The Fall and Rise of Gunther Banders

[Steamer567]

First Name: Gunther
Last Name: Banders

Appearance:
Race: Dwarf
Age: 35
Height 4'3"
Weight: 210
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Facial Hair Style: Burn scars mar his face where his great dwarven beard should be

Personality Profile:
General Health: Excellent
Deity: Mordain
Initial Alignment:Lawful neutral
Profession: Used to work on a personal security detail for a small time lord around Neverwinter, but currently jobless at Baulder's Gate
Base Class & Proposed Development: Starting with man-at-arms going to Dwarven defender
Habits/Hobbies: Cooking
Languages: Dwarven, Common, Joten
Weapon of Choice: Dwarven war axe and tower shield
Background: Born in Neverwinter he was raised much like one would expect good solid dwarven family to raise their child. Unlike his parents he did not take to blacksmithing, but instead found an affinity to cooking and fighting. When human children he grew up with eventually began to make their own ways in the world he felt a need to leave as well.

Taking an axe forged by his father he left his home and found work as a caravan guard. Five years of traveling all over Aber-Torel, he left that to find a stable job where he could find some lady dwarf and have a family. Instead he ended up back in Neverwinter working as a body guard for a noble named Samual Holdbar.

Gunther liked Holdbar as a person. He acted fairly to his servants and taught his children to respect those socially beneath them. Unfortunately there were some that saw this as weakness and felt they could take advantage of him.

One of his rivals hired some bandits to kidnap Samual's children in order to keep him distracted. Gunther never did find out why, but Samual had found favor in a business contract with merchants from Baulder's Gate and one of the other bidders really wanted to remove him from the competition.

Fortunately for Samual these particular ruffians were not hard to locate. Unfortunately they were also particularly cruel. When Gunther and the rest of his team found the kidnappers they took a stand in the middle of their camp with the children interwoven between them. This forced Gunther and his team to engage them in melee. The bandits, of course, could engage at range as well they had set traps.

Gunther's team was decimated by the assault. As the last survivor he saw the bandits behead all the children. His face had been burned, now almost unrecognizable, by a fire trap, and he had two arrows buried in his leg. When he awoke he found the heads of the children on his chest.

Now beardless and in utter defeat, Gunther left as soon as he had recover enough to walk. He hitched a ride on the caravan he used to work for and eventually arrived at Baulder's Gate. He thought long and hard about what to do with himself. The only thing thing he decided for sure was that he had to keep on living. It would be easy to take himself out in a blaze of pretend glory but the harder road would be to deal with his defeat.
Goals: Right now he is looking for some kind of employer.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts: He could find out who had the Holdbar children kidnapped but he put that part of his life behind him and it trying only to look forward.