Fargrym Frostbeard Backstory

Childhood:

Born in the wilds of Icewind Dale, just outside of Bryn Shander, to Fara (mother) and Grymryr (father). Spent the first two decades of his life traveling with his parents as part of a Goliath tribe led by Bloodcicle The Frozen.

Legend has it that Bloodcicle The Frozen earned his name after being discovered completely frozen within a small pond when he was a teenager and regaining consciousness once he was freed by a family of mountain dwarves nearby. Bloodcicle then made it a point to spend the rest of his life repaying their kindness to others around Icewind Dale by offering the help of his tribe in performing odd jobs in exchange for food and supplies for his tribe.

Fargrym contributed to the tribe in any way he could from a young age by first working as a delivery boy in the towns the tribe would visit to resupply their treks around Icewind Dale, and then eventually discovering his skills with a crossbow as he started joining the hunting crews to find food.

Adulthood:

Fargrym, at the age of 20, after showcasing extraordinary adeptness at hunting and surviving, was selected to lead his own hunting crew that consisted of him, his parents, and other promising members of the tribe.

During his 23rd year, Fargrym was leading the hunting crew on a job picked up in Easthaven to eliminate a den of Owlbears that had been terrorizing the town for weeks. Fargrym tracked the beasts to a cave just to the southwest of Easthaven and organized his group’s attack on the Owlbears inside. While this group of Goliaths had much experience hunting the wildlife native to Icewind Dale, they were not prepared for what awaited them in that cave. The first three Owlbears they met were average-sized adults and put up some fight but were dispatched in the end.

However, as they began to field-dress the corpses, a fourth Owlbear that easily exceeded the mass of the three adult Owlbears combined emerged from deeper in the cave. The sheer size of the beast immediately overmatched the Goliaths as Fargrym watched his compatriots get slaughtered before he could even pick up his trusty crossbow. Fara, Grymryr, and their son fought a bloody battle with the monstrous Owlbear before the older Goliaths were eventually ripped asunder by massive, feathered claws. As Fargrym lost what little blood he had left in his body, he stared down the giant Owlbear who was struggling to remain upright and lined up one final crossbow bolt aimed at its skull. The beast met Fargrym’s gaze, gave one last earth-shattering roar, and began charging. Once the Owlbear was close enough for Fargrym to feel its hot breath, he squeezed the trigger of his crossbow and lodged a bolt between the eyes of his attacker as its razor-sharp claws caught him across the throat and they both fell in a dying pile.

Fargrym woke up in a small tent in the middle of the woods near the cave sometime after the battle. He had all of his gear and equipment with him, but was strangely clean and lacking wounds he knew he had sustained during the fight. When he returned to the cave, the bodies of not only his parents and tribespeople were gone, but the Owlbears were missing as well. He then traveled alone back to the last known location of his tribe, but they had moved on at some point during his time away. The anger and fear of losing his parents and tribe caused Fargrym to physically lash out at a nearby tree. After a couple of punches at the white pillar of bark in front of him, he started to feel warm, which was strange enough for a person such as him, so indifferent to the frozen tundra he grew up in, but this was a warmth akin to feeling your blood boil from within your body.

As his body began to explode with heat, he continued to batter the tree with his fists and only began to slow his action when he noticed tiny blue barbs protruding from the skin on his arms and his fingernails blacken and elongate. As he stared at his arms, confused, he watched as the barbs continued to press outward and fade into white, eventually beginning to widen and flatten into feathers. His already tall, built frame began to enlarge and soften as a combination of white fur and feathers covered his mostly naked body. He panicked and began stumbling through the forest on now massive, clawed paws until he ran upon the edge of a frozen lake. The surface was so perfectly frozen you could see the reflection of the surrounding trees in perfect likeness. As Fargrym cautiously leaned over the edge of the lake, he was met with a reflection of himself that he did not recognize. Where there should have been a younger, chiseled Goliath, there was instead a hulking snowy Owlbear.

The remainder of Fargrym’s twenties and some of his thirties were spent trying to understand his new affliction and how he could control it. Around his mid-30s, Fargrym finally felt comfortable enough with his newly acquired powers to try and rejoin some sort of society. He ended up at the town of Good Mead and reconnected with the owner of the mead hall in town who he had run deliveries for when he was a kid. Just wanting food and shelter, Fargrym took a job serving mead at the hall to help out the owner who desperately needed reliable staff. At 48 years old, Fargrym currently works at the mead hall in Good Mead and is known for his excellent service, friendly smile, and jolly disposition.