The Alchemist of Middlesbrooke, in case you have forgotten, goes live on the 12th — and the presale is underway now on Smashwords.
So, in preparation for that, here’s your chance to meet some of the characters from The Alchemist of Middlesbrooke.
Lucia Tormalina
“Lucia grew up on a waterlemon farm in Natalis, miles from anywhere important, in a small, quiet village no-one has ever heard of — exactly the kind of place that Middlesbrooke isn’t. Even after travelling with Apolline and Petra for so long, she still doesn’t like visiting big cities. And Middlesbrooke is a big city. That hates her and won’t stop staring at her and is just making her itchy and grumpy.”
Slips back into her natural accent: when she’s angry (so, a lot lately)
Not used to: life in big cities
No, you can’t: feel her ears
A lynx Wilderling from the small Natalian farming village of Galgano, Lucia Augusta Tormalina is now the youngest member of a group of female adventurers consisting of herself, the Aurorean sorceress Apolline Castor, and the Half-Troll Amazon Petra of Fulminata, reasoning that joining them would provide her with her best opportunity to see the world beyond her parents’ waterlemon farm.
Recent events facing Lucia and her companions within the city of Middlesbrooke have been a particular source of consternation for Lucia. The wealth and refinement on display in Middlesbrooke has left her feeling more like a simple country bumpkin than she ever has before.
As a Wilderling now living and travelling among largely non-Wilderling people, Lucia is bewildered the constant requests to feel her ears. Though, following her cat-like nature, Lucia does appreciate her trusted friends — and only her trusted friends — scratching behind her ears.
Having spent her early life on the farm with only a few visits to several of the larger cities of Natalis, Lucia often feels out of place among the citizens of large, wealthy cities and has difficulties navigating interactions with her group’s patrons or employers. Compared to her companions’ tactful diplomacy and taciturn stoicism, Lucia is outspoken and blunt, occasionally causing problems during negotiations.
However, Lucia recognises that her true contribution to the group comes in combat, supplementing Apolline’s magic and Petra’s raw strength and extensive experience with a blinding flurry of knives and claws. Additionally, her ability to adopt animal form always her to capitalize on opportunities and openings not available to her companions.
Apolline Castor
“The sorceress is the only one in their trio who looks like she belongs in Middlesbrooke, with her elegant looks and fancy clothing. Her long blonde is hair gleaming and meticulously combed-out beneath her fashionable beret, that one lone curl always strikingly falling down her forehead in the most aesthetically-pleasing fashion possible. Her clothes always look perfect, no matter what trouble they’ve gotten into lately. Or what horrible thing has recently tried to eat them.”
Speaks: five languages
Hat: comfy
Somehow manages: to keep her clothes perpetually clean
Second child and only daughter of a mid-level Aurorean nobleman and former ambassador of the kingdom to various regions of Realmgard, Apolline Jehanne Castor has been familiar with travelling across Realmgard long before she ever decided to make a career of it.
Apolline’s frequent travels across Realmgard as a young girl have acquainted her with many of the cultures and customs of the continent and left her fluent in the continent’s most common languages. Additionally, she has been tutored by many of the finest local magical tutors in Realmgard.
Now travelling together with the lynx Wilderling Lucia Tormalina and the Half-Troll Amazon Petra of Fulminata, Apolline has taken on the de facto leadership role of the group, due to being the eldest of the three as well as the most widely-travelled. As the daughter of a diplomat from a kingdom well-known for the politeness and friendliness of its people, Apolline is also the trio’s go-to negotiator and often speaks on the group’s behalf.
However, when conflict is unavoidable, Apolline is able to bring to bear her impressive magical powers, specialising in traditional Aurorean ice magic. Though she prefers diplomacy to combat, whenever her only choice is to fight, Apolline will fight with the intensity to ensure that she and her companions win.
Despite living the life of an adventurer, Apolline often amazes her two companions with her seemingly insurmountable ability to keep her clothes spotless and unwrinkled.
Their working theory is that she uses her magic to do it.
Petra of Fulminata
“People tend to stare at Petra wherever they go, no matter what. She sticks out even more than a Wildering does. Petra is big and blue and dressed in Amazon armour, like a big chunk of a mountain that uprooted itself one day, then decided it needed better protection for its midsection. Being half-Troll and half-Amazon, she’s a rare sight. Even Petra herself has only ever met a handful of others like her.”
Fists: the size of hams and heavy as boulders
Not very: good at drawing, but still enjoys it
Expects: the unexpected
One of the exceedingly few Half-Troll Amazons to exist in Realmgard, Petra of Fulminata is accustomed to not fitting in — both literally and figuratively.
The widely-travelled daughter of a Troll geographer and writer and an Amazon merchant, Petra has encountered few doors or pieces of furniture built for a woman of her stature, even the Amazon Decapolis often fails to account for Amazons of Troll ancestry and the cities of her father’s people rarely account for Trolls of Amazon descent. Though not entirely friendless in her early years, Petra nevertheless found herself facing issues and obstacles not shared by other Amazon girls.
While many young Amazons chose adventuring careers, the choice was particularly easy for Petra. As an adventurer, Petra has fallen in with the Natalian Wilderling adventurer Lucia Tormalina and the Aurorean Sorceress Apolline Castor, whom she now counts as her dearest friends.
Despite her towering stature, Petra dislikes drawing attention to herself, preferring to allow her friends to do most of the talking.
Petra is the powerhouse of the trio, her combined Amazon and Troll descent giving her both a towering stature and impressive strength. Petra retains her Troll ancestors’ affinity for rock and stone and is able to magically take on the characteristics of stone, allowing her to supplement her already impressive fighting ability by striking with the weight of boulders raining down on her enemies.
Like all Amazons, Petra received a comprehensive formal education as a girl, learning much about both academic subjects and military matters. She possesses a keen strategic mind in addition to her raw strength and power.
In her free time, Petra enjoys drawing and painting, always hoping, as in all things, to improve her abilities through constant practice.
I’ll be posting more characters from The Alchemist of Middlesbrooke more the next few days. And, once again, the book itself goes live on the 12th and is on presale until then.
FYI: That header image is basically to scale, at least insofar as Lucia is the shortest and Petra is the tallest.
And this week’s chapter is here:
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