Pelwing Holgund

(24th March2005 - 20th April 2005)
Initial Sheet

He is of medium build, 6' 3" tall and weighs 192 pounds (12st), with long, straight, light brown hair tied in the back. He has green eyes and rather rough tanned skin, and wears a short, rather scraggly moustache.

Pelwing's father Rowand was a professional hunter of criminals and troublemakers, employed on a contract basis by both the Dunhaegda village fathers and the druids of the local grove. Although holding no status or position in either society, Rowand was careful to keep the major festivals, even after the early death of his wife.

Pelwing's older brother Baledor went to the bad and became a bandit; despite requests from both village and grove, their father refused to hunt him, and he remains free.

The family ancestor Merethur Haelgund was said to have quested for the Runestones forming the core of the Dunhaegda grove, but no-one now believes this.

His childhood was spent largely outdoors, learning fighting and tracking from Rowand. However, after narrowly escaping death at the claws of a bear because he didn't understand it, he became keener on learning about nature, and became an acolyte at the Dunhaegda grove. His father was initially opposed to this, but once the teenaged Pelwing had successfully healed him and saved his life with herbs, he changed his mind and gave his support.

He was single-minded in his studies, and as a result never made strong friendships. He retained a strong desire to find his brother Baledor and bring him back into the family; but when he did eventually locate his bandit sibling, Baledor rejected his advances and slew Pelwing's first animal companion, the wildcat Bron. The pair were blood enemies from that day.

Setting out to learn more of the different cycles of nature, he ended up in Erenhaven, just as an unnatural winter locked the port in ice, and the barbarians of the Quallas hills began raiding in earnest.

Together with a band of likeminded high-hearted adventurers, he accepted a commission from Anisir, chamberlain to Koannon, Earl of Erenhaven, to deliver the head of the barbarian chieftain Hesh for 1,000gp each. This was complicated by Koannon's consort, Mirran - Hesh's daughter...

Travelling north, they found conditions far more hostile than expected, with even the barbarians and wildlife succumbing to the intense cold. Without the aid of the vaeryn horse Shimoorsha, the party - especially Pelwing - would have died too. Finally they encountered a barbarian called Adrock, whom Pelwing charmed into guiding them to Hesh's village.

There they found a mysterious pale woman, Friven, bleeding the barbarian leader to feed some sort of unnatural tree. A flight of arrows dealt summarily with Hesh and Friven, whose heads were taken and bodies burned with the tree. Adrock set about making himself chief, and they parted on the best of terms. The winter receded immediately, and the group headed south again to claim the reward - one way or another - from Anisir, whom they didn't quite trust.

On the way south, Pelwing befriended the Bear-Tiger Uriong with an Animal Friendship spell. The proud hunting beast found human priorities puzzling and Shimoorsha unbearable, but accompanied the group into the city to some sensation.

Rather to the group's surprise, Koannan paid up, and Amil-Gan presented them with another commission straight away - steal an eye from the Gorgon Uldorn. This creature, atypically,. lived with humans - the pirates of Tharsus, led by one Massamar. He wanted this for a spell of some kind, apparently.

The group's suspicion of Amil-Gan increased as the shadowmage refused to tell them what he wanted the spell to do, and once safely out of the city, they changed track and headed away, abandoning the commission. Shimoorsha parted from them, as Amil-Gan could track him by their slave-bond.

The leman of Koannan and daughter of Hesh, Mirran, tracked them as they travelled, and realizing she wouldn't give up, they ambushed her, wiping out her and her six barbarian killers.

Heading for the intensely druidical Eren Woods- somewhere Pelwing had always wanted to visit - they encountered a dying dragon, Korusane, mortally wounded by Bretonian cannon, who begged Pelwing and his comrades to take her egg to the druids of the Eren Woods.

They headed towards the woods, bearing the egg, but were overtaken by ogres and a troll on the edge of the forest. In the ensuing battle, Pelwing was struck in the head by an ogre club and killed.