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Pella

NPCs
Dwarf-fey, a custom blend of dwarf and fairy traits · Wizard 20 (School of Abjuration), with custom fey-dwarf traits · Level 20

Pella

Wandering ward-maker, mediator, and repairer of magical mechanisms
“poorly fitted”
AC19
HP285/285
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

At the table

Voice

A quick, clear voice with a faint rasp from forge smoke and years of speaking over hammering. Her consonants land crisply, and her laughter has a dry, breathy flutter that seems to match her wings. When speaking through a ward or spell, her voice acquires a brief metallic ring.

She speaks with the clipped precision of a craftsperson checking a fitting, shaped by years of listening for small sounds through stone. Her words come quickly when she is amused and in short, exact bursts when danger is near. She uses forge and repair metaphors naturally, and her jokes often arrive a beat before anyone realizes she is making one.

Speech patterns

Uses concrete workshop comparisons: a plan can be 'poorly fitted' or a promise can 'hold under strain.'
Asks a question, then answers it herself if the other person takes too long.
When teasing, she gives people grand, ridiculous job titles, then acts as if they are official.
When serious, she drops the jokes and uses short, exact sentences.

How to play them

Pella begins with humor and practical questions, watching whether visitors notice the people affected by their choices. She offers useful help to those who show care and competence. She is candid about immediate danger but guarded about the sealed workshop until she trusts the party. Earn her confidence by protecting someone vulnerable, admitting uncertainty, or helping Daro without demanding payment.

Goal

Find the source of the spring blight, prevent it from spreading through the dwarfhold, and tell her parents the truth about why she left.

Motivation

Pella wants to mend the damage she helped cause without letting the dwarfhold turn its people into expendable parts of a grand repair.

Secret · GM only

Appearance

Pella is a very small, slender dwarf-fey woman with porcelain-white skin and a round, doll-like face. Her large golden eyes catch light like polished amber, and two long, messy golden braids hang low beside her cheeks. A button nose and a wide, cheeky smile make her look perpetually on the verge of a prank. Four translucent, dragonfly-like wings tremble behind her, their fine veins shining like hairline cracks in glass. She moves in abrupt, precise darts, then goes perfectly still in midair as if pinned there. Up close, she smells faintly of hot iron and crushed marigolds, an odd trace of the forge she grew up around.

Clothing

A short black dress with a petal-shaped skirt that opens into a flower-like flare when she twirls; it leaves her shoulders and arms bare and has a small golden belt-like accent at the waist. Black bracers cover her forearms, with one black armband on each upper arm. Long, pointed white boots turn black from the ankles down. The outfit is tailored to leave her four wings free.

Body language

She perches on edges rather than sitting, keeps her wings folded close when listening, and makes quick little turns toward any sound of tapping or machinery. When she is holding back a difficult truth, she presses her thumb to the gold accent at her waist.

Height
1 foot 8 inches
Build
Very small and exceptionally slender, with narrow shoulders and wiry strength concealed by her delicate proportions.
Eyes
Golden amber
Hair
Long golden hair in two low, messy braids
Skin
Porcelain white
Age
Adult, about 146 years old
Gender
Female
Size
Tiny

Distinguishing features

Four transparent dragonfly wings with golden veins and a soft glassy shimmer.
A round doll-like face, large amber-gold eyes, a button nose, and a broad mischievous smile.
Two low, untidy golden braids that swing against her cheeks when she turns.
Her flight smells faintly of hot iron and crushed marigolds.

Personality

14 traits and drives

Pella is playful and irreverent with people who underestimate her, yet intensely methodical when lives depend on a decision. She enjoys being the smallest person in a room until someone treats that as permission to ignore her. In a cheerful mood she turns every task into a game; when frightened, she gets brisk and practical rather than visibly panicked. She is compassionate, but her instinct to fix everything herself can make her secretive and difficult to help.

Alignment
Chaotic good

Quirks

Counts taps on stone by touching each fingertip to her thumb, even when the tapping is someone else's.
Gives inanimate tools affectionate names, but refuses to explain the names.
When pleased, spins once in midair to make her dress flare like a flower.
Leaves a single marigold petal beside a repaired object.
Keeps trying to balance objects on her head despite repeatedly forgetting her height.

Habits

When focused on a problem, she circles it in tiny loops, counting under her breath and testing each possibility with a fingertip.
She jokes freely with strangers but becomes solemn and direct when someone is endangered.
After using powerful magic, she checks nearby flowers or living roots as if apologizing for the disturbance.
She visits her old friend Daro at night, avoiding the public halls where the hold's officials might see them together.

Traits · 4

Turns danger into a puzzle when that keeps others from panicking.
Hates being lifted, pocketed, or treated as a mascot.
Protects craftspeople and children with immediate, sometimes reckless loyalty.
Keeps careful mental track of promises, including her own.

Flaws · 3

She takes responsibility for disasters even when the blame is shared.
She hides painful information until she has a complete solution, which can leave allies unprepared.
She can mistake an authority's caution for cowardice and act before hearing the full plan.

Fears · 3

That she will once again choose the right action too late to save everyone.
That her return will put her parents and Daro in danger.
That the blight is not an accident and she will have to destroy part of the hold to stop it.

Wants and needs · 4

Needs trustworthy allies who can help investigate the sealed workshop.
Wants to stop the blight before it reaches the hold's drinking water.
Needs to face her parents and explain why she left.
Wants the hold to recognize that small people can make consequential choices.

Combat

AC 19 · HP 285 · 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (hover)

Pella stays airborne, uses cover and her tiny stature to frustrate larger foes, and opens with control or protective magic rather than lethal force. She targets enemy spellcasters with counterspell, uses wall of force to split dangerous groups, and reserves Dancing Comet for clustered enemies or a desperate rescue. She retreats if innocents are in danger, but becomes frighteningly decisive when someone threatens the people she has sworn to protect.

Pella

Tiny humanoid (dwarf-fey, a custom blend of dwarf and fairy traits), chaotic good
Armor Class19
Hit Points285
Speed20 ft., fly 60 ft. (hover)
Level20
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsSTRDEXCONINTWISCHA
SkillsArcanaPerceptionInsightInvestigationPersuasionStealth
SensesDarkvision 60 ft.; passive Perception 20
Languages
Common,
Dwarvish,
Sylvan,
Gnomish
Fey Ancestry. Pella has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic cannot put her to sleep.
Magic Resistance. Pella has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting. Charisma is her spellcasting ability. She can cast disguise self and faerie fire at will, and fly once per day without concentration.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day): If Pella fails a saving throw, she can choose to succeed instead.
Custom. Petal-Turn Flight. Pella can hover and squeeze through spaces as narrow as 1 inch without squeezing penalties. Her wings shed a brief dusting of pale gold when she takes the Dash action.
Custom. Dwarven Surework. Pella has proficiency with smith's tools and can identify the maker's marks and construction flaws of worked stone or metal by touch.

Spells

Arcane Eye (level 4, divination). Creates an invisible magical eye that relays visual information to Pella.
Arcane Ward (level 1, abjuration). Creates a protective ward that absorbs damage and can be restored by casting abjuration spells.
Globe of Invulnerability (level 6, abjuration). Creates a barrier that blocks spells and magical effects of 5th level or lower.
Wall of Force (level 5, evocation). Creates an invisible wall of force that can divide a battlefield or protect allies.
Counterspell (level 3, abjuration). Attempts to interrupt a creature casting a spell.
Mirror Image (level 2, illusion). Creates an illusory duplicate that can draw attacks away from Pella.
Darkness (level 2, evocation). Fills a 20-foot cube with magical darkness that can be shaped around a point.
Faerie Fire (level 1, evocation). Creates a sparkling area that reveals invisible creatures and can blind foes.
Teleport (level 7, conjuration). Teleports Pella and willing creatures to a familiar destination.
Globe of Invulnerability (level 6, abjuration). Creates a protective barrier around Pella that grants resistance to damage and immunity to several conditions.
Disguise Self (level 1, illusion). Creates a magical disguise that changes Pella's appearance.
Shield (level 1, abjuration). Creates a shimmering, magical barrier that grants a target a bonus to AC.
Bigby's Hand (level 5, evocation). Deals force damage to a creature within range, with half damage on a successful Dexterity save.
Protection from Energy (level 3, abjuration). Creates a magical barrier that can protect a creature from a chosen type of damage.

Actions

Glimmerbolt. Melee or Ranged Spell Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 27 () force damage. Pella can choose to deal radiant damage instead.
Dancing Comet (Recharge 5–6). Pella releases a thorn-bright burst in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point she can see within 120 feet. Each creature of her choice in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 45 () radiant damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails also sheds dim light and cannot benefit from invisibility until the end of its next turn.
Spellcasting. Pella casts one of her listed spells, requiring no material components.

Reactions

Arcane Deflection. When a creature Pella can see targets her with an attack, she adds 5 to her AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss. If it misses, Pella can fly up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
Counterspell. When Pella sees a creature cast a spell within 60 feet, she attempts to interrupt it. The caster must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or the spell fails and has no effect. This reaction functions like the counterspell spell.

Legendary Actions

Flutter. Pella flies up to half her flying speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Glimmerbolt. Pella makes one Glimmerbolt attack.
Quick Casting (costs 2 actions). Pella casts a spell of 3rd level or lower from her spell list.
Petal-Scatter Escape (costs 3 actions). Pella vanishes in a burst of golden motes and reappears in an unoccupied space she can see within 60 feet. Each creature of her choice within 10 feet of the space she left must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the end of its next turn.

Services they sell

Can identify magical wards and likely structural weaknesses in worked stone.
Can cast protective and restorative magic for people she trusts.
Can guide travelers through the dwarfhold's old maintenance passages.
Can negotiate technical disputes between builders, miners, and spellcasters.

Rewards they can give

A custom ward that protects one small object or room against scrying for a month.
A map of hidden dwarfhold passages, including routes that bypass guarded doors.
Pella's help identifying magical construction, repairing a ward, or negotiating with the hold's engineers.
If the blight is stopped, Daro's finely made tool set, offered as a lasting token of trust.

Equipment

  • Petal-turn dress (clothing)A finely fitted black garment with a petal-flaring skirt and wing slits, made to withstand sudden turns in flight.
  • Black bracers and arm bands (worn equipment)Bracers and upper-arm bands that protect her in close quarters; the bracers are custom-worked by Daro.
  • Gilt waist clasp (worn equipment)A gold waist accent that conceals a tiny compartment holding a pressed marigold.
  • Flight boots (worn equipment)Pointed white boots blackened from the ankles down, with soles designed for silent landings.
  • Miniature smith's tools (tool)A pocket-sized set of smith's tools, sized for her hands and kept meticulously clean.

Possessions

A pressed marigold hidden in her waist clasp
A miniature set of smith's tools
A small collection of unsigned letters from her parents
A map of the dwarfhold's old ventilation shafts
A tiny glass vial containing a sample of the blighted spring water

Background

Pella was born in a deep dwarfhold where her mother, a metalworker, and her father, a keeper of old fey stories, tried to keep their unusual child safe from both curious neighbors and the hold's rigid traditions. As a girl, she learned to listen to stone and metal while secretly tending a patch of stubborn marigolds in a disused ventilation shaft. During a cave-in, she heard trapped miners tapping from behind a sealed wall. The hold's officials ordered her to wait for proper supports; Pella ignored them, flew through a crack, and guided the trapped workers out by following the sound of their tools. The rescue saved lives but collapsed a treasured ancestral gallery. Pella took the blame, then left before the hold could turn her into a symbol or a scapegoat. She spent decades as a wandering mediator, repairing feuds with the same patience she used to repair delicate mechanisms. Now she has returned because a creeping magical blight is turning the hold's deep springs bitter. Her old friend, the stubborn engineer Daro, wants her help, while the hold's stern speaker, Imani, fears Pella will expose that the blight began in a sealed royal workshop. Pella still sends small gifts to her parents, who believe she is far away and safer than she is.

Role in the story

A formidable ally and morally complicated guide to a dwarfhold in crisis. Pella can reveal hidden routes, decipher old wards, and help the party navigate local politics, but her role in the spring blight forces a difficult choice between exposing her and preserving the community's chance to survive.

“As a girl, she learned to listen to stone and metal while secretly tending a patch of stubborn marigolds in a disused ventilation shaft.”
From their background
Faction
Formerly of the dwarfhold of Kivala, a settlement named for a plant that grows through every crack in its lower halls. She has no current formal allegiance.

Known connections

Daro, an old dwarf engineer and Pella's closest friend, wants her help with the blighted springs but is hiding how far the contamination has spread.
Imani, speaker of the dwarfhold, considers Pella useful and dangerous in equal measure.
Pella's parents live in the hold and receive unsigned gifts from her; she has not told them she has returned.
The trapped miners she rescued as a child still remember her and quietly support her when the hold's authorities turn against her.
Major secret · GM only
Minor secrets · GM only

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