I’m On My Way.

At the age of 20, while wandering the local woods, Clootie spotted a McToot clan who were passing by her village. Using her unique ability of trying-to-be-seen-but-somehow-blends-into-the-background, she managed to join the clan for a short time without being noticed.
Overhearing a story about a stolen Golden Kazoo, she took it upon herself to go in search of it and return it to the clan. Hoping that this would be her purpose in life and a way of being accepted by her birth clan (also being a McToot, she couldn’t resist the urge to say ‘Git it up ye!’ if successful), she returned to the village to say goodbye to her kind forest gnome keepers and set off on her adventure. The gnomes of her village wished her well, although confused by this story about a kazoo and wondering who the heck would put Clootie in charge of anything.
They gifted her a small branch from the main tree in the village. She was so touched by this moment of kindness, that she cried for 5 minutes straight and reconsidered going on this adventure. Fearing she wouldn’t leave they helped pack the rest of her belongings and walked her to the edge of the forest, waving her off. Since leaving the village, all Clootie related incidents and mishaps went down 100%.
Leaving home, and having no idea what she was going, she first found herself in Rakheen. An ancient human settlement, Rakheen is the only city of the old empires to survive the Sundering intact, making it the oldest inhabited settlement in the world. In addition to manufacture of fine textiles and trade with the Dwarven Mountainhomes beyond the Duergar Mountains, Rakheen is famous for its gladiatorial arena - The Sand Pits. Here Clootie spent time learning and honing her craft as a wrestler. She was often sent to fight in warm up comedy matches to entertain and amuse the audience before the true bloody spectacle began, but Clootie was naturally oblivious to this and to this day thinks she fought for her life every night - "It's real tae me dammit!!"
Unfortunately for Clootie once again she struggled to form any relationships while at the pits. Most people didn’t tend to take her seriously at first glance. Most of the world had never seen a McToot, never mind their unique style of fighting. She couldn’t find a place with the warm up guys, or the main event ones. Clootie had heard about backstage politics in wrestling but living it was another thing. Perhaps this wasn’t the place for her either.
After the end of her contract, aged 30, Clootie decided to embrace her new found freedom, and became a bard (Gonnagle to Clootie). Mixing her wrestling and gonnagle skills, travelling from tavern to tavern, she is a meddler in all instruments, but a master of none. Along they way she crafted herself a one gnome band suit, feeling that why play one instrument badly when you could play 5 badly all at the same time. She acquired management, curtesy of a fellow traveller, Ramas Nailo, completely unaware of his shady nature. So far in Clootie’s life he has been the closest thing to a friend she has ever had, although his main interest in her is using her as a distraction to steal coin while she is performing.
Most of the world, having never seen a gonnagle before, where completely transfixed when Clootie performed. Never had they seen someone play bagpipes and a kazoo at the same time, all the while super kicking the air. Somehow all that combined became something so awfully good that crowds couldn’t look away, often leaving the tavern wondering what the hell it was they had witnessed and why did their coin purse feel so light?
For some reason, Ramas never wanted to stay in the same area for long and they soon found themselves in a tavern in Phandalin where something was about to happen that would take their lives in a different direction.