Bryn Gemflower

> *"We can now initiate Phase One of Operation: Elimination Attempt Targeting Annoying Small Spellcaster, or 'EAT ASS' for short."*
> *-Bryn Gemflower, after being bullied by Chio Weaver during the 2023 Spring Battle Royale*
>
>

## Bryn Gemflower

Token art of Bryn. Original art by "GreyDev1l" (https://greydev1l.tumblr.com/post/634158431997132800/did-a-thingy); token by Zach "Seelder"

## Appearances

### Appears in

Toivoan Trainwreck

Bryn Gemflower is a half-drow, half-human male Player Character who sails on the *Changemaker* in the *Toivoan Trainwreck* campaign. His primary class is Sorcerer.

## Appearance and Personality

Bryn is a young man in his mid-20s with pale skin and white hair. He wears a long black coat, mainly to hide the signs of his Clockwork Magic - spectral clockwork gears hover over the skin of his arms. The gears normally spin slowly in place, but their behavior often changes when Bryn casts a spell: speeding up or slowing down to cast *Haste* or *Slow*; spreading over his body and locking into place to form *Armor of Agathys*; or grinding to a screeching halt to cause a *Headache*.

Bryn is a brilliant battlefield tactician and uses a logical, mathematical approach to combat, relying on his vast library of knowledge and constantly assessing foes to determine the best way to leverage the party's skills to exploit weaknesses. Unfortunately, his curiosity often leads him to wander off on his own in dangerous environments, usually resulting in the party having to come rescue him. While attending the Albani Institute of Magic, Bryn received extensive magical training, allowing him to recognize and use magic from across the arcane spectrum. However, Bryn was deeply unsettled by classmates at the academy who went to extreme lengths to get an edge over their rivals, usually by taking magical stimulants to push themselves beyond safe limits. As such, Bryn is extremely cautious of Blood Magic, despite having witnessed its power firsthand. While he believes there is nothing inherently wrong with Blood Magic, Bryn is not willing to use his own life energy - or that of his companions - to fuel his own power, lest he succumb to the temptation to push just a little bit farther.

Bryn has a kind nature and hesitant to hurt someone who might be innocent, even if "the job" calls for it; this sometimes puts him at odds with some of his more practical, business-minded companions, such as Seatoad Coin. After spending his childhood as an outcast, Bryn is outgoing and eager to make friends, especially with creatures of uncommon racial or mixed-race heritage like himself. His time at the academy sharpened his wits, and he is always ready with a joke. However, his experiences there also left him deeply distrustful of anyone who wants to "make a deal" or claims they can offer him something. He is especially distrustful of the Fey folk in particular, hinting at some incident in his past which has yet to be explained. As such, having Fey ancestry himself, Bryn pushes himself to be "better" than his heritage, striving to be exceptionally honest, forthcoming, and fair - sometimes to a fault.

Due to his half-elf, half-human heritage, Bryn is an adult, but has not yet reached the age where he would start to develop a serious interest in women (or men); he has had the occasional crush, but has yet to have (or seek out) a serious romantic relationship. However, this does not stop NPCs or even fellow party members from flirting with him, and he is easily flustered despite his wit and charisma, much to the amusement of his companions. Bryn's first kiss was with a succubus who charmed him while the party investigated a haunted house in Nousha; even though she had already charmed (and in some cases, slept with) almost everyone else in the party, Bryn was thoroughly convinced she loved him, and he was utterly heartbroken when she ran away after the rest of the party chased her off.

## Background

### Childhood

Bryn was born to a human father and a drow mother. Bryn never met his mother, being told she died in childbirth, and when he was very young, his father remarried to a human woman and had two human children with her. Bryn was close to his younger step-brother and step-sister, and his father and step-mother treated him well, but being the only non-human in his family, he always felt a bit of an outcast. His life at school was lonely; his village had a mostly human population, and he was often picked on (or worse) by the other students. The ostracism grew worse after Bryn began to demonstrate magical talent and spectral clockwork gears appeared over his arms. While some of the other students also had magical abilities, Bryn was the only one with innate talent; the other students learned their magic through study, and they usually excluded him from their practice. Bryn's extended human family was no better, treating him as the black sheep of the family, and he was often subject to avoidance (at best) or disdain (at worst) from his aunts and uncles and torment by his cousins. The one exception was Bryn's half-orc uncle "Denny" Dench, in whom Bryn found a kindred spirit as another mixed race outcast; however, when Bryn was still quite young, Uncle Denny disappeared from his life without explanation from his father, and Bryn never learned what happened to him.

### The Albani Institute of Magic

Despite his miserable social life, Bryn did well in school academically, and his strong performance and innate magical prowess attracted the attention of the Albani Institute of Magic, who offered him a full scholarship. He held the day he received the letter of invitation as the best day of his life, and he immediately saw his chance to escape his childhood and begin life anew elsewhere. Upon arriving at his new home, Bryn was struck by the variety and diversity of the student body; he had lived his entire childhood surrounded almost exclusively by humans, but the buildings at the Institute had accommodations for students with four legs, students with wings, exceptionally large or small students, and even students who could not hear or speak except through telepathy. Bryn threw himself into his studies, and he quickly began to excel academically. Unbeknownst to Bryn, Krystal Latte and Tahti Randaja, who would eventually adventure with him on the *Changemaker,* were also students at the Institute during the time he was there, but he wouldn't meet them until after they left school.

Despite his academic success, Bryn would grow to become disillusioned with life at the Institute. Upon arriving, Bryn had believed that anyone could succeed there, but he soon began to feel that the people who succeeded at A.I.M. were the ones with the best connections or the ones willing to stab their friends in the back, rather than the ones with the best ideas or the ones who worked the hardest. Bryn is reluctant to share exactly what brought about this change in attitude, but midway through his second year, Bryn chose to leave school.

Despite leaving the Institute without graduating, Bryn's time there was not wasted: in addition to some harsh lessons in worldly politics, Bryn's lessons heightened his magical skills, and his interactions with other students sharpened his wit. Bryn also picked up enough Bard magic that he would eventually be able to inspire his companions and beguile enemies in combat. Finally, Bryn picked up a habit of journaling regularly, and he also carried a book of poetry as a memoir from his days at school.

While far from the richest student to attend A.I.M., Bryn wasn't the poorest, either; some students had to take on crushing student debt in order to afford the fees. Bryn can often be heard saying how fortunate he was to have a scholarship, and to not have to take out any loans.

### The Start of an Adventure

After leaving school, Bryn lived the life of a nomad, earning a modest living working odd jobs. Eventually, he found himself in Nousha, and one morning, a stranger on the street forced a note into Bryn's hand and ran off. The note claimed to be a message from someone called "Natch 'Larry' Lief," inviting him to catch a "big break" at the Longstrider's Consortium. While wary of a scam, Bryn was already headed in that direction to apply for a bartending job, and decided to cautiously observe from afar. Unfortunately, the message did indeed turn out to be a trap, and while waiting in line, Bryn and five other strangers - Seatoad Coin, Ruzyd, Tahti Randaja, Krystal Latte, and Safira - were attacked and captured by bounty hunters; unknown to them, Pitney Bones had placed false bounties on random people to cause a distraction from her drug operation, and the six were thrown in prison. With assistance from The Agent, the six escaped from jail, stole a boat, and rechristened it *Changemaker,* thus beginning the Toivoan Trainwreck.

## Recent Events

### Ostrea

While roaming the Ostrean Plains in search of the Twelve Spiders' Ostrean drug lab, Bryn and his companions came across a tribe of gnolls ritualistically dancing around one of the wayfaring crystals that dotted the plains. As that particular crystal had been behaving erratically, and the crystals being necessary for the navigation of the plains, the party decided to intervene, and the gnoll guarding the perimeter became hostile. While nobody in the party spoke Gnoll, Bryn nonetheless attempted to diffuse the situation by trying to communicate in several different languages. The guard reacted strangely when Bryn spoke to him in Primordial, first cowering on the ground in fear, and then interrupting the ritual to summon his chieftain, Chief Crackedhands. Still unable to speak with the gnolls, Bryn and Coin attempted nonverbal diplomatic communication with Crackedhands until the arrival of their strange reptilian shaman, who called himself Ocen of the Craggy Cave. Ocen, who spoke common, explained that the gnolls were entreating a mysterious entity called Kashanah for knowledge. Because Bryn and the party had behaved honorably, they were invited to join in the ritual, and Bryn and several of his companions accepted the invitation. The gnoll guard offered to give Bryn his dagger, seemingly as a token of friendship; Bryn accepted the gift and gave the gnoll his own slingshot in return.

Most of party joined Crackedhands and a dozen other gnolls in a circle around the wayfaring crystal, and Ocen summoned Kashanah from a nearby cave. Kashanah turned out to be a spirit in the form of a massive snake, and all present were permitted to entreat her for knowledge. The gnolls asked her where to hunt and how to avoid the region's apex predators; Bryn asked her how to find the drug lab they were seeking to destroy; and other party members asked her questions about people and items from their pasts. Kashanah answered each of their questions, and the party was prepared to depart when Kashanah asked them a question of her own: which of them had been chosen? The adventurers were puzzled by her question, until Chief Crackedhands - now able to verbally communicate with the party due to the ritual's magic - whispered to Bryn that, in exchange for the gift of knowledge, it was expected that one of the participants be offered to Kashanah as a sacrifice. The party were horrified, but with no options but to either attack or wait and see if one of the gnolls would be chosen, they waited in suspense. Unfortunately, fate was against them, and Kashanah declared that Bryn had been chosen to be eaten. The party desperately attempted to prepare for combat, but before they could act, the gnoll guard with whom Bryn had exchanged weapons ran up from the perimeter and offered himself as a sacrifice in Bryn's place. Bryn watched in horror as Kashanah devoured the gnoll whole, and she slithered back into the cave as the ritual concluded.

As the gnolls dispersed, Ocen explained to a shell-shocked Bryn that, to the gnolls, an exchange of weapons was equivalent to an exchange of lives. Bryn had spoken to the gnolls in Primordial, the same language that Kashanah spoke, and the guard - called Sootmouth - had thus believed Bryn was a divine figure of similar power and majesty. By offering Bryn his dagger, Sootmouth had declared that he was giving his life to Bryn, and by giving Sootmouth his slingshot in return, Bryn had honored Sootmouth beyond measure. Shattered, Bryn tried to make sense of a senseless situation by recovering some remnant of Sootmouth's body or learning about him from the other gnolls, but as Sootmouth had been swallowed whole and the other gnolls could not communicate with Bryn outside the ritual, Bryn had no choice by to face reality: a complete stranger had sacrificed their life for Bryn out of pure selflessness, a gift which Bryn had neither asked for nor deserved. This sacrifice had a profound effect on Bryn, and - after first drinking himself into a stupor - he has since come to view every day as a gift which he has no way to repay except by defending those dear to him, protecting the innocent, and giving his all to the mission he set out to accomplish.

### Return to Nousha

After being trapped in the Ostrean drug lab, the team were evacuated to Nousha. During their brief visit, Bryn took steps to

### Noushan Summer Battle Royale (2022, 7th level)

Bryn also participated in the Noushan Summer Battle Royale, where he met Radien Odinson, Kyramis, Caraway Aster, and several of the Teens of Toivoa. While Bryn was able to survive until the later rounds by forming alliances with the Teens of Toivoa to defeat the stronger Radien, Kyramis, and Iceberg Sparkle, he was eventually defeated by repeated castings of *Raulothim's Psychic Lance* from Chio Weaver. In a show of sportsmanship, Chio revived Bryn after the battle, and he and Rifyr Ironspring assisted Bryn in converting the arena's wild magic surge generator into the Advanced Wand of Wonder, which they gifted to Bryn and the rest of the *Chagemaker's* crew. The battle served as an introduction for the two adventuring parties, and the crew of the *Changemaker* have since commissioned several crafting jobs from the Teens of Toivoa.

## Character Build

Bryn is primarily a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, with several levels in Valor Bard. In a party full of melee combatants, Bryn rarely has a chance to cast a *Fireball,* and he instead focuses on team support and controlling the battlefield through spells like *Slow* and *Haste*, getting a teammate out of a bind with *Vortex Warp, Silvery Barbs,* or *Dispel Magic,* or controlling the battlefield with *Silas' Hinder Fate.* Due to his Clockwork Magic, Fey-Touched ancestry, and Bard magic, Bryn has access to a huge array of spells, and he often augments this list with a sizable library of spell scrolls to ensure he always has the right tool for the job available at any given time. Bryn's approach to combat is, "Keep your teammates alive, and they'll win the fight for you". As such, Bryn has almost no offensive presence, and while he can debilitate foes with a well-placed *Blindness*, he struggles to damage them on his own, his options being mostly limited to his Wand of Magic Missiles.

In battle, Bryn carries a Staff of Healing, which cost him 10,000 gold pieces and a date with the vendor. The staff has been upgraded beyond its original capacity to carry an additional charge (the face on the staff also resembles Bryn's own face; why the artificer in question chose to make this aesthetic change is unclear). He also uses a Wand of Identify to quickly identify foreign magical items, a Headband of Intellect to boost his intelligence and help him identify enemy magic, and a Wand of Magic Missiles to break the concentration of an enemy mage or bait out a *Shield* spell. Bryn also wears Presto's Magic Hat, which allows him to try to pull various items from it if he makes the request in rhyme; he uses the hat to summon mana potions and spell scrolls to increase his staying power on the battlefield, and he often spends copious amounts of time composing limericks in advance to politely ask the hat for the needed item. Bryn was also gifted the Advanced Wand of Wonder by Chio Weaver and Rifyr Ironspring of the Teens of Toivoa after Chio defeated Bryn in a Battle Royale, but having witnessed huge magical explosions and being briefly shrunk to near-atomic size by surges of wild magic, Bryn is too cautious to risk using the wand himself, and he shares it with other party members (namely Safira) who might be willing to take the risk.

Bryn's biggest weakness is being blinded, which he discovered after a *Darkness* spell in the Den of Spiders left him completely helpless. As such, he always keeps *Lesser Restoration* handy, even though several other party members also have access to similar magic. Bryn is also very weak in melee combat; after a cursed chair overwhelmed him with paranoia and temporarily turned him against the party, Ruzyd knocked him out with a single punch, earning him the nickname "One-Punch Bryn". After that incident, Bryn learned the *Shield* spell and asked Safira to teach him how to wear simple leather armor to help increase his durability. After the events in Ostrea, Bryn upgraded his defenses further, learning to wear a breastplate and carry a shield in combat.

### Character Stats

* STR 11 / DEX 16 / CON 14 (orig. 13) / INT 19 (orig. 12) / WIS 12 / CHA 20 (orig. 19)
* Class: Sorcerer 9 (Clockwork Soul), Bard 3 (Valor)
* Feats: Metamagic Adept, Fey Touched (Charisma), Chef (Constitution), Ostrean Wayfinder
* Metamagic: Subtle Spell, Quickened Spell, Twinned Spell, Distant Spell
* Favorite cantrips: Silas' Hinder Fate, Headache, Mind Sliver, Prestidigitation
* Signature spells: Haste, Slow, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Vortex Warp, Misty Step, Mirror Image, Enhance Ability, Blindness/Deafness, Silvery Barbs, Faerie Fire, Armor of Agathys, Wall of Fire

## Quotes

*"I'm a straight shooter. Well, figuratively, I mean. I don't really do much actual shooting. Except for Magic Missile, I guess. Those do always go in a straight line, now that I think about it... but it does that automatically, so it doesn't really count."*

*-Bryn, about himself*

## Picture Gallery

Original concept art that inspired Bryn's appearance (art by GreyDev1l, https://greydev1l.tumblr.com/post/634158431997132800/did-a-thingy)Token art for Bryn (original art by GreyDev1l, https://greydev1l.tumblr.com/post/634158431997132800/did-a-thingy; token by Zach "Seelder")