[Portrait] Malager Grimvale (Completed)

[Ragnarok]

Your breath turns to pale mist before you, and not even the greatest amount of furry coverings can keep you from shivering. The walls of ice glitter, and your feet crunch beneath you as the top layer is pulverized. Ahead, a doorway leads through into a vast chamber, hundreds of feet high and equally long. At the very far end, a throne rises twenty feet into the air, sculpted out of ice. Sitting upon it is a dwarf, wearing a great fur coat, with a crown of icicles bound with thin gold wire upon his head. He does not appear to notice the cold as he sits forwards to feet the haft of his mighty warhammer. His voice booms forwards, echoing around the hall. "I am Malager Grimvale, Lord of Icindeep. Who seeks to disturb me?"

Malager Grimvale (CR 15)
LG Dwarven Fighter 10/Dwarven Defender 5

ST: 18 +4
DX: 10 +0
CN: 17 +3
IQ: 13 +1
WI: 16 +3
CH: 10 +0

HP: 148
AC: 20
Base Attack: +15/+10

Fort: 14
Reflex: 4
Will: 10
Speed 30 ft
Initiative: 0

Languages:
Common
Dwarven
{dialect} Arctic Dwarven

Feats:
Dodge
Endurance
Toughness
Weapon Focus (Warhammer)
Quick Draw
Weapon Specialization (Warhammer)
Greater Weapon Focus (Warhammer)
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave
Improved Overrun
Self-Sufficient
Iron Will
Blind-Fight

Skills:
Craft(Ice Sculpture) +22
Survival +22
Bluff +13
Diplomacy +21
Intimidate +9
Spot +5
Concentration +10

Special Abilities:
Defensive Stance 3/Day
Uncanny Dodge
Trap Sense +1

Attacks: {melee}+19/+14 MW Icy Burst Warhammer (1d8 + 1d6/x3) {ranged} +15/+10 MW Icy Burst Heavy Crossbow (1d10 + 1d6/19-20x2)
Armor: Greater Cold Resistance Full Plate (+8, Max Dx +1) (DR 30 cold), Large Steel Shield (+2)
Items: Ring of Spell Turning, Staff of Defense, Cloak of Resistance +5, Royal Outfit (serves as Cold Weather Outfit)

Description
Malager stands a mere four foot five inches tall, and has glittering blue eyes. He always wears his royal outfit, which consists of a large fur greatcoat with a crown of icicles. His voice is low and booming, and his disproportionately long fingers grasp at his warhammer whenever he is nervous or otherwise unhappy. A mere hundred years old, he is generally respected as a wise leader and is feared as a combatant.

Biography
Malager is the lord of a clan of dwarves that was forced from their homes early in his life. His father, Bregor Grimvale, made the executive descision to leave their ancestral homes in the mountains after a vast invasionary force of orcs entered the lower tunnels. The entire clan undertook a great migration, during which almost half of the dwarves were killed in the trip. They wandered for ten years, until the travel-weary clan reached the northern mountains. They discovered Skalrad, a massive tunnel system in a vast glacier, and spent many years fighting their way through the tunnels clearing it of any dangerous animals, such as polar bears and frost worms. Unhappily, his father died during this time, and he became the head of the clan at the young age of 57.

Finally, the clearing of the halls was complete, and the place was renamed Icindeep. Since then, they have been expanding, modifying, and otherwise changing the place to make it more hospitable and less appealing to dangerous polar monsters. The ice is identical to stone in nearly every respect, except its temperature, and their tools are readily usable on the ice of their new homes. Recently, expansion began, and miners have begun to delve deeper into the glacier to make their home larger.

The dwarven way of life has been changed, for there are no minable materials in the glacier. Instead, the dwarves made their way by hunting the polar bears and seals that lived in the nearby area, until recently. Now, however, they trade with caravans that come to purcase their ice carvings, which are exquisite and very expensive.

[Ragnarok]

Here, deliciously computer-generated art!



It's done now, unless I get any good suggestions, which are welcomed.

[Vaynor]

Items: Ring of Spell Turning, Staff of Defence, Cloak of Resistance +5, Royal Outfit (serves as Cold Weather Outfit)

You spelled defense wrong. That's my only suggestion really, maybe more. :P


\/ What do you mean "Ragnarok is British!"?

[Adghar]

Ragnarok is British? :o

[Ragnarok]

Ugh. Thanks Vaynor. I thought I had checked it for spelling, but I guess I missed that.

Also, how does that lead to the deduction that I am British? Defense isn't spelled defence in the UK, as far as I know.

[adanedhel9]

IIRC, in some parts of the world (including England), Defense and Defence are technically different words. One is an adjective and the other a noun, or something like that? But that usage is almost non-existant nowadays.

[Adghar]

It was just me being confused about the world. If you want to know what I originally thought, I originally thought defense was the British spelling while defence was the American way. But apparently it's just defense in any case.

[SilverElf4]

Defense (as a noun) is the proper spelling...

but, according to dictionary.com, de·fence; n. & v. Chiefly British;
Variant of defense

Wild. I had never thought about it before. Makes me wonder how I've been spelling it all these years - or did I not have a set way, instead changing it every time....

Ahem, in any case, good work Ragnarok! I like the backstory on the nomadic dwarven clan!

I would make two minor spelling/grammatical changes:

They discovered Skalrad, a massive tunnel system in a vast glacier, and spend many years fighting their way through the tunnels clearing it of any dangerous animals, such as polar bears or frost worms.

1) spend = spent

2) I would say polar bears and frost worms, rather than or frostworms. With or it generates a question, and kinda clangs against the narration, which is elsewhere omniscient in form and style.

[Ragnarok]

Ow. And here I thought I was good at grammar. Thanks Silverelf, you're right on both counts. The fix has been made.