Quartz 5

Boti

Properties2
tagsnpc, bard
aliasesThe Timeless Bard

3 min read

Boti

Boti is a goblin bard of The Merry Bunch - the Timeless Bard, kept young across a century by a dragon’s blessing, and the grandmother of the group.

Biography

Born small and quiet, probably in Ostagaria, Boti was smuggled as an infant onto a trading caravan, hidden among books and silks like another trade good. She never knew her parents. Her earliest memory is of the stern Mother Quana tending a small cut, while Master Shabib, who discovered the infant, kept her on his staff as another hand to move crates.

Boti delighted in the changing places, customs, and people of caravan life, but its workers never fully accepted her. Though they raised and paid her, they continued to see her as a goblin stowaway or a slave inexplicably given a few coppers. Her only true possession was a shabby wooden transverse flute bought in the Haymerkate market and crafted by the famed Molinda Timber of the Cinderwolves. She cherished it and practiced whenever she could.

When the great cobalt dragon Ko-Arto burned down the caravan, he noticed the flute and demanded a melody. Despite shaking hands and breathless terror, Boti played a somber requiem for her fallen companions. Ko-Arto spared her and carried her with the caravan’s valuables to his lair in the Andorf Mountains. She became his bard, easing his days and lonely nights, while he taught her reading, writing, magic, history, art, and craft. In time he became a more caring parent than any she had known.

Ko-Arto later sickened while expecting children of his own. Neither his magic nor Boti’s could halt his decay. She wanted to remain and ease his final days, but he commanded her to enter the world and live the life she had never enjoyed. The blessing he had placed upon her sixty years earlier made age no concern, as it was for a dragon. Boti left him in the care of his kobold worshippers and set forth as the Timeless Bard.

Appearance and Personality

Boti is a green-skinned goblin with black hair and a youthful appearance, offset by the habits and bearing of someone much older. She is easygoing even to a fault, rarely excitable, and playfully mischievous when the moment suits it. She often becomes lost in thought and assumes that anyone who has not followed her reasoning is either keeping up silently or being foolish.

She sees herself as the Merry Bunch’s grandmother. Aldor and Tikal are youngsters who need a firm guiding hand; Nessa and Filli are granddaughters with whom she can dress up and gossip.

Appendix

See Also

Sources & Attribution

  • Primary lore: content/NPC/The Merry Bunch.md (moved to content/private/_originals/NPC/), author TrueMichato.

Backlinks

Graph View