this is a page dedicated to my pathfinder character, brian jazzhands! he's a six foot tall hafling who hails from the gnomish city of everlight, but left to pursue a career in the circus. he is incapable of dying! instead, his consciousness is transferred into one of the many "canned jazzhands" littered throughout the world. a canned jazzhands is a preserved copy of brian, made using a magical copy machine with his wizard friend from community college. because each canned jazzhands is a copy, which was then used to make more copies, each brian is just a little different! some might have slight personality differences, or maybe a brian could and has come out with two left hands. the current brian in our campaign has thalassophobia, which is. great (: because they're stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean (: surrounded by all sorts of awful aquatic creatures (:
he's the youngest of 69 children, but his parents and siblings raised him in a loving and non-judgemental home. the jazzhands family owns a large chain of pizza restaurants that also offer delivery throughout everlight, "papa jazz's." during his childhood, helping box up pizzas for his older siblings to delivery on one of his family's "bonding work weekends," he discovered his love for the banjo when an elf bard decided to stop outside the restaurant to busk. he was so thorougly enamored with the sound, the feeling, the beauty of the combination of the bard's music with his magic, that he knew he just had to learn for himself. he saved up his allowance for months and finally picked up a banjo for himself and named her delilah, after one of his favorite comic book characters. this began him down his path to bardhood, in which he graduated from everlight community college's bard program at the tender age of 21.
after some stints adventuring on the outskirts of everlight, brian decided he needed something more, a real adventure, something where he'd be able to put all of his showmanship skills to work while also getting to do a lot of sightseeing without......68 other siblings filling his itinerary. around this time, a traveling cicrcus made its way to town, and brian was starstruck! he needed, no, had to be a part of this. and so, he auditioned for the ringleader, to an unceremonius rejection because being a six foot tall halfing in and of itself isn't a big draw for crowds, even if you're also really good at banjo and puppet shows. ): however! as he was preparing to leave, by some freak accident, he was crushed underneath some sandbags being moved to prepare for the next performance. the ringmaster and performers rushed to dig him out from underneath, but only found a large puddle of neon-green slime and all of brian's clothes. from behind the ringmaster's head was heard a small "i can pay for the damages i'm so sorry dude this happens a lot," and lo and behold! there stood a freshly released, babypink and nude brian jazzhands, unscathed! after some explanation, return of clothes, and reassurance that yes, he really was fine, the ringmaster changed their mind and decided to market brian as "brian jazzhands, the halfling undying!" he began to travel with the circus, and in particular, took on a sort of caretaking role for a child of a couple he worked with there named krysten. her parents often had to head away on separate adventuring business, and krysten had taken a fondness to brian. for ten years, he's babysat and helped raise her when her parents were busy.
this leads us to our current place in the brian jazzhands timeline, and the events of the campaign! krysten was kidnapped by some bandit pirates as ransom to get her adventurer parents to come out in the hopes that the bandits could overtake them. brian, seeing this, did everything in his power to pursue them and bring krysten home. during the chase, on sea, a terrible storm hit, brian was washed off of the ship and woke up on the shore of a mysterious island, with nothing but the memory of needing to find krysten hanging over his head. after some time, they were reuinited, and now are traveling across the island to find their way home. along the way, the party has gained several other members and made friends with the locals. during this time, brian also found love in a half-giant shield maiden named brunhilde. he's become a hardcore wife guy. (: he's also gained control and friendship over a species of creature known as fontiguli (fontigulus, singular.), and one in particular named tiggy stardust has become his best friend and companion. they're little guys that look like leaves on the forest floor, have one or two eyes, and survive by eating dead bark and leaves. brian has taught them to organize into shapes, use their wood-eating skills to whittle figures, held a fontiguli parade, and...not much else. they're just little dudes! he's gone head to head with a djinn from the astral plane who wanted to use him as her personal servant, invented hot pockets, got a cool new slingkini that summons bees, and worked on his fear of underwater creatures and bodies of water to the best of his abilities.
brian is a character very near and dear to my heart, not just in playing him but also in the way that i feel connected to him even if we are very different people. i've cried over imagining scenarios with him, have a giant spotify playlist dedicated to music that makes me think of him or that he might like, and draw him really often when i can't think of what to draw. he's my kid and i just. love him!! a whole lot!! please enjoy these images of him below, which i will update periodically. :)
