Albuma Meddelsum was a mature woman of short stature, a bit plump but somewhat muscular from her days of traveling.  She stood at an even 3 feet tall, and weighing in at a robust 36 lbs, she was simultaneously lithe and stout.   Her light brown skin was well tanned and somewhat wrinkled.  She was middle aged, but sometimes gave off the air of being much older.  She wore fancy but very fake jewels in her hair, and a well-made peasant's dress with scarves and a fur lined cloak.  She held a gnarled walking stick that doubled as a cudgel.
Her familar, Mr. Fluffenutter, a dark owl, usually rested on her shoulder or her head.
The gnomish woman was a somewhat serious and even dour person, given to cynical humor and a negative point of view.  She generally expects the worst in life, but she'll try to get what she can out of life while she can.


Though she'd had a promising career as an apprentice magician to the head mage of her small village, Albuma put her life as a conjurer on hold when she married the love of her life, a handsome gnomish man, Herban Yonderfeller, a tinker and performer of tricks and illusions, who took Albuma on the road, where he performed in various villages in gnomish and occasionally human, dwarven, and halfling territories.   On the way, two children came into the world, and Albuma thought her life was full.   But things change, and not always for the better.  As the children came of early age, they confessed how they actually disliked the life of a traveling magician and entertainer, and, as soon as they were able, left to return to Albuma's home village, to stay with elderly aunts and uncles, to live a proper gnomish life.  And Herban, it seemed, much like a proverbial and stereotypical sailor, had a 'woman in every port'.  And had so for many years.  Angry and feeling humiliated, Albuma left during a performance, taking with her the children's college fund.
Not wanting to return home, the gnomish mage picked up her studies, working through various mentors on the road, until she made it to the Tsarian Empire, and started visiting various mages and teachers.
It was there that, needing more funds, she hired onto an Adventuring party heading into Rappan Athuk, an interesting sounding place.  It was a party called "The Crimson Night".  But, like everything else, it didn't end well.