Cliff Boulderback

Cliff Boulderback is a male dwarf brawler and an NPC in the Emeron campaign.

Cliff Boulderback is brawler and bouncer at the Unintended Corpse Tavern. He was associated with Raskin Daggermaw and helped defend him and the Joined of Vesper in an assassination attempt against them. He was arrested by the Crown for his efforts, but later freed by the Joined of Vesper and the Joined of Yotia. He later helped escort Belina Katel to Fishton.

## Background

Cliff Boulderback was born and bred in Emeron City among the small Dwarvish population. His father was never in the picture and his mother raised him alone. Cliff frequently got into fights while growing up and learned he as actually quite good at it. Not only could he take a punch quite well but he was stronger than most and had a solid fighting instinct.

To make extra money for his financially struggling mother he quickly went into the underworld brawling matches, garnering a good reputation and fighting record. He would occasionally hire himself out as muscle or for leg breaking if required as well. For the most part he used what money he got to help his mother, but she unfortunately passed away in 1149.

It was during this period in his life when he met Grak'Thul. The two struck up a friendship and would sometimes partner up on a criminal job. Their biggest score, without a doubt, was fixing an underground fight where Cliff took a dive to deprive a wealthy merchant of a large amount of gold. The merchant threatened to alert the guard but was found dead with a broken neck the following day. A bribe from Grak'thul resulted in the investigating guard declared that the man had fallen from his horse, probably while drunk.

## The Unintended Corpse

Grak'Thul and Cliff took the rest of their proceeds and purchased the Unintended Corpse Tavern. Amid the watery ale and occasional fights the tavern is known for a great deal of shady activity, all of which Grak'Thul turns a blind eye towards so long as he gets a small cut and it will not bring the ire of the Raven's Eye or too much attention from the City Watch upon him. Cliff mostly works as a bouncer at the tavern, his presence is usually enough to keep most people in line and when that fails he's not afraid to beat someone to unconsciousness and hurl them out bodily.

As some point in the the early 1150s a young Raskin Daggermaw came to the Unintended Corpse fresh to the city and looking for work. Seeing a fellow half-orc on his foray into the city Grak'Thul offered Raskin a job until he could get on his feet.

## Recent History

Years later, on the 22nd of Lion, 1159 a fight took place at the Unintended Corpse that was far worse than the usual bar brawls or occasional stabbings over a dice game. On this occasion Raskin, Beybulat Tasho, Ronald Cunningham, Zenga and Belina Katel were having a quiet drink when a concerted, coordinated effort took place by a trio of unknown parties to assassinate them.

Grak'Thul and Cliff leaped to the defense of their former comrade. Raskin and his companions were able to get away, and the assassins seemed disinterested in pursuing them or continuing the fight without their targets present and withdrew.

Unfortunately the City Guard investigated and deemed that the tavern had been harboring fugitives to the Crown. It was shut down and Grak'Thul and Ciff were arrested and installed in the dungeons of Castle Finarte.

## Jailbreak

On the 25th of Lion the Joined of Vesper and some of the Joined of Yotia launched a jailbreak effort to free the Penderghast family from the dungeons of Castle Finarte. To their surprise they found that the secret entrance into the dungeon led to the cell of Cliff. They led Cliff to the sewers to escape with everyone when they departed, but the dwarf insisted that they find and rescue Grak'Thul as well. Raskin agreed to do so, and during the jailbreak made sure to open Grak'Thul's cell and take him with them.

## Fleeing Emeron City

With the Crown itself wanting their heads, Grak'Thul and Cliff could not return to Emeron City. Fortunately Belina Katel was heading to Fishton and offered to hire them as bodyguards for the trip. Deciding that Fishton was a large enough town to start over in they agreed and departed.

During the trip they came up on a patrol who insisted they were looking for people matching their descriptions. The trio could not get away, as they were on foot, and tried to fight. They were defeated and bound to be taken back to Emeron City. Thankfully they were more than a day way and while the guard slept Grak'Thul was able to slip his bonds and free the others. Another fight took place but with most of the guards asleep they were triumphant this time. The trio sold the excess horses and gear in River's Edge and continued on to Fishton.

## Appearance and Abilities

Cliff is tough and no nonsense and grew up using his fists a lot. He’s been a regular participant in the underground brawling matches. Ugly and gruff, he refrains from speaking as he has a bad stutter.

Cliff calls his fists “the mountains” and has tattoos of tiny mountain peaks the type that might be found on maps to indicate mountains on them. He says that there’s one for every man he’s beaten to death with his bare hands. When he has someone in a position to rain a flurry of punches at them he refers to it as an avalanche.