Brillis Jillink

Chief Advisor

Brillis Jillink serves as the right hand and chief confidant to Slikkina Jillink, the head of Clan Jillink. His loyalty to Slikkina is unyielding. Brillis's role is not that of a leader but rather a facilitator of Slikkina’s more covert operations and political maneuvers.

Personality and Tactics

• Hospitality as a Mask: Brillis is known for his hospitable demeanor, hosting guests with grace and offering meals that reflect both comfort and opulence. This hospitality, however, serves as a veneer for his more calculative and secretive nature.
• Cautious Communicator: In conversations, especially with outsiders, Brillis is initially open and engaging. However, as discussions probe deeper into sensitive areas, he becomes evasive, skillfully steering conversations away from substantial information while maintaining an appearance of helpfulness.
• Master of Misdirection: He is adept at misdirection, often shifting topics to trivial matters to avoid giving away critical information. His approach is always to appear helpful without being genuinely so.

Political Stance and Statements

Deceptive Statements

• Claims of seeking peace are mere facades; the Jillinks, under Brillis’s counsel, actively engage in undermining the Clan Keeleene family to assert their dominance in Tulvar.
• His praise for Slikkina's leadership is a mixture of personal belief and strategic flattery. While he lauds her publicly, he harbors personal ambitions that might conflict with her authority.
• Brillis’s comments about the Keeleene family’s deceit are ironic, considering his own involvement in schemes against them. His allegations against Habooni Keeleene aim to sow distrust among allies and justify the Jillinks' actions.

"Humans, they’re like a storm; unpredictable and often leaving a trail. Yet, without their coin, our mines might just be elaborate tunnels to nowhere."

Motive and Operations

• Guarded and Ambitious: While Brillis projects loyalty and submission, his interactions are calculated to preserve and enhance his position within and outside the clan. His ultimate ambition may reach beyond his current station, eyeing a more significant role within the gnome community or even beyond.
• Operational Secrecy: He ensures that the family's dealings, especially those that are ethically gray or outright illicit, are kept under wraps. He is the gatekeeper of information, deciding what gets out and what stays within the walls of their meeting room.

Handling of Outsiders

Brillis's interactions with outsiders are laced with enough truth to appear sincere but are fundamentally designed to protect Clan Jillink’s interests. He manipulates narratives to cast doubt on adversaries and to paint the Jillink family in a favorable light, regardless of the underlying truths.

"Slikkina is not just our leader; she's the visionary compass guiding our clan through uncertain tides. My loyalty to her is as unwavering as the deepest gems buried in the Kron Hills. With her at the helm, we shall navigate the storms and thrive."

Summary

Brillis Jillink exemplifies the complex blend of loyalty, ambition, and duplicity that often characterizes the political landscape of Tulvar. His relationship with Slikkina Jillink is pivotal, acting as both a supporter and a potential usurper, hidden behind a facade of servitude and congeniality.

Brillis Plans and Secrets

Show spoiler

Brillis will come speak with the characters. He is Slikkina Jillink’s most devoted followers, and her major domo in unsavory activities. He is definitely not in charge, but has ambitions.
Brillis puts on a show of being a good host as well, offering refreshments or dinner depending on the time. These are served in the conference room, which is decorated more like a living room and dining room than a business location. The décor here is subtle but shows confidence and wealth, just the image Slikkina wants to portray to business associates.
When speaking to the characters, he begins in an open and friendly manner. When the questions get more pointed, he becomes more guarded and release less information. He won’t refuse to talk to them about anything, because that would give away the wrong information, but he’ll dance around issues, try to divert the characters to side issues, and be as unhelpful as possible while appearing the soul of honesty and helpfulness (if possible). The characters cannot break him at this time.
He can tell them the following, depending on what questions they ask.

• Troubles with the humans are not good for us. Our family doesn’t make as much as the Keeleene family does, and so we’d prefer peaceful relations in Verbobonc. (False)
• Slikkina is the head of our family. She’s conducting some important trade business, or she’d be here herself. (False, Slikkina does not want to talk to the characters directly.)
• Slikkina is wonderful. She has led the family well for more than a decade, and we have never been better. (Not true, but he believes it. He is very loyal to Slikkina.)
• The Keeleenes are not the most important family in Tulvar. They might be the richest, right now, but we have mines with years of wealth left in them. (True about their mines)
• Habooni Keeleene doesn’t always tell the truth, especially when it’s convenient for him to lie. Don’t trust everything he says. He’s probably headdeep in some scheme. (If the characters have indicated they think some gnome is behind the gnome-human troubles, Brillis will do his best to implicate Habooni.)
• (On gnomes attacking the patrols) That is a tragedy, as the patrols protect us from raids. We have no knowledge of who did that. (False. Brillis was involved in two attacks on human patrols, neither deadly but both designed to drive the humans away. One took place because the patrol got too close to the Jillink mines, and the other took place to increase the tension.)
• (On the cheated merchant incident) I’m sorry to hear that the Keeleenes would treat anyone so badly. But it’s just like Habooni to do that, and think it was a very good joke. He has no sense of humor anymore. The Jillinks were not involved in any way, and really I don’t know anymore. (False. He knows Slikkina was the mastermind, but he was not involved personally with the operation.)

Brillis does not want the characters talking to other members of the Jillink family, but if they insist he’ll make sure that any gnomes they do talk to don’t know anything at all helpful. The gnome he brought with him doesn’t know anything either.

"In politics, it’s often about the lesser of two evils. With humans, you never quite know, but their trade is necessary—even vital—for our survival."

Brillis Jillink, chief confidant

• Sorcerer level 7
• hp 17
• AC 22 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +2 cloak of protection, +3 amulet of natural armor +4 from active mage armor spell)
• Str 9, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 15
• Equipment: +2 cloak of protection, +3 amulet of natural armor

Sorcerer Spells

Spells (1/day each): dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation
Sorcerer spells 6/7/7/5

• 0 lvl: ray of frost, detect magic, read magic, daze, flare, mage hand, open/close
• 1st lvl: color spray, expeditious retreat, cause fear, shocking grasp, magic missile, mage armor
• 2nd lvl: Tasha’s hideous laughter, flaming sphere, levitate, blindness/deafness
• 3rd lvl: lightning bolt, flame arrow, haste.

Alignment

Lawful neutral

Current Location

Tulvar

Species

Rock Gnomes

Year of Birth

532 44 Years old

Sex

male

Eyes

sapphire blue

Hair

curly light brown

Height

2'11"

Aligned Organization

Clan Jillink

Other Affiliations

• Free Alliance of the Kron Hills