Geertruud Smallbottom

Special Abilites

Geertruud has an uncanny knack for finding trouble and embarrassing predicaments, often involving damaged or lost clothing. She's also well-versed in plants and edible flora.
 

Quirks

When excited, she gets an intense hiccup.
 

Education

Geertruud's magical education began alongside Margo Weedlebeam, although she tended to be lazy and clumsy in spellcasting, resulting in numerous mishaps. Despite her unconventional approach, she imparts sage advice to aspiring magic scholars. One advice she would give new magic scholars today: "Do not summon something that has more arms than you." and "Always wear your strongest knickers."
 

Employment

Geertruud serves as the honorary chairwoman of the Perelline Society of Explorers and Finders of Ways, nominated by the Society in her absence for all her detailled maps, and her region and culture descriptions. She is also a member of the Guild of Cartographers, Mapmakers and Scribes, earning her income through her publishing venture with Margo.
 

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Accomplishments & Achievements

Her published works contain:
 

• A Comprehensive Guide to Butterflies
• Detailed mappe of Calika
• Onehundredtwentyseven ways to make a decent tea without having actual tea
• Starving To Death? Things You Thought Are Inedible
• Running In Circles
• When North Is South - Finding Your Way Through A Desert

  The relatable vulnerability in her work, often stemming from her own embarrassing encounters, is a key element of her appeal to fans:
 

• Apes of Calika - A Lustful Species
• A Study of plants and herbs, and which ones you should avoid under any circumstances
• Pigments of Faith - Religion in Calika
• Never underestimate a dragon
• The Underbelly of the Wild Lands (unpublished yet)

  In addition to her other works, a collection of her travel logs is available.
 

Travel Logs of Geertruud Smallbottom

 

Failures & Embarrassments

Enable NSFW content
 

Family Ties

Kaas and Smilla Smallbottom were never, strictly speaking, Geertruud’s parents - at least not by any conventional measure of biology. They were a gnomish couple of modest means and considerable curiosity who lived beside the old bell-tower of Perelline’s western parish. When the church sexton found a swaddled infant on the stone steps one rain-soaked morning, he assumed, quite sensibly, that the child had been misplaced by someone of ordinary size. Instead, after a flurry of whispered consultations and mild panic, the baby was delivered into the care of the gnomish couple Kaas and Smilla, who were known for raising tomatoes.
  The infant - Geertruud - was indeed unusually small, no larger than a gnomish babe, which made the arrangement seem reasonable at first glance. Villagers nodded approvingly at the sight of tiny Smilla, barely three feet tall, carrying an even tinier bundle. No one asked awkward questions. In Perelline, one learned early not to press too hard on mysteries that arrived on church steps.
  As she grew, however, the oddities became more apparent. Her legs lengthened past those of her playmates, her stride outpaced theirs, and by the time she reached adolescence she towered over Kaas, Smilla, and her best friend Margo like a lanky beanpole. The neighbours blinked, stared, scratched their heads, and then - being Perelliners - simply accepted it. Children grow unpredictably, after all. Everyone knew a lad who shot up two handspans in a season or a girl whose hair turned turquoise after eating the wrong mushroom. Why shouldn’t the Smallbottoms have a daughter who grew to human height? Stranger things had certainly happened.
  In the minds of those who had known her since infancy, Geertruud never ceased being a gnome, no matter the evidence provided by her limbs. They spoke to her as one of their own, scolded her for leaving muddy footprints in the hall, and praised her for her "excellent gnomish height," as though she had trained diligently to achieve it. Even now, when she returns to Perelline between travels, more than one neighbour clucks approvingly and remarks how "nice it is to see a proper gnome girl doing well for herself", entirely unfazed by the fact that she must bend double to fit through their doors.
 
 

Religious Beliefs

She believes in what might be most useful in the current situation.
 

Wealth

Her parents started placing all the earnings from the books and maps in Geetruud's room, which looks like a treasure cave by now. If a large enough number of coins makes a heap of gold to become sentient, her room would be the first place where this happens.
 

In Alana, a world both vast and wide,
There roams a gnome, with auburn hair so bright,
Geertruud Smallbottom, of courage and pride,
On journey, through lands both far and wide.

But, alas, poor Geertruud, hath not the grace,
To keep from misadventure, or mishap,
For she doth fall, into slimy mud, or chase,
Wriggly things, that cling, with teeth, so sharp.

And oft, in these mishaps, doth she disclose,
Bits of her attire, to all who pass,
And oft, she finds herself, in great distress,
With naught, to cover her, but mud and grass.

But, still, she roams, with courage and with heart,
For she hath promised, to see all the lands,
And bring back tales, of adventure, and of art,
To her dear friend, Margo Weedlebeam, her hands.

Thus, in this tale, of bravery, and of wit,
Do Geertruud roam, through lands, both wild and fair,
And through her mishaps, doth still acquit,
Herself, with grace, and courage, beyond compare.

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