[CHAR] Dwarves!

[Eviledd1984]

Thorfinn Erikson

Name:

Thorfinn Erikson

Age:

165

Gender:

Male

Apperance:

Thorfinn is of normal dwarfen high. He has white hair that is long but short bangs. Having a mustache and a long beard that is braided into twin tails. Thorfinn has bright blue eyes that make his features quite noticeable. He has a muscular body with an oddly friendly-looking face. Some other noticeable features are his large bulbous nose, his large ears, and the tattoos on his face and body.

Thorfinn wears a brown tunic with matching brown breeches. Over his tunic, he wears a green and purple shirt and leather vest. As well as a pair of black leather boots and a green and purple headband.

Skills And Flaws:

Thorfinn is skilled in the art of combat, specifically in how to use an axe, sword, and two-handed weapons. Thorfinn is also skilled in playing various instruments as well as how to sing. As well as identifying different flora, rocks, and minerals. His strengths include being courageous even in dire situations, being kind and empathetic toward others, and overall being a friendly and good-natured dwarf. His weaknesses include being greedy, extremely stubborn, and being impatient and always looking for a fight.

Background:

Thorfinn was born to Harold Erikson and Gertrude Jensen. His most famous ancestor was a dwarf named Ulrich Hansen. Ulrich was well known to be a skilled warrior and leader. His father was a miner while his mother was a bartender. The two meet while his father was having a party with his friends. His uncle was a musician and had taught Thorfinn how to play various instruments, instruments like the lute, bagpipes, and drums. At a young age, he started working in the mines collecting and processing ore. Working as a miner with his father when he was old enough.

A war happened between the dwarves and the goblins, with Thorfinn being drafted. During this war, he lost a few of his friends but also created some strong bonds with his comrades. After this war, he resumed his career as a miner. During his adulthood, he was alternate between being a miner and fighting in various wars.

Thorfinn meets his wife while he was at the local bar, the two forming a relationship with his mate birthing two children. In his older age, he retired from mining and now owns a bar with his wife. At times he will entertain the guest by playing a song and singing about dwarven heroes of the past.

Miscellaneous:

Has two children, and four grandchildren.

[Red Wizard]

Alberich

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Name

Alberich son of Gudmund Thorson Orebender and Isolde Tyrasdaughter Rocksplitter, of the Orebender Clan

Age

98

Gender

Male

Appearance

Alberich is of average height for a dwarf, but somewhat heavier than his fellow brothers and sisters. He has blonde hair and beard, often braided and bound to keep it from getting in the way in the smithy. His small, tired eyes are a light shade of brown, peering thoughtfully from under heavy brows. He has pronounced cheekbones and a massive nose, which often acts as his primary emotional tell.

Alberich is heavily muscled, his arms brawny beyond what is normal for his kind, a feature which has gotten some of his brethren speculating that he probably lives up to his family name. He usually dresses in simple, durable clothes of wool and leather, opting to walk barefooted even when working at the forge.

Alberich is never seen without the ornamented silver bracelet on his arm, a wedding band gifted to him by his deceased mate, Holga Ingridsdaughter Oakenshield. He has a slow, deliberate way of walking and talking, never seeming to make or say any unnecessary moves or words.

Skills & Flaws

Alberich is a respected and reknowned blacksmith in the halls of Thrillem, known for his qualitative craft. He can work any kind of ore in the forge, having learned many secrets from the master smiths of the senior Orebenders. He has just recently passed the test of mastery himself, finally earning the right to work his own anvil and take on apprentices himself.

Apart from being good with the hammer and tongs, Alberich likes to cook and has become skilled with the craft, experimenting with whatever herbs and spices he can get his hands on from traders and travellers. He plays the drum, as could be expected from a blacksmith, and sometimes blows the horn, one of which he has forged himself from bronze.

What Alberich lacks, however, is speed. He can be slow and thoughtful to the point of stagnation, always careful and deliberate in his actions. This has a tendancy to drive younger, more eager dwarves to frustration or even anger at times, as Alberichs slowness of action is extraordinary even among his kind. He also suffers from bouts of depression, fueled by the loss of his mate. During such bouts he becomes distant and unresponsive, often secluding himself from others for days at a time.

The greed is constantly there, of course, always surfacing at the worst of times. Alberich has a hard time separating from the more expensive and exquisite things he makes, to the point where he sometimes is unwilling to part with them without further compensation or persuasion.

Background

Alberich was born to Gudmund Thorson Orebender and Isolde Tyrasdaughter Rocksplitter. It was decided that he should follow in his fathers footsteps and learn the blacksmiths trade, and he has spent the most of his life as an apprentice to the master smiths of the Orebenders, learning their craft.

He met his mate, Holga Ingridsdaughter Oakenshield, at a feast in the hall of the Oakenshields. His family had been invited there as thanks for supplying the warriors of the Oakenshields with weapons and armor to beat back a particulary nasty infestation of goblins in the lower tunnels of Thrillem, and the two dwarves quickly fell in love. Their union was quickly negotiated and accepted by both clans as a suitable bond of friendship, and they were wed after only a decade of courting.

Disaster soon struck, however, not twenty years into their marriage. Holga was slain among many brave dwarves in an attempt to plug a breach by marauding goblins in the mines, and Alberich went into mourning. They had been preparing to sire children of their own, but Alberich knew that he now had lost both his companion and the prospects of carrying his bloodline to a new generation.

It took him over a decade to find the strength to once again lift the hammer, but when he did, he regained some semblance of a purpose to his life. Work consumed him, and he was deemed ready to face the masters trial at a staggering tender age of only ninety. He passed to thunderous applause from the collected Orebender, Rocksplitter, and Oakenshield clans, and a feast was held in his honor that has seen few of its likes before or after. Alberich was fondly regarded as the future of the Orebender smiths, and his name was immediately mentioned by the three clans as a candidate for the expedition to the surface.

[Expendable]

Yal Redforge

Picture:

Pending

Name: Yalmastr Redforge

Age: 92

Gender: Female

Appearance:
This woman reminds you of a proud lion. She has wide eyes the color of smoke. Her thick, wavy, chestnut hair is braided (contrary to rumor, she does not dye it), however she does wear a false beard. She is tallish (for a dwarf) and has an athletic build. Her skin is ruddy. She has small ears and thick eyebrows.
Skills and Flaws:
Weapons Trainer (Axe, battle axe, crossbow, dagger, hammer, mace, mining axe, spear, short sword)
Fiddle (violin) player
Knows a bit about wine and alcoholic spirits.
Speaks and is literate in Dwarf, Elf, and the local human tongue.
Materialistic, aloof, anger issues, loquatious, some vanity, know-it-all.

Background

Newlyweds Tutroug Redforge (his clan is known for their fine forge work) and Branaebena Whitbuster (travelling merchant) decided to celebrate their marriage by taking a long honeymoon while looking for trade goods to bring back to Thrillem. Yal was born midsummer in a field beside the road. When the proud parents returned to their wagon, they found their goose had laid a golden egg, clearly a boon from their ancestors - and spent weeks afterward arguing over whose ancestor it had been.

Their return two years later was not triumpant. Yal crying in a basket on the seat beside her mother, who was already pregnant with her brother Snazzak, and her father in one of the casts of wine. They had been attacked on the road by goblins, and afterwards Branae found him slumped over their daughter's basket. The Redforges took them in, but while Branae was allowed to travel for her wine business, her children had to stay in Thrillem.

In Yal's twelfth year, Branae brought back Jofean, a human toddler of some customers of her, farmers, who had died in a goblin raid, along with many others. While the clan was afronted by this alien invader, they reluctantly agreed to let him stay until such time as she could return him to the humans.

Branae also brought back Yal a violin, arranging for lessons. Snazzak turned down the lute as he preferred precussion - drums and anvil.

Yal's fiftheen year, she noticed that unlike her friends, her beard wasn't growing in - and dwarves were beginning to talk. Eventually she learned the secret shame of the Redforges - they had problems growing beards, and would blame the scraggly look on them catching fire as they worked at their trade. Yal raided her mother's library and medicine chest, trying various noxious unguents and remedies, but none of them worked. Finally, her mother used some of Yal's hair to make her a false beard, which itched terribly but she endures.

In her seventeenth year, when she was planning to join the rest of her clan at the forges, her mother took her aside and explained she had arranged an apprenticeship with the dour Badmeac Flintbrow, the weapons master. Weapon training, Branae hoped, would allow Yal to join her mother on the road and Branae could teach her the wine trade and show her more of the world than the halls of Thrillem. Furious, Yal fled the clan's tunnels, hiding out in some of the darker spots of the mines. While she didn't mind it so much with the Dark began to whisper, errant echos or wind blowing past cracks surely, but on the fifth night, Yal got creeped out when she felt that the Dark was staring at her, and she fled home.

Badmeac the Weapons Master, while not cruel, was an exacting task master, training her before his students showed up and for hours after they left, each mistake getting a whack with his practice blade. The one good thing that seem to make it worthwhile was Detmeak Gravelbasher, a handsome muscular dwarf with a fine beard who was a student. More than once did Badmeac had to use the flat of his sword on her backside to shift her attention upwards. Detmeak, however, thought Yal was just another part of the wall. His mother Groustreda was not so blind, and well aware of the wealth of Yal's mother.

They were briefly married, but divorced two years later. While Yal had been most willing at first for children, her false beard slipped off on their wedding night and Detmeak was so repulsed by her naked face that he threw her out of their bed chamber. Despite all her attempts to reconcile the two, including trying to blindfold her son, Groustreda reluctantly had to pay back Yal's dowry to Branae, scolding Detmeak the entire time. Fortunately, neither one of them wanted to spread the story of her deformity.

Returning to the Redforge clan and her apprenticeship with Badmeac Flintbrow, the weapons master grudgingly allowed that she could start teaching her own students. One of them was Noggeas Trollhood, and in practice with her, accidently knocked her beard off. She was embarrassed, but Noggeas found her naked face appealing, and asked if they could get a drink together.

On their way, he suddenly pulled Yal into an alley, pulled off her beard, and began passionately kissing her. A guardsman on patrol, seeing what he thought was an adult dwarf molesting an unbearded child, ran him through with his spear, killing Noggeas instantly. Then, spotting the false beard discarded on the ground, realized his mistake. Word soon spread about yal's lack of a beard. Even her mother's and Snazzak's beards got a tug, and the Redforge clan denied any knowledge. As a result, no decent family would even consider her.

But afterward, Yal's students got quite the work out in their practice sessions.

Miscellaneous:

1

Being beardless has raised the old rumors that Yal might not be a proper dwarf. She was taller than most, able to look males her own age in the eye. Mostly, it's just malicious gossip. It takes two dwarves of opposite sex to create a dwarf. The hard part is figuring out which sex the other dwarf is.

2

Yal is also slightly lucky. The Redforges do not beleive in "luck."

3

Branae has a cabinet containing carvings of her ancestors, as well as one of her husband Tutroug. She likes to pull them out from time to time to have conversations with them. Sometimes there are offerings - whiskey, wine, bread and cheese, sometimes a treat. The Redforges believe it's a flippant way to interact with one's ancestors, and there must be mice or rats eating the offerings.

4

There is a rumor that every few months, a ghost appears to Branae to do battle. Each wall of her rooms has a weapon on them, sometimes a shield. The Redforges, of course, do not believe in ghosts. They're also not going to enter her room when the fighting starts.

5

Jofean on one of his trips with Branae met a human girl and decided to stay in her village. Branae arranged for him to be hired by the winery. He's a great-grandfather now.

Mining Axe

A battle axe with a mining pick on the opposing side. Useful for mining gems or precious minerals, and for defending oneself from the owner of the land you've been mining on.

The Mummer's Dance