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Ruegoth Ulgon
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Backstory Ruegoth Ulgon was born in Delane in nation of Vesh. His father Ortiz worked as a bookkeeper in the local library. Ortiz was most noted for being the local expert in the history of the ancient civilisation of Lede. Knowledge of ancient Lede was a popular thing amongst cultural circles and well off humans in the area would often come and talk to Ortiz to gain snippets of information that they could impress their friends with at the next social gathering. Ortiz however, was especially arrogant and aloof for a dwarf, and was a particularly reclusive fellow. He usually treated these merchants with disdain, often insulting them. Ruegoth spent many of his younger years with his father in the library. Ortiz would try in vain to teach the young Ruegoth about this great culture but Ruegoth was never a particularly studious child and learnt very little about the ancient culture. Their language was a different matter however and Ortiz did manage to teach his son from a very young age to speak the language of Ancient Ledean. Ortiz would often get a young Ruegoth to impress the local merchants in Ancient Ledean, as being able to speak it was fluently was regarded a highly admirable trait. Unfortunately for Ruegoth, some of his father's bad habits rubbed off on him. Ruegoth was often rude to the human nobles that would come to visit his father and he gained a reputation around town as being quite a rude young dwarf. Ruegoth's mother Rathina came from a long line of brewers, and Rathina would make beer and sell it off to the local innkeepers. Rathina travelled to Mullistown, to deliver beer twice per year, once for the Carnival of the Flowers and once for the Feast of Wheat. She would also use the opportunity to purchase some of the quality hops that Mullistown is known for. Ruegoth would often come along with his mother on these trips and would sit along side his mother in the wagon. Ruegoth would get extremely bored on these long trips, so Rathina bought the young dwarf a dagger. Ruegoth would spend the days juggling the small dagger, either tossing it by the blade and the then catching it in the other, or balancing it by the point on the palm of his hand. After years of doing this, Ruegoth’s hands became very nimble and still to this day, he will balance that dagger on his hand or throw it into nearby wooden objects while bored. Things changed for Ruegoth while he was going through puberty. Ortiz had become more and more solitary over the years, spending days on end, pouring over the tomes in his stuffy library. This caused Ruegoth and Rathina to drift away from him. Ruegoth started to see the man that is his father really was, arrogant, rude and a loner. Ruegoth started spending more time on the streets in the seedy part of town often staying out all night in a local inn and often speaking with the less scrupulous members of the community. Most of the time, his father did not even notice that he had been out. When he did though, Ruegoth and his father used to fight and argue, as Ruegoth was becoming quite headstrong. Ruegoth found his father’s attitude of hiding underneath his books cowardly, as he would rather do so than face the problems he was having with his family. Eventually they spoke only in passing, with Ortiz retiring to his books until late in the night. For Rathina, this had a different effect. Ortiz’s behaviour caused her to drift into the arms of another, that being a local innkeeper that she would often sell beer to. One night, things turned ugly; supposedly a local merchant had noticed Rathina with her new lover and told Ortiz. Ortiz came into the house fuming and a huge argument erupted between him and his wife. Hearing the commotion, Ruegoth, now in his late twenties, came down the stairs to see Ortiz hitting Rathina. Ruegoth being quite a strong dwarf, even at that age, and at the sight of his mother lying beaten on the floor, he erupted in rage and punched his father in the face. A terrible fight ensued, ending with both Ortiz and Ruegoth badly beaten. Ortiz kicked both him and his mother out of the house. That night, Ruegoth carried his mother out of the house. Not knowing where to go, he headed down to the local inn where he spent his nights. The barkeeper saw the plight of the tough young dwarf and his mother and took pity on him. He put him and his mother up for the night in the common room. Later in the night, while Rathina slept, a young human wearing a dark cloak approached Ruegoth. The man identified himself as a priest and when Ruegoth asked if he was a cleric of Madriel or Tanil, the man shook his head. “No young dwarf, Tanil’s priests don’t come into this part of town. I am a priest of Drendari and the mistress of shadows is the only one that looks after people like you and me”. With that he healed Rathina and Ruegoth and both of them drifted off to sleep. The next day Ruegoth went to find the shadowy human to thank him for saving his injured mother, but when Ruegoth found him, the young human would not accept his thanks. Instead he told Ruegoth to thank Drendari, and from that day onwards, Ruegoth has been a follower of the mistress of shadows. From that fateful night, Rathina lived on her own, often visiting the local innkeeper and making a very modest living selling her beer. Ruegoth on the other hand had to live off his wits. He spent a lot of time living in the poorer areas of town, mostly fending for himself by doing "odd-jobs". He started out with simple stuff like finding rich kids pets and tracking down rare objects for merchants. As he got older he branched out and started retrieving stolen property and following cheating husbands of rich noblewomen. After spending a fair amount of time on the streets, Ruegoth saw a lot of injustice. One night, Ruegoth stumbled across a woman getting raped. Being someone who cannot tolerate violence against women, after his father beat his mother, he decided to help the woman out. A fight broke out between Ruegoth and the rapist with Ruegoth getting badly injured before killing the man. When the law caught up with him, it was lenient as he was assisting someone in trouble. He was charged with starting a duel that ended in death and was fined the standard fee of 50gp. Since he had no money, he was ordered to spend 3 months in indentured servitude to the local law enforcement. Knowing that Ruegoth could achieve things in ways that traditional law keepers could not, it was decided to put his unique talents to good use. They asked Ruegoth to track down and find the identities of a group of local thieves that had stolen a valuable goblet from the local church of Madriel. Knowing thieves as he did, he knew that they would have to find someone to actually buy this item. He also knew that the buyer would not be someone that would be in contact with the church, which ruled out the reputable merchants around town. This narrowed the list down quite considerably and having a few contacts around town, he quickly found the few people who were interested in these types of items. One by one, Ruegoth visited each of them and threatened each of them with the charge of theft. Knowing that this would cost them 10 times the value of the goblet (as is the standard punishment for theft in Vesh) these few buyers quickly agreed to help him. Within a few days, one of the buyers was contacted and a meeting was set up. Ruegoth notified the local law about this meeting and the suspects were apprehended. Ruegoth would still travel with his mother to Mullistown to deliver beer for the festivals, acting as a guard. After a few trips to this place with her, Ruegoth decided that it was time to see the world, and stayed on to see what kinds of interesting adventures he could get into in this new city. Of course, the first thing he did was go to a local inn, and began trying to gather some information about the goings on in this town. Goals and Ambitions Wants to retrieve a rare object from the Ancient City of Lede (mostly to spite his father). Likes His mother’s beer. Dislikes Cowards DM Addition Thanks to the many merchants that visited his father, Ruegoth has heard many a great story. From the most evil of denizens that seek to restore the Titans to the greatest of heroes who stand against such foes. He has heard tales of steadfast dwarves in Burok Torn who stand strong against the Calastian armies and of the mysterious city of Hollowfaust where it is said, the undead mingle with the living as if it be the norm. He has heard of the Vigilant's and Rangers who patrol the lands of Vesh and listened to accounts of villages destroyed by hordes of Vangal's Horsemen. It is a strange and uneasy world in which those that pursue good must also respect the evil as one such as Belsameth. It is the conundrum of a land scarred by immortal war. If Ruegoth remains true to himself, can he play a greater role in this world? Many tales of heroes told of the Mithril Knights - the most elite of Corean's Paladins and of Burok Torn's Iron Guardsmen - faultless in the defense of their home. But Ruegoth's path may lay elsewhere. His skills are certainly worthy of a Bounty Hunter or perhaps one day, a Vigil Stalker (but is he willing to swear an oath to Vesh?). Time will tell what lays ahead. |
