Traveller: Character Challenge 24 of 31: Dolmenwood Grimmalkin

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Character Challenge 24 of 31: Dolmenwood Grimmalkin

A fey cat creature. While I'd like to say its three forms are three characters as I am a bit behind, that would be cheating! From the revised PDF:

Grimalkins are shape-shifting cat-fairies renowned for their magic of illusion and their love of eating rats. They can take on three different forms, described below. Grimalkins originate in the fairy realm of Catland, ruled over by the fearsome Queen Abyssinia—the Queen of All Cats. Those grimalkins who enter Dolmenwood live as wanderers and adventurers.

Cunning Humanoid Form—Estray A grimalkin’s normal form is that of a humanoid cat, wearing clothing, speaking, and walking upright. A grimalkin in estray is, by all appearances, a humanoid cat, beautiful or ugly, with fur covering their little body.

Fat Moggy Form—Chester In chester, a grimalkin resembles a normal cat in all respects—though perhaps fatter than the average mouser. A grimalkin in chester can understand language but can only respond in wordless yowls and meows.

Fey Predator Form—Wilder The primal, fey form of a grimalkin. A grimalkin in wilder is difficult to perceive clearly in the mortal world as more than a gleaming pair of deranged, predatory eyes beyond the throw of the lantern’s light.

I miss playing Space Cat...

Rolling up the stats, dexterity is the highest, and as thieves are one of the classes they are allowed in, there we go for a class. Though after rolling that lute, bard would be nice but is charisma is not quite there. Rolling on the tables, we get Jaspy Pouncemouse, a swindler who swindled the wrong person in the Undying Land so decided perhaps the human world would be a good place to spend a few decades in. 61 years old and standing 3'2" tall when in her Estray form, she has pointy ear tufts, extravagantly long whiskers, and silver fluffy fur. She speaks in a mirthful and mocking voice but has mercurial mood swings. Her regal ermine cloak tends to flap around a lot but is well-cared for and covers her ratskin vest and breeches. It also blends in really well in the shadows and is leather lined. Since coming to Dolmenwood, she has been searching for the perfect place to build a secret palace that she believes will fit her self-inflated view of herself. From the Fay she believes that dreams are the true reality, and Dolmenwood is a shadow of a dream. She carries a lute that is always out of tune in the morning, but by evening is perfectly tuned.

Grimalkin have some nice bonuses: being small they get a +2 AC against large opponents (larger than human-sized), eating a giant rodent heals 1 point of damage, a single glamor, target of 5 for listening, magic resistance and of course the shape shifting which confers a few nice things as well.

Her glamor is through the keyhole, allowing her to get through any door with a keyhole. A handy glamor for a thief! And once per day per door, making this pretty powerful.

The thief skills are on par with OSE in general, so in game play the book would be needed to for all the rolls. Rolling she has leather (and hence her cloak is leather-lined, and apparently ratskin clothing is tough!). The 3 daggers fit well, particularly for her backstabbing skills, but going to swap out the long sword for a short sword as she is too short to carry a sword longer than she is, unless you count her tail.