A Bear of a Tale of Norir Frostsmith

[Seymor]

First Name: Norir
Last Name: Frostsmith

Appearance:
Race: Shield Dwarf
Age: Told as 50, actually 43
Height 4'9" -- Slightly below Average
Weight: 180 lbs [+50 Plate Armor] [+15 Plate Gloves, Plate Boots, Heavy Belt] [+5 Heavy Animal Skin Cowl and Cape]
Eyes: A very neutral greenish-grey, his eyes are well worn from contemplating issues.
Hair: His hair is wild and unkept. It is a dirty red colored, long in the back. On the sides of his head are two small metallic objects that are shaped like water drop.
Facial Hair Style: His beard is very dry, with 5 braided strands, two of which end in small blue and green skulls that shimmer like the surface of water
Armor: His armor will be as close to the appearance of a bird as possible. He will often reshape new armor that he acquires into this shape using unique druid magic and the knowledge of his clan that he learned as a child.

Personality Profile:
General Health: Extensive scars across his face and body
Deity: Eldath
Initial Alignment: Neutral Good
Profession: Druid
Base Class & Proposed Development:
Base Class: Druid
Proposed Development: Druid 24/Fighter 6
Stats: Level 1 : 11 Str, 8 Dex, 19 Con, 8 Int, 18 Wis, 6 Cha
Level 30: 11 Str, 8 Dex, 21 Con, 8 Int, 25 Wis, 6 Cha
Habits/Hobbies:
ROLEPLAY:
Norir has quite a few habits and one or two hobbies. Being a devout worshipper of Eldath, he spends large amounts of time at water sources, specifically around the sword coast he spends time at the waterfall outside of FAI, the river running through Nashkel, and the ocean beach with the water elementals south of candlekeep. He will often get into impromptu competitions with Wahaart, either a friendly wrestling match or a competition of speed or endurance. These competitions will often be won by Wahaart however, that doesn't stop Norir from pushing his companion to new heights through these competitions. He is an adept swimmer, having spent much of his life near water, and is comfortable in water even with heavy armor.

CONFLICT: //* I think it's important that when confronted with a conflict, that I have a clear and consistent reaction with my characters, this is how my character deals with conflicts, The conflicts are catagorized by series of threat to his ideals *//
(1) When confronted with conflicts regarding city matters such as theives and the dukes, he will very often and very quickly walk away.
(2) When confronted with conflicts regarding dwarven matters, he will often walk away but may be provoked into non-violent response by taunts
(3a)When confronted with conflicts regarding the forest he will disapprove of any action harmful to the forest, but walk away.
(3b)Any action that is helpful to the forest, he will be glad to assist. This goes for all helpful actions to druid groves, springs, waterfalls, pools or Eronia
(4) When conflict arises that threatens forest which he specifically protects, a spring, druid grove, waterfall, or a pool he will oppose all harmful actions through non-violent ways, such as strengthening the plants and animals that protect the forest and setting up obstacles for anybody who wishes to harm the forest.
(5) When conflict arises that threatens a spring, druid grove, waterfall, or a pool which he specifically protects he will oppose all harmful actions in increasingly violent ways depending on how strong of a threat the conflict poses. Violence is very much a possibility. Quite possibly a bear who has had his senses highly enhanced may be found guarding the grove during such threats
(6) When conflict arises that threatens Eronia/The True Grove, he will take the lead of Eldath

COMBAT:
Norir takes great pride in his ability to defend those under his protection. This protection extends especially to his bear companion, Wahaart. He will often cast quite a lot of protective spells and several spells that enhance combat prowess on his bear companion before combat and then will take opponents out using defensive spells such as flame shield. Any active threats are taken out with well placed throwing axes. He prefers to stay close to the enemy so that he can protect his bear companion in case of trouble. His extensive combat experience fighting at close range with thrown weapons has made him particularly skilled at hitting enemies, comparable to a medium skilled dwarven axe-throwing fighter

When he decides to align with a group of adventurers, he will often stay slightly away from the group; working in solitude with his bear companion and his summons. He prefers to help his bear companion over adventuring companions, often going to great lengths in order to keep his bear companion in top shape.

Languages: Druidic, Dwarven, Common
Weapon of Choice:
If he is to use a weapon at all, he will usually use throwing axes but he tries to refrain from using them if he can. He enjoys using intricate shields and defensive shield spells as weapon, allowing an attacker to destroy themselves through their aggression. He will occasionally fight unarmed in order to draw enemy attention away from his companions.
Background:
The Stronghold
A dwarf from mountain homes far away in more snow-filled lands. His clan was known to be more isolationist than not, but not as fanatically isolationistic as the most fervant dwarf clans. The clan used mining, ore refining and smithing techniques of their great ancestors to make well-crafted pieces of armor, which every dwarf in the stronghold wore with pride. Children learned at a young age and created their own armor. The stronghold was always strongly protected by powerful warriors.Occasionally, humans from a nearby settlement would trade for some of the armor crafted by the children; which were still a high quality by human standards. The humans brought with them barrels, chests, gems, exotic ores, caged animals and human gods, specifically Tempus. The clan was split between worship of Clangeddin Silverbeard[Battle, (LG)War, Bravery], Dumathion[Mining, Shield Dwarves], Tempus[(CN)War, Battles] and other dwarven gods about 30%/30%/40% respectively. This was the atmosphere of the stronghold.

Early History
Norir, like all children, learned the mining, ore refining and smithing techniques passed down through Rhonn Frostsmith. He never specifically excelled at crafting armor by clan standards however by human standards he would be a fine smith. He did excel at mining, an activity which he enjoyed because it allowed him time to go deep into the tunnels by himself. He would often lose himself in the tunnel looking for particularly precious ores. Spending days at a time deep in the backtunnels of the stronghold, he made a small name within the clan for his ability to bring back valuable gems from his long excursions. The techniques he used specifically was a more shallow dig than other dwarven miners. While most dwarven miners dug down in search of gems made from ancient high pressure volcanic activity, Norir would often take a shallower dive that lead more towards the middle of the mountain, rather than underneath the mountain. This practice however, lead to an event which would change his life.

The Encounter: Dwarf v Bear
During one of his particular shallow digs, Norir hit the outside wall of the mountain around mountain level; creating a back entrance to the cavern. This was a relatively common occurance for Norir with how he mined; often he would hit the side of the mountain and open into the snowy wastes. He would have to collapse the passageway, backtrack and make another shaft at a slightly greater depth. Either way, opening up the outside wall of the mountain was not unusual, but the sight that greeted him this time was. A bear was trapped by his left front paw in a hunters trap, probably from the humans who traded with the dwarves. For a brief moment, the bear and the dwarf looked at each other and then the battle began.

Norir attacked first trying to free the bear hoping that it would run away. He aimed and was able to hit the bear trap dead on with his pickaxe and the bear jumped quickly away. The bear however, did not run away as expected but instead missed a swipe at Norir. The bear then charged at Norir, the ferocity of the charge caught Norir by surprise and the bear was able to collide into the dwarf, knocking him over and sending him tumbling. The bear used this opportunity to latch onto the dwarves leg, tearing the muscle. The bear shook the dwarf around by the leg, bruising the dwarves and causing a good deal of bleeding. The high quality armor that Norir had made was serving him well, prevent the bear from destroying the artery all together. By an effort of will and fortitude, and perhaps a pickaxe to the flank, Norir was able to get the bear off of his leg. The bear, contemplated whether she should run away or stay and fight. Norir however, wasn't going to give her a choice at this point as he charged straight at the bear. This time, the bear was surprised at the ferocity of the charge and he was able to strike the black bear in the right front leg with his pickaxe, fracturing a bone. The bear, no longer having the support of his own leg fell over. A brief struggle later and Norir was able to land a pickaxe blow to the head, tearing apart the muscle, shattering the skull, tearing apart the brain and opening an artery. As he surveyed what just happened, Norir saw a bear cub who was yelping in confusion and hunger.

//* I generated this fight using dwarf fortress, Bear won 10 times against fairly poorly trained but well equipped dwarves. Those logs are not pretty. This dwarf got really lucky with hitting that head when he did. And only taking hits to the legs. Often these fights just ended up with the bear charging the dwarf, dwarf falls down, get a leg artery injury then getting a torso or head injury and falling unconcious from lack of blood. Awesome.*//

Meet the Bear
Norir was shaken from his encounter with the bear. He was no hunter and definately not one who enjoyed battle. He did not wish to kill the mother bear; the bear was only defending it's cub. However, the deed was done and Norir felt terrible about it. He couldn't think of how he could fix the problem; how he could feel good about himself again. The bear cub had run off after her mother died, to certain death without any protection. Norir left some food and went back into the mountain, leaving this particular tunnel open. Upon returning, nobody questioned his injuries or the large claw marks, many dwarves of the clan had gotten into altercations with bears and their danger and the injuries they caused were not unknown. Luckily his armor was enough to protect him from everything except a small number of scratches and bruises. Three days later, after having recovered fully, he returned to the tunnel where he fought the mother bear with a large amount of meat. He wasn't in particular expecting to find the bear cub, after all; how long can a bear cub survive without its mothers protection? However upon returning to the tunnel he did indeed find the bear cub taking shelter in the cave that he dug out. He offered the bear some of the meat that he brought with him, which the hungry bear accepted. This was the beginning.

Friend
Nobody questioned Norir when he requested extra food for his mining trips. After all, he often spend days or weeks in the backtunnels mining and always returned successfully with a packful of valuables. Such success and longevity was well worth the extra rations for the clan as a whole. Nobody in the clan suspected that the food was actually going to feed a bear. Norir had given the bear a name, Wahaart; the dwarven word for friend. Every day he fed the cub and the cub slowly grew into a bear. 50 pounds.. 100 pounds.. 150 pounds, it was not long until the bear started to pass Wahaart in weight. By the time that summer came around and the snow started to melt, Wahaart was large, surely as large as Norir was. His trips outside of the stronghold became longer and longer and less and less successful. He would often venture farther away from the mountain passage that he created, passing through the forests with the especially playful juvenile bear. In was in this time that a bond was formed, a bond of friendship.

The Summer runoff, the years past
As the snow melted, the runoff from the snow higher up the mountain created large streams or small rivers. Wahaart and Norir would often spend time next to these stream. Norir taught Wahaart how to fish, a skill which Wahaart excelled at. Wahaart eventually had a favorite rock on which he perched on waiting for salmon jumping up the stream. He would then catch the fish using his strong bite. During this time, Norir would often spend time swimming, a skill which many from his clan were not proficient in. The trips back to the stronghold became fewer and farther between and often without any valuables whatsoever. Many of the stronghold started to notice this rather odd behavior and Norir started to become as famous for disappearing as he had once been famous for his mining exploits.

The druid and the dwarf
A few years later, near the end of summer, an elder druid of Eldath observed the pair in the normal spot. Wahaart catching fish and Norir swimming in the stream; an odd sight to anybody but particularly odd for a druid to see a well armored dwarf swimming so near such a large animal. The human druid approached the dwarf and introduced herself as Hecate Goldenwolf. After learning of the dwarves story and his actions for the past couple of years, the druid offered to teach Norir the way of the druids. Norir was familiar with the teaching of Eldath; he had overheard a few clerics of tempus say that there would be no war without peace and that they must respect those who adhere strictly to ideals of peace over ideals of war. However, this was the first time that he was exposed to the teachings of Eldath. And so, for the next 10 years with Wahaart at his side, he trained under Hecate learning the teachings of Eldath. Finally he had found a way to atone in some small way for his transcression against his friends mother.

Your Task: Wander Peacefully
Ten years later, near the end of summer, Hecate gave Norir a task, a task to wander and adventure. Norir had learned everything that he could from the area surrounding his clanhome and it had been 5 years since his last trip back to the stronghold. She gave him a vial of Eldath's Sacred Water and sent him on his new task. And so he does, Norir eventually wandered far and wide, eventually no longer having his way back home. Every once and a while an owl would come to him with a message from Hecate, often inquiring about his progress. He would often tell of the wonderful rivers and streams that he and Wahaart visited and how it reminded him so much of those years. He often told of waterfalls upon which he contemplated the peace he now persued as well as his previous actions. It is in this way that he wandered to Baldur's gate.

Goals:
As part of the task of wandering peacefully, Norir is supposed to visit 8 Eldathyn locations, The first of those locations was the snow forest surrounded his clans home. //*I picked three locations that I know of in the current map then left the rest open for future RP possibilities.*//
Visiting Eldathyn places [4/8 visited so far]
Clan Frostsmith Forest [Done]
Random place [Done]
Random place [Done]
South of FAI [Done]
Candlekeep Pool [Not Done]
Nashkel River [Not Done]
<open> [Not Done]
<open> [Not Done]
Visiting Eronia
Learn to use peace to solve all problem
Task: Wander
Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:
1) Other dwarves would probably object to a dwarf learning the druidic arts
2) Anybody who worships Tempus and attacks Norir could suffer Penance from Tempus. The interesting group that might do this after epic levels are the flaming fist. In epic levels, I grab rescue which makes it so that anybody who attacks Wahaart, also attacks Norir.
3) Eldath and Mielikki both exist on the Prime Material Plane during the servers timeline, There are supposed to be gates that lead directly to Eronia, the closest being in Eldaths Water in Misty Forests north of Baldur's Gate.
4) As a druid of Eldath, Norir is responsible for helping other druids set up groves, a procedure that would be quite interesting as a dwarf.
5) I left a couple of Eldathyn places open specifically for plot hook reasons, as well as leaving a couple of already visited Eldathyn places open for the same reason
6) Messages from Hecate should still be deliverable via owl
7) Any old clansmen are going to wonder where Norir has been for 5 years, considering they know nothing of his druidic activites. It's going to be interesting
8) Norir is still an very decent smith and an excellent miner, although he does neither activity anymore
9) Anybody from the cities who absolutely needs Norir's help to do non-forest related good is going to run into rp obstacles due to Norir not paying attention to city related matters. Norir does not enter baldur's gate lightly and he only enters FAI in order to assess craftsmanship at the auction.
10) Norir does not have any idea what a wizard is, it never came up in his training and he never learned of arcane power sources growing up.
11) The Norir code of conduct as listed under habits/Hobbies, Any challenge to them is a good plot hook, once I get a few more levels I want to at least defend one water source, Probably Nashkel River because it reminds Norir and Wahaart of home.

Misc Facts:
Beyond bears, Norir's favored animal are birds. His armor is as bird like as possible.
At some point, Norir and Wahaart encounted a Snow Leopard, Norir now wears the snow leopards hide as a cloak.

[DM RabidBadger]

Reviewed - XP Rewarded.