Ripley works for The Slowcart Foundation's Operations Branch, keeping an eye on Fortune's Vanguard and reporting back to her management chain. Ripley does not keep this a secret, and has informed the party of this upon their first introduction, as well as periodically during her travels with them.
Ripley Blackfin
Ripley is an Agent of The Slowcart Foundation. She was born to Marisha and Aldrich Blackfin in the small coastal town of Musa Point. She was an alchemical prodigy from a young age, and the presence of enchanted iceboxes at Blackfin Fisheries gave her both exposure and fascination with magic. Due to her family's connections she was accepted as an intern at the Slowcart Foundation at the age of 16, where she would learn and work in perpetuity.
After a workplace incident left Ripley demoted down to a mere agent she kept her head down for a while, hoping to mend burned bridges and get back what she'd lost. Her missions gave her combat experience, and she heard rumors of a small but very powerful group known as Fortune's Vanguard. She hoped to someday see this group in person, and bear witness to the vast magical power they were said to wield. Surprisingly her wish was eventually granted, and she was assigned a long term mission to travel with and observe the group.
Early Life
Musa Point is a small seaside town located right on the border of Wodford and Serval. While out of the way of most major ports, the town boasts a high standard of living, including cobbled streets, a variety of shops and pubs, and a social safety net for all citizens and visitors of the town. This large influx of prosperity is almost exclusively thanks to Blackfin Fisheries.
Blackfin Fisheries was founded two generations ago by Cyrus Blackfin, a warm-hearted idealist. Cyrus established the company as a worker's coop, unifying the local fishers under one banner. He believed that by showing what a better future could look like, he could inspire the world. The resounding success of the fishery cemented his legacy for generations to come, and the Blackfin family became well known and beloved locally, with a member of the family serving as chairman of the company to this day.
The company was able to export their goods to a much larger market
due to a chance partnership with the Slowcart Foundation. The foundation
brought magical goods, more specifically iceboxes that kept the catch
cold and fresh near indefinitely. They gained near-exclusive rights to
exporting Blackfin fish to landlocked cities; crates bearing the
Blackfin logo becoming a common sight in Skaraysk and beyond.
Aldrich
Blackfin took over as chairman after Cyrus retired, continuing his
father's work and sharing his idealism. He was the one that negotiated
and finalized the deal with the Foundation at the behest of the coop. A
diligent worker and loving father, he balanced running and working in
the fishery with taking care of his family, including his young and
briliant daughter, Ripley.
Ripley's brilliance and curiosity was
noted from a young age. She always wondered how various fishing
equipment worked, taking it apart and putting it back together again.
Her true calling wasn't found until one day a representative of the
foundation was in town, they noticed Ripley, now 16, performing
alchemical research in Blackfin manor's workshop. They offered her an
apprenticeship in R&D Team 07, a secretive team of arcane
researchers and crafters who develop various new technologies, both
magical and mundane, in cutting-edge facilities.
Several years
later, Ripley, now a full-fledged member of Team 07, was demonstrating a
promising project involving black powder to long-time teammate Niles Eirladar. Unfortunately due to an impurity in the chemical mix there was
an explosion, scarring Ripley's right arm and costing Niles his left.
The accident put a few cracks in Ripley's confidence, and she vowed to
continue the project without hurting anyone else. In Niles however,
experiencing the explosive power of black powder firsthand unlocked a
dark ambition inside him-he would monitor Ripley's work, waiting for its
completion before claiming it for himself.
More years, many
iterations, and several explosions later, Ripley was working on her
latest prototype. Having invented many working models of single shot
firearms at this point, she was working on something more... a
pepperbox, capable of holding and firing several shots before needing to
be reloaded. It was then that Niles sprung his plan, and confronted
Ripley in her workshop. He told of his ambitions, he told of armies,
armed with her inventions, marching to war, he told of the riches and
power that awaited them as arms dealers. Ripley was horrified, and shot
him down immediately, demanding he leave her alone.
Contemplating
the moral implications of what she had created, Ripley acted rashly.
Returning in the night, she put her work to the torch, manuals she had
written, diagrams, notes, anything that would allow a layman to recreate
her firearms was burned. She destroyed prototypes. Her life's work up
in smoke to slow down one ambitious man. She knew this act of
destruction wouldn't go unnoticed, and she was right.
Ripley's confidence was shattered, she was stripped of her position
for such an 'act of negligence.' Niles pinned the blame on her, vowing
to "continue the work she started" to their superiors. While her many
years of service protected her from being thrown out of the Foundation,
she was completely removed from R&D. Now she was little more than an
agent with seven yards of burned good will. She felt she couldn't show
her face to her family or go home. Left in self-exile, she kept her head down-quietly doing as she was told; she worked to restore her ruined reputation within the Foundation.