Tilly Gearspring

Tilly Gearspring was traveling through a Lyverian shire when news arrived. King Rennyn was mustering forces to march against Mahkah Hemlig in the Broken Lands.

Tilly wasn't a soldier and wasn't a scout. She was a traveling tinker with a knack for alchemy and absolutely no combat training. But it sounded like an adventure, so she volunteered immediately.

The problem was proving she could be useful. She'd built a flying contraption, a nightmare of balloons filled with volatile gases, canvas wings, and propellers that barely worked. Captain Maud Stonefoot took one look at it and said no.

Then Tilly met Oswald Copperbeard.

The hill dwarf was already on fire, cursed with flames he couldn't extinguish. If anyone could handle flying around in a contraption held together by rope and optimism, it was someone who was literally already burning.

"Here," she said, presenting the flying machine. "You're already on fire, so what's a little more danger?"

Oswald stared at her. Then at the contraption. Then back at her.

"This is a terrible idea."

"I know! Isn't it great?"

He took it.

With the flying machine gone, Tilly needed a new role. Fortunately, she's very good at being overlooked. Small, quiet, with a tinker's instinct for staying out of the way. While Oswald flies overhead drawing attention with his flames, Tilly slips through the chaos unnoticed.

She carries alchemical supplies, spare parts, tools, whatever the others need to keep fighting. Crossbow jammed? Tilly has tools. Armor cracked? She's got wire and sealant. Need a distraction? She'll create one, then vanish before anyone realizes she was there.

When they reach the Broken Lands and see Mahkah's devastation, the others are horrified. Tilly is thrilled.

"Look at all that terrain! Broken equipment to scavenge! Folks to help!"

Captain Maud watches Tilly dart around, handing out supplies, vanishing into the rubble.

"At least she's useful," Maud mutters, water dripping from her beard.

Tilly doesn't hear her. She's too busy being exactly where her friends need her, exactly when they need her.