Artois Mixtumq

**Artois Mixtumq** (Born Artois Leuven) is a Half-Elf College of Eloquence Bard. Ginger-haired, charismatic and beautiful. She currently works as the proprietor of the Xanbaur Palace Tavern in Mixtumq on the Perpetual Plane.

The illegitimate daughter of High Councilwoman Leuven of the Leuven Astra Council. Artois was born and cast out in secret to preserve her mother's political stature. She was left on the doorstep of the Mixtumq Elders with a pouch of platinum pieces, a locket with a painting of her mother, and a sealed scroll that read:

*"Her name is Artois Leuven. She is to be protected, loved and accepted by your commune - or the fury of Leuven Astra itself shall burn your forest to an ashen plain. Sincerely, the Council."*

She was adopted and raised by the Half-Orc, Xeursh Mixtumq, owner of the Xanbaur Palace Tavern. Artois followed the town custom and took its name as her last. The surname "Leuven" is renowned throughout Elven-kind; As such, Artois hasn't uttered it out loud in over a decade.

She was taught the ways of the bard by Dukhal Mixtumq, the leader of the Rusted Triangle artist's guild. Dukhal fled the town after angering the Mixtumq sect of the Golden Circle thieves guild - a guild Artois' childhood friend and fellow Delivery Boy, Davorin, is a member of.

She set off from Glaethport to the continent to the west in order to find her mentor, to find herself, and in the hopes of never seeing a full blooded Leuven Elf ever again. In Neukriom with her adventuring party, The Delivery Boys; she fought tyranny, did odd jobs, and worked for The Hand thieves guild in Planespire. She is bound in a contract with Assimov Deus, Protector of the Fernal Plane, facilitated by one of his archdevils during The Delivery Boys' dismantlement of a Deus Cult temple that was corrupting the forests to the North-West of Planespire and blocking gateways to the Tangential Plane.

She is the adoptive mother of Ethanolia Mixtumq, having found her as a Dzhokhk tadpole while in the Old World attempting to find a portal once used by the Delivery Boys to teleport between planes. The portal did not provide a gateway to the Fernal Plane, and as such, Artois is still bound in contract with Assimov.

Artois has the devil's eyes.

## Abilities

**The Hunting Horn** is Artois' weapon of choice, a magically-infused brass trumpet that can be used a mallet, and as a long-range, arrow-shooting blowgun. As a ranged weapon, the arrows power and accuracy is directly tied to the volume of Artois blowing the trumpet (With no relation to the quality of what she plays).

**Artois' Sketchbook** is where she stores every scrap of magical, floral and faunal research. Her learned spells take the form of comics, and every observational life drawing has biological and historical information magically burnt into the sketches.

The sketchbook is magically stored within the pencil she keeps attached to the under side of the chest-strap she wears to keep her shoulder brace attached.

**The Owl's Ritual** is a death ritual that prepares the soul of a recently-deceased corpse for passing on by combing an Amanita phalloides (Death Cap mushroom), with a feather from The Owl, and the spellcaster's internal flame. The corpse's soul is separated from its earthly body, and able to communicate its thoughts without language barriers for a length of time equivalent to the amount of internal flame the spellcaster gives up. Souls that undergo the ritual are free from becoming stranded on the Transiental Plane, and pass straight to the Voidal Plane in peace to await their reincarnation.