Milla Kramer

Milla, in her Epoch casual clothing

### Connections

Kika, Fan Brightgrass, Luciana, Frederick (adventuring companions)Ridley Elderstone (romantic partner)

### First Appeared

Episode 1: The Metal Sphere

Milla is a gnome tinkerer/gunslinger from Ravenshire. She is an adventuring companion of Kika, Fan Brightgrass and Ridley Elderstone, and pilot of the Epoch.

## Personality

Milla is curious, enthusiastic and optimistic, sometimes to the point of naïveté. This outlook results in Milla not having the wisdom to handle the harsh realities of life particularly well when faced with them, often overcompensating or simply shutting down until she's had time to process the new information. Examples include her sudden obsession with self-defense after almost having her throat slit by a bandit in Episode 4, and her sudden change of demeanor when Kika suggested the metal spheres' purpose may be to cull excess population as with livestock.

Milla is passionate and a little obsessive, with severe tunnel vision. When the tinkerer begins development on an idea or project, she will often work to the point of forgetting to eat, drink, sleep, or socialize, falling asleep at her desk regularly and rarely leaving its location. The same behavior can be observed with her deep interest in the Steampunk Slug book series.

On the more obviously negative end of things, Milla can be insecure and guarded when it comes to her interactions with others. Due to her negative treatment and reputation in Ravenshire, she suffers from low self-esteem in some areas, though she usually keeps this well buried - perhaps even subconsciously - behind her enthusiasm and cheerful demeanor. Milla carries a significant amount of guilt around the death of her parents, which she considers to be a result of her actions.

Milla's interests aside from tinkering and engineering include science fiction, puzzles, and reading. She generally favors sweet foods and drinks, and has a phobic dislike of spiders. She seems to like furred animals, reacting positively to Bose. Despite her isolated life back in Ravenshire, she seems to enjoy socializing, always happy when the party returns from a quest and eager to join them for meals or drinks, though she can be socially awkward and unaware of certain norms or cues.

Milla's alignment is neutral good.

## Appearance

Milla is 3'2" tall - on the shorter side for a gnome of her age - with short blue-green hair, light blue-grey eyes and tan skin. Her hands, though small and nimble enough to work with tiny clockwork devices and components, show years of use in tinkering.

Milla usually wears clothes with an emphasis on practicality as opposed to appearance. Browns, tans and beiges are a staple, expressing herself mainly through accessories like her tool belt and colorful socks. Since boarding the *Epoch* she has taken to wearing black pants and a grey tank top discovered aboard.

As of Episode 6, she has a large scar in the shape of a spiral on her chest, and wears a holy symbol of Freyr around her neck, usually tucked into her shirt.

## Items

Milla currently possesses the following items:

 I-rune necklace
 Quills, ink & paper
 Emerald & gold hair clip
 *United Alliance* tactical armor

Milla no longer possesses the following items:

## Biography

### Early life

Milla was born an only child to her parents in Ravenshire. Naturally curious, Milla showed a natural talent for tinkering and problem solving from a young age. As Milla grew older she also developed a deep fascination with the Barrier, to her parents' concern.

As an early teen, Milla would launch solo expeditions to the Barrier to investigate its nature. These would usually end with one or both of her parents sprinting to her rescue and escorting her home. Nonetheless Milla persevered, sneaking out to conduct tests on the Barrier, even after promising her family she would wait until she was an adult and could hire protection before continuing her research.

### Loss of parents

One night, when out on one of her secret research trips, Milla's parents found her bed empty. Searching for the teenage Milla near the Barrier, they were attacked by a metal sphere. Both were hit by the sphere's fire ray, leaving only their clothing, belongings, and traces of ash.

After a period of grieving, Milla's resolve was only strengthened by the loss of her parents, convinced that her research will lead her to discover why her parents were taken - and how to stop it from happening again. She dropped out of school and immersed herself in her research, doing the minimum amount of work possible (usually fixing clocks, watches and other mechanical devices) to provide for herself. Milla became somewhat of a shut-in, living a life of near solitude save for the handful of contacts for whom she would do work, and developed a reputation around Ravenshire for being eccentric and weird. When she found the loneliness of her parents' house overwhelming, she distracted herself by creating overly complex machines and reading science fiction novels, her favorites being the Steampunk Slug: the Slimy Scientist series.

Despite all her work, Milla did not make much progress on her goal... until she put out a flyer seeking help.

### Meeting Kika and Fan

Milla's flyer was picked up by Kika, who shared her curiosity around the Barrier. Kika and Fan Brightgrass then defeated a metal sphere and brought it to Milla, to her astonishment.

Still hardly working, Milla was unable to offer Kika the reward promised by the flyer, and it seemed that Kika would take the sphere for herself until Milla made a heartfelt plea. Kika handed over the sphere, but it wasn't long before Bartholomew entered Milla's home with several guards, and demanded the sphere be transferred to him. Kika fled with the sphere, and Milla made a snap decision to join the two adventurers: if it meant she would get to examine the object and find out what lies beyond the Barrier, it was worth any price.

Milla left her home with 40 gold and next to no belongings, and traveled with Kika and Fan (and later Ridley Elderstone) while examining the metal sphere.

### Death and resurrection

After departing Gladeston, Milla joined Kika, Fan, and Ridley investigating a cave occupied by hobgoblins. During a tough battle, Milla was slain by a critical hit from an Air Elemental, crushing her ribcage and internal organs.

Her companions rushed her body back to Gladeston, where she was resurrected by a cleric of the god Freyr. Milla was consumed with guilt as the adventurers sacrificed the lion's share of their wealth to save her, and promised never to put herself in harm's way.

Previously nonreligious, Milla now wears a holy symbol of Freyr in the form of a necklace. She also claims she spoke to the god during her resurrection, and that if he calls on her to do him a service, she has pledged to do so without question.

Milla gained a large scar in the shape of a spiral on her chest as a permanent effect of her death and resurrection.

### Destiny

As a result of her promise to remain out of harm's way, Milla began developing a ranged weapon using orbs from the interior of the metal sphere. She commissioned custom components from Baltazar Blevins, at Blevins Smithy in Armaster.

Upon completion of her weapon, the ray gun Destiny, Milla became a gunslinger.

### Capture and escape

Milla was captured by Luciana in Khaldun after the party instructed her to wait for them to return from the mines at the inn. Luciana then used her as leverage to force the party to surrender. The party was reunited with Milla in Leviton, where she had been placed in a jail cell awaiting further transportation. When Ridley freed the group, all their belongings were recovered except for *Destiny*, which was taken by Luciana. Destiny was later taken back by Kika at the Enforcers of the First Order headquarters in Oratia.

### Beyond the Barrier

After crossing the Barrier, Milla became the chief engineer and pilot of the Epoch.

## Goals and future

Though she originally insisted she wanted to venture beyond the Barrier to stop the metal spheres from killing other innocents like her parents, she has since admitted to Ridley Elderstone that her primary motivation is simply curiosity.

## Relationships

Milla appears to have little experience socializing due to her isolated life in Ravenshire. She confirmed in Episode 16 she had no dating or sexual experience.

### Relationship with Kika

Milla seems to admire Kika, her attempt to imitate Kika and Fan's combat skills being one of the errors that led to her death and resurrection. If Kika has a favor to ask, Milla has been known to drop everything and go out of her way to help - after all, she'd still be alone in Ravenshire if it weren't for the tiefling. Their relationship seems to resemble that of sisters, and Milla is one of the few individuals for whom Kika appears to have a soft spot.

### Relationship with Fan

Milla's relationship with Fan seems more formal than that with Kika. Milla appreciates that Fan is behind her when she's making her own decisions, and treats her as the adult she is - and not like glass as Kika sometimes does. Milla and Fan share the fact that they are not heavy drinkers, ending up as caretakers when the others occasionally overindulge. They also share an interest in *Steampunk Slug*. More recently, Milla has asked Fan for advice connecting with a higher power after she began to suffer from nightmares, and she has begun learning meditation from the paladin.

### Relationship with Ridley

Milla accepted Ridley into the group quickly, despite her initial skepticism, perhaps due to his interest in her tinkering and willingness to keep her company well into the night. That doesn't stop her from laughing at his misfortunes, though. Milla also owes her life to the halfling, her resurrection only being possible thanks to his ruby. The pair have since grown close thanks to their shared interest in fantasy and science fiction novels, and academic/intellectual pursuits. As of Episode 35: Eastern Maintenance Facility, Ridley and Milla have entered a dating relationship after a period of mutual flirting.