Ombre

Ombre is a kitsune wizard NPC played by Izzy. Her character sheet is here.

## Backstory

   In the Golden Age, there was once an infamous trickster called Volpae who went from town to town putting on magic shows and pulling publicity stunts.

Then, he died.

Centuries later, in the Dark Ages, a ragtag group of adventurers (Goro, Larkin, Raef, Roddy, Sugar, and Edith) working for the Graverunners Guild were sent to pillage his tomb. Outside, they found a talking, six-tailed fox who introduced herself as Ombre, Volpae's one-time pet who he enchanted and left to guard his grave. However, in reality, she had no problem with the adventurers stealing all of his stuff, and she accompanied them into the tomb.

After the adventurers completed several puzzles and killed some skeletons, Ombre revealed her true form: surprising no one, she had been the trickster all along, a kitsune wizard who got bored of being Volpae and just decided to chill out in a crypt for a while, entertaining whatever enterprising treasure hunters might come her way.

She bestowed gifts and gold upon the adventurers, but Goro decided to try to scam her out of more, selling her on the concept of joining the Graverunners Guild ... once she paid the ludicrously high joining fee. She thought that sounded fun, so she tagged along back to Skyport, where Guildmaster Ripley quickly squashed the scam, but accepted Ombre into the guild. She began working as a spy and scout, and had a tendency to keep popping up where she wasn't expected with her shapeshifting and illusion powers.

## Diva the Deals Queen

When the Graverunners were tangling with Diva, Ombre dropped in on one of Goro's research sessions, mostly trying to lift his spirits. Instead, she was distracted by the topic of his research -- aberrations -- and troubled when she found out he was investigating the being that she knew as the Glutton. She hinted at having made a deal with Diva herself, years and years ago during the Golden Age, and was clearly terrified of the Glutton but gave Goro a whistle he could use to call on her if he needed help defeating the creature.

She stuck with the Runners until almost the very end of the conflict, aiding them with her high-level spells and stash of loot, but refusing to engage in any combat or get near Diva's puppets and risk hosting. Unfortunately, when Goro was hosted saving Ripley, Ombre attempted to communicate with him telepathically and -- upon hearing the Glutton respond -- fled in fear.

## Morningstar Keep

   The Runners next encountered Ombre in the form of a thief calling himself Vincent who was attempting to break into the vault of Morningstar Keep, a castle the Runners were claiming for themselves. After some bickering and vague threats, she dropped the cover and admitted to being herself, but was a bit standoffish, though she did talk to Roddy and Goro.

Once the Runners had liberated the keep, she hung around for a few days. Although she intended to leave -- returning to Ba'ob, her new friend -- Roddy found her hiding under a table, being sad, and invited her to stay. Ombre had assumed that the Runners must hate her for abandoning them, and perked up at the knowledge that Roddy, at least, still liked her, and agreed to move into the castle.

A few days later, she had a heart-to-heart of sorts with a very drunk Goro -- who was her favorite, but whom she thought didn't like her at all -- and he also invited her to stay at the castle and proclaimed that he loved her, solidifying her choice to stay with the Runners. After all, someone has to help these jokers kill a god, or something.

## The Foxhunter

During the Sanguine Arc, Ombre was captured by Balayage, The Pale Woman, The Foxhunter -- a nogi kitsune who, during the Calamity, wiped out most of Ombre's yako kitsune kin. The Foxhunter believed that Ombre was the very last of her kind, and thus the only believer left of Yako Inari. She wanted to keep Ombre as a pet in order to hold the goddess's lift in her own hands.

Ombre was rescued by the Runners. Along the way they met Nico, who Ombre quickly bonded with as a fellow wizard.

## Relationships

Misplaced in time as she is, Ombre chronically feels like an outsider and is desperate for attention/affection. She's also not very good with social cues, which makes things more difficult for her. But her MO is to help people and make people happy, albeit often with a mischievous bent -- she doesn't mind scaring someone a little for the sake of a good prank.

She doesn't like conflict and will be very distressed by party in-fighting. She feels insecure about her place in the Runners, and arguments between them make her feel as though the group could break apart, and then she might be left alone again

Her favorite person is Goro. He's the one who talked her into leaving her tomb and she finds his duplicity charming and fun. She's always assumed he has a heart of gold.

She very much likes Ripley, as well, for giving her things to do and helping her acclimate to the modern world, and generally being gruffly supportive and friendly to her. She sees Roddy as a kindred spirit of sorts -- a jovial performer whose calling is to make people smile, but who carries a certain personal sadness around with them. She's also a fan of Mishka, with whom she has a fondly antagonistic friendship with -- she loves playing pranks on him, he finds these pranks delightful.

Her other favorite person, however, is Ba'ob, who was the first person to give her a hug in approximately three hundred years. She finds him adorable and refreshingly easy to communicate with.

While Ombre generally likes everyone, she's not a fan of Hansel, who lashed out at her once when he was plastered and more or less at rock bottom. She thinks he's unstable and dangerous -- not to her, but to Goro.