Character One: Bartok Forgetoil the Hound of Dranngvit

Welcome to the first character background for a randomly generated characters. I think I've decided that the random rolls will be posted at 8pm est every night and the backgrounds will be posted at 8am est the next morning. This gives anyone who wants to try and write their own background a chance to post their own things uninfluenced by me. I do a lot of these so I should be able to keep up with one a day for awhile. There will of course be other creative things posted as they come up but the meat of the blog will be these character backgrounds.

Before we get into it, here are the random rolls in case you forgot.

The first thing you'll need to know is that I play almost exclusively in Paizo's Golarion setting. So all backgrounds well reference, people, places and gods within this setting. The second thing you'll want to know is that after a lot of deep thought about the race, stats and background of this Dwarf, I have gone with the Slayer class which can be found in Paizo's Advanced Class Guide (ACG). And without further ado I give you; Bartok Forgetoil the Hound of Dranngvit.

Among the dwarves Dranngvit isn’t so much worshiped as she is feared. You will rarely hear her name except from the lips of someone who has done wrong and hopes she doesn’t come after him. But on occasion a cult will grow seeking out those who refuse to pay their debts whether they be debts of currency or debts of honor. They see themselves as the bringers of vengeance and the necessary evil in the dwarven lands, do what others cannot or will not to keep dwarven culture honest. Bartok Forgetoil’s parents belong to such a cult in the dwarven city of Janderhoff.


Cults of the Debt Miner come and go and as long as they don’t disrupt dwarven society to much they tend to go over looked. When the oracles and sooth-sayers began to speak of a prophesied child, the called the hound of Dranngvit the call came to root out the worshipers of Torag’s sister. It's one thing to be a worshiper of Dranngvit but to be with child also meant that the exarchs of Janderhoff would suspect their child being the hound of prophecy, even in this time of lost omens. So Bartok’s parents fled, they left Janderhoff, crossed Varisia and end up settling within the borders of might Cheliax. Safely away from those who would hunt them, safely away from prophecy, Bartok’s parents continued their worship of Dranngvit in this outside land.

Bartok lived what can be considered as normal a life as possible in this land of devil worshipers with few dwarves to associate with. Strong, fast and hardy the young dwarf grew to compete in many sports and fighting competitions, the skills of battle seemed to come naturally to him. Although older than most of his peers in the arenas, he was still considered an adolescent by the time he won his first championship. After his first, his second soon followed and then a third.

His abilities did not go unnoticed, however, and one night Bartok was taken from the streets and spirited away. He was laid on a cold stone floor, the sounds of chanting rang in his ears and the smell of sweet incense burned his nose. As his sense were assaulted by the strange sounds and smells his mind was also assaulted. Bartok sought to fight it off but in the end his body was possessed by a fiend. The young dwarf’s body moved of its own accord as he fought to regain control he carried out the orders of a noble who had struck a deal with whatever devil rode his skin. But the chosen of Grannvit is not to be trifled with and Bartok eventually threw off the position that shackled his mind, returning to his family after his ordeal.

His family disgusted by his treatment turned to The Debt Miner asking for Grannvit’s aid in vengeance, but the goddess saw her opportunity to begin to fulfill the prophecy. She came to the Bartok’s parents in a hazy vision telling them that Barktok must be the instrument of his own vengeance. That he must be trained to hunt down those who owe and reek whatever vengeance he sees fit, and his first task would be to bring the noble that caused him to lose his body to that devil, low. Thus Bartok was dedicated as the Hound the deliverer of Grannvit’s wrath. Rather than out and out kill the Nobel, Bartok deliberately destroyed the nobles reputation, and then saw him stripped of his riches and his title. Eventually ending up on the streets copperless.  And it wasn’t just Grannvit that reveled in Bartok’s new found thirst for vengeance, somewhere a piece of the devil that once rode his body remained within him and laughed at the fate of its one time would be master.

Bartok kept his calling a secret from the rest of the dwarven community, and kept his little devil a secret from the rest of the cultists a Drannvit. The Hound has even fallen in love, although she can never know that he is the chosen of the Debt Miner. He leads her to believe that he is a sell sword, but most of his jobs are truly targets for the cult of Dranngvit.