Harlequin

Backstory

Harlequin woke up in a prison cell. No memory of anything from her previous life. (You have free reign to use this blank slate or don’t it’s totally up to you. And I have no preference either way, it’s a short campaign so Ik stuff just doesn’t come up)
I do have one idea though: What if she’s not actually a real changeling, but rather one that was attempted to be fabricated. She’s a mixture of fey magic and expert mechanics. Hence why her beasts turn out somewhat mechanical and why she has no memory of life before the prison. It’s because she had none. Might be an interesting twist kind of like scynth’s from Fallout 4?! Lmk what ya think?
In this cell she was entirely alone, marked as dangerous. The door to her cell was solid iron with only a small hole to see though, there were no windows and the walls were damp. Her clothes had the word harlequin stamped on them, if she was not referred to as a beast they called her that. She spent a few months pleading with the guards for an explanation on who she was and why she was there. But they just looked at her in disgust. She never knew what she looked like so she assumed that maybe she had an ugly face, or a bad scar. After a year of existing only in this prison, with no memory of her life in the outside world, the prison was attacked. Large explosions rocked her cell causing parts of the stone walls and ceiling to crumble. Harlequin was able to slip through a small gap in the wall and escape into the hallway. She ran down several halls but when she turned down a corner to find an hallway of carnage and a cell door completely busted out of, metal bent at harsh angles. In this hallway many guards lay in pieces as well as the doctor who would come to visit on occasion. She was a sadistic woman who would stick harlequin with different substances to wait for results but rarely did they affect her. The doctor was half leaning against the wall with a brutal slash across her torso. Harlequin approached her, and felt a strange itch or tickle as if a wave went over her whole body. Harlequin for the first time (to her knowledge) used her changeling abilities to change her appearance to this doctor. A blond woman with sharp features and narrow eyes. “I knew you were special, harlequin”. The doctor died soon after that and Harlequin was left in the blood covered hallway. Further into the prison Harlequin passed many cells full with the most peculiar looking people, some would jump out at her begging for a fix, or cower away in fear. Harlequin found a reflected mirror on a door labeled “laboratory 13 Dr. Agate”, here she realized she looked exactly like the doctor she had always seen. The mirror seemed to scan her face and then the door unlocked, allowing her entry to the room beyond. This room was full of peculiar devices and vials, and machines that she did not recognize. Here she found a small mouse-like robot, labeled as subject 173 “harlequin sample”. The mouse seemed like it was mechanical and when she touched it it seemed to glow. The mouse guided her out of the prison, only seeing dead guards and prisoners. She exited the prison and found herself above a cavern. It seems the prison was built deep underground.
She spent the next few months traveling, and she noticed she had strange skills that felt too natural. When she was surrounded by wolves she felt that tickle again and was able to change her body to match these wolves. Except she was much bigger, and when one tried to bite her its teeth broke. She had many interactions with wild beats like this. Where she mimicked their form, eventually when she saw a person she liked she would take their appearance. Rarely was she caught, but in the beginning things were definitely hard.
She eventually arrived at the city of Māgaliph where she used her mastery of her many forms to find an abandoned home to make her own. Here she began her collection, things she would steal and keep because she wanted them and she could. She began to study her scarab and apply that to her own transformative abilities. Sometimes she would pretend to be a famous person and do something outrageous just because she was bored and wanted something interesting in the morning paper.
Eventually she got bored, and wanted a real challenge. She saw that some random tech company (The Whizz Cracks - group of gnomish artificers) was throwing a celebration for some new weapon design and she decided she wanted that weapon. She snuck into the large gala in a beautiful dress, and walked right out with the new weapon. A short pistol powered by a powerful explosion. She took this pistol apart and applied her own knowledge to it, changing it entirely. Harlequin performed more grand acts of theft and began to make a name for herself. She built a name and reputation and started to love the chase of stealing the next difficult thing. She started leaving calling cards loving the rush and the fame. A glimmering graffiti with the name “harlequin” is left at each theft, as well as a wake of destruction.
She especially loved stealing tech because the defenses were so high and she could play with the reward for days and weeks. She started getting too much stuff in her hideout so she would occasionally sell to an underground artificer. An old dwarvish man named Edwin Ocurus, owner of the “eclectic badger” a “black market” store hidden in the underground’s of the city. He is the classic old loony who loves tech but he was always kind to Harlequin, and she could always convince him of a good price. He would even give her tips on upcoming jobs.
On one of her bigger jobs she realized she needed to get deeper in the company before the heist so she pretended to be hired as a janitor and disgusted herself with the face of a middle aged man she saw begging on the streets. There she worked for about a week until she was able to discover how to get access to this unique lab hidden beneath the building. She noticed another strange character at the company (cobys input). On the day she struck to sneak into this lab, so did he. She didn’t realize he was present and she reverted to her costume-like form and the face of Dr. Agate. (Cobys character stole the tech right out from under her). From this job they became enemies. Constantly running into each other. Trying to sabotage each other at every step. Harlequin would pretend to be him and do jobs very poorly so that he would be hunted by the police. (Cobys character) would set traps for her and leave his calling cards whenever he got somewhere first. She hated him, hated losing, and hated that someone out there knew who she was.
Fast forward to the start of the campaign. Harlequin is currently employed as a bright eyed intern at A.R.C. the most advanced tech company in the city. Here she lived under the persona of “Juniper Blossom” a black haired pretty looking woman in her early twenties. She fetched coffee and flirted with the upper staff and was slowly gaining their trust and with that getting ready to execute her plan.

Plot Hooks

• If Harlequin ever takes more than 50 damage total in a turn while in her humanoid form, it will reveal that there is metal beneath the skin where a skeleton should be.
• If Harlequin is examined in one of the advanced EV chambers it will reveal that she wasn't made by A.R.C. or any other Māgaliph company. It will show that she was made as an automaton and that the flesh over the circuitry is meant to be malleable and change to mimic any person that she so chose. With a DC 17 investigation check on the machine it can also be learned that Harlequin has been labeled as C024 and “Property of The Quinticent”.

Personality

Harlequins home is an old shack from the outside, but inside it is heavily fortified and filled with tech and secret doors/hidden objects. She doesn’t really know why she steals tech. Something about it just feels right.
As for how she interacts with others, she tends to keep to herself, she sees people as something to be used. While she is numb to death/ gore she doesn’t outright try to cause it.

Related Historical Events

• 2927 PE
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