Players/Gronn Brannigan

Class
Fighter, Brute

Background
Gronn Brannigan grew up in the village of Bogbrook, known for its unusual black wine. His father was a pig farmer and a drunk; his mother was a herbalist, who was sometimes called upon by shadier vintners for special wine additives. Due to his sheer size, and quick temper, he was recruited into Lord Ittreer's army at the age of 17. Although some questioned his methods, there was no denying his results, and he rose quickly to leadership.

While on patrol one morning he was ordered, by Lord Ittreer, to leave a small winery when it was being attacked by goblins. Ittreer claimed he didn't want to risk his men, and the winery could defend themselves. Gronn defied the orders of his lord and defended the winery against the goblin attack, saving many lives. After the attack, he discovered documents on an goblin body which implicated Lord Ittreer as their benefactor.

Enraged, Gronn confronted Ittreer and was badly beaten, discredited, and sold to a slaver. Gronn spent two years in a slave-rowed ship on the Dragonmere, sharing an oar with an old elf named Vash who taught him the elven language and talked about new fighting techniques using speed rather than strength. The two escaped during a shipwreck, and Vash was able to teach Gronn some techniques. They became separated after trying to pilfer food from a Sembian trade caravan, and Vash was felled by an arrow, presumed dead. Gronn escaped to Cormyr.

Gronn earned coin as a labourer in a tavern, and split a man’s skull after he overheard him trying to sell slaves. He was promptly arrested, transported to Suzail, and thrown in a cell and all but forgotten.

When the Cormyte army started to thin, soldiers were recruited from everywhere, including the cells of Suzail. Gronn, fuelled by anger against Sembian slavers, gladly took up arms for the Widow Queen and went back to doing what he knew best. Despite his past, he formed an unlikely friendship with a War Wizard named Kal.

For two years he served in the army, earning his freedom and falling in with an unlikely band of adventurers who now travel Cormyr picking up work where they can find it. While they too sometimes question his methods and quick temper, especially their unusually good natured and unofficial leader, Ja’mie, who Gronn thinks is rather too much of a happy mother*er - they have all earned his respect as only those guarding each other’s backs in a brutal war could do.

Although it has been a long while since Gronn has escaped, he still bears the physical and mental scars from his beatings and time as a slave. He still carries a vendetta for the corrupt lord, and a hatred for the slavers of what was once Sembia.