Choroba Birdthistle

Full name: Mrs. Dr. Choroba E. Styring-Birdthistle. What the E. stands for isn't entirely clear; she offers a different middle name every time she introduces herself.

## History

She's always had an interest in diseases and disease control.

She was never suited for the centaurish life. Hunt, fish, skeet-shoot... none of that was for her. She craved intellectual stimulation. She eventually found herself at Runewood University, at first making exceptionally good grades, but she was expelled for attempting to experiment on other students. Undaunted, she continued her studies on her own.

You may have heard of the Birdthistles, a family of eccentric geniuses who each have their own specialty. Most of them are human, but that doesn't prevent eccentric geniuses from other races from marrying into the family. Choroba E. Styring became one such example, marrying the eminent anthropologist Dr. David G. Birdthistle. Her eccentricity and his outward dullness were somehow a perfect match. Because he's a doctor, she now calls herself "Mrs. Dr."; this doesn't fool anyone, especially since she cheerfully explains it just means she's married to a doctor, not that she's a doctor herself.

Running low on supplies one day, she went out to procure more materials for her experiments, and saw an ad for the local Adventurer's Guild. She instantly saw the possibilities — they'd pay her to infect "monsters" and "villains" with whatever toxic chemicals she was currently spontaneously generating in her bloodstream.

And that is how Mrs. Dr. Choroba E. Styring-Birdthistle became A Hero.

## Appearance

It's hard to say exactly what she looks like, mainly due to the surgical mask covering half her face (and that was before she got the plague mask) and her usual outfit of bulky form-concealing clothing — baggy pants and shirt, stained white lab coat. Her messy shoulder-length blood-red hair is her only distinctive feature that isn't usually hidden — that, and her voice, a somewhat-nasal cheerful monotone. Well, and the whole "half a horse" thing, with brownish fur approximately matching her hair color fading to black at her hooves, with a black tail. That's hard to miss.

## Personality

She prefers the quiet of her lab to the hustle and bustle of a crowded street. Because of this, she is almost entirely lacking in social skills, with absolutely no filter between brain and mouth. She's a compulsive liar, but not a believable one. Does not remember names well, and her nicknames are often unintentionally insulting. She's not evil, but she's certainly amoral (and rather clueless about it; she assumes everyone is like that). She often says weird things at an attempt at humor, but she's so bad at it that it comes across as the ravings of a madwoman instead of a joke.

She also dislikes leaving home because she knows that human cities and buildings were not built with centaurs in mind, and often feels in the way. She covers this with more bad attempts at humor, such as constantly referring to herself as a "horse-butt" instead of a centaur. She has a particular dislike of stairs, especially steep stairs.

As much as she loves her comfy lab, she's learned that the quickest way to both gather resources and field-test her theories in a socially-acceptable manner is to go dungeon-delving for treasure or helping some warriors and wizards take down a goblin king or something.

Her husband often tries to act as the voice of reason in social situations, but he's no adventurer, so she's all on her own much of the time.

## Goals

She still trying to get a hold of a sample of Liquid Death, to add it to her diseases. Other than that, who knows what kind of oddball things she's trying to accomplish.