Hwyll Oltha

"Pursuing one's own path is to uphold that unspoken oath you make to yourself for simply being alive."
==Skills==
*Knowledge (Planes) 15
*Knowledge (Nobility) 14
*Knowledge (History) 17
*Knowledge (Arcana) 15
*Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 15
*Knowledge (Nature) 16
*Perform (String) 12
*Perform (Oratory) 15
*Perform (Sing) 14
*Spellcraft 10
*Heal 10
*Profession (Naturalist) 9
*Appraise 9
*Bluff 8
*Intimidate 13
*Handle Animal 9
*Ride 6
*Climb 11
*Swim 11
*Diplomacy 7
==Feats==
*Augment Healing
*Combat Casting
*Weapon Focus (Earthbreaker)
*Prodigy (Oratory, Sing)
*Intimidating Prowess
*Power Attack
==Equipment==
*Head:
*Headband:
*Eyes:
*Neck: Lifefire Amulet
*Shoulders: Cloak of Evasion
*Body:  Jacket of the Sevenfold
*Chest:  
*Belt:
*Wrists:
*Hands:
*Ring 1: Ring of Protection 2
*Ring 2:
*Feet:  Boots of First Blood
*Armor: Tribal Vestments
*Shield:  Sky Ward
*Weapon 1:  Wylhorn's Guard
*Weapon 2: Sure-Striking Warhammer +1
*Wonderous Item:  Siren's Hymn
==Spells==
#Cure Light Wounds, Remove Fear, Identify, Comprehend Languages, Ironthunder Horn, Focusing Chant, Moment of Greatness
#War Cry, Tactical Percision, Mirror Image, Gallant Inspiration, Cure Moderate Wounds, Fox's Cunning
#Good Hope, Haste, Cure Serious Wounds, Reviving Finale
==Abilities==
Naturalist, Bardic Knowledge, Bardic Performance, Lore Master, Magic Lore, Strategic Training, Tactical Awareness, Low-light Vision, Natural Armor, Relentless, Legendary Discipline, Gore, Skill Training
==Biography==
Hwyll is very open about most aspects of his background and will talk into the small hours of the night about the things he has seen in his life already.  Hwyll is the eldest son of the Warlord of Vaan, a major settlement in southern Harkaz.  As the eldest son, he was much expected to continue in his father's martial legacy and so was trained from a young age in the basics of combat and how to use weapons where he favored hammers "because they are absurdly simple to use and wield".  He showed much aptitude with battlefield tactics and strategy at a young age and studied many battles and wars in his father's study much to his father's delight considering Hwyll's lack of interest in learning the physical art of war.  However, Hwyll's true interest in these readings had nothing to do with an interest in war but more an interest in the fact that he learned much about the history of the south and found he loved to read - a fact that he kept from his father as much as possible by sticking to subject matter he would take approval in as much as possible when he was seen.  When not, he was constantly purusing the vaults and libraries of Vaan reading everything and learning everything he could; taking meticulous notes of everything he learned and found interesting.  He especially developed an interest in the natural world and studied it along with his histories as much as possible in secret. 
Eventually when he reached a mature enough age his father sent him south with a large contigent of troops for his 'first command' of which his father was very proud to send him on but Hwyll was very loathe to leave on.  However, he dutifully took up his hammer and led his soldiers south to Finturi where the Confederacy of Harkaz had interests in helping defend an allied trading partner from a rival - particulary since the trade rights would belong solely to Vaan, a point of payment his father had haggled for strongly.  Despite loathing what he was going to, he was determined to try and do his father proud in the end and his reputation of being a prodigy tactician made his generally young and green soldiers very boastful of what they would accomplish.  Hwyll led his troops in battle against his father's enemies - mostly from the sidelines where he would lead them and give them encouragement and direction.  In his spare time he spent a lot of time with the tribe's shamans learning much about the natural world and the arts of healing and he learned to shape the spells he had been studying back home.  He rarely led any sorties personally which made his men question what kind of minotaur their leader's son really was, but in the end his knowledge, talent and growing affinity with spells led his troops to victory after victory.  Towards the end of his campaign he was forced to enter hard melee for the first time in a pitched battled when he had to defend the tribe's main camp.  The tribe's shaman was sorely wounded and it was Hwyll who used his new knowledge and abilities to save his life.  Hwyll learned then that he had little stomach for his father's craft and never would.  The shaman gave him a specially enchanted piece of their wooden tribal armor as a gift as he went on his way home.  Upon his return home, he soured his father's good mood by declaring his desire to not be his sucessor and his true passions in life.  In the resulting argument, Hwyll told his father good-bye and left. 
Since, he has travelled most of the countries in the south acting as a Caravan Guard where the merchants thought much of having a minotaur on hand even though he rarely did anything.  Even when he was forced to wander alone he was rarely ever bothered and says, "When you're a minotaur you don't have to be a particularly skilled warrior because everyone already assumes you are and will think better of trying to steal from you with a little show of how you intend to scrap their innards from your hooves when you've done with them.  Even if you don't mean it they tend to believe it and run."  During his travels he has also done good deeds and helped those he could and has since even learned to ride a horse to tutoring a knight's son in Eblund and was gifted with a prized Shire Bay, the largest draft horse available and the only one large enough to be able to bear his weight for any length of time.  He also has a large war dog he has kept as a pet for a few years that was gifted to him as a pup while he was travelling through the Goldloop after helping a lordling repair his wagon and escorting him to his lands before the border war in Rheene.  He met the party after the Battle of Rheene when he was asked by a caravan heading for Portiri to hire other caravan guards.  After they dealt with Sawleb the Strong and his band of renegade giants who had traveled down from the north to loot what they wished from the 'lesser folk', he asked if he could accompany them on their journey to see all the places they would go and recite their tale - particularly when they made it evident that they were heading for the Smeltgar Wastes.
==Personality==
Hwyll is curious about just about anything and everything and always eager to learn more when he can which was one of his motivations in asking to join the group.  He is also an avid collector of tales and full of a desire to see as much of the world as possible.  He is good natured, talkative, and slightly eccentric.  He is also unusual for his a member of his people in that he usually finds the martial pursuits boring and wasteful.  He fully recognizes that he is a walking contradiction in terms and fully embellishes in himself in the role, finding it amusing.  As such, he can sometimes be goaded into doing more 'Harkish' things like smashing and squashing foes for the fact that he finds amusment in overembellishing a stereo-type and even happily mocks himself in the process for the amusement it brings himself and others.  Hwyll is happy to help others and will talk you into obilivion if you let him though it is all in good spirit as generally doesn't seem to have an apathetic bone in his body.  Despite his odd personality, he is popular with nearly everyone he meets and gets along well with everyone in the group, particularly Krisken and Thrym who enjoy his amiable and forthright nature.  While Abernathy generally keeps his space from Hwyll from not wanting to be bothered there is no real animosity so much as just a difference in personality which Hwyll generally acknowledges when he thinks about it.  Thus far no one has seen him angry or upset and all Hwyll states on the issue when asked is that he 'doesn't like it' and nothing more which is unusually abrupt for him.  His choosing of Heska as his deity seems an odd choice given his past and chosen vocations but he adds that she is also a god of oaths and the first oath anyone should make is to remain true to themselves.
==Fighting Style/Preference==
Despite his size, strength and heritage, Hwyll generally prefers to avoid the front ranks when possible - favoring the back most or middle most files in the group.  While strong and trained in the basics tenets of melee combat, Hwyll prefers more to support his allies in battle and provide them with valuable insight to win the day.  As such, Hwyll's repitoire of spells delves mostly into ones that help keep his allies on top in a fight.  These run the gambit from tactical and combat buffs to outright heals which makes him the second strongest support healer amongst his allies.  Even his self buffs and combat spells tend towards helping keep the line in a desperate situation.  While this may seem to make him weak in combat, Hwyll IS still a minotaur and fully capable of crumpling the average human into paste if he feels the need.  In keeping with his eccentricitys, he is prone with responding to someone's direction to attack with something along the lines of, "Very well then, whom would you have me squash?"  Though while Hwyll has learned well the sheer effect of seeing one of his people ready for battle has on others, his mastery of appearing more threatening than he really is mostly taken from his desire to not fight if possible.  Further, while many members of the party have a wealth of battle experience Hwyll is the only one who has led troops on a large scale or for a prolonged campaign and they have already drawn upon his experience in this field to great effect [and Hwyll's discomfort at having so much pressure stressed to his abilities].   
Category:Noteworthy People