Skitter Bluescale - XERES LIVE!

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Basic Information

Full Name

Skitter Bluescale

Nickname(s)

"The Humane Trapper"

Race (Grade)

Kobold (F)

Class

Trapper

Height

3'5"

Birthday

Rainsong 5, 1280

Age

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Birthsign

The Bloom Nymph

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Bloodline Ability

🔮Unknown

This Bloodline ability has not yet been unveiled to you.

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Physical Description

Skitter Bluescale, The Humane Trapper

Appearance

Skitter is a blue-scaled kobold standing at three feet five inches, with unusually dexterous hands and quick, precise movements that speak to years of working with delicate mechanisms. His scales have a slightly mottled pattern that helps him blend naturally into shadows, a trait he's learned to use to his advantage when observing animals or checking his traps without disturbing the local wildlife. Despite his natural stealth and expertise at trapping, there's a gentleness to his movements that seems at odds with his profession, reflecting his philosophy that understanding creatures is more important than simply capturing them. He moves with the careful economy of someone who has learned to navigate dangerous environments, yet there's also a new tiredness in his posture that comes from being the father of two young daughters, including a newborn.

Unique Characteristics

Skitter's hands are noticeably larger than typical for a kobold, with long, nimble fingers that are perfect for setting delicate trap mechanisms and manipulating intricate devices with surprising precision. What was once considered an oddity in his youth has become his greatest asset, allowing him to create traps with a level of sophistication that most couldn't achieve. He constantly fiddles with pieces of wire while thinking, unconsciously twisting and bending them into small springs or loops as his mind works through problems. His fingers bear numerous small scars from years of working with sharp materials and testing trap mechanisms, each one a lesson learned about pressure points and trigger sensitivity. Recently, his hands have also shown the softer signs of fatherhood; gentle calluses from holding infants and the careful, practiced movements of someone who has learned to be delicate with creatures far more fragile than any trap he's ever built.

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Personality

Positive Traits

Exceptionally observant and patient
Deeply compassionate toward all creatures
Innovative problem solver with traps
Devoted husband and father
Humble about his considerable skills
Gentle and thoughtful in all interactions

Challenging Traits

Overly cautious about family safety
Deep-seated fear of paladins and owlbears
Sometimes too gentle for necessary culling
Defensive about kobold stereotypes
Sets nervous traps when stressed
Struggles to trust easily after tribal loss

A good trap isn't about catching; it's about understanding. Once you know how something thinks, the rest is just mechanics.

I survived paladins and owlbears to build a family. Every trap I set protects that miracle.

My tribe was massacred for being what they were. I will make sure my daughters never have to hide their scales.

Likes

Creating new trap designs and innovations
Spending precious time with his family
Watching animals to learn their habits
Telling bedtime stories to his daughters
Experimenting with rope and wire types

Dislikes

Cruel traps designed to cause suffering
Waste of trapped animals or resources
Paladins and owlbears (traumatic associations)
People who assume kobolds are stupid
Poorly maintained or dangerous traps
Wasteful hunting practices

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Background & History

An Unusual Talent Emerges

Born into a tribe of blue-scaled kobolds, Skitter always stood out for his unusual fascination with mechanisms and animal behavior rather than traditional tribal pursuits. While other young kobolds focused on conventional roles within the tribe, he spent countless hours studying the small creatures that lived around their settlement, learning their habits, patterns, and the way they moved through their environment. His larger-than-normal hands, initially seen as an oddity that made him the subject of gentle teasing, proved to be a blessing as they allowed him to craft and manipulate intricate devices with surprising precision. His talent for trapping emerged almost by accident when the tribe was having trouble with rats in their food storage; Skitter designed a series of humane traps that not only caught the rodents but kept them alive for release far from the settlement. His success led to more requests for his services, and soon he was helping solve various pest problems throughout the tribe's territory.

Meeting Pip and Surviving Tragedy

It was during one of his trapping excursions that Skitter met Pip, another member of his tribe who would become his mate and the center of his world. They were away from the settlement, with Pip gathering herbs for her cooking experiments while Skitter checked his trap lines, when the Duntilis paladins attacked their tribe in one of the religious order's periodic purges of "monster settlements." The trauma of losing their entire community, everyone they had ever known, was somewhat softened by having each other, though the grief and survivor's guilt would mark them both permanently. They spent months wandering the wilderness, always moving to avoid potential threats, before finding refuge with a group of traveling monks who would teach them Common and give Pip her culinary training. During this desperate time, Skitter's trapping skills helped keep them fed and hidden, and he began adapting his techniques to catch larger game when necessary for their survival.

Building a New Life and First Parenthood

When they discovered Pip was pregnant with Trinket, they found a secluded cave system where Skitter's skills could help protect and provide for their growing family. He developed an elaborate system of early-warning traps around their home, designed to alert them to any approaching dangers, whether paladin patrols or dangerous wildlife, without causing harm to innocent travelers. The birth of their daughter Trinket gave new purpose to his innovations, as he began creating simple mechanical toys for her amusement while never losing sight of his primary role as provider and protector. He watched her grow with a mixture of pride and constant worry, knowing that the world was dangerous for kobolds even in the best of times, and that their family was vulnerable without the protection of a tribe.

Forced Relocation and New Opportunities

The forced relocation to Goodberry due to an owlbear threat near their cave system was difficult for Skitter, who had finally felt some measure of safety in their hidden home. However, he recognized it as an opportunity to use his skills in a new way and to give his family the security of living within a protected community rather than in isolation. He immediately began studying the local rodent populations and designing new trap systems suited to Goodberry's particular challenges and native species. While he remained characteristically modest about his abilities, his reputation grew quickly among Goodberry's residents as someone who could solve pest problems without resorting to poison or unnecessary killing. His humane approach and deep understanding of animal behavior made him invaluable to a farming community that needed effective pest control without risking contamination of food supplies or harm to beneficial wildlife.

Expanding Family and New Responsibilities

On Goldenleaf 10, 1304, Pip gave birth to their second daughter, Mica, completing their family and adding new dimensions to Skitter's already busy life. Now father to two daughters, he finds himself even more motivated to establish security and prosperity for his family while also more tired than he's ever been, juggling the demands of a newborn with his work and his care for Trinket. The experience of watching Mica enter the world in the relative safety of Goodberry, rather than in a hidden cave surrounded by warning traps, reinforced his belief that coming to the settlement was the right choice despite his initial reservations. He now works to build not just a livelihood but a legacy, hoping to teach his daughters his craft while also showing them that kobolds can be valued members of a diverse community rather than creatures to be feared or exterminated.

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Goals

Providing Safety and Prosperity for His Growing Family

Skitter's primary goal, now more urgent with two young daughters to care for, is to establish complete security and long-term prosperity for the Bluescale family. This means not just solving immediate problems but building a reputation and client base that will ensure steady work for years to come, creating savings that can protect his family through difficult times, and establishing relationships within Goodberry that will give his daughters opportunities he never had growing up. He wants Trinket and Mica to grow up never knowing the fear and uncertainty that defined his own childhood and early adulthood, never having to flee in the night or hide from those who see kobolds as vermin to be exterminated. His aspiration is to own their home outright, to have enough resources that a bad season or illness wouldn't devastate them, and to know that even if something happened to him, Pip and the girls would be taken care of by a community that values them.

Perfecting Humane Trapping Techniques

Beyond his immediate family needs, Skitter aspires to perfect and document his humane trapping techniques, potentially training others in methods that can control pest populations without unnecessary cruelty or waste. He believes deeply that his approach, which emphasizes understanding animal behavior and using that knowledge to relocate rather than kill whenever possible, represents not just a more ethical way of doing things but also a more effective long-term solution to pest problems. He wants to prove that thinking of animals as problems to be solved rather than enemies to be destroyed leads to better outcomes for everyone involved. His ultimate hope is that his methods might spread beyond Goodberry, showing other communities that effective pest control doesn't require poison that might harm children or pets, or traps that cause prolonged suffering. He's begun sketching designs and writing down his observations, thinking that perhaps someday his daughters might continue this work or that he could teach apprentices who share his philosophy.

Changing How People See Kobolds

On a deeper level, Skitter harbors the aspiration to help change how people see kobolds, demonstrating through his own example that they are intelligent, capable, and valuable members of any community willing to accept them. Every time someone in Goodberry calls him to solve a pest problem and then thanks him for his clever solution, every time a neighbor compliments Pip's cooking or coos over baby Mica, every time Trinket plays safely with other children in the settlement, it represents progress toward this larger goal. He wants his daughters to grow up in a world where being a kobold doesn't automatically make you suspect or worthy of elimination, where their skills and character matter more than the shape of their scales or the size of their bodies. He knows he can't change the minds of those like the Duntilis paladins who destroyed his tribe, but he believes that by being an exemplary neighbor, a skilled craftsman, and a good father, he can at least change the minds of the people in Goodberry and perhaps, gradually, others who interact with them. His greatest dream is that someday Trinket and Mica will be judged not as "surprisingly capable for kobolds" but simply as capable people who happen to be kobolds.

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Current Status & Relationships

Allegiance

Goodberry / Bluescale Family

Role

Master Trapper / Father

Family

Community

Arties Geodegazer-Shadowbane (Mayor/Employer)

⚠️ The Trapper's Craft

While Skitter presents as a gentle, unassuming kobold focused on humane pest control, do not underestimate the deadly potential of his skills. He is a master trapper who has adapted his techniques to work on creatures ranging from rats to humans, and while he prefers non-lethal solutions, he absolutely knows how to create traps that kill efficiently when protecting his family is at stake. His understanding of anatomy, pressure points, and mechanical advantage means he can design traps that are far more sophisticated and dangerous than his humble demeanor suggests. The elaborate warning systems around his former cave home were not just alarms but layered defenses that could delay or disable threats without his direct involvement. More importantly, anyone who threatens Pip, Trinket, or baby Mica will discover that a father's protective instincts combined with a trapper's expertise creates a particularly dangerous combination. The same gentle hands that craft toys for his daughters and carefully release captured rodents can just as easily set snares that will leave threats hanging helpless until he decides what to do with them. His knowledge of Goodberry's layout and rodent tunnels means he knows every approach, every vulnerability, and exactly where to place defenses that others wouldn't even recognize as threats until too late.