Zehira Deryan

**Zehira Deryan** is a human woman who was born to wealthy merchants in the city of Alaghôn. Zehira has a reckless taste for adventure and because of it, often goes against her parents' wishes. With the growing tensions between Turmish and Thay, Zehira felt she could be of more help on the high seas and made her way to Ayakar. There, she joined up with Turmishan privateers aboard a caravel named Umberlee's Resolve. Her vanishing caused great concern for her parents who hired various adventurers of local renown to retrieve her from the Pirate Isles.

Zehira is an NPC in the one-shot *Breaking Umberlee's Resolve* and may appear in future adventures following this story.

## Description

Zehira stands at 5'7" (170.18 cm) and weights approximately 110 lbs (49.9 kg). She has tan skin and dark hair that falls to her waist. She often tries to keep her hair back with pins or cloths. Around her neck, she wears a necklace with a coin that depicts an albatross, the Deryan family emblem. After her captivity aboard Hawk's Isle, she came to possess a barnacle encrusted club that she uses as her primary weapon.

## Personality

Zehira is a proud Turmishan woman. She wishes to help in the coming battle against Thay in any way she can. Beyond that, she is spirited, reckless, and adventurous. The city of Alaghôn didn't hold enough wonders to keep her attention when the wide open seas awaited. She is also rather resourceful in stressful situations. When Umberlee's Resolve was boarded by pirates, Zehira used her status as a merchant to convince the pirates to spare her and ransom her back. Then, when the ship washed up on Hawk's Isle, she worked with Malady to survive where as the pirate crew was picked off and toyed with by the morkoth, Axar Xryl.

## History

Zehira was born to wealthy Turmish Merchants in Alaghôn. Growing up, she spent most of her time within the shipyard. The little girl was obsessed with the horizon, sea life, and boating. She began journaling her hopes to one day sail as well as sketching the coastal life she saw within the docks. Growing up in the capital of Turmish also made her fiercely proud of her people. From a young age, she wanted nothing more than to represent and help the people of Turmish however she could.

When Zehira turned 18, she resolved to see more of the world away from her parents. Her parents bought her a house in Ayakar and sent the family servant and longtime friend Mezhar with her. Taking advantage of less people knowing who she was and Mezhar's business, Zehira began to ingratiate herself with Turmishan privateers. Eventually, she chose to join them aboard Umberlee's Resolve and set out to make life difficult for Thay and pirates aligned with Thay. Mezhar assumed she ran off with pirates and reported it to the Deryans who hired a rescue crew.

Zehira's newfound freedom was short-lived. Pirates aligned with the Thay fought against the crew of Umberlee's Resolve and won due to the help of a Thayan woman on board dressed in red robes. Many of her fellow privateers died, but Zehira convinced the pirates she was worth more alive as her parents would pay handsomely for her safety. After taking her prisoner and taking over the boat, the pirates carried on. While captive, Zehira overheard the pirates talking about the elven city of Myth Nantar, the Thayan effort to find it, and a person named the Librarian who could be found there.

The now Thayan controlled ship found themselves in Umberlee's bad graces during a particularly nasty storm where the ship was run aground into Hawk's Isle. In the chaos, Zehira escaped and met a tiefling named Malady who did her best to keep her safe from her captors and the strange creature Malady says likes to take them apart and remake them. Her crew, without the locals protections quickly succumbed to the morkoth, Axar Xryl. Even Zehira was eventually found and Axar's psychic powers were able to charm her into coming into his lair.

Thankfully, before Axar's experiments could begin, he was murdered and she was rescued by the adventurers hand-chosen by Mezhar. Among Axar's possessions, Zehira grabbed a strange barnacle encrusted club that seemed right to her. Her and her saviors returned back to Ayakar as she explained that she ran off with privateers to help the Turmishan effort against the Thayan and agreed that she should've told her parents first.

Once she and her rescuers return to Ayakar, she ensures Mezhar pays them whatever was promised. Meanwhile, she personally pays for each of them to stay at the inn, the Salty Siren. She has further plans that she could use the group's help for but first needs to smooth things over with her parents. After handling things back in Alaghôn, Zehira returns and purchases the Moon Crab from Captain Lazlo Sharktooth. Due to the bad omens that happened during the name, the ship's affinity for her newfound friend, and a sum large enough to buy a better boat- he was all too happy to oblige. Zehira now finds herself Privateer Captain of the Moon Crab and seeks the party's help on gathering intelligence on Myth Nantar, the Librarian, and Thay's plans for it.