Xaayne Zek

[JotunWarrior]

Adventuring Name: Xaayne Zek
Actual Name: Donnin Briarberry

Appearance:
Race: Lightfoot Halfling
Age: Approximately 27
Height 3'4
Weight: At nearly 60 pounds, Xaayne is unusually bulky for a halfling.
Eyes: Dark green
Hair: Dark brown, naturally somewhat wavy and usually uncombed. He keeps it short and has a few cowlicks, though his hair is usually covered with a straw cap.
Facial Hair Style: Clean-shaven, short sideburns. It appears he does not naturally grow facial hair.
Noteworthy Characteristics: His small, pointed nose is bent at the ridge from repeated breakings.
A dark green tattoo runs from under his right eye to his right ear, appearing as a forking thorny branch with snaking, spiked tendrils drifting across his cheekbone, down to his jawline.
He is relatively heavy for a halfling, owing to his abnormal strength.
Apart from these traits he appears much the same as any other halfling wandering the roads.

Personality Profile:
Genuinely kind and friendly with his kin, but he initially treats tall-folk of all stripes with veiled suspicion.
He has used his false name for many years, and rarely reveals information about his family for fear of future reprisal.
His upbringing in Luiren has imparted on him several Strongheart traits: he is more bold and stern than most of his kin.
Driven by the clashing desires to wander and protect, he often takes the initiative to track down and eliminate the seed of a threat before it grows.
He has little desire for fame or wealth, but appreciates well-made equipment and bitter foods.

General Health: Healthy, Xaayne bears a few obvious scars but doesn't have any apparent medical conditions.

Deity: Arvoreen, Urogalan, Yondalla. He venerates the rest of Yondalla's Children to a lesser extent.

Initial Alignment: Neutral Good

Profession: Hunter/Trapper, Tracker, ex-Caravan Guard.

Base Class & Proposed Development: Ranger, Warsling Sniper

Habits/Hobbies: Full of nervous energy, Xaayne is nearly constantly tapping his fingers or fidgeting his gaze.
He occasionally smokes a stubby pear-root pipe.
He whittles wood and carves bleached bones, though is not particularly skilled at either.

Languages: Common, Halfling, Some Jotun Dialects, Goblin. He is capable of rudimentary animal calls.

Weapon of Choice: Warsling.

Background
Xaayne's parents were merchants who led wagons from Beluir through Luiren and into lands beyond. When Xaayne was six his mother was a victim of a merrow ambush on a road bordering the Mortek swamp. His father, distraught by the loss, placed Xaayne and his brother in the care of a priest of Arvoreen. They were raised at a temple-keep and given decent education. During this period Xaayne was taught to speak the languages of giants and goblins, as the cleric insisted that "to know your enemy's language is to know their thoughts."

He showed particular skill with a sling from a young age, and as he matured he began straying further from the temple and deeper into the Luirwood. When word reached the temple that Xaayne's father had gone missing while attempting to avenge his wife, Xaayne began martial training in the hopes of someday finding him. A few weeks later word reached the remote keep that his father had been found dead in a merrow cave, and that the beasts had been slain by a group of marchwardens.

Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Xaayne's wanderlust blossomed and he set out from Luiren. A caravaneer, a trapper, a hunter, he has tread both paved and secret paths under his mud-caked boots. He now makes his living selling hides and reaping the wild bounties of the woods.

Goals:
To see new sights and prevent great threats from spreading.
To defend hin wherever they are in need.
To remind wayward hin of the goodness inherent in their blood.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:
The Briarberry clan is particularly widespread, and several of Xaayne's cousins live near Baldur's Gate.
Xaayne is open to membership of any group that promotes goodness and the thwarting of evil.
His brother, Tavrick, lives in distant Beluir and is a tremendously skilled baker.
He hates half-drow perhaps more than drow themselves.
He tracks and kills giant-kin and undead wherever he may find them.
Xaayne considers himself extremely lucky.
Most of his relatives consider him to be both unlucky and extremely odd, given his choice of lifestyle.

A fitting song.

[DM Soulcatcher]

Reviewed and Approved