Adrian Fowler

[HereticForLife]

First Name: Adrian
Last Name: Fowler

Appearance:
Adrian is a light-skinned man of extremely great stature, at nearly eight feet in height and over 400 lbs. Despite his height, he is highly muscular, with a fairly toned body. The wrinkles on his face, almost imperceptible at first, indicate that he is in his late forties or early fifties, yet he is still of at least average attractiveness. He has short, brown hair, and a beard of similar color. He is almost always found in his old plate armor while on a job or traveling, or a set of lightweight clothes otherwise.

Race: Human
Age: 48
Height: 236 cm / 7’9”
Weight: 193 kg / 425 lbs.
Eyes: Light blue
Hair: Short, dark brown hair

Personality Profile:
Personality Traits:
Apathetic: Adrian sees the world, and people, in terms of grey rather than black and white. With the exception of non-humanoid entities that are clearly good or evil, he believes the terms do not apply to anyone he knows, let alone his employers. For the right amount of gold, he is willing to work for almost any organization or individual, depending on the job required. The results of whatever his employers have him do is of little interest to him, as long as he is paid in full.
Solitary: Adrian rarely works to make friends with others, finding that his writing and fighting efforts keep him entertained enough, and knowing that at any moment a job for an evil employer may go bad, forcing him to move elsewhere and leave friends behind, or he may be forced to kill or lose friends during a job. At the same time, he fears betrayal, and wishes to maintain some distance between himself and all others.
Selfish: Adrian has little interest in others, owing to his lack of friendship over the years and need to stay alive throughout countless battles. He is willing to leave allies and innocents to die to save his own life in a combat situation, and will abandon an employer and his job without hesitation if it is clear that the alternative is death. In the event that another individual saves him from certain death, however, he is willing to compensate them.

General Health: Very healthy, as long as the amulet preventing his skeleton from falling apart continues to function.
Deity: Lathander, though his faith is fairly weak and he rarely engages in worship.
Initial Alignment: Neutral
Profession: Mercenary
Base Class & Proposed Development: Fighter
Habits/Hobbies:
Writing: Adrian has loved writing from a fairly young age, and to relax he often sits by a fire and spends time writing about his work and his other experiences. There is no mercenary job or journey he has undertaken that he has not written a great deal about. He does not intend to have any of it published, not until his final days, but he treasures each book he has written, and intends to write much more before he dies.
Sleeping/swimming: Adrian falls asleep quite easily, and enjoys sleeping, as his body is under less physical stress when he lays down. He also likes swimming for the same reason, as it enables him to move in an environment that supports him. He rarely swims while traveling, however, as he usually moves in heavy plate armor. As much as he travels, he always looks forward to reaching major cities, as he can usually find good beds and pools there.

Languages: Common
Weapon of Choice: A six-foot greatsword he has had in his possession for many years, often paired with a tower shield. He finds that by using such a large weapon, he not only takes advantage of his natural ability to use it, but also intimidates potential assailants. To a man of his stature, the greatsword effectively functions as a bastard sword.

Background:
Adrian was born in 1299 DR in the Savage Frontier city of Loudwater. The only son of a scholar mother and a blacksmith father, he was exposed to both academic and physical pursuits by his parents from a young age. Once he reached the age of six, however, his family noticed that he was growing far more quickly than other children of his age, and suspected that he would become exceptionally large as an adult. Concerned about how his health might be affected by his condition, he was taken to a priest of Lathander, and given a magical healing pendant that would render him safe from the potential side-effects of his condition.

Much of Adrian’s childhood was spent with play both in and outside the city walls, as he sought to hone his physical abilities and make use of his large size to engage in athletic activities usually reserved for much older children. As he entered his teens, he spent an increasing amount of time with reading, due to an interest in scholarly pursuits instilled in him by his mother. Rather than pursuing research in magic or science, however, he chose to become a writer, and found that his size and experiences exploring the forests and plains near the city gave him a great deal to write about. He did his best to write only what he saw, trying his best not to form opinions that might cloud the accuracy of what he wrote. This interest culminated until, at the age of 14, now at a height of six-and-a-half feet, he joined the Loudwater City Gazette.

Over the next two years, he reported many stories for the newspaper, occasionally joining adventurers on their quests and, in some cases, being given sword-fighting lessons as they traveled. On occasion, he wound feel dull pain throughout his body, but he thought nothing of it. Once he turned 16, he was assigned to write on the war between the Delimbiyr Vale’s corrupt lord, Pasuuk Rensha, and rebel leader Nanathlor Greysword. For two more years, he wrote on many short skirmishes and battles, often watching from a dangerously close range, with the belief that Rensha’s forces could rescue him if necessary. As someone who had never experienced the corruption and misery of the Vale’s less well-off establishments, he had no idea how evil and manipulative Rensha truly was. One day, now at the age of 18, he followed a lead on Greysword’s army movements and inadvertently stumbled upon a major battle, what would later be known as the Battle of Tanglefork.

Noticing a tall tree in a field near the main army units, Adrian decided it would be a good place from which to observe the fight. He was horrified to see several small regiments of strange monsters – he would later learn that these were devils – fighting alongside Rensha’s soldiers. Shortly after climbing the tree, however, the armies began to shift positions, and several units moved directly towards the field where the tree was located. Soldiers clashed beneath him as he did his best to hold on, and after several minutes a cannonball tore through the tree, felling it and sending Adrian to the ground. When he regained consciousness, most of the battle had moved elsewhere, and only a few dozen rebel militia stood by, combating a large group of nupperibo devils. One of the creatures noticed him, and charged him, but he quickly picked up the greatsword of a dead knight nearby and cut it in half in one stroke. Several more devils attacked, and despite a broken leg and a few broken ribs from the fall, he was able to fend them off long enough for rebel reinforcements to arrive and rescue him and the other soldiers.

Several days later, he awoke in a Loudwater hospital (on a bundle of hay, for there was no bed large enough for him), now under the control of Greysword’s forces, sore but fully healed. He learned that the rebel army had won the war with that battle, and that Rensha’s forces had been utilizing devils in combat. In addition, his actions had earned him the attention of one of the knights under Greysword’s command, Sir Dormos, who had been a good friend of the knight whose sword Adrian had used to defend himself. A great deal of pain, which the healers could not diagnose, coursed through his body, and only after several days did it subside. He returned home, and for several days pondered the nature of the war and why Rensha would go so far as to work with devils to keep his power. Eventually, he met with Dormos at Loudwater Keep, and learned that the knight wished to train him, and teach him how to make use of the massive build that gave him an edge over other warriors.

While Adrian was shocked by the offer, he knew there was reason in what the knight had said. Other warriors had commented on his natural ability to wield heavy blades before, and he had never felt such a moment of adrenaline and pure focus as when he fought off the devils at the battle earlier. At the same time, the loss of his belief in his former ruler – one of the few issues he had felt strongly about – confused him greatly, and he felt an instinctual need to give allegiance and support to someone or something else. The next day, Adrian met once again with Dormos, and agreed to learn combat under him, hoping to learn more about people, which he had never had much of an interest in doing as a young man, preoccupied by thoughts of traveling and writing.

He spent the next five years training under Dormos, meanwhile aiding him and his squire in court duties. Now busy with combat training, Adrian left the Gazette, but continued to write for pleasure’s sake, often while he accompanied Dormos on combat missions against the Zhentarim that threatened the city. He proved a dangerous warrior, in no part due to his seven-foot height and the armor and weapons specially designed for a man of his height. Eventually, Dormos was found feeding information to the Thieves’ Guild in exchange for information on Zhent plans, and exiled from Loudwater. Once again thrown into confusion by his mentor’s actions, and unsure who to trust, he decided to join Greysword’s knights himself. But, after only a few months of court politics, he left, convinced that allying himself with any major power would be a mistake. That pain from before, now increasing in intensity, continued to strike.

That was the last time he would see Loudwater in many years. Dormos’ words still in his mind, he decided to take full advantage of his massive body, becoming a mercenary. One of his size was valuable, and over the next twenty-five years he worked for dozens of employers, many good and many evil. On more than one occasion, he fought alongside vicious criminals and summoned demons or devils on the job. As time went by, Adrian became increasingly pragmatic, on one hand making him equally accepting of many races and beliefs, but on the other hand making him willing to aid evil if it was worth his while. All the while, he continued to write, producing many books throughout his travels.

What has fueled his desire to work as a mercenary above all, however, is the need for gold. Only a few years after setting out from Loudwater, clerics of Lathander healing him after a battle discovered the pendant keeping his skeleton – which had grown thick and strong, yet unstable, due to growing under its assistance – from being crushed under its own weight. Upon close examination, they realized it was far too weak to sustain his now-seven-foot-nine-inch body, especially now that he was actively using it in combat. He was dying. In exchange for a great deal of gold, they enchanted it to stop him from growing further, as well as strengthening its healing effects. They warned, however, that the magic was complex and would 'decay' after some time. He would need to have it re-enchanted every few years, and it would likely be expensive.

Now, hearing of war and dozens of dragon sightings, Adrian has come to the Sword Coast. He is confident he will find much work in the region, and soon be able to pay to re-enchant the pendant that now keeps him alive. Every so often, he feels a brief inkling of pain in his bones, and he is unsure how much longer it will last. Though he is now considered by some to be quite old for an active mercenary, he continues to train and strengthen his body in order to further stave off his condition, and he continues to write as much about it all as he can.

Goals:
- To continue amassing as much gold as possible, primarily to continue having the pendant that keeps his body from falling apart working.
- To train his body to the greatest extent possible, such that he becomes a mercenary of unparalleled strength and efficiency, making full use of the gifts his body gives him.
- To create or discover an amulet that can fully, permanently stop his skeletal deterioration, while allowing him to keep growing, though he does not know if such a thing is possible and has not actively pursued it.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas:
- Some artifact that can partially or fully control Adrian’s condition, or a scroll detailing the creation of such an item, is discovered.
- Dormos, Adrian’s now-old knight master, appears in the region and attempts to contact him, either for a job or to see how he has progressed in the last twenty-five years.
- Adrian loses one or several of the books he has written, prompting him to search desperately for them.
- One day, Adrian awakens with overwhelming pain throughout his entire body, and he does not have enough money to immediately have his amulet enchanted, forcing him to figure out some way to do so before he dies.