Lennon "Beetle" McCarthy

Originally created for Steve Salas and Chris Farrell's co-DM'ed campaigned, "Beetle" found his way into the Florida group in 1997. Lennon, along with his younger sister, were orphaned at a young age. Having no living relatives, they were shipped off to an orphanage together. However his sister, who was cute in a way that little girls are, was adopted after a few months while Lennon was forced to remain in the orphanage where he was physically abused by the staff. Being separated from his sister, his only living relative, and enduring the abuse left young Lennon a very introverted and mentally disturbed young man. His only friends in the orphanage were the insects and assorted bugs that made their home there as well. Almost as an obsession he began to study the insects, and even talk to them. He imagined that they could talk back to him, and would often be seen in the company of insects. He was particularly fond of beetles and was given the derrogatory nickname of "Beetle" by the other children of the orphanage.

By age sixteen he was thrown out of the orphanage because he was deemed able to support himself. He had never been educated or learned a trade while he was in the orphanage, and the real world was even more unkind to him than the orphanage was. He had learned to read, albeit self-taught and not very well, while he was in the orphanage. He stumbled across a library and there spent all of his time, reading volumes and volumes on insects. He slept in the library as well, curling up with a book on insects and hiding in a darkened stack of books.

One day as he read, an old man approached him as he looked through the stacks of books on insects. The old man began to talk to him, and the two held a lengthy conversation about bugs. The old man was impressed with Beetle's knowledge and told him that he was a scientist/mage that studied insects and asked Beetle if he would like to become his lab assistant. Beetle agreed and the two men began a short-lived partnership that ended tragically in a chemical/magical explosion that destroyed the labratory.

The old mage had died, but somehow Beetle had survived, although completely frazzled. His hands were turned a dark red as a result of the explosion and he had no feeling in any for them. He wandered around aimlessly for a few days, his hands throbbing in intense pain. He tried to cool them in ice water, but it only served to irritate them worse. Finally he purchased a pair of black leather gloves, and they seemed to soothe his hands.

A few days later he was able to once again begin to feel sensation in his hands, and he hurriedly tried to take the leather gloves off but could not. They seemed to be stuck, as if glued to his hands. Taking a pair of scissors he cut the leather and pealed it away from his skin. There seemed to be some sort of sticky glue residue that had caused the gloves to stick to his hands. He threw away the gloves and washed his hands of the sticky goo. However his hands began to suddenly throb and the residue quickly began to ooze out of his hands.

Beetle was amazed by this, and rather than panic tried to see what he could do with his new-found "powers." He found he could now climb walls while using the sticky residue to keep his grip. He could hang from ceilings and posts as well. Beetle had been convinced that he had been granted a magical power, and he set off to the library to research everything he could about it.

Wearing a new pair of leather gloves, Beetle began to extensively search through the library's archives but found nothing of his condition anywhere. Then oddly, in the religion section, he spotted a book with an emblem of a golden beetle on the front. He opened the book and immediately became fascinated with it. It was a book about a Goblin cult of the Golden Beetle. The cult had began when a Goblin tribe, starving in the middle of the winter, suddenly had a large Golden Beetle descend from the sky upon them. The Golden Beetle morphed into Goblin form and began to feed the Goblins with beetles. The Goblin, in his golden robes and wearing a golden beetle medallion around his neck, fed the goblins throughout the winter and preached three special tenants: 1) Feed your brother before youself, 2) Defend your tribe with your life, 3) Worshipping the Golden Beetle above all gods will give you long life. After the winter ended, the Goblin shaman-god ordained a mortal shaman to lead the religion, then he morphed back into a golden beetle and ascended back into the sky. The mortal shaman continued the teachings of the Golden Beetle, and among other things began to exhibit powers such as summoning beetles upon command, talking with bugs, and causing his hands to become covered with a sticky substance that could be used against enemies of the tribe.

After reading the book, Beetle became convinced that he was saved from death in the chemical explosion by the Golden Beetle. He took his hands as sign that he was now an ordained shaman of the cult, and he left the library with a renewed sense of who he was. He had a golden beetle holy symbol made and a special cape with a golden beetle emblem on the back. During the day he would preach the teachings of the Golden Beetle on street corners and feed the homeless, and at night he would don the cape and a mask to stop criminals (thus defending his tribe or city and fulfilling all three tenets of the cult).

He set about to better fulfill these three tenets by reading and researching everything he could about cooking, weapons use, and his religion. He became a cook at an inn to allow him access to food and a kitchen as well as a place to stay. The inn was frequented by members of the militia. The government was constructing a massive spell-jammer ship at the time, and was seeking a cook for the new ship. Because Beetle had gained quite a reputation as a great cook among the militia members, he was offered the post of chief cook of the new vessel. He felt honored to take the position and knew he could continue to live by the three tenets while serving as a member of the crew.

That ship, of course, was the flying vessel of Steve and Chris' co-DMed one-shot campaign. It eventually put down on the world of Galon, where Beetle disembarked to explore the new land. He soon fell in with two other oddballs, a mad cleric of Azathoth and a brooding assassin, and met a city guard in Deldar known as Captain Crank. The adventures of the 1997 Florida Group had begun...