Rudy Thundertree

Rudy wearing his Half Plate Armour

Rudy Thundertree is an NPC in the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Out of the Abyss D&D games run by Zachary Martin. He is an orphan who strives to rebuild his lost village, and restore the honour of the Thundertree family.

## Design

Rudy has short black hair. His eyes are brown and he is a little over average height for a human. His body is muscular, but he has a fairly slim frame.

While adventuring, Rudy wears half plate armour that covers most of his body, the remainder of his outfit is simple black leather adventuring gear. He carries a greatsword on his back, alongside a backpack filled with many necessities.

After taking up the position as mayor of Thundertree, he is more commonly seen wearing black and white robes or leather clothing as he goes about his day.

## Personality

Rudy is a brave warrior, he isn't afraid to confront major threats to himself. However he does know his own limitations, and will back out of a fight he knows he can't win.

Rudy is very merciful and he despises senseless death, but he understands that sometimes the taking of a life is a necessary sacrifice.

When in a group of people, Rudy tends to let others lead, only interfering if the goals of the group directly oppose his own. He is not above asking for help from others, but prefers not to do so, because he sees it as a sign of weakness.

As a child Rudy was very talkative and he had lots of friends in his village. However, after the fall of Thundertree, he became introverted and he preferred not to share his feelings with others.

During his adventuring during the Lost Mines of Phandelver and the liberation of Thundertree, some of Rudy's old personality began to resurface and he once again became more talkative and willing to share his feelings.

Rudy is of fairly average intelligence, but there are certain topics which he is very knowledgeable about, examples include: nature, swordsmanship and dragons.

## Profile

### Lost Mines of Phandelver (~1481DR)

In his youth, Droop's family were captured by the Cragmaws and forced into slavery. At this time he was separated from his mother and father, and he became the personal butler of the Bugbear Mosk. Throughout his life Droop was treated like a dog by Mosk, he was forced to do "tricks" to get food, and any attempt to escape was met with a harsh beating.

One day, Mosk and two of his fellow bugbears were ordered to travel to the Redbrand's Hideout in Phandalin. Not wanting to get involved with the Redbrands personally, Mosk and the other bugbears escorted Droop to the Guard Barrack's where they continued to make him dance and perform other demeaning acts for their own amusement.

During one of their entertainment sessions, a group of 5 adventurer's disguised as Redbrands walked through the door to the barracks, but due to Droop's exhaustion he collapsed falling unconscious. Unbenownst to him, the adventuerer's defeated the bugbears and cleared out Trescendar Manor while he lay unconscious on the ground.

When Droop awoke, he found himself alone in the guard barracks. He heard loud noises coming from the Crevasse, so he decided to go and investigate what had happened. He he arrived at the crevase he saw the group of adventuerer's standing around talking, and the unconscious bodies of many Redbrands and Bugbears.

One of the adventurers Dain, called out to Droop to try and ascertain if he was a potential threat to them. Despite Droop's obviously scared demeanour, the adventurers were initally wary of him, due to their previous bad experiences with goblins. Droop promised the adventurers that he meant them no harm, and told them that all he wanted was to escape the hideout and be free.

The adventurers agreed to escort Droop to the surface alongside the other prisoners they had rescued. Once they reached the surface, Droop thanked the adventurers profusely and ran off into the town to start his new life.

Droop found himself in a small town with no money or status to his name, so he offered his services to the people of Phandalin. He performed manual labour and foraging tasks to earn as much money as he could.

Over time he gained connections within the town of Phandalin, and he picked up some skills from the merchants of the Lionshield Coster. Because of this Droop discovered that he had a talent for leatherworking, he started by making simple clothing and armour, but later progressed to making higher quality leather gear, alongside other clothing such as footwear. Using these skills he crafted the clothes he wears to this day.

Eventually Droop set up a stall in Phandalin to sell his wares to the local people, as well as making use of the Lionshield Coster to expand his market.

A couple of days after setting up his stall, Droop saw the adventurers who had saved him walk by. He jogged up to them to once again thank them for rescuing him, and he promised to help them out however he could in the future as payment