Kingsley Tealeaf

Kingsley Tealeaf is a tiefling inhabiting the same body that was previously inhabited by Mollymauk Tealeaf and originally by Lucien Tavelle. He was resurrected into the body after Lucien's death in when the Mighty Nein attempted to resurrect Mollymauk. He chose the name "Kingsley" for himself and kept Mollymauk's surname, and he joined the crew of the Nein Heroez under Fjord's captaincy.

He is played by Taliesin Jaffe.

Description
Kingsley has the same body as Molly and Lucien, and thus presumably the same overall appearance. He is a lavender tiefling with red eyes and curled horns. Multiple tattoos adorn his body, starting with a serpent tattoo that curls all along the length of his right hand and up his arm, then winds into a floral piece on his shoulder, and then into a peacock with tail feathers that run up the side of his face. Between his shoulder blades rising towards the hairline, he has tattoos of an eye within a pyramid, illuminated by another eye above it. Flanking and connecting through it like a mantle, he has a moon and sun tattoo on the back as well.

However, Kingsley does not have the red eye tattoos that Mollymauk and Lucien had.

Personality
Kingsley was eager to find out more about the world and about himself. He seemed to think highly of himself, choosing the name Kingsley because he felt like a king.

Lucien and Mollymauk
The body that Kingsley inhabits was originally inhabited by Lucien, who was born in Shadycreek Run in the Greying Wildlands of Wildemount in 810 PD. Lucien was killed in 833 PD, two years before Campaign 2, when Vess DeRogna shattered his soul during a magic ritual. A fragment of Lucien's soul then took over the body, becoming the distinct person Mollymauk Tealeaf. Mollymauk began traveling with the Mighty Nein in 835 PD until he was killed in. Cree Deeproots, a long-time friend of Lucien's, then successfully resurrected Lucien back into the body in 836 PD, about fifty days before. Lucien was ultimately killed again by the Mighty Nein in the Cognouza Ward of Aeor in the Astral Sea.

Caleb Widogast cast Raise Dead on Lucien's body in an attempt to resurrect Mollymauk. The ritual initially failed, but a second attempt (represented by a re-roll of the resurrection check) granted by a successful Divine Intervention from Caduceus Clay succeeded. Caduceus implored Melora, "Whoever it was, just put it back."

Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein
Upon coming to life, the then-unnamed tiefling seemed confused and child-like. He repeated the word "Empty", similar to how Mollymauk told the Nein he did upon waking up in the body. After a few minutes, he seemed to recognize the Mighty Nein, naming them by the tarot cards on which Mollymauk depicted them. He was willing to return with them to Exandria in the Material Plane, and they all went to the Blooming Grove.

The tiefling spent the rest of the day wandering around the Grove. After Jester Lavorre cast Greater Restoration on him the next day, he regained full control of his body and mind. He, however, did not have any memories, similar to how Mollymauk described himself upon waking up in the body. The tiefling mentioned remembering a woman wearing a red coat and felt that Yasha Nydoorin was familiar to him. After the Nein described Mollymauk to him, he declared that it wasn't him and that Mollymauk seemed weird. He did not enjoy the name "Mollymauk" nor Mollymauk's flashy embroidered coat. With the Nein's help, he chose the name "Kingsley". He further decided to consider himself a brother to Mollymauk and took the same surname. The Nein encouraged him to find his own path, and they invited him to stay with them for at least a week before deciding what he wanted to do. He was absent when Trent Ikithon, Eadwulf Grieve, and Astrid Becke attacked the Grove, though he was aware and upset that an attack had happened.

Kingsley went with the Nein to Nicodranas about a week later. There, he expressed great interest in traveling and discovering more about himself and the world. He learned that Fjord had a ship, and he requested permission to join the crew. After a short and joking interview, Fjord accepted Kingsley as a member of the Nein Heroez's crew and sent him to meet with Orly Skiffback while Fjord completed other errands. Before he left, Beauregard Lionett gave him the journal in which she recorded the Nein's time with Mollymauk.

After Campaign 2
Kingsley continued sailing on the Nein Heroez and spent years learning a great deal from Fjord. He was haunted by dreams recalling his confinement and escape from Lucien included memories of strange black chains invisibly woven through Cognouza breaking, the sound of them shattering between worlds, and "the angry, unknowable, primal, ancient cry that [he] could never forget." This represented a now-broken connection between Cognouza and Tharizdun.

After years of sailing on the Nein Heroez, he finally read Beauregard's journal, then went to visit the others in the Nein to learn about Mollymauk. At some point this, the Nein Heroez was attacked by a pirate ship. The pirate crew was quickly dispatched, leaving Captain Fjord with two ships. Kingsley requested command of the second, which Fjord granted to him, and he renamed it the Mollymauk.

One month later, Kingsley and the Mollymauk vanished in the middle of the night to sail to Darktow Isle and become a pirate of the Revelry. He left Fjord a letter expressing his gratitude for all that Fjord had done for and taught him and promising to "gladly and always be [Fjord's] humble servant" but refusing to ever return the ship. Kingsley hoped that piracy would quiet the chains in his dreams. He aimed to be "a pirate, but not the worst".

Notable items

 * Black coat, created by Jester using Marvelous Pigments
 * Flask of Perpetual Booze
 * Folding boat
 * Inescapable Lash
 * Beauregard's diary, documenting the Nein's time with Mollymauk
 * A sword with a black blade without a hilt to intentionally cause bleeding upon the draw.

Blood hunter abilities
As a at least 10th-level Blood Hunter, Kingsley knows at least three curses and two crimson rites with d6 Hemocraft Die. Each time Kingsley learns a new blood curse, he can also choose one of the blood curses he knows and replace it with another blood curse.


 * Hunter's Bane
 * Blood Maledict (≥2 uses/rest)
 * Fighting Style
 * Crimson Rite (1d6)
 * Primal Rite: Rite of the Flame
 * Blood Hunter Order
 * Extra Attack
 * Brand of Castigation
 * Grim Psychometry
 * Dark Augmentation

Rogue abilities

 * Expertise: Acrobatics, Perception
 * Sneak Attack (≥2d6)
 * Thieves Cant
 * Cunning action
 * Roguish Archetype: Swashbuckler abilities
 * Fancy Footwork (after a melee attack, no Attacks of Opportunity from that creature)
 * Rakish Audacity (Add CHA modifier to initiative, can sneak attack when you and another creature are adjacent and you're not surrounded)

Behind the scenes
While talking about developing Molly in, Taliesin discussed the concept of mermaids (in many tales, creatures without souls) and of the blank slate (tabula rasa). He said that the foundation of Molly's personality was "gather the rosebuds" and to make the most of life while one had it. He always intended for the character to come back as a fresh start and "very specifically kind of just take the very base notes of where he had been before". That being the basis of the character meant that it "would have been wrong" to bring him back. Bringing the character back as Kingsley was about that core idea and not related to helping others accept Molly's death and move on in their grief.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein

Quotations

 * "Clearly, whoever came first made some very bad decisions. Best to leave them in the past."
 * (about his relationship to Mollymauk) "I'm like a brother, I'll call that a brother. Everyone should have a brother."
 * Kingsley: "So, quick confession. For most of my life, I've wanted to be a pirate." Fjord: "Most of your life—?" Kingsley: "Since I heard you had a ship."
 * "I'm looking forward to the future, and I hope I deserve to woken up surrounded by such people."