Deylar Tiarsho was a successful alchemist in Westcrown despite what many called the taint of his tieflling heritage. He had made a reputation for himself in the city and found himself employed by a wealthy noble, a distant cousin to House Thrune. One day that noble announced that he was taking the household to Osirion and that the alchemist was to come with him. Deylar was excited to explore the unusual secrets that culture had to offer but his family less so. His 8 yr old son Dalmar in particular was quite distraught about moving to a strange land. So Deylar did what any parent would do: he brided the child by giving him a new pet. But since this was Westcrown, that ‘pet’ was a young halfing child from the local slave pits.
Over the next several years Rockne the Halfling was treated well enough to make any ranger or druid proud over the treatment of a pet. Many a slave in his position would grow to love the care they were given and the master giving it. But Rockne was not a pet, and over the years his status made him angry. Very angry.
As the boy Dalmar got older he wished to be trained for combat, so Rockne became his sparring partner as well. With no desire to spend coin on properly sized equipment Rockne was forced to learn how to fight with weapons crafted for men much larger than he, giving the young tiefling an advantage in their mock battles. An advantage he made sure to exploit and brag about as the defeated Halfling lie on the ground at his feet. That made Rockne mad too.
As time went by Rockne did learn, and as the weaponsmaster taught Dalmar the ways of combat Rockne heeded those lessons as well. As the boy approached manhood his ‘pet’ was more than a match for him, and Dalmar suddenly found sparring a lot less fun than it had once been. The locals who worked in the household had also introduced the Halfling to the worship of Sekhmet, goddess of vengeance. While not truly religious, Rockne did find himself beginning to imagine a day where he could pay back the people that had wronged him, starting with the boy who continued to call him ‘pet’.
After over a decade in Osirion the noble decided to return home to Westcrown so Rockne prepared to follow his owner to a home he barely remembered. The Halfling was asleep on the ship when the storm hit, but quickly awoke during the chaos. Within moments the air was filled with the sounds of splintering wood and the screams of men. Rockne felt the cold rush of water before slipping into unconsciousness.
He awoke on a thin strip of beach surrounded by debris but without another person in sight. Rockne walked a ways searching for anyone else from the ship, finding nothing other than some remnants of gear he collected in a soaked sack. He was leaning down to pick up a sword when the sunlight glinted off something nearby. There, half buried in the sand, Rockne found the small amulet Dalmar had worn every day of his life. Rockne paused a moment: there were plenty of memories in that amulet, memories of a child he had grown up with, spent the majority of his life with.
Rockne shouldered the too large sword and headed toward the tree line, leaving the amulet and his life as a slave behind him.
In his travels he learned about the anti-slavery sentiments in Brevoy so made his way there, as former-slave Chelish halflings are wont to do. On his first day in Restov his temper got him into a barfight. Not just ANY barfight: a group of four swordsmen were mocking his size and he attacked them. With such odds stacked against him Rockne had no hope of winning, but he got in quite a few good shots of his own before they left him defeated in the dirt. His refusal to back down and his display of courage and skill caught the attention of a bystander, a minor Rostland officer who saw the whole thing. While not truly a 'benefactor' the officer did put Rockne's name in front of enough of the right people to garner the Halfling an invitation from the swordlords to be part of their plans for the Stolen Lands.
