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PCs NPCs Maps Calendar Post Archive Old PBeMs: The Darkening The Game	Something Stinks! I think It's Kale. The Player Characters Storm Father Leeth FitzWheiss Specialty Priest of Tarantin General Appearance and Personality Leeth FitzWheiss has wild, windblown, prematurely balding blond hair, and a scruffy beard and moustache. He is usually attired in clean but well-worn and ill-fitting common clothing. His windburnt, weathered skin is prematurely wrinkled. He is somewhat tall and gangly. His piercing, intensely blue eyes have a tendency to squint. He is energetic to the point of having somewhat hyperactive mannerisms. Leeth gives an overall impression of untempered intuition and wisdom. Very intense, perhaps best described as "passionate," Leeth's personality makes up for his unkempt appearance. He has the sort of constant excitement and obsessiveness that might be irritating in lesser men, but is provocative in Leeth; he does not have the usual fanatic's faults of preachiness, repetitiveness, unwillingness to listen to reason, patronizing mannerisms, disconnection with reality, or egoism. If he lacks social skills, it is because they do not seem to apply to him. He is eager to promote the ways of his god, Tarantin, not just among men but in the world in general. He is extremely devoted and prays continuously (but silently) when not otherwise occupied. Leeth believes that as Tarantin's representative, he should act as the god does: infrequently, sometimes capriciously, and with devastating effectiveness. When irritated, his fuse is long but his charge is massive. He will take annoyances and insults with a smooth, calm demeanor, apparently unaffected. Just when he seems to be resigned to taking all insults passively, he will begin to crack. Leeth's a severe temper sometimes gets him into trouble, and it is for this reason he has remained an itinerant rather than joining a community or founding a congregation. He has been known to kill in the heat of a rage - and although he is not deliberately homicidal nor cold-blooded (quite the contrary!), he does not claim to feel remorse afterwards, instead declaring, "When Tarantin's winds sweep in from the seas, woe betide he who does not flee for higher ground," or "Tarantin alone knows where his lightning shall strike, and why." Most of the time, however, Leeth is rather passive, and he regards premeditated, unprovoked violence as evil. Biographical Background Leeth, second son of Wheiss the Sea-Wolf, grew up in a small nordic fishing community, tending to his family's nets while his father was away aviking. Although both Leeth and his older brother Gisli were expected to follow in their father's footsteps, Wheiss was more fond of his eldest son. He made this favoritism painfully clear, abusing Leeth with words and blows, and assigning him the meanest tasks of the household, while Gisli was given choice gifts from captured treasure and allowed to spend his time practicing at arms and sailing. Leeth grew to resent his father and even more, his brother. When Leeth was fifteen, his closest friend, Bjorg, was drowned when his fishing boat capsized during an unexpectedly fierce storm. Leeth grieved for some time, but his everpresent inner rage soon turned grief to vindictiveness. He swore to Tarantin, the God of Oceans and Storms, that should the gray sea swells take his brother Gisli as they had taken Bjorg, and make his father mourn as Leeth had mourned for Bjorg, Leeth would devote his life to Tarantin's works. The wind must have caught Leeth's words and borne them to the clouds, because four days later, Wheiss sailed back into port with one hand missing. A freak squall had sprung up, tossing the longship about on the foamy waves, and Gisli had fallen overboard, disappearing quickly beneath the freezing gray froth. That night as his father sat weeping at the table, Leeth stole from the village, never to be seen in those parts again. Leeth traveled from village to village until he finally found a mentor in the ways of the storm: an old hermit priest living in a wave-carved grotto. Leeth studied under the priest, learning the ancient traditions and rites, until the old man sent him away, declaring him "a strong enough wind to wander midst the trees without losing force." Wander he did, sometimes meeting and conversing with other priests of his sect, sometimes meditating at the oceanfront, sometimes dancing among the gusting winds of winter storms. Until he came to this place.... Skills and Abilities A childhood by the sea and a lifetime of wandering have earned Leeth great skill at seamanship, including fishing and swimming. Combining this with his training in Tarantin's ways, Leeth has developed a keen sense for upcoming weather. In his most recent travels, in which he and the group he accompanies have been pressed for time, he has learned how to ride a horse - something he could never afford ere now. Leeth was trained in the use of the trident, Tarantin's symbol, as a part of his clerical education, and is proficient with it both as an instrument of ritual sacrifice and as a combat weapon. Likewise, the javelin, reminiscent of Tarantin's lightning and hail, is not unfamiliar to Leeth. In addition, he has recently discovered also the usefulness of his old fishing net in fighting land-dwellers, as well as creatures of the sea. Tarantin has granted Leeth miraculous powers, as one of His advocates on Terra Dyne. Marvelous powers controlling air, water, and the weather are all at Leeth's command. Tarantin is known for his chaotic, indiscriminant nature as well, and thus to Leeth He instills knowledge of the entropic forces. In addition to these miracles, Leeth may call upon Tarantin to grant him certain divine abilities. Leeth is protected by Tarantin when standing or immersed in salt water or rain, and he can miraculously swim unimpeded while fully clothed. Most spectacularly, Leeth can call down Tarantin's signature lightning from the clouds, to strike wherever - or whomever - Leeth commands. Tarantin is uninterested in mortal concepts of Good and Evil, and focuses solely on the material and the elemental, ignoring the spiritual. Due to this, Leeth has no authority over undead, be they spirits or reanimated corpses. He can, however, command sentient creatures of water, air, and lightning with the authority of Tarantin; and Tarantin's name, properly wielded by a faithful one as Leeth, will strike fear into the embrous souls of fire, smoke, and magma beings. More about Tarantin, God of Oceans and Storms...