Character 95 - Keeler Frot

I really enjoyed writing this week’s character. This is one of those times when the random bits really just coalesced into something right from the get-go. The only problem was that I had half of this background written and I still couldn’t figure out what class to choose. Although the character’s intelligence was extremely high none of the actual casting classes made sense. He also had a high enough wisdom to be a divine caster but nothing there sung to me either. Eventually I found just the archetype that I was looking for in the investigator class, the majordomo.

Keeler Frot

Lord Hugrin Firebelly was a good and honorable man who chose to live the life of a full-time crusader. As the tenets of Angradd say, “passivity gives evil a chance to thrive and spread” and so the dwarven lord left his lands in the hands of his sons and set out to find evil to thwart.

He didn’t go alone, however. Being a lord he still had a certain life he felt he deserved to live, and on the road with him came squires and servants of all kinds. His retinue included more than just dwarves and among his servants was an orc man and his human wife. These two had made a home on the dwarf’s lands when no one else would have them, and when he left on his personal crusades they opted to head off with him.

Keeler was the duo’s first and only child. He was born on the road when the lord was traveling to the front in Lastwall. He was born rather sickly but the clerics on in the lord’s retinue saw him survive the rough childbirth. The young half-orc grew up to be big, although not strong, and a bit flabby around the middle.

The young boy’s heritage and immensity saw him teased and bullied a lot as a child. It didn’t help that he didn’t know how to communicate the way others did. He missed social cues that caused him even more trouble. This drove him to a life buried in books. The tomes never talked back or teased him.

His mother died when Keeler was only eight. She contracted an illness and although the clerics were able to cure the disease once they discovered it, it had eaten away at her body from the inside. She passed not long after the sickness was actually cured but nobody resurrects a peasant even if they had the ability to.

Keeler’s life always seemed to be in disarray. Chaos came from all the traveling and he began to keep his life as ordered as he possibly could; everything in its place and a place for everything. After the death of his mother, this habit became even more pronounced and he had a hard time dealing with anything that was out of order. Whereas this organization was helpful in many situations it tended to grate on the others around him.

In Ustalav there was a battle against a cult of Urgathoa worshipers. Members of the church of Angradd had alerted the lord to the evil afoot and he went without delay. The cultists were crafty and had no problems with civilian casualties in their reach for undeath, and although the group was eventually routed, Keeler’s father fell when he jumped in front of a poisoned arrow meant for Lord Firebelly. And so at age twelve the young half-orc was without any family.

Because Keeler’s father was so dedicated to the Lord – having gone as far to give his life for him – he took the now almost grown man under his wing. Lord Firebelly tutored the boy in the ways of his patron, Angradd. Keeler took well to the idea of tactics, as it seemed very orderly to him, but the battlefield appeared to destroy all that order. The half-orc took up the worship of his liege’s deity but he would never make a good paladin.

What Lord Firebelly did discover was the Keeler had a way with the organization of his schedule and apartment, so he tested a theory and saw that his pupil also could get his household staff to move things along. Although he had a tendency to ruffle their feathers when giving orders, the lord took him on his chief steward.

Things around the camp got done faster and with more precision, but in the first few months he lost a lot of staff who couldn’t put up with Keeler’s seemingly uncaring attitude. Lord Firebelly wished to keep his staff but craved efficiency, so he gave Keeler an assistant: a young dwarf lass with a gift for gab who was the daughter of one of his knights. Keeler would come up with the plans and she would give the orders.

Lord Firebelly’s retinue has settled in Mendev where Keeler’s liege believes the greatest battle for Golarion will be waged. The half-orc now has a proper household to attend as well as briefings on tactics for his lord’s forays into The Worldwound. Life on the front isn’t so bad now that Keeler has found his place.

How did your half-orc turn out? What class did the random rolls suggest? Where did he grow up if not one specific town? Who was the liege lord that mentored him? How does a half-orc worship a dwarven deity?

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