Burg the Firbolg.
At first everyone figured he was your average grumpy old man with maybe a touch of politically incorrect humor. Burn was in excess of 300 years old, extremely old even for a Firbolg.
He would always complain about the members of the party who were human, making some rather ignorant generalized comments about the human race and would noticably never even turn his back on the other party members.
There was even one time when the party decided to try and prank him, waiting for him to fall asleep only to find that he would stay awake with a thousand yard stare into the fire while everyone slept.
As far as what he did for the party itself, he was their healer and seemed to be very hesitant to heal the human members, this mostly was brushed off as a comical thing. But months into the game, some of the human party members a touch tired of being treated not so grandly by this old fart decided to pressure him for some answers. After all, the players knew I was good with stories and hated meme characters, I wouldn’t have made him like this for nothing. They knew next to nothing about him other than that he healed them and wasn’t very good at fighting. And finally that he seemed to worship or have some sort of affinity for a godess named the Lady of Scars who ooddly enough seemed to have ordered him to not kill himself. Kinda an odd request from a goddess buthe was a very odd firbolg.
So after much pestering and questioning, one night as the fire crackled and the party settled in, Burg had only just barley managed to not utterly hate these humans he traveled with and losing a bit of his temper replied to their prying questions.
“… have you ever seen a land… so beautiful, so perfect… so pure. A land you were born into, a land you knew in your heart would be your everything until the day you died?” He glared across the fires at the rest of the party and grumbled with a sharp yet petty agrivation.
“A land you… a kid… a tiny little thing could see whenever you opened a book about fairy tales and happily ever afters… But every time you do see those blue skies and green treetops… you smell the smoke… you see the black sails of emperial ships… you hear the screams of your kin… everyone you ever knew being cut down, raped, enslaved… horded onto ships to feed the desires of a foreign empire in the name of human superiority….”
he stared deep within the flames and rubbed his whitening beard as his voice slowly continued. “You wake up beaten and bruised in the heart of a ship with all the males of your family, destined to a slave labor mine to keep the human empire’s forges burning. And the smallest hope you find turns to ashes when you find that your shackles are loose. You can free yourself. You come to your father and uncle trying hard to free them but they break your fragile little heart reminding you that two thirds of your people are damned near crippled from the beating and even when free armed and armored couldn’t stand against these filthy creatures known as humans… then they shatter your very existence with one single request.”
He looked up and into the eyes of each of his party members. “Father’s jaw was broken, so he just nodded when my uncle said it…. ‘kill us… don’t let us live this life. You saw what is ahead of us back in the village. Don’t let us suffer that fate.’…”
He spat in the fire as he stood up.
“The rest is a blur… blood… so very much blood on my hands, my kin… my very own family. And once it was done, I turned that salvaged sword on myself. And as I lay dying on the deck, I could hear them… complaining that their ‘property’ had been taken from them. ‘oh! this one’s damaged, just throw it overboard.’ ‘can’t believe we lost so much cargo!’ Then the lady of scars plucked me from the waters… her job is to punish and judge kinslayers… I never thought I’d see a god cry… but when she all but forced me to forge a pact with her… I didn’t care, my life was already over. I only regret not being able to die. So I’m sure that if you humans aren’t really so bad, you’ll excuse me for not wanting to trust or thank you.”
Burg’s story just recently ended. But there is a bittersweet touch, he was confronted for his task, for his party’s task. In order to proceed forward, he was forced to confront his sins, his pains and resolve them or he would not be able to pass and continue on the quest.
It was after months of adventures and experiences with his human counterparts. I personally didn’t think he had what it took. So I rolled a wisdom save to see if he as a character could overcome it.
And so before a holy power staring down at him judging him.
Burg forgave himself for killing his family.
He forgave himself for his desire to die
He forgave humanity for what they did
He forgave… and let it all go.
Sadly, poor burg died the very next session. He perished without a chance in the world. But we know that the Lady of scars is taking him to his kin, taking him to those he lost on that painful day nearly three hundred years prior.
[zombify_post]
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