Pippa Glowvial - Artificer (Alchemist)

Name: Pippa Glowvial
Race: Rock Gnome
Role/Class: Artificer Level 8 (Alchemist)
Appearance: Pippa Glowvial is a compact explosion of energy in gnome form. Barely three feet tall, she has a round, expressive face dusted with freckles and perpetually smudged with soot, pollen, or glittering residue from her latest attempt at “improved sparkle infusion.” Her skin is a warm, ruddy tan; her eyes are large and hazel, shot through with gold flecks that catch light like swirling potion sediment. Her curly chestnut hair is pulled back into a messy bun secured with quills, glass stirring rods, and at least one small spoon.

She dresses in practical layers: a cream shirt rolled at the sleeves, a dark teal vest, and a thick leather apron absolutely covered in burn marks, inked formulas, and stitched-on patches. Multiple belts crisscross her waist, each bristling with loops for vials, tools, and tiny notebooks. Her trousers are tucked into sturdy boots stained with alchemical spills in every color. Goggles with multi-lensed attachments rest atop her head or around her neck; when she flips them down, her eyes look comically huge behind different-colored lenses. As she moves, the faint clink of glass and jingle of metal components follows her like a chaotic soundtrack.

Backstory

Pippa was born in a quiet burrow where sensible rock gnomes did sensible rock gnome things: tunnel maintenance, gemcraft, delicate clockworks. She tried all of those and liked them just fine—right up until the day she accidentally mixed cleaning solvent, firefly dust, and her grandmother’s cough syrup, producing a violently pink foam that cured the cough, stripped the soot off the ceiling, and left everyone’s hair standing on end for three days.

Instead of punishing her, her amused (if frazzled) family nudged her toward proper study. She apprenticed to a traveling apothecary who introduced her to the Ardent Woods and its staggering array of herbs, fungi, and magical ingredients. From there, Pippa’s path veered between tiny village workshops and eccentric elven alchemical salons, always leaving behind a trail of improved remedies, singed countertops, and volunteers insisting, “It… mostly worked!”

Eventually, her work brought her to the forest villages along the major paths, where healers, wardens, and farmers all needed reliable potions—but couldn’t always afford imported stock. Pippa saw opportunity: cheap, local components; a constant supply of test subjects; and a landscape practically begging to be juiced, powdered, and brewed.

She set up a “mobile lab” of sorts, splitting her time between settlements: brewing sturdy, reliable staples for clinics and wardens, then using the offcuts and surplus for bolder experiments. Over the years, she became beloved (and slightly feared) in Thornbrook, Fernwalk, and the nearby hamlets as the bubbly potion-smith who could whip up cures, enhancers, and battlefield support on short notice—so long as you signed her little release form and didn’t mind the occasional side effect.

Recently, Pippa has begun collaborating loosely with Willow, Elrieth, and other caretakers of the Woods. She refines Willow’s old remedies into stable draughts, helps Elrieth cross-check springwater reactions, and trades field notes with rangers and spirit-tenders. But as demand grows, so does temptation—from merchants who want to mass-produce her best formulas, to factions eager to weaponize her more explosive failures. She’s having far too much fun to stop… but even Pippa can sense that she’s approaching a tipping point between “local eccentric” and “someone others want to control.”