Priestess Perle Wynn

[Xorena]

First Name: Perle
Last name: Wynn

Appearance:
Race: Human
Age: 22
Height 5-foot-8 (172 cm)
Weight: 135 lbs (62 kg)
Eyes: Sea green
Hair: Red with a hint of blonde. It falls in loose red curls a foot below her shoulders.
Skin color and description: Perle has a slight tan, but her skin is otherwise a healthy pink. Her cheeks are slightly freckled.

Personality Profile:
General Health: Lean and muscular from years of swimming in the sea
Deity: Umberlee
Initial alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Profession: Priestess of Umberlee
Base Class & Proposed Development: Hierophant possibly? Work in progress
Habits/Hobbies: Perle is a priestess of Umberlee, who will bless the ship and her sailors, and communicate with her goddess to bring fair winds and favorable currents. Perle can pull her weight outside of the priesthood. She is not at all afraid of heights and has great skill with embroidery and repairing sails. On previous ships, she was a valued crew member for trimming tangled sails in the middle of raging storms with enthusiasm. Perle stays on deck during storms because she enjoys feeling Umberlee’s presence.
Languages: Chondathan, Aquan, Celestial
Weapon of choice: Trident (Spear)

Background: (see narrative below)
Goals: Perle wants to be Umberlee’s wrath above the waves. She will do anything to further the purpose of her goddess. For now she is interested in acquiring any artifacts that might be of interest to Umberlee.
Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts: (see spoilers list below)

A Daughter of Umberlee is born

Perle had a good feeling as she gazed upon the bay just before sunrise.

Life as a salvage diver was never dull — especially after a week of prolonged storms. Her father and two brothers readied their single-masted ship for sail.

She couldn’t remember anything but life on the sea and her swimming in it. Now on the cusp of womanhood at age 13, Perle had the long, lanky legs of a teenager with womanly curves beginning to round out her angular features.

They set sail from Dragonisle as the sun cleared the horizon, bound for shoals known to draw ships in during storms.

In the early afternoon, they settled into a promising find: a smuggler’s craft had broken apart on a shallow sea mount, its mast poking above the surface. Even before she entered the water, Perle saw a brandy distillery’s mark on several crates on the shallow sea floor.

In she dove and they hauled crate after crate of the brandy aboard. She could hold her breath for minutes at a time, and would pop up for air and dive back down again using a diving line to guide her ascent and descent.

On one ascent, she saw another ship gliding next to her own.
“Hide!” Her father shouted when she surfaced.

Perle took a few quick breaths and dove deep, then steadied herself on the diving line and moved as little as she could to conserve her breath.

Minutes passed and she could take it no longer. Perle drove for the surface with a powerful kick. It was so close, but the urge to breathe was irresistible. Perle’s vision closed in on her. She gasped, and the brine of the Sea of Fallen Stars poured in.

---

The two-masted brig bucked through towering waves and shrieking winds.

Perle remained below, leading the ship’s crew in a prayer to her dark goddess. It had been three years since she was captured and already she showed promise in her training as a Priestess of Umberlee. She lacked the intimidation and cruelty some of the other acolytes possessed, but Priest Vozim Ven said that didn’t matter. The day she was brought aboard, Perle revived from her drowning without assistance. Few in the priesthood had been so touched by the Bitch Queen, Vozim said: “She has a purpose for you, girl. You have a fire inside you.”

Most of the crew kept their distance from Perle. The more superstitious viewed her in varying levels of wonderment and fear — except the First Mate. Kevros the Serpent couldn’t keep his eyes off Perle.

Her tanned physique had filled out in the years since she came aboard The Albatross, and the sun’s rays only enhanced her striking crown of long, red curls.

Kevros had taken to calling her “Strawberry” — a nickname she despised. Perle avoided him whenever she could, often volunteering for watch duty when she knew he would be asleep.

Perle’s natural athleticism allowed her to move throughout the ship with ease and she became a valued member of the crew for her ability to repair ripped sails. She relished scaling the rigging to the crow’s nest, which offered moments of solitude that Perle treasured.

---

From the crow’s nest, Perle gazed east just after fourth bell. Already the clouds glowed a dark pink and only became brighter as twilight gave way to morning.

One of the crew shouted up to her: “You’ll be going ashore with a provisioning party.”

Perle could guess who would be with them.

“Hello, Strawberry,” Kevros drawled as she climbed into the boat. Perle glowered and pushed past him and pretended not to hear. She sat to the front of the small craft and took an oar.

Seven other men grabbed oars as well. Soon they were on the shore of a lush island with a flat, sandy beach. Water from the island’s spring had a sweet, refreshing taste.

The men worked to haul barrels to the spring, not far uphill. Perle scouted about for easily recognizable edible plants and placed them in an expandable mesh bag. She rounded a corner when she heard something behind her.

“What’s a strawberry doing way out here by herself?” he leered.

Perle felt a bolt of panic and tried to push past him, “I’m not in the mood, Kevros.”

“Oh, but I am,” Kevros said. He grabbed her wrist and pushed her against a tree.

Perle’s sea-green eyes flashed in anger, and she snarled and tried to twist out of his grasp. Kevros reared back and sent a resounding slap across Perle’s mouth.

---

The men grew anxious as the boat filled. Nobody had seen Perle since she left that morning. Kevros seemed particularly unconcerned.

“Fine,” Kevros said as he turned a small hourglass, “You, go look for her. But if you’re late, you’ll have to swim back.”

The man eyed the horizon, nodded and jogged up a sandy path where he thought he saw her last. It didn’t take long before he found Perle. She sat next to a tide pool, trying to plaster seaweed on a ragged gash on her back.

“Perle?” Sterling hesitated. “Are you…”

She stood and turned to face him, a fierce scowl on her tear-streaked face. “I’m fine,” she said curtly. “Take me back to the ship.”

“Not before we fix you up a little,” he said, and reached out to smooth her hair. He wiped the blood from her cut lip, and wrapped her in his coat to cover her shredded blouse.

He led Perle back to the boat, her back straight and with a smile on her face that belied her inner turmoil. “I will kill that man,” she whispered through gritted teeth once she spotted Kevros.

Perle’s behavior grew erratic and she took risks she never would have before. Sometimes she rode the bowsprit during rough weather, and when the storms howled she climbed the rigging and prayed to Umberlee for revenge. It was a fearsome sight for anyone who heard even fragments of her rantings and prayers.

Months passed, and Kevros continued to torment her if he found her alone. He seemed to relish her hatred of him, often switching her watch schedule so he could harass her — and worse.

Then one day the crew had to provision on the island again, and Perle volunteered for the duty. She was out foraging for easily recognizable foods when she heard a familiar drawl behind her.

“Hello, Strawberry,” Kevros said. “Come to visit the site of our first date?”

Perle turned and smiled. Sterling slipped out of the shadows with a club. Kevros never saw it coming.

---

Perle pounded the last of four long marlinspikes into the damp sand and tied a thick cord around Kevros’ wrist, his body prostrate before her on the wide, sandy beach at low tide. Soon, the waves would lap at his feet, his knees, his shoulders.

She knelt next to Kevros and scooped handfuls of sand into a mesh bag. Hefting it to her shoulder, she walked toward the waiting boat.

As he struggled, the ties bit deep into his wrists and ankles. “You’ll pay for this, Bitch!” Kevros shouted at her retreating figure.

Soon Umberlee would take him – and Perle delighted at the thought.

Spoilers:
• Perle never actually sees Kevros die (I like to imagine he fled to the Sword Coast to escape the crazy priestess and started his own pirate crew, but IC Perle believes him dead).
• When she sends letters to others, she includes a small pinch of that sand as a good luck charm, in hopes of securing the outcome she wants. She also uses the sand in important ceremonies.

[Xorena]

// DMs have already reviewed and rewarded, via PM to the team. Thanks!

[Xorena]

// Consolidating Perle's actions in a journal thread here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=59592