Marimoo

A sketch of Marimoo in her current attire.

The bard of Septum, **Marimoo Tilltull** is a lightfoot halfling bard whom focuses heavily on supporting her teammates. She uses a harmonica, but she is absolutely awful at playing it, being much better at singing and playing guitar. During a incident with her old group she was bit by a wereraven, now carrying the disease in her own blood, though she likes to keep it out of ordinary conversation if she can.

### Description

Like most halflings Marimoo is rather short, though tall for her own species she stands around 3 feet and 5 inches. She's pretty rotund, has messy hair, tufted ears and a slim fur tipped tail. Other notable physical traits are her brown eyes and soft cheeks. She's also hairy, but some patches of hair has feathers growing instead, from her wereraven lycanthropy. Quite agile and dexterous, she is quick on the battlefield and ambidextrous, capable of using either hand to wield a weapon.

### Personality

A girl with an attitude, Marimoo is rarely afraid to speak what's directly on her mind and has little restraint on her often foul language. Despite personally getting a kick out of getting into trouble, she dislikes when other people try to do obviously stupid things and has a tendency to question people's plans if they aren't rock solid. She likes to view herself as a free spirit, but however she is very emotionally dependent on her friends and close ones, feeling unsure and lost when left completely alone. She's also a hopeless romantic, falling easily for any lady whom fits her tastes, though her confident stride dims in their presence as she gets awkward and nervous around those she fancies.

### Background

Marimoo was born and raised on the road, taken care of by her father Garvan and her mother Esvila Tilltull, who had been pushed to wander because of the destruction of the little town they once lived in. It was ruined by hoards of frenzied monsters, the halfling village could not stand up against them and people either had to flee or die in their homes. Growing up on the road as a halfling is unusual, since they care so much for a comfy home to stay in, so when she reached her teen years she started growing tired and impatient with her parents never settling down anywhere. The final straw occurred after she overheard a conversation between her parents, how her father was venting about getting incredibly tired of dealing with such an ungrateful child. Before hearing her mother try and defend Mari, understanding the struggles from both sides, Marimoo had already decided to leave.

On the road on her own, Marimoo brought with her little as a 15 year old is not going to make good life decisions unsupervised. She did bring her father's harmonica with her, out of spite so he couldn't play it, but also as a memento. She went out into the world and struggled for a good while to have ends meet, relying on pick pocketing and begging to get the food and money she needed to keep going. After arriving to Woodvale, around the age of 17, she found a temporary home with a gang of criminals that picked her up. Putting her to use as bait and distractions, she put herself at risk for the sake of staying in a place she could call home. Eventually she upped her game by leaning into her role, picking up the practices of a bard to be of more use to her "family". Til sometime around the age of 21 she was with the gang, committing various thievery and crimes throughout the city while staying away from the ever searching guard. Around the later time with her gang she involved herself with a backwater bard college, learning the ways of satire, for the quote reason *"The world already laughs at me for existing, why not embrace it and give people an actual reason to laugh than just pity?"*. Marimoo has had self esteem issues, and still does.

   At a certain incident, when the gang accidentally picked on another "gang" in the city, Marimoo got separated from her posse. The other group was a gaggle of lycanthropes that had grouped up as they felt safer together while roaming the city when not in their feral state. During the quarrel between the two gangs Marimoo had gotten bit by the wereraven in the other group, getting infected by its saliva. Instinctively, running on pure fear, she ran off into the wilderness outside of the city, afraid to put her "family" into danger with whatever she got. While the disease was setting in she took refuge in the woods, her mind and being getting warped by the taint in her veins. For over 3 years she struggled with her newfound abilities, desires and traits, trying to temper her animalistic side so she could return back to the comfort of her criminal home. Upon going back to Woodvale, searching for her friends, she saw her girlfriend had moved on to someone else during the time Marimoo had been gone. Feeling heartbroken, she left the city and swore to find a new "family" who wouldn't just leave her.

After going around, keeping a low profile to not gather attention, she picked up a word on the streets while in Mooncrest. About how the guild was looking for capable volunteers to help their cause. She decided to pursue and follow this little group to see if perhaps this could be her chance, and eventually joined them after she saw them kinda getting along. It was enough for her.

### Fun Facts

Marimoo has a phobia of facing big evil monsters alone, because of an encounter the family had with a Remorhaz while she was a child. The rapier she used, and still carries with her, she has as it reminds her of how her mother saved her from the monster - by stabbing it in the eye with her big, sharp hairpin.

While being able to generally keep her lycanthropy in check, even calling upon it forcefully sometimes, signs of it existing often show themselves when she gets emotional. Like feathers emerging from her skin, in addition to the ones she has while neutral.

Her first girlfriend was a tiefling she nicknamed "Perch", whom nicknamed Marimoo "Songbird". The tiefling apparently had a Goristro as her mother, thus her very strong fiendish appearance. Most people would find her frightening, but Mari found her cute.

She taught herself how to create apples though the Prestidigitation cantrip, which she usually offers to people as a form of ice breaker. The apples only exist for an hour, but they are otherwise apples in every other way.

She has started to grow her adult whiskers, but if she will let them be or trim them regularly is uncertain.

Thanks to her Gust Bottle she can sleep and reside inside her Bag of Holding if she so wants to. Though she rarely does so as her Tiny Hut spell would not work if she went inside the bag.

She's saving money to make and or get her own house in the future, having a goal of finding "the one" and living someplace quiet and peaceful. To get back what she missed from her youth.