Cleff Tinkertop

Master Maker Cleff Tinkertop is an eccentric gnomish tinkerer in Hupperdook, responsible for constructing the Gear Warden and the Tinkertop Bolt Blaster 1000. As an NPC, he is played by Matthew Mercer.

Appearance
Cleff is an older gnome with patches of white-grey hair. He has a big bush of a white beard which is well trimmed around his top lip and comes to a point at the bottom. When the Mighty Nein first saw him, he wore very large spectacles with a number of smaller lenses at the front of them and a leather apron with rolled up sleeves.

Personality
Cleff is an eccentric inventor of things ranging from harmless trinkets to semi-sentient war golems. He is not portrayed as a "mad scientist", however; he was remorseful of the events that led his golem to killing several Crownsguard and submissive when his daughter insulted his faulty creations. When the Mighty Nein destroyed the clockwork warden, he was appreciative and generous, following through with his promise to give Nott his prototype crossbow and expressing a wish to seem them again.

Background
Around 833 PD, Cleff was hired by the wardens of the Gearhole Prison to build a clockwork warden to watch over some of the more dangerous prisoners. Unfortunately, the automaton appeared to be faulty and started killing everything it encountered. The wardens managed to seal off the section of the prison it was in, leaving it trapped. Cleff had to pay a fine for the damages caused by his rogue automaton. Ever since the wardens have come round to Cleff's shop - Tinkertop Inventions - to constantly remind him of his failure. It has been a black spot on the Tinkertop family name, resulting in his daughter Rissa being picked on for it by other gnomes like Ashton and Fitz.

The Mighty Nein entered Tinkertop Inventions with Cleff's daughter, Rissa. He welcomed them in, pleased to see Rissa had made friends. Mollymauk expressed interest in seeing his inventions and Jester wanted to find toys for Kiri. He offered them a miniature bolt thrower, which misfired and nearly hit Beauregard's head. Instead he gave Kiri a music box with a tiny metallic bird with wings that flapped up and down. Jester bought it for three gold pieces.

Mollymauk asked what he was most proud of and Cleff showed off the Tinkertop Bolt Blaster 1000 - a magically enchanted half-clockwork, gear-based hand crossbow - which was 2,000 gold. Rissa told him that they weren't interested, but the Mighty Nein disagreed, expressing interest in the device. Rissa stated they wouldn't be interested if they knew what some of his other inventions had done. Cleff explained he hoped the bow would be popular due to the war and help him regain some lost favour with people in power.

When Fjord pried for more information, Cleff explained to them the story of the clockwork warden he was hired to build that went on a killing spree. The Mighty Nein offered to destroy the rogue clockwork warden in exchange for the Tinkertop Bolt Blaster 1000 free of charge. Cleff told Rissa he liked her friends and if she'd found work yet. The Mighty Nein said Rissa was working for them currently as a sub-contracter. As the Mighty Nein were leaving he told them to take care of his "Rissania" - Rissa's full name - which the Mighty Nein took glee in teasing her about.

Dangerous Designs
Once the War of Ash and Light picked up, Cleff closed his shop in the Idleworks Shelf, as he and Rissa were put to work in the Builder's Plot by the city to design devices, such as a metallic glider, for the war effort. An adventuring party hired by Watchmaster Bram Gulchswattle to find the escaped prisoner Sken Zabriss came to Cleff to ask him about a small broken automaton found within Sken's prison cell. He identified it as one of his inventions, a vox seeker, and noted that it appeared to have been built by an old colleague of his, Huron Stahlmast. He also offered to repair the vox seeker for 15 gold pieces.

Inventions

 * Vox seekers: Small, wind-up automata that move towards and attack the source of the nearest voice that it hears.
 * Gear Warden: A large gearkeeper construct designed to guard the Gearhole Prison, but went haywire.
 * The Tinkertop Bolt Blaster 1000: A magic, clockwork hand crossbow, given to the Mighty Nein as a reward for destroying the Gear Warden.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 2