Gorm, the Orcish Barbarian

# Gorm

 **Race** | [[   female dökkálfar blooded dread neceromancer 1NE medium humanoid (human, fey)**Init** +4; **Senses** low-light vision, darkvision 120 ft., Auto-Search; listen +2, spot +2**Languages** common, ancient

**AC** 17 (+4 dex, +3 studded leather) touch 14, flat-footed 13**HP** 8/8 (1d6+2)**Fort** +2, **Ref** +4, **Will** +2**SR** 11**Immune** sleep spells and effects

**Speed** 30 feet.**Melee** **Melee** **Ranged** **Base Atk** +0; **Grapple** +0**Special Actions** Rebuke Undead, Charnel Touch**Dread Necromancer Spells Known** (CL 1st):      1st (4/day)— *bane*, *bestow wound*, *cause fear*, *chill touch*, *detect magic*, *detect undead*, *doom*, *hide from undead*, *inflict light wounds*, *ray of enfeeblement*, *summon undead I*, *undetectable alignment***Spell-like Abilities** (CL 1st):      1/day—*darkness*, *detect magic*,*divination*

**Abilities** Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 18**Feats** Tomb Tainted Soul**Skills** Bluff +8, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (Religion) +5**Possessions** **Mythweaver Sheet**

 **Levels** | Barbarian 4

## Personality

As a young orc of great strength and therefore the potential of someday being a leader of the tribe, Gorm was made to participate in all the rituals of the ancient orc culture, despite the fact that he may have been both the dumbest and ugliest thing that had ever come out from between a females legs in over a generation (and that's saying a lot). However, the leaders decided to look past this, because they thought he had potential, but more importantly they were desperate to hold onto all of the sons of those that still practiced traditional orc shamanism as opposed to worshiping the dragon. They also believed that stupidity might work in their favor, because the more intelligent and reasonable youth were more likely to follow the dragon.

One of the comming of age ceremonies was a lengthy solo spiritual journey through the mountains. The approximate path of this journey would be laid out by the youngling's spiritual councilor, a wise elder barbarian orc that would have taken the youngling under his tutelage in pre-adolecence. Unfortunately for Gorm, at the time of his departure on his 13th birthday, his councilor became ill (unbeknownst to Gorm) and died a few days after Gorm departed. In fever on his deathbed, the councilor gave the scouts who were in charge of recalling younglings if they failed their spiritual journey (which they invariably did, for the dreams granted by Gruumsh had deserted the tribe) the wrong last known location of Gorm. As a result, the scouts were never able to find Gorm, and he quickly became helplessly lost in the wilderness.

In the wild, Gorm relearned the ancient tricks of survival that had been forgotten by his people after living a relatively plush life (for orcs anyways) under the rule of the dragon. He learned to listen to the beasts (plenty of whom he also was able to kill), becoming wise in the ways of the natural world (just in case you were wondering how an Orc barbarian could have a wisdom of 13). Through his trials, Gorm became injured a variety of times for extremely stupid reasons, scaring his already not so good looking body (in a way that they could not be mistaken for "beautiful" battlescars). After spending 4 years in the wild alone, by chance, Gorm encountered an orc raiding party on the way back from a successful raid, and was able to return to his people.

Due to his lengthy stay in the wild away from compatriots speaking the orc language, Gorm has a difficulty expressing himself in words. His language skills in Orcish is on par with how well an average orc can speak common. Also, he picked up a rank odor (bad even by orc standards) that follows him around in an almost visible cloud. His favorite things are booze, sex (though he's never had a voluntary partner, the concept is in fact foreign to him), and killing. Gorm is quirky in that he enjoys fine dining, which to him is whatever booze he has handy, poured over whatever raw piece of meat he just finished cutting, off of something he just finished killing. He aquired this taste during his solitude when he ambushed a human trapper far outside of normal hunting trails, who was drunk off his ass. In the ensuing, poorly executed surprise, the jug of moonshine the trapper was carrying spilled all over him, moments before Gorm killed him. Feasting upon the booze soaked human flesh was undisputedly the best meal Gorm has ever had, and since then he has tried to replicate the experience.

## Physical Description

At 6'4", Gorm is only an average sized orc (is it not uncommon for mountain orcs to be 7' to 8' tall). Though he was not the tallest orc of his tribe, he was, and is the strongest. This strength was honed due to constant training as soon as he was first able to pick up one of his father's handaxes at the age of three, which he learned to weild proficiently as an adult would weild a great axe before he fully learned to speak. Though since then he has become proficient with all martial weapons that were availible to his tribe, he still holds a special place for large axes in his battle hardened heart.

Like all males of the Deatheye lineage Gorm's head is devoid of hair; a common phrase upon the lips of the Deatheye elders over a freshly fallen foe that posseses flowing locks as they are scalping them is, "If a warrior need not posess cranial adornments to help his cause, it is best he does not, lest he wishes his skin to be a particularly good trophy upon the belt of his reaper." This is roughly translated to common, "hair help make good charm." To Gorm, being bald means he doesn't have to worry about hair, and it's good to have one less thing to worry about which is great for someone who only has the capability to worry about one thing at a time.

In addition to being bald like all other male Deatheyes, Gorm also has the signature blood red eyes which slightly glow during the night of a full moon due to the cornea of all orcs' eyes being particularly reflective and the red of the eye being a lack of pigment of the sclera (information found and confirmed from the few times that human wizards have been able to kill and examine orcs and lived to tell the tale).

* Actually he looks like a Gnoll.

## History

Gorm Deatheye's lineage ruled the tribe by birthright. He was born with a spiritual connection to the Lion, just like his father, and his father, dating back for thousands of years. All that which it entails was taken by the
dragon. With each year the dragon lorded over them, though their coffers filled, the visions
that the cheiftains and elder sages used to guide their tribe gradually became less defined, until
in the time of Gorm's sire's time, the visions dissapeared all together. The cause of the loss of this power was never found out, but two trains of thought existed, one was that the close proximity of the dragon's mighty magical energy was disrupting them, or the tribe fell out of favor with Gruumsh. As orcs are not predisposed to philosophical inquiry, (the few times that it is "discussed" it quickly degenerates into a fistfight, at the very least) Gorm isn't really looking for an answer, though he does believe that *if* his tribe did fall out of favor, the best way to gain it back is by brutally slaying all his enemies, which he wanted to do anyways.

The most important of the visions to depart was the chieftain's recurring vision of his own death.
Experienced by only the most elite of the Deatheye's, the vision of one's own death granted the orc
with a particular confidence in their relative immortality in all manners occuring before this incident.
This confidence and bravado resulting from the dream led almost all cheftains being members of
the Deatheye lineage, and those that were not did not remain so for long. For most generations
this also resulted in the one to experience the dream to kill the previous chieftain. The same can
be said for Gorm who, though he did not experince the dream, claimed to, and murdered the previous
chieftain (who by that point in history was mostly a figurehead that did the dragon's bidding), in an attempt to revive the old ways of pure blooded orc greatness. This deciet was not
particularly well executed as Gorm is far from an eloquent speaker, but since he was the strongest
of the tribe, this warranted the respect of those that respected the old ways. The only faction that
gave him any problem were the dragon's necromancers and shamen, but with the death of the majority of his tribe,
these power disputes have become less meaningful to Gorm.

Now, with the loss of his tribe and a feeling of helplessness before the might of the magics that
decimated it, Gorm must rely on Zuk to (hopefully temprarily) lead the party in the search of
magical items to defeat the dragon and take their revenge. Along the way Gorm will take every instance
available to demonstrate that he is still mightier (in physical strength at least) than Zuk, though his
wisdom tempers his responses for he feels that he needs to keep the survivors of his tribe together,
united against their enemies.