This is a character that I cannot take a lot of credit for.  Fizzle was created by Mike (gamemaster of the game that the series is based on) and the character remains very similar to his original form.  In the game, he had no private scenes and got forgotten later on, so I can take credit for giving him more stuff to do.  Still, the adorable Drite was all Mike and I still here the big lug’s voice whenever I write or read Fizzle’s parts.  A high-pitched, child-like voice with a little bit of an Elmer Fudd speech impediment.  I don’t remember if Fizzle ever got a chance to talk in his native language in the game, but it really does feel unnatural when I have him talk without the childish speech pattern.  My wife and I still occasionally say ‘make things go poof’ whenever we are talking about getting rid of something.

The original Fizzle was a creature called a Fairy Dragon, so I changed the name to Drite and switched him from butterfly wings to dragonfly wings.  His coloration and powerful magic stayed the same.  I think his breath weapon is the same, but I never read up on what the original did.  Currently, Fizzle’s breath weapon seems to have a wide variety of effects like stunning, blindness, hallucinations, sleeping, and anything else that can give him a chance to escape.  Maybe I’m going for a gas that he uses to deliver his spells, but you won’t notice it on the big ones.  Guess this is something Fizzle hasn’t told me yet.

Now, I’m not really sure what the plan for Fizzle was.  I assume Mike created him for one of the following reasons:

1.  Fill our cute animal mascot quota.

2. Show off his knowledge of the monster manual and remind us that he is the gamemaster.

3. He just loved doing that voice.

The most difficult thing was that he was extremely powerful, so we had to try to avoid depending on him.  That child-like demeanor helped because we tended to forget how strong he was.  In the book, he’s more inclined to eat apples than cast magic, so the heroes have to ask him to do things.  He really doesn’t have much initiative unless he’s protecting his friends or home.  Personally, I’m really curious to see how he evolves because he is one of the most unique creatures that I have in Windemere.

A final note about Fizzle’s speech pattern: It is really hard to write his dialogue.  My spelling and grammar checker goes berserk and I have to go over each life a few times to make sure it doesn’t sound too polished.  It has become easier since I have a babbling toddler walking around the house.  Now, I just imitate him to some extent.