Mollymauk Tealeaf

art by ornerine@twitter

## **Appearance**

Molly is a pretty eye-catching figure, even without the additions he's made. An uncommonly-colored tiefling, he has violet skin, purple hair and solid red eyes. Ram-like horns curl from his forehead to down below his ears, and a spade-tipped tail finishes off the generally-demonic look. On top of that, Molly generally covers himself in jewelry, from the tips of his horns to the ends of his fingers, and he has a penchant for clothing best described as flamboyant -- bright colors, multiple patterns. His much-beloved coat is multicolored and covered in various arcane and religious symbols.

And then there are the tattoos. A serpent that starts from a red eye on the back of his hand and curls up the entire length of his right arm, weaving into a collection of flowers on his shoulder, and then up to a peacock that stretches up across his throat and over the side of his face. On his back, there's an eye within a pyramid between his shoulderblades, with another eye above it reaching towards his hairline, with a sun and moon flanking and connecting it.

Adding to this collection are also his multitude of scars, neat, straight, sometimes overlapping lines covering his throat, down his chest, and over his arms. And one very ugly knot of scar tissue on his lower chest.

## **Powers**

Though Molly doesn't know a lot about either, he has two sets of abilities, one from his tiefling nature and one from his Blood Hunter background.

The tiefling abilities, aside from the usual fire resistance and ease in seeing in the dark, come as a set of spells he can use by talking, either to injure someone or to make them more easily suggestible.

The Blood Hunter abilities are a bit more unusual. He has an innate knowledge of an ease in tracking creatures who are fae, fiends, or undead, though he doesn't always know how he knows it. He can also invoke certain rights by doing a small amount of damage to himself, imbuing any item he holds with either ice or radiance. The damage cannot be healed until he ends the rites. Finally, he can cast curses on any creature with blood, either to blind them for a limited amount of time or to purify their bloodstream. Both can be strengthened if he's willing to take damage to himself.

As for other skills, he has a magical sword called Summer's Dance, which allows him to teleport up to 30 feet away once per day. And a deck of tarot cards, which he will absolutely tell you are magical. They are not.

## **Talents**

Two-handed sword fighting, being observant, making a scene, and bullshitting.

## **Interests**

Trying new things. Enjoying everything. Leaving every place better than he found it. Not dying (again). He's also a follower of the Moonweaver, the Exandrian goddess of the moon, illusions, misdirections, and nighttime trysts. Make of that what you will.

## **History**

The history of Mollymauk Tealeaf is a short one -- two years ago, a tiefling crawled out of a shallow grave with nothing; no name, no memory, no voice. He was found soon after by a traveling carnival and drawn into their fold, where he slowly formed a new personality, gained a new voice (and an accent best described as "vaguely Irish"), and was given a new name. He came to regard the carnival as family, and was perfectly content to travel with them, acting as a barker and occasional fortune-teller.

Until they came to just another small town, Molly went out to gather new people, and something went terribly wrong during the performance. Suddenly he and his dearest friend Yasha found themselves fighting alongside a group of new people, assholes to the last but they worked well together. Well enough that when the damage was done and the carnival disbanded, Molly (and sometimes Yasha) continued along with this new group.

They would eventually name themselves the Mighty Nein, and travel through the Dwendallian Empire doing the occasional good deed and the occasional mercenary one, and slowly they grew closer. Into a new sort of family, if a prickly one. Enough that when three of their number were captured by slavers, the remaining threw themselves to the rescue, even though they were badly outmanned. And Molly didn't hesitate at all to the slaver leader's attention to himself and away from the others, even when it meant his death at the slaver's hands.

Molly was carefully buried right there beside the road, with his bright coat left as a marker. And that was the end of his story.

Or was it?