Lyndell Sterling

* Arc 2
* Arc 12

Official image of Lyndell, drawn by @grace.pptx on Instagram

Official image of Lyndell, drawn by @grace.pptx on Instagram

Lyndell Sterling is a Player Character from Arc 2 and Arc 12 played by Haley.

*This page contains no spoilers for Arc 12 in the Arc 2 infobox and up until the section "Between Arc 2 and Arc 12". After that, please proceed with caution.*

## Description

Lyndell is a tall leonin with a small mane, a lion tail, big feet and claws. She wears sturdy clothing and gained some muscle from her time working as a mercenary and bodyguard.

She is a Barbarian and bodyguard to the Lovejoy family, and at the start of Arc 2 regularly guarding Richard Lovejoy after working her way up through the ranks. At this point, she is the third most important person in the security of the Lovejoys, being only outranked by Penny's bodyguard Risshi, and the parents' bodyguard Franklin. While she has the trust of Gem Lovejoy, she no longer enjoys her work, and would rather be a mercenary again, which was less boring.

Haley chose the Path of the Warrior’s Bond as her subclass, a homebrew class designed especially for Haley after she declared on a TikTok that she’d love to play a barbarian that has healing abilities. Since Lyndell can as a reaction immediately stabilize an unconscious ally, and while raging has the ability to heal for 2d4 on a bonus action an unlimited amount of times, Gus was hesitant to let Haley play this class. To balance it out, Gus created a houserule for this arc that if a player becomes unconscious and gets healed, they would suffer a level of exhaustion. Haley did not get the opportunity to use her healing abilities even once throughout the arc.

She is a "gentleman" with exceptionally good manners, especially around the Lovejoys. Out of a protective habit, she usually doesn't sit down when Robyn is with her, but instead stands guard next to her. Also, she makes sure Robyn does not have to open any doors, pull back any chairs, or do similar things. Generally, she is a very punctual person as well, and is only late when she is held back by her duties as a bodyguard, or when Richard uses her as his personal assistant, too. Because he does that, Lyndell usually also has to do his hair, and knows more about his friends, The Boys, than anyone else outside their group.

Lyndell has a secret crush on Robyn Lovejoy, which, during the entirety of Arc 2, is only discovered by Ash. For the most time, Lyndell doesn't even let herself think about it too much. She is very caring towards Robyn, and when Robyn is in danger, Lyndell has trouble being calm or sleeping.

While she usually gets along well with people, Lyndell would not consider many people to be very close to her. As she looks into the photo album that shows the people the viewer cares most about in the Summer Mansion, she first sees her little lion pride / family, and Robyn, and then only other members of the Lovejoy Family she guarded. Hope is in there, Tanner and Hunter, and even Gem Lovejoy, simply because she is her boss. Some pages show people she barely talks to, and many are even completely blank for her.

When she has free time, she can usually be found in bars or pubs trying to "get the stink of rich people off".

Her patreon submitted item is a magic maul called Lyndell's Luck.

## Background

Lyndell grows up in a little family far away from Glaceria. As she looks at the photo showing her family, it is described as a small little lion pride with a couple of cubs. Everyone is dressed really simple, and the older ones look like they just came back from work, implying that her family is a working class family and probably rather poor.

She leaves her home and family when she is hired to go on adventures and becomes a mercenary. At the time of Arc 2, she has not seen them in about ten years. In her years as a mercenary, she has some adventures, but also comes in contact with "bad people", and does some murder as well.

At the age of 25 years, she is hired by the Lovejoy family to be Hope Lovejoy's bodyguard, and in the following years works her way up the ranks to the older children. As of Arc 2, she is working as Richard's bodyguard. As she makes her way up the ranks, her enjoyment of her job goes down. By the time Arc 2 starts, she has worked for the Lovejoys for seven years, five of them happily, two unhappily, and would really like to quit.

## Character Arc

### Arc 2

Lyndell gets asked to join the party because of her connection to the Lovejoys, and because Viktor and Borys have seen her in bars before and know that she would like to leave her job. She agrees to join the heist party and sees it as a chance to make the money necessary to be independent from the Lovejoys, and get a bit of harmless revenge on them, too.

During the arc, she supports and looks out for Robyn especially.

Additionally, she does most of the heavy work for the party, carrying or holding up heavy things.

Sometimes, she is a bit of a clutz, accidentally setting a hallway on fire once, but generally, she helps out where she can and even manages to carefully talk Gem and Penny Lovejoy into letting her guard the teleportation circle on the roof of Lovejoy Manor, which opens up a new and easy way for the party to access the Summer Mansion.

At the end of the arc, Lyndell has the chance to tell off Gem Lovejoy, which she has wanted to do for a while, and tell her her opinion about her parenting style. Finally, she asks Robyn to join her on her adventures, which she agrees to with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Lyndell had planned for longer to leave Glaceria and see the world, and can do so together with Robyn after Arc 2.

### Between Arc 2 and Arc 12

Lyndell travels around with Robyn, who is now her girlfriend, and they soon become known under the name "The Lion and the Serpent". As Lyndell knows adventuring from her time as a mercenary, she doesn't need the thrill, but gladly makes sure that Robyn can experience it in a safe and comfortable environment. Thus, she mostly lets Robyn decide where to go next, and Robyn is the one receiving most of the magical items they get on their journey. At some point, though, they visit Lyndell's family, and her mother adores Robyn.

She gets some new clothes, and now wears a lot of suspenders. Additionally, she lets her mane grow out, which she kept short as a bodyguard to keep up her professional appearance. She has a +2 shield, exchanged her maul for a magical flail, which is also her patreon submitted magic item, and also has a new tattoo. Her tattoo reaches from her left collarbone down her sternum, and shows claw marks that match her own claws. It's an eldritch claw tattoo.

Personality-wise, Lyndell doesn't change a lot with the new-found money and fame. She is still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life and money, as the years prior were spent mostly with bodyguarding and with pining for Robyn. Now, she needs a new goal in life. This doesn't leave her without direction, though, she is generally feeling good about herself.

They come back to Glaceria for Sasha and Mischka's wedding, which is a difficult task that involves secret identities. Immediately afterwards, it becomes known that Gem Lovejoy was arrested.

### Arc 12

Arc 12 takes place a few months after the wedding, with Robyn and Lyndell still in Glaceria. They visit Gem in prison, and Lyndell takes care of Robyn as that meeting doesn't go well. Afterwars, they go into a bar to drink, where they have to realise that their unlimited money is gone. Meeting the rest of the party, they all go to the Plane of Fire to investigate what might have happened. On their journey, Lyndell's protectiveness also includes Mischka, who is the "weakest" member of their party.

When they go to Clementine's Casino to find out more about the revolution, Robyn steals from another patron, and is banished. Lyndell and Mischka both try to fight Clementine to get her back, and are put into the "casino jail" demiplane as punishment. There, Lyndell frustratedly wanders around Mischka, all the while still trying to keep her safe and mostly calm. They also find Ember there, whom Lyndell first insults, and then apologises as she notices that he is already a broken man.

## Trivia

* Lyndell's star sign is leo.
* She was already Level 6 before she became a bodyguard and has simply not levelled up since.
* Before the arc, Haley expected Lyndell to be the stability of the party, show very chivalrous behaviour, and finally have the chance to do something exciting.
* As of Arc 12, Lyndell has the Tough feat.
* Path of the Warrior's Bond as designed by Kayla Bayens: https://justkaywritesontheweb.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/pathofthewarriorsbond-homebrewerypdf.pdf