Gemma

## Physical Description

Gemma is a lovely dragonborn, with a rather attention grabbing emerald-hued skin. Her eyes are a much deeper shade of the very same color, and deeply within them one could see sparkles twirl and tinkle, like a small universe revolving around. The sides of her lips and her cheeks are adorned by small whiskers, or rather tiny tentacles as they are a little too thick to be called whiskers, and they wriggle as if they have a mind of their own.

She carries a staff, and several satchels on her hips, her clothes typical of those worn by mages on her world. Some other light weaponry adorns her, but they clearly see little use and seem to be as good as new. In her small backpack she carries a dungeoneer's pack, which is also very common for the people of her world, living mostly in the shadows, the underground, and in old ruins.

## History

### Pre-Rift

Gemma was born on Glyth, a planet ruled by Illithid creatures, somewhere deep in the dark Void under the many watchful (yet sleepy) eyes of many a Great Old One. Abominations from the furthest stars, whispered of only in the darkest dreams and dread cultist books. It should come as no surprise that she, like all the other races on that world, were highly aware of the wonders of tentacles and influenced by the psychic cascade barraging around, over and through their planet.

As an Emerald Dragonborn, her natural resistance to these energies made her a highly prized member of a small society, if not highly sought after by Illithids seeking to train assassins to sick on their rivals. Trained in the ways of the arcane, the young Dragonborn dreamed of wielding the powers of the deep cosmos as her own, drawing the attention of *something.* For now though, the quiet calls fell upon a deaf brain.

As she got older she was taken as a disciple by the Sage, but even before her first casting lesson an unlucky patrol inadvertently walked into a war band of the local Illithid lord, and got controlled into leading said war band to the small community she was a part of. A lot were killed and some were captured, Gemma among them. The ones that got captured awaited a worse fate, really, as they were turned into slaves or were introduced to an Illithid tadpole.

As the tadpole buried into her, trying to overtake her free will, the creature activated her latent psychic pathways. No longer was her mind deaf, no longer did the call go unanswered! Her mind reached out to the voice, into the beyond and she connected with one of the greatest Old Ones, a supremely powerful being, the Dread Dreamer in the Deep, an easy match for the most powerful gods and even a rival to the very creator god above..... known only as ; Lord Thu-Thu.

The tadpole screeched in horror, as it basically got lobotomized into just being a new organ for Gemma, as a part of her brain that let her become a vessel for Lord Thu-Thu's wishes and a carrier of his amazing powers. She felt his omniscient presence, mighty will, the sheer volume of ancient knowledge stretching beyond the boundaries of the known universe, the secrets that can only be known when the mind twists into non-Euclidean bends. She gazed at his metaphysical being, and knew his mouth formed these words to her;

"Let's get you out of here, so you can go help people, because helping people is great!"

and she knew this madness to be true...

### Post-Rift

Gemma escaped from her imprisonment because Lord Thu-Thu helped warp her away, and put up a tentacled dark void to slow down her pursuers. She ran, and ran, and flew, and ran, only to be caught up on again. At that point, a portal appeared that took her to Calan Wood Park. She saw Lord Thu-Thu wink at her and close the portal after she went through, and all was well.

She immediately got caught up in a quest to aid the local guard, because as we all know; 'helping people is great!'. Ever since then, she has been getting involved in quests to help save other people, and use tentacles to punish people who do wicked things. If only the other people who go on quests with her could stop dying.... It's quite traumatizing you know!