Zeltresh Turenek's page

Molthuni Warmage
Your have been trained in the art of conducting warcraft using the arcane arts. Spellcasters are not only trained to be on the frontline lending their spells to offense and defense, they are also an integral part of the supply chain that keeps the officers and troops armed and armored.

Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to Spellcraft, and one Craft skill (armor, weapons, or bowyer/fletcher). Furthermore, as a member of the casting arm of the military, you have access to the army's store of ingredients and reagents. Exposure to the corp's well-defined crafting procedure also gives you a +1 bonus on Experimentation rolls while crafting.

Zeltresh is rather tall and broad for a gnome. Far from the stereotypical appearance for a student of the arcane he is obviously not a stranger to physical labor, and when he readies his spear in both hands it is clear that he knows how to use it. Maybe not a warrior but certainly he has had to defend himself before.

His skin is a ashen grey color, his hair a muted ginger, and together these immediately draw attention to the spellcaster's bright red eyes. Not only is their color very striking but the strength of Zeltresh's gaze makes it hard to look away: there is a determination in those eyes, but also a bit of mischief one would expect to see in a gnome. Looking closer, it is not the mischief of the fun-loving prankster. It is something far more dangerous.

Typically Zeltresh dresses in non-descript traveling clothes, favoring browns and deep reds, and more than once people have taken him for a soldier or rogue of some kind. His gear is well worn but well cared for, the simple spear used as a walking staff and daggers at his waist and in his boot. While he knows how to use the spear his magic is always his weapon of first response whether the threat is up close or at long range. His style tends to be theatric, dramatic gestures and movements accompanying each spell or ability.
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Ht: 3'9"
Wt: 40 lbs
Age: 44
Hair: Faded Ginger
Eyes: Red
Skin: Ash Grey

Bullied: Zeltresh knows what it means to be the outcast due to poor treatment at the hand of others. It tends to make him root for the underdog and have little patience for those who would take advantage of others. This attitude is especially strong toward those who would physically try to intimidate others who are weaker/smaller than they are.

Confident: Despite that or because of it, the young gnome has a very strong sense of self so is not easily cowed despite his small size. This confidence is especially strong when he falls into the rhythms of the arcane: the fire in his blood has burned out some of the meek child he once was.

Obsessed: Zeltresh loves fire. There simply is not a better way to say it. He loves the crackling sound of a campfire, the heat of a strong flame, the smoky smell of burning wood. He is not shy or ashamed about his love of flame since it is so tightly tied to who he is becoming as he grows in power. Where he once kept his unique abilities secret he now revels in them in a fashion that some might call "showy".

Zeltresh still remembers the first time he realized he was different. He was barely in his twenties, and he and a few friends had gathered on the shore of the village lake. They were young gnomes just coming into their own and were taking turns using their innate abilities to speak with the flock of swans that were serenely swimming by. Zeltresh had never been able to do it. His friends were egging him on to push himself, to finally figure out how to access the magic inside him. He listened to all the advice and suggestions but nothing seemed to work. Finally he closed his eyes and concentrated and he felt……something. Something deep at his core, a power giving off a tantalizing heat that was hard to resist. Zeltresh reached out to it and felt it respond.

He opened his eyes to share his excitement only to see his friends backing away from him, fear in their eyes, the flock of swans taking to the sky. Then he felt the heat in his hand. It did not hurt but it was hard to ignore. Slowly he looked down and saw the flames dancing harmlessly across his palm. He looked back to his friends for an explanation but they were already gone. He rushed home and told his parents what had happened. They tried to tell him that it was nothing, a simple fluke, but even at such a young age Zeltresh knew they were lying to him.

The next few years were not easy for the young gnome. A race known for jokes and trickery, the adolescent gnomes were extremely creative in their cruelty. Zeltresh spent almost every moment on his guard for the next illusion, the latest shouts of ‘freak’ or ‘weirdo’, the next trap. By the time he entered his thirties he was practically an outcast in his own community, but those years of pranks had honed his reflexes to the point where he was almost never caught by surprise anymore. The years had taught him other things too: he could handle himself as well as anyone, and he had never forgotten that heat, that flame. Quite the opposite in fact.

Having no friends gave Zeltresh plenty of time to read. Determination to understand what he had experienced led him to study the arcane. When he had learned all he could from books he started spending time in his parent’s home, staring into the hearth, reaching for the power within. He soon found out that he could tap into those powers more often than other gnomes could (Naturally Gifted Trait). The most exciting part was the other things he discovered, other powers available to him well beyond the normal magics found in every gnome.

It was not long before he got very comfortable with those powers. And with that comfort came a lack of caution: after being caught with his hand engulfed in flame for what seemed like the hundredth time, his mother finally said ”There is something you must know.”

She told him about her uncle, a gnome who was a bit of an urban legend in the community as one of the earliest cases of Bleaching known. While most people believed there had been no explanation for it, Zeltresh’s mother let him in on the family secret……his innate abilities had also been different, but unlike Zeltresh her uncle had never been found out. He had spent years avoiding the power within him, and it was that effort to avoid experiences that had brought the Bleaching on when he had been barely 40. The story filled Zeltresh with dread until his mother revealed another secret to him: the uncle had left the community and found he answers he had sought in far-off Westcrown. Obviously he had never returned, but according to his mother he was probably still alive.

Gathering what meager possessions he had Zeltresh left almost immediately. He spent just about every coin he had to get passage to Cheliax then to buy information once there. The fortunate thing for him was that a fire-wielding gnome was unique enough to have attracted attention, even among the extreme gnomish community in Westcrown. Zeltresh learned that his great-uncle had come to the city and began studying with a human mage names Desmodius, a caster with a reputation for having extreme control over elemental fire. After spending several years living and working in the city both the human and the gnome had moved from the city into the growing nation of Molthune.

Zeltresh continued to follow the trail, and every day continued to explore the growing fire within himself. His studies had served him well, taught him enough to understand some of what was happening to him and harness the power to his advantage. But that was not enough for the young gnome. He needed more answers.

Those answers would not come easy however. Traveling through Molthune exhausted almost all of his coin as he paid and bribed his way from village to village. Once he tried to earn a few extra coins with his magic but found the added attention of the local recruiters to be a bit much for his taste. It was not that he did not enjoy the opportunity to blow a few things up, it simply impeded his mission. For now anyway. He followed the clues to a remote village near Garund. That was where the trail went cold: all he found was the remains of a village destroyed by lightning and fire, with the fire damage seeming to be centered on a burnt out tower on the village edge.

Not ready to admit defeat, Zeltresh scraped together the dregs of his coins to buy his way to Braganza in an attempt to pick up the trail again.