Darkonian Kargatane Record
- Known Name: Celestinka "Tink" Flacken
- Race: Gnome
- Apparent Age: Mid-70s (Human equivalent: late 20s/early 30s)
- Birthday: 11th September 680 BC.
- Height: 3'3"
- Alignment: Chaotic Neutral.
- Affiliations: None.
- Religion: Nebelun.
- Character Class: Alchemist (Tinkerer).
- Place of Origin: Mayvin, Darkon.
- Player/Type: NPC
Appearance
Celestinka "Tink" Flacken, a gnome inventor and alchemist, stands out with her vibrant dyed-blue hair, often tied back messily as if she were constantly pulled out of her latest project. She has sharp, intelligent sparkling blue eyes that glint with mischief and a constant sense of curiosity. Her dark skin is lightly freckled, contrasting beautifully with her painted bright red lips, which are usually curved into a playful smirk. If she stops dying her hair (a rare occasion) her natural hair is a strong blonde, but it has been decades since anyone has seen it's natural colour. She occasionally dyes it another colour, with pink or red being common alternatives.
Tink is typically seen dressed in a form-fitting, leather alchemist's outfit that has been dyed red and blue. The strange outfit has some obvious (and many concealed) clockwork pieces such as gears and cogs, which give it a similar effect to studded leather, but also enhance her abilities (see signature items). Typically, strapped to her arm and belt pouches, are many small glowing vials and flasks hinting at volatile concoctions - they contain the many catalysts and chemicals required for her bomb-making or alchemical extracts. In her signature outfit, she carries the air of someone who’s always ready to dive into an experiment or toss a bomb if things get dull. Her tools and gadgets are always within reach for instant use.
When there is a social occasion, she is seen in her signature dress. When she first arrived in Leiksburg she noticed that Barovian women tended to wear black, whilst Gundarakite women favoured yellow dresses. Intelligent enough to understand that these were obviously popular colours, yet lacking in the social understanding of Barovian-Gundarakite politics, she decided to make a yellow dress with black dress to honour local sensibilities. The dress has the opposite effect, being a strong yellow instead of pale yellow favoured by Gundarakite women, which stands out strongly to everyone, and a design so figure-hugging and scanty that most Barovians consider it almost (if not totally) obscene. Still, it gets her noticed and Tink thinks she looks good in it, and cares little otherwise what people think of her.
Regardless what she's wearing, around her neck Tink wears an elegant leather choker with a large central gem, a family heirloom from her father, Stamitos Flacken, a famous inventor in the Gnome capital of Mayvin. It has magical-alchemical properties, but is worn more out of custom and remembrance of her dear daddy, than for its magical properties.
Tink is only slightly above average height for a gnome female, although her choice of hairstyle (and its often-dishevelled condition) make her look a little taller. She has a slight build typical for gnomes, though she looks healthy. Despite her small stature, her confidence and manic energy make her seem larger than life.
Background
Celestinka “Tink” Flacken was born in Mayvin, Darkon, to Stamitos Flacken, the renowned inventor of the famed Clockworks, an ornate clock tower known for its intricate and mesmerizing automatons. As the youngest of the Flacken family, Tink was known for her exceptional brilliance, curiosity, and restless drive to "fix" and "improve" everything around her. Her natural intelligence and an almost obsessive desire to tinker with gadgets made her stand out early in life.
At the age of 45, Tink left her family business behind after completing her studies at the University of Il Aluk, where she had been enrolled early due to her intellectual gifts. There, she majored in alchemy and engineering, exploring everything from arcane theory to clockwork construction. The university was a place where she could nurture her insatiable curiosity, though the academic environment often felt too slow for her restless nature. Her fascination with clockworks led her to be a standout inventor, even creating small, functional automatons during her time there. Still, despite her academic success, she longed for adventure.
Tink’s thirst for knowledge and her knack for clockwork creations led her to travel across domains. She spent time in Mordent, Lamordia, Richemulot, and Hazlan. In Hazlan, she worked as a tutor for Mulan noble children, where her skills in engineering and alchemy became highly prized. However, the oppressive treatment of the Rashemani people by the Mulan nobles eventually wore her down. This led to an unfortunate "accident" during one of her lessons—a sizable explosion that killed her employer. With Hazlan no longer safe for her, Tink fled to Barovia, hearing rumors of a call for skilled engineers and alchemists in the village of Leiksburg.
In Leiksburg, Tink set up shop, selling potions and alchemical concoctions while also dabbling in custom clockwork creations. Though small, her workshop became a hub of activity, drawing interest from wealthy patrons and curious adventurers alike. Her creations—ranging from simple poppets to intricate clockwork servants—are expensive but highly sought after, providing her with enough income to live comfortably while pursuing her true passion: invention.
During her travels, she’s encountered various exciting and dangerous moments, including barely escaping an explosion in Lamordia when one of her prototypes went haywire. She’s also caused more than one public spectacle with her inventions—once launching a clockwork automaton through the roof of a building in Richemulot by accident. Each "mistake" only fuels her excitement for the next project, and her indomitable spirit ensures she always moves forward, no matter how disastrous the outcome.
Personality
Tink is a whirlwind of manic energy, restlessness, and pure invention. Highly intelligent and driven by an insatiable curiosity, she’s constantly tinkering with something—be it clockwork gadgets, bombs, or arcane formulas. Tink is fearless and thrives on danger, often leaping into perilous situations without a second thought, preferring to live in the moment and deal with the consequences later. She’s not particularly patient or stealthy, but her mind is always working, whether it’s on pranks or elaborate clockwork designs. Tink has a loud and proud approach to life, loving flashy things, from explosions to bright dresses to gaudy jewellery, often wearing eccentric pieces that would make anyone else seem ridiculous but somehow suit her wild, creative nature. When intellectually stimulated, she’s intensely focused, shutting out the world around her for days or weeks. But in the absence of a project, her mischievous side emerges, and she becomes a trickster, plotting elaborate pranks to keep herself entertained—especially if her targets are dour or overly serious. Despite her eccentricities, Tink cares deeply for those she considers friends, though her love for pranks might make that hard to tell at times.
Other Notes
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Tink has spent decades improving both her alchemy and clockworking skills, and is capable of using clockwork to create items that function much like magic items, or imbued with some of her innate magical ability where clockwork ability alone cannot suffice. As such, she has made for others many strange-looking but perfectly functional devices that serve the same purpose as magical equivalents, but through clockwork. Of late, she has become proficient enough to even create clockwork constructs (golems).
Her pride and joy, however, is named Tinkerwing and is a tiny clockwork familiar resembling a dove with gems for eyes. A masterwork of clockwork technology in itself, it is also intrinsically magically bonded with Tink and serves her as a familiar, much like Wizards have arcane bonds with animals and creatures to serve as familiars. She will claim that it is the same, except she has to fix it when it's damaged rather than waiting for it to heal naturally.
Despite its size, Tinkerwing is a useful assistant. Capable of seeing twice as far as even Dwarves in total darkness, low-light conditions, and a small size with a lair of alchemically-altered paint that helps it blend into the surroundings to be harder to notice, it is a useful spying and reconnaissance companion. Made of pure metal, it is also quite resistant to damage, cold, and fire, though vulnerable to electrical attacks. Shock prods in its mouth also allow it to zap targets when it carries out a bite attack (peck), often more damaging than the actual physical attack - though she states this is for defence, and rarely employs Tinkerwing in combat other than as a distraction. As a familiar, it is magically linked to Tink and they can communicate in a language only they understand, although Tinkerwing is also capable of speaking Darkonese to anyone capable of understanding the language.
Combat Style
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Tink's approach to combat is as explosive and chaotic as her personality. She prefers to engage her enemies from a distance, making use of her signature bombs and alchemical concoctions to cause maximum damage while keeping herself safely out of reach. She takes great pleasure in lobbing chemical bombs into enemy ranks, laughing maniacally as they explode in bursts of fire, smoke, and often other destructive chemicals and elements. Her bombs can be devastating, designed to maim, burn, or disorient foes.
In close combat, Tink is less conventional. She is not a frontline fighter, but her quick thinking and dexterity allow her to stay one step ahead of her enemies. She often relies on her alchemical gadgets or clockwork automatons to distract or incapacitate opponents, giving her time to retreat or reposition herself. While she is capable of using a dagger, she has the characteristic gnome lack of physical strength, and is not trained to get the most out of her dexterity with finesse weapons, so Tink prefers to stay out of reach, using her speed and agility to dodge attacks rather than meet them head-on.
When working as part of a team, Tink can be unpredictable. She tends to act impulsively, charging into danger when others would hesitate. However, she excels at supporting allies by providing them with potent potions, temporary buffs, or distractions that turn the tide of battle. If available, her clockwork constructs can offer both offensive and defensive support when needed.
Social Style
Tink is generally well-liked by those who appreciate creativity, ingenuity, and a little bit of chaos. Dwarves, with their serious natures, are often the targets of her harmless but inconvenient pranks, though she respects their craftsmanship and finds it fun to tease them. Halflings, with their friendliness and adaptability, are some of her favourite company. Elves, particularly those with artistic inclinations, have her respect, even if she occasionally finds them a bit haughty. Humans are a mixed bag for Tink; she appreciates their ingenuity and variety but finds their uptight behaviour baffling at times. Those who engage her mind with intellectual challenges, share in her love for invention, or can laugh off her pranks will quickly earn her friendship. On the other hand, those who take themselves too seriously or who can’t handle her manic energy might find her exhausting. She’s fiercely independent and doesn’t appreciate being told what to do—unless, of course, the person giving instructions has a brilliant plan or concept that piques her interest. A sense of humour and a willingness to embrace a little chaos are the fastest ways to win Tink over.
Signature Equipment
Armour & Weapons
- Alchemist's Leather: Leather armour alchemically treated for resilience to flame and toxins, with clockwork components that both provide limited increased protection against physical damage, as well as make it easier for the wearer to carry heavy loads or be active for longer periods with less muscle stress. [+1 Easy Travel, Energy Resistance (Fire), Healing, Poison-Resistant, Studded Leather Armour]
- Alchemical Bombs: Tink's signature weapons are her bombs, which she creates on the fly by mixing catalysts and other chemicals. They're innately unstable and so must be created at the moment of usage, but are highly damaging and Tink is very proficient in using them, with shaped blasts that affect enemies but rarely herself or allies even in close-quarters.
- Tinkerbolt: An ornate light repeating crossbow (though barely recognisable as one) created from clockworks, advanced durable materials, and a little alchemy. When in carry mode, it resembles a strange ornate box with a single obvious button, small enough to hide in a large pocket or pouch. When the button is pressed, gears grind and click and it unfolds into the form of a crossbow, with clockwork-mechanically-enhanced bow and levers, fed by a clip that holds 5 bows and automatically reloads via clockwork mechanisms after every shot. Additionally, with the flick of a toggle, the front of the crossbow douses the ammunition with flammable reagents that ignite as the bolt is fired, making the ammunition do additional fire damage to targets. Although Tink is not actually proficient with repeating crossbows, as she has personally made this weapon and both tested it profusely as well as constantly tinkering with it, she is proficient with it due to her intimate knowledge of its functionality.
- Dagger: a masterwork but fairly simple dagger that Tink carries more for utility, cutting parchment or food, rather than as an actual weapon.
Magic Items
- Goggles of Flawlessness: These leather goggles have various lenses that can me adjusted to increase visual clarity and magnification. They reveal and allow the wearer to notice imperfections that can be corrected, allowing artisans to create masterwork components much faster than usual, spot forgeries and disguises, and see through illusions with greater ease.
- Necklace of Adaptation: This leather choker has clockwork bits and a central crystal treated with special alchemy to provide a protective aura. The necklace wraps the wearer in a shell of fresh air, making her immune to all harmful vapors and gases (such as cloudkill and stinking cloud effects, as well as inhaled poisons) and allowing her to breathe, even underwater or in a vacuum.
- Engineer's Workgloves: These durable canvas and leather gloves imbue the wearer with an instinctive knowledge of mechanical and clockwork devices (including clockwork devices), granting a bonus to craft or knowledge about how to repair or understand mechanical devices. Once per day, the wearer may touch a device and instantly analyze it, learning its purpose and general method of operation, as well as diagnosing any acute malfunctions of the device, but not its magical powers or additional non-mechanical effects.
Clockwork Creations
- Tinkerwing: Tink's clockwork familiar - a flying mechanical bird resembling a dove. As a familiar, Tink has a magical bond with it and her own magical aura gives the construct a degree of self-awareness and intelligence that normal constructs lack.
- Tinkerlegs: A diminutive shiny brass construct resembling a spider. Its legs are all picks, chisels, pliers, and other tools of fine manipulation, and its body contains reservoirs of powders and oils it can spray out of its nozzle-spinnerets. Most of the time, it can be used in hand as a set of fancy masterwork thieves tools, but it has enough charge to once per day be able to be connected by a fine chain on its back to a small disk with studs and levers that Tink can use to remotely control it, allowing it to go up to suspected traps and locks and allow Tink to disable it without fear of being caught in the danger zone if things go wrong.
- Tinkerbug: This fine construct is made to look like a beetle and despite its form, doesn't really have any ability to move or perform actions by itself. However, it contains a low-quality gemstone embedded in its body and when it is placed against clothing, surfaces, or objects, clings to it with its legs and remains indefinitely. Whilst connected, the crystal stores all nearby sounds heard within a 20-foot radius for up to an hour. Tink can set it to begin recording after a specific period of time up to a 24 hour timer delay. When recovered, the gemstone can be carefully removed so that Tink can listen to the audio recorded on the gemstone. The bug is also capable of an optional activation mode whereby if either it is tampered with (such as if discovered and attempting to extract the gemstone) or 72 hours pass after activation, the bug begins a self-destruct sequence that erases any information on the gemstone first, then sends a surge of energy through its filaments, rendering itself useless and irreparable.
- Tinkerpaw: A clockwork construct in the shape of a strange dog that Tink find looks funny, but most find disturbing or terrifying. Principally intended to deliver/retrieve messages or goods, or otherwise serve, it's powerful jaws and sharp teeth, and solid construction, make it a very dangerous creature to those it is unleashed on. Its chest carries a small storage compartment which the construct can open/close at will to deliver or accept delivery of items, or unlockable by those with the unique key.
- Tinkertool: Tink's clockwork version of the popular "Traveller's Any-tool". Rather than magically altering to take the form of any tool the user desires, it uses intricate gears, wires, moving components and flexible joins that are malleable and can be shaped and clicked/fastened into place to serve the same purpose. Tink can use this to shape it into a set of masterwork tools for most crafting uses (usually used for in-the-field crafting/repairing of clockwork items or traps)
Mundane Items
- Bombchucker: This wicker-basket-like hand attachment has a cup in which Tink can place her bombs, or any other splash weapon to throw, and lob it further than she could normally. It effectively increases how far she can throw her bombs or alchemical fire flasks by approximately 50%.
- Portable Alchemist's Lab: Everything Tink needs to be able to create alchemical items such as alchemical fire, antitoxins, and poisons, whilst in the field. Back at her workshop, she has a full-fledged Alchemist's lab which she prefers to use, but is not feasible to take out in the field.
- Alchemy Crafting Kit: Not to be confused with her alchemist's lab, this kit carries all the vials, catalysts and chemicals, tools, and other things needed for Tink to be able to prepare both her bombs, and her alchemical formulae and extracts.
- Formula Book: Just as wizards carry spellbooks, Tink carries a formula book in which she has written all her formulae for the extracts she has learnt, discovered, or invented. She requires this along with her alchemy crafting kit to prepare her alchemical extracts.
Signature Quotes
- "Oh don't act so surprised. I speak 15 languages and can make constructs powered by clockworks and residual magic - you really think I can't recognise a few arcane runes just because you have them elegantly embroidered into your lapels?"
- "Shit!... I can fix that!"
- "Who needs stealth when you have BOMBS!?!"
- "Clockworks are like people—give 'em the right parts, and they run like a dream... usually."
- "Oops... Well, [that's] not exactly how I planned it... but an explosion is still an explosion!"
- "If it's worth doing, it’s worth doing loud and proud!"
- "Go for the eyes, Tinkerwing! GO FOR THE EYES!!!"
- "Go for the balls, Tinkerpaw! GO FOR THE BALLS!!!"
Gallery
Tink in her signature alchemist's leather
Tink's clockwork familiar construct "Tinkerwing"
Tink in a pretty dress for a social occasion
Tink's clockwork hound construct "Tinkerpaw"
Young Celestinka graduating from the University of Il Aluk in Darkon