Eda Gutermuth

Eda, kitted out in her gear.

Eda currently resides in a rather poor and downtrodden area of the Lesser Kingdoms, sometimes working out of the ruins of what was once her family home. She was an alchemist by trade, and a rather good one at that, but due to unfortunate recent events, had spiralled downwards mentally towards a much more dangerous, if exciting path. She now works primarily with bombs and explosives, but prefers to work alone due to something of an anxiety of others. She would, however, be willing to put that aside for the right amount of gold, or the right ingredients...

## History

Eda was born as an only child into a relatively well-off family in the Kingdoms, some decades after the Lightwar, and even from a relatively young age, she had been utterly fascinated with fire and explosions of all types. Even for her family being well-off, she hardly had any formal education, so near most of what she learned was through trial and error. This had, however, landed her into a spot of bother on occasion with a number of her local villages, either from her nuisance of testing bombs rather close to them, or, much worse, her arson of their buildings or fields. Luckily enough, however, her family were able to subdue or subvert the villagers into not burning their house down or hanging the family. Thus, life continued much as it had in the years prior.

Growing up, Eda became known as a proficient, if quirky, doctor and alchemist, and the villages near would often rush to her for her aid, whether it be their sick animals, or fellow villagers in need. She often gave them her advice on the course of action from the good of her heart- if a bit peeved when they showed up as she was concocting a new sort of potion or bomb recipe.

And once again, life continued on as it had. The sad, if unavoidable deaths of her parents, however, pushed Eda on the long spiral downward mentally. After that, some of the villagers noticed that she had been much more irritable and recluse than normal, but she still helped them out, so they thought best to make little mention of it. Her bombs and potions as well had gotten slightly wackier, larger, and louder as her ambitions grew in tandem with her anxiety. Villagers had complained on occasion, but were shooed away by her for various reasons, either that she was about to test another bomb... or under the threat of being the test *for* that bomb.

Over the years, potions had fallen by the wayside for Eda, and she gradually became more enamored with explosions of all various types. This bomb-testing, however, was the spark that had truly sent her off of the deep end. You see, she had managed to anger a local bandit warlord through this testing. Eda had been out gathering ingredients and came back to her home, finding it naught but a burning pyre when she returned. Unbeknownst to the bandits that burnt the house down, she was out, and was just about ready to get rid of that troublesome warlord.

After her asking around for what had happened to her old family home, she began to draw up plans to get rid of that camp. Whatever little bomb recipes she had on her at the time and any she could write down to remember formed the basis for attack. She had, in addition, found one of the bandits' victims laying dead on the ground, an arrow through his neck. A paladin of sorts? Wandering doctor? No matter. What did matter was that a mask like that was a nice intimidating one. She robbed the corpse of what was on it, figuring that she was far more in need, and it would be justified if she were going to help other people with it, right? Once she was satisfied, Eda at least dug a shallow grave to dump the body in. At least it *was* a burial, rather than letting him stew and rot on the side of the road. After a quick bleaching of the clothes and the mask to get rid of any parasites and god knows what else had been festering upon the clothes, Eda was ready.

A month had passed since her home had burnt down by the point Eda was ready to take the fight to the bandits. She had gathered her materials and consolidated a healthy supply of bombs of all types. From good old high explosives to some rather nasty poisonous gases, that surely was enough to take apart the bandit scum. In the dead of night, with clothes dark- either from their natural hue or any blood she'd failed to wash out prior, Eda let loose upon the bandits.

The next day, villagers from all the neighboring countryside had come to investigate what loud crashes and bright lights had transpired the night before, only to see a smoldering wreck of the warlord's camp, with everyone within either dead or most of the way there, and the warlord strung up in the center of the camp, his throat cut clean open. The marauders who were not dead could only make mention of one name to the inquisitive villagers.

'The Crow Man'.

Needless to say, this 'Crow Man' became a local legend in the villages, and they all celebrated after executing the last of the pesky bandits. No one, however, seemed to notice the strange coincidence of the disappearance of Eda, the local alchemist with the rise of this so-called 'Crow Man'.

A sappy display of heroism to be sure, but the only one that Eda has ever committed. Since that time, some two short years ago, she has been much more content to wander the lands alone: in search of more exotic ingredients further afield for which to make new, even more exciting concoctions and brews to sate her appetite for knowledge.

## Abilities

**Powder Keg:** Eda's personality has oft been described as one like a keg of explosive powder. In physical form, however, it is quite the opposite. She has the ability to make and use bombs rather effectively, preferring to hit her enemies from afar with devastating force. Because of this as well as a number of bad brews and throws, she's learned how to mitigate a lot of the damage from explosions. Half of it, to be precise. While magical explosions are formed rather differently, they're much the same in function, so applying the same rules, she can resist a quarter of the damage from magical explosions.

**Kingdomer:** Being born in a land teeming with many wizards and witches, it's only natural that Eda would pick up a little bit of that prowess in casting spells, giving her a bit more charisma to her spellcasting... Not exactly the most useful for one who has never picked up a spellbook in their life, but magical ingredients, magical spells... it's interchangeable, right?