DurkDurk

## Background

DurkDurk crouched low in the bushes, stalking his prey. All was quiet but the rustling of the rabbit not even 10 feet away. spear in hand, breath steadying ,DurkDurk had it in his sights. But for some reason, he hesitated, something felt wrong today, the forest had been quieter than usual... and there even seemed to be, a different, no no no, new, a new scent. Not familiar. Taking this time to think the rabbit ran off. "agh, something is bad today" he said to himself walking off in frustration. further into the forest he went on, the foreign scent growing stronger, "what is that smell?" DurkDurk thought. Growing curious he quickened his pace. eventually DurkDurk came across an abandoned encampment, filled with tents, old bonfires, and scraps of food. Troubled by this sight DurkDurk thought it was best to report it to his tribe leader "Striped Claw" as he was called.

Making his way back to the tribe DurkDurk came across odd tracks, none of which came from any of the animals native to the forest, at least none that he knew of. Then the smell hit him, the air was saturated with the smell of blood, lots of it. To this DurkDurk knew something was wrong. Immediately breaking into a sprint to get to the cave. Upon entry DurkDurk found great bloodshed, his kinsmen slain. Their bodies strewn about the cavern's floor, many of which were in more that one piece. Initially DurkDurk thought there were no survivors until he saw a tail twitching towards the back of the cave, at the entrance to their hoard. As quickly as he could he made his way to the kobold. Upon first sight DurkDurk knew who it was, Striped Claw.

Striped Claw lay on the floor, spear impaled through his gut, pinning him to the ground. He looked up at DurkDurk life fading from his eyes. "DurkDurk" he said, "our kinsmen... are they all..." he stopped coughing up blood. "what happened Striped Claw?" said DurkDurk. "Cloaked figures, many blades... too strong" Striped claw rasped, "they stole our prize ruby... then left, you... must avenge us DurkDurk, I know not how, but you were the strongest of us..." Upon his last words Striped claw let go of the spear within himself, slit pupils dilating to an oval. At first sadness overwhelmed DurkDurk, an gaping sorrow, only to shortly be boiled over by a hunger, an anger. "DurkDurk will destroy those who killed us!" he said to Striped Claw's body, "they will pay!".

Gathering what he needed, DurkDurk set out, nothing but vengeance in mind, for weeks DurkDurk tracked the killers, constantly finding their abandoned encampments, always seeming to be leaving just as he caught up to them, and then one day, their tracks were just... gone. another few weeks were spent blindly travelling, to find any sign of the lost targets, but to no avail he found nothing. eventually after so many weeks of travelling he had almost forgotten his goal of leaving the cave in the first place, after not much more time DurkDurk had moved on, starting a new life in the forest. He had built himself a rather nice hut, at least to the standards of a kobold that is. from this point DurkDurk spent his time scouring the new forest of which he lived. weirdly enough the placed was littered with ruins of all sorts, rather odd honestly. As more time had come to pass DurkDurk had built up a little hoard for himself, consisting of many things of many varying values from pieces of trash to the occasional gold coin. He felt content.

Eventually one day in his routine scavenging, DurkDurk had come across very familiar tracks. The familiar foreign scent, he was brought back to the memory of his people, he remembered his hatred, how he failed to find the killers. His firey hatred had been rekindled. But through all this time DurkDurk had come to realize he was not as strong as his people made him out to be, he knew he had to train some how. not too long ago he remembered he had found books on... what was it again... "The Teachings of Ki and it's Potential". Realizing it was a book about how to fight, he studied it closely, learning every detail. DurkDurk trained for years, learning the ways of Ki.

After deeming himself ready, DurkDurk set off once again on his journey for vengeance. Occasionally DurkDurk ran into someone needing aid, to hunt a monster or slay an animal of sorts, initially DurkDurk did it for free not realizing he could do it for pay. After some point people began calling Durk the Slayer, or Beast Hunter, and anything related. realizing he would be able to fund himself while tracking his enemies, and so he continued, his journey for his kinsmen, until one day DurkDurk came to this one town where he met this very peculiarly group.