Chops the Defender Dworg's page

: You receive a bluish glyph on the inside of your wrist. It allows you to focus your will and shield your body from harm.
It allows you to cast Shield 1/day, Shield Other 1/day and Protection from Arrows 1/day. At 7th level you add Protection from Energy 1/day or Lesser Globe of Invulnerability and on 9th level you add Globe of Invulnerability 1/day to the list of spells you can channel trough the glyph.

Thick Skull (General)
You are tough in ways that others simply do not under- stand. A blow that might kill a normal man or render him unconscious may glance off your skull or bounce from your thickly muscled hide. While it won’t keep you safe from all danger, this hardiness does protect you from many fatal attacks.
Prerequisites: Dwarf or dworg, Con 13.
Benefit: Whenever an attack would reduce you to zero or fewer hit points, you may make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage caused by the attack). If this save succeeds, you are reduced to 1 hit point by the attack, but no lower. If the save fails, however, you suffer damage as normal. You may not use this ability if you are currently at 1 hit point or less.

Retribution - (prereq Power Attack) For each 5 hp of damage (round down) inflicted on you by a specific foe in a single round, you gain a +1 on your next attack roll if it is against that foe that takes place in the following round.
For example, if a Wizard does 13 hp of damage to you with Magic Missile, you receive a +2 to attack that Wizard if it is the next attack roll you make and it occurs before the end of your turn.

Travelers outfit, Backpack, Bedroll, Waterskin, trail rations (7 days) whetstone, sack, chalk x3, 1/5 lb of soap, 2 Urutuk hatchet's (masterwork)(one has the covenant bone handle), light hammer (masterwork), dagger (masterwork), Padded armor

Chops stands a couple inches shy of six feet, and has a thick, muscular build that betrays his mix of orc and dwarf parentage. When fully clothed and wearing his padded armor, he appears to be slightly overweight. His skin is a dark, stone colored gray but will gain a deep, rusty tint when he has been in the sun. His eyes appear to be black, but in the right light they are a very dark blue; thanks to his dwarven mother. Like orcs, he has a long, thick black mane of hair, but he keeps it bound up in braids or pony tails like his Kurgun brethren. Also, like his brothers, Chops displays a series of tattoos over his hands, around his eyes, and running from his neck over his left shoulder. Since his skin is dark colored, his tattoos aren't especially obvious. The colors are patterns of black and white, with some red highlights here or there. The white ink shows up as lighter gray because of his dark gray skin coloration. On the right side of his neck is a scar that looks to be as a result of a burn. He continues to add to them every chance he gets. If seen without his shirt on, scars from a scourge can be seen dominating the landscape of his back.

Although Chops birth circumstances and life events are tragic, he retains an upbeat disposition. He can usually see the positives in difficult situations, and doesn't let seemingly insurmountable problems overwhelm him. He sometimes broods over the recent loss of his love, but takes it in a kind of cold stride. Losing those he loves has become almost expected in his world. He feels that for what he has been through so far, he is lucky to still be alive and whole despite the odds. He may even crack a joke during a stressful time, just to lighten the mood.

In combat, Chops personality takes a complete one-eighty. He is a vicious combatant, having learned long ago that you have to act quickly and decisively when confronted by an enemy. When in a situation where the best course of action is not clear, he will act in a way that will take an opponent by surprise.

Chops is the typical result of an orc raid on a Kurgan village. He is very lucky that his mother was strong willed and caring. Although it cost her her chance at gaining a husband, she raised her son as if he were a full-blooded dwarf and made no apologies about her boy. At a young age, one of his uncles nicknamed him Chops after his big fangs, and the name stuck. Because of his "condition", Chops usually found himself around the less polite dwarves as he grew up, was a participant in a lot of fights, and got himself into heaps of trouble.

His uncle, Vragnuk, was a widower who had lost his own child to orcs. He was also a decorated veteran of many battles, and knew the importance of skill at arms. He took to Chops as his own son, and taught him all he knew about the Kurgan art of fighting with an Urutuk in each hand. Chops and Vragnuk practiced daily with the hatchets until Chops was as near an expert as a novice warrior could get with the unique axes.

For the most part, other than his mother and her brother, no one saw much potential in Chops; being what he was and who he spent his time with. Although he could have been great at it, and tried to many times, no one would trust him enough to allow him to join the militias, get jobs as bouncers, or to hire on as caravan guards. Despite Kurgan dwarves being more open minded about "his kind" than others, ancient prejudices still affected the young dwarve's station, and he is from one of the more remote areas of the Kaladruns. He worked most of the time as a day laborer, who occasionally went to the city to participate in pit fights in order to make a little extra money. That extra money was spent on tattoos, booze, and women.

Over the years, due to orc raids, he would lose a friend here or family member there to the battles. When his uncle was killed, Chops inherited his battered Urutuk hatchet. Actually, after witnessing his uncle being felled by an orc, he snatched the hatchet out of his uncle's hands and commenced to brutalizing the orc invaders. After that particular battle, he found his mother dead, so with no more family left, he grabbed all he could carry from his mothers den, hid the hatchet in a backpack, and hit the road.

During this period, Chops became more brooding than his usual friendly demeanor. He had travelled out of the Kaladruns and into Northern Erenland. He fell in with a crime family and worked as an enforcer; collecting goods and favors for protection, and busted the heads of rivals and those that wouldn't pay. As an enforcer, he often was required to disable foes. He became skilled at dislocating knee-caps with a kick, or jabbing a leg or hip in a way where his opponent was stunned to the point where they couldn't get away quickly.

He spent most of that time drunk, unable to live with himself and what he needed to do to survive. He felt the people were suffering enough under Shadow, and that people like him would be better off dead. During one of his binges, he tried to fulfill these thoughts by assassinating the head of his crime family. He was hoping that the boss's guards would kill him in return, but once the man was dead, nobody really cared. A civil war within the organization broke out between different factions of the family.

It turns out, he was working for the only actual crime family in the city. His boss had been a collaborator with Shadow agents, and was allowed to run his operations unmolested in return for slaves and information. The two factions that were warring, were doing it because one side wanted to team with defenders against the servants of Shadow, and the other wanted to continue to work with the legates to hold on to their unique position. Chops joined the defenders side, but in the end his side lost and every one of those who sided with the defenders was executed. Except for Chops. The new leader recognized that Chops was the instrument with which he was able to gain power, so instead he burned a rune in the side of Chops neck that only his gang would recognize. The brand looks like any other burn scar to most people, but to this gang it said to kill him if he stepped foot within the city walls.

Banished, Chops hit the road again.

Maybe a year or two later a small city Chops decided to rest in was assaulted by a lesser legate trying to make a name for himself; and his platoon of orcs. Chops was trying to stay hidden, and would have succeeded, but from his hidden vantage, he found himself witness to the legate himself. Although orcs and collaborators were everywhere, Chops somehow remained unobserved. All he had to do was wait it out. But as he lay waiting, a young woman was brought to the legate. She had been beaten, but she maintained a defiant will.

The legate had two orcs post guard outside the building that Chops was hiding next two, and took the woman inside. The sounds of what the legate was doing were very clear to Chops ear through the window above, and he couldn't just sit by. Chops pulled out his uncle's urutuk, and slid through the window to the room the legate and the woman were in. Although he took the legate by surprise, the villain was still too powerful for young Chops. The woman got away but Chops was captured.

For assaulting a legate, Chops was sentenced to death; but because of the wounds Chops inflicted on the legate, he was forced to suffer first. Chops was publicly drawn and beaten with a scourge for several days. He was given water, but was not fed. Several times, he he thought he spied the woman he saved in the gathered crowds.

On the day that was to be his execution, the legate made a personal appearance and a speech about the errors of fighting against Shadow. HIs rescuers made every attempt for the dramatic, included waiting until after the execution made a few practice swings with his greater vardatch, some of them nicking the destitute dworg's neck. He carries those scars as well.

After the ambush and rescue, the legate was 'napped along with Chops. The lady whom Chops saved introduced herself as one of the leaders in a band of insurgents against the shadows. She returned his uncles urutuk to him and offered Chops a chance to make the legate suffer as he had. Chops refused, though he did put a quick end to the man who had tortured him for days.

To Chops utter surprise, the woman he had rescued fell for him. Chops had never been with a woman whom he hadn't found drunk at a tavern or paid for. For him, Shayla's affection was almost more than he could handle. Never in his dreams would a beautiful human woman fall for someone as terrible as Chops, but he relished in it. He grew to love her back and stayed with her and her team of defenders.

While with the defenders, he learned their tactics and techniques. It was during this time that he developed discovered the usefulness of fighting with an urutuk in one hand, and leaving his other hand empty for unarmed strikes, grappling maneuvers, and all around mobility on the urban battlefields. They taught him to more effectively strike an enemy in a way to hinder their movements, and to punch a foe as hard as if he were hitting them with a hammer, oftentimes his punch doing more damage to the enemy than his strike with his hatchet. Although most of his defender colleagues chose to fight barehanded, Chops just couldn't give up his uncles axe. One of his favorite tactics is to grab the enemy, grappling him, then while maintain that hold, chopping at the enemy with his axe. Shayla's defenders re-dubbed Chops, because of the way he hacks at his enemies with an axe.

Eventually, the legate whom Chops murdered's immediate superior brought a larger army into the town in search for the defenders who had the audacity to challenge the agents of Shadow, even growing so bold as to kill a legate. He brought potent sorcery designed to ferrate out resistance. This sorcery was able to read minds and divine intent, effectively uprooting every defender in the city. Chops small band was decimated and scattered, and his story now begins while he is in flight. Shayla was lost to him, and he believes that she is dead. In fact, she is not, and searches for him still.

While with the defenders, Chops heard rumors of a city of dworgs called Verdant or Veerdent, he is not sure how he heard it. He doesn't know where it lies, or how to get there, but the rumor informed him that training in defender arts and history are part of the culture, and it is something he strives to find. Although he is on the run at the moment, and he is committed to fighting Shadow, he is about to begin an investigation on the whereabouts of this dworg city in hopes of visiting, and possible living there someday.

Chops often fights with his families urutuk in one hand, and his other free. He has trained hard with the defenders, so his unarmed strike as a secondary attack hits as hard as his axe (and vice versus) Sometimes he will come in with a flying kick, followed by a chop of his axe. Other times he will swing through with his urutuk, and elbow his opponent in the face while bringing the axe back to the ready. He is also not against wielding his axe in one hand, and a hammer or dagger in the other. When he was an enforcer, he started to develop the ability to slow down a foe with a sift kick or jab to a joint or sensitive spot. One of his favorite tactics is to grab ahold of the enemy and not let go. From here he will hack with his axe until the enemy stops moving.

Earned:
1pt for finding and activating stepping stone
1pt for crushing his pinky finger in a Warrior's Sacrifice
1 pt Surviving the Gauntlet
1pt Chops getting creamed, then getting up for more creaming
1pt for Durathoin's dream
1 pt for slaying the Librarian and Thorg

Spent:
1pt to learn full proficiency in Old Dwarven
1pt to hit Thorg
1pt to grapple The Librarian

Hope Cold Iron Bone-handled Masterwork Urutuk Hatchet +1 AB 1d8 dmg crit 20/x3 range 30ft 2lbs
Liberation Cold Iron Masterwork Urutuk Hatchet +1 AB 1d8 dmg crit 20/x3 range 30ft 2lbs

Masterwork, Clouded Steel uturuks for you.

+1 to attack, +10' to their base range, half the normal weight, and backed in cold iron, just in case we run into any fae. ;)

the sheath is a back-harness that sets the flat blades against the small of your back and the handles sticking out over your shoulders, or, if worn inverted, laying down flat against you flanks with the grips right around your kidneys.

There is a diamond-tipped "pen" in the sheath, so you can tally your kills on the steel haft.