McGuiggan

McGuiggan
Art by Shinko.
Aliases	"Viol Boy" (Used by Cree, Anther) "Crabfish" (Non-canon inside joke due to RielCZ misunderstanding Shinko's emojis)
Gender	Male
Pronouns	He/Him
Relatives	Unnamed Father, Unnamed Mother
Affiliation	Wednesday Group (Island Party) Main (Merged) Party
Languages	Common, Elvish, Undercommon
Biographical information
Marital status	Single
Physical description
Race	Half-Elf
Height	about 5'5"
Eye color	Green
Class
Class(es)	Bard
Subclass(es)	College of Glamour
Stats
Level	4
HP	28
AC	12
DC	14
STR	13
DEX	15
CON	13
INT	13
WIS	9
CHA	18

“

*does a little bow* - McGuiggan upon inventing Disco

”

McGuiggan is a player-controlled (by RielCZ) character from the Temphere universe, originally an original member of Wednesday (Island) Group and now a member of the Main (Merged) Party.

Etymology

"McGuiggan" was McGuiggan's last name from his human parent; following a common convention for elves to choose their names, he chose this to be his name and stage name.

History

Pre-Adventure Time!

McGuiggan was born to a human parent and an elf parent. Raised by his elf parent, he felt a somewhat closer connection to the artistry of the elves, and took up music; over time, he honed the viol, pan flute, and dulcimer. The viol is by far his instrument of choice, having studied it in some of the Elven schools/courts and learned music and composition.

Eventually feeling disconnected among his Elven peers, and being unable to fit in all that well with the humans, he set off soon after maturity to hone his musical skills and in search of learning as many songs as he could, and from a diverse and varied group of individuals, both for the adventure and hoping one day to be able to write "the perfect song" to appease first of all himself and then maybe the art god. One place he ventured to was the Underdark, where he picked up Undercommon. (Those Undercommon songs sound crazy yo.) At some place as a traveling musician, he encountered a Fae (Ibereai) at a come-and-go campsite; they traveled together for a few weeks, and Ibereai taught McGuiggan to imbue some Fae magic with his music, which he continued to try and hone (College of Glamour).

Some unfigured out amount of time (but not too long) after, he found himself watching some wreckage crash into the sea alongside a warforged and a gnome, and was sort of dragged in to investigate. This would take him to places where he could hopefully learn more songs and further hone is musical prowess -- in between kicking monster butt and doing other cool things (when the dice are in his favor).

Wednesday Group Adventure 1: Here be Pirates!

McGuiggan met up with Fracture (the warforged) and Kindrin (the gnome) and they set off to try and determine what seemed to fall from the sky and land in the sea. Upon investigation, they found two humanoids (The Helders) who were unconscious. They found and followed Pumpkin and found Athelia, who helped guide them to the lab of the Helders, who were actually inventors of some sort, and with the help of Dart (who found out the name of what had crashed into the sea -- an airship that had been piloted by the now unconscious folk!) they entered the lab. While there, they created a concoction to heal the Helders, and battled a boss. They returned and awoke the unconscious and all was well.

Wednesday Group Interlude 1: Sly like a Fox Mask

Kindrin breaks away from the party due to other obligations, but McGuiggan, Fracture, and Athelia are tasked to deliver a message! However, Athelia lets Fracture and McGuiggan play around in the Festival of Masks while she finishes the delivery herself.

McGuiggan gets a red fox mask and he embarks on a series of games with Fracture to win tickets and get cool prizes. He tries to act something like a guide to her, as she has never done this before (whether he successfully led her is up to Fracture), but did manage to intimidate someone who tried to say that Warforged don't belong there. The two carve pumpkins, and McGuiggan carves a Pumpkin-in-Pumpkin.

In the end, they get a neat Magic!Photo of themselves taken, and watch their pumpkin carvings float off into the night as Athelia returns.

Wednesday Group Adventure 2: Aw, Fish Sticks!

McGuiggan, Fracture, and Athelia go out and meet Jolene, an old acquaintance of Athelia, and seek to find why an old friend of Jolene (and Athelia?) has disappeared. Along the way, they discover sharks, water elementals, and the fish-people known as Kuo-Toa!

They eventually find a young pirate-kid who informs them the crew has been kidnapped by some monster who turns out to be a big meanie tentacle-head. He has had his minions -- big kuo-toa -- capture and tie-up the whole crew in what seems to be an abandoned lighthouse. After Fracture stealthily intrudes (but not so stealthily as to untie everyone), a battle ensues, and Fracture, McGuiggan, Athelia, and Jolene soon find themselves face to face with Tentacle-Head, who has enslaved one of the crew members to cast water elementals using a bowl.

After killing most (all?) of the kuo-toa and the water elemental escapes, creating a huge hole in the lighthouse, Tentacle-Head escapes out the hole as well.

The adventurers learn about the Aquan Bowl used to conjure the elementals due to McGuiggan's use of the Identify spell. They also learn the bown was owned by the lighthouse keeper, who gIve it to Fracture and McGuiggan to take to the inventors. Fracture and McGuiggan go to question the enslaved crewmember who used the bowl, but it seems he had no evil motives.

Merged Group Adventure 1: The Mergening: An Epic in 10 (and counting) Parts

Subadventure I: Hey Look It's You Guys!

Fracture and McGuiggan depart Athelia and, as a giant setup, go to a friend of the inventors who is "a monster hunter" (presumably the same Valanthe told the Sunday Group to search for), for information on Tentacle-Head. On the journey, they run into Anther, Cree, Dahlia, and Hush, and a relatively easy union forms between their two parties. They adventure around the town a bit together while they buy supplies and things.

The union is solidified when the parties are thrown into having to put out a fire together caused by T'hamil, because he tried to use LIGHTNING MAGIC to destroy a thorn he dug up. It turned out these sorts of thorns were just what the others (Sunday Group) had once been chasing after, and naturally they were very upset at having to deal with one again.

Together, they found (much to McGuiggan's chagrin) and defeated some plant monsters, but realized there was another one that had just managed to wander into the Frostfell over a crossover with the plane.

Subadventure II: A Blanket is NOT Good Enough for Hell Frozen Over

The party runs into some Mephits who try to sell them wares. McGuiggan finds them somewhat sketchy and thinks he can survive with just a blanket -- luckily, Anther forces him to think again, and he buys the full winter outfit.

The party continues chasing after the plant after clues given by the Mephits, and they choose to pursue a cave. Along the way they encounter oxen and other things, including crossing a river; shortly before the river, however, McGuiggan fell ill to LEVEL 1 EXHAUSTION (*insert daunting music*); he was appreciative of Fracture's offer to carry him (though he turned it down) and supposed Anther was right after all about the clothes.

They crossed the river and avoided a big cat that wanted to eat them. They even took down a yeti waiting for them on the other side. A chill wind winter storm came up, and not wanting to enter the yeti cave, they opted for another, which had a literal giant skeleton in it. They entered a door (on the right) and found more bones, and battled a few sabre tooth tigers (some of which happened to have kittens).

The party would later enter a large room and fight a remorhaz (because a totally not contrived larger remorhaz appeared which drove them into said large room). Following this, they went into an icy cavern that became a rocky cavern, and while they continued to wait for the storm to pass they sat down and had a story time. McGuiggan told them that he was on a quest to learn all sorts of songs and to eventually write the perfect song, the bardic masterpiece, and that he does love his charisma magic but in trying to reassure Cree commented he doesn't use it for evil. He and Facture told them about their adventures with Tentacle Head, the Kuo-Toa, and the Aquan Bowl. McGuiggan really didn't reveal too much new information -- he was too exhausted and sober for that -- but he did prompt Cree to reveal she was an orphan and was only a bard because of her circus background (and that barding wasn't really for her), and he prompted Anther to reveal why she hated elementals and why she wanted to leave her city. As story time wound down, McGuiggan shared some candy that he'd acquired from the Festival of Masks with the group (particularly, everyone but Hush, although Fracture said she would give hers to Hush on account of Fracture not having a mouth). Dahlia believed it to be a token of their newfound friendship, and McGuiggan was happy with this development.

He woke when the storm had passed (but it was still dark out), no longer exhausted and feeling much much better. The party left the cave then in search of other things.

McGuiggan met some icy wolves, and three ice mephits who were picking on said wolves. The ice mephits then challenged the party to a battle, warning the party that they had a "friend" coming. That friend was actually an ice elemental. When the elemental came, McGuiggan, spur of the moment, decided to use his Faerie Fire Ring to launch Faerie Fire at the elemental and the remaining mephit (the others had been killed or scared away). The mephit did not get the glow, but the ice elemental did, and McGuiggan chose a "bright pale red," causing the elemental to glow, with the glow within refracting off the ice -- thus, McGuggan invented the disco ball, and disco was born. The effect was made even cooler by some fog that the mephit produced, so there were lights shining through the fog, the light neutralizing the disadvantage caused by being unable to see. McGuiggan also used vicious mockery against the mephit, causing it to die and explode, and in the process further injuring the ice elemental; Cree commented that "that's why [she's] a subpar bard" or something akin, to which McGuiggan said that he "could teach her."

After that battle was won, the wolves introduced themselves. Using the power of wolf-friends, they figured out where the plant monster was, but it was far away. However, some hyppogryphs could get the party there faster, in exchange for a favour. However, before setting out, one very inquisitive wolf decided to question the party as to what they were in terms of species and occupation. Cree decided to get McGuiggan involved in the conversation by pulling down the hood of his cloak with mage hand. He said he was a half-elf, meaning he was half something that looked like Anther, half something that looked like Anther but without the pointy ears. Cree commented that McGuiggan is also a very different colour from Anther -- which didn't matter to the wolves given they were essentially blind to colour -- but McGuiggan went beside Anther anyway for them to get a better comparison. And then Anther went and pushed him into the snow. Naturally, he was very surprised and not necessarily happy at the development of this "McGuiggan Abuse" day, and threw a snowball at Anther, thus prompting a small snowball fight.

That quieted down shortly thereafter, and the party continued to be led by the wolves until they encountered the hyppogryphs. McGuiggan suggested flattery, much to the rest of the party's seeming disapproval; in the end, the hyppogryphs just wanted someone to rescue some chicks that had fallen down onto a ledge from where their parents could feed them but could not rescue them. So, McGuiggan used Enhance Ability to give Anther Cat's Grace so she could achieve a daring rescue and rescue the chicks (in a very Mission Impossible style); the Cat's Grace ended up being very important, too, given Anther could only pass the checks with the advantage she had from her cat-ness!

Once that was done, the appreciative hyppogryphs gave the party members a ride on their backs using saddles to the plant monster.

Subadventure III: If You Can't Bond Over What You Hate, What CAN You Bond Over?

Much to both parties' horrors, they realized that not only were the plant monsters and its varying thornlines on the battlefield, but ALSO Tentacle Head and the Kuo-Toa. McGuiggan realized that it was finally time to Thunderwave.

The battle went well, although he didn't leave his hippogryph because he did NOT wanna get close to those things -- THOSE evil, vile, possibly in cahoots things. Many times he soared back and forth over the chaos below, casting insults from the sky: "Your MOTHER is a pinecone!" Other times he just dropped thunder bombs on them.

A temporary alliance was made between the Kuotoa and Sahuagin (allied with Tentacle Head) and the party, in which McGuiggan could assist sometimes given he speaks the language of the former. Together, they thought to fight off the thorn creatures. However, once the Plant Monster was defeated, the truce ended and the Kuotoa and Sahuagin attacked!

McGuiggan frightened Tentacle Head with some Scary Strings at the same time as a Thunderwave, and giving some temp hit points to his comrades. One of his best signature moves to this date!

But that didn't help with ranged attacks from the beast, and McGuiggan was temporarily stunned when Tentacle head screeched -- thankfully his hippogryph was OK. Then, Cree helped out with a flaming log to Tentacle Head's face, which stopped Tentacle Head in his tracks.

Everyone started to flee. McGuiggan was considering going back just to try and wreak some more vengeance on Tentacle Head, but ultimately decided against it.

After that, the party met Brenryn, who saved them from the Frostfell via an orb ot open a crossover back to Temphere. The party returned to the inn and also interviewed T'hamil. McGuiggan got some information about the temple. After that, they met Dahlia's God in the God's Father's Temple (McGuiggan had inquired about this to T'hamil earlier), and the party got stronger! (Woot woot level up.)

Merged Group Adventure 2: Time For Spooks

Subadventure 1: The Edith Files, AKA New Challenger Unlocked!

It was learned that Brenryn's life partner Ash was the monster hunter the party was looking for to elucidate on the Plant Monster and Tentacle Head.

They also met up with another traveller, a dwarf named Edith, who was also sent on a quest to find the Monster Hunter. So naturally she was set to merge into the party. McGuiggan asked what she does, and she said she was a druid.

Together, they worked to defeat an OwlBear.

Subadventure 2: What do you mean it's not Halloween? *puts on fox mask*

It took a while to traverse the landscape, but Brenryn took the party to their home and they met a fairly anxious Ash. Whilst there, they had go do some ghost hunting because spooks (close to Halloween in player time). McGuiggan had his weapons coated in a magic semi-liquid. He also wore his fox mask for funzies.

They hunted and befriended a bat ghost, met a docile tree ghost amongst plant ghosts that Edith had some hilarious conversations with, and created some anti-poison potions.

The boss battle involved a ghost kenku controlling a ghost wyvern. But McGuiggan and Fracture were more concerned with fighting the furniture the kenku had enchanted. McGuiggan used a Thunderwave and knocked the top of a fancy chair into the fireplace; it later succumbed to its burn injuries (much to the chagrin of the homeowners). Anther defeated the kenku by winding back a music box that McGuiggan had been interested in due to its music.

After the battle finished, Ash revealed that Tentacle Head was a Deep Scion, a creature that used to be a humanoid sailor of some sort but was changed into a tentacle monster by a kraken, or the Gods -- scary stuff -- in a pact that allowed the sailor to live. Even worse, the scions can morph back into their old form so as to be discrete and disguised -- super scary stuff. (Hopefully this one has a massive face scar now!) The others also learned about their respective monsters: a vampire stake plant for the plant monster crew, and a displacer beast for Edith.

Merged Group Adventure 3: Take Me Home, Caellond Roads

Subadventure 1: The Leadup to Pandemonium

Day 1

The next day or so, the party -- now a group of 6(!) -- headed off back to the place where Cree, Anther, and Dahlia started their quest battling the Plant Monster. Specifically, to a very large palace headed by a fellow named Valanthe.

McGuiggan learned that there are no sharks in the bath water and that the bath houses were really quite nice.

Upon meeting Valanthe, the eledrin gave McGuiggan 1000 gold for supporting his peeps -- he gave everyone 1000 gold. Very rich fellow, much impress. Valanthe invited the party to a Fae Ball, and McGuiggan was fairly anxious about the whole thing as he wasn't sure he was actually invited. When it was said explicitly, he immediately decided he'd rather be in the performer role than the guest, due to his trepidation over being a guest at balls, and requested to play there. Valanthe essentially told him that he'd look into it, but couldn't confirm either way.

Afterward, the party left to go SHOPPING! McGuiggan unsuccessfully haggled and bought a Cuffs of Sending from Nalurian at the White Rabbit, which (with the help of Qlu) he later had integrated into some fingerless leather gloves. He mostly wanted them because the blue gem matched his aesthetic. McGuiggan also got his studded armour enchanted to get resistant to cold, because Frostfell PTSD and also Winter Is Coming. He asked the enchanter (Aydor) of Spells and Smithery if he knew the difference between a blanket and a cape, but Aydor did not and probably thought the party (self-dubbed The Questionnaires or something akin whilst in his workshop) was very strange.

They later ran into Serena who informed them of their upcoming schedule. Cree invited her to the pub, as she had invited the other party members (McGuiggan was the first to accept the invitation), but Serena did not want to go.

The party members arrived at the local pub, the Oak and Onyx. Upon seeing some performers there, McGuiggan got the idea that he could perform, and so spent some time talking to the owner, Rilna. She informed him that there is a several days in advance booking, but she scheduled him for the night before Pandemonium Day (the Fae Ball). He wanted to sign his own name, so she wouldn't write it wrong, but she interpreted that as recalcitrance or something and he had to use some charisma on her to reassure her. The party members had their drinks, most ordering the "Oak And Onyx" house special. McGuiggan fared the best out of everyone. Some of the party ended up quite drunk.

Day 2

The next day, after a hangover cure breakfast (though McGuiggan did not need it), they were measured for custom outfits by Qlu, and started some dance lessons. In the end, his former teacher Ibereai, a water-themed fae, was their instructor. Ibereai had, a few years earlier, encountered McGuiggan at a shared campsite, where they taught him some fae magic to imbue into his musical writings and musings (College of Glamour reference!).

McGuiggan danced with Fracture, who was an excellent dancer. Ibereai also taught them etiquette, including not to say thank you to the fae -- unfortunately at the end McGuiggan thanked them and they shook their finger at him.

The parth went back to the enchanter's and picked up their enchanted items.

McGuiggan, Fracture, Anther, and Dahlia found their way back at the Oak and Onyx for gambling after McGuiggan asked a street vendor about certain attractions in the town. They played a game called knucklebones, similar to Jacks. McGuiggan (with his proficiency in Slight of Hand) won the game, but for a while he was neck and neck with Fracture! Perhaps being a longtime viol player does have its upsides outside performance.

They left back to Valanthe's place. McGuiggan decided to tour the halls in the evening, where he ran into Ibereai -- the two had a nice chat about things, how life has been. He still refused to give up his first name. They invited him to play with them at the ball in one of the biggest performances of his life, arguably. He accepted this invitation -- believing it's not some sort of trap.

After this was done, McGuiggan went to his room for the night.

Day 3

Breakfast the next day was less judgey, given the party had not had anything to drink. At dance practice, McGuiggan again paired with Fracture -- but McGuiggan was the better roller dancer that morning, and helped carry Fracture somewhat.

He then spent the afternoon temporarily upping his performance skill, in anticipation of his performance at the Oak and Onyx that evening, and the fae ball the next day.

Day 4

Coming Soon!

Subadventure 2: Pandemonium

Coming Soon!

Personality

McGuiggan kinda just goes along with whatever is thrown at him. Oftentimes he lacks some courage -- which he considers is practical given increasingly crazy situations -- and wishes he could be somewhere else (e.g. not chasing plant monsters through the elemental plane of ice), but is happy he is very loyal to his friends and allies. Generally, he tries his best to help them out with their needs and wants (assuming he's not KO'd). When someone ropes him into a problem/battle he'll do his best to help it get resolved quickly (so he can go back to the calm and safety).

He doesn't mind talking with people, but isn't quite a social butterfly. He can be a bit quiet at times, because it takes him a bit to absorb the gravity of a situation. He doesn't lean intro or extroverted -- it largely depends on the situation -- and prefers one-on-one or small group conversation. He'd rather just perform something than socialize in many occasions.

Although he doesn't really like physical touch (some of that Glamour personality there), he does consider himself quite a romantic: long walks on the beach, "Look I wrote you a song let me play it for you!" and all that jazz.

He tries to remain relatively calm and collected, but perhaps is easily exasperated (especially with snowballs).

If a problem can be solved with Performance, McGuiggan is there! He is graceful enough and good enough at dancing as a result.

He is an optimist, but not stupidly so.

Likes/Dislikes

Likes

• Music, and getting to show off his mad viol performance skills.
• Performing with others (such as with Cree at the Inn).
• Speaking Elvish (especially to playfully annoy those who cannot speak it, like Cree).
• Animals, but he is not attached to any particular one animal, and is somewhat skeptical of animals to which others are giving lots of attention.
• Balls he gets to perform at.

Dislikes

• Snow, wind, and cold weather (so he has learned after it exhausted him).
• Fish-creatures (except perhaps Dart).
• Swimming (he dislikes this a LOT) -- he considers swimming to be one of the worst things he has to deal with.
• Plants that hurt.
• Balls he has to participate in. (The reason why is currently unknown, but presumably it has to do with getting too drunk and having a Very Bad Time.)

Trivia

In-Game

• McGuiggan was the first character in the Wednesday group to become KO'd -- twice, fighting the same boss (Tentacle-Head)!
• McGuiggan was the first character in the campaign to become exhausted, due to the environment of the Frostfell.

In-Character

• McGuiggan is ambidexstrous, but plays a right-handed viol.

On the Other Side of the 4th Wall

• McGuiggan's art style (and his main picture on this page) was created by Shinko and subsequently developed by everyone except RielCZ (because his art stats need improvement)!
• RielCZ got the name for McGuiggan from his youngest sister's new elementary school teacher in the fall the AmericaLand DND campaign started (2018). Liking the name, he internet-searched "McGuiggan" for potential further information and found it was the surname of some pastor-blogger who was once referred to as "The Dragon Slayer," and RielCZ knew the name was meant to be.
• Another player once called McGuiggan the "straight man" of the group.