Rajit Chishishi
Rajit Chishishi (a.k.a. Mutant Monster Master)
Background
Rajit was born to a poor family of Halfling tenant farmers in Wheatyfield, Caron and Gerza. The first few years of her life are hazy, but she recalls a simple hut, many siblings and thin, overworked parents. One particularly poor harvest left her parents in dire straits, with too many mouths to feed. They made a hard decision to give some children up, at 8 Rajit was one of their eldest, but also one of the weakest children and least use on the farm. Hoping she would find either a better life, or a suitor and her way into an early marriage in the next few years of her life. She was given up to Quinton Arnjaunor, a man heading an orphanage dedicated to Ilmater.
Rajit found herself among many siblings once again, but this time they were generally well fed. She was one of the older children, and one of the only children to come to the orphanage with living parents, a fact she felt great shame over. She was keenly aware of her 'cost' to her benefactors, and became fascinated with the concepts of money and cost. She watched as money transformed everything, money was given for transformation and used for transformation. It made life possible, it made love possible, and was the source of all things.
Rajit tried to help around the orphanage the best she could, tending to the animals and using her skills from her old farm life. Animals were so simple, if you feed them they love you. If you brush them, they love you. And then they create or transform into that which keeps you alive, to do it again. Love, life, and security. Her friendship with animals was a practical one, but deeply important to her.
Rajit was a quick study at the orphanage, excelling in the sciences. She became enamored with transmutation magic in general, the thread of transformation lead her to alchemy, and she formed her own understanding of many things. Alchemy was the way of nature, and money was the way of society. Both transformed things. Seeking the security she'd lacked ever since her birth, she practiced and developed her skills. Learning to transform and master magic, the elements and ultimately to master coin and social alchemy.
Reaching maturity Rajit sets forth to make a living. One of her loving animal companions not far behind. On her waist, a bandoleer of potions and a promise of change.
Appearance
Rajit is a thin and waifish 21 year old Stout Halfling female standing 2'10" and a mere 35 lbs. Blonde hair spills from an uneven and short messy pixie cut. Cloudy blue eyes with a fluorescent sheen stare plainly from behind any number of lenses, monocles, glasses, and goggles. Her gaunt features frame frail cheeks and thin lips. She often appears anemic and lacking color.
She is dressed in a heavy canvas laboratory coat covering a thick leather undercoat, with similarly made bracers, trousers, gloves and boots. A heavy woolen cloak wraps around her shoulders, the back of which is largely embroidered with a badge depicting a bundle of hyssop stalks with purple blooms bound in red twine.
On her waist is a bandoleer of small bottles, containing potions and tools, many of which she uses to perform magical or tactical effects. She carries a small crossbow, with strange copper loops running along the limbs. A metal canister is built into the frame, and connected by copper wires to the limbs.
Keywords Mad Science, Artificer, Alchemist, Glassblower, Potion, Experiment, Sickness
Major Themes Alchemy, Potions, Science, Transformations, Enhancements, High-Risk, Overdoing Things, Electricity, Fire
Goals I must become powerful enough to always be self sufficient in case I get abandoned again. **Ongoing.**
I want to find love and one day start a family; after the disaster my parents made when raising and abandoning me I know I can do better. Where are the bachelors? **Failing miserably.**
I want to raise Gilbert to truly be my peer. He deserves it.
I want to command an airship. I believe it will give me the freedom and influence.
Development Arc Rajit's development arc starts with her as a weak damsel in distress in the care of Gilbert, her gorilla companion. Over time Rajit develops her own strength through alchemical abilities. She takes this too far as she attempts to co-opt the power of demons and other risky sources by distilling their essence. Rajit's foray into bloodhunting puts her health at severe risk. As she becomes capable of holding her own she becomes less desperate and turns back towards general alchemical pursuits, never undoing her past but taking a more pure approach. Rajit's ultimate goal is to become a person she sees as worth of being loved and worthy of loving others. She goes to extreme lengths to do this, and doesn't believe anyone can love another without complete self sufficiency. This is rooted in her parent's abandonment of her as soon as times got difficult.
Personality Traits "I am always looking for more: Money, power or knowledge born from a life of having nothing.
I am very curious and interested in things only until I discern if they have potential, if not I discard them."
Ideals "Alchemy is the way to transform all things. I believe I can and should change myself and others for the better. (Good)
I don't care what it takes or what I have to use to accomplish my goals, whether it be demon-flesh or dangerous concoctions. (Chaotic)"
Bonds "Gilbert is my friend and closest companion.
I believe in others more than myself, I will empower my allies."
Flaws "I'm a sucker for a pretty face.
I have abandonment issues; my parents gave me away as a teenager. I am afraid of being alone."
Role they fill in a group Rajit is a backline fighter who unleashes withering firepower on foes from her mechanized hand crossbow. She offers some support to her allies through her alchemical creations which tend to focus on enhancement, healing and sometimes space control. Rajit is accompanied by her very tough companion, Gilbert the gorilla, who is a frontline defender. The two are capable of filling all group roles to an extent, and that transformative and combinatorial element to their playstyle is a hallmark of their adaptability.
OOC
What kind of games do you like? Rajit does best in situations where practical problems need solutions. Whether that is a big hole in a wall or a dragon, or the construction of an elaborate piece of machinery. Rajit has poor social skills and lacks subtlety, preferring to follow logical reasoning no matter the outcome. Rajit has questionable morals, and will often justify the cost for acquiring the means.
Rate the following 1-7, 1 being most
Storytelling 4
Problem Solving 5
Exploring 7
Acting 2
Instigating 6
Fighting 1
Optimizing 3
Species
Race Halfling
Subrace Stout Halfling
Clan or Subdivision Born of poor tenant farmers in the thorpe of Wheatyfields.
Alignment
Orderliness Rajit tends towards chaotic alignment. While she lacks deep eusocial ties and questions the operation of institutions of justice she believes in natural laws and thus sees the world through a sense of universalism. Despite this she believes that exceptional individuals can break their natural limits and transform themselves into something more. She believes that things that are too weak to survive are simply victims of the natural order.
Goodness Rajit tends towards good alignment. While Rajit believes in change and the power of transformation she uses it as a vehicle to make things better from her perspective. Earning money to live better, curing illnesses to live better, or even in her case being adopted and the resulting good. She tends to struggle with moral quandaries and prefers things be as clear as possible.
Locus of Motivation Rajit is intensively internally motivated. Rajit's drive for improvement is a sense of shame, worthlessness and her history of being discarded by her parents. Believing herself to be nothing but the dirt-poor child of dirt-poor farmers she is keenly interested in presenting herself as more. Nearly no one knows of these aspects of Rajit's history, but the shame still drives her to be anything but what she was.
Social Investment Rajit struggles with social groups. She is a very odd individual in many ways, a serious halfling, a multidisciplinary scientist who lacks exceptional depth in research or teaching, completely separated from her family and never quite holistically fitting in with her adoptive one. With few places to fit in she has often existed on the fringe of social groups, always watching and learning but rarely participating.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Health & Fitness Rajit is sickly and anemic looking. Her thin body is unusual given her stout halfling heritage and gives her a slight and weak presence. Her bones and veins are clearly defined through her pale skin. She appears malnourished to a trained eye, her body having missed key development milestones.
Abnormalities & Illnesses Rajit suffers from a number of physical abnormalities. She appears malnourished, small, thin, pale and anemic. Rajit has eyesight problems and wears a number of corrective lenses. Her self-experimentation has left her eyes with an almost oily fluorescent sheen that further inhibits her eyesight.
Body Features
Body Shape Rajit has an unremarkable figure. She has the hallmark hips of halfling women, but lacks the volume and shape of a healthy halfling woman. She has a short torso with modest breasts, a visible ribcage and a thin waist. Her posture tends to be straight backed and back-footed, as if she is always about to turn away from the conversation.
Body Features Rajit has fine blonde body hair, but seems to take care of her grooming through the use of strange lotions and tinctures. Despite being a halfling she appears to depillate her feet, perhaps in the interest of wearing closed footwear.
Facial Features
Facial Features Rajit's face is thin and has small and sharp features. Her cheekbones are prominent and her eyes are deep-set. Rajit has a small pointed nose and thin pink lips. Rajit has no piercings or jewelry.
Hairstyle Rajit wears her hair in a thin and uneven style that she keeps above jaw level. Her choice in hairstyle is one part laziness and the other part practicality as it keeps stray hair away from fire and chemicals.
Facial Hair Rajit has no facial hair.
Identifying Characteristics
Identifying Features Rajit can be identified by her oddly fluorescent blue eyes or her thin sickly body. She is generally physically unremarkable and unimpressive. Rajit has a wide variety of eye-wear that she swaps between at ease. They tend to stand out due to their unusual make and quantity.
Physical quirks
Physical Quirks Rajit is frequently confused for a gnome due to her thin build and her interests in traditionally gnomish fields. She is often frustrated by this as she is not a gnome, and she feels even further separated from both races when this occurs. Rajit doesn't like being categorized as she is not someone who fits in anywhere. Rajit is sickly looking. She is exceptionally thin for a Stout Halfling and despite being built on a foundation of earthy strength from her early life as a farmer's daughter it is clear she suffered from poor nutrition and stunted growth.
Special abilities
Talents Rajit's biggest talent is sheer persistence. She is willing to put herself through repetition and suffer through pain with gritted teeth to accomplish her goals. Her skills are typically built through practice and observation. She is tirelessly logical.
Physiological Rajit has no specific physiological abilities besides an innate toxic resistance due to being a stout halfling. This has likely saved her life on many occasions given her proclivity to work with dangerous and toxic chemicals.
Social Rajit has no social talents other than having learned how to work with animals on her childhood farm. Her small size makes her nonthreatening to beasts and she is capable of identifying their intentions through her skills as a ranger.
Spiritual Rajit has no spiritual talents. She believes herself to be beneath the notice of the gods.
Magical Rajit has some natural magic casting talents, generally acquired through hard repetitive work and study. She is only particularly talented in magics which effect transformations and changes, and is not particularly adept or skillful in illusion or social magics.
Apparel & Accessories
Style Rajit wears clothing that is highly practical and comfortable. The aesthetics tend to lag behind the purpose of the clothing. Rajit often dresses in layers and is able to add or remove them in order to help her deal with differing environmental temperatures as she is quite small and unable to quickly adapt to cold specifically.
Clothing Rajit wears a heavy white canvas labcoat layered with a blue leather inner coat Between the coats layers are sewn studded magnets which Rajit uses in some of her spells. Beneath this she wears a black silk shirt with a tie and a black silk skirt. Finally she wears a pair of thick heavy leather thigh high boots. Rajit keeps her thighs exposed to help regulate her body heat and also to have access to major arteries for injections.
Identifiers Rajit wears her Hawthorne badge on the lapel of her coat. The back panel of her coat bears the symbol of Hyssop Home.
Accessories Rajit has very few trinkets for decoration, though she has expensive tastes. She has ornately carved fasteners on her clothing that are well polished and taken care of. Additionally she wears clothes of fine black silk, and wears fine gloves as well as a necktie. Rajit has a surprising number of shoes for a halfling and seems to be dedicated to wearing them; if asked she will explain that foot protection is non-negotiable in the laboratory.
Casual Clothes Rajit tends toward baggy and warm clothes when dressed casually, and will pull her hair back into a messy bun. She finds comfort in heavy woolen pants and sweaters as well as slippers.
Specialized Equipment
Weapons Rajit wields a number of vials, bottles and ampules containing a wide variety of chemical weapons and enhancements. Rajit's primary armament is her copper-looped crossbow, a hand crossbow enhanced by a series of copper circuits which allows it to transfer electrical charge to her crossbow bolts. This crossbow contains a series of enhancements designed by Rajit to permit it to perform far beyond expected parameters.
Armor Rajit wears no armor and has no shield. She defends herself using charged magnetic fields which interrupt and deflect attackers as well as utilizing her chemically enhanced speed and small size to dodge attacks.
Tools Rajit carries alchemist's supplies with her in the field to generate her concoctions. Her coat is filled with pockets and panels to contain all of her tools and basic reagents. While Rajit is a capable glassblower she does not carry glassblowing tools into the field.
Special Items Rajit's favored items include her Quiver of Ehlonna, her vast collection of potions and her many lensed eyewear.
Spellcasting Focus Rajit uses a component pouch for her spellcasting, she always has the right reagent to get the reaction she needs. She contains volatile substances in bottles to deliver them to locations.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Full Backstory in Journals
Childhood Rajit spent her childhood on the Chishishi family farm, her family named after the closest possible reading of some squiggles her great grandfather had written on the deed. Rajit remembers little of this time but hunger, dirt, and dim-eyed crying siblings.
Teenager Rajit's teenage years saw her completing her schooling a few years behind normal development. Despite the delay she proved to be a talented study. She began to help around Hyssop Home, particularly in the creation of medicine and potions.
Adulthood Rajit's transformation truly began to blossom as a young adult. Her highly varied skill set reaching levels of expertise which have allowed her to function as a capable adventurer with the Hawthorne guild.
Gender Identity
Gender Identity Female, Doesn't Like Being Labeled
Sexuality
Sexuality Rajit is opportunistically hetero-flexible, typically viewing partners for what they can offer her and her lifestyle. Rajit has underdeveloped emotional awareness which makes romantic development and connection difficult.
Type Attracted To By Abilities: ++STR, +CHA, +CON, -WIS. She leans towards halflings for men only because it seems to make sense to her but for a female partner she is more open minded. If a partner can make her feel safe and push through her hostility she is likely to be attracted to them. In general she likes easy to control types who can solve problems directly, taking care of what she can’t in her small body further diminished by undernourishment and sickness.
Libido Rajit has a very high libido and is an obvious creep when observing those she finds attractive. Rajit's desire for touch and security expresses itself sexually as she lacks the self-awareness to separate her desire for companionship vs sexual partnership.
Promiscuity Rajit has very little practical experience but thinks about sex a lot, considering many individuals of all types as potential partners. Rajit is very picky outside of her fantasies however and frenetically clingy to anyone who gets past her defenses.
Education
Education Level Rajit started her education quite late, beginning at nearly nine years old, and was the first literate member of her family. She struggled with schooling initially, not understanding how the seemingly nonsensical exercises were any benefit but as she found practical use for mathematics and scientific skills she proved to be an above average student. Rajit would go on to complete her schooling and additionally learn some advanced alchemical and engineering techniques from a traveling artificer, Sentrid Vixx.
Notable Masters Rajit studied under Vifi Hovruda in Hyssop Home for her general education and later learned the basics of artificing and wizardry from Sentrid Vixx. Rajit has no particular relationship with either at this time.
Employment
Employment History Rajit worked on a farm in her early years, beginning chores as soon as she was independently capable. She spent many of her early years as an older sister watching for her younger siblings as she was not cut out for farm work. She has also worked in the clinic of Hyssop Home doing some basic work in crafting healing potions and kits.
Current Work Rajit is currently an adventurer with the Hawthorne Guild.
Side Jobs Rajit is also a capable alchemist and glassblower, though she rarely finds work in those fields. Adventurer and researcher working with the Bureau of Adventuring Services and Employment in Driftriver.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Accomplishments & Achievements Rajit’s greatest achievements include devising a medicine to save Gilbert’s life as well as developing her powerful mutagenic and alchemical formulae. Her greatest successes are often private secrets she keeps.
Greatest Memories Rajit's greatest memories revolve around earning her first real gold. Material independence and personal power gains define her greatest memories.
Failures & Embarrassments
Failures & Embarrassments Rajit sees herself as the product of her own upbringing and her ‘from dirt’ background. She doesn’t value herself particularly highly and is prone to taking risks. She has permanently damaged her health by following the path of a blood hunter. She doesn’t regret it at all.
Worst Memories The scariest moment in her life was realizing she either had to turn to the brothel or the orphanage. She chose the orphanage, not believing she’d even succeed at the brothel. Her pride has never recovered from this.
Mental Trauma
Mental Trauma Rajit has abandonment issues. She becomes very anxious and fearful when considering being alone or abandoned, being rejected. Rajit is aggressively independent but simultaneously very vulnerable and needy.
Phobias Rajit has no major phobias or madness.
Intellectual Characteristics
Intellectual Characteristics Rajit’s greatest strength is preparation. Gilbert and Rajit are capable of seeing almost any situation through with enough time and planning. Her practical intellect and gritty practicality make her a devastating battlefield force. Rajit does not know when to stop and frequently takes things way too far.
Confidence Rajit doesn’t hold herself in enough esteem. She is particularly down on her pedigree and her value as a romantic or family partner.
Morality & Philosophy
Philosophical views Rajit sees all as an exchange. A grim economy of have and have not and making every bit count. This is the law of nature and can not be violated. Because Rajit sees herself as being a low value individual she is quick to sacrifice or risk herself for payoffs and seeks power to protect what she gains.
Views on Religion Rajit sees faith in the gods as a clear example of exchange of services for power. Although she pays lip service to Ilmater due to her upbringing she sees it as paying dues and she has a generally agnostic view otherwise. Rajit holds a dismal view of Yondalla, believing her parents' worship was fruitless if not nearly fatal.
Views on Magic Rajit sees magic as a practical exchange of effort and skill for a result. Capable of casting many different styles of magic as well as creating potions she views both as tools.
Views on Society Rajit sees society as a case of ledgers and tabs. People are nice to each other as an investment, and she is happy to buy into this concept. She feels that she owes a number of social structures for saving her life, and she is generally willing to put the work into developing relationships and goodwill.
Taboos
Taboos Rajit views very little as taboo, only judging those who do not put effort into their lives and pursuits. Rajit breaks many taboos and fails to fit into social groups regularly.
Enemies Rajit is a significant enemy of the Githyanki having killed hundreds of their kind. She is also a hated enemy of the Hobgoblins of the savage frontier. Rajit is wanted as a criminal for her association to murderers in the Greenfields.
Racial Friction Rajit has a severe distrust for gityanki and hobgoblins.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Reason for Becoming an Adventurer Rajit saw others from Hyssop Home finding success in adventuring and the power of the money it brought. She began adventuring for gold and security.
Goals I must become powerful enough to always be self sufficient in case I get abandoned again. **Ongoing.**
I want to find love and one day start a family; after the disaster my parents made when raising and abandoning me I know I can do better. Where are the bachelors? **Failing miserably.**
I want to raise Gilbert to truly be my peer. He deserves it.
I want to command an airship. I believe it will give me the freedom and influence.
Positives, Ego Boosters Seeing her predictions come true. Acquiring interesting and rare specimens.
Negatives, Fears Being alone or abandoned, being rejected. Rajit is aggressively independent but simultaneously very vulnerable and needy.
Guarded Secrets It is a public secret that Rajit’s health is in part her fault due to her experiments. Her greatest secret is probably that her fierce independence is just a cover for her neediness.
Desired Objects or Knowledge Rajit hopes to develop a medicine to cure Gilbert and 'purify' their relationship. If Gilbert stays around after being cured it will show that their relationship is truly real.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Greatest Strengths Rajit's greatest strength is her adaptability and willingness to transform herself or her situation for the better.
Greatest Weaknesses Rajit's greatest weakness is that her low self-esteem can cause her to doubt herself, causing her to not execute her plans.
Natural Ineptitudes Rajit is naturally weak and lacks stamina. She is not fit for manual labor or hard physical work.
Likes & Dislikes
Favorite Color Blue-Grey
Favorite Foods, Flavors Grilled cheese sandwich with the lightest wheat bread, introduced to her by her artificer master Sentrid Vixx
Treasured Items Rajit treasured her gift from Quinton, a headband of intellect as she feels it makes up for her inadequacies. Rajit also treasures her handcrafted custom hand crossbow. She forms few sentimental bonds and sees most objects as tools to be used.
Other Favored Things Rajit maintains a notebook with her research information in it. The information is almost nonsensical to others, but she sees it as a critical reference resource.
Dislikes and Hates Rajit dislikes wearing earth tones as they remind her of earth and soil.She hates black bread due to her diet as a child.
Virtues & Personality perks
Virtues Rajit is focused and disciplined. She is generally helpful and cooperative.
Perks Rajit possesses no station or title which would merit her any particular goodwill or benefit.
Vices & Personality flaws
Vices Rajit abuses performance enhancing substances regularly. While Rajit's existence is built on a certain level of talent she performs far beyond her means thanks to her mutagens, potions and equipment and most of all her companion, Gilbert. She sees these things as an extension of herself and does not see the crutch they form in holding her up.
Flaws Rajit lacks the awareness to identify when she is taking things too far; things that are logically good should be taken to the extreme while obviously bad things should be exterminated. She suffers with moderation in both her professional and social life.
Personality Quirks
Ticks & Quirks Rajit is known to grit her teeth frequently. She often makes obvious and clear faces as she is not aware of her facial composure.
Comfort Items Rajit has no sentimental attachments to items in general.
Hygiene
Hygiene & Grooming Rajit is fastidiously clean, in part due to working with dangerous materials and in part due to wanting to avoid associations with earth and soil. Rajit rejects some components of her natural body, being particularly self-conscious of her feet. Despite being a halfling she has removed the hair from her feet, as well as from her legs. She seems to enjoy the feel of silk on her skin.
Vanity & Modesty Rajit makes an effort to maintain a clean and practical appearance. While not motivated from a sense of vanity or superiority she is keen on establishing herself as being of a minimum quality in presentation in capability. Rajit is modest in that her low self-esteem discourages vanity.
Tolerances Rajit is judgmental and uncomfortable around the poor and those who farm for a living. She is otherwise non judgmental, knowing that looking good matters little when starving.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Birth Situation Rajit was the first born daughter of Caron and Gerza. Her parents learned a lot while raising Rajit, but they were never capable parents.
Birth City Wheatyfields, a small thorpe that previously existed two days southwest of Lerwick along the forest border in the savage frontier. It has been burned down by fiends.
City Size and Character Wheatyfields was a small farming city that was populated by mostly poor farmers barely scraping by on the savage frontier. Always at risk by attack from hobgoblins and other dangers if they grew too prosperous many families were subsistence farmers, including Rajit's family. Rajit developed some animal handling and farming skills while working on the farm as a child.
Influence on Background Rajit's dirt poor upbringing influenced her outlook on philosophy and life. Rajit's background as a scientist manifested far later in her life after spending time under her master, Sentrid Vixx.
How did you become a ‘’insert class’’ Rajit’s upbringing was deeply natural, her nearness to farm animals and work in the fields made her naturally inclined. Her experimental and curiosity taught her a great deal when mired in the practical realism of farming. The concept of using everything was one deeply entrenched in her family values and as such her delving into uses for monster components and her own insecurity over her weakness lead down the path of mutant blood hunting. Ultimately though the her interests turned towards the idea of combination as the true source of transformation and she continued the path of the Ranger.
Current Residence Hyssop Home, City of Driftriver
Goal Residence Rajit would like to own an airship and live within it, the ultimate freedom and independence.
Caretakers First 8 Years: Caron and Gerza, mother and father respectively. Afterwards: Bound Hands Orphanage.
Wards Rajit has no wards or dependents.
Role-Model or Past Hero Her previous master, Sentrid Vixx who convinced her that any transformation was possible.
Rival or Enemy Rajit has no particular rivals or enemies.
Friends Pahhu Kilaniu is Rajit's roommate. Fhahana Norsys is a coworker and friend within Hyssop Home.
Major Allies Rajit has no major allies other than Hyssop Home.
Family Ties
Parents, Siblings and Details Mother and father, Caron and Gerza were poor farmers. She is aware of seven other siblings, there may be more. Rajit was the first child and was expected to care for many of them.
Relationship with Family Rajit is estranged from her family, not even sure how many siblings she has had or how many are still alive. She prefers not to think about it.
Family Goals Rajit seeks a steady partner and a relationship. She is open to having kids, in part just to prove she can raise them right and even further distance herself from her parents. She would prefer to join an established family since she none of her own.
Religious Views
Family Spirituality Rajit's biological family were worshippers of Yondalla. Rajit thinks that worship did very little for them, and their sacrifices only set the family back even further. Rajit struggles to take the Halfling pantheon seriously as a result. Her adoptive family were followers of Ilmater, to whom Rajit is thankful and offers basic prayers.
Spiritual Beliefs Rajit is a casual believer in Ilmater; at least in so much as the good brought about by Ilmater's agents and priests. She credits gods only with what is done with their name, rarely seeing evidence of their direct work in life.
Spiritual Enemies Rajit has no spiritual enemies but has a disgruntled view of Yondalla.
Social Aptitude
Personality Type INTJ
Action Profile Rajit is highly independently and intrinsically motivated to take action. She will argue to make her case and will quickly abandon those who disagree, even to the detriment of the team. She is also quick to hide weakness and will leave situations which may cause her to bring harm to allies. She is typically quick to think and quick to act.
Introvert or Extrovert Rajit is an introvert despite being almost always accompanied by her companion, Gilbert. Rajit does not enjoy talking if it isn't about solving problems or discussing things relating to her interest.
Avoidant or Direct Rajit is direct in all things she has direct interest in. For things she finds negative, unenjoyable or incorrect she simply does not interact in any way. She takes this same attitude with people, frequently making no connection with others.
Mannerisms
Mannerisms Rajit grits her teeth frequently. Rajit frequently overemotes and makes exaggerated facial expressions out of a lack of social awareness.
Etiquette Rajit speaks clearly and directly but with minimal care for titles or honors. She tends to treat all equally with the same minimal level of respect and politeness. Rajit is rarely rude, and does not get heated or speak down or insultingly towards others.
Hobbies & Pets
Hobbies Rajit's hobbies and her work tend to blur together. Her projects and ongoing experiments and development are major projects for her, and she deeply enjoys scientific activity.
Profession if not Adventurer Rajit would likely have stayed in Hyssop Home helping Fhahana with the herbalist work, brewing potions and making medicines for sell outside of the home.
Speech
Speech Rajit speaks with matter of fact sentences based on logical structures. She often speaks impersonally and in hypotheticals or in theories, focusing instead on the why than the how.
Accent Rajit speaks with a very neutral accent in most of her languages. She avoids speaking in Halfling whenever possible because she speaks in an incredibly thick country accent that embarrasses her and exposes her upbringing.
Wealth & Financial state
Lifestyle Rajit lives quite comfortably, not sparing expenses when it comes to things she wants. She tends to spend a lot of money on materials for her projects and doesn't bat an eye to acquire quality goods. She lives in this way to separate herself from her earlier life of poverty.
Values Rajit values knowledge, options, high quality things and high quality people. She values honesty and straightforward communication and planning ahead.
Mad scientist and alchemist extraordinaire willing to get results no matter the cost. Combined with her lab assistant the chemically enhanced gorilla Gilbert she is a force to be reckoned with.
Current Location
Hyssop Home, City of Driftriver
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Titles Mutant Monster Master
Story Awards & Renown Rajit has no major story awards or involvement in any campaigns.
Infamy & Criminal Record Rajit is a hated criminal wanted by the Githyanki for the humiliating defeats the easy-to-underestimate halfling has delivered to some of their best trained warriors. Rajit is a convicted criminal in the city of Lerwick for being involved in the murder of an innocent in Greenfields; her involvement was only through association and she is the one who reported the crime. Rajit is wanted for questioning regarding the murder in Greenfields.
Date of Birth
14 Hammer, 1474 DR
Children
Gender
Female
Eyes
Cloudy Blue
Hair
Blonde
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale
Height
2'10"
Weight
35 lbs
Quotes & Catchphrases
Quotes "The shakes will stop soon. It's not toxic, you're just in shock. Walk it off."
Catchphrases Rajit is known to have an impressive and squeaky cackle when she executes one of her madcap plans.
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Rajit: Level 20: Nature's Mysteries
Rajit hated the thick gloves; they made her hands sweat and no matter how good the tailoring was they never quite seemed to fit her small hands correctly. There was something to be said about the dexterity of your own hands when it came to delicate work, but the voltage involved in this experiment was something she needed to be careful with. She tugged the gloves down as tightly as she could pull them and slotted a freshly sharpened scalpel into a wooden handle; another necessary trade-off of fine control for safety. Not long ago she wouldn’t have bothered with personal protective equipment, but…
Rajit grit her teeth and shrugged the thoughts off. She’d done enough harm to herself already; more than enough that she couldn’t blame anyone else for the way her life had gone at this point. She also had received more help from others than she’d really given herself as well, so she couldn’t really claim credit for how well it was going either. The halfling swivelled at her workbench, turning towards a heavy glass jar full of murky yellow liquid with an unidentified lump inside of it. The lump was fleshy and blue, with odd tendrils floating loosely in the liquid. It was the pizoelectric organ of a Behir, along with the whiskers which adorned their face.
“Creature was likely an ambush predator. Electric effect perhaps used to incapacitate prey. Cooperative effect with powerful jaw muscles; compression appears to discharge sudden high voltage current along mouth and across whiskers. Whiskers possibly acting as additional contact points or for closing the circuit.” Rajit mouthed the words as she wrote them in her book of Nature’s Mysteries. The book had come a long ways from her first adventures, with the first scribblings and notes being about bugbear jaws. She couldn’t even remember what she thought she’d do with that knowledge. But this Behir organ she had plans for before the previous owner had even hit the dirt. She wasn’t sure if that meant she was really better off.
“Creature was huge in size. Generating equivalent compressive force will be impossible if not incredibly dangerous without proper outlet.” Rajit set the pen down and turned to the jar. The entire organ was far too much to work with, but a piece of it might do the trick after all. With a squeak the lid of the jar twisted underneath her gloved hands. Rajit felt the familiar tickle of the hairs on the back of her neck rising as the familiar tension of static filled the air. With a thud she set the lid of the jar down, and then reached into the jar.
...
“First trials unsuccessful… Theory appears to be incorrect regarding pizoelectric properties.” Rajit grit her teeth. The organ was quickly being chopped up and ruined. The flesh was soft and rubbery, and barely produced a charged when she crushed it down. Had the creature been inherently magical, perhaps some kind of elemental? “Think… The creature had everything you’d expect, a long body, ambush capabilities and a dangerous bite. The discharge was local to the mouth and this organ was the only thing there, it just opened its mouth and…Ah.” She’d made a rookie mistake. There are two parts to every bite, the opening and the closing. The tissue didn’t respond to compression it responded to extension; that is why it was soft and stretchy. A quick stretching of the tissue proved the point as static sparks popped along the flesh almost as if she were separating freshly dried cloth.
...
“Preserved tissue interweave has been installed along crossbow limbs. Extension provided by normal crossbow cocking capable of activating tissue. Preservation improved the rubbery qualities of the tissue, and imparted on it a suede like texture. Total electrical conductivity decreased after drying, but the output was beyond safe levels initially regardless. Whiskers have been directly incorporated into bowstring to conduct electrical current into bolts. Projected voltage between the combined systems expected to be slightly above twice of current output using Vrock-copper plating.” Rajit’s writing had begun get smaller and more cramped along the edges of her notebook. She was running out of pages. It would be time for a new one soon, or at least new pages would need to be added.
…
“Trials were successful. Output increased slightly less than expected, only a doubling of power output.” Rajit capped her pen and glanced over at the crossbow she’d mostly built herself. It was a one of a kind thing at this point; originally just a simple wooden frame with a bit of cheap steel it was now a complex device built out of exotic materials, monstrous components and a lot of stubborn halfling elbow grease. “You and I have a lot in common, huh?” She spoke as she patted the crossbow.
“Both started as something small, you might even call us crude. Had our guts fiddled with, learned to borrow from others and came out the other side looking like something else entirely…” Rajit smirked at her own sentimentality. In the end things hadn’t gone how she’d imagined, and even now she wasn’t completely sure she was a different person. If you stripped her down of the things she had now, and the people she had around her, wouldn’t she still be that small insignificant unwanted girl she’d started as? If you stripped off all of the fancy metallurgy, wiring and batteries from the crossbow would it go back to being just a pile of sticks?
In the end it was never a story about turning lead into gold. The idea of spontaneous transformation wasn’t a true one; it was just a misleading illusion. That the dirt of the fields her parents had tilled would one day become bread was completely reliant on a journey. A time to come together with water, sunlight, air, a mill, a baker’s oven and any number of other steps in between. Things change because they combine, they come together, they shape each other. Rajit had been fortunate in who she had been shaped by, and even more fortunate in learning the lessons she had taken from it.
Rajit has reached the pinnacle of her power, and has reached level 20 and taking her 15th level in Beast Conclave Revised Ranger. She has become a master in battlefield combinations, capable of reacting and triggering her allies to great great results through her deep understanding of alchemy and change. She still struggles at building meaningful social connections and often finds herself lonely, but she will always have Gilbert and her family. Her adventures carry on, but Rajit is now at peace with who she is, and has realized her full potential.
Rajit: Level 19: Stained
There was a different appreciation that went into the work that you did than the work you observed. Rajit’s part in the Trihedral wasn’t particularly complicated, nor was it particularly difficult for someone with her meticulous stubbornness: she made glass of the same thickness and color. She then tapped scoring lines into it using labeled paper patterns which indicated the color, all produced by the artistically inclined who knew the bigger design. Rajit’s small hands would tap away at the chisel with just the right angle and force to permit a clean break at the end when the excess was snapped off, before melting it down for recycling and starting over. In the end she was left with a bunch of colored bits and pieces to which she’d affix the paper pattern with a bit of glue and send it back to the artisans doing the framework.
Rajit would see the panes slowly come together, suspended across multiple workbenches with great care. It didn’t make a lot of sense to her at first, like a jigsaw puzzle without the final result clear, but the work wasn’t hard to do, and she was learning quite a bit about working glass in with a number of chemicals. The results would likely prove useful in the lab in the future anyway, so she just kept at it, trusting the others would know what they were doing. Sometimes an alchemist had to trust in the power of combination, or cooperation in this case.
The day the first window was polished and lifted to the light was one that Rajit happened to be present for almost by luck. As the members of Hyssop Home began to hoist the stained glass pane vertically and the sun began to trickle through the vivid colors, Rajit suddenly felt very small. Not even 3 feet tall she stood in the lengthy painted shadow of this nearly 30 foot tall work of art. Unconsciously she took a step back as if the looming giant would tilt and fall over onto her, but it stood, held steady by the ropes, gently swiveling as it settled. “Oh…” She uttered as she settled back on her feet.
“You made that, my child.” Quinton spoke from her side as he walked up behind her. “A job well done.”
“I didn’t make that, I just made pieces of glass. I didn’t even know it would look like that! Besides how many other people worked on the leading and the design and…” Rajit sputtered, suddenly incredibly self conscious of looming glasswork.
“It is often thus, my child. We all can see but the small pieces we ourselves have wrought with our own hands. Oft times we are not even sure of their purpose. In that way we learn faith. You believed in the purpose of the glass, otherwise why would you have made it?” Quinton uncharacteristically smiled down at the top of Rajit’s head, the young woman still not having looked away from the window.
“I… well, I believed in you. You said we needed it, and well, I thought I’d learn something from it.” Rajit turned to look up at Quinton, gritting her teeth as she is wont to do when thinking too hard.
Quinton nodded and smiled. “I hope you did learn many things, my child.” Quinton turned to the watch the pane as it was being carefully lowered back onto the workbenches, the test-hoist having been a success. “Imna and I believe. We believe that each of the children, each possessed of different color, and of different shape, will one day be as the glass you’ve worked, a part of a greater whole. Just as you knew not how this pane would be, none but the gods may know what pattern our lives will join. We pray for their benevolence, and for the chance to grant even the oddest shaped and most unusual colors of personality a place.” Quinton clasped his hands before him, the red cords of Ilmater dangling, and Rajit followed suit in reflex mimicking the gesture.
“This is just the first right?” Rajit asked, turning back to the window. “There’s still so much glass left to cut…”
Quinton began to walk forward, towards the workers, but spoke over his shoulder to the blonde halfling. “There is always more work, my child.” With a thin smile he turned back and approached the workbenches, to discuss the stonework needed to mount the pane permanently.
Rajit walked back to her glass workshop absentmindedly, considering what she had seen. The image laid into the stained glass window was that of Saint Natan of Tethyr, a long dead paladin of Ilmater who had given his life fighting off three wereboars to protect this newborn child. His dying wish had been for a temple of Ilmater to be built in his name, which had become a famous orphanage and monastery. The man had given his life for another, and he had wished only that others like his child come to no harm. Rajit could see the simple logic of illuminating the figure in glass, even though she thought he had not been a man of great prowess or accomplishment. Perhaps his idea though had been something greater? While his life had accomplished no great deeds, what others had done in his name had been profound. To an alchemist the spark may be of little substance when compared to the reagents, but it was certainly critical.
Rajit ran her hand through a bag of clean sand, the grains running through her small fingers. Sand was a simple stuff; practically dirt even. With the right heat and refinement though it became something greater, something pure. She let the last grains slip from her hand before gently gliding her hands across a plane of violet glass, likely to be chipped into blooms for hyssop flowers, she imagined. If sand were dirt, then glass may as well be rocks, and simple shards may as well be pebbles. But she knew that this was something different; this glass was the bloom of a flower. A flower that meant something greater, because others had given flowers ‘a language’ just as much as that flower also had medicinal properties she was intimately familiar with.
Value was a funny thing. She had always been keenly aware of her value since growing up dirt poor with her tenement farming family. She may as well have been dirt, with how quickly she was swept from home by her parents, at such an early age. Too many mouths, they had said. They had hoped she’d find her own way, and they sent her on her way. Alone. She had been dirt.
The last few years she’d thought that the only way to be anything better was to ‘transform.’ To find the magical method by which she could transmute herself from the humble life and person she was to something great, a familiar concept to any burgeoning alchemist. She had tried to turn lead to gold. Maybe she’d really just been like this sand though, the dirt of her upbringing burning away in a crucible, trying to make gold when really all she would have ended up was glass. Empty, colorless glass at that…
Rajit grit her teeth as she thought about it. It took manganese and cobalt to get this particular shade of violet for the glass, something she had learned through trial and error and many many test batches. Rajit looked at her hands, the her blue veins clear through her pale skin and her thin bony hands. How many ‘test batches’ had she tried on herself to see what would have worked? What color was she stained inside?
Rajit thought back to Quinton’s words and exhaled sharply through her nose. “No matter what color and shape they’re in, huh? I guess what really matters is what pattern I’m a part of… and trusting in someone who can see that?” Rajit glanced skyward as she really considered her faith critically. Her faith in Ilmater had been something borne of desperation and at the worst of times had been something that was lip service at best. Despite it all things had gone better for her this way, despite all the suffering she had endured. An inside joke she shared with Ilmater.
Alchemy wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t the only way to learn. It had taught her that transformation has limits, and that combination could lead to truly amazing things as well. Her teamwork with Gilbert, and with the other adventurers in the field had shown her that. Perhaps it was time to let others in a bit closer; maybe it was time to admit she didn’t have all the answers and she may never figure them all out. In the end there might be someone looking out for her and helping her find a place to fit in after all. For the first time in a long while Rajit felt less lonely.
Rajit sighed to herself as she turned to look back at the sand. “You know, I would’ve liked to have been ‘gold’ just once. See how it feels to be pretty and wanted.” She sunk a wooden scoop into the sand and lifted it, carrying it towards the furnace. “But I guess in the right light dirt can have a charm all of its own.” Rajit grinned as she thought of the beautiful shades of painted shadows cascading through the stained glass.
***Rajit reaches level 19, taking her 14th level in Beast Conclave Revised Ranger. Her continued work with glass has given her greater insight into optics, and she has developed the ability to be overlooked more easily in the midst of combat gaining the Vanish feature. Her faith has been deepened by her work on Hyssop Home and she has continued to distance herself from self-destructive behaviors in an effort to transform herself.***
Rajit: Level 16-18: Something from Nothing
(For those following the character, a lot has happened. Rajit has moved to a different DnD community with different rules, having joined Driftriver. Rajit no longer has any levels in Artificer Wizard. Rajit is now 13 Revised Ranger Beast Conclave + 5 Mutant Blood Hunter. She will end her build as 15/5. In the shuffle Rajit has gained the Healer feat, practicing what she learned from working in Hyssop Home’s pharmacy.)
The past few months had gotten out of hand. The war in New Nivix had been grueling to a point beyond any level of exhaustion she had ever previously known. It took everything out of her to make it out of the situation alive, and even then she had felt powerless in the great airship battles that took place. Airships! What a fascinating use of technology those had proven to be! The culmination of thousands of precise and willful applications of skill and manufactory. The influence the airships had exerted in the war was inestimable; it wouldn’t be false to say they had been the most influential part of the war. What greater freedom and power could there be than to go where you wished and hold all of that influence?
After returning to Lerwick Rajit began to try to gather information on airships, but there was little knowledge in the Savage Frontier. Her frustrations grew and grew, but her infatuation grew alongside it. Her studies of wizardry and transmutation began to fall behind as she studied the concepts of engineering and the mechanics of flight. An airship was a complicated thing; even worse it was a complicated thing that required a crew. While she knew that Gilbert would do as much as he could as her first mate she would also need to recruit, train and build rapport with a whole crew. The people part would surely be harder than the engineering… She’d need to sleep on it.
The sound of crashing waves overwhelmed Rajit in her dreams. The biting cold of a wintry river soon stung her limbs, and she was shocked awake by something far too real to be a dream. She sputtered as she broke the surface, sputtering as she spit out a mouthful of water.
“Fresh water? A river, or maybe a lake?” Her mind raced as she tried to recall how she’d gotten here.
Somehow she had been transported into the scene of a shipwreck at night, a heavy mist rolling over choppy dark waters. A deep red light pulsed through the mist at regular intervals, giving her visions of shadows in the surroundings, but not enough information to determine where she was or how she had gotten here. The canvas sail of a ship was a few meters away, flat along the surface of the water, but quickly being soaked through and crested over by the chaotic waves.
“Where there’s a sail there’s a boat, I’ve got to grab onto something before I freeze to death in this.” Rajit grit her chattering teeth and remembering her last time tossed overboard she patted at her coat, relieved to find that she seemingly had most of her equipment with her. She pulled a syringe from a coat pocket and jabbed it into her thigh. Instantly she felt a warmth spreading up and through her as the stimulant kicked in. She clumsily paddled her way to the sail, and pulled herself along it until she found the toppled and splintered mast of the ship; hopefully the rest of the ship was still afloat. Rajit crawled along the mast and soon pulled herself out of the water, pulling a small vial from her bandolier she shook her head and blinked a few times as her potion took effect. The darkness began to slip away as her darkvision kicked in. The ship carried a number of humanoid crew seemingly under assault by odd sea creatures.
Rajit did the math quickly; she didn’t know this crew but she did know that this boat was her life raft in this situation. Identifying these slimy sea creatures were would have to wait for a post-mortem. She reached to her hip, relieved to find her crossbow. She shook any lingering wetness from it and tightened the canister, activating the cell. She could feel the responsive hum as the components gained a charge. Grabbing the ratchet she cranked back the string and listened as it clicked into firing position; she kept turning, overdrawing her crossbow until it reached the second click. Pulling a bolt from her quiver she dropped it into the groove; the copper bolt sparking as the crossbow began to dump charge into it. With a single hand she aimed at the nearest slime-coated assailant and fired. The shot slid off the groove of the crossbow, shedding sparks in a neon-blue arc as it flew into the target’s torso, a brilliant flash bursting as the bolt discharged into the target.
Climbing up the side of the boat on the other side Gilbert leaped onto the deck of the ship. Grabbing a fish-faced creature he flung it overboard, preventing it from finishing off a wounded crewman. Rajit felt instant relief as she saw her companion; but it soon became apparent that the two of them weren’t the only ones fighting to protect this shipwreck-in-progress. There were some familiar faces; and some not so familiar ones. People wearing styles of clothes or speaking with accents she’d never encountered.
As the battle raged another ship soon approached, offering an escape for many. One of the other unknown fighters had also conjured a number of giant sea horses to offer egress from the sinking vessel. All that stood between them and dry land was a massive multi-headed Hydra…
... Rajit cursed her luck as the Hydra began to sank beneath the choppy water. There was little chance of getting a sample given the circumstances. “Yeah, to hell with that thing! I’m with you lil’ missy!” One of the sailors nodded to Rajit, a look of relief and joy on his face. “And I mean that. Really. I’m with you, got it? They’re going to ask when we get to the docks.” The sailor patted Rajit on the shoulder giving her the distinct impression of possessiveness. “Uhm, is the gorilla with you too? I wonder if I’ll get paid for two…”
“Gilbert is with me. What are you even talking about? Did you bring me here?” Rajit turned her blue eyes towards the sailor seriously for the first time, trying to determine if the man was a spellcaster of some great power. “Oh goodness gracious darling, I could never. I’m just a riverhound, we pick up folks like you who get pulled in through the Mistrises. This is Driftriver. The welcome wagon will explain everything.” Rajit stared at the man blankly, whatever answers she wanted she guessed he wouldn’t have. Besides, the stimulants were wearing off and she could feel the adrenaline flushing out of her body. The cold began to sink into her bones, and she felt her teeth began to chatter. She’d never heard of Driftriver.
Rajit soon learned why she’d been ‘claimed’ by the sailor. It seems the fellow was paid for dredging people like her out of the water. She grit her teeth as she considered the fact that she’d just been commoditized by this group that called themselves “base.” And base they certainly were if they thought they were going to get away with selling folks… They didn’t seem directly hostile, instead focusing on process and paperwork. They were very similar looking, as a number of young women with identical charcoal uniforms with blue trim bustled about without speaking a single word to each other… A telepathic bond perhaps?
One of the women, with green eyes and plaited blonde hair approached with two mugs of hot tea. She offered one to Rajit, and then the other to Gilbert, a surprising act of hospitality. “Hello! You’re Rajit, right? And this is Gilbert?” Rajit took the mug and tried to get a read on the woman, but her look was inscrutable. Rajit began to hope this wasn’t going to be anything like her last run-in with the law. “Yeah, that would be us.”
“Lovely. Well first things first, this is 1493 DR.” The woman watched Rajit with an expectant look, waiting to see if there was any response. “Uhh, yeah?” Rajit looked quizzically back at the woman, unsure of why she felt the need to state the date. “Wonderful, no travel through time or from another sphere.” The woman efficiently checked a few boxes on the paperwork and drew a line through multiple pages, seemingly made unnecessary by this convenient fact. Rajit sipped the tea as she watched the pages fly by. “Well if you didn’t know that, then you didn’t summon me here on purpose did you?”
The woman didn’t stop moving her hands as she lifted her eyes towards Rajit. “Oh goodness, no. The river calls whoever it wants. We just try to make sure folks are recorded and try to make sense of it and find any patterns.” The woman flipped to the next page. “Cotemporal and coplanar then.” Two checks were scratched into the form. “What was your last place of residence?” Her green eyes watched Rajit placidly again. “You mean current place of residence? Hyssop Home, city of Lerwick, on the Savage Frontier.” A few quick scratches on paper. “Lerwick again, how unusual. We’ve had others from there arriving recently. Please hold this for a moment. It is a divining chit.” The blonde woman offered a small rectangular bit of metal, polished to a nearly mirror finish. It was difficult to tell what it was made of.
“Uh, sure.” Rajit took the metal chit between thumb and forefinger, and tried to move it in the light to see through the finish. “It’s like a thermometer, it will just take a minute. I have a few more questions, though.” The remaining questions were fairly basic questions, any spellcasting ability, any unusual skills or knowledge, special training and the like. As she answered the chit in her hand began to change like a mood ring, finally settling on a silvery-white with hints of green shining through. The blonde woman looked at the chit and wrote a few more things onto her form. “Mithral rank, nearly adamantine. Impressive. The higher-ups will want to speak with you. Please, take a look at these pamphlets.” The woman exchanged a pamphlet titled ‘Living in Driftriver’ and ‘Working with B.A.S.E.’ to Rajit, and retrieved the chit which instantly returned to its nondescript sheen. She paused, holding the chit then turned to Gilbert and offered him the strip of metal. “If you would, sir?” Gilbert hooted in agreement to the polite lady and took the chit and held onto it as well.
The pamphlets detailed the history of the city, explained the power of the magic in the river, and touted the many benefits of living in the city of Driftriver. The other pamphlet detailed lucrative employment opportunities working with B.A.S.E. as well as explaining the access to their unusual enchantment technology built on a magical substance called Drops. The pamphlets made for easy reading as Rajit sipped her tea.
“Ah, the same as her then. Truly incredible.” Rajit looked up to find the chit had settled on the same shade for Gilbert and had been handed over. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions as well?” Gilbert hooted in agreement, and the woman called over a spellcaster to weave a telepathic bond over the two of them, conducting Gilbert’s interview telepathically.
Eventually the paperwork came to an end and the two were ushered by a pair of young men in the charcoal uniforms to a fairly luxurious hotel in a nearby district that the signage labeled ‘Octavia Walk.’ “We’ll ask you to stay with us tonight if you would oblige us. We understand you may wish to return home, and if that is the case we will help arrange transport tomorrow morning. A member of the bureau will be by around 10 AM. We hope you find the arrangements comfortable.” The two men gave a short bow and then turned back into the evening gloom of the misty night.
Comfortable was an understatement for the hotel room. Sumptuous food and drink had been laid out, a steaming bath was drawn and comfortable cloth robes were laid out in their sizes. “Well, commoditizing people or not you can’t knock their hospitality… Let’s take it easy tonight and see about getting home tomorrow, big guy.” Gilbert grunted in acknowledgement as he picked up a bottle of wine. He pulled the cork out with his teeth and then sniffed it appreciatively. The two were soon asleep, this time not slipping into a far flung freezing river.
The next few days had proven fairly interesting. A number of recruiters began an intense effort to convince Rajit to stay within the city, offering her incredibly awards for potential service. The negotiations were very much at a standstill until the recruiters happened onto an unlikely avenue of plying the halfling. “Of course potions brewed with Drops are capable of reconstituting after use. We weave the magic into the bottle itself and it is capable of regenerating on return to the city and proximity to the river.” Rajit slapped her small hand onto the table at hearing this. “That’s impossible, you’re saying you’ve managed to produce something from nothing? That’s even more outlandish than a philosopher’s stone!”
“No madame, no. Not something from nothing, but from the magic that concentrates in the river itself. If I may arrange a demonstration?” The recruiters were quick to send a courier to headquarters, and soon another uniformed individual arrived with a wooden case. With the finesse of a salesman the recruiters made a show of opening the case, revealing a pair of potion bottles. Rajit adjusted her glasses as she instantly recognized the formulae. “Flight and Vitality potions. Nothing special here.”
The recruiter raised a finger and then gently plucked a bottle from the case, the potion of flight. He uncorked it and tilted the bottle until the potion began to pour out on the cobblestone streets. Rajit felt herself reflexively jerk forward to stop him; what a waste this was! She caught herself and watched, her eyebrows askew in confusion. The last few drops of the potion splashed onto the cobblestones. The recruiter gently corked the bottle and offered it to Rajit, sidestepping a centipede as it began to float before their eyes. “Ah, I didn’t see you down there.” The recruiter grinned as the potency of the potion was made obvious.
Rajit accepted bottle and looked at it. Empty. The glass was blown with some skill, but the color was a bit unusual. Some type of additive had colored it with a bit of a blue sheen. Perhaps a dye? “What do you want me to do with this? It’s empty now.” The recruiter gently blew on the flying centipede, as it began to float away on the winds. “Please hold onto it. If it is in your hands and we are unable to tamper with it you’re more likely to believe what comes after. Now then, I do believe I owe you a tour of the city.” Rajit rolled her eyes and put the bottle into a coat pocket.
The city tour went quickly and easily; the recruiter being clearly well practiced as a tour guide. Rajit found much of the city boring, but did get rather excited as she passed through Tinkerton. The Sky Piers were a glorious accomplishment; with beautiful airships passing through once every few hours. She was fortunate enough to find one in dock and lay her eyes on a vessel far different than the warships she had seen in New Nivix. This one was a comfortable vessel for passenger transport, designed to make the journey one of intense comfort rather than expediency.
As they moved on into the nearby district of Eweford though Rajit began to hear an unexpected sloshing from her coat pocket as the bottle she walked. Pulling the potion from her pocket she found it replenished. Not quite full, but as she watched the bottle bubbled and burbled as if fed from an internal spring or reservoir. “Impressive, isn’t it?” The recruiter couldn’t help but smile slyly. “More like impossible. You have a wizard nearby teleporting in the refill?”
“I promise you that is not the case. We’ll allow you to keep that; in fact you can have this one for now as well.” The recruiter offered her the case containing the other potion. “I believe the tour is complete though, I will guide you back to Octavia Walk and you can spend the evening however you wish.” Rajit didn’t remember much of the walk back, as she tried to find the trick to the bottle she held in her hands.
Rajit would spend the evening exactly how she wanted indeed. Trying to determine the trick of these potions, an answer that was not forthcoming. She soon determined the source of the refill to be an almost imperceptible and unusual magic that seemingly suffused the area. She turned to Gilbert, frustrated at her lack of progress. “Big guy, if I figure out how this works I may not have to find a cure for you. Rather than fix it forever I could make a treatment that just replenishes itself. Almost as good!” Gilbert looked at her with his dark eyes, and gave her a single nod.
The lessons of alchemy had been simple but universal. The concept of transformation, that even a halfling born of dirt could transform into a perfectly formed bar of the purest gold, had proven true. Nothing is without cost, though. Rajit had learned that it wasn’t truly transformation, it had been combination all along. The things she had acquired, the knowledge she had gained, the companionship of Gilbert, Fhahana and her family. Each one had combined with her, a small reaction in a great chain that had brought her to where she was now. There was a certain foolishness to the idea of gaining something from nothing, but here it was in front of her.
This river, there was definitely something off with it. These Drops, whatever they actually were, were also something that deserved study. She sent a message off back home via a sending scribe; the recruiter had gotten what he wanted. Rajit would stay in Driftriver, and she would work. The promise of receiving these Drops and the potential they had in enhancing her research were irresistible. She accepted her badge from the bureau. The jobs came quickly after.
Rajit: BONUS CHAPTER: Purity in Purpose
Rajit blotted her quill tip on the sponge, rolling it as the ink smeared and diluted. She tipped the last bit of water from her dipping pot onto the sponge and as the tip of the quill gave way to the dull grey she gave it one last twirl before wiping it on a stained cloth, then setting it on the desk to dry. Spellbooks were messy business, and even with all of the advances in technology some things just had to be done with ink, paper and quill.
Rajit looked down at the page she'd just finished filling. 'Catapult' was what the spell had come to be known as. A direct conversion of magical energy into kinetic energy. Unlike normal ballistics though this spell didn't follow understandable trajectories, you simply gave it enough to go so far and after that it the projectile may as well fall flat. "Magic was like that, a specific solution to a specific problem, nowhere near as robust as alchemy or artificing." Rajit mused.
"Well, not everything is safe to launch with physical or chemical force anyway. I suppose it has some uses, maybe for delivering potions at long distances even." Rajit blew on the page, willing the ink to dry more quickly. "Well, while this dries, let's see...
Rajit pulled out her book of Nature's mysteries, and using a good old fashioned bit of graphite began to sketch. "Never have to wait for lead to dry, sheesh." Lines began to form as she began to draw schematics for utilizing the spells. A number of scratched out uses for 'Catapult' were ultimately discarded, but a few new designs fired the imagination: A pressurized can of aerosol foam that would rapidly expand and create wind drag to slow falls using the principle of the Feather Fall spell... A carbonated beverage imbued with the bounding bubbling energy of the Jump spell... "Hmm, high pressure stuff. I'll need to strengthen the glass or maybe find a tinsmith."
Ultimately her mind wandered back to her original spells, one in particular that she'd abandoned long ago after having found a sturdy suit of waterproof half-plate. "Mage Armor, some kind of undirected force from the weave meant to turn blows and protect someone... another case of magic not matching with craftsmanship. You'd think someone would have figured out how to control it by now."
Rajit began sketching a magnetic field on a page, drawing the dome-like force fields exerted near the poles. She drew a stick-like humanoid figure standing beside it and frowned. "You'd need a magnet as big as Gilbert to generate that much force. Pointless." Rajit snapped her notebook shut, and finding her spellbook now dry she thumped that close as a rumbling thunderclap rang out across the library. Rajit grinned sheepishly as her Loud Enduring Spellbook drew attention to her, and quickly packed up, bowing her head in apologies. It was time to go home.
Rajit walked through the gates of Hyssop Home, her cloudy blue eyes glazed over in thought as she rounded the fountain, heading towards the northern door. "My child, welcome home. How go your studies?" Came a familiar voice. It was Quinton, the headmaster, and technically her adoptive father, greeting her from near the garden. Rajit winced internally at his address. "I'm not a child, and moreover I'm not HIS child either." The familiar thought drifted through her mind as she turned. She knew Quinton didn't deserve the attitude, but his way of speaking always got her hackles up.
"Hello Headmaster. It's going well enough. I copied 'Burning Hands', 'Grease', 'Catapult' and 'Snare' today. That last one is very different... leave it to Wizards to reinvent the rope trap." Rajit forced a laugh hoping to defuse the situation and make her way back to her room quickly. "Very good. Soon you shall be reading from the second circle. Walk with me child, I have something for you." Quinton gestured towards the main door, near the stained glass windows of the chapel. Rajit looked back longingly at the northern door, but shouldered her bag and spun on her heel, it was better to get this over with.
Rajit fell in beside Quinton silently, her discomfort growing as she wondered what donated toy, or dress in her size, or old glasswork had been donated to the orphanage this time. She'd grown up with mostly second-hand things, and if not for Annabelle having arrived she'd probably still not know what it was to own her own new clothes. "So... Is it a dress, or a hat? Or maybe a beat up old table I can do alchemy on?" Rajit lit up a bit at the last idea, maybe this could be something good after all. "No, my child, none of those. Well, perhaps it could be called a hat, after all?"
Rajit grimaced towards the ground. There went any hope of interesting old tools, or glasswork, or books or a new lab table. She shifted the strap on her pack and followed Quinton through the halls, passing the library and finally coming to the Headmaster's apartment. "Please, do come in." Rajit hesitated at the threshold, realizing she might be stuck here for a while, but gave a weak smile and stepped inside.
Rajit heaved a sigh of relief internally as she noted there wasn't any dinner on the table and Imna wasn't sitting there expectantly. "So... maybe a helmet then? If it is magic your guess is as good as mine, maybe better even." Rajit stood to her tiptoes and peered around the room, trying to spot an old helmet or something of the like. "Ah, Rajit my child, something far better." Quinton stepped with some anticipatory delight towards a small paper envelope on the table nearby. He opened it and upended it, and with a shimmer a thin metal bracelet landed in his hand.
"Oh. A gift for the oathmother? I didn't know she wore jewerly." Rajit gave the bracelet a cursory glance and feigned surprise for Quinton's benefit. "Did you just want to ask me my opinion? I'm sure she'll love it." Rajit shifted under her pack and turned her eyes towards Quinton hoping that would be the end of it. "No daughter, this is for you. It took some doing to find one in your size." Quinton offered the jewelry to Rajit, raising his eyebrows. "For me? But it's far too big." Rajit took the bracelet and rolled it over in her hand, finding a tiny clasp on one end. As she unhooked it the bracelet opened, forming an open circlet as the tension relaxed.
"Oh." She muttered a single syllable in surprise. "It's a circlet." Her fingers ran over it suspiciously before she raised it to her head, it slid back towards her ears and... clack The circlet clacked into the arms of her glasses. A bit of uncomfortable finagling and at least it sat flush on her head. The fit was a bit off, but the size was mostly right. "It is magical, the fit will adjust dear." Quinton assured her as he smiled down. "Oh yeah? This one of the blasting ones I've seen?" Rajit ran her fingers over the circle, it felt odd on her skin, it almost tingled.
"No, something different. Why not practice your spellcasting on it? I'm sure you'll figure it out." Rajit looked at Quinton with confusion, it was unlike him to be playful or indirect. Maybe this was a test. "Uh, okay. I'll do that right now. Thank you for the gift?" Rajit's voice lilted into a near question as she turned awkwardly towards the door. "Yes, may it keep your safe my child." Quinton held the door for her as she departed, walking the short distance to the suite she shared with Pahhu.
Rajit walked in, and checked in on Gellope and Rafeeq, making sure to feed them. Miloje wasn't in, he was likely off sleeping under a table in the lounge getting more than his fair share of ear scratches and belly rubs. Finally she made her way into her bedroom, where after a ritual involving a pearl and some introspection she uncovered the nature of the circlet she had received.
Rajit stared at the ceiling as she drifted off towards sleep, a mixture of feelings clouding her thoughts. She felt gratitude and guild towards how much Quinton had done for her since her parents had given her away, this gift being the latest in a long line of unthinkable generosity. She also felt frustration and inadequacy. Quinton had touched so many lives, and she wasn't leaving a mark of her own. If not for the orphanage she'd probably have become a tavern girl wasting away in hopes of marriage, and if not for Gilbert she'd likely be horribly alone. "I just don't know what he sees in me." Rajit rolled over in her bed, and stared at the wall. Tomorrow would be a new day, and who knew how things would look after the circlet attuned...
Rajit: Level 15: Clean Burning
Small flames erupt from a gritty crimson sludge as it spatters against a pitted stone lab bench. The small flares of light reflect off the goggles of a glum looking blonde halfling as she frowns at their lack of intensity. “Fire on contact with the air, but can’t get the crystals out of solution without drying them. Can’t dry them without contact with the air… Maybe I could use some kind of slow acting desiccant? Even better if it coats with the salt crystals.” Rajit tapped a pen on her notes as she considered the problem. “Maybe an airtight jar, sealed with wax. Put the gelled salts in solution into the jar, a bit of dust of dryness in wax, heat until the wax melts and then that should leave me with a jar of crystals wrapped around wax and a tiny bead of stabilized water.”
Rajit set about building a prototype, settling on a cylindrical bottle like a double-sided ampoule designed to shatter and fail when thrown. She blew the glass carefully, not wanting the pressure of the contents to set this stuff off early. After all once it started burning it would be very difficult to get the fire out, or off of whatever was burning and before she threw it these things would be on a bandolier at her hip.
The first test went surprisingly well, as she swiveled the ampoule over the flame of a burner the wax coating the dust of dryness melted and with a sudden snap the moisture was pulled into a tiny bead within the ampoule. What remained were tiny flakes of deep red crystal, many resting on small waxen clusters. The ampoule held against the negative pressure with the sudden vacuum inside the glass cylinder. Rajit gave the contraption a gentle shake and the flaky crystals tinkled as the crystals bounced around within. Rajit lifted her goggles as the grin reached all the way to her eyes.
“Trial 13: Red flames, moderate temperatures. Approximate burn length… 52 seconds.” Rajit scratches notes as she watched the roaring flames sputter and die, leaving behind a blackened rock but no lingering flames. “Sample has yet to produce any lingering flame or set alight nearby fuel, suggesting potential safety in limited use in nonflammable environment… possibly due to low radiant temperature? Throw 14 when you’re ready big guy.” Rajit looked up from her notes to see Gilbert heft another one of the ampoules.
Gilbert looked down at the small glass object, barely the size of one of his pinky fingers. In the past he would have just thrown the thing as instructed but Rajit’s gift of a headband of intellect had made him a very curious monkey indeed. Rajit was looking at the crystals as a weapon, an area denial one at that. But these crystals were also very predictable in their burn length. They might be useful as fuel… “Big guy?” Gilbert closed his hand and flung the ampoule towards the rock. Predictable the glass shattered and the same blaze instantly consumed the area... “... 58 seconds. I think that one burned a little better. A few tweaks and we’ll be there.”
Rajit reaches level 15, taking her 4th level in Artificer Wizard. She learns to create Jars of Firesalts (Create Bonfire.) Additionally continued experimentation with pressurizing containers has allowed her to combine her glue-like substance from her Gecko Glue (Spider Climb) spell to create Glue Grenades (Web.) The deep red crystals she has learned to stabilize also have interesting properties when mixed with glass. While the magic is only temporary she has learned to activate Infralenses (See Invisibility) granting her a deep red impression of nearby presences. Rajit’s turn back towards purer alchemy has allowed her body to heal, for her feat she gains an ability score increase, boosting her Dexterity by 1 to 18 and Constitution by 1 to 16. She has acquired a headband of Intellect for Gilbert and gifted it to him. Gilbert’s burgeoning intelligence has changed the way he views the world and made him more aware. Gilbert has begun to take an interest in the power of heat energy, particularly in ways it might make his life easier by powering things. He has developed an interest in steam technology. Gilbert’s feat is an ability score increase, boosting his Constitution by 2 to 16.
Rajit: Level 14: The Remix
In the potion workshop of Hyssop Home. “Are you sure?” Fhahana Norsys, the resident apothecarist of Hyssop Home clicked the scissors together thoughtfully. “Yes, yes, I am sure. Do you want it in writing? I should’ve gotten it cut a long time ago!” Rajit wiggled on the high stool she was sitting on; they’d borrowed it from Kaffrie’s lounge to get the small blonde halfling up to a comfortable height. “It’s such a shame, you have such pretty hair…” Fhahana breathed out wistfully, steeling herself for what she was going to do. She began reaching for a pair of gloves on the table. “Oh, come on ‘hana. You know I won’t get sick, with all I do I bet most of my clothes are more toxic than you.” The halfling gave her a smirk and swung her legs on the stool. “I’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. Promise.”
Fhahana set the gloves down and turned to look at Rajit. It wasn’t often she got to touch other people. Fhahana was a Simic Hybrid, her biology having been spliced with some kind of poisonous fish which constantly exuded a toxic coating. The experiments had left her with mottled blue skin in places, and her own hair had bleached out. Most notably though the toxicity had presented itself rather unfortunately, with even mild exposure often being enough to make others break out in hives or suffer nausea. She’d quickly learned to avoid intimacy of any kind, and the loneliness had driven her to begin her own research on antitoxins and a way to counteract her own toxicity. That research and her combined fastidious nature had made her a natural apothecarist, and with the proper use of gloves and heavy clothing she’d found work at Hyssop Home, where she’d met Rajit in the workshop.
Rajit was careless, or at least Fhahana thought so. As resistant to poison as stout halflings were any unnecessary risk was reckless. Despite that, Rajit was telling the truth, the halfling practically swam in dangerous and poisonous chemicals. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? It had been a very long time since she’d touched anyone, even their hair. “So… uh… how short again?” Fhahana held up a her thumb and forefingers a few inches apart and moved them a bit as if considering.
“I want it out of my eyes and off my neck. It keeps coming out of the bun and getting stuck to my glasses and getting in the way, especially when I sweat. Maybe keep it shorter on this side,” Rajit tapped her forehead on her right side. “I mostly aim with this eye, and I don’t want anything getting in the way. So maybe leave a couple inches there and take it down to twice that on the other side?” Rajit spoke like it wasn’t much, but on a halfling every inch counted quite a bit.
“Okay, well here goes nothing…” Fhahana ran the comb through Rajit’s hair, the thin strands separating easily. A few tangles had to be pulled out where Rajit’s messy buns had done her no fairs, but soon it was brushed down smooth reaching nearly her shoulders. The Simic Hybrid was enjoying her work, it had been a long time she’d touched another person or felt their warmth on her skin. The blonde locks came tumbling down one after another, and almost too quickly she found herself down with her work. She ran her hand through Rajit’s hair one last time, and combed out some loose hair and finally held up the mirror. “It kind of suits you. You kind of went from farmgirl to handsome debutante.”
Rajit tilted her head as she looked at herself in the mirror. “Wow, these glasses are enormous. They look so out of place now.” Rajit slid off the stool with a thump and twirled once. “So breezy! Thanks ‘hana, it looks great.” Rajit gave Fhahana a hug around her waist, about the best the halfling could manage. Fhana patted her one last time on the head in turn. “No hives either, you sure you’re okay?”
“Feeling better than ever. Everything just seems so much clearer now, you know? I’m going to go make some new glasses, it’s time to retire these.” Rajit waved and left the room, tromping off towards her room to retrieve her glassblowing tools. Fhanana chuckled and shook her head, she’d been asking about the toxins, but it seemed to have had no effect on Rajit. She looked down at the mess of blonde hair on the floor. With a sigh she dusted her hands off and heads towards the broom in the corner.
Some time that afternoon Rajit had come to an odd realization. Her eyes were, well, different. She definitely needed new lenses, but she didn’t need a pair, each one of her eyes was going to need a different lens. She set about the work of carving the lenses and purifying the glass, finally coming to a settled prescription. The thickness of the two lenses didn’t match, and the curvature made it hard to make them the same size. She’d need even bigger glasses than before… unless she just kept the lenses separate!
“Oh, why hadn’t I thought of this before?” That was a question Rajit had been asking a lot lately. She had her suspicions that her headband of intellect was making her realize things more easily, but she’d been having a lot of forehead slapping moments lately. This was another one of them. “Monolenses, or monocles I guess. If I make a few lenses of different kinds I will be able to combine them with a modular rack too.” Rajit began drawing some basic blueprints for a series of interchangeable lenses and a few different holders that she could put to either eye, giving her flexibility in how she viewed things.
The glasswork took her a few days but eventually she had her eye piece ready. Satisfied with it, she turned to look at herself in the mirror. “‘hana said handsome, but I still just see farmgirl.” Rajit picked at her clothes, the heavy woolen jacket and pants covered in stains from chemicals and worn in some patches. “Well, in for a copper, in for a gold right? Hopefully Annabelle could help me out.” Rajit went to visit the matriarch of the Nearwood family, and after a few hours of sketching and discussing with the master seamstress, Rajit went back to her day to day, looking forward to her order.
When at last the day came Rajit wiped down her dusty and neglected mirror, covered in smoke and residue from her experiments. It would be a normal hanging mirror for an average person, but for a halfling it was full-length. Rajit put the coat on with a barely contained grin. It fit very well, she could move in it easily. The light leather undercoat gave her some protection, and the silk skirt, shirt and tie she wore underneath it certainly gave it some style. Next came the canvas topcoat and gloves. She wiggled her fingers easily in the gloves; they permitted far more dexterity than her old clumsy gauntlets. She rolled her shoulders and adjusted the collar getting a feel for the movement. She tucked a few of the lenses on her chain in a jacket compartment behind the breast panel, and buckled a pair of belts across her hips. At last she pulled on the thick boots, and rocked up to her feet, grinding her heel into the floor to ensure a snug fit. Taking a single lens from the jacket she put it in her eye and looked at herself clearly in the mirror. She had changed.
“Wow. I had no idea that was in me.” She couldn’t help but grin at herself. She looked different. She felt different. She was even thinking different; people did change after all, just like things could be transmuted and alchemy could transform she found herself different. She turned and angled in front of the mirror; she even moved differently, especially without the bulky half-plate armor she’d used to wear. “Not bad at all.” She mimed drawing her crossbow a few times, and reaching for a flask from her bandolier and gave herself a final nod.
Rajit reaches level 14, taking her 3rd level in Artificer Wizard. Her recent acquisition of a headband of intellect and rededication to her studies have produced results. She has expanded her knowledge of magic rituals, and developed some new spells. Most notable of these is a potion which grants the user Darkvision, a distilled essence of cat’s eye vision she calls the Cat’s Eye Cordial. She has also developed a new bolthead loaded with flash powder which she can use to cause Blindness/Deafness on a target. Rajit has changed her style, no longer looking like she fits among the common folk she has left behind the farmgirl look of her Folk Hero background as her mad science has driven her towards being a Researcher, making her a Sage (Scientist.) Rajit’s decision to leave behind her half-plate armor and rely on her own agility and mage armor, as well as her constant habit of having her nose down in books despite her worsening eyes have resulted in reworked skill changes. Rajit is losing proficiency in Survival and Perception, as her senses continue to dull, but she gains proficiency in Arcana and Acrobatics as her knowledge grows and her reflexes sharpen.
Rajit: Level 13: Mixology
Sweat drips onto a small workbench as a thin halfling with drooping blonde hair in need of a wash exerts all of her fine motor skills in tracing the nearly minute runes carved into the haft of an elven crossbow. “I just can’t figure out how this thing works. You aim it and it hones in on targets like what you pointed at but it doesn’t seem to be these runes, the filigree, or mechanism that drives it.” Rajit mops her forehead, then pulls her hair out of a grimy bun and shakes it out. She bundles the dark blonde tresses up, and then ties it again, getting the worst strays out of her face for the time. “Ugh, I really need to get a haircut.” She grabs the tiny needle-like tool she was tracing with, and tries to get focus with a magnifying glass. “And new glasses!”
At last the needle like tool hooks into the bottom of a letter, catching a small groove and with a click the crossbow mechanism unlatches, the butt of the crossbow coming separate as a small column of quartz clatters to the table. “Ah, a focus embedded in the body. Probably channeled when aligned to a target and focus exerted.” Rajit unceremoniously drops the finely crafted elven-worked crossbow mechanism to the table as she starts to look the quartz over under the magnifying glass. “Nearly transparent, I’d almost think this was glass if it was cleaned up and polished…” Rajit rolls the focus in her hands getting a feel for the weight and balance. “Hmm, I wonder…”
Rajit digs out some glass polish and a couple of very sharp and very hard tools. She begins by smoothing out the cylinder’s circumference, carefully sanding off any excess and following it with a generous amount of polish. The ends she begins to smooth into domes, a small dome not too different than her magnifying glass at each end. The work goes slowly, but the focus slowly yields to her tools and magical influence. “And now something to encase it…” Rajit grabs a few loops of copper and builds a tube. She brackets that to a pair of sturdy risers and then screws those into her copper looped crossbow. She peers down the quartz focus in the tube, and grins crookedly at the magnified image she sees. “Kind of disorienting looking through two lenses, though…” She fiddles with her glasses, before lifting one side up and peering through a few times. “Ugh, awkward. Well at least it works!”
“Now for some new bolts... “ Rajit begins to tinker with minor magical items, considering her options. “Those witches tried to seize up Crixus and I. If I hadn’t taken care of them they might have gotten us, they definitely seem to prefer attacking the helpless.” Rajit begins considering ways to disrupt magic and casters in the field. “Material, Somatic, Verbal. I can’t disarm them without a lucky shot, and a net on an arrow is just too heavy. Verbal though... “ Rajit sighs as she remembers the last time she gagged a wizard and the trouble that wrought in court. “The web fluid worked well but was unreliable and the canisters are just too heavy.” Rajit drums her fingers on her desk and idles flicks a spring which begins to oscillate with a vibrating whine. She tilts an ear as she flicks it again.
“Hehehehee.” Two small halfling fingers work furiously as they wind a flexible bit of twine around a bolt shaft. A simple spring is pushed down over the wrapped twine, and the notch of the arrow is fitted with simple tin prongs giving it a comical look. “Now just give it a whirl…” She spins the bolt in her hands like a stick used to start a fire. The twine begins to unravel and as it does so the compressed spring releases tension, causing the prongs to vibrate and give off a whine like a tuning fork. “Perfect.”
Rajit has used a tracking and hunting focus from a crossbow taken from The Pack to enhance her crossbow design, twisting it into a magnifying scope far beyond what the elves may have imagined for the focus at its inception. Additionally she has invented a new bolt using a tuning fork which puts off a disruptive field of sound, silencing verbal spell components...
The next morning Gilbert and Rajit are practicing as Rajit calibrates her new sight. Gilbert sweeps his flail through the training dummy, the head of the flail hardly deflected by the first target as it sweeps into the second. Bolts whiz past him as his mistress fires into the bodies of the targets, each one offering an opportunity to Gilbert. He bashes his shield into one target, shoving the bolt further in, a quick step in letting him shove the dummy to the ground, where he plants a heavy armored foot on another bolt as he stomps it in. THUNK Gilbert whirls in response, his flail head hammering in the bolt that just struck like a nail yielding to a hammer. A quick headbutt on the same target and the morning training was done, there were no targets left. “Good job big guy, I think we’re getting better.”
“Hoo, hoo! Haa! Aah-aa Huha!” Gilbert vocalizes a response as he knucklewalks away from the targets, heading towards Rajit “Yeah, you really swing that thing like it’s part of you.” Gilbert loops the chain of his flail and hooks it to his belt as he unstraps his shield. He gives a big stretch and then scratches his chest and ribs enjoying the feeling of the sun. It would be lunch before long, and that meant lager and a sack of fruit and vegetables topping 15 pounds. He liked training, the exercise was good, and he didn’t have to wear his armor. His body had responded well to it, and he’d been putting on muscle for some time. “You know Gil you about look like you’re made of iron these days. Here.” Rajit offers him an unusual piece of fruit. “Hoo?” Gilbert gives it a sniff. “Something new for you. Some fruit from way far away called dates. What do you think?” Gilbert daintily nibbles at the date finding it to be sweet, chewy and unpleasantly dry. “Huu-uck.” Gilbert turns his head from the fruit. “Not a fan, huh? Well I’ll just have to make it up to you at Gunther’s. Early lunch?”
The two head off to Gunther’s, ready for the next adventure.
Rajit reaches level 13, taking her 6th level in Beast Conclave Revised Ranger. Her tinkering with magic bolts has lead to her developing a method of infusing an area with Silence. The continuing modification of her crossbow has made it difficult to make on-the-spot adjustments, and she stops using Tune Up (Hunter’s Mark) to use the Silence arrows. Rajit’s earlier experiments and continued work with fiendish blood and other components have given her insight towards fighting fiends and demons, as she selects Fiends for her Greater Favored Enemy. The recent exercise has been doing Rajit and Gilbert both some good as they gain increased potency in their proficient skills and abilities, their teamwork having recently become much more effective.
Rajit: Level 12: Machine-Like Precision
click-click-click-tuk THOK click-click-click-tuk THOK click-click-click-tuk THOK A trio of crossbow bolts strike an archery target set up against the west wall in Hyssop Home’s yard. “That’s really not that bad. A bit lacking in draw strength and unnecessarily loud for my taste but your bolts help make up for that, huh? Still more likely to spook a beast on the hunt with that ratchet than get a clear shot, though.” A half-elven woman clad in the green of Hyssop Home’s keepers comments as she leans against a rock, watching the archer in practice.
A thin looking blonde halfling, Rajit, shakes her wrist out and lowers her crossbow, adjusting her glasses as she looks at the strike pattern. Her tunic is stained with sweat and she gives a nod, approving of the precision of the arrows. “You know I don’t hunt in the field anyway, I just keep my remedy tablets in a bottle and eat those. I’d never be able to move enough food or drink around for Gilbert and I.” She hefts her crossbow up and examines the mechanisms. “You know I think that fixed my accuracy issue, but that’s about as much speed as I’m going to get out of it. Any more and the springs will snap, or my hand will come flying off the crank. What do you think, Lilroh?”
“I think three bolts on target at 80 feet in 6 seconds is quite good, even if it sounds like a grandfather clock falling down stairs. I guess Gilbert will know when to duck out of the way though.” The half-elf stands up off the rock and stretches before nocking an arrow, she aims carefully and plants it right in the center of Rajit’s three bolts. “I still think nothing beats an old-fashioned longbow, though!”
Rajit smirks at Lilroh, but she does raise her eyebrows in appreciation at the accuracy of the shot. “You’ll see, machines and alchemy will make everything better one way or another.” Lilroh shrugs and saunters back towards Hyssop Home, throwing a look over her shoulder. “How about lunch? And nothing that comes out of one of your damn bottles, you’re thin enough. Come on, I’m supposed to go meet Thresher.” Rajit waves to Lilroh as she goes. “Oh, I would never get between you two lovebirds. Say hello to your new wife for me!” Lilroh throws her hands into the air and yells back in frustration: “We’re not even married yet!” Rajit grins back and retorts: “Oh, ‘not yet?’ You said you weren’t even dating last time!” Rajit’s only answer was a grunt of dismissal as the half-elven woman went for her promised lunch with her ‘wife’ Thresher.
“They really are cute together.” Rajit grinned to herself as she picked up her things from the yard. The sweat cooled as the heat of her practice ended and she decided to treat herself to a bath. “One of the benefits of being small, private bathing…” Rajit went back to her room and dragged out a simple wooden laundry tub, and filled it with water. A few drops of pyroil and a bit of powdered heat and a light steam wafted from the tub. Rajit grabbed her latest book, a generic romance, then disrobed and settled into the tub. Her glasses began to fog immediately, and she took them off. “Huh, that’s odd… maybe I need to get new glasses.
Rajit blinked at the pages. Normally she could still read something close enough with her glasses off but the pages blurred and no matter how she squinted the letters didn’t clear. With a sigh she set the book down and sunk down in the tub to relax. She looked at her arms and even with her poor vision she could tell she’d toned up from all the practice. It felt good. Not so long ago she’d barely been able to fight, but now she was a threat with her crossbow. “There’s nothing more left for me there though… so what’s next?”
Rajit relaxed and blew bubbles in the water as she thought. Her teamwork with Gilbert was almost as good as it gets, but she could certainly work on training him further. She could also learn more about her enemies. Her studies on undead had paid dividends, and her investigation into fiends had lead her to many interesting alchemical studies. Alchemy, there was another option. What new formulae could she come up with if she went back to studying? And study itself was a whole additional idea. She’d learned some basics from the arcane but after discovering her talent in alchemy she had wandered elsewhere. “When is the last time I even opened my spellbook?”
Rajit finished her bath and wrapped herself up in a towel, loose hairs dripping down her shoulders as she put back on her glasses. She went to her desk and opened the bottom drawer, pulling out her spellbook for the first time in quite a while. She flipped it open and tried to read the arcana of the spells she knew, but found it difficult to read. “Ugh, damn fog.” Rajit wiped her glasses, but the lettering was still small and difficult to make out. “My eyes really are getting worse…”
Rajit sighed and pulled out a thick black book she had recently been gifted by a Storm Giant Seer. This giant crafted spellbook has a motif of a storm cloud and lightning bolt on the front of it’s dark leather cover. It was roughly bound by large hands, and opening and closing it, it claps loudly with a rather loud book-y sound of opening and closing. There is a cipher to understanding the Auran language in the back of the book. “I guess recopying my spells would be a good start to getting back into it…” Rajit started from the beginning of her wizardly studies again, transcribing the spells in a larger font matching her now larger spellbook to remain readable to her failing eyes.
Rajit reaches level 12, taking her 5th and final level in Mutant Blood Hunter. Rajit’s dedication to her crossbow and continued improvements have resulted in her mastering her hand crossbow, gaining the Extra Attack Feature. Rajit’s continued use of her mutagens have resulted in more concentrated brews increasing her mutation score to 2. Her use of Blue Blur (Celerity Formula) has continued to degrade her eyesight, and though her dexterity increase is now 2 her wisdom has dropped by 2. Her Jolt Bolts (Rite of the Storm) have also been more purely refined, increasing their damage to 1d6 though the fumes associated with their activation continue to degrade Rajit’s health. She also develops a condensed electrolytic fluid which when applied to a target increase its electrical conductivity. She develops a delivery system and attached it to her crossbow, Rajit learns Blood Curse of the Marked.
Rajit: Level 11: Ratcheting It Up A Notch
Rajit pokes at a sample of Hydra flesh in her lab, watching as it squirms and begins to regrow at the agitation. She puts her steel prod in the nearby burner, and watches with boredom as the metal heats to a dull red. With a sizzle she cauterizes the sample, which ceases to grow and quivers in the glass dish. "Well this ended up being a bust... If I could figure out how this works I could make so many medicines. But all this thing does is eat and try to become a Hydra again." Rajit jots down a few notes, and then underlines and puts a slash down the rest of the page of her notebook.
"I wonder if Miloje would eat this... probably shouldn't do that though." Rajit reaches for a bottle of nearby distilled alcohol and douses the sample. She lights a simple cotton wick at the burner and then lights it aflame, tossing it into the bowl with the sample. The sample begins hissing and withering in the flame, the quivering coming to an end. The flames reflect off her round glasses in the dark laboratory as she thinks. "That thing was powerful, and I don't think I would've stood a chance if not for Crixus going all hulking green juggernaut on it. I just couldn't do enough with my crossbow."
Rajit's head turns as the flames go out as she looks at her crossbow. "I don't think I can do much more with a single bolt. I've already removed the safeties and it cranks back so hard it just about snaps the limbs off. And the bolts themselves are already tipped with jolting copper boltheads." She fiddles with the crank of the unloaded crossbow, her fingers running back and forth as she thinks. She imagines shooting at the hydra again, and cocks and fires the empty crossbow, dropping it to crank it back again and she stops, realizing her mistake.
"Hehe... hehehehee. Rajit, you're an idjit sometimes. If you can't put more power into the shot, then put more shots downfield. Now let's see..." Rajit disassembles her cranking mechanism and begins making adjustments. She removes the lever based crank mechanism and builds a ratcheting rotary mechanism. "Now I can cock it at my shoulder, instead of one heavy draw I should be able to just turn this..." Rajit goes through the motions, turning the rotary and ratcheting back the crossbow, pulling the trigger and repeating.
"A little oil here... tighten this spring there... and ground this... don't want to shock myself." Rajit tinkers away, eventually satisfied with her work as her copper-looped crossbow now has a rotary reload mechanism, with the simple trick of turning it a few more clicks for an overdrawn shot. "Now to practice with this thing."
Meanwhile Gilbert has been training with Crixus, tring to mimic his strength and technique. Gilbert can't match Crixus's skill and brutality, but the training does harden his muscles and improves Gilbert's martial discipline.
Rajit reaches level 11, taking her 4th level in Mutant Blood Hunter. Driven by her ineffectiveness against the regenerative properties of a Hydra, she tinkers with her crossbow to improve her firing rate and gains the Crossbow Expert feat. Gilbert gains an additional feat and uses it to improve his strength, achieving the pinnacle of monkey might.
Rajit: Level 10: Short-Sighted?
Rajit returns to her lab with haste, having secreted away bits of frost giants from The Wild Hunt occuring in Lerwick. She has ideas on how she can use the magically imbued ice to stabilize some formulae she’s been working on. She begins to carve a number of bowl-like crucibles of the magical ice, straining her small arms against the incredibly tough enchanted substrate. The strength of the ice only causes her grin to crack wider as she becomes more and more convinced that this is exactly what she has needed.
Rajit begins to set a boil to a number of flasks, one a fluorescent blue, one a bright beaming yellow, and the last a sickly violet. The flasks heat quickly, with noxious fumes rising as the liquids begin to jump and bubble, popping violently and spastically as if trying to leap from their glass containers. “Now if only I could stabilize these explosive properties but maintain the energetic qualities…” Her eyes wander back to the ice, as she considers the fixative properties of a flash freeze.
The flasks reach a violent roil, the liquids flailing against the flask seeking any escape from the elevating thermal energy. With a steadying breath Rajit pulls up a face mask dons a pair of heavy gloves. She reaches out with heavy mitts and grabs the first flask, with fluorescent blue fluid liquid fizzing urgently. She carefully tips it over into the first ice crucible, and the fluid sizzles violently as it contacts the cold container. The liquid begins to settle as the energy dissipates, but takes two corroded copper alloy strips from her earlier experiments and dips them on each side of the fluid in the crucible. Electricity arcs between the strips, and the fluid whirls in the container, impurities popping out in spatter or binding to copper as the fluid begins to glow and become completely transparent. At last it settles, as smooth as water.
Rajit repeats this with the other two formulae, each following a similar process, eventually distilling into a serene and almost pastel colored fluid as clean as crystal glass. Rajit pours the products into special vials, but hesitantly she brings a few drops of the fluorescent blue liquid to her lips. The fluid is surprisingly tasteless… but nothing much seems to happen. “No flavor to it at all. How strange. I suppose I could add something though… Well regardless, I may need to concentrate it further, it didn’t seem to work.”
Rajit carefully corks and seals the vials, sliding them easily into a rack. She begins to write labels for them, and smirks as the handwriting comes out unexpectedly well done. She places the labels on the bottles, and then opens her notebook to record her results. She squints at the page, finding it surprisingly hard to read. She blinks a few times and then adjusts her glasses, but it doesn’t help. “I guess it is about time for new glasses…”
Rajit levels up to 10, taking her 3rd level in Blood Hunter. She adopts the Blood Hunter Order of the Mutant as her wild alchemical experiments have driven her into discovering methods of medicating her body, improving her performance at the cost of suffering new symptoms. Her experiments in energetic formulae have taught her the Celerity, Mobility and Rapidity formulae. She names Celerity the Blue Blur formula, which she is almost always using, and which increases her dexterity and agility while in use at the cost of also blurring her vision and senses. Her already blue eyes now have a tinge of fluorescence when she is under the effect. She names the Mobility formula Golden Grease, as it allows her to slip out of restraints, but makes it difficult to get her feet under her, she sweats heavily when using it. She names the Rapidity formula her Vial of Violet Velocity as it increases her movement speed, but the speed limits fine movement, as she shakes with tremors while using it.
Rajit: Level 9: Desperate and Alone
Rajit returns from the southwestern Greypeak Mountains on the heels of a retreat, much of the journey covered on Theodore’s massive avian back. The trip is a quiet one for her as for the first time in a very long time she feels alone. Though cradled in Mama Yetu’s unrelenting and seemingly unbreakable grip she feels her connection with Gilbert fray and finally go quiet as the great gleaming gorilla finally goes down in the melee, having been utterly surrounded by a dozen enemies and fighting them back for nearly a half minute.
She sits quietly, her eyes glazed over as she goes over the choices that got her there. “Those deceitful hobgoblins always lie and confuse to get any advantage. It seems like no one plays fair, and even those that play fairly don’t deal in fair terms.” She ruminates on the dark thoughts as she continues to think to herself. “The only real rules are strength and skill, the laws of nature themself. The strong survive, water freezes and thaws, acid and metal corrodes, and blood trades with blood.”
On the tail end of the trip Rajit feels the slow pulse of her connection to Gilbert and knows that he was not killed. She imagines what horrible things may be done to him as a prisoner, or worse as a punching bag or torture victim. Her resolve crystallizes as she feels her one best and truest friend in danger so far from her.
On return to Lerwick Rajit will eventually squeeze herself away from Mama Yetu, and also do what she can to avoid some of the other members of Hyssop Home except for one. She seeks Zug Zugger and demands he promise to help her. “After all I’ve done for you, after all Gilbert has done for you, you owe this to us Zug! I’m calling that favor in now!”
Afterwards Rajit is often found outside in the yard practicing her accuracy with her crossbow, something she had never been particularly dedicated to before. She also spends time in her lab working on a potent concoction of smelling salts. She deeply regrets the way that Vanasha and Swauny were influenced by the enemy, and works on new methods to snap her allies out of their ills. She references some of Quinton’s medical books while formulating her new medicine. The resulting product is somewhat toxic but effective at giving allies a chance to snap back to themselves. Rajit shrugs off the toxicity and adds it to her repertoire without hesitation.
Rajit levels up to 9, taking her 2nd level in Blood Hunter. She selects the Archery Fighting Style, and gains access to the Blood Curse of Purgation. Her drive to improve her strength also increases her proficiency bonus as her clearer view of the world improves her decision making.
Rajit: Level 8: A Dark Turn, The Beginning of The Blood Hunter
Rajit returns from Waterdeep, making her excuses quickly to Hulfgar and Quinton as she leaves the Cathedral. She doesn’t want to be caught smuggling a vial from her last encounter. As she walks the carpeted halls of Hyssop Home she looks over her shoulder, before making it back to her room. There she checks her gain, a fiendish vial of Vrock blood. Perfect for her experiments. She sets to work quickly, not wanting to waste the freshness of the sample. Small vials begin to bubble, as the heat reaches peak. She begins to try combining the blood with some of her other creations...
She gets no reaction from her Titanic Tonic, and grimaces at the wasted reagents. Nothing from the Tingling Tincture either… But the Energizing Ether begins to fizzle, and she feels the hair on her arms begin to stand as an acrid smoke begins to rise. “Hmm.. it seems to respond to strong life energy. Some kind of static? Friction between the two perhaps…” Rajit adjusts her glasses as she continues taking notes. She takes a small bit of the fizzing liquid and puts it on a sheet of copper foil, a creepy grin crossing her face as the copper corrodes and dries almost instantly leaving a strange oily sheen.
“Now then what did that do…?” Rajit lowers her goggles and looks over the pitted copper alloy, before running a finger over it. A quick static spark leaped between the alloy and her finger, and she feels a simple shock akin to touching a door knob in the winter. Thinking nothing of it she reaches out again, and once more the shock comes. “Oh, now this is interesting. Electric properties?” Rajit raises her goggles and looks about at her equipment…
Rajit pulls out larger glassware, leering as she considers the possibilities of what comes next. She begins to heat the Ether over a flame, and waits impatiently for the boil to begin. Her thin fingers roll the vial of reagent as she waits, her glasses fogging over in the temperature as her eyes also glaze over as she consider the possibilities. As the first bubble pop she snaps back into focus and in a startle grabs a cloth to wipe her glasses clean, before dropping her goggles again.
With the temperature to her satisfaction she pours the vial into the bubbling flask, and a violent eruption of fumes and heated gas burst forth. Rajit coughs and sputters, waving her hands in front of her. Her lungs begin to burn and sting as the vapors overwhelm her, but she reaches for her copper foil, throwing the entire roll into the flask. The copper sinks in, and the liquid begins sublimating rapidly, almost as if it was being absorbed by the metal.
As the vapors clear, Rajit coughs fitfully, blood spotting on her gloves, but she grimaces and ignores it for the time being. The copper visibly sparks in the flask, the alloys tingling with electric charge. “It worked? … It worked! But this is almost too… much. Too unstable for anything you’d want to hold onto…” Rajit wipes a smudge of blood off her lips as she thinks…
“But perfect for something you don’t want to hold onto! Like a crossbow bolt! I could plate bolts in this… Perfect… Heh… Hehe… Hehehehe!” Rajit’s mad giggle gives way to another hacking cough as more blood speckles her gloves.
Rajit has wondered into the path of the Blood Hunter, using the essence of her enemies to empower her weaponry. The empowerment has come at a cost, as the use of the corrosive static copper compounds burns her lungs and weakens her health. This has weakened her health further and left her more frail. This weakening does not go unnoticed by Gilbert, her ape companion.
Gilbert worries for his erstwhile mistress, and approaches Hulfgar and Quinton in worry. He receives a gift to protect Rajit from Hulfgar, a Cracker flail. He begins to practice with it in secrecy, and after hitting himself a few times he begins to get the hang of it, especially with the addition of a shield to swing around and over. Quinton begins to keep an eye on Rajit as her health deteriorate. He begins to worry about Rajit’s experiments...
Rajit's Backstory
Rajit was born to a poor family of Halfling tenant farmers in Wheatyfield, Caron and Gerza. The first few years of her life are hazy, but she recalls a simple hut, many siblings and thin, overworked parents. One particularly poor harvest left her parents in dire straits, with too many mouths to feed. They made a hard decision to give some children up, at 8 Rajit was one of their eldest, but also one of the weakest children and least use on the farm. Hoping she would find either a better life, or a suitor and her way into an early marriage in the next few years of her life. She was given up to Quinton Arnjaunor, a man heading an orphanage dedicated to Ilmater.
Rajit found herself among many siblings once again, but this time they were generally well fed. She was one of the older children, and one of the only children to come to the orphanage with living parents, a fact she felt great shame over. She was keenly aware of her 'cost' to her benefactors, and became fascinated with the concepts of money and cost. She watched as money transformed everything, money was given for transformation and used for transformation. It made life possible, it made love possible, and was the source of all things.
Rajit tried to help around the orphanage the best she could, tending to the animals and using her skills from her old farm life. Animals were so simple, if you feed them they love you. If you brush them, they love you. And then they create or transform into that which keeps you alive, to do it again. Love, life, and security. Her friendship with animals was a practical one, but deeply important to her.
Rajit was a quick study at the orphanage, excelling in the sciences and basic wizarding magic. She became enamored with transmutation magic in general, the thread of transformation lead her to alchemy, and she formed her own understanding of many things. Alchemy was the way of nature, and money was the way of society. Both transformed things. Seeking the security she'd lacked ever since her birth, she practiced and developed her skills. Learning to transform and master magic, the elements and ultimately to master coin and social alchemy.
Reaching maturity Rajit sets forth to make a living. One of her loving animal companions not far behind. On her waist, a bandolier of potions and a promise of change.
