Zethes

Zethes is a harpy Warwing Assault Warden from the Random Item Procurement Inc campaign podcast.

History
Zethes was hatched in the nest of Lady, wife of Chief the leader of the Polar Owls, a race of giant owls that hail from the elemental plain of Air. No one is certain how his egg was misplaced there, or who his true parents are, and Zethes has no interest in discovering the truth as yet. His Polar Owl family took him in as one of their own. Though he was regarded as the ugliest Owl they had ever seen, the Parliament included him in their society without question. In return, they earned his undying loyalty. Though as he grew older he wished for more solitude than his family were used to, he would always come back for family functions and the occasional meal.

When Zethes reached late adolescence (by Polar Owl standards), he moved out of the Parliament to the cliffs that surrounded the valley in which he grew up to live as a hermit, as harpies tend to do (though he did not know it). He took it upon himself to guard the only existing pass by which travelers entered the valley, and he dispensed justice as he saw fit, sometimes eating invaders whom he saw as a threat to his Parliament. It was in one such skirmish that his sister, Ward, was injured in the leg by a stray arrow meant for Zethes when she strayed to close to her beloved older brother. Zethes took her injury personally, assuming the blame for what would amount to a permanent limp when Ward tried to walk. His desire to protect his adopted family increased into a near obsession, and he was especially overprotective of Ward.

A year before joining RIP Inc, an unknown thief slipped by under Zethes' watch and stole an enchanted treasure hoard from his family's very house. A fire was started when the eldest of the nest, Guard, discovered the burglary in process, and the thief escaped with the treasure under cover of smoke. The Chief's family was able to put the fire out with no one being hurt, and Zethes pursued the creature that had threatened the lives of his family with murderous vengeance. But it was in vain, as the thief left no trace. Once again assuming the blame for failing to stop the almost deadly robbery, in the heat of the moment, Zethes swore to hunt down the thief to the ends of the earth and retrieve the stolen treasure.