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Dolgan draws his stubby index finger from his nose and wipes a glob of snot under the writing desk of Cherlest Dragoor. His brother Mekla jabs him in the ribs for being so crude, but Dolgan's focus lies in front of him. He has been ravenously sifting through blueprints, notes, and charts scattered over the desk. A pile of such documents fall to the foot of his chair one by one as he finishes perusing them.

"Can you please knock it off? We are guests after all, and you're making a huge mess!" Mekla waves his hand in front of Dolgan's face several times to draw his attention with zero success. "I swear, I can't bring you anywhere." Mekla huffs.

Cherlest returns to the room with the strangely shaped object he went to retrieve. To Mekla's relief he pays no mind to Dolgan ferreting through his desk and gets right down to business.

- - - -
- -

This small vignette leaves much to the imagination, but you are the DM so I leave it to you to fill in the blanks. Some mini-hooks for you to use if we pick up here.

The Mulakar Family has an agricultural background. Not quite middle-class, but a large proud family that works closely with their environment to support itself and society. Their home city Hammerhall is a the center of a vast complex caverns and tunnels, natural and constructed. Their existence prior to the Quest for Sky was peaceful and productive, many of them hunted game in the caves, bred fish, and cultivated mushrooms. Their specialty was mushroom wine which they had large hidden cellars with endless kegs to bring to market.

As their society took flight and turmoil unfolded, the family refused to abandon the habitat they knew and loved so well. Dolgan's father, head of the extended family, in particular refuses to abandon their homeland. Already living on the fringe of society and experts when it came to living off the land, it was an easy transition to their new lifestyle at first.

They slink around away from the upheaval of Hammerhall, harvesting and hunting what they can. Being best able to defend himself and navigate the city safely, Dolgan is often sent to market by his family. His younger brother Mekla joins him as the face of the pair, as his personality is better suited for negotiations and confrontations.

The industrial tycoon Cherlest Dragoor has had close ties to the family for ages, as he has long been the best customer for their stocks of Mushroom wines. He often commissioned development of new brews and took a keen interest in the operations.

Dragoor oversees operation of the forges and the more advanced crafting of weapons, tools, and artillery. He produces them well enough to save face, but holds back his full knowledge of the forges and material. He fears what would happen if he were to truly empower the warlords of Hammerhall. The forgers and crafters are the only industrial workers in Hammerhall that are treated fairly and safely, because they are under Dragoor's protection. The destruction and waste created with the weapons produced by his forges lay heavy on his conscience.

Dolgan is treated like a son whenever he comes to visit Cherlest's estate in Hammerhall. They both share a naive idealism, a secret wish to abandon Hammerhall, and deep guilt for not doing more for the oppressed. Cherlest trusts Dolgan and he coaxes him to use his wealth and inside knowledge to sabotage the warlords and empower his fellow Dwarves to rise up.

I think the particulars of his family history beyond that are unnecessary. My intention of the initial plot would be that he tries an act of sabotage and the BBEG kills his family except his brother who is with him.

He is no longer tied down to his family and is free to go seek the other Dwarves in the Quest for Sky, but the guilt haunts him and he wants revenge and to free Hammerhall of at least SOME tyranny before he leaves. His party could end up being people he rescues or rallies to his cause plus his brother.

So my feeling about the immediate ecology is that there are cavern systems that equate to wilderness, an abandoned city that is dangerous and in decay with small pockets of activity, and scattered resources and industry.

Most remaining Dwarves spend their time serving under local mini-tyrants and competing with each other for food and shelter. Each clan may specialize on a particular craft or have a hold on a minor resource, but nothing of scale. There is minor trade in the (mostly)abandoned city, let's call the abandoned city Hammerhall. The market is small, unsafe, and prices are unstable. Vendors stand a good chance of having their goods stolen, taken by force, or destroyed in a skirmish.

Hammerhall was once the center of Iron mining, but the demands of the Quest for Sky has nearly exhausted most its great iron ore. As the ore became less abundant and the Quest's frontline's grew further and further away the flame of Hammerhall flickered out.

The mine is still operational, but production is dangerous, slow, and yields little fruit. A profit can only be made by way of slave labor. The mine is operated by Hammerhall's sinister slave-lord Reithen Threft.

He produces weapons and armor for lower warlords, saving the best for his own men. He keeps them in line with an elite force of brutes he has trained as enforcers. He rewards them handsomely by letting them keep most of what they raid and pillage from smaller groups.

Threft's mines are manned by his political prisoners and lower races. When his slaves die of exhaustion and hunger, his necromancers raise as many of the fallen as they can, especially if they still have all their limbs.

Pathfinder Wikia:
According to their own myths, the dwarves were forged by Torag in ancient times.[4] They lived and worked in their forges and cities in Nar-Voth, fighting against the orcs and goblinoid races and among themselves for eons.[5] Late in the Age of Darkness (ca. -5133 AR) they united under King Taargick and began to push towards the surface, in what would later come to be known as the Quest for Sky. They inadvertently herded their ancient enemies, the orcs, ahead of them, and finally emerged onto the surface around -4987 AR.[6] Once they established themselves, they built the vast and magnificent Sky Citadels. Though they have waned since, due to wars with orcs and terrors from the Darklands, most of the citadels still stand.[7]

I don't think there would be many Orcs until my character makes it to the front lines of Quest for Sky. I imagine that the layers from the surface down would be like this in descending order.

-Top-
Surface- Total mystery to Dwarves. They would surface at one of the sites of the present day Sky Citadels when they do.
Crust- Orcs tribes
Front line- Orcs and Dwarves battling slow grueling underground pseudo-trench warfare. Dwarves advance very slowly and often lose ground.
Dwarven war machine- Every Dwarf willing and able that isn't fighting on the front lines supports the war effort by manufacturing and developing weapons and siege weapons. All industry and society is in an uprooted and makeshift semi-portable form to advance with the line. In many places rather than finding an existing path, the dwarves dig large shafts skyward, sometimes surfacing in Orc strongholds. The earth removed this way is transported behind the Dwarves or into deep pockets and chasms in the nearby subterranean landscape.
Warpath- behind the Dwarven war machine is a path of destruction and death. Whatever stood in these caverns before has been completely transformed by the Quest for Sky in every imaginable way. Pits of bodies, pits of moved earth, and an alien ecology of cave dwelling creatures.
Nar-Voth- the initial setting where the abandoned Dwarven cities lie rotting.


Dolgan Mulakar is a Deep Walker Ranger. He is a hunter gatherer out of necessity. He works with his family to gather food and basic resources.

Dolgan is a thoughtful and intelligent Dwarf who longs for a better existence. He lives an animalistic existence, but has an unquenchable thirst for developing new skills and knowledge through exploration. His upbringing has seriously stunted his capacity for social interaction, but he has a kind heart under his rough exterior.

If he were raised in a more advanced society he would likely be a scientist or pioneer. His lofty ambitions make him quietly resentful of his peers and family who are content to stagnate or even deteriorate.

His idealistic nature and self-reliance make him an outsider, but his family is all he knows and he bears with them as best he can. He would eagerly seek companionship with others who shared his sensibilities and help those who are in need.

As all members of his race, Dolgan has a deep and undying hatred for Orcs and goblins. He cares deeply about his family and friends, and holds loyalty above all else.

He has never had to kill if it wasn't necessary for survival. However, his existence surrounds him with peril and threatened starvation. Creatures, be they food or foe, die at his hands every day.

Lying and stealing are below Dolgan, but given the choice between life and death, he would do anything he could to survive.

Funny enough, I thought up this backstory before I read these lines: "If you want to play underground, do it. If you want to play in the distant past, that could work, too."

---

Dolgan has grown up in a family that stayed behind during the Dwarven Quest For Sky out of extreme stubbornness. The Quest has been ongoing for 100 years, and the society that remains in the abandoned cities and forges of deep Nar-Voth is becoming ever more base and vile.

Anarchy reigns as the righteous, intelligent, and industrious members of society have left. Entire cities were dismantled and abandoned as the Quest for Sky progressed, those that remained fell into rapid decline.

First there was looting and raiding by bands of evil Dwarves with ambitions of consolidating wealth and power. This drove many more to flee and follow the Quest and aid in the effort, though reluctant to leave their homes.

Then food became scarce as agriculture and industry screeched to a halt. Those that raided and kept slaves tipped the scales of power and controlled much of the food supply.

Game became more dangerous as animals and creatures of the depths has less competition for resources and space. Hideous and monstrous beings not seen before came out from the shadows and added to the terrors of the deep.

Dolgan's family and extended family hunt anything they can possibly stomach, gather edible mushrooms and molds, and avoid packs of raiders and slavers. Their existence is brutal, savage, and despite a great camaraderie, is often very lonely.

Dolgan's family rely heavily on him as many of the group, about 30 in all, are aging, have sustained injuries, or fighting illness. Dolgan is coming into his own as a fighter and a survivalist.

Dolgan's pleas to his family to join the Quest for Sky are met with bitter contempt and a steadfast clinging to their homeland and traditions.

Friends:

1. His younger brother and stalwart companion Mekla Mulakar has been by his side since Dolgan was 20. Mekla is much more charismatic and droll that Dolgan, but does not share Dolgan's contemplative and passionate nature.

2. Cherlest Dragoor is a wise and wealthy merchant that has a monopoly on remaining production and trade because he holds the most advanced knowledge of crafting and the inner workings of the forges. He does not fear the raiders or slavers, for they depend on him for many things.

Many Dwarves with his skill and knowledge left to aid the skyward campaign, but Cherlest is old and disabled and could not leave. While not evil himself, many that are use his technology and weaponry for evil. To ease his mind he quietly contributes vast sums of gold and resources to any resistance efforts and feeding the hungry.

Dragoor has known Dolgan's family for many generations and often asks for his help in delivering aid and protection to those in need. Dolgan keeps this relationship quiet as his family fears the attention such acts could gain.

Foes

1. Orcs. Must kill Orcs.

2. Reithen Threft is a local raider and slaver that leads a stronghold of bandits and cut-throats. Reithen poses an inherent danger to Dolgan's family, but Reithen knows nothing of Dolgan and his semi-nomadic clan.

Woes:

Though he does not realize it, Dolgan's secret altruistic actions spurred by Dragoor threaten the anonymity of his family.

3 Short Term Goals

1. Help those in need with the help of Cherlest Dragoor.

2. Survive the deadly reality of an abandoned deep Nar-Voth and protect his family.

3. Sabotage the efforts of brutal local slavers.

Medium Goals

1. Convince his family to abandon their homeland and join the Quest for Sky.

2. Free slaves and lead them upward away from backstabbing and self-serving tyrants.

Long Term Goals

Abandon the Darklands, join his fellow Dwarves, and fight back the Orcs. Ultimately leading them to the surface following the prophecy of Torag.

He is gruff, determined, and always lending a hand to others.

He has a weakness for wandering off the beaten path following a hunch or mystery. When his curiosity gets the best of him he often gets into trouble and a bit lost.

Dolgan Mulakar
Dwarven Ranger (Deep Walker archetype)

STR 17
CHA 6
DEX 16
WIS 10
CON 14
INT 14

BAB: +1
CMB: +4
CMD: 16

13 HP
AC 15
Saves: FT:+4 RF:+5 WL:+0

Skills:

Stealth +7
Survival +5
Knowledge Nature +6
Perception: +5
Climb: +7
Swim: +7

Languages: Common, Ancient Dwarven, Orc, Underterran

Traits: Dwarven racial traits

Favored enemy: Humanoid (Dwarf)

Feats: Power Attack

Leather Armor
Shortspear

Waterskin
Flint
Oil
Steel survival knife (non-combat)