About Delia ChroniclerNG Female Changeling Witch 2 (Favoured class) Init +1; Senses Darkvision, Perception +3 AC 12 (+1 Dex., +1 natural) hp 12 Fort +1; Ref +3 (+2 familiar benefit); Will +4 Speed 30 ft. Melee
Ranged
Str 10, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 14 Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD +12 Feats
Skills
Traits
Drawback
Languages
SQ
Magic
Spells known:
Spells prepared: Equipment The Past
Being pregnant was not a huge imposition in and of itself to Mavis. Hags did this sort of thing all the time, after all; she just had to find a likely family, drop her baby in their crib and make off with their squalling infant. After that, she could have a nosh and consider some other quality Evil. The problem was, Mavis had forgotten rather more than bedding some likely gent while drunk. The phrase 'rascally drunk' applied very well to a sloshed Hag, and it turned out the Watch was conducting some enquiries which were more than likely to lead to her -- and quite contrary to her expectations, they were starting to close in. Matters came to a head around the time that Mavis had given birth to a little Changeling, and she needed to leave town in a hurry. She considered just eating the baby, but she did not have the time to set up a proper barbecue, and the idea of just killing the child out of hand seemed less than artistic. So she dumped the squalling brat on the doorstep of he Chronicler Orphanage and legged it for the horizon. Delia grew up at the Orphanage. Like so many other children from humble means, she ran with a gang while little. This particular pack was composed mainly of those children who simply could not be adopted - like a certain little girl with black hair and weird, heterochromatic eyes - and homeless urchins from the neighbourhood. "Mad-Eyes" Delia soon became the go-to girl for tricking punters into handing her and her friends a handful of pennies or sweets. She also learned to pick the simpler locks, allowing her "brothers" and "sisters" in the gang access to the better kind of loot: warm clothes in the winter, food when their bellies were rumbling and the Orphanage's supplies simply didn't stretch and other such treasures. The gang preferred hitting the better class of shop after closing time. Not out of any sense of morality or Robin Hood-style mentality, but on the basis that they had better stuff to steal than private homes, and the loot was impersonal inventory, rather than someone's treasured possession which they were going to move heaven and earth to retrieve. Of course, all good things must come to an end. Delia grew older and, despite the best efforts of the constantly low food supply at the Orphanage, started to fill out. To be frank, she became too conspicuous for a street gang, and she found herself too pleased with her developing looks to cover herself in muck and grime. It was around this time that the kind, but overburdened staff of the Orphanage started hinting to her that, since adoption was not going to happen anymore, she might like to try and score an apprenticeship and secure a future for herself. Since it seemed Delia was not going to make it as a petty thief, she tried her hand at finding such a future. For a while, she tried to make it as a doctor's assistant. She actually managed to pick up some practical healing skills before her teacher caught her giving free treatment to some people she knew from her childhood. The doctor displayed his generosity and love for his fellow sapient beings by turfing Delia right out of his house and her apprenticeship with the wingèd words: "Medicine isn't meant to help people, it's meant to help my bank account!" Delia took this to mean that the medical profession was not for her; despite all her years of tricking the affluently rich and picking locks, it seemed that she was just too much of a soft-sell to make it as a genuine doctor. She decided to consider the matter over a pint -- and was "discovered" by Malviento the Mad Artist. This mightily surprised Delia, who had had no idea that she had been hidden away from the man on purpose. When Malviento declared her to be his Muse, however, she decided to roll with Fate and Fortune's gentle urgings and agreed to become the man's model -- in return for an apprenticeship. She might be young and she might have come from a poor background, but Delia was quite familiar with Mad Malviento's reputation as both an artist and a cunning artificer, whose work was constantly snapped up by the rich and influential. Despite Mrs. Malviento's misgivings on the matter, Delia was duly taken into the Mad Artist's household. The time she did not spend standing on a plinth in various (lack of) outfits, she mostly spent studying at the master's knee or helping out with the household. She actually did seem to have a knack for the art business; her years of picking locks had given her a steady hand and an enviable insight into mechanisms, which translated well into making clockwork toys. Alas, Fate and Fortune are a wheel. Which turned. And dumped Delia in the mud. Just as the young Changeling was coming into the first flush of womanhood, she was approached by a fox -- an oddity in and of itself, in a city the size of Absalom -- which spoke to her in her mind. Discovering an aptitude with magic was perhaps not the biggest problem with this situation. The problem had more to do with other aspects of blossoming into womanhood -- and the fact that Mad Malviento had quite a handsome son living under his roof. Around the time that Delia was secretly learning to use her magic at night while studying her master's crafts by day, she started to see young Tobias Malviento in a wholly different light. The stress of her dual education required an outlet, which Tobias seemed ideally suited to provide, and which he proved more than willing to offer. Delia was sure to take every necessary precaution to prevent pregnancy and any possible risks to her and Tobias' health, but unfortunately failed to take adequate precautions against Mrs. Malviento, who had never really warmed up to her and interrupted the two teenagers during a pleasant assignation. Delia left her apprenticeship with Mad Malviento running for her life, with Mrs. Malviento chasing her with a cleaver and screams that she had ruined poor Tobias for marriage. This seemed rather unfair to Delia, after all of her painstaking precautions to keep the assignations as fun and consequence-free as she could. Out of a job and a home on the streets of Absalom again, Delia first sensed the Calling, which attempted to lure her away from the city and on the dark road to Hagdom. She might well have gone, if not for a serendipitous recruiting poster for the Watch. The fact that it had been pasted to a wall in a dark alley said a lot about some of the higher-ranking officers' opinion on the poster's slogan: "Come join the Watch! Serve and Protect your Community as Best you can! Everyone is Equal in the Watch, no matter Who or What you are!" The Calling nagged at Delia all the way to the closest Watch station, but she ignored it. Being a Watchwoman might not be a perfect fit, but it seemed to her that Watchmen would be happy to have someone with at least rudimentary healing skills on their side. If no one asked about the modelling and making art, she did not need to tell them, and the less said about several youthful indiscretions -- and the fact that she was most familiar with the Watch due to harrowing chases in which she had been one of the criminals running from the long arm of the law -- the better. Anyway, it was a job that could get her three square meals a day and a roof over her head. Nothing ventured, nothing gained... It had to be better than slogging through the countryside and sleeping under damp hedges. Current sketch
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