Hayden Sawyer
Hayden Sawyer
Physical Description
Identifying Characteristics
Hayden is tall and lanky with an athletic build. Their fine-boned and delicate face, slightly tilted almond-shaped eyes, and long, thin hands accentuate their elven heritage.
Their natural teal-colored hair, pointed ears, and silvered freckles give away their sea-elf heritage.
Special abilities
Hayden loves to tinker with magic and eletech. As ship's engineer, they're responsible for maintaining and repairing the eletech engine of The Flying Noodle. As an artificer, they've always got some bit of magical tech or doodad on their person.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Hayden grew up in a small village off the South Sea in southern Vodacce. Although their parents were fishermen, the recent civil war and resulting piracy created a veritable graveyard of ships. Hayden spent much of their youth scavenging the wreckage of ships and searching for valuables, such as Eletech technology or magical items, that could then be sold elsewhere.
They were hired onto The Flying Noodle to scavenge a ship deeper in the ocean, and have stayed on as their engineer.
Gender Identity
Although as an elf, they are possessed of the primal blessing that allows them to change their sex, Hayden is an ama'il, and typically chooses the third, androgynous gender.
Employment
Hayden is the engineer of The Flying Noodle, a ship in the Novandrian harbor.
Social
Religious Views
Worshiper of Lucetius and Kallias
Character Location
Age
25
Date of Birth
February 5th, 1857
Birthplace
Vodacce
Children
Current Residence
Novandria
Gender
Ama'il
Eyes
Teal
Hair
Blue
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Silver
Height
6'2"
Weight
180lb
Letter Home
Hayden
The following letter is ripped, crumpled, torn, and mended back together again. It has oily black stains along the top, as well as what looks like a cup ring of tea.The writing on the paper is written in pencil, smeared, erased (poorly), and worn thin in places. The edge up one side has been burnt, and there are little tiny footprints that have been burnt along the bottom. This letter has seen some things.
Hi Mom & Dad,
I’m alive, and I got your letter.
Life has been pretty crazy since I left home. I know you told me not to get on the Aurora, but I thought I knew better. Boy was I wrong. They were just as bad as you told me and worse. I didn’t listen, and paid the price. Things ended up for the better, though. I found some friends and we found a boat called the Flying Noodle. Yeah, it’s a silly name. It was silly when we named her, but when your crewmate is a cleric of Gorath, it’s best to go with the flow and take joy when you find it.
I had a series of adventures that I’d love to talk to you about the next time I see you, but the long and short of it is I ended up stranded in Novandria, Eisen. While we waited, I joined up with the adventuring guild. It’s been a lot of fun, if exciting.
I’m still working on my projects, and have finished my shark repellant boom stick. I also built a homunculus dragon, and I have this neat set of gloves I’m working on. Some of my projects got delayed because I’ve been adopted by a swarm of elementals that have decided I belong to them. They’re funny, if annoying sometimes, but they’ve been helpful.
Along the way, I met a guy. It started out as just adventuring, but we got to know one another and we really enjoyed each other’s company. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. His name is Lord Kevanath Ramsey von Messingschmidt von Rosebrier. Yes, I’m marrying a lord. Yes, he can support us. He doesn’t have a big ego, and he lets me get my hands dirty. I still sail my ship, though I’ve asked him to actually steer while I work on the engine and plot the course.
I found the treasure from the map you sent me. It’s honestly a lot, though I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to capitalize on it. Where’d you find it?
I’ve been trying to write this letter for months, but I never found time to finish it. I figured if I didn’t send it, I’d end up handing it to you at the wedding. Yes, I’m having a wedding, and no I don’t know when, but yes you’re invited as well as everybody else.
Love you and miss you,
It's Shillelagh Time
11/1/1882
Hayden adjusted the arcane power regulator on the long quarterstaff, the metal plates held suspended by the magical field around the core of stout wood. “Come on, ye wee bastard” they cursed softly to themselves and pulled hard on the regulator circuitry plate with a screwdriver wedged underneath it. The plate was just the right size, but the tiny sonic elemental in the elemental capacitor was causing the plate to warp.
With a tiny tiny click sound, the plate snapped in and down into place, and all the force they had been pushing into the screwdriver slipped. Their hand and the screwdriver they were holding slammed hard into the arcane field and stuck hard. “Bloody biscuits!” they cursed, jerking their hand back.
The screwdriver remained, held in place by the arcane field, which was beginning to glow and hum very loudly, sparks flying out. The arcane power regulator was working, but the additional metal of the screwdriver in exactly that spot was causing a feedback loop through the capacitor, and there was additional power coming from somewhere that caused the screwdriver to glow white hot.
With great care, they began powering down the quarterstaff, but the staff was having none of it, and continued to increase in power. “No, we are not doing that,” they cajoled the staff with urgency as they continued to adjust the power flow. They’d hate to have to explain to Igor and Ghata how a hole got punched into the bottom of the boat.
“Where are you getting that energy from,” they asked themselves as they attempted to adjust the flow of the energy around the screwdriver instead of powering the staff down. “That little sonic elemental isn’t that powerful.”
With a final clunk, the screwdriver fell out of the arcane field, released from the energies that had been holding it tight. The quarterstaff’s metal plates adjusted and aligned themselves perfectly as the magical circuitry positioned them into the correct spot. A soft hum came from the staff, purring exactly as designed.
“Well that…hmm,” they muttered to themselves and leaned down to pick up the screwdriver. As soon as their fingers got within range of the handle, a jolt of arcane energy sparked from their fingertips down to the blade, causing them to jerk back their hand in surprise. Underneath their cursing, they heard the soft sound of giggling as little elemental spirits that looked like waves flooded out of the tool and out of the room.
“YOU!” Hayden called, pointing their finger where the flood of tiny little elemental spirits flew off to. “THAT’S why it almost exploded!” They reached down to pick up the screwdriver, ostensibly to threaten or throw it at the little spirits, but the screwdriver warped in their hand, changing from a screwdriver into a purpled-dipped painter’s brush.
They looked from their hand to the brush to their hand and back again, completely at a loss for words. They blinked, and the painter’s brush warped again, this time into the pencil from their mapmaking supplies. “What,” they started to say before the screwdriver warped again into a hammer that suddenly hit the floor when it gained the actual weight of a smithing hammer.
As the hammer hit the ground, arcane sigils flew up the haft, sigils that Hayden recognized from their own work on their quarterstaff. “Well, I’ll be,” they said as they touched the hammer, their touch once again causing it to change, but back into a screwdriver this time. Looking closely, Hayden saw where one of the little elementals was still trapped among the haphazard arcane sigils that had been burned into the haft from its contact with the arcane field, sigils that were a mirror reflection of the sigils they had designed.
They tapped the haft with their thumb, and the screwdriver vibrated, seemingly pleased, in response. “What are you doing in there? You’re not supposed to be in there.” Again, the screwdriver vibrated. “No, you’re not supposed to be there.” Hayden looked closer at the screwdriver, examining the magical runes burnt there and tried to figure out how it was working.
As they looked closer, a spark of arcane energy leaped out at the quarterstaff. The quarterstaff glowed with power as the metal plates reconfigured themselves with a bulge at the end that swelled with arcane energies. Hayden picked up the staff, and was surprised at how lightweight it felt. They waved it gently in the confined space of their bunk, and even though it felt light as a feather, the arcane power had a gravitas to it that felt like it could do some damage.
They looked from the screwdriver to the staff and grinned devilishly. "Oh, I like this," they said to themselves.