About Gundar ForgelightGundar Forgelight, Crunch:
Gundar Forgelight
Ranged +1 Giant-Bane Heavy Crossbow +9/4 (1d10/x3) --------------------
Skills (with invested ranks):
Feats
Traits Trait: Druid-Schooled (Reflavored Devotee of the Green): +1 to Know(Geo) and (Nature)
Languages
SQ Gear Mwk Breastplate, Dwarven War Axe, +1 Heavy Steel Shield, Cloak of Resistance +1, dagger, heavy crossbow, Bolt x30 trail rations, hemp rope (100 ft), shovel, leather beard ties, beard comb, forgelight clan crest ring, wooden flute, Consumables:
Spare Gold: 3006.76
Favored Enemy (Humanoid: Orc) - +4 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge,Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against creatures of this selected type. +4 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. May make Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify these creatures. Favored Enemy (Humanoid: Giant) - As above, +2 Favored Terrain(s): Mountain, Forest, Ethereal - +2 bonus on initiative checks and Knowledge (geography), Perception, Stealth, and Survival skill checks when he is in this terrain. A ranger traveling through his favored terrain normally leaves no trail and cannot be tracked (though he may leave a trail if he so chooses). Track - A ranger adds half his level (minimum 1) to Survival skill checks made to follow tracks. Wild Empathy - A ranger can improve the initial attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person (see Using Skills). The ranger rolls 1d20 and adds his ranger level and his Charisma bonus to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly. To use wild empathy, the ranger and the animal must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time. The ranger can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but he takes a –4 penalty on the check. Hunter's Bond - Owl Blinder (Owl) N Small animal
DEFENSE AC 15, touch 14, flat-footed 11 (+2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size, +1 Dodge)
OFFENSE Speed 10 ft, Fly 80 ft.
STATISTICS Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Spell Casting:
Spells Per Day:
Current Spells Memorized:
Early Life/Coming to the Surface:
The Story of Gundar Forgelight Gundar was born in Boulderfast, a small dwarven subordinate to the Sky Citadel of Kraggodan. Boulderfaster served primarily to guard the entrance to a strategic entrance to the Darklands, and Gundar's mother was a captain of the guards and his father a renowned scout of the deep tunnels. In his youth, his mother was given the great honor of commanding the Gate Guards of his hold, those brave dwarves who keep the sanctity of the surface entrances. While Gundar's mother was needed near the surface, his father's place was in the deeps – and so Gundar went with his mother, for his father was often away from the hold for many days at a time and could not care for their child alone. Aside from this split, Gundar's youth was typical for a dwarf. He learned the ways of metal, gem, and stone. He took his turns pumping bellows for the hold's smiths. He competed with his friends in braiding their youthful beards into ever more complex designs. Life was slow, steady, and normal. Until the fateful day in his twenty-seventh year when he saw the surface. The noble lord of a nearby human settlement wished to visit his neighboring dwarven hold, in hopes of establishing a greater flow of trade. Eager to increase their wealth, the elders trotted out a full honor greeting, including the family of their gate captain. Gundar's father was even brought up from the deep roads for the occasion, reuniting the family after many years apart. They, along with the elders and several other dwarves of note and renown, threw open the great gates of Boulderfast to greet the noble. Everything went splendidly – the noble was well-pleased, as were the elders. Gundar remembered little of the goings-on of that day, though. He could not stop staring at the trees. Tall, taller than any cliff of the deep he had ever seen, and spreading wide majestic branches far over his head. The leaves like translucent gems filtering the sunlight through a hundred-hued green prism. The pleasing interplay of colors, bark and branch and leaf and flower. Animals chittering and cawing in the foliage. Even the way the bones of the mountain rose up from the soil was beautiful to him. When the reception was over, he was loathe to be dragged back inside. From then on, Gundar was as a dwarf possessed. He asked his mother if he might be able to visit the surface again, knowing even then that it was a very queer thing for a young dwarf to desire. She looked at him askance and asked why. Her child only mumbled a poor excuse about “not getting much of a look the first time,” and was denied. Gundar then went about his quest in a different way. Along some of the old high tunnels were old hidden doors, a measure of safety against sieges that had never come in the history of Boulderfast. They were kept under constant guard, but by the old and weary warriors. Gundar befriend one by the name of Old Hod, and spent many evenings keeping the venerable dwarf company. Finally he managed to wheedle a favor from his friend. Old Hod opened the door to the strange world of the surface, allowing the youngster one hour to explore the immediate area. Over the next few months, an hour became two, then three, then six. Before long, Gundar was slipping outside at every possible moment. He learned the rhythms of the nearby woods, learned to identify squirrel and deer and wolf. He tried his hand at climbing trees and impersonating bird calls. Each time he would return and regale Old Hod with youthful exuberance. Hod was little help – he had traveled widely in his youth and often told tales of wildernesses great beyond even the ancient woods of Boulderfast's surroundings. Like all good things, though, this eventually came to an end. It was his own youthful foolishness that betrayed him. Gundar snuck a crossbow out on one of his excursions, wanting to try his hand at “some real surface hunting.” He turned out to be quite the deadly opponent to the local squirrels, leaving several of the quick little animals pinned to high branches where he could retrieve neither bolt nor body – and it was this trail that led the druid to him. One morning out, Gundar knelt, taking aim at a large black squirrel that had been chittering its taunts at him for days. He was just about to hit the release when there came a growl from behind him. He spun around to see a massive brown bear standing not twenty feet away, regarding him with a snarling mouth and an angry glare. For a stunned moment, Gundar looked at the huge beast in fear. And then it spoke. “Whyyyy, little dwarf? Whyyy are you killing them?” it said in Dwarven. At this, Gundar's mouth dropped open in pure shock. “You do not hunt for food, and these creatures pose you no danger. Why the slaughter?” When Gundar still did not answer, the talking beast took a step forward, a low growl echoing from its open muzzle. Frightened, Gundar raised his crossbow with a shaking hand. Before he could loose the bolt, the bear reared up. “I think... you would find that...” it said as it's limbs thinned and fur shortened. “... to be a very...” it's voice was changing now, becoming less bestial. The head shrank and became more rounded. “... poor decision.” The bear was no longer a bear – it was now a human, tall and dark of hair and eye. It... He continued speaking as if nothing strange had happened. “Answer my question, young dwarf. Why are you slaughtering defenseless animals, if you take no food? Why are you even out of your dim little tunnels?” Still too shocked to speak, Gundar did the only other thing that came to mind: he ran, back towards the little door to the mountain hold. He had not made it ten steps before the strange human was there, grasping the back of his neck with one meaty fist as strong as the bear paw it had replaced, while the other snatched the crossbow from his hands. “Some youngin' from Boulderfast, eh? Very well then.” And with that, he began to drag Gundar off, away from the secret door. Finally, Gundar found his voice. “Stop, let me go! Where are you taking me?” “Back to your people, of course.” And so Gundar was dragged back to the front gate of Boulderfast and presented to the guards there. His mother was quickly fetched, and grew livid to see that her son had been sneaking around in the sunlight like a surfacer. The uproar at the druid's arrival was great. He was a powerful man, known to Boulderfast's elders, with a longstanding agreement to help safeguard their surroundings. Gundar was hauled before the elders to explain himself, along with Old Hod once it was deduced how the young dwarf had left from the hold. There, in front of the wisest and proudest dwarves of the hold, Gundar broke down and told the truth about his love for the surface. “I love the stone, honored elders! I do! But if the stone is a gem, surely the surface is the casement that makes it lovelier? Cannot that gold and silver be appreciated for its own sake? There are trees beyond our gates sir, with bark the silver-gray of the finest steel! The sunlight shines down as if sifted through a hundred different emeralds. Oh, please don't make me leave it forever, honored elders! I will make any repentance, swear and keep any oath! I will labor in the deeps for fifty years hauling gravel if that is to be the price of my shame. Just please let me see the surface again when those fifty years are passed!” Gundar was sent out of the chamber while the elders conferred, and the druid remained with them. He waited there with Old Hod, and faced a new shame in his forlorn friend. “I was wrong to let ye go, I was. Disgraced meself and all me long years of service,” Hod moaned. “By Torag's bearded berry-bag, I'm a criminal to the hold. Into the deep roads I'll go, to shave my beard and show my shame until I'm buried beneath my foes!” Gundar did his best to console his friend, offering and then demanding to take the old one's shame upon himself as well. “I'll be a laborer for a hundred years, then,” he said. “It doesn't matter. I just want to see the trees again after it all.” They moaned their troubles for many long moments before the doors of the great chamber opened again, and the chief elder strode out with the druid. “We've made our decision, Gundar,” he said. “You won't be sent to the deep roads, oh no. If you want a life on the surface, you have it.” “Don't torment the lad, Vankuld,” chided the druid. Then he looked at Gundar with a great deal more kindness than he had shown before. “We've an offer for you, Gundar Squirrel-Hunter,” he said. “I have a friend who lives some distance away, a ranger of the mountain forests. I would send you to him to learn his ways. You'll become a ranger like him. You'll learn of the trees and the mountain beasts, and many other things besides. Do you wish it?” Before Gundar could speak, the elder broke in again. “Think on it, Gundar. You're a dwarf and a Forgelight no less – not low in honor. This... dashing about in the dirt above, thinking on acorns and whatnot, is strange. No doubt about it. But we'll need dwarves who know the surface ways if we want to keep our gates secure. I'm asking you to shoulder your life's burden, and give your oath. If you take it up, you'll never to able to say this was a passing fancy. No matter if you grow to love the above more, or learn to hate it, you'll keep your oath or bring shame to your clan. What is your word?” There was only a brief moment before Gundar answered, with all the enthusiasm a young dwarf can muster. “Aye! My word is 'aye!'” Becoming a Ranger and Moving to Trunau:
Gallas and Gundar set out the next day, bound for Skelt. When they arrived Gallas left Gundar with the ranger, a half-elf by the name of Felaan Silverleaf. Though surprised to suddenly have a dwarf – of all things – for a student, Felaan was soon pleased by Gundar's obvious love for the natural world. For several years Gundar learned from the ranger, patrolling the mountainous trade routes between Skelt and nearby settlements, keeping them safe from orcs and other dangers. Felaan began to hear troubling news of renewed orc attacks in the province of Beltzen to the north. Unable to leave his own duties in the wilderness around Skelt, the half-elf decided it was time for Gundar to strike out on his own as a ranger. He sent the dwarf north to the free town of Trunau, to aid it however he saw fit. A few months later, traveling with one of the rare trade caravans who saw fit to visit the frontier town, Gundar arrived. He took an immediate liking to the town and its inhabitants. He found in them a kinship much as he had felt with fellow dwarves in his youth, and indeed the denizens of Trunau had much in common with his own folk. They were just as stubborn and unyielding, just as determined and self-sufficient. Gundar admitted to himself that while he loved nature, the utter solitude of living constantly with only the taciturn Silverleaf for company had been wearing on him. He was happy to make Trunau his home, and for years now has served as a scout, spy, and soldier against any and all dangers. His ranger training makes him a valuable asset on long patrols, ensuring that whatever might threaten the town, at least they will not be taken entirely by surprise. In between ventures into the mountainous region around the village, Gundar boards at the Ramblehouse. With its half-built proportions it reminds him of his childhood hold of Boulderfast, which was none too roomy. Occasionally when short on coin (or tired of the ceaseless chattering of the halflings at the Ramblehouse) Gundar will room in the Longhouse instead with other soldiers and the Patrol Captain Jagrin Grath, from whom Gundar continues to learn. Has also been known to sit by the Hopespring at times, sharing silent company with the elven Druid Silvermane. Though he never speaks and is never spoken to by the elf, the druids presence reminds Gundar of Gallas-of-the-Teeth, whom the dwarf remembers fondly. And of course, Gundar enjoys sharing the company of the other dwarves in the town. |
