Minute to Midnight

"'There's no harm in telling me something unique about yourself.' -Minute to Midnight, doing what she's good at"

"'The thrill of the hunt, for knowledge and the hidden, gave me strength and a reason to keep on walking these lands.' -Minute to Midnight, on her thirst for knowledge and secrets"

Introduction
Minute to Midnight, AKA Minnie (to those who don't bother with pronouncing her lengthy full name, at least), is a capricious, opportunistic, and paranoid Tabaxi (essentially, a cat-person) with boundless curiosity and the enthusiasm for it, when properly motivated. She might appear aloof, haughty and cold most of the times, thanks to her upbringing and origin, but present her with a mystery or even better, a secret, and she will turn manic with a zeal to get to the bottom of it.

She has keen eyes and is very nimble. Furthermore, she is a perfectionist that prides on her work, may it be her precise measurements or her headshots.

She was a former Assistant Seamstress from the Smoke, on the run for reasons yet to be known. Now that she is in an entirely different continent, she spends her time mostly aimlessly traveling along the coast lines, "enjoying her early retirement", so to speak. Although, she may still retain a few connections to her hometown, as shown from her apparel and her signet ring, the only thing linking her back to her distant family.

Occasionally, she offers her services to those who seek a subtle, discreet solution to their problems and willing to pay a hefty sum for it. Other times, she charms those with means to part enough of their fortune for her such that she was able to move on to the next town, relying on her distinguished, yet foreign looks.

Recently, she was mysteriously spatially displaced from a dangerous situation in the Court of the Five Thunders to another dangerous situation in the Dredges, strangely gaining the ability to cast spells as well.

Appearance
Minute to Midnight is a tabaxi with an entirely-black short fur, without any other markings, that is relatively glossy and well-maintained, befitting of her name. She is of greater-than-average height with a lithe but curvy frame, usually hidden under the fine clothes and well-made long coat. Her eyes were a clear, icy blue and able to see well in the dark. She has a scabbard for her Rapier strapped to her left side and a quiver for her arrows strapped to her right side. Furthermore, she wore a backpack with her expensive-looking dagger, a gift from her former Seamstress mentor, and an ebony shortbow, which she bought for herself not long after she first arrived at the Court of the Five Thunders, strapped to it. In addition to all that, she carries a rapier that was gifted to her from her father when she first became a Seamstress, as well as another dagger, which happens to be a Kunai that she stole and hid somewhere discreetly.

Racial Traits: Tabaxi

 * Feline Agility
 * Darkvision
 * Cat's Talent
 * Cat's Claws

Level 1:

 * Expertise : Perception and Stealth
 * Sneak Attack
 * Thieves’ Cant

Level 2:

 * Cunning Action

Level 3:

 * Roguish Archetype : Arcane Trickster :
 * Spellcasting (Ability: Intelligence)
 * Mage Hand Legerdemain
 * Steady Aim (Tasha's Optional Class Feature)

Background Features: Seamstress
The Feature is Far Traveller 's All Eyes on You, as a consequence of coming from a distant place, which is the Smoke, that the background was specific to.

The Starting Equipment (which includes Disguise Kit, Fine Clothes and Family Signet Ring) and Tool Proficiencies (which are Disguise Kit and Forgery Kit) were based on Charlatan, with a minor change to the Equipment's tool of the con (Family Signet Ring cannot be used to run a con).

The Skill Proficiencies, which are Insight and Persuasion, were based on Guild Artisan, reflecting her covert Seamstress training (the Seamstress is also a guild, closely resembling the Weavers).

Spells
Minute to Midnight can cast prepared wizard spells using her Intelligence as her spellcasting ability and modifier (Spell DC 12, Spell Attack +4). She can also cast her wizard spells as rituals if they have the ritual tag. So far, she does not have a spellcasting focus.

List of spells gained through Arcane Trickster Spellcasting feat, which uses similar rules as that of a Wizard (whose spellcasting ability is Inteliigence and uses Wizard spell list) with some differences (half-level progression and all spells are memorized/instinctual, therefore not requiring preparation and are always fixed in mind):

Level 0 (Cantrip)

 * Chill Touch
 * Mage Hand (With additional capabilities, as per Mage Hand Legerdemain)
 * Minor Illusion

Level 1 (2 spell slots)

 * Color Spray
 * Disguise Self
 * Shield (Reaction)

Pectinus Fruit
Pectinus Fruit was one of Minute to Midnight's "acquaintance" (read: contact), whom she believed that he saw her the same way she did see him, albeit not close enough to be friends, whom she “befriends” for reasons that evolved as time goes on. Initially, she cultivated her contact with him because she found him to be somewhat easy to manipulate into getting her information and access to the libraries, as per her intel-gathering mission for the Seamstress. However, despite not being able to meet frequently (due to the fact that they do not belong in the same guild and that move in different social circles), Minute to Midnight found that the more she discussed puzzles and other intellectual pursuits with him, the more she saw that they both share the love for learning new things, which fuels her curiosity pertaining to him. He also helped her solve some puzzles and taught her bits of arcane knowledge, which garnered her respect for him. However, due to her work as a Seamstress, she eventually dropped out of contact with him. She was not even able to say farewell to him when she left the Smoke.

Dorvid
Because Dorvid was the friend and roommate of Pectinus Fruit, Minnie had heard of him through Pectinus, yet never met him in person. She trusts him a tiny bit, viewing him not as a possible threat, because he was a genuine friend of Pectinus that truly cared for him.

Clyde
Minnie is not familiar with Clyde, only knowing him by proxy due to Pectinus Fruit. However, him being a fellow Rogue like her does intrigue her and made her somewhat wary of him as well, sometimes causing her to even keep her guard up around him at times, like a double-edged blade.

De Fago
Minnie is not familiar with Clyde, only knowing him by proxy due to Pectinus Fruit. However, De Fago's Kenku nature, particularly the fact that he can only repeat specific sounds as his only form of communication, piques her curiousity.

Jorkal
Minnie is not familiar with Jorkal, who she had just met She was very interested with that "magical trick" shortsword Jorkal has.

Kioshi
Minute to Midnight was fascinated with the High-Elf Wizard when they ran into each other for the first time at a port town. Her gut feelings told her that this HIgh-Elf is somewhat special and that he is not what he seems to be, despite looking very humble and understated. This little mystery serves to intrigue her and, after she founds out that they are heading toward the same direction, she decides to tail him out of boredom and curiosity, much to his annoyance and protests.

Tatsu
Minute to Midnight, by chance, earned the companionship of the Human Fighter when she intervened prior to his execution for a crime he did not commit and convinced the executioners to spare and free him. In return for saving him from certain death, he swore a life debt to her, which she accepts because she felt more secure with someone to protect and help her when she can't simply rely on her charm and words alone, although she would rather die in a mud pit than admit it.

Kagayaki
Minute to Midnight is not familiar nor close with the Aasimar Warlock, only knowing her by proxy thanks to Kioshi. However, given that the Aasimar was a former court functionary, Minute to Midnight has a slight interest in her as well.

Thorn of the Lotus
Raiders that abduct villagers from beyond the Great Wall for a sinister ritual.

Early years
Minute to Midnight was born in the Smoke to an upper-middle class family just a minute before midnight, hence her name. Her mother was a professional, highly-regarded stage actress and her father was a successful clockmaker that catered to high society. Curious since she was a child, she prefered to spend her days with her father, watching him work in the workshop and, occasionally, the salespeople at the till. Since she was old enough to read and write, she learnt a bit of basic maths from her father. Her sister, Second to Seven, was born 7 years after her. On her 13th Birthday, she was gifted with her family's signet ring, which she holds dearly for the rest of her life.

As a Seamstress in the Smoke
Her family's connections and prestige, in addition to her mathematical proclivity, allowed her to join the Seamstresses the age of 16. Since then, she started to drift apart from her family, as her newfound duties and training became the centre of her life. In addition to learning the tools of the trade, she was trained in the art of spycraft, subtlety, and manipulation, as well as assassination, among other things. Her training was handled by many mentors over time, although only few are memorable enough that she can still remember their name and what they taught her. She spent most of her time as the assistant to the higher-ranking Seamstresses, although she is capable of going on solo missions for gathering information too, mostly from the low ranks (e.g. servants, butlers, footmen) and the more gullible targets (e.g. children). She was still rather inexperienced in some finer aspects of cultivating social connections, although despite that, she remained dedicated to the covert side of operations of the Seamstresses as opposed to the more mundane Seamstress "day-jobs". This was the reason why she knew how to use the Disguise and Forgery Kits far better than the Weaver's Tools that she only knew how to use in a very specific way, which was not useful enough without the help of someone more experienced and knowledgeable with said tool. She was known for her quick and precise measurements (thanks to the many hours she spends as a child watching her father work and learning whatever he taught her about it) and maths, able to make rather accurate estimates on the spot, as well as having keen eyes, befitting her role as an assistant to Seamstresses that handles the actual fitting and designing of garments. However, her desire for perfection in precision and being thorough caused her to spend too much time on her tasks, which was why she tends to finish her work just a minute before the time limit, being true to her name. Furthermore, she lacked a bit of imagination in designing fancy haute couture and the like, as she retains a preference toward practical, sensible clothings (but she can’t resist an opportunity to dress up once in a while) thanks to her family. If she were to have her way, she would rather design elegant, dark-coloured clothes that still have discreet pockets to hide useful stuff in (think modern, stylish city-wear clothes).

Arrival to the Court of Five Thunders
From the Smoke, she travelled along the trade routes that connect it to the Court of the Five Thunders. In order to do this, she called in favors from Hazard Imports and Exports, who controls the tea trade and sends her toward the direction of where the tea flows from. During the journey and up to 4 months after arrival, she posed, under disguise, as a liaison from the Seamstresses to the Hazard Imports and Exports for their Court of the Five Thunders operations operating as an assistant to an envoy as part of the ambassadorial/delegate team.

Original mission as a Seamstress
The Seamstresses initially intended to send her on a long-term mission to the Court of the Five Thunders because she, not long after being inducted into the middle-rank hierarchy of the Seamstresses, had terribly botched a job back at the Smoke and need to lay low outside of the city. Thus, the Seamstresses sent her out of the Smoke for her “safety”, although the actual reasons may be more of a combination of either trying to test her loyalty and capabilities, for her to redeem herself from her failure, or, simply, to exile her while retaining a measure of her usefulness. Eager to prove and redeem herself, she accepted the mission without much hesitation, although she did have a tiny bit of concern about being far from her family.

The original mission she was given, which was to build a intelligence network of informants for the Seamstress in the Court of the Five Thunders from the ground up and gather information regarding the Five Thunders' Courts’ bureaucracy, would seem to be impossibly long and simply be an excuse to exile her indirectly, perhaps to avoid angering her influential parents or patrons.

Consequently, she was supposed to remain in contact, albeit infrequently, with the Seamstresses, sending back reports on her progress in gathering intel and making connections with informants. However, this communication channel goes both ways, as she can still receive orders and even pressure to get results. The Seamstress she reports to might be trying to support her in her quest to redeem herself to good standing among the Seamstresses, or they might be trying to hinder her progress or hijack her findings for their own self-interests.

Rumors behind becoming an ex-Seamstress
There are rumors swirling about that suggests that Minute to Midnight's bungling up of a certain significant, heavily-hushed job back at the Smoke actually more than just earned her a banishment, but also angered the Seamstresses enough that they branded her as a traitor and tried to put her down permanently, hence her going as far away as to the Court of the Five Thunders. Other whispers in the dark suggests that the Seamstresses did not attempt to assassinate her, but instead, it was at about 6 months into her time doing her given task at the Court of the Five Thunders that she decided to abandon the mission she was given and leave her work, a somewhat decent network of informants, for reasons yet to be known, one of the likeliest of which being that she simply left out of a sense of abandonment and loneliness after many months of waiting for any replies at all from the Smoke, which never came. Certain rumors suggested an alternative answer to that, proposing that it was due to her covert role and actions almost being discovered by the authorities there and, in her temporary moment of panic, she accidentally faked her death. This allows her to escape successfully and elude discovery, only to later find out that her fellow Seamstresses did not care enough to check wether she survived or not, thus giving rise to the same sense of abandonment that led to her departure from the mission.

Suffice to say, most people do not know the actual cause nor reason behind Minute to Midnight being present in the Court of the Five Thunders nor why she no longer works for the Seamstress, mostly due to her motives and later parts of her life, particularly those prior to leaving her work, being shrouded in rumors and speculations. Her departure from her relatively comfortable and stable life for an uncertain future in a far-away land certainly only raised more suspicions and muddled the waters even worse. This lends an air of mystery and discrepancies, as different people may have heard different explanations or theories regarding her past. Perhaps, the truth will be revealed when she thinks that the time is right to do so.

On a final note (so far), she still thinks about her family back home from time to time, occasionally reminiscing on fond memories of her youth, although she does not want to leave the Court of the Five Thunders for them just yet.

Neutrality, Duty and the Price of Justice for an Opportunist
Because of her upbringing as someone who was trained to work in the grey area of the law and morality, Minnie considered herself to be neither good nor bad. To her, there are no absolutes, no black-and-white morality, and the concept of "good" and "bad" are mere labels that are very subjective and should not be blindly interpreted. However, she did adhere to a justice-based personal code that prevents her from fully falling into the "dark side", such as not needlessly torturing people for the sake of pain without a valid purpose (i.e., gain information). The best example of this, which is something she regrets the most (although not much, because she was able to strongly justify her actions for it), was during one of her missions. She deliberately manipulated and gained the trust of an "evil" person who genuinely liked and cared for her in order to betray said person to the authorities, including masterminding said person's downfall. Her justifications for her actions that time was that the target deserves to be brought to justice, especially that this person had long evaded the law and is very hard to gather evidence against, and that she was just doing as she was ordered to, as per her mission, although the one thing she would not admit to anyone ever was that another reason she did so was that by doing so, she was able to see an opportunity behind that person's downfall and able to reap the reward for that opportunity.

Personality Traits
I change my mood or my mind as quickly as I change key in a song

I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing right. I can't help it – I'm a perfectionist.

Ideals
Adventure. I'm far from home, and everything is strange and wonderful! (Chaotic)

Inquisitive. Everything is new, but I have a thirst to learn. (Neutral)

Bonds
I turned my back on my guild because they abandoned me. (Tentative)

The signet ring is all that I have to remind me of my family. I will do anything to keep it.

Flaws
I am secretly convinced of the superiority of my own culture over that of this foreign land

I am easily bored and doesn't like to stay put in one place for too long.

When confronted with something I truly hate, I tend to panic and unable to make rational decisions, risking everything to get away from it without as much as a thought (which tends to land me in worse trouble)

Key traits

 * 1)  Capricious/mercurial : she can be aloof (due to her relatively cushy upbringing and guild) at times and overexcited (due to her tabaxi nature) when presented with a mystery, with tendency to go for extremes.
 * 2)  Opportunist : She is willing to use her charms or take advantage of situations to get what she wants when the situation is in her favor.
 * 3)  Curious : She wants to discover and solve new mysteries and thirsts for secrets.
 * 4)  Paranoid : Due to spending much of her alternate life as a spy, she develops a keen awareness and alertness to prevent anyone from ratting her out.
 * 5)  Perfectionist : Her keen sight and precision also drove her to compulsively attempt to get what she was doing exactly right, and she might not rest until she is satisfied with the results. She always aims for the weak spots in her enemies' defenses when able.
 * 6)  "Neat freak" : She hates getting herself unnecessarily dirty, as she finds it hard and tedious to maintain her glossy fur, a source of her pride. Also, like the typical house cat, she likes to be neat and tidy.
 * 7)  Vain : She pays attention to her appearance and what people (that knows her) think of her, sometimes worrying about it.

Other
Despite her former job as an Assistant to a Seamstress, she does not have actual proficiency in Weaver's Tools. Instead, she hones her skills in the more covert side of the Seamstress guild, mastering the art of disguise and forgery. Thus, she was proficient in Disguise and Forgery Kit, but not Weaver's Tools.