Malsasa Swiftpaw
Malsasa Swiftclaw is a curious, adventuresome kettek. He has long fur, mostly gray with a few stripes of black and white. He always appears in public wearing bright, ornate outfits woven from fine fabrics like silk or gossamer. Spun gold or silver thread is not uncommon in such outfits, and brightly-colored felt hats with feathers are also commonly seen on Malsasa.
Malsasa is not just a flamboyant merchant, however. He is cursed with some kind of dark magic beyond his comprehension.
Malsasa is chatty and memorable, as any traveling merchant benefits from such qualities, and he has at least a couple connections in most major cities in Gathandia.
Jack
In one of his acquisitions, Malsasa neglected to take enough precautions in the handling of his new magic items. While taking inventory, he became exposed to the influence of a powerful eldritch force. Ever since, this entity has been siphoning Malsasa’s Essence.
Malsasa has not been able to determine anything of this entity’s true nature, but it takes the form of a black cat that he has named Jack. Malsasa and Jack can speak telepathically, and although Malsasa lives in peace with Jack, he is always on the lookout for some method of unbinding himself from the entity.
Backstory
As a kitten, Malsasa lived with his parents and a small group of other kettek within a larger, multilineage nomadic tribe known as the Drifting Merchants Caravan. The Drifting Merchants pride themselves on their skill as crafters and traders. They travel all across the continent of Gathandia to sell their wares and see wondrous sights. While they are never unfriendly to strangers, they focus on supporting and protecting their own above anything else. Malsasa quickly made a name for himself as a skilled merchant. Filled with wanderlust and a desire to trade exotic magic items, Malsasa took his leave of the Drifting Merchants to explore the world on his own, intending one day to return to his family.
To detail all of Malsasa’s accomplishments over the years past this point would be difficult, in part because they are plentiful and wondrous, but also because he has embellished, overstated, and downright fabricated so many of them that the line between what is real and what is not has become incredibly blurry.
Malsasa’s Alchemy Egg
They might also convince him to sell it to them eventually, but Malsasa will only consider this if the hero requesting to purchase the egg has at least 15 Goodwill in the mercantile occupation.