Tamyrlin Whistlegrace
Tamyrlin Whistlegrace is a Gnomish Oracle and one of the founders of The Abnormals.
Born in Dustrun around 754PS, Tam had a unique upbringing due to his famous family. Tam's grandmother is the famed adventurer Granny Whistlegrace and so much of his youth was spent at her knee listening to her stories.
Tam grew up with the tales of his grandmother as a comfort, wishing one day he could be like his brave grandmother who saved towns from giants with only her baking and other culinary arts. This comfort proved to be insufficient however, as Granny was often out on adventures or away from home. Instead Tam would be forced to spend time with his elder brother, Sacorin, a prodigious child in culinary arts, and someone viewed as a paragon of all the things Tam should emulate.
The relationship between the brothers was a strained one, and one of no insignificant hostilities, the only time they was at peace would be when their grandmother was home and could distract them with her latest tales, Tam as always listening more intently than his brother.
Eventually Sacorin would leave for culinary school in Trezzo, heading to a different country and the other side of the continent, suitably far enough in Tam's own opinion. Tam himself was filled with a sense of malaise, feeling insignificant compared to his brothers achievements and so decided, much to the chagrin of his mother, that he would take up an apprenticeship with the often ill and sickly Mr Sticks, a resident saw-bones and undertaker. Tam took the spare room of Sticks' practice, moving out of his family home.
The first night of his apprenticeship with Mr Sticks would forever change Tam's life. Late that night while Tam was cleaning the office, he smelt an overwhelming scent of incense coming from Mr Sticks' room. Curiosity getting the best of him, he peaked in, and through the heavy haze of smoke, saw a black shadowy figure, with a head like a Hood, looming over a feverish Sticks. Tam questioned the spectre and all it spoke of was giving him a good game, and how he would watch as Tam snatched lives away from him. The spectre faded and Tam cautiously returned to bed, seeing Mr Sticks seemed better.
Unsure of whether what he saw was real or simply a hallucination brought on by his first exposure to embalming fluids, Tam questioned Mr Sticks but he gave no answers, and so in-between his work under Mr Sticks, he would spend his time at libraries, pouring over texts and tomes on religion and the occult to try and discover more about this mysterious visitor. Nothing he researched would give him answers however, and so he took to carrying a brass ring of every holy symbol he knew, Gods of Nature, the forge, or even those of song and child-bearing, any symbol that may hold power should the spectre appear again.
Ten years into his apprenticeship, Tam's world was turned upside down, their home was invaded and soldiers flooded their streets and countryside, and Tam joined up as a medic, assisting on the back lines those who had been injured fighting against Military of The Dawn. This fight however would be futile, and Tam found himself a citizen of a new nation, the borders shifted and he was now living in The Dawn Empire rather than his familiar Ushgard.
Tam would continue to work in his home of Dustrun, nothing about his job changing despite the new government, if anything war had drastically increased the workload for him and Mr Sticks due to the excess amount of bodies. Less than two years later Tam would find himself back at war as Ushgard reinvaded their stolen lands. Tam would once again join up as a volunteer medic, working to heal those injured.
On leave from his volunteer role, Tam returned to Mr Sticks' Undertakers to a familiar sight, as he entered the building he once again smelt the overbearing scent of incense filling his nose. He rushed up to Mr Sticks' room and brandished his brass ring of holy symbols, invoking all the knowledge and magic he could to try and banish the spirit, the battle lasted hours, but at the dawning of the first light he saw the body of his beloved mentor cease breathing, the spectre remaining. Hood approached him, and placed a cold shadowy hand on Tam's head, five burning points of cold where the incorporeal fingers landed, skin blackening and decaying on contact. Hood told him that Tam must respect that he could not win, and that he was now the main player in this game, Tam looked down to see the flesh sloughing off his arms, and fainted from shock.
Tam awoke the next morning, head in splitting pain, but the damage to his brow and arms seemingly reversed, he raced to check Mr Sticks but the man was still dead, the events of last night seemingly real. He had awoken to the sound of the postman, delivering to him two letters, the first from a bounty company, Granny had done a job for them but had disappeared, she gave them a forwarding address in the Bonshall Woods but their letter had returned to them as there was no recipient on the other end. The second letter came from his brother, begging him to find Granny as he desperately needed her carrot cake recipe, his letter written in a panicked scrawl.
His life in Dustrun seemingly destroyed overnight, Tam oversaw the burial of Sticks, and then set out in search of hid Grandmother, heading north to try and find any leads. This trail would eventually lead him to the small town of Falldale, where he would come to meet the other members of the group that would become The Abnormals. He took a job with the group given to them by Melvin Murgofield to loot an old abandoned temple, Tam's curiosity peaked due to the intense migraine he felt when he saw the symbol of the temple Melvin showed them.
It turns out the temple the Abnormals entered was one to Azdur, The Concept Itself, Tam rationalising that this must mean in some way Hood is connected. However little else was revealed, and the headaches stopped soon into the temple. Once it was looted and the party set out to decide their next move, Tam elected to stay with the group.
The group would have a series of adventures, getting captured by The Bitter Ring and saving the town of Houndsford. This event is what got them invited to the Dalry Winter Ball hosted by Duke Parker Garrington. Tam would spend much of this ball looking to get the Duke's attention, eager to let him know his thoughts on the state of Houndsford and the destroyed portions therein. Tam also found himself rising in anger at the Master of Arms, Lord Stennis Blackburn, the leader of Dalry's armies who bragged about his involvement in the war in Ushgard. This was already a pressure point for Tam due to his many debates on the topic with fellow Abnormal Dolga Grimm.
This debate with the jingoistic General would have to wait however as the Abnormals were pulled into Dalry's war effort against Almus, The Tenth. Despite working with him for their time on the front, Tam was unable to get an opportunity to question Blackburn on his time in Ushgard, fighting for the opposite side that Tam was healing. When their camp was attacked and Blackburn killed, Tam raised the possibility of attempting to resurrect him, bringing general back to life in a new body. This occult ritual was deemed too difficult for the group at this time however and the idea was shelved.
The Abnormals made their way to Almus, following leads they had discovered chasing The Crimson Corsairs. They arrived in Castle Amath where Tam was visited for the third time by Hood. This time appearing to him from the corpse of a guard that had collapsed upon entry to his room. Hood mocked and warned him, telling him death was coming and that what he would see would destroy rock and bone and earth and stone. Left with many more questions than answers, Tam was left to dispose of the body.
The Abnormals later made a trip to Trezzo, chasing the tails of the producers of Rush, while there Tam took the party to his brother's restaurant, The Noble Gnome, the first time Tam had seen his brother in nearly ten years. The two brothers reconnected, seemingly keeping the hostilities buried for the time being until the matter of their grandmother's famous carrot cake arose, Sacorin claiming he had the original recipe.
The two brothers would later talk, Sacorin telling Tam how he owed money to The Red Ivys, the same group the Abnormals were now hunting, and telling Tam that he hadn't seen Granny in many years. The pair reconciled, and Sacorin decided to move his family for the time being, until the danger in the city calmed down.
Tam would continue to assist the Abnormals with their quests, fighting against The Bitter Ring for the second time and furthering their quests. It would be after defeating Zoarack Half-Jaw that Tam would be rocked with another intense headache, similar to those he had felt before in the temple to Azdur and when Hood had placed his hand upon his forehead. A curse of death had come back, stopping all resurrections and greatly sickening those who had been previously resurrected, Tam now realising that this curse is what had been affecting Mr Sticks his entire life.
The group set out to the Bonshall Woods, hoping to find another temple to Azdur where they could clear this curse. Upon their arrival they would shortly meet Granny Whistlegrace, Tam finally reunited with his beloved Grandmother. The reunion however was terse, with Tam angry at his grandmother for abandoning him with no words or letters, going missing and leaving him behind. Tam would also discover that his Grandmother's culinary talents were a ruse, a distraction she used to hide the fact she was an incredibly skilled alchemist, the carrot cake being the deadliest of her poisons. Many of the stories she had told the young Tam now took on a darker edge, how many of the stories he loved hid dark secrets like the carrot cake.
With no time to fully digest all he knew, Tam and the Abnormals set out to find the temple to Azdur and fix the curse, as well as plan a way to strike a blow at The Burntwood Company who were attempting to kidnap Granny. In this second temple Tam would once again experience the familiar headaches though less severe.
Upon leaving the temple, the party would discover that Granny had been kidnapped, taken by the Burntwood Company and held at their fort. The Abnormals had once again fallen victim to the time dilation of the temples and so had been missing for a week. The group assaulted the Burntwood fort but only found their leader, Augustus Edwell Jr, who they then killed after he revealed Granny had been sent to The Independent Merchant Nation of Phosana alongside Tam's brother and his family, who had been kidnapped as they escaped Trezzo.
Before rushing to Phosana, the Abnormals returned to Trezzo to attempt resurrections on their fallen allies, Bernie Honeyblossom and Rattigan. Tam led these resurrections, due to his connection with death, alongside allies Dolga Grimm and the vampire Aurel. The rituals succeeded and Tam summoned forth the souls of his fallen friends. However, a few days later Tam, Dolga, and Aurel would be visited in the night by Hood, the spectral figure that had haunted Tam for nearly a year at this point. Hood claimed that Tam had made his two allies part of the game when they assisted him in thwarting death, the three healers now bonded in some kind of spirit game. As usual however, Hood disappeared before he could give proper answers.
Tam would reunite with his kidnapped family during the Abnormals escape from Peregot Prison, finding Granny already in the process of freeing herself and then following her to Sacorin and his family in the upper cells. They would go with Tam to the escapee's camp, Granny taking part in Aarto Bearfist's war council. Tam would then say his goodbyes again, Granny traveling with Alazzar and Hylax to investigate the giants in the Lasran Marshes and Sacorin taking his family to hide in Brasmana until the danger died down.
The Abnormals had been sent to Kaviri, in order to assassinate the High Baron General Malice, however upon entry to the city they found the High Lord of Industry T'Zellyn Hightower organising an execution, the party leaped into action, fighting Hightower in front of the crowds, Tam getting the killing blow, ripping the spirit from Hightower, greatly decaying his own skin in the process until he stood as a near skeleton in front of the now watching crowds.
Born in Dustrun around 754PS, Tam had a unique upbringing due to his famous family. Tam's grandmother is the famed adventurer Granny Whistlegrace and so much of his youth was spent at her knee listening to her stories.
Tam grew up with the tales of his grandmother as a comfort, wishing one day he could be like his brave grandmother who saved towns from giants with only her baking and other culinary arts. This comfort proved to be insufficient however, as Granny was often out on adventures or away from home. Instead Tam would be forced to spend time with his elder brother, Sacorin, a prodigious child in culinary arts, and someone viewed as a paragon of all the things Tam should emulate.
The relationship between the brothers was a strained one, and one of no insignificant hostilities, the only time they was at peace would be when their grandmother was home and could distract them with her latest tales, Tam as always listening more intently than his brother.
Eventually Sacorin would leave for culinary school in Trezzo, heading to a different country and the other side of the continent, suitably far enough in Tam's own opinion. Tam himself was filled with a sense of malaise, feeling insignificant compared to his brothers achievements and so decided, much to the chagrin of his mother, that he would take up an apprenticeship with the often ill and sickly Mr Sticks, a resident saw-bones and undertaker. Tam took the spare room of Sticks' practice, moving out of his family home.
The first night of his apprenticeship with Mr Sticks would forever change Tam's life. Late that night while Tam was cleaning the office, he smelt an overwhelming scent of incense coming from Mr Sticks' room. Curiosity getting the best of him, he peaked in, and through the heavy haze of smoke, saw a black shadowy figure, with a head like a Hood, looming over a feverish Sticks. Tam questioned the spectre and all it spoke of was giving him a good game, and how he would watch as Tam snatched lives away from him. The spectre faded and Tam cautiously returned to bed, seeing Mr Sticks seemed better.
Unsure of whether what he saw was real or simply a hallucination brought on by his first exposure to embalming fluids, Tam questioned Mr Sticks but he gave no answers, and so in-between his work under Mr Sticks, he would spend his time at libraries, pouring over texts and tomes on religion and the occult to try and discover more about this mysterious visitor. Nothing he researched would give him answers however, and so he took to carrying a brass ring of every holy symbol he knew, Gods of Nature, the forge, or even those of song and child-bearing, any symbol that may hold power should the spectre appear again.
Ten years into his apprenticeship, Tam's world was turned upside down, their home was invaded and soldiers flooded their streets and countryside, and Tam joined up as a medic, assisting on the back lines those who had been injured fighting against Military of The Dawn. This fight however would be futile, and Tam found himself a citizen of a new nation, the borders shifted and he was now living in The Dawn Empire rather than his familiar Ushgard.
Tam would continue to work in his home of Dustrun, nothing about his job changing despite the new government, if anything war had drastically increased the workload for him and Mr Sticks due to the excess amount of bodies. Less than two years later Tam would find himself back at war as Ushgard reinvaded their stolen lands. Tam would once again join up as a volunteer medic, working to heal those injured.
On leave from his volunteer role, Tam returned to Mr Sticks' Undertakers to a familiar sight, as he entered the building he once again smelt the overbearing scent of incense filling his nose. He rushed up to Mr Sticks' room and brandished his brass ring of holy symbols, invoking all the knowledge and magic he could to try and banish the spirit, the battle lasted hours, but at the dawning of the first light he saw the body of his beloved mentor cease breathing, the spectre remaining. Hood approached him, and placed a cold shadowy hand on Tam's head, five burning points of cold where the incorporeal fingers landed, skin blackening and decaying on contact. Hood told him that Tam must respect that he could not win, and that he was now the main player in this game, Tam looked down to see the flesh sloughing off his arms, and fainted from shock.
Tam awoke the next morning, head in splitting pain, but the damage to his brow and arms seemingly reversed, he raced to check Mr Sticks but the man was still dead, the events of last night seemingly real. He had awoken to the sound of the postman, delivering to him two letters, the first from a bounty company, Granny had done a job for them but had disappeared, she gave them a forwarding address in the Bonshall Woods but their letter had returned to them as there was no recipient on the other end. The second letter came from his brother, begging him to find Granny as he desperately needed her carrot cake recipe, his letter written in a panicked scrawl.
His life in Dustrun seemingly destroyed overnight, Tam oversaw the burial of Sticks, and then set out in search of hid Grandmother, heading north to try and find any leads. This trail would eventually lead him to the small town of Falldale, where he would come to meet the other members of the group that would become The Abnormals. He took a job with the group given to them by Melvin Murgofield to loot an old abandoned temple, Tam's curiosity peaked due to the intense migraine he felt when he saw the symbol of the temple Melvin showed them.
It turns out the temple the Abnormals entered was one to Azdur, The Concept Itself, Tam rationalising that this must mean in some way Hood is connected. However little else was revealed, and the headaches stopped soon into the temple. Once it was looted and the party set out to decide their next move, Tam elected to stay with the group.
The group would have a series of adventures, getting captured by The Bitter Ring and saving the town of Houndsford. This event is what got them invited to the Dalry Winter Ball hosted by Duke Parker Garrington. Tam would spend much of this ball looking to get the Duke's attention, eager to let him know his thoughts on the state of Houndsford and the destroyed portions therein. Tam also found himself rising in anger at the Master of Arms, Lord Stennis Blackburn, the leader of Dalry's armies who bragged about his involvement in the war in Ushgard. This was already a pressure point for Tam due to his many debates on the topic with fellow Abnormal Dolga Grimm.
This debate with the jingoistic General would have to wait however as the Abnormals were pulled into Dalry's war effort against Almus, The Tenth. Despite working with him for their time on the front, Tam was unable to get an opportunity to question Blackburn on his time in Ushgard, fighting for the opposite side that Tam was healing. When their camp was attacked and Blackburn killed, Tam raised the possibility of attempting to resurrect him, bringing general back to life in a new body. This occult ritual was deemed too difficult for the group at this time however and the idea was shelved.
The Abnormals made their way to Almus, following leads they had discovered chasing The Crimson Corsairs. They arrived in Castle Amath where Tam was visited for the third time by Hood. This time appearing to him from the corpse of a guard that had collapsed upon entry to his room. Hood mocked and warned him, telling him death was coming and that what he would see would destroy rock and bone and earth and stone. Left with many more questions than answers, Tam was left to dispose of the body.
The Abnormals later made a trip to Trezzo, chasing the tails of the producers of Rush, while there Tam took the party to his brother's restaurant, The Noble Gnome, the first time Tam had seen his brother in nearly ten years. The two brothers reconnected, seemingly keeping the hostilities buried for the time being until the matter of their grandmother's famous carrot cake arose, Sacorin claiming he had the original recipe.
The two brothers would later talk, Sacorin telling Tam how he owed money to The Red Ivys, the same group the Abnormals were now hunting, and telling Tam that he hadn't seen Granny in many years. The pair reconciled, and Sacorin decided to move his family for the time being, until the danger in the city calmed down.
Tam would continue to assist the Abnormals with their quests, fighting against The Bitter Ring for the second time and furthering their quests. It would be after defeating Zoarack Half-Jaw that Tam would be rocked with another intense headache, similar to those he had felt before in the temple to Azdur and when Hood had placed his hand upon his forehead. A curse of death had come back, stopping all resurrections and greatly sickening those who had been previously resurrected, Tam now realising that this curse is what had been affecting Mr Sticks his entire life.
The group set out to the Bonshall Woods, hoping to find another temple to Azdur where they could clear this curse. Upon their arrival they would shortly meet Granny Whistlegrace, Tam finally reunited with his beloved Grandmother. The reunion however was terse, with Tam angry at his grandmother for abandoning him with no words or letters, going missing and leaving him behind. Tam would also discover that his Grandmother's culinary talents were a ruse, a distraction she used to hide the fact she was an incredibly skilled alchemist, the carrot cake being the deadliest of her poisons. Many of the stories she had told the young Tam now took on a darker edge, how many of the stories he loved hid dark secrets like the carrot cake.
With no time to fully digest all he knew, Tam and the Abnormals set out to find the temple to Azdur and fix the curse, as well as plan a way to strike a blow at The Burntwood Company who were attempting to kidnap Granny. In this second temple Tam would once again experience the familiar headaches though less severe.
Upon leaving the temple, the party would discover that Granny had been kidnapped, taken by the Burntwood Company and held at their fort. The Abnormals had once again fallen victim to the time dilation of the temples and so had been missing for a week. The group assaulted the Burntwood fort but only found their leader, Augustus Edwell Jr, who they then killed after he revealed Granny had been sent to The Independent Merchant Nation of Phosana alongside Tam's brother and his family, who had been kidnapped as they escaped Trezzo.
Before rushing to Phosana, the Abnormals returned to Trezzo to attempt resurrections on their fallen allies, Bernie Honeyblossom and Rattigan. Tam led these resurrections, due to his connection with death, alongside allies Dolga Grimm and the vampire Aurel. The rituals succeeded and Tam summoned forth the souls of his fallen friends. However, a few days later Tam, Dolga, and Aurel would be visited in the night by Hood, the spectral figure that had haunted Tam for nearly a year at this point. Hood claimed that Tam had made his two allies part of the game when they assisted him in thwarting death, the three healers now bonded in some kind of spirit game. As usual however, Hood disappeared before he could give proper answers.
Tam would reunite with his kidnapped family during the Abnormals escape from Peregot Prison, finding Granny already in the process of freeing herself and then following her to Sacorin and his family in the upper cells. They would go with Tam to the escapee's camp, Granny taking part in Aarto Bearfist's war council. Tam would then say his goodbyes again, Granny traveling with Alazzar and Hylax to investigate the giants in the Lasran Marshes and Sacorin taking his family to hide in Brasmana until the danger died down.
The Abnormals had been sent to Kaviri, in order to assassinate the High Baron General Malice, however upon entry to the city they found the High Lord of Industry T'Zellyn Hightower organising an execution, the party leaped into action, fighting Hightower in front of the crowds, Tam getting the killing blow, ripping the spirit from Hightower, greatly decaying his own skin in the process until he stood as a near skeleton in front of the now watching crowds.
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