Deanna Leimert

Deanna Leimert is a gnome cleric from Uthodurn. She is played by Aabria Iyengar.

Description


Deanna is a middle-aged gnome with dark brown skin and round cheeks. Aabria described her figure alternately as "like a Pixar mom" and as having a "dump truck ass." She wears golden heavy plate armor with a symbol of the Dawnfather around her waist, and a pale pink knitted shawl around her shoulders. Her boots are described as looking like Ugg boots.

Personality
Deanna is friendly and prefers to keep things cheerful, remarking multiple times that the conversation with Bells Hells was getting very "heavy". She however does hold a grudge against Chetney, years later, for breaking up with her. She also has complicated feelings about being resurrected many years after her death.

Deanna knits as a hobby, and made Chetney's hat. Her form of worship of Pelor is providing for and helping others.

Before Campaign 3
Deanna and Chetney Pock O'Pea had a brief fling hundreds of years before 843 PD, while both were on vacation in a beach town. The relationship ended sooner than Deanna wanted. She later moved to Uthodurn, Chetney's hometown, and met her husband Dustel afterward and had children with him. During a festival in the mid-600s, she was attacked by a creature and killed. Her husband became an adventurer and, two hundred years later in 839 PD, found a cleric of Pelor to resurrect her.

Deanna earns a living by knitting and trading her self-made goods. Some time between 841 and 843 PD, she met and became close friends with the aeormaton FRIDA, bonding over their shared experiences of being brought back into the world after being dead (or in a similar state) for centuries. In mid 843 PD, Deanna went with FRIDA on an expedition to Aeor in Eiselcross. They encountered many dangers and Kryn soldiers, and decided to return before they got themselves killed.

Campaign 3: Bells Hells
On their way back from Eiselcross, FRIDA and Deanna encountered Chetney, FCG, Fearne, and Imogen in a cave in the Flotket Alps, fighting a frost salamander. They decided to travel together back towards Uthodurn, though Deanna's first action post-combat was to slap Chetney. She told the party about her past, and about how her resurrection many years after her death shaped her beliefs regarding the gods. After a day of travel, she and Chetney reconnected, and she admitted that her feelings had gone on beyond the initial fling; meanwhile, Chetney told her about his time in Uthodurn after their relationship ended. He began to tell her about his lycanthropy but she interrupted him with a hug before he could; he then immediately was overtaken with the urge to shift into his werewolf form and ran off. The rest of the Bells Hells members present told her about Chetney's condition.

After Chetney attacked FRIDA, Deanna was extremely angry, and stayed up all night until Chetney returned. By the time he came back, she had calmed down and he apologized for not telling her about his lycanthropy and running away. She asked him if he remembered the fight, and he said it was vague, more like a dream-state. She healed him up and listened as he explained that FCG also has a tendency to freak out and attack the party, and the two disagree on whether this makes them a safe group to travel with.

The party continued on into Uthodurn, arriving just past sundown. Deanna noted that many of the things they saw there were out of the ordinary and that the citizens seemed on edge. At the Vellum Steeple, Deanna demanded to speak with a manager and had a tense conversation with Scribewarden Ressia Uvesic about the strange happenings caused by this Apogee Solstice, until FCG advised everyone to calm down and try a different approach. Deanna then apologized, and asked about the safety of the people in the city, to which Ressia said they were fine, but she worried that several enchantments had broken, including magical imprisonments.

The party then heard a deep rumbling from further down in the city, and Deanna Blessed the party before hurrying off to investigate the Grand Disc. There they found that a Great Beast of Veluthil had gotten free of its petrification and was running rampant in that district of the city. The party talked their way in, and began helping citizens evacuate, with Deanna summoning a Guardian of Faith to protect them until they could ensure the beast was of no longer a threat.

They found the Great Beast, Umudara, and upon realizing that it was merely lost, confused and scared, magically communicated with it to tell it they meant no harm and were going to get it out of the city, with Deanna feeding it some of her rations. They escorted Umudara out of the city, with Deanna riding on his back and casting Aura of Life on him. They parted ways with the Great Beast on the outskirts of the city, giving him directions towards the ruined Savalirwood.

Gnome abilities

 * Darkvision
 * Gnome Cunning
 * Subrace: Forest gnome
 * Natural Illusionist: Minor Illusion cantrip
 * Speak with Small Beasts

Cleric abilities

 * Spellcasting
 * Channel Divinity (2/Rest)
 * Turn Undead, Destroy Undead (CR 1)
 * Divine Domain: Life Domain
 * Bonus Proficiency
 * Disciple of Life
 * Channel Divinity: Preserve Life (45 hit points)
 * Blessed Healer
 * Divine Strike

Behind the scenes
The idea for Deanna came from the concept of the "fridged wife" in tragic male backstories. She specifically noted the Women in Refrigerators, a website by Gail Simone that coined the phrase.

Illustrator Hannah Friederichs said that Deanna's character portrait came together quickly in a way that amazed her. Her husband attributed this to Aabria Iyengar creating "a minimum of five characters a week, so you can’t be that surprised". After some details in Chetney Pock O'Pea's hat made it technically impossible to knit, Friederichs aimed to make the shawl featured in Deanna's portrait possible to physically knit. Both the front and back of the stockinette stitch are illustrated where they would be visible. She pointed out that the front side of the stitch faces outward on both ends, which is incorrect even for a Möbius loop and requires either a seam or a second twist. She prefers to think there is a second twist, even though one is not reflected in the shape. She said if she was doing the portrait again, she would turn the stitches perpendicular for a Möbius loop, even though circular needles that large would be difficult to find.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 3: Bells Hells

Trivia

 * The animation on her stat card features vertical rays of light.