Calianna Mordsson

Calianna Mordsson is a half-elven sorcerer of a dragonic heritage. She is played by Mark Hulmes.

Appearance
Calianna is a half-elf with black hair decorated with green ribbons. The right half of her face and body is covered in black dragon scales, with a yellow dragon eye, a fully dragonborn arm with black scales and sharp claws, and a long black dragon tail that she hides under her skirts. Her hair and a green hooded cloak are situated to obscure her draconic heritage. She wears an off-white blouse and skirt, brown leather waist cincher and belt, and overskirt.

Personality
Calianna is very complimentary of others, often pointing out aspects of them that she thinks are cute. She is very nervous, worried that new people might be either members of, or hired by, her former cult. She was very excitable, honest and talkative towards the Mighty Nein after Molly told her that he was a worshipper of Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon. Calianna was also prone to small outbursts of anger, specifically regarding loot from kills she regarded as hers. Calianna attributed this possessiveness to her dragon blood.

Beauregard described Calianna as "far too polite and very skittish".

Background
Calianna told Beau that she was born in Port Damali, but hadn't spent much time there. She lived on the streets on her own and then was taken in by the Cult of the Caustic Heart, who raised her to believe she was she was special and important.

The Mighty Nein found Calianna in a bar during their travels in Berleben. She asked to accompany them on their next journey for the Gentleman, saying that she could fight and needed help finding and then destroying a magic bowl from the Cult of the Caustic Heart.

The group found a hollowed-out tree leading to The Gentleman's Safe House underground. They fought and defeated several merrow, and while looting afterward, Nott found a unusually-designed but finely-crafted marble bowl with gold inlay, containing five dragon heads with gemstone eyes. She hid it from Calianna. Later, Nott surreptitiously showed Caleb the bowl. Using Identify, Caleb discovered that the bowl was magical and used as a device to commune with across the Divine Gate with the Scaled Tyrant. When filled with blood and upon conducting the proper ritual, it can be used to acquire auguries as well as small divinations and other communications. Caleb told Nott it was of no use to them, but put it in his satchel.

When Calianna said she needed to continue seeking the bowl, Caleb asked what she intended to do with it. Calianna said she wanted to destroy it. Caleb called the group to him one by one, and pulled the bowl out of his bag, suggesting that they spend the night there and have Jester cast Zone of Truth on Calianna in the morning to confirm that Cali really wanted the bowl only to destroy it. Suddenly, Beau snatched it from his hand. Caleb was flabbergasted, asking why she wouldn't want to wait twelve hours to make sure that Calianna's intentions were true, since the bowl offered a connection to one of the most evil entities in existence. Beau said that Caleb's caution "did not get to control other people's destinies."

Caleb cast Suggestion on Calianna, who reiterated that all she wanted was to destroy it or hide it from the Cult. Beau handed her the bowl and told Caleb that he didn't get to use his past trauma to control other people. He replied, "Beauregard, what if she had been lying to us?" and Beau said they'd just take it as a lesson and move on. Cali interceded, saying Caleb was the only one who really understood how powerful the bowl was. He was doing the right thing. Caleb just walked away.

Without much hope of success, they tried to destroy the bowl. Finally, Yasha pulled out Magician's Judge, using its Dispel Magic, and shattered it. Calianna hugged and thanked her, and said she was heading back to Port Damali. She also agreed to be pen pals with Jester. Since Caleb had walked off, Cali gave Nott a scroll of Invisibility to give to him. She said her farewells, and left.

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount
In the sourcebook, set around, the mid-level adventure hook A Friend in Need involves the Cult of the Caustic Heart as they attempt to sacrifice Calianna to Tiamat, the players interrupting the ritual, and Calianna asking the player characters to help in vanquishing the cult for good.

The Mighty Nein received a package from Calianna that she had sent just after parting ways with them, and which finally caught up with them. It contained letters for Caleb and for Jester, and gifts for all the party members that Calianna had met. The gifts included:
 * A knotted bracelet for Nott
 * A wand (arcane focus) for Caleb carved from a tree that had burned down in a forest fire, alleged to therefore be extra strong and especially good at channeling fire magic.
 * A small charm of the Platinum Dragon for Mollymauk
 * A bow for Beau's bo
 * One of Calianna's dragon baby teeth for Yasha, a symbol of strength and ferocity
 * A tiny lollipop on a chain necklace and one of Calianna's green hair ribbons for Jester
 * Potpourri for Fjord to help with his cat allergy

Cirisa
Cirisa led the Cult of the Caustic Heart and worshipped Tiamat. She was motherly and kind to Calianna, encouraging the cult to treat Calianna as special. She was able to convince Calianna it was the way of the world to kill people - merchants and other innocents - in the Scaled Tyrant's name. Calianna came to realise Cirisa and the cult were evil and ran away from them.

Jester
Cali called herself naive, as she knows very little of the real world because the Cult kept her locked away. Jester insisted that she was not naive, and assured her that sheltered people can be quite intelligent. After the Bowl was destroyed, Cali and Jester promised to be pen pals. Later, Jester received a long letter and gifts for the whole party from her that were forwarded from Zadash to the Lavish Chateau in Nicodranas.

Quests
Cali traveled to the Labenda Swamp in search of a magical bowl that can be used in a ritual to contact The Scaled Tyrant. Cali wanted to destroy the bowl, or if that was not possible, hide it from the Cult of the Caustic Heart.
 * Cali found the bowl in The Gentleman's Safe House with the Mighty Nein's help. Yasha Nydoorin destroyed it using Magician's Judge.
 * The Cobalt Soul believes there is at least one other such bowl in existence.

Notable items

 * Scroll of Invisibility (gifted to Caleb c/o Nott)
 * Arcane Spellcasting Focus in the shape of a bracelet.

Half-elf abilities

 * Darkvision
 * Fey Ancestry

Sorcerer abilities

 * Font of Magic
 * Metamagic (two options)
 * Quickened Spell
 * Empowered Spell
 * Sorcerous Origin (Draconic Bloodline)
 * Dragon Ancestor
 * Draconic Resilience
 * Spellcasting (Charisma-based ability)

Spells
As a level 5 sorcerer, Calianna knows 5 cantrips and 6 spells.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 2

Quotations

 * "Can I write to you? Like, if we leave letters, can we be pen-pals, Jester?"
 * "Well, when I was raised people always complimented me, so I try to do the same for everyone else!"
 * "I'm very disappointed in you, Mr. Fjord!"
 * "I promise you, Mr. Caleb, I promise you, that all I want is to right some of the wrongs that I once did as part of that group. I helped kill people, I helped torture people, I've got to make this right..."

Trivia

 * Calianna is the third player character in the main campaign to be a different sex than their player, after Shale and Nott. There has been one more since, Lieve'tel in the Search for Grog one shot.
 * In artwork, Calianna's draconic side is depicted as being on her right, but Mark Hulmes roleplayed it being on his left. Hulmes confirmed that it should be on the right, he was nervous and made the mistake of using the wrong side during the episode.
 * Mark Hulmes has levelled up a copy of Calianna's character sheet on D&D Beyond each time the Mighty Nein has levelled up on stream.
 * Mark Hulmes indicated that he thinks Calianna would "lean more towards liking girls," though she does not "know herself yet" in terms of relationships.
 * Mark Hulmes cosplayed Calianna on February 12, 2021 to celebrate 1000 subscribers to his Twitch stream.