Saga's Prologue (URealms campaign Sept/Oct. 2017)

Saga has been entranced with time, whether she liked it or not, from her birth. Surrounded by pendulums and potions, with her mother a witch and her father an alchemist, she quickly learned and still eagerly yearns to know what makes the world and very life tick. Both parents have passions for tinkering with gears, metals, and moving parts, which led to the family's humble beginnings as watch and trinket makers. Netting decent local business and being stationary didn't satiate her mother's wanderlust for the vast lands nor her father's knowledge of the elements in various environments and mediums, along with wanting their daughter to experience all that the earth had to offer, they tested their boundaries with Rube Goldberg machines. It started with small venues just to get out of their rocky cave community, each demonstration lasting roughly a minute or two, before passersby started gawking in large groups and leaving tips, the most gracious being of raw minerals. Such prospects led to them being mentioned throughout the realm, and thus, the family has been improving and perfecting their often one-hit wonders ever since.

They still make points to sell their original watch and steampunk-esque pieces, and Saga is no exception. Her mother read her various stories, fictional and nonfictional, including her encounters with creatures from all walks of life and official documentation. Her father took her out to play and bring home assorted crafts to work with and witness how she solved problems on her own, sprinkling in displays of alchemy and its properties when she was discouraged. Both eagerly showed her the shiny faces of their newly polished pieces and vigilantly entrusted her with the tools needed once she was capable to continue binding the gears into place or handed over the materials they picked up in their travels so she could make a masterpiece of her own desires, however gaudy it may be. This had led to her personal magnum opus, Clockodile Hide, that she has paraded shamelessly at every other Span Spectacle (or so the machines' displays were officially called later on).

All three being devout followers of the Dragon Aspect Rokesh, but especially to Saga as a Seeker in the making, they are constantly thankful for what they believe he has bestowed upon them: the foundation of Earth Magic and the ability to traverse said earth without deep fear.

Thus said, as happy as they were just being free to roam, not having a definite place to call home begun to take its toll, and Saga, in the beginnings of adulthood, felt as if she had reached a plateau in magic. Even with the encounters she had had all her life with it, (excluding the darling magical creatures that accompanied her in and out of her life, the little fluffy floofs and feathered friends had NO hand in disappointments and failures EVER) her will to perform it dimmed for a good period. Concerned and desperate to somehow re-spark her interest, her parents caught wind of a "town fool" named Chauncey and the subsequent magically mysterious allure of the town of Luthadel. Only ever knowing the closest comforts of her parents and them deserving to be happy, she reluctantly agreed to "at least visit" the following weekend at their request.

As the wind proved to be a definite gust, Saga's ear perked as she squirmed her way into the middle of the crowd surrounding the top-hatted gnome. Her being a new face to him, and the fully functional clock face of her armor ticking distinctly among the townsfolk, must have drawn his eyes to her, as he came over to her within 5 minutes of the show, and tipped his hat in question. With all the traveling her family had done and her own additional meticulous research to ensure her spells and history tied to them were rather authentic if they could not be absolute, she managed to ask him to conjure a pocket watch, always a guilty pleasure of hers. Unaware of his reputation for goofing up, he instead sheepishly revealed to her a Hat Rat after three minutes of fumbling around the stage, but she ultimately paid it no mind with a delighted, high-pitched squeal. Scooping him carefully into her hands, she was astonished as the rat made gestures from her clock face to her own beaming visage and made the numbers clear to her down to the millisecond. In her own little world, hugging what she finally claimed as HER magical companion, Chance was the one truly enchanted that night as the audience's claps faded into his and Saga's own chatterings once he finally caught her attention. Though still quite foreign to this day and amid misunderstandings due to a slight language barrier and secrecy, Saga fell smitten and Chance activated his own trap card. Her parents found him amusing, and better yet, a new town to them that they could return to their clockwork roots.

Samantha being Chance's older adoptive sister, closer to Saga's age, and Saga never having a sibling before, formed a bond with her that she deemed irreplaceable. Samantha was so brave, mighty, and popular, yet she also had such a patience and kindness that rang clear to the townsfolk. When she went missing and Groundbolds were the latest source of attacks upon the town, while they were probably incredibly distant relatives, Saga and her parents surged with guilt and contempt at the speculation of what they could have done to her. Steeling her nerves and pleaded by a melancholic Chauncey, though she hushed him with a firm stare and hush of her palm on his lips, Saga actively volunteered to reclaim who she sees as her best friend.