My seventeenth illustration attack for Art Fight is of Lukas and Saelethil for @megzilla87!
(someday I will get to DM for you, but for now, take THIS!)
Remember that character from earlier this month that was a soft debut, and then this post that I implied was related?
Ta da!! Meet Rosey Gerdy. Gnome warlock with an Archfey patron 🌺, as pictured behind her (the Lady of Odd Stars).
(Yes, that collaborative storytelling project I mentioned is that we're playing DnD again.)
Some details:
Rosey Gerdy (nickname shortened from “Gerdy of the Roses”)
Full-ish name: Gerdella Berenkin Tomni Foxglove Fickletrap Hillsiding, of the Roses, Orc-friend.
“Rosey” / “Roses” coming from a childhood incident – at approximately 6 years of age, she got so tangled in a thicket of rosebushes that it took nearly an hour to get her out. Still has two scars on her face, under her right eye, and five on her upper left arm from the thorns.
Playlist - Inspiration board 💗
Age: 33
Lineage: Half Forest Gnome, half Deep Gnome
Appearance: Medium-grey-brown skin (now with a dark green vitiligo pattern across her face and chest and shoulders), long white hair (now thin spring grass - actual grass) partially up in small buns on the sides of her face and accented there with statice flowers (that now grow from her head). Stands 3 feet 2 inches tall, very round stature, and very pleasant demeanor. Wears really pale, warm-brown leather armor that appears to have tiny mushrooms sprouting from it, over a pale pink tunic that drapes a bit around her elbows, with sage green and darker brown accents on both. Her right eye is green, and her left eye is brown, and she bears the scars mentioned above.
Pronouns: she/her
Romantic/sexual orientation: queer, unlabeled
Rosey is an overly friendly, curious Gnome, having been born into and grown up in a household with a Forest Gnome father and Deep Gnome mother, and no siblings. Her parents chose to split their time between their places of origin, spending the Spring and Summer above ground with her paternal kin (illusionists by trade) in the Shilmista Forest, and the Fall and Winter with her maternal kin (mushroom farmers by trade) near there in the Underdark just southeast of the Snowflake Mountains. This meant getting used to travel with regularity from a very young age, to which Rosey took with a gusto, eager to experience the world around her.
However, when she was about 10 years old, on one such journey – heading into the Underdark on the Autumn Equinox – she wandered off, getting separated from her parents and the rest of their traveling party, and found herself having fallen through a strange portal in the caves. It was a pocket of fey energy, a door to the Feywild itself. She does not remember what it was like there or anything that happened to her in that brief fall, and for some reason she did not get stuck in that realm. Rather, the portal spit her out miles and miles and miles away from either of her homelands. Suddenly lost and afraid, she wandered for about half a day before coming to a small town, and was scooped up by the authorities there, who – unable to care for a child themselves – put her in the care of a local Orcish family, merchants, until they could figure out how to get ahold of her parents.
This very large Orc family, made up of three caretakers and five children around her own age, helped to calm her and distract her as best they could. She spent five months there, learning a bit about Orcish life in contrast to her own peoples’, and becoming a part of their family in her heart even though she missed her parents and grandparents dearly.
As soon as the authorities were able to get word to, and back from, her parents (utilizing regular mail systems, as Rosey had no money to hire spellcasters, and the town itself was not able to front that for her), she prepared to return home, her parents choosing to cross the distance to retrieve her instead of asking these “strangers,” from their perspective, to give even more than they’d already given in caring for her for so long. So, several more months later, she settled back into the life she’d lived up until that strange event.
Even though, of course, she found herself changed.
The fey had indeed noticed her during that odd passage, and kept tabs on her in secret as she continued to grow up – still Gnomish, still of her people but slightly…. off, from them, even though she was no less loved.
Eventually, acolytes of a certain Archfey, who did not name themself at the time, reached out to her through her magic – it already being not un-like fey magic, as it is Gnomish, but now skewed even more toward them – as she was feeling particularly lost in her early adulthood. Still finding herself comforted by the “normalcy” of the life she’d lived before her fall, she had spent her teenage years and earlier adulthood leaning into that, to mostly unsatisfying results. In attempting to enter and support her father’s family’s business – illusion magic work – she found that her attempts at such spells fizzled out and backfired, every time. In attempting to enter and support her mother’s family’s work – mushroom farming – she found she didn’t enjoy being rooted in one place, and couldn’t pretend it away. Even in considering rejoining her adoptive family, the Orcs – who she still loved and had kept in touch with all these years – in their merchant trade, she felt like something was still missing. She’d spent her free time wandering the forest and caves of her homes, trying to find peace and helping others who traveled through when asked (and trying to bolster herself from those new connections, in heart), and took to climbing trees and even taking up simple weapons training – at the behest of her concerned family – even earlier on, to give herself a sense of protection after what others assumed was a traumatic and jarring event. She’d taken up the study of the natural world, too, and some more bookish learning to distract and fill her mind. But even though she enjoyed all those pastimes, she still felt unsettled, as if something was missing.
So, this new connection, this communication at long last from the beings who’d spirited her away, for who knows why…. it acknowledged something within her that she’d hardly ever voiced, as bringing up her “accident” tended to worry people – especially her parents – so much that they stopped listening to what she was actually saying whenever she talked about that time.
The pull of that acknowledgement was irresistible.
She chose to abandon all plans for a normal life among her loved ones, leaning into what these faerie-beings – even non-identified – offered her. Her family, ever supportive of and careful with her after she rejoined them, were not exactly pleased to hear this news, but also seemed almost relieved that it was being spoken of – the issue forced – at last, and took her choice almost as a chance to heal what damage they feared may rest within her after that scare, even so many years ago. She broke things off with her only previous paramour (a Deep Gnome woman, who had been on again, off again with her and had never understood Rosey’s need to travel, both in this case and in her family’s previous wandering). She packed her bags, promised to stay in touch, and has journeyed into the wider world to foster that Fey connection via new experiences. This choice made the most sense to her, since it all started at a moment of complete upset in her life, so she thinks that how settled her life had become was not, therefore, fertile ground for increasing her chosen magical power. Or for figuring out what that connection really means, both for herself as a person, for Gnomekind in general, and for the fey.
On her travels so far, she has tried to connect in friendship with pretty much everyone she meets, open to learning about their lives and the world, their different cultures and crafts, however life shows up. She has also been looking for what historical lore she can, on where the Gnomes came from, to validate the connection she feels with the beings that have now blessed her with their power and protection. Before joining the Misfits, she had tried three other adventuring groups, but did not fit in as well with them and those working alliances ended quickly. As such, she is very attached to her current party, absolutely considering them found family since they all fit together so well.
Once she’d spent a few years in this work, both as a hired hand on and off, and adventuring as such missions and connections came her way, she was finally given awareness of her Patron directly – not meeting her directly, but finally being given knowledge of who she is. She has been told she may call her the Lady of Odd Stars (which, in her head, she shortens to “Oddstar”) and given a greater sense of this being’s benevolence, parental warmth for her and amused curiosity about her, too. This reassurance has only served to re-solidify the rightness of her path, in her heart.
Rosey also writes home regularly, to keep her family appraised of her well-being and share stories of her adventures. Because of her previous failed adventuring parties, she initially held back details of her new party members in these letters. She continues to refer to them only by the first initials of their first names, and is vague about the details, especially about Rain and Hek. But is very clear about how much they all care about, support and protect each other.
Personality: As mentioned above, very friendly and curious, with an overconfidence that sometimes gets her into a bit of trouble but has otherwise been a gift (knowing she is worthy beyond all wins and losses, knowing she is and has always been loved). Uses this as a mask sometimes to avoid dealing with difficult emotions, as she was taught to sweep difficult emotions under the rug in her childhood, especially after the incident. Even though, in the end, nothing but good came from that.
I always forget that this website exists. Hey gang, how’s it going? It’s me, a forever DM who has countless characters he wants to play.
This is Grudvaar the Grand, an arch fey patron warlock who is being tricked into thinking his powers are his own by his Arch Fey Friend. She also tricks him into doing good deeds, wearing her colors, and believing he is the new emperor of the world. It’s all fun and games until this little goblin really tries to become all powerful.
