Nina Shortcrust

Nina Shortcrust featured during the adventures of A Short Story in The Halfling Shires. She is a Warlock in the service of Jezail (Subclass - Client of Jezail), and the best cook the Short Campaigners ever had: if you can tolerate the occasional moral crisis about ingredients.

Nina is bold, intense, and strangely cheerful in the aftermath of violence. She throws herself into the thickest part of a fight without hesitation, then acts as though sharing a meal afterwards is the most normal thing in the world. She has a practical streak (waste nothing, use everything), which is either admirable or deeply unsettling depending on who’s eating.

In A Short Story, Nina’s patron ordered her to hire a troll brothel for a weekend—an indulgence that left her nearly bankrupt. Nina’s relationship with Jezail is transactional in the way only patronage can be: power in exchange for obedience, with debts that never quite stop accumulating. Whether Jezail’s demands are tests, punishments, or entertainment is unclear to everyone except Jezail.

Nina is a master pie-maker and takes genuine pride in feeding people well. Unfortunately, her ingredient choices sometimes include portions of slain enemies. This has led her companions to doubt her sanity and refuse her food on principle, even while admitting it smells incredible. Nina insists it’s practical; everyone else insists it’s a threat.

Nina fights with a halberd that feeds on the blood of her enemies. She prefers aggressive, close-quarters fighting—charging into the centre of the melee and letting the weapon do what it does. The halberd’s hunger makes Nina dangerous to stand beside, but even more dangerous to stand against.