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The Moistwatch
Neelith
Played By: Laura Kate Dale
A squidling bard chef who runs a restaurant called the Wine & Dinedflayer. As a 'vegetarian' squidling they don't eat actual brains from living people.- Emotion Eater: As established in Markov, Neelith can survive on artificial brain meat so long as they have a source of thoughts as well. They use the emotions people get from eating at the restaurant to supplement the artificial brain.
- Fountain of Youth: When an Inevitable comes for Shoko due to her time manipulation Neelith offers to 'pay off' her offences using their own lifespan. They prepare for Rapid Aging but instead they lose years, leaving them a tadpole without their goblin body.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Neelith instinctively trusts and wants to be friends with everyone. Given that her current responsibilities involve solving crimes, this causes its share of problems for her, especially when someone turns out to be untrustworthy.
- Implausible Deniability: After repeatedly proclaiming not to have nightmares they eventually encounter a tulpa of an alhoon that berates Neelith specifically for choosing a small and weak body. They immediately wonder why Aze would have a nightmare like that.
- Pungeon Master: The name of their restaurant and everything on the menu is a brain or illithid-related pun.
- Puppeteer Parasite: As an illithid they obtained their body by hijacking another. Unlike most illithids, however, their body was given willingly.
- Therapy Is for the Weak: Neelith avoids visiting Ruth with this excuse, although it's implied to be more out of wanting to ignore their problems. Made worse when they find out Ruth's been rigging the sortition.
The Genius of Grendel
Played By: Quinn Larios
A goblin warlock preoccupied with experimentation and explosions. Patronized by something known only as the Machine.- For Science!: The Genius' only real motivation. If they decide there is an experiment to do, very little will dissuade them from carrying it out.
- Gadgeteer Genius: All of their warlock spells are flavored as various gadgets or attachments to their wheelchair.
- Put on a Bus: Due to scheduling issues, Quinn drops out of the main season. This is reflected in the story as the Genius mysteriously disappearing. Investigation reveals that they have jumped five years into the future to wait out GG's term.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The Genius is convinced that something's going on with the sortition box based entirely on misunderstanding a figure of speech. This very indirectly leads to the Moistwatch investigating the box and finding out that it's been magically rigged.
- Time Travel: After GG demands they get written permission to carry out more experiments, they decide to jump five years in the future so GG's term will be up.
- That Man Is Dead: They consider themself wholly detached from their past and don't want to be associated with it. They remark several times that it feels good to 'let the past die'.
- Their worst nightmare, in fact, has to do with themself from before they discovered the Machine. Their response to seeing their old, unmodified self is to immediately set them on fire and watch them burn away.
Genius: You have evolved into something much better.
Aze
Played By: Michael 'Skitch' Schiciano
A hobgoblin druid astrologer. He took over for his mentor after they disappeared mysteriously.- Astrologer: All of Aze's magic is related to the stars. This ranges from the usual divination and sign reading to direct magical spells.
- Bait-and-Switch: Aze lures the baku through his nightmare up to a cave where he usually sees his mentor dead on the ground. Instead he pictures her living well in a pleasant home. The tonal whiplash makes the baku apoplectic.
- Berserk Button: He can deal with the Genius nearly starting a fire in the library, or Hale and Drip performing dressage routines in his house, but Nobie's treatment of Venta makes him lose it. Their confrontation indicates he takes particular issue with authorities acting like they're above the people they're meant to protect.
- Friend to All Living Things: Completely by chance he instantly gains the trust of a runaway sharkhorse and later befriends a magically created unicorn.
- Not Proven: From the perspective of some of the townspeople; his actual guilt is unclear. Vary saw him leave town with his mentor Voya the night she disappeared but he claimed not to have seen her at all that night. The lack of evidence means he couldn't be convicted but some believe the contradiction is enough to indicate his guilt.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He puts up with a lot without losing his deadpan monotone. Even the Genius is only ever able to draw him into moderate exasperation. But when Nobie gets the party into a drag-out fight with a quori-possessed Venta while Aze is strapped down in the next room he slaps him over it before furiously chewing him out.
- The Stoic: There's very little that will make him lose his calm. Even when he's actively being injured he talks in a low-affect monotone.
Slime
Played By: Mari
A slime wizard. Sort of. Their actual form is that of a sentient slime, but they tend to colonize and puppeteer corpses in an attempt to fit in better, making them look more like a slimy zombie.- Ambiguous Gender: They go by any pronouns due to partially being a gestalt of numerous sentient minds they have merged with over the ages.
- Berserk Button: Seeing Cat get mutilated by a quori makes the usually stoic Slime panicked and aggressive.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: A slime named Slime. When people ask what they are and they respond 'slime' they're being perfectly descriptive.
- Subverted with their pet; they assume she's a cat and name her 'Cat', but she's actually a myrmecoleon.
- Literal-Minded: They have a lot of trouble with subtext.
- They 'pick up' Sun Moon Stars for their date by lifting her up in the air and marching to the picnic spot.
- Metaphorical Marriage: Consensually interfacing with Sun Moon Stars is Slime's approximation to marriage.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Slime is capable of taking over people's minds and controlling them. They don't do so without consent anymore and instead use dead bodies until Sun Moon Stars offers hers.
- Really 700 Years Old: They were around when the gods died, although they admit that they were a much less complex entity at that point.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Unusual considering their manner of speech, but they're similar enough to the divergent Mold that they trade barbs quite a bit. How clever those barbs are is variable.Mold: Fusion is just a cheap tactic to make weak slimes stronger.
Slime: How would you know, you've never done it. Nobody's ever consented to it for you. - Talking to the Dead: They carry the skull of a man named William and talk to it occasionally. It's technically their magical focus but is completely mundane in all other ways.
- William is revealed to be the one man Slime couldn't control out of an entire village due to his alcoholism and eventually set everything alight. Slime keeps his skull to remind themselves that nonconsensual mind control is a bad thing.
Phillipa Heck
Played By: Theymer Sophie
An aarakocra druid anthropologist. Formerly GG's best student, now returned to Grendel in search of the frost giants' Akashic Stone. Named official liaison from the governor's office to the Moistwatch. Becomes governor of Grendel after the recall sortition.- Broken Pedestal: She greatly admires GG from her time as his student, so his behavior as governor is an unpleasant surprise to her, and especially when she learns the sortition was rigged.
- Commuting on a Bus: Phillipa is made governor (completely by chance!) the same arc she is introduced. Sophie plays the Dream Team after that point but the focus occasionally shifts back to Phillipa to see how she's handling things.
- Fantastic Anthropologist: Played with. Technically she's a fantasy creature doing anthropology on other fantasy creatures, but her descriptions of their various customs and societies are often based on real-world philosophies.
- Kicked Upstairs: Not intentionally, but becoming governor means she can't in good conscience actively work with the Moistwatch anymore.
- Motor Mouth: Whenever she makes a point she ties it into an anecdote about one of the various people groups she's studied.
The Dream Team (Nobie and Cat)
Played By: Theymer Sophie
Phillipa's sheep and Slime's myrmecoleon. Nobie gets on Cat's back and becomes something similar to a barbarian. They inherit Phillipa's position as governor's in the Moistwatch after she becomes governor.- A God Am I: Nobie believes himself to be the reincarnation of an ancient sheep god despite it simply being a story Phillipa made up to keep him from getting eaten. This is initially played for laughs until Nobie starts antagonizing the citizens.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Cat is initially referred to with he/him pronouns and later referred to as a princess and a sister. Of course, considering it's Slime doing the referring it's completely possible one or both parties have no real opinion on gender.
- On the character sheet the 'gender' section is simply marked 'Justice'.
- Berserk Button: Much like how Slime reacts to Cat getting hurt, Cat's reaction to Slime's body exploding is to furiously assault Venta, just barely keeping himself from killing him.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Cat is a myrmecoleon; he's an ant-lion taken literally.
- Promoted to Playable: Originally Phillipa's animal companion and Slime's pet respectively. They become player characters after Phillipa becomes governor.
- Sweet Sheep: Nobie is described as looking like an exceptionally fluffy and cute sheep. This is averted the second you can understand what he's saying.
Grendel Inhabitants
GG
A tiefling goblin and the current governor of Grendel. Formerly the schoolteacher. Resigns from office after learning the sortition was rigged and is replaced by Phillipa.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He's somewhat overzealous in his responsibilities as governor but he actually does want to do a good job. When he learns the sortition was rigged he immediately announces it to the crowd and steps down.
- Unwitting Pawn: The sortition was rigged to put him in office entirely because Ruth knew he'd be a completely inconsequential to slightly positive leader.
Potter
A bugbear and the bartender of the Dogberry. Previous mayor of Grendel.
- Disability Immunity: An accident while mountain climbing left Potter without visual memory. This means he has no easily-visualized nightmares for the Baku to turn against him and he's also immune to the glamour placed on the sortition box.
- Mellow Fellow: Easily the most laid-back person in town. He's relaxed and agreeable which is probably why Ruth selected him for governorship five years back.
Ruth
A flumph and Grendel's resident therapist.
- Hypocrite: In using her knowledge of the other townspeople's minds to select a governor who wouldn't abuse their station she has been effectively abusing her own station as the town therapist.
- Tongue-Tied: Magic on their office makes her literally incapable of revealing the specifics of what her patients tell her. It doesn't prevent her from acting on the information she has, however, or giving enough hints for people to figure things out on their own.
- Totalitarian Utilitarian: A very mild example. She's been rigging the sortition system so she can make sure the governor is someone who won't abuse the position too much and can be manipulated to avert catastrophe. Specifically, she thinks her insight on everyone else means she knows best who should be in charge.
Sun Moon Stars
A goblin aasimar and Grendel's resident gravedigger. She doesn't get much work while snowed in but in springtime she has plenty of adventurer corpses to gather and bury.
- Glowing Eyes: Her eyes glow so brightly they act like flashlights.
- Metaphorical Marriage: Her offer to let Slime interface with her body is seen as more or less a marriage proposal by them.
- Nightmare Fetishist: She's attracted to Slime and specifically appreciates some of their more off-putting attempts at romance.
- Their first date has them go 'hand-picking' where they take hands off of frozen bodies and stick them all over Slime.
- Paranormal Mundane Item: Her shovel is enchanted to let her break through the hard ground in the graveyard.
- Promoted to Playable: She offers to let Slime integrate with her body, effectively making them operate as one character, although Slime ensures she keeps her own independent sense of self.
Shoko
A gremlin blacksmith and a follower of the Machine. Almost exclusively interested in taking things apart.
- Big Eater: Entering her dump requires payment in snacks.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Much like the Genius, it's sometimes difficult to figure out how she thinks. When Phillipa sets up a suggestions box for the governors' office she receives one from Shoko simply reading 'bananas?!'
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Again like the Genius, her behavior and interests mask the fact that she's actually incredibly capable, at one point reworking the Genius's time sigil to take a trip into the past and back herself. She's just typically more interested in disassembling things than doing anything obviously constructive.
- Dumbass Has a Point: She's not exactly dumb in general but most of Shoko's suggestions to the governor's office are nonsense... until she requests that the governor keep Neelith from reading people's surface thoughts without permission, which Phillipa realizes is actually a pretty serious violation of privacy.
- The Hyena: Shoko laughs at just about everything.
- Time Travel: She uses the time sigil to jump back and gather some components. This unfortunately alerts an Inevitable who comes after her some time later.
Venta
A bozog and Grendel's barber-surgeon.
- Armed Legs: Meant for their occupation rather than combat, but Venta wears bladed gloves as footwear due to the lack of arms.
- Demonic Possession: Venta never really gets visitors and the loneliness lets him get possessed by a quori.
- Extremity Extremist: Being a bozog, they exclusively kick in combat. And he's very good at it, too, fighting the entire Moistwatch, although he's empowered by a quori at that point.
- Something We Forgot: The Moistwatch forgets to untie him after banishing his quori, leaving him strapped to a table for hours.
- Walking Spoiler: Venta barely appears in the series before getting possessed by a quori. In fact, his isolation from everyone else is why he gets possessed. As a result he's tied up in a lot of spoiler material early on.
Hale
Grendel's half-dragonborn historian.
- Bigger on the Inside: His house looks like a shack from the outside; inside it's a giant maze of bookshelves and corridors. It's later determined to basically be a traditional dungeon, being labyrinthine and full of powerful magical items.
- Breath Weapon: As a half-dragonborn, he can fire a Godzilla-like lazer beam out of his mouth as a breath attack.
- Dead All Along: Subverted. Upon finding out the kitsune has been impersonating Hale the Moistwatch assumes he was killed like Laszlo, the kitsune's previous identity. Almost immediately his effect on the nightmare tulpas and the egregore makes them realize he's still alive and in town, just hidden away.
- Museum of the Strange and Unusual: Hale's house contains a number of powerful magical artifacts.
- Trial by Combat: He's on friendly terms with the Genius, so until the town settles on a non-punitive justice system he puts up a blanket offer of trial by combat against anyone who wants to convict them.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: He's always wearing a skirt, and aside from his love of fighting is perfectly friendly.
Mold (Unmarked spoilers)
The slime from Slime's boob that got ripped off in the first episode. They formed their own consciousness with some key variations.
- Affably Evil: Mold gives a friendly wave to Phillipa as they announce their intent to take over the minds of the town. They feel they can simply manually rewrite everyone's mind to be okay with it after the fact and see no reason to antagonize them in the meantime.
- Evil Counterpart: To Slime. They're based entirely around Slime's worldview (having once been part of them) taken to its natural conclusion and without some of their ethical limits.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Like Slime, they can take over bodies and manually control them. Unlike Slime, they don't stick to the dead.
- Walking Spoiler: Their very existence is part of the central mystery of the fourth arc.
The Kitsune/Inri
A mysterious kitsune who operates near Grendel.
- Black-and-White Morality: He's willing to kill residents of the town to protect the town at large. Anything that looks like it might pose a threat to Grendel is something to be destroyed.
- Kill and Replace: The kitsune kills or incapacitates people who harm residents of Grendel and poses as them for a time. Laszlo turns out to have been impersonated by the Kitsune, and his disappearance is because he eventually moved on to a new identity.
