ACT 0 - The Clown

**Chuckles the Clown - ACT 0**

Special Mission Recruit - As his skills gave the Cultists little to be excited about, coupled with his unsettling appearance and habit of consistently laughing at odd or untimely moments, Chuckles was imprisoned in an out of the way section of space, with with a bare detail of guards. As hardly anyone would consider recruit/rescue of such a being, Claire felt she could put these habits to use in her battles.

Claire could tell when the guards she encountered while closing in on this Ally showed tell tale signs of sleep deprivation and a desire to be anywhere else in space, that this recruit would be something else. Something all together different from the beings she has encounters so far.

*Teachable skill is **Balloon**.*

**Connections**

Drax The Cursed - The clown has a natural desire to bring cheer and mirth to all those around them, whether through stories, gags, jokes, or mild mannered pranks. In his opinion nobody is in greater need of his abilities than the Cursed ally Drax. Doomed to return to life after death, seemingly forever more, but at the cost of his organic tissues and natural senses, Drax initially feels far too hopeless to gain mirth from any natural source.

Over many nights shared in the nothingness of space the clown gets an idea to try sharing his many wigs and greasepaints to attempt to make Drax appear more alive. While this has limited results, these same cosmetic skills are later used with normally invisible fluorescent paint, allowing Drax to make himself look far more ferocious and intimidating upon reacting with the flames of his rekindling abilities. By passing along a carnival trick for juggling random objects helped increase his accuracy with throwing his own bones at foes. While even knife throwing, a practice Chuckles had only bare familiarity with, has helped make his skills with a falchion much more deadly.

In the end Drax was able to come to terms and embrace his abilities as an undead. Even learning to exploit them in a popular double act involving Chuckles wearing his head over his own upon a large closed coat, dropping it to humorous effect.

Chuckles has even taken to asking Drax to sear his pies with the flames of the afterlife, causing brief hallucinations in foes struck with them, to extend their stunning effects.

**Available Skills**

**Clown Hammer** - The Clown is an entertainer and a born Pacifist. Their favorite prop is a large mallet which, though imposing in size, is made of harmless foam. Attacks are quite painless, though enemies unprepared still make every effort to brace themselves and dodge the blow, distracting them from their next action. The effortless ease of swinging such a tool mean that a miss is readily chained into another action.

**Honk -** Whenever a target of an enemy, they can perform a disarming action with one of their many props, entirely disarming and interrupting them. They have a small chance to periodically interrupt any action regardless of target while, a single random ally can find the antics funny enough to slightly revitalize them.

**Nuisance** - As a battle goes on the clowns antics have a chance of enraging enemies who are interrupted, drastically lowering the chance of a successful strike. They periodically duck and weave around larger allies, allowing a fraction of attacks to be born by that ally.

**Pratfall -** His go to action in battle, due to his bulky clothing and oversized shoes, frequently ends in him tripping up over himself, an action he exploits to humorous effect using his comic relief skills.

**Balloon -** By building a balloon animal decoy and attaching it to an ally, it can take an attack in their place. Learning to tie the balloons in chambers, the clowns balloons have a chance of remaining buoyant after every absorbed strike, while the loud "Pop" nearly always interrupts the attacker enough to delay their next actions somewhat.

**Comic Relief** - Nearly every skill is performed is a suitibly comical fashion, boosting the morale and vitality of several teammates whenever the clown acts, whether actively or passively reacts. The laughter caused has a measurable effect in nearby allies, recovering some of the energies expended in abilities.

**Pie Gun** - The Clowns most intricate prop, taking several turns to prepare in the heat of battle, is a portable air cannon modified to fire round tart cakes at his foes. Over time the clown learns to bake better pies, able to be stacked in readily loaded cartridges, speeding utilization of this device.

**Prank** - The clowns only harmful actions is to perform a mean spirited prank on a foe. This action still provides comic relief to allies and potentially enrages other foes, even hastening the clowns next act by allowing him to chain this prank into their routine. This foes action is completely interrupted, though harmless, and the same foe will not fall for a prank more than once.