Information

Aileia has a minion!

Ishmael the Corsair Gnomeli

Aileia
Legacy Name: Aileia

The

Aqua Mahar
Owner:

Possum

Age: 6 years, 10 months

Born: June 20th, 2017

Adopted: 6 years, 10 months ago

Adopted: June 20th, 2017

Pet Spotlight Winner
October 19th, 2017

Statistics

Level: 18
Strength: 30
Defense: 10
Speed: 10
Health: 10
HP: 10/10
Intelligence: 208
Books Read: 205
Food Eaten: 5
Job: Powder Monkey

In the deep, dark waters off the coast of Marigold, live the aquatic elves. Like the land-dwelling brethren, aquatic elves are lithe, long-lived folk. Rarely do they emerge to trade with "land-folk", and so their existence is often considered a myth. They guard their little villages well, scouting out shipwrecks for tradeable goods and weapons they can put to new use. Aileia was one such scavenger. Her duties included gathering any salvageable metal or wood, as well as any containers of food that had not been too damaged, and repairing everything. On the land, she would have been equated to a garbageman, a junker, or even a tinkerer. Under the sea, her title was simply, "Scav".

After working for several years, Aileia began to notice a pattern in the nature of the shipwrecks - nearly all bore dark black banners decorated with skulls and crossed weaponry. The bodies of the crew - the ones that were still on the ship and had not chewed on by sharks or sahuagin, anyway - bore body augmentations such as wooden legs, or cloth covering one eye, and often wore ragged clothing, aside from one individual who wore lavish silks or other material. Those ones often also wore fancy hats, or, rather, what had likely been fancy. She liked these clothes, though they weren't practical for underwater living.

Periodically, a new shipwreck would be discovered, and like the others, this ship appeared to belong to what Aileia learned were called "pirates". They're not very good at surviving underwater, she thought to herself. I could do a better job at... whatever it is they do. She took whatever she could from their shipwrecks, then swam back to the village to ponder over her spoils. In time, Aileia's arrogance convinced her that she could, indeed, be a better pirate than these men. After a few weeks of preparation, she took what she could carry with her to the surface. Dressed in the waterlogged remains of a captain's outfit, she slogged her way up to the docks, past a tavern, past the shops in the market square - and then she blacked out from all the exertion.

Aquatic elves, as it turns out, aren't really meant for above-sea-level excursions. Being without proper lungs and possessing gills, they can survive for a time out of the water, but must periodically submerge themselves once more. Through calculations, Aileia figured out that she would be able to breathe out of water for up to sixteen hours - leaving eight hours with which to recuperate from the change in atmosphere, pressure, and general lack of water passing through her gills. Post-submersion, Aileia made her second attempt to explore this new world. She avoided the odd stares from the mostly-human village, and made her way to the tavern. After ordering a plate of food, Aileia found herself staring at the man a few tables down. He was, almost certainly, a pirate. And likely a captain as well. His greasy black hair was matted, and he laughed loudly enough for her to hear him clearly. He was bragging about the ships his crew had plundered. She twirled a light blue finger in her dark blue, dread-locked hair, and smirked. The rust-flecked rapier at her side and small, portable crossbow she'd built herself needed testing out... surely a little wager could be made? Aileia signalled to the drunken captain in the way only a woman can, aided by the added bonus of being "exotic" compared to the other women-folk of this village.

The poker game went easily enough at first. She wasn't incredibly good at the game, but picked things up quickly. The captain's gold pieces glittered on the table. Aileia's slightly-rusted iron coinage did not, though she told him her money was just as good topside as beneath the waves. She was lying, but by that point, he was too drunk to notice. He never called her bluff. By the fourth or fifth hand, Aileia had developed a strategy. Shortly, his gold was disappearing into her purse, and he was getting desperate. The bets grew larger - and then, she had him. "You're a captain, no? I'd recognize those clothes anywhere. Surely you've got a ship somewhere. Maybe that nice big beauty by the docks?" The drunk pirate nodded, a grim look on his face. "Well, then. Let's make this game more interesting. I'll bet all your money, and mine... and," she pulled out her crossbow, laying it on the table, "this beauty here. Custom-made. That's dolphin sinew for the string, you know. Strong. The bolts are sahuagin bone wrapped in sharkskin. Lethal." She had no idea how strong or lethal her crossbow or its bolts were, actually, but she played it up." All you have to bet is the paperwork on your ship." Did ships come with papers? She didn't know. There were all sorts of parchment rolls onboard the wrecks, but the ink was washed away.

The captain agreed. She played him dirty with a card she'd found in a wreck only a few days before. And as he rose, surely about to flip the table over and call her out for being a dirty, lying cheat... she shot him. Turns out the bolts were fairly lethal; something she was pleased to find out. Aileia pulled the bolt from his thick neck with some effort, the bony tip and spines covered in red, warm blood. She was definitely satisfied with her craftsmanship. The barkeep was busy and nobody seemed to care about the strange blue woman who had killed a man, so she searched his pockets. His captain's coat was a rich burgundy, lined with some type of dark, coarse fur - Aileia, having dwelled beneath the sea her entire life wasn't sure what it was at the time, but would eventually find out that the fur once belonged to a river otter. It was a much nicer coat than the one she had pulled off the drowned corpse. With some difficulty, she stripped the dead pirate of his coat, and unceremoniously tossed her old one across his belly after donning his.

Aside from the coat and the papers - which did indeed mention something about a ship - the pirate had a flintlock pistol and a small sack with around 50 gold. Aileia deposited her poker winnings, minus her worthless iron coins, into the sack, and tied the strings around her sharkskin belt. She checked the pistol for obvious damage, and the corpse for powder and ammunition, and, satisfied, took the pirate's holster as well. Now armed to the teeth, Aileia made her way to the docks, where her new ship would be waiting for her.

Her newfound crew wasn't too fond of having a new captain - much less a weird, blue woman filling that role; women on ships were a bad omen, supposedly, but they shrugged it off and kept their peace when she threatened to silence dissenters the same way as their former captain. Aileia never really developed interpersonal skills - she never needed them when she was a scavenger. Fear of death was just as good as respect, in her eyes.

The crew - and ship - met an untimely end roughly two weeks later. Aileia, in her arrogance, just assumed sailing was easy and that humans were just horribly inept at anything to do with the sea. She had no sense of navigation. Her leadership skills were also lacking. In a fight against a hobgoblin vessel, her crew were easily outnumbered, and the ship was soon taking on water. Panicking, Aileia shot her crossbow at a few goblin sailors, then gathered her things, and jumped overboard. The human crew of her ill-gotten ship fared less well.

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Emerging from the waters just outside Marigold once more, Aileia ran across a rather odd little man - a gnome - who called himself Ishmael Zoidbeard. He went on for a solid five minutes about curses and ghosts and all manner of supernatural mumbo-jumbo, and Aileia found herself amused. Here was a two, maybe three-foot tall, slightly bald, chubby man in robes and plainclothes, occasionally adjusting one sleeve so as to hide that he was not, in fact missing a hand, jabbering on incessantly about how interesting he found pirates.

"Well, Ishmael. It just so happens that I am a pirate captain. I just lost my ship and men, and... well, I'm looking to amass myself a ton of gold, get myself a new crew and ship, and cause a bit of chaos. How about I make you my first mate?"

The gnome adjusted the eyepatch he wore - unnecessarily, as he had two perfectly good eyes - over to the other side of his face. "A lady pirate? Well, that's just askin' for curses, Miss, but, uh, consider it a deal. In fact, I was headin' into town meself to see about hirin' a few able bodies an' investigatin' this cave a few miles north o' here. It's chock full o' curses and all sorts o' manner o' horrible beasties, I bet. We might find us some treasure!"

"Ishmael, I like the way you think."

Captain Aileia Clariat was my second-ever character for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. She was an aquatic elf Artificer/Swashbuckler, who focused more on machines and gold than on the well-being of her crew. She had a very low Charisma score, after all. Her crew over the course of two campaigns consisted of:
Ishmael Zoidbeard, a gnome Rogue/Illusionist - a man obsessed with pirates who considered everything to be cursed in some manner.
Vhorrav, a skarn Cleric/Fighter of Strength - he eventually became the Quartermaster for the ship, and Captain in all but name and prestige only after Aileia privately owned up to her own inadequacies.
Une Clariat, the elf Monk/Sorcerer Aileia would eventually fall in love with and marry, and Vhorrav's best friend.
Hodor Nogare, a goliath Barbarian/Totemist who proved to be the least trustworthy member of the crew. He was eventually pitched overboard by the crew at the orders of Capt. Aileia in-between campaigns.
A minotaur Barbarian (Archer variant) by the name of Kozby Nash, a worshipper of a red dragon. A crack shot, Kozby proved himself quite the asset.
Brood, a half-orc Rogue/Monk and former circus strongman.
Vhorrav's hired human sellsword Leslie Arrowfoot (NPC).
A warforged Fighter/Factotum by the name of Clank, who offered his services to the crew after his previous master's demise (NPC).
A ghost Samurai named Valet, whose soul was bound to the treasure contained within the Amphitrite (who was, incidentally enough, also a butler of sorts) (NPC).
Nemo, a selkie Bard who was Vhorrav's girlfriend and the only other female crewmember onboard the Amphitrite (NPC).
A werebat Cleric named Siakiir (or, since Aileia could never remember his name, "Bruce") (NPC).
An animated padlock whom Aileia named Sir Locke (NPC).
Donkey the mule, originally bought to cart around Aileia's water barrel. Secret bad-ass. Became mascot of the crew and inspiration for their pirate flag (NPC).
Character & Story by User not found: chesid, Pet Overlay by Morse