[center][img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/da8b1f3b-f770-4c91-afba-a721ad4db5af/d4rcogj-c4716557-9c5c-4f07-bd12-2c9cc9dbc2e7.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2RhOGIxZjNiLWY3NzAtNGM5MS1hZmJhLWE3MjFhZDRkYjVhZlwvZDRyY29nai1jNDcxNjU1Ny05YzVjLTRmMDctYmQxMi0yYzljYzlkYmMyZTcuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.fAEt6MdcyGdnN-U0FIFe256Cuf5lMg9LNBnU0EEgF2s[/img]

[url=https://www.deviantart.com/ariefx3/art/Red-Hooded-Girl-II-287805907]Image source[/url][h3][color=ff0000]Tala Halfelven[/color][/h3][/center]
[b][color=ff0000]Aliases[/color][/b]
[list][*][b]Elven: [/b]Tala Kuu’Dato (Tala the Bastard)
[*][b]Dwarven: [/b]Blood Rose (Due to her attire and perfume)[/list]
[b][color=ff0000]Age: [/color][/b]20
[b][color=ff0000]Gender: [/color][/b]Female
[b][color=ff0000]Race: [/color][/b]Human/Elven halfbreed
[b][color=ff0000]Occupation: [/color][/b]Alchemist
[b][color=ff0000]Voice actor: [/color][/b][url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1492868/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t2]Jennifer Davne Graveness[/url]
[b][color=ff0000]Theme: [/color][/b] [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hosCuzo6JKo]C21FX - Blood Red Roses[/url]
[b][color=ff0000]Traits[/color][/b]
[list][*][b]Eyesight: [/b]Inheriting elven eyes, Tala can see far and sharp, as long as there is enough light to go around.
[*][b]Unbelonging: [/b]Given she is a halfling, elves view Tala as a stain on their purity, and everyone else views her as an elf. As such, she has trouble gaining traction with anyone.
[*][b]Stamina: [/b]Tala has the stamina of a human, able to outlast just about any other race.[/list]
[b][color=ff0000]Appearance[/color][/b]

Due to her elven heritage, Tala has quite a nice figure, lean and dextrous. Her body build favors speed and agility over strength and durability. Despite being about 180 cm tall, she only weighs about 60 kilos. Her skin is a light tan mix of her human mother and elven father.

Her face is a bit more angular than that of a human, with prominent sky blue eyes common to elves and full rose red lips. Most of her features are shrouded in her clothing and wild mane of raven hair. Her ears are pointy, but of regular human size.

The thing everyone will immediately notice is her red cloak and hood, making her look like a part of a fairy tale. Her face is further covered in an equally colored scarf. Under that she wears sturdy traveling boots, cloth pants with leather chaps and a layered cloth armor jacket. Her gear is full of pockets and belts that can be used to store and hang stuff for her job. Last but most important to her is the leather satchel with a boobytrapped lock that holds most of her supplies and tools. When switching location, she carried her other possessions in cloth backpack.

When in a comfortable environment such as a house or ship cabin, Tala likes to wear a long grey skirt and loose blouse of the same color, coupled with her hardened leather work apron, so she can have her tools at hand at all times and freedom of movement to reach material on shelves and to manipulate delicate things.

The halfling wears a ring which is a symbol of her membership and rank in the alchemist's guild. The ring is made of gold with 4 runes and 4 gemstones spaced equally around its circumference, each pair representing one of the four elements. The ring ranks her as a journeyman, but also tells of her inclination to magic, something rare in an alchemist. On the inside of the ring, the words "Bellator scientiam" are engraved.

The woman holds herself in a way that makes her look smaller than she really is, huddled up and slumped. Oftentimes she picks far corners of a room to sit, hiding behind a crowd or travelling in an enclosed carriage. She prefers to keep her face hidden behind her hair, scarf and hood when talking to strangers.

She doesn’t like large gatherings of people where someone could cause her trouble because of her bastard heritage, but in small groups or between four eyes, she opens up and is quite friendly.

[b][color=ff0000]History[/color][/b]

A daughter of a farmer's wife and an elven raider, Tala spent her childhood working on the field. Her mother died giving her birth, leaving her without a woman figure in her life and a human stepfather who hated her for all the wrong reasons. Naturally a bit lazy person, instead of slacking off Tala found herself ways to make her work easier, tinkering with the tools. Having no desire to live where she was clearly not wanted, Tala ran from home at the age of ten, smuggling herself onto a wagon of a travelling troupe.

Discovered and taken by an alchemist in the next town, Tala worked in the house as a maid, and often as an extra pair of hands for the alchemist. Inspired to study the art, she begged her master to teach her, but was shooed away as a ‘lowly peasant woman’. It wasn't until she took care of the rat problem in the house with a poison she made herself that her master reconsidered, reluctantly taking her as an apprentice.

He soon discovered the girl had natural talent for the job, partly due to her superior half elven intelligence and senses. When she reached the age of 16, Tala had found enough wealth in her excursions to nature and overtiming odd jobs to craft her apprentice's ring, finally gaining an official membership in the Alchemists' guild. She kept studying for another two years, passing the entry tests and gaining the rank of Journeyman. Bidding farewell to her master she left the house she came to call home to gain experience in the world.

In need of a job to keep financing her studies, food, clothing and shelter (in that order), Tala has been running around for a few months with local group of mercenaries, supplying them with poisons and medicinals along with occasionally joining them out in the field when the job required explosives and other things from her area of expertise. As a side job she also sold vanity items like perfumes on the markets when the group stayed in a town.

She has however grown weary of the band since not all of the jobs they signed on for were exactly legal, and the mercenaries were mostly male and giving her too many looks for comfort. Thus she started roaming Inns and taverns, listening if another opportunity would present itself.

Soon enough she overheard a ship captain talking of an expedition to the ancient homeland of humanity, Cradle. Paying the captain partly in gold and partly in services provided, she secured a small but well furnished cabin for herself where she could study and work.

[b][color=ff0000]Skills[/color][/b]

[i]Potion making:[/i] The most basic of alchemy, the half elf can create all sorts of potions. She allows herself a little vanity in the form of rose perfume.
[hider=Recipes]
[b]Medicinals[/b]

[i]Healing salve:[/i] Aloe vera, Ribwort plantain, Vaseline
[i]Disinfectant:[/i] Iodine salt, ethanol

[b]Alcohol[/b]

[i]Ale:[/i] Grain, bitters, water, yeast
[i]Spirit:[/i] Fruit, water

[b]Druggery[/b]

[i]Perfume:[/i] Fragrance, solvent
[i]Coating poison:[/i] Poison, thickener

[b]Chemistry[/b]

[i]Boomsticks:[/i] Shell (Papyrus shell - smoke, cast iron shell - fragmentation), wax, black powder, fuse (impact fuse - White phosphorus ampule, time fuse - Wick, magic fuse - rune)
[/hider]
[i]Metalworking:[/i] Tala can refine and cast metals. She is no smith however, and her skills are more fit to creating pottery, jewelry and some smaller, specialized items such as locks and keys. She could repair and strengthen a blade, but she couldn’t create a good one from scratch.
[hider=Recipes]
[b]Bronze[/b]
Tala can cast and smith bronze, including work-hardening of weapon edges.

[b]Iron[/b]
Tala can cast iron, but she can only smith basic things that do not need to resist much stress and wear, not knowing much about heat treatment. Her kilns are also only good enough to process magnetite and not less pure ores.

[b]Silver, gold[/b]
Tala is quite proficient in casting and crafting rare metals, but she has to obtain them from nuggets, not knowing how to extract the metals from rock.
[/hider]
[i]Machinery:[/i] Something the alchemist is studying in detail right now. She is good enough to create locks, components for firearms and the like, but her skill is not yet good enough to make delicate parts like clockwork, which is a requirement for the next rank in the guild.

[hider=Crafting]
[b]Clothing[/b]
Tala can work tanned leather and understands the tanning process, but she never practiced it. She can sew, but knows nothing about making string and cloth.

[b]Ceramics[/b]
The halfelf can make ceramics of high quality, a bit of a hobby for her, from bricks to pottery. She can also build a kiln from scratch.

[b]Glass[/b]
Tala understands the processes, but can not build a furnace that would melt sand. Likewise, she does not carry glassblowing tools.

[b]Stone[/b]
She can sculpt small works of art, but Tala is no stonemason.

[b]Wood[/b]
Tala can cut down and debark trees, but she can only build with beams as she lacks more precise tools.

[b]Construction[/b]
Tala can build a few types of shelter from materials she can make herself, up to a brick hut with a tiled roof with a hearth, chimney, oven and floor heating. She can also make larger machines, like a crane. She is no shipwright though.
[/hider]
[i]Combat:[/i] Tala isn’t as good in combat as most other wanderers, specializing more in supporting them with her alchemical equipment or acting as a scout where her ranged weapon and good sight come into play - when she is forced into combat in the first place. She is also apt at laying traps.

[b][color=ff0000]Inventory[/color][/b]

[hider][i]Rose's thorn:[/i] Her precious ballista. Resembling a crossbow with its looks, the arms on the weapon are actually separate and solid, wound up by torsion springs. This allows  for each arm to be winded separately, reducing the strength needed to do so. The weapon has very precise sights that allow Tala to precisely hit a target at 60 meters and quite reliably up to 200. As far as ammunition goes, Tala carries armor piercing bolts for standard encounters, one loaded, rest in pockets in her clothes, and the folding stock of the weapon can hold 4 extra pieces that she usually reserves for specialized ammunition, such as poison rounds or the boomsticks.

[i]Hunting knife:[/i] a longer blade strong enough to hold Tala’s weight if for example embedded in a wall to be used to give her a boost. It can also be mounted on the front of the Rose's thorn in a cone mount. There is a capillary groove running the length of the blade to hold poison if needed.

[i]Deck of cards:[/i] She carries a deck of cards around with her. Nobody knows if or how the deck is marked or whether the girl is just a good player, but she wins more often than not. 

[i]Satchel:[/i] The supplies Tala carried got spoiled by the seawater, but her tools and finished goods remained OK.

[b]Tools:[/b]
Hammerpick, mortar and pestle, pocket still, pump, flint, whetstone, wirebrush, armor oil, wood saw, hatchet, chisel

[b]Supplies[/b]
5x Dried yeast
2x Armor oil
1x Healing salve
[/hider]