Zella portrait by Jessica Kuczynski
Download Character Sheet: Zella Character Sheet
You can find the other premade characters here.
Who Zella Is
Player:
Name Pronunciation: zehl-lah
Gender: Woman.
Manner: Passionate.
Goal: Discovery.
Backstory: Zella grew up in a community of Fairies that collectively maintains a magical forest garden. Each Fairy in the garden has a unique connection to nature. Zella’s connection is her ability to talk to plants and harness their magic with alchemy. The plants tell her what their properties are and Zella experiments with different ways to use them. Zella is driven by the thrill of discovery and that drive has puller her out into the wider world. She misses her home, but there is so much to discover out here.
Depression: When Zella is working on a project she is excited about she has intense drive. However, if something stops her from making progress on her project for more than a few days, she struggles. The longer she goes without her project to energize her, the worse it gets. Everything takes more effort. Food doesn’t taste as good and sometimes she feels like she is moving in slow motion. Even simple, everyday tasks can feel overwhelming.
Behavior: Zella can be a bit quiet until a topic she is interested in comes up. Then she becomes talkative and animated. She is most passionate about plants and alchemy, but she has a broad interest in nature, magic, culture, and anything that is related to alchemy, such as fabric dyeing, baking, painting, and metallurgy.
Appearance: Zella is a six inch tall young adult Fairy with the dramatic yellow and black wings of a swallowtail butterfly. She has gracefully curving black antennae, dark brown skin with red undertones, and her hair is a short afro of tight, spiky, black curls. Zella wears a flowing dress made of exuberant, yellow flower petals and she has a bag made from green leaves slung over her shoulder.
Relationships:
What Zella Can Do
Class: Rogue.
Body #: 3
Mind #: 5
Species: Fairy.
Species Trait—Flight: Zella has wings and can use them to fly.
Species Trait—Plant Talker: You can communicate with living plants. This is done by getting close to the plant and using a verbal or signed language to speak to them. Only you can perceive their replies. Plants know about some of their properties, what they are currently experiencing, how they’ve been interacted with recently, and significant events in their past, such as droughts, fires, floods, and major injuries. Their descriptions of the people and objects that interact with them are basic and they can’t give you information about actions that did not directly affect them. The exception to this is magical plants. Some magical plants are more aware of their environments. These plants also have their own desires and goals. This means that their cooperation needs to be earned or negotiated for. Negotiating with magical plants uses the Deception, Diplomacy, and Intimidation skills.
Physical Defense—Shield: You are trained to use a shield for physical defense. You own a shield and you can use this training any time that you are holding it. However your shield requires one hand to use, so you cannot do any two-handed tasks while using it. In addition, your shield can be taken away by disarming attacks. Zella’s shield is made from layers of alchemically treated leaves that are combined to produce a material that is light, strong, and springy. When the shield is hit it flexes and springs back so that she is thrown to safety.
Mental Defense—Protective Outfit: You are trained to use a special protective outfit for mental defense and you can use this training any time that you are wearing it. However you are unable to sleep in this outfit (perhaps it is too delicate or lumpy to sleep in), and it takes a significant amount of time to put on. Zella’s dress is made from a magic flower.
Body Skills:
Combat Skills
Unarmed Fighting (Unarmed actions like punching, kicking, tripping, and wrestling)
Melee Combat (Using melee weapons like swords, spears, and axes)
Ranged Combat (Using ranged weapons like bows and throwing daggers)
Strength Skills
Athletics (Strength and endurance activities like running, jumping, and throwing)
Climbing (Climbing up and down trees, rocks, and other steep surfaces)
✔ Flying (Doing complex maneuvers and flying in difficult conditions)
Riding (Caring for and riding mounts)
Swimming (Doing complex maneuvers and swimming in difficult conditions)
Dexterity Skills
Acrobatics (Feats of agility, balance, and flexibility)
✔ Manual Dexterity (Picking locks, disabling traps, pick-pocketing, etc.)
✔ Mobility (Using agility and flexibility to keep moving)
✔ Stealth (Hiding, moving silently, and generally being sneaky)
Mind Skills:
Knowledge Skills
✔ Arcana (Magical knowledge)
Culture (Religions, customs, languages, and history)
✔ Nature (Knowing about animals, plants, weather, geography, and physiology)
Technology (The basics of math, engineering, and crafting)
Social Skills
Communicating with Animals (Communication and interaction with animals)
Deception (Misleading others)
Diplomacy (Honest communication)
Intimidation (Using fear and awe to get cooperation)
✔ Performance (Getting and holding people’s attention, disguises)
Awareness Skills
Insight (Reading people and assessing social situations)
Perception (Noticing subtle things in your environment)
✔ Survival (Navigating and sustaining life in different environments, first aid)
Main Performance Styles: Singing and dancing.
Ability #1—Alchemist: You are skilled at extracting and combining chemicals to create substances with useful properties. All alchemists have a bag of basic alchemical items. These items don’t need to be counted or tracked. It is assumed that you are periodically restocking this bag.
The basic alchemical items that you have in your bag are glow potions, makeup, basic dyes, glue, sticky traps, flasks of grease, solvents that dissolve glue and grease, smoke bombs, stink bombs, smoke neutralizer, bottles of acid, acid neutralizer, flammable liquids, fire suppressants, sleeping drafts, mild poisons that are just enough to sicken someone, and simple antidotes that cure mild poisons.
You also have a portable alchemy kit that allows you to craft more advanced alchemical items. Advanced alchemical items take time to make and are made one at a time. When you make each one, decide what property you want it to have. The game master will work with you to help ensure that this property makes sense for what alchemy can do. Because these items are individually made, you do need to keep track of them.
Modern-day chemistry and pharmaceuticals are a great source of inspiration for what alchemy can do. Examples of advanced alchemical items that you can make are calming potions, hallucinogens, truth serum, fireworks, explosives, alchemical fire, fire extinguishers, deadly poisons, tricky antitoxins, and scents that lure or repel specific animals.
Once made, anyone can use an alchemical item. Throwing one at a nearby target is easy and does not require a roll. However, difficult throws require an Athletics skill roll. Those with the Adept Thrower ability can do tricky things, like put a spin on a flask to control the direction of spray when it shatters or bounce a flask off a hard surface in such a way that it doesn’t break until it reaches its destination.
Any time that an alchemical item is used, you will need to roll Alchemist to determine whether it has the desired effect. Alchemist is used by rolling mind and you are trained in it.
Ability #2—Magical Alchemy (Plant Magic): You can create alchemical items that are imbued with Plant Magic and you own a portable kit for creating alchemical items that contain this type of magic. Using your magical alchemy kit, you can craft potions and flasks that contain any magic spell or effect that can normally be cast with this type of magic. These alchemical items safely contain the magic until the potion is consumed, or the flask poured out or broken. Then it is as if the spell was just cast.
Once made, anyone can use a magical alchemical item. Throwing one at a nearby target is easy and does not require a roll. However, difficult throws require an Athletics skill roll. Those with the Adept Thrower ability can do tricky things, like put a spin on a flask to control the direction of spray when it shatters or bounce a flask off a hard surface in such a way that it doesn’t break until it reaches its destination.
Any time that a magical alchemical item is used, you will need to roll Magical Alchemy to find out whether it has the desired effect. On failed rolls, the magic goes awry. Magical Alchemy is used by rolling mind and you are trained in it.
Plant Magic: You can connect with plants and magically manipulate them. Examples of effects that you can create are blasts of sleep-inducing spores, magically animated vines, slippery algae coatings, zones of entangling plants, and thorn walls. You can also do things like reshape plants, cause a plant to become bioluminescent, heal plants, speak with plants, command non-sapient plant creatures, resist harm from plant-based poisons, sense specific plants, wither plants, speed up plant growth, and temporarily give people plant-like traits. Plant Magic is used by rolling mind and you are trained in it.
Ability #3—Adept Thrower: You are so skilled at throwing that you can do improbable things, like bounce a flask off a stone wall without breaking it, throw accurately while doing acrobatic stunts, pitch a smoke bomb so that it weaves around obstacles, and flip a switch with the hilt of a tossed knife. Three times a day, you may reroll an Athletics or Ranged Combat roll for a challenging throwing task. This reroll must happen before the results have been revealed and you must take the new result, even if it is lower.
Ability #4—Extra Species Trait: You have manifested an additional species trait. This means that Zella has two species traits instead of one.
Equipment Zella Has
Special Item—Enchanted Bag: This magic bag is considerably larger on the inside than it is on the outside. It is light and its weight is always the same, regardless of how much it is holding. In addition, the mouth of this bag can stretch wide enough to allow one medium-sized piece of furniture to be placed within the bag.
Equipment for Abilities: Portable alchemy kit, portable magical alchemy kit, and the basic alchemical items that are listed in the Alchemist ability.
Tools for Skills: Tinkering tools that are used for the Manual Dexterity skill. Dancing outfit that is used for the Performance skill. First aid kit that is used for the Survival skill.
Defensive Equipment: Zella has a shield.
Standard Supplies:
- Everyday outfit
- Sturdy backpack
- Waterproof tarp
- Towel
- Bedroll
- Fire-starting kit
- Lantern with oil
- Portable cooking pot
- Wooden dishes and utensils
- Utility knife
- Waterskin
- Travel rations
- Rope
- Twine
- Chalk
- Soap
- One handful of coins
