ALDO THE STORM SMITH
ALDO SELANIN◼ 38 ◼ MALE ◼ THE BARON'S FOLLY
"The sea tempered me like a fine blade."
Aldo stands at almost six feet with a medium frame. Years on the ocean have shaped him to be muscled but still lithe and agile enough to climb the riggings. He carries a scar starting below his left eye and running down to his collarbone. His dark hair and beard are now graying in places. The light gray of his eyes contrasts with his dark hair. He is usually seen in simple travel garb and at times his long coat made to keep the weather off on the deck of a ship. Along with that, he has kept to the style of longer boots up to his mid-calf but has changed to thinner boots better made for travelling on foot.
Aldo was born in Ferros to a blacksmith and his wife. His father tended to the actual smithing while his mother tended the storefront. The moment he could lift a hammer he was an apprentice to his father, and before that he helped his mother run the storefront. They were successful in keeping the shop afloat, but his father never rose to any grand renown for his work in a city like Ferros. He was enver bitter about it though and continued his work to provide for Aldo and his mother. When his brother was born things became strained with the meager income the shop was supplying. The family had some hard years, but when Aldo saw his brother took more to smithing than he had and seemed to have a fire in him to stay put in Ferros, he decided to leave. He was around the age of fifteen when he left Ferros and made for the shore.
He took what he learned from his father with him and joined the first crew hiring people on. That was how he came to be a harpoon runner on The Dawn Chaser. He spent years running harpoons to and fro to the different mounted ballista stations on the top deck as the crew hunted big game out in the ocean. His skill at smithing was discovered though, and he pulled double shifts running harpoons when they spotted a catch and repairing them when there wasn’t a catch. His extra income at the time was a lucky break, and he began sending more money back home to help as much as he could. The other sailors began to see him as a good luck charm of sorts; the harpoons he repaired seemed to hit their mark better than others and last longer. It was by no means a ship built for war, but that didn’t stop the corsairs from attacking The Dawn Chaser one night when Aldo was about eighteen.
He had been down below decks fixing the metal, barbed heads of the harpoons when the shout went out. They had been ambushed, two smaller and faster ships had come from around jagged rocky spires and shot roped harpoons into the hull. Aldo ran to the deck with an armload of harpoons to find they had been boarded already. Someone had lunged at him before he registered what was happening and cut him across the face. He dropped the harpoons and shrank away, ducking another blow. He scooped one of the fallen harpoons up from the deck and turned on his assailant. He fought fiercely alongside his crewmates, a sight to behold fighting with a massive harpoon. The Dawn Chaser was victorious but at a loss. From then on, Aldo decided to train with the harpoon as an unorthodox weapon. He smithed his own, using the saltwater of the sea to quench and temper the steel head like he had before. It proved to be a strong and long-lasting weapon that never seemed to dull or break like the harpoons he repaired for the ballistas. This was where his reputation began to take off. He earned himself the name Storm Smith and began making and repairing weapons for the crewmembers, no longer running harpoons back and forth. He spent another ten years as the smith for the Dawn Chaser. During that time he studied under the ship’s navigator as well and picked up on the skill.
At the age of thirty he left The Dawn Chaser behind and had saved up enough to get his own ship. In a moment of dark comedy from his home he named his ship The Baron’s Folly. At first he followed the same path and styled his ship and crew as big game hunters. It worked for a couple of years, but was not nearly as lucrative as it could have been. That was when the Folly started bidding for contracts to transport goods. Doing the off time when they didn’t have contracts they would still hunt big game. Aldo didn’t know at the time that when his crew set off for a hunt would be the last one they went on. They had all returned from shore leave and decided to go hunting rather than getting another contract. Everything went well leading up to and during the hunt. It was during the return trip with the catch strapped to the side of the hull that everything went to hell. Several of his crew came down sick, but the surgeon thought nothing of it at the time until they all turned to horrific statues, and this sickness spread, quickly infecting the rest of the crew and turning them to statues as well. Aldo was somehow spared and managed to steer the ship to a hidden cove and hid his ship with his crew frozen in their last moments of life and left it behind.
▼ C H A R A C T E R G O A L S:
Aldo is driven by the loss of his crew and is determined to find a cure to avenge their deaths.
//SKILLS AND ABILITIES:◼ Smithing |
◼ Navigation |
◼ Charismatic Leadership |
◼ Spear (Harpoon) fighting |
◼ Limited archery |
//FEARS AND WEAKNESSES:◼ Stubborn |
◼ Accustomed to being in charge |
◼ Haunted by the deaths of his crew |
//PARAPHERNALIA◼ A harpoon that stands taller than him |
◼ A compact crossbow with belt quiver |
◼ Leather armor |
◼ A bracelet made from rope and wood of The Baron’s Folly |
◼ Maps and charts from The Baron’s Folly |
◼ Navigation tools |
◼ Remaining funds from The Baron’s Folly |
