About Darin the CheerfulDarin the Cheerful
In all of Avistan if you were to ask clerics and faithful of Cayden Cailean who their least favorite compatriot was, you'd be hard pressed to find a better answer than Baldrick's adoptive son and acolyte, Darin the Cheerful. Darin's complete lack of an adventurous spirit, morose logic and practical outlook on life - as well as his well known distaste for ale of any kind - baffle the entire clergy as to how he could possibly have been raised by Baldrick and why, even worse, Cayden Cailean grants him spells. As they like to joke, if ever there was a natural born Irori monk, Darin was he. What they don't realize is that being a cleric of Cayden Cailean wasn't his first, second, or last choice in life and that he became one as the result of a drunken plea by his real father. Darin's family ran a successful farm in Andoran for generations until his father, an incautious and overly ambitious sort entirely unsuited for farming, hit on the idea of switching his entire farm's production over to barley and starting a brewery. Dedicating his endeavors to the family's patron god, Erastil, he and his wife, another firm believer in throwing caution to the wind and following your passion, borrowed heavily to build their brewery and replant their crop. Then disaster struck and a blight hit their crops. They implored Erastil for divine assistance to no avail and saw themselves working as laborers on another farm, far from the ideal life as rich brewers they'd envisioned. His father, desperate, got roaring drunk and implored the Lucky Drunk to save his crop and farm, promising him his son as a cleric if he would stave off the disaster. His plea was almost done when he remembered that the farm had been handed from father to son for almost three centuries and he quickly amended his prayer to promising his least favorite son as a cleric. Finding this kind of hedging hilarious, Cayden Cailean blessed the farm and the blight fled - and the barley crop made a very credible ale to boot. After many years, Darin was born as the third child and second son to his parents. Unlike his older siblings who were mischevious and fun-loving Darin was a serious and studious child who knew that he'd have to make himself useful around the farm and brewery to have a future. His parents considered him unnecessarily dour and doted on his older siblings because of it, unknowingly relegating the least suited child to his fate. When Darin was eight, Baldrick received a vision to retrieve and train a young man to be a cleric of Cayden Cailean. Baldrick arrived at the farm in high spirits thanks to a strong flask of dwarven mushroom sherry and to Darin's horror reminded his father of the plea from years before in exacting detail. His father, not wishing to anger the god who had helped him and risk a ruined crop or vintage, agreed to send Darin with Baldrick, telling his son he was embarking on a grand adventure and bundling him off asking his son to write to them about his many travels. Darin spent the next seven years with Baldrick traveling through Avistan on his wagon and helping him with his ministry, miserable the whole time. He wasn't suited for a life of adventure and unbeknownst to him Baldrick, who had taken a liken to the sullen young man despite himself, had tried to persuade his deity to simply let the matter drop and let the young man find a different path in life. It probably would have if they hadn't come across a Chelish slaving party that was busy herding captives into a prison wagon to take back into Cheliax. Enraged by the sight that reminded him of his own involuntary disciple-hood, Darin picked up a morning star from the wagon and charged at the slavers calling on Cayden Cailean by sheer reflex from the many prayers he'd recited with Baldrick to deliver his divine wrath on those who would impose such a monstrous fate on the innocent. In either astonishment or delight, the Drunken Hero answered the call and fueled by divine power Darin beat the slavers into submission while Baldrick freed the captives. The cheerful dwarf was terribly pleased to see his young charge channel the will of Cayden Cailean at last, and happily having discharged his duty to his god, declared Darin fit to travel into the world for a life of service to their god. Riding high on the euphoria of freeing the almost-slaves, it wasn't until later that Darin realized he'd accidentally taken up the role he'd so ardently wished to avoid and he'd become the least likely priest of Cayden Cailean in the history of the god's church. For the last eight years he's rather grudgingly followed the god's tenets as an itinerant adventuring priest, not because he likes travelling or adventure any more than he did as a boy but because no temple-inn or -tavern he could start or stay at would stand his presence for long. He's fought slavers and monsters on the Inner Sea only to discover he got dreadfully seasick, battled overbearing and cruel lords in the forests of Nirmathas before realizing he was terribly allergic to some vine in the forest and campaigned against orcish invaders in Lastwall only to come down with some camp virus that caused him to lose fifteen pounds in less than a week. Through it all he's keep up a grumbling internal dialogue with his god, unknowingly climbing the ranks of prestige of what passes for the Lucky Drunk's church not because he so closely mirrors his deity, but because his god cherishes his curmudgeonly priest's devotion to freedom and helping others even against his own proclivities. Cayden also finds Darin's complaints about the various afflictions visited upon him by campaigning and travel to be utterly hilarious; Darin's three hour rant against the blisters that resulted from his boots falling apart after being attacked by an acid flask in the hands of mad Belkzen alchemist was a particular favorite of his deity. Darin's particularly wary because a vision has sent him up to Varisia in order to pursue a grand adventure that he really wants no part of. He'll travel despite his misgiving however because in all the years since he discovered his father sold him for a good harvest he's never truly considered another life.
Nonetheless he's still willing and able to tackle challenges put in his path because he sees it as his duty as a priest of a deity he not-quite-derisively refers to as drunken madman. In addition he's a passionate defender of freedom, instinctively disliking anyone or anything trying to impose its will on others whether it's a lord pressing peasants into his army, a wildfire threatening to destroy a homestead or a dragon demanding tribute from villagers at the foot of its lair. For those who spend their time telling him to cheer up and get on with life he holds only a sarcastic disdain, for he's one of the very few people to find out he has a calling for something that he finds utterly miserable. He is however extremely loyal to those few people whom he calls friends. He still corresponds, although sporadically due to their respective travels, with his adoptive father and mentor Baldrick and the few other clerics who took pity on him as a miserable child. As a result he himself feels very protective of the downtrodden and miserable, as well as children. Despite his general distaste for ale he carries a strong flask of dwarven whisky (he says the secret is in the rocks they distill it from) with him so he can take a drink when a particularly ludicrous task is in front of him.
While not short, he is fairly stocky and as a young boy was quite chubby - working long hours of weapon practice with Baldrick caused him to lose the fat he carried but he'll never be though of as slender. In fact some have thought he resembles an extraordinarily tall, clean-shaven dwarf. Like most of the clergy of Cayden Cailean he dresses simply when he can and dislikes the idea of fancy dress. He typically wears leather trousers tucked into practical, knee-high boots and a plain shirt, although he does wear a gold-trimmed,red hooded tabard (his cloak of resistance) that is much flashier than anything else on him. When in battle he carries the same morning star he used on the long-ago day he fought the slaver band and first called on Cayden Cailean, as well as a mithral shield with the foaming tankard of his god raised front that was a gift from Baldrick when he left to travel on his own. |
