Waldemar

Waldemar is a balth goliath villager. He is from the small village Salmon river where he worked for his mother at her inn.

As a goliath he is huge, standing over 9 feet tall.

## Background

As he grew up, he became good friends with both Leliana and Lucas Shepard. Leliana even became almost part of his family, as Waldemar's mother took her in when Leliana's grandmother died.

## The demon war

The day before the winter solstice festival, he met up with his friends and discussed what they would do during the festival. When he was called back to work though, he met the recent arrival Shata and asked if she would tell any adventure tales to him and his friends later which she agreed to.

That same evening, the trio ignored Vincenzo's attempts to interrupt the story time. But they would not be able to ignore the monster that burst through his mother's inn's wall. Waldemar was stunned at first, but once he gathered himself he grabbed a table as an improvised battering ram to protect himself and others. Once Shata and Casia had defeated the monster, Lucas tried to get Waldemar and Leliana to quietly leave with him as he had noticed that the monster tried to go after Lucas and Vincenzo during the battle. But they were intercepted by Shata, who brought them to Casia and Vincenzo. The two adventurers told the four youngster that they would have to leave this village as soon as possible.

Waldemar and Leliana went back in to meet with Uthal, whom Waldemar explained the situation to. She was upset, but her son gave her reassurances that that they would return some day. When they returned to the adventurers, Shata had gotten them all horses for the journey ahead. Waldemar was able to help the youngsters with the horses, as most of them were inexperienced riders.

The next morning, they were awoken by the noise of the horn of a orc fist. The group headed out to avoid them, but were caught by a seperate fist who intercepted them. Waldemar once again led the youngsters on the horses through the danger. Leliana was briefly knocked out during the fight, and Waldemar was beside himself with worry afterwards. Shata and Casia declared after this that the youngsters would recieve more training on the coming journey.

The next day while training with Shata, Waldemar reflected that he wanted to learn to fight defensivly to protect others like Lucas had. Shata ddidn't have experience in fighting in such a manner, so they would have to figure out a less direct way for him to learn. During this time, Lucas suggested that Waldemar should carry some rocks to have a ranged alternative for future fights.

They travelled further north until they reached a abandoned, ruined city. While it was uncertain of how safe it would be, it was decided that the next camp would be made there.

Shortly after finding a suitable building, Shata and Casia went to speak privatly. Vincenzo took this oppertunity to sneak out to explore the city. The other teenagers snuck after him aswell, one after one leaving with the though to look after the previous one. The building Vincenzo decided to explore had a magical field surrounding it, which removed the snow of each teenager who went inside. In there, Vincenzo found several metal binders with a crystal inside each one. He took one, and then touched a larger crystal in a seated chamber. He gained knowledge of engineering from it, and at that point the other teenagers revealed themselves. Before they could explore further, loud noises were heard from the streets outside. Huge machines had started patrolling the streets. The teenagers decided to get back to the camp and avoid drawing attention. They were found however, and Waldemar was slow to run so Lucas stayed back to distract it. His attempt failed, but Waldemar was able to avoid the blows and shortly after the machine was unable to move from all of its rust and other ravages of time.

When they got back, Shata and Casia said that they knew of these machines and had hoped that their claims of danger would be enough to deter the group. When the teenagers explained where they had been though, they all went back to the building. There, Casia and Shata showed that the field would disintegrate anything that were not of an old soul. The group speculated that the teenagers may have souls over 5000 years old from various reincarnations. Afterwards, they went back to camp.

At camp, emotions flared over the recent events.

The journey continued, and the mentors would not let the teenagers get another chance to explore the city.

Shortly after leaving the city, he spoke with Vincenzo . Waldemar explained that he figured there was a hidden lesson which they had been taught which they should reflect on. Vincenzo responded by claiming that Waldemar should take over the training if he was going to be a teacher to them anyway, and kept on insulting the goliath as he was making a response. Waldemar became furious with this attitude and would let his rage out during the upcoming training, breaking several wooden clubs as he swung.

A few days of travel later, Lucas told Waldemar and Leliana that he would sworn to undergotraining but couldn't tell them any details. Waldemar was worried that this hadn't been discussed before Lucas agreed to it, so the three promised that they would trust eachother and talk about major decisions. At this time, Leliana also told them of her own dicussions with Shata regarding magic. Shortly thereafter, the time had come for Shata's test. When the test concluded, Shata told her that she had potential to learn bardic magic. Waldemar was overjoyed for this, tossing Leliana around in celebration. When Vincenzo saw this, he was furious with jelousy. He took the oppertunity to quickly go through Casia's bag, finding a communication book in her Bag of holding. When Casia noticed this, she struck Vincenzo away and scolded him. Waldemar was disgusted by this, muttering "thief" under his breath.

At last, their journey ended when they arrived at Shata and Casia's destination. The lair of a bronze dragon, whom Casia spoke with. She briefly relayed the betrayal and the importance of the youths they had brought along. The dragon studied each of them individually, adressing them by their race. He adressed Waldemar by his giant heritage, and noted how strongly he felt Waldemar's blood.

When Casia and Oceanus finished their discussion, Casia told the group that the dragon would sent them closer to Baltharn's capital, Panderom, which had been their destination all along. Everyone gathered in a circle for Oceanus to prepare the spell.Just as the spell was being finished, an being with traits of both orc and bat flew into the cavern. Oceanus attacked it with his lightning breath, but it was sent along the group as the spell finished. It turned out that the beast had died, but its presence frightened the group. Shata and Casia exchanged quizical, vague murmurs about what it could mean. Waldemar's worry took on an unexpected form, by him manifesting markings on his body and internal voices of his giant lineage. He was eventually calmed down, and group set out for the short journey to the capital.

The next night, Lucas kept up his training with Shata. But while he was in a deep state of dreaming, his real body was attacked. Another beast of the same kind which had attacked Oceanus lair had breached the camp and pierced Lucas with its claws. The rest of the group woke up and attacked. It was fought off enough that the bivouac sphere could be activated, which warded it off. Lucas had fallen into a coma, which Shata determined that he could be awoken from if he was taken to a healing stone. As such, the course towards the capital was kept.

After riding the next day, the group arrived at Panderom in the evening. As the healing stones would not available until the next day, they found an inn rested. The next morning, Shata revealed that she had bought equipment for all the youths. While Leliana and Vincenzo checked out the bought weapons, Waldemar went up to check on the comatose Lucas. When he entered the room, a shadowlike being emerged from behind the door and attacked. Waldemar fought to protect Lucas, while Vincenzo and Leliana ran up the stairs. Shata and Casia remained as more beings appeared on the base floor. The youths was able to fight it off, and when they got down Shata and Casia had defeated all the beings below aswell. But they declared that the group would not be safe, so they set off to leave Panderom. But on the way out, they were about to be interecepted by individuals which Shata and Casia recognized. Quickly recognizing that the youths would be captured if their importance were found and that they would not be able to outrun them, Shata and Casia decided to remain behind to give the rest of the group a chance to escape. Shata quickly gave directions, that they should head towards Lahal. But if unable, they would not to go through The Notharian Empire. There was little time for goodbyes, and Waldemar, Leliana and Vincenzo escaped with the still comatose Lucas.

The 3 youths decided that they would head towards Lahal but would first get a map from the closest city. They also decided that they would avoid resting in populated areas, since they had been attacked one too many times to risk civilians. During the evening of the same day the had left Panderom, Vincenzo wondered what to do about Lucas and smacked him on the head. This awoke Lucas, who told the group of Shata's memories he had witnessed but could not tell the details of how he had learned this. He also demonstrated his newfound skills from his training and made certain to the group that he would be able to protect them.

During the travels next day, they came across the carcass of a mammoth but didn't investigate as it had several axebeaks prowling around it. The group rested for the night shortly away from avillage to avoid resting within it. During Lucas watch, the camp was attacked by a yeti. The beast quickly knocked out Lucas, but the rest came to his rescue and killed the beast.