Pug
Pug Milamber
Dwarven Ice Mage and Beast Master.
Ambidextrous and equipped with Battle Axes. Enjoys a good fight.
Hates creatures that slaughter animals for no good purpose
History
Ten Years Old
Being the Seventh child of an unusually fertile dwarf family I quickly found my place in dwarven society. My lack of interest in mineral wealth and shiny objects clearly set me aside and the other children didn't understand me. Solitude became a way of live early on and I spent more and more time with the local beasts. I developed an affinity with them and soon was being harassed as "that beast boy".
At the age of 10 I decided dwarven society wasn't for me so I packed my bags and left in the middle of the night. From what I heard afterward it took nearly a week for anyone to raise the alarm. By that time I had crossed the river north of our mountain homeland.
After a month of aimless wandering I had run out of food provisions but I was catching fresh fish and smaller animals quite proficiently.
Early one morning I came across tracks of human hunters. I followed them to a campsite. Littered around the site were animal carcasses, pelts and body parts. Animals of all sizes and ages were strewn about. The animals had been Wolves and Bears predominantly. Even the younglings were slaughtered. Enraged by this senseless waste I concealed some of their own traps and then lay hidden to await the return of the humans.
Four human trappers entered the camp. They appeared to be slightly drunk. One dragged the carcass of a female bear while another held a bag with 2 small baby bears. They were very young and still required to suckle from the mother bear. The bag was tossed to a third person for fun but he dropped it as he stood in the bear trap I had laid in the path to the central firepit. Howling in pain he tried to yank his leg free while the others began laughing at him.
Leaping forth from cover my dual battle axes made short work of the two hunters who were unencumbered. The one with the mother bear only had time to drop the carcass and pull his dagger before I sliced his hamstrings and battered him senseless with the side of my axe.
The last one, with his leg trapped, looked into my eyes pleading for his life as I knocked him senseless too.
I tied the two surviving humans up before opening the bag to release the young cubs. They were terrified but unharmed. I searched the camp and fed them some milk and honey. They calmed down and went to sleep.
I talked to the two humans and they gave me the lay of the land in exchange for my promise not to kill them. They had maps of the area highlighting the civilised communities, trading routes and the wild dangerous areas. After getting everything I could from them I put them out of my misery. After all, you never leave an enemy at your back.
Resolving to stay away from civilised areas where people like this abide, I ventured forth into the wilderness with the two young bears. After only a few days I came across another female bear with one youngling. I approached cautiously and offered the two baby bears to her. I backed off and waited to see if she would take them in. Strangely she sat back on her hind legs and observed me for a full hour while the three babies played together. I offered a pray to the gods of the wilderness that the new family would remain safe, before departing and continuing my journey north.
In the following weeks as I came near any bears I found they would sit on their hind legs as I ventured passed, watching silently.
As the plains turned to frozen wastelands and the dead of winter approached I fell sick with the fever. I stumbled into a cave and hunkered down in the back, praying to the dwarven gods for salvation. As the fever and the cold worked their deadly magic on me I began hallucinating that a large white bear would bring me food and water, and nestle next to me to provide warmth.
When the fever broke and my mind returned to normality I found I was being cared for by an old dwarven shaman. As I recuperated he told me how the bears had honoured me for returning their young and had cared for me in my time of need. He offered to take me back to is village and train me in the ways of a proper Beast Master. He also sensed my lack of interest in the minerals buried in the earth was due to an affinity to the coldness of the northern climes. He offered to send me for training with a wise old Ice Mage a few miles from his village.
A feeling of purpose and homeliness came over me as he described his offering to me, such like I had never experienced in the mountain home of my birth. I eagerly agreed to follow and pledged my allegiance to him.
Twenty Years Old
The next ten years were spent in mastering my natural skills and learning the ways of the Ice Mages. I split my time amongst training with the other dwarfs of this area in the art of double handed battle axe fighting, and reading and writing in order to enhance my mage skills. Despite enjoying this immensely I still had a hankering to spend my quiet time with the animals. The shaman apprenticed me to a mysterious figure who had wandered the icy wilderness for what seemed like an eternity.
His name was Ellishar, and on the eve of my being recalled to the shaman to fulfil a contract, he told me that he was the 19th in a long line of Beast Masters who patrolled the Northern Climes. Whilst he had many a good year ahead of him he had started training me to become his successor. After completing this task for the shaman he instructed me to leave for Seagate and to join the guild. There I would be taught the "ways of the world" and encounter strange and foreign creatures with motivations beyond my current understanding. Upon mastering my Beast Master skills I should return to him and be taught the final art of "truth seeing" before taking Ellishars place.
The Shamans Task
This turned out to be relatively simple but did expose a singular flaw in my character. I am too trusting.
Animals were being slaughtered by an unknown creature or party. Find them and stop them. Simple.
I scouted the area and found some tracks which had been laid. I secreted myself under some bushes and waited for the trappers. A single elk came close and got his foot entrapped. From about 200 feet away a figure rose from the snow and strided towards the wounded animal. The creature was a Troll male and looked quite hideous, even for a troll.
As it approached I leapt forth and demanded it stop trapping the animals. It laughed and threw itself at me. It was met by both my battle axes and we slogged it out for a while till I knocked it unconscious. During the battle I tried to talk it into explaining what it was doing. It always replied "just what my wife tells me". I took it back to the shaman who extracted some more information. The wife was making potions and selling them to the local troll clan chieftain.
I set forth to talk to the female troll. I entered her cave by pretending I was the husband and, with my back to her, I dragged in an old carcass. Once I got close enough I turned and leapt forth, both axes blazing. We battled and I tried to convince her to stop the slaughter and to leave this area. She finally agreed to a truce and to depart if I gave her 500 silver pennies. Not having that sum of money on me I turned to leave and get some from the shaman. Herein lies my character flaw.
As I was leaving the cave she blasted me with some magic. Upon realising that I should never trust a female Troll I re-entered the cave and beat her senseless. Before taking her back to the Shaman for proper punishment I searched the cave confines and found 1 amulet, 5 potions and 2 polar bear cubs. I took them all back with me.
Upon hearing of my silly mistake he also encouraged me to go to Seagate. I rested up and said my goodbyes. The shaman opened a portal to Seagate and I stepped through.
Adventures
Current Skills
Professional Skills
Beast Master: Rank 2
Military Scientist: Rank 0
Weaponary
Battle Axe: Rank 3
Dagger: Rank 0
Mattock: Rank U – Two Handed Pole Weapon
During the Middle Ages of Europe, the mattock served as an improvised pole weapon for the poorer classes. In Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, two-handed versions of this instrument were wielded by the dwarves of the Iron Hills, led by Dain in the Battle of the Five Armies at the foot of the Lonely Mountain.
Artisan Skills
Tanner / hideworker / furrier: Rank 0
Fisher: Rank 0
Languages
Dwarf: Rank 6 – Literate
Common: Rank 9 - Literate
Adventuring Skills
Climbing: Rank 1
Horsemanship: Rank 2
Flying: Rank 0
Stealth: Rank 1
Swimming: Rank 0
Magic
Primary Magics
- General Spells
- Extinguish Fires: Rank 3
- Freeze: Rank 2
- Ice Creation: Rank 1
- Ice Traversal: Rank 4
- Refrigeration: Rank 5
- Resist Cold: Rank 6
- Snow Shovel: Rank 0
- Water to Ice: Rank 0
- Special Spells
- Armour of Ice (Rk 6) – 6 points of Armour
Other Stuff
Beasts
- Cujo - Male Polar Bear Cub - Six Months old
- Jellybean - Female Polar Bear Cub - Six Months Old
