Morality & Philosophy

Philosophically would support a lawful society and contribute where he could, focusing on his work and building a magnum opus, but life had other plans in store for Kellen. With a fractured mind and his family's situation hanging like a cloud over his head, Kellen is mostly interested in power, power to kill Lord Fuedos and kill his entire House.
 
In his current state, Kellen wouldn't consider the law to be anything more important than something which would be inconvenient if broken

Known Languages

Common
Gnomish
Dwarven

Personality

Motivation

To gain power and influence to kill the Lord Fuedos, destroy the Noble House of Fuedos and free his family.

Social

Birthplace

Northern Star Empire

Current Residence

White Gold Hot Springs

Contacts & Relations

Guild Artisan with the Guild of the Crescent Valley;
Glimbo, father;
Nissa, mother;
Ellywick, sister;
Lord Fuedos, sworn enemy;

Family Ties

Father and elder sister in indentured service to noble family

Religious Views

Finds comfort and use in rituals, but doesn't seek out spiritual endeavors out of fear he'd be rejected by the goddess for his pact.

Social Aptitude

A smooth talking skilled in persuasion, deception, and insight - but sometimes this excited little gnome talks too fast for his own good and case lose a crowd.

Mannerisms

Talks very fast, eye twitches, and will become aggressive if you get between him and his familiar.
 
Swears in gnomish, usually telepathically - much to the chagrin of his compatriots.

Hobbies & Pets

Familiar GYO serves as both familiar and a stabilizing force in my mental status. GYO contains the madness and eldritch knowledge that Kellen cannot.
 
Kellen is a tinkerer and craftsman at heart; while his mentality has been skewed towards war and revenge by his pact and the events leading up to it, crafting a new item is relaxing and enjoyable for him.

Speech

Speaks very fast and while he is charismatic, may often speak too fast for his words to land properly.
 
Speaks with a strange accent, partially due to the higher pitch of his small form, but also accounting for the merging of accents he heard during his upbringing. Raised by gnomes from the Council of Wolves but within a city in the Northern Star Empire means his speech is a strange collection of sounds and will sometimes shift.