Almanac

A realkind warforged conducting research on the nature of toonkind and the maladies affecting their nation.

## Personality

Eternally perky, Almanac is a curious and friendly individual who loves nothing more than learning and helping others learn. They have very little in the way of real-world experience, and view every situation, good or bad, as a research opportunity. They want very badly to fit in so people will feel more at ease with their prodding questions, so they have been trying to learn the local customs of "jokes." They think they've gotten very good at it!

## Appearance

Almanac is not a toon, but their appearance barely qualifies as humanoid. As a warforged, their core is made up of wood and living branches, entwined with metal and armor. As a result, they don't have what one might traditionally call a "face," but rather one glowing blue light surrounded by shifting plates that may give their best imitation of expressions. They've tried wearing clothes, to make people feel more comfortable, but it's very hard to find garb that accommodates having a head that's level with your shoulders.

## Backstory

Almanac's original purpose was to manage and organize the archive of a large church. The archive was full of historical logs and magical research and was largely open to the public, so it was Almanac's duty to help visitors find any information they may need.

One night, long after the doors were closed, the archive was visited by a very different sort of researcher. An angel came, asking Almanac for help on a very curious subject indeed: the strange beings known as the toonkind, and how it was they came to exist on this plane of reality. Almanac was somewhat distraught; this was not something their archive had many records on. The angel had expected as much, as they had come to ask for a different method of data gathering. Celestials are not meant to meddle in mortal affairs, so they couldn't very well up and poke around for answers on their own... and that was why they needed Almanac to go out into the world, and learn whatever they could on this topic, and report back to the angel. In exchange, the angel would pay Almanac in celestial magic, that they could use as they saw fit. This seemed like a fair exchange to Almanac.

## Shenanigans

**A Taxing Business -** While taking notes in a small town out in the boonies of Gisnep, Almanac bears witness to the crown prince himself, Eykim Gisnep, arriving with a band of royal guards. The prince announces that he's working on a way to help citizens and to resolve the many issues plaguing their homeland, but in order to get anywhere he'll need funding. The taxes will go up 60%, starting the next day, and anyone who doesn't pay up will be branded a traitor. Almanac overhears a group of strangers reassuring a young chef lamenting that he won't be able to open his brand new restaurant with such a drastic spike in taxes. The chef asks the group to go asking other citizens for their thoughts on the matter, in hopes that at least with enough outcry they can extend the payment deadline. Unnnnnnnnfortunately Almanac gets about ten feet out the door and starts asking an old lady for her thoughts, and somehow the old lady decides this means Almanac is trying to scam and attack her. In the exasperating series of miscommunications that ensued, guards arrive and drag the group off to talk to Eykim firsthand. Upon being thrown in the brig (actually just an abandoned pantry) the group finds another prisoner, who had been investigating these strange activities by the prince, and he'd discovered that they were actually dealing with an impostor. The group successfully breaks out of pantry-jail, but despite the other party members' attempts to sneak and distract the guards Almanac just winds up casually walking into the impostor's lair to confront them directly. After blasting the false prince's cronies about, they're able to paralyze the Changeling prince and arrest him.