Roric

## Bio

Roric lived the life of a simple farmer with his parents in the *Feral Province**.* This life bored Roric to great extend which caused him to seek adventures at every turn. In response, his father taught him the ways of the ranger. Roric put his newly learned skills to use by slaying goblin tribes that would threaten his farmland. However one day, Roric came across a unique goblin named Grek who spoke common. The two communed over time and became friends. Years passed and one day a group of giants came and destroyed Roric's farm while killing his family. With the help of Grek, Roric killed the giants in revenge and set off into the world with a mission of slaying monsters for money. Roric spent a few years completing many bounties for monster heads and partnered with a mercenary guild on occasion for larger hunts.

## Adventures

Roric toiled around his homeland in search of bounty work for a time before he realized that it'd be a smart idea to travel to main cities. Since he was familiar with *Calnlian*, he decided to go there. However, Roric's idea of bounty work in a big city was different than he imagined as there were hardly any monster slaying jobs to be found. Roric wandered Calnlian for several days until by chance, he stumbled upon *Armament*. The two had met once before during Roric's mercenary days and caught up on life events. Roric was introduced to *Thalnik Ulmrus* who agreed to have Roric fill the vacancy that was left in their party with *Zikore Raug*'s sudden leave.

Mordred communicated with Thalnik telepathically and requested he find *Kahl-El* in hopes of tracking down the *Great Shadow*. He insisted he plans on assimilating the divine creature into his service and heard it resides in *Durgrax*. Roric communed with Kahl-El where he learned Kahl-El had a bounty for up to 1,000g to peacefully resolve the feud with the *Piszok-Zok Ratkin*. Kahl-El gave the group an arcane device to track the Great Shadow. The group fought hordes of ratkin before discovering the lair of the Great Shadow where they summoned Kahl-El to bring it forth. After a long winded battle with the Great Shadow, it yielded to Kahl-El. Kahl-El confronted Thalnik about his assumed intentions with Mordred and Thalnik was faced with a choice: Allow Kahl-El to indoctrinate the Great Shadow and the ratkin into the society of Durgrax or allow Mordred to assimilate the Great Shadow. During a discussion, Thalnik also learned of the Great Shadow's origins in the *Underworld*, its fued with Balor and that it knows something about the Blood Knights. With everything considered, Thalnik chose Kahl-El's side. The Great Shadow was left with Kahl-El to be nurtured back to strength with the promise that Thalnik could return to commune with it once restored.

Three days after the transmutation anomaly occurred, *Elder Dragon Rider Kaiden Armov* hailed the riders to *Caelum* for a third rider's commune. Roric accompanied the *Phoenixborn* to witness the riders commune. The riders also shared more trivial details of their recent efforts with which Kaiden was ridiculed by Halos about the Phoenixborn. Shortly after the commune, Kaiden reunited with the group in Calnlian to assist Thalnik Ulmrus with his recently developed troubles. With Kaiden's help, Thalnik gains a means to solve his critical problems by seeking commune with *Elder Dragon Rider Cassandra Teth* and *Elder Dragon Rider Halos Panascon*.

Thalnik decided to pursue the lead in communing with *Dathroc* in hopes of forming an alliance. Armament, Roric and *Talon* agreed to aid Thalnik in his endeavor and spend time in *Kazumi's* shop to help prepare for a legendary battle. Fully prepared, Thalnik hailed Kaiden Armov to have Halos Panascon teleport him to the lair of Dathroc through a ritual with the Great Shadow. The group was teleported and found Dathroc idle where he quickly became battle hungry and fought the party. Dathroc's attacks were relentless and brutal which caused the demise of Talon outright whose body was later eviscerated by spewing lava. Armament and Roric were knocked unconscious and died later of their battle wounds. Thalnik remained as a sole survivor, but gained the ability to summon Dathroc for a fight at the cost of his life force.

## Player Written Backstory

Roric was born to a simple farming family 112 years ago. Him and his family lived at the base of a mountain in the Feral lands. Through most of his life he toiled in the soil, growing a variety of exotic herbs and plants which his family used to make a living selling to the Calnlian Mages guild, of which they lived a day away from. It was a simple life, and bored Roric to tears. His father attempted to settle his need for adventure by teaching him how to wield a bow, hunt, and if need be to defend himself.

Roric would go out at night and slay goblins, those of which would get onto his family’s farm and steal some of their crops for who knows what. The goblins were easy enough to kill one at a time, but when there were many of them, Roric often fled.

One night while goblin hunting, Roric cornered a smaller goblin who he was intent on killing. It was out on their family farm when it spoke up in Common, pleading for its life. Puzzled by this, Roric stopped. The goblins name was Grek, and he was on the farm looking at the regents, attempting to understand them and what caused them to do the “Magic” that they do. Roric, fascinated by this common speaking Goblin ended up becoming friends with it over the course of weeks. Instead of going out to slay them, Roric began to spend time with Grek, talking about all manner of subjects. Grek was smarter than most Goblins and sought knowledge instead of causing chaos. Over time Grek taught Roric how to speak Goblin, as Roric taught Grek more complicated Common words and Grammar.

Years later, one night something more than goblins came to Roric’s family's farm. Grek and Roric were having a conversation and playing dice in the moonlight when a group of giants came from the forest. They were wearing furs and carrying large barrels of mead as if they were mugs. It was obvious they were drunk. This shocked both Grek and Roric as giants never left the mountain. They quickly hid behind cover to watch the giants making their way towards Rorics family’s farm.

There was not much to do that wouldn’t have been suicide. The giants, which what seemed to be for fun, kicked and slammed Roric’s home. They pulled his parents from their bed, tossing them around end eventually eating them whole. Grek had to stop Roric from running after the Giants. Eventually, they had left.

Grek took Roric to his village, and after long consideration, the goblin Chief let Roric stay with them for a time. Roric spent the next couple years with the Goblins, training himself, getting better at hunting, with one goal in mind- Revenge.

Eventually Roric set off with Grek to the mountain where the duo watched the Giants, learned how they acted, their sleep patterns, and how they can be overcome. Night after night, the two would sneak into the came and kill the giants as they slept. As their numbers thinned, the giants became more agitated, and fought amongst each other, but in the end they were all killed.

With nothing left to his name, his farm and family gone, Roric departed from his home to seek adventure and glory in the hopes of slaying great beasts and monsters. Grek on the other hand did not wish to join him, saying that no one will see him the way Roric sees him, that he will always just be a goblin and that he needs to stay with his kind.

So Roric set off with a heavy heart after saying farewell to his best friend with the hopes of crossing him again some day.