Captain Rieta

Having spent most of her life at sea, Rieta is in excellent shape and has a very athletic build. Her scarlet skin is freckled from long days under the sun and her dark hair has light strands where the persistent sun-exposure has bleached it.

Standing at 5'6", Rieta is of an average height for a tiefling. Having a rather athletic build, her proportions are fairly balanced with a strong core that formed into a relatively straight waist, rather than more feminine curves.

Rieta has a narrow, weather-beaten face that is of a deeper red than the rest of her scarlet skin from decades of sun-exposure. Her nose is crooked, as if it had been broken before and she has swollen scar-tissue on both of her ears. Her prominent cheekbones and her narrow, straight lips give her a strong and commanding profile and her eyebrows sit straight and low above her golden eyes. Lines and wrinkles tell a story of a tumultuous life with many ups and downs.

The captain's nose appears to have been broken more than once, and forms a rather memorable face alongside the swollen scar-tissue on both of her ears, the straight scar that goes down from her right ear to the tip of her chin and the large, almost golden horns that are bent backwards and sit atop Rieta's head like a natural crown.

The type of scars that adorn Rieta's ears are known as cauliflower ear and are a result of repeated and severe blunt-force-trauma to the ears, usually seen in martial artists and boxers, rather than people who prefer fighting with bladed weapons.

Rieta wears clothes that strike a good balance between being practical and stylish. The white shirt and light-brown baggy trousers that make the basis of her day-to-day outfit allow for a great degree of freedom of movement, her black leather boots have grippy soles that allow her to stay on her feet on slippery and uneven surfaces, the bright red cumberbund atop her shirt compliments her skin-color and keeps the shirt from opening, even if the buttons should get torn off, and the deep blue navy-coat protects her from the elements.

The belt on top of the outfit holds the sheaths for Rieta's weapons, allowing her quick access as well as making them easy to remove, should she want to enter a place where weapons are not allowed.

Due to the backwards curve of her horns, Rieta detests any kind of head-wear and wouldn't be caught dead with a hat or similar piece of clothing, and she avoids wearing jewelry that could get snagged and cause painful injuries.

Born in Luskan to human parents, neither of which had direct ties to the infernal, Natali Starag's childhood was less than stellar. Her father left when she was just a toddler, and her mother blamed her for ruining her marriage and life.

To escape the abuse, the girl ran away at just twelve years of age and tried to fend for herself. While begging at the docks, a tiefling pirate by the name of Kairon took notice of her and offered to introduce her to his crew.

Though she didn't trust him, Natali had little choice other than to take his offer. To her surprise, the crew of the Phlox took her in like family and taught her almost everything she knows today. Kairon, who quickly became Natali's father-figure, gave her her new name, Rieta, which she goes by to this day.

Rieta ran with the Phlox's crew well into her twenties, until one day, in the Blushing Mermaid in Baldur's Gate, a wood elf barmaid by the name of Elasha Oakenlock caught her eye. Within a few days Rieta had fallen madly in love with the young woman, and almost stayed on land then and there.

She decided to stay on crew for a few more months, make some more money, and then return to give Elasha the life she always dreamed of.

When she returned, Elasha had been waiting for her and the two of them got married on deck of the Phlox.

For a few months, Rieta thought she was in paradise, before, eventually, she felt the call of the sea again. Elasha, on the other hand, wanted a quiet life further inland, and every time they discussed their plans for the future, what started as a calm discussion would quickly devolve into a shouting match.

Eventually, while Elasha was sleeping, Rieta wrote her a letter, explaining that she could not go on like that, took half of their considerable fortune and left for greener pastures.

She made her way to Immurk's Hold, where she reconnected with some old friends who were accustomed to life on the sea but without a crew for one reason or another, bought the Melsildal and took her on her maiden voyage just two tendays after leaving house and home behind.

Rieta is attracted to both men and women and doesn't base her attraction in race, either. However, she doesn't feel sexual attraction to bestial races and is somewhat weirded out by the idea of spending the night with someone of a bestial race, such as a Tabaxi, Tortle or Aarakocra.

While living on the Phlox, Rieta learned reading, writing, basic mathematics, astronomy and other skills that are valuable to commandeer a ship, but her education doesn't really go beyond that.

Rieta spent her entire youth and young adulthood on the Phlox, starting as a deck hand and working her way up to second mate eventually. Now, she is the proud owner and captain of the Melsildal.

Rieta managed to gather enough wealth to be set for life and afford to buy this ship.

Rieta's marriage ended in shambles and rather than separating from her partner in person, she only left a note behind, not able to face Elasha.

Born to two human parents, Rieta was abused physically and emotionally by her mother for "ruining her marriage and her life" and was constantly reminded that she is the reason why her father left. To this day, Rieta has a distaste for polite society, since nobody stepped in to protect her, an innocent child, from that abuse.

Captain Rieta's motivation is wanting to give a place of belonging to those that are shunned by polite society, such as tieflings, drow that have chosen a life on the surface and other outcasts. She loves the unbridled freedom that a life of piracy offers and couldn't imagine anything more beautiful and worthy of adoration than the untamed ferocity of the open ocean.

When it comes to commandeering, steering and navigating a ship, Rieta is second to none. She knows just how to manipulate the steering-wheel and the sails to safely navigate the Melsildal through rugged coastal waters littered with sharp cliffs and even the choppiest of waters, and determining her location on open waters comes natural to her. Equally, she has no trouble to stay on her feet even during the most violent storms to keep her ship and crew safe.

On the other hand, Rieta appears unstable on her feet when she steps on solid ground, and she has trouble getting her bearings in the winding streets of cities, which is why she rarely leaves her ship for more than a few hours. Also, she is not very handy with tools and as such completely useless when it comes to maintaining the structure of the ship.

Likes

• The open ocean
• Sailing
• Climbing
• Sword-fighting
• Cats
• Sleeping under the stars
• Alcohol
• Music
• Dancing
• Good (and frankly not-so-good) sailor's yarn
• Fishing
• Astronomy
• Gambling
• The smell of processed wood

Dislikes

• Cities
• Large Crowds
• Bureaucracy
• Reading
• Seagulls
• Sharks (She would never admit it, but she is deadly afraid of them)
• Restrictive Clothing
• Strong-tasting Fish
• Walking on solid ground

Rieta judges people strictly by their deeds and the opinions they voice themselves.

She is a strict, but fair leader that cares greatly for her crew, and she has a soft spot for people in genuine need, often giving generously to beggars when she steps on shore.

Rieta indulges in all manner of vices, such as gambling, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, if she can get her hands on them and when she does, she often spends her money quite carelessly.

Rieta absolutely adores cats and will spend an inhuman amount of time trying to gain the trust of any cat she comes across, having even been caught by Jharune to get off the ship to feed stray cats at the docks of various harbors they've stayed at. She even spent a large amount of her funds to have her cat, Zhemivas, awakened to give him more agency.

Life on a ship comes with sacrifices and one of them is that Rieta cannot wash up whenever she wishes to, as the sea-water would leave salty crusts on her body and frankly not get her clean and fresh water is too valuable to use it for washing up every day. As a result, the captain often smells of sweat and sea-water, but will use every opportunity to clean herself up.

Rieta views the crew of the Melsildal as her family, having spent years at sea with them, and has a good relationship to all of the crew-members.

Rieta pays little regards to most gods of the Faerûnian pantheon, but she believes strongly in and worships Umberlee, the goddess of the sea.

The captain is a charismatic and confident woman, who will approach others with a friendly, but rough demeanor. As is to be expected, she doesn't think highly of etiquette and good manners, and doesn't display them herself, valuing honesty over maintaining appearances.

Rather unsurprisingly, Rieta swears like a sailor, mixing infernal curse-words in with her common for emphasis or when she gets heated. In contrast to that, her body-language appears outright reserved, making her movements hard to read or predict. When gambling, Rieta has an excellent Pokerface that has won her many games.

Rieta has a massive awakened cat going by the name Zhemivas, loves playing card- and dice-games and makes intricate star-maps in her free time.

Years at sea have left Rieta with a raspy, deep voice that has considerable vocal fry and can carry a surprising distance when she needs it to. While she often peppers her speech with pirate slang while on her ship, she switches to a more neutral maritime common dialect when on shore in a city that isn't friendly to pirates. No matter where she is, however, she maintains a colorful arsenal of insults and swear-words.

Being the captain of a pirate ship, Rieta has quite a bit of money to her name, as well as owning the Melsildal.