Saara Smallwick

*Do not read beyond **this point** if you want to avoid being **spoiled!***

**Saara Smallwick** is the recently-hired navigator of the *Nightingale* and is also a wizard. She was brought on after the death of the previous navigator, Jamie, to the Novalbian Navy. She herself is halfling nobility, originally hailing from the Empire. She has a facial tattoo that denotes this lineage, but also possesses a monocle to try and hide this. Saara is currently wanted for treason by Novo Albia.

## Biography

Finding a strange map, after Saara joined the crew of the *Nightingale* this was brought to the rest of the crew's attention. After receiving the approval of Captain Vermillion Versailles, they followed up on a suggestion by Zinsy Sparksprocket to get one of Zinsy's contacts, an information broker named Widow to decipher it. Landing on Valt, en route to Widow's lair, they encountered a street preacher, who accosted Versailles. Saara managed to distract the preacher and his crowd by casting a fire illusion on a boy in the crowd.

After leaving Widow's lair, while in Valt's market Saara was nearly pickpocketed, and she chased after the halfling girl who had tried to pickpocket her. While under a bench looking for the pickpocket a fight commenced between the others and men of the Novalbian Navy. In the fight Saara used shock spells and the environment to attack the leader of the Novalbians, Billingsworth, extorting to him to apologise for attacking a lady before knocking him unconscious. Saara was extremely succesful throughout the fight, unlike the rest of her new companions (with the exception of Lignus, who spent most of the fight healing or reviving).

Afterwards when the local constabulary tried to break up the fight, Saara failed to drag Zinsy away, but managed to escape detection by casting an illusion spell over the two of them, disguising the two as barrels. Saara helped Lignus keep watch over the ship as they waited for Zinsy and Vermillion to regain consciousness; afterwards, Saara bought the reagents for a spell to bind a familiar to her, a raven which she called Ravenclaw.

After the ship cast off and left port Saara served as the navigator. When the crew encountered the wreck of the *Farmer's Fortune*, Saara sent her raven in to scout the ship, but reported it was apparently empty. Saara joined the boarding party and attacked the spectre which they encountered with magic missiles, managing to deal more consistent damage to it than her companions, though ultimately Lignus destroyed the spectre with the ship's harpoon.

Afterwards, Saara and Zinsy figured out the next location, Isla Verde, without informing Captain Versailles, to his suspicion. On arriving, as the others remarked about the island's beauty and the fact that it was undisturbed by the Empire, Saara stated that they were all biased about the Empire, to Versailles' scorn. After finding out from Roxas that "the Twins" and "Great Lord" referred to on the map were astral features, they waited for nightfall to arrive. On spotting the constellations, Saara's initial calculations went straight into the sea until Vermillion suggested that "danc[ing] afoot" may refer to the constellations interacting; when this occured, the calculations led to a trio of islands. As they returned to the ship Vermillion rather ineffectively attempted to spray Saara with water after she implied that he got Jamie killed, which she easily avoided, though he ultimately managed to get her boots wet.

On the journey Saara was obsessed with cracking the cipher and failed, leading her to think that Widow was playing a joke with her. Speaking with Zinsy, the gnome informed her that she didn't think that this was the case. Saara revealed that she had previously gotten the map off a ship captain, Jimmony Grasshopper, while gambling. Arriving at Whale Corpse, Saara and Vermillion landed, but Saara was unable to figure out a bearing, and, stumped, they eventually left for the next, unnamed, island. After the ship suffered engine failure due to magical interference, Saara was unable to detect the magic causing it. Thinking that the coordinates on the map were coordinates on the island, they landed, with her raven, now named Raaven, leading the way due to the fog that limited visibility to 100 feet. It spotted skeletons that were constantly appearing then dissolving, which caused them concern, and the group decided to sneak.

Eventually, through the raven's eyes (Saara having to be led while doing so), Saara saw some stone buildings rising out of the fog, where a piccolo was being played and a lantern visible in a window. After conversing with the others they decided to skirt around it. Later, Raaven flew into a giant, 100m long stone leviathan with four legs and what appeared to be a stone town on its back, which the others quickly avoided. Flagging and despite Saara's concerns, they decided to rest for the night due to the long trek ahead.

In the morning they encountered a traveller who had played the piccolo in the buildings earlier, who introduced himself as Sever Wickham and offered to guide them around the island. As they made their way towards their target, which Saara mentioned in a roundabout way and which Wickham had recognised to be a belltower, Wickham asked Saara to come ahead so that he might assist her with her mapping of the island. There, Wickham recognised her as a member of Clan Smallwick, and Saara introduced herself. After being asked by the human about what she was doing here, Saara stated that like him she was looking for treasure. Wickham attempted to recruit her into the Pale Embrace, a guild of pirates and treasure hunters that he was a member of. He also stated that the leviathan would die in ten days, but would prefer it if it were dead and tried to get Saara to convince Vermillion to kill it for him.

Returning to the others Saara explained what had happened to them, and Vermillion agreed to lead Wickham away to "observe" the leviathan, playing it as though Saara had convinced him. They planned to meet back at their resting place once their tasks were completed. As the three parted from the two men, Raaven ran into a screaming elongated skull, which turned out to be a skeletal horse that they quickly killed, Saara scattering its bones in paranoia to prevent it from reanimating. When a second such horse attacked, Saara managed to jump onto the horse in a show of acrobatic skill, but was eventually bucked off, but managed to land smoothly. However, as Lignus had been knocked unconscious, Zinsy and Saara were forced to carry him, assisted by Saara casting unseen servant, until he regained consciousness. After fashioning a stretcher, the two carried him further, with Saara motivating Zinsy by stating that they could otherwise leave Lignus; Saara tried not to drive a rift between herself and Zinsy, however, as she had started to form a friendship with Zinsy more than the others. They eventually spotted the bell tower, surrounded by buildings, which they approached only to be accosted by a giant skeletal snake that they fled from, hiding in a buidling with Saara casting an illusory door that managed to fool the snake. They decided to leave Lignus there while they checked out the bell tower, sneaking to the tower, but Saara's excitement caused Zinsy to occasionally tell her to be quieter.

In the tower, they couldn't find any traps but spotted strange bones on the floor that Zinsy recognised as the bones of a large, skeletal and slumbering conscrictor snake. Despite this revelation the two went up the staircase to the belfry; a hatch was seen on the beam the bell was suspended from, but the bell chain was wrapped around the hatch, making accessing the hatch without ringing the bell impossible. After some debate, where Saara stripped to offer clothes to muffle the bell clapper with, Saara lifted Zinsy up into the bell to remove the clapper, which she managed to do. The hatch turned out to be empty but for some money, which they pocketed. On they way down the snake woke and crawled up the bell chain, but Saara cast an illusion spell over herself and Zinsy to make them blend in with the wall. They returned to wait for Lignus to wake up, and Saara returned the money she had taken from him before visiting the tower.

Returning to the camp, they spoke to Versailles who gave them a tracing of a rune he had observed on one of the pumps around the area, which Saara and Zinsy identified as a rune of necromancy originating from Ancient Moeria. After informing Vermillion of what had happened at the bell tower, Saara tried to see whether Wickham had the telescope, which he noticed and took as checking him out. The two flirted again. Later, Saara suggested to Vermillion that she try and steal from Wickham that night. That night, Saara during her watch managed to rifle through Wickham's kit, copying his map, but could not find the spyglass. Realising he may be sleeping on it, she tried to grab it but he caught her hand as she tried, stating that he was disappointed that her interest in him was for this.

Though Saara tried to maintain a facade of being trustworthy, telling Wickham she hadn't stolen anything, the first officer still decided to leave, but not after agreeing to a negotiation with Vermillion the next day, with an offer of 500 gp, safe passage and the death of the leviathan for the Spyglass. The next morning Saara informed the group, suggesting they ambush Wickham, but the others were not comfortable with killing him. They arrived at the buildings which Versailles had visited with Wickham earlier, and Saara sent out her raven to spot Wickham approach before sending off a small jewelled beetle drone. As Wickham neared, however, Saara was still in plain sight and attempted to disguise herself as a rock, to Wickham's amusement.

After Wickham and Versailles managed to negotiate a single use of the spyglass, Saara went up to check the spyglass to see whether it was magical. As she approached Wickham alone (as was his conditions), Versailles told him that Saara found Wickham cute. After checking the spyglass, which had traces of illusion magic, Saara questioned Wickham on his beetle drone, which he conceded was a communication device.

Later, after boarding the leviathan, Saara used her raven to scout ahead of the group, though this did not stop the crew from walking around in circles, Raaven was intelligent enough to realise this and the crew eventually made their way into the belly of the beast, defeating planar slugs along the way. Against the great heart of the leviathan - a great eyeball - Saara performed both an offensive and a support role, using her magic to attack the leviathan and also using her raven to snipe runes (which she and Zinsy realised would affect the leviathan if destroyed) whenever Zinsy failed to hit them. Ultimately, the eyeball and thus the leviathan were killed by Saara getting her raven to dive-bomb the eyeball, shocking it to the point where it exploded.

After they left the leviathan, Saara flitered some more with Sever, with the other ex-Imperial asking her to look for him at the White Tower in Turagoa, as he also has a map he couldn't decipher. Saara confessed her difficulties in trusting others due to her experiences, and how her crewmates were similiar in this regard, and Wickham stated that his captain would be willing to give his gratitude for assisting him, and again extended an offer for Saara to join the Pale Embrace. To her dismay, however, Captain Versailles decided it was best to leave and was against joining the Pale Embrace due to his feud with the Empire.

Afterwards Saara was somewhat standoffish after the ship cast off from the Island of Bones, but Zinsy eventually approached her to give Saara the chain lanyards she had requested, the gnome stating that she appreciated her efforts. Eventually they reached their next stop, and with Saara's assistance found the location where the treasure was hidden. Once the treasure was secured, the ship returned to Valt.

Saara contested the division of the loot with Versailles, before asking around the local crews who agreed on Versailles' suggestion, and agreed to it reluctantly. It was also discovered that the crew had bounties on their head of 200 gp, except for Saara, who was wanted alive as a traitor to Novo Albia, with a bounty of 500 gp. After visiting the Widow, Saara hired an "executive assistant", Miller Collins, whom Versailles in particular insinuated Saara had hired predominantly for his similarity to Sever Wickham. After sending Miller around Valtswell to get prices for her, Saara went to One Eye Willy's, a pub in the hull of a crashed airship, to gamble. Despite a minor blip of success Saara ended up losing all of her money. Her lack of luck drew the attention of Samuel Tischer, who offered to exchange the heading of their vessels when Saara lost all her money playing him. Saara lost, so he gave her a message scroll to inform him of the *Nightingale'*s next heading.

After being joined by Miller, Saara left the pub and was accosted by Anvil cultists led by Ben, causing her to return inside to find another exit. When it was clear there was no back door Saara went up a level to the private gambling rooms, where she informed the patrons that there was a mob outside, allowing her to steal their money. Versailles arrived to throw a grappling hook up to allow Saara to come down, though Miller was trapped until Saara threw another hook up to let him down. The group then fought the cultists.

Saara participated in the fight against the HMS *Tireless Pursuit*, but was not initially aware of combat. She assisted the others in fighting off the assault mech on the deck of the *Nightingale* before taking over the helm during combat, and provided fire support during the boarding action with a mounted harpoon. After the fight Saara went down belowdecks with Lignus to find the rumoured prisoner and to secure loot. After finding a seriously wounded dragonborn prisoner, Lignus left and Saara continued her searches accomopanied by Zinsy, eventually coming across a storeroom door which they figured out was magically trapped and eventually managed to open. The two promptly started to line their pockets and gorge themselves on the ship's cheese rations before encountering a vineheart, which with Lignus' help revealed a special ironwood scimitar.

After returning to the Tireless Pursuit Saara and Lignus were attacked by four of the Imperial crewmen who had turned coat, who had been ordered to repair the *Nightingale* but mutinied after Versailles apparently killed their crew. Saara and Lignus fought them off handily, with Saara showing selflessness in helping Lignus out. Afterwards Saara was thanked by Vermillion for this, and she did not seem too bothered, being more concerned about how Tinder was electrocuted, promoting him to Senior Executive Assistant as he was stabilised by Lignus. Back at Valt, Saara went to see Morpho the Magnificent and eventually resorted to seeing Sullivan Callan to get help in learning some spells from spell scrolls she found in the *Tireless Pursuit'*s stores.

## Personality and Traits

Saara is skilled at magics, and has displayed use of electricity and illusion magic in combat thus far. She has an uneasy relationship with the rest of the crew, who have yet to trust her fully. She has since however developed a good working relationship with Zinsy (whom she is closest to) and Lignus.

Born in the Empire of Novo Albia, Saara possesses sympathy for Novo Albia if not its means and efforts, which the rest of the ship's crew do not share. This has proved to be a source of conflict with them, especially Captain Versailles, who has yet to fully trust Saara for this reason, but began to start to trust her over time. Over time she has become more selfless with regards to the crew's safety, but remains strongly in favour of self-preservation.

Saara is attached to her "executive assistant", Miller Collins, whom Vermillion and Lignus insinuate is more than mere attachment but attraction.

Saara was and may continue to be a compulsive gambler, who considers herself to be lucky at cards; however, any winnings she quickly spent back on gambling, leading to her parents kicking her out. She had obtained the map while gambling from a captain who had no more money to spend. Her parents are still alive, and she still has a strained relationship with them, wishing further harm upon them.