Ukrom

Ukrom the Skinner
Full Name:	Ukrom
Party:	The Village Butchers
Class and Subclass Info:	Barbarian, Path of the Beserker, Level 8
Status:	Deceased
Race:	Half-Orc
Date of Birth (Age):	4-2483-9-11 (19)
Physical Description:	6ft 5", Heavily built with several scars visible across his forearms and upper chest. Bald head, dark brown eyes, two short tusks protruding from his lower jaw.

Ukrom was introduced to the party consisting of Bob, Dog Cena, Thoradin and Hikaxe upon their initial venture into the underdark. He was found suspended upside down in a small webbed off room, guarded by a pack of chitines led by a choldrith. After having been freed and offering his services to the party, Ukrom went on to crush the Duergar beneath Glendara, massacre the village of Irci, and assist in the closing of the well in Etinmere. Ukrom met his demise after the party returned from the fade for the first time and were sent to the city of Mel Shenshir. He fell in one-on-one combat against The Ashen One in the arena located within Hellhound's Farthing. His corpse remains within the party's bag of holding to this day.

Early Life

Ukrom was born to a clan of orcs out in the desert between Klurikon and Mel Shenshir. Having been born to an orcish mother named Vokash and a human father, Ukrom faced much harassment and physical punishment from his orcish clan for the first few years of his life. Ukrom was sheltered by his mother until the age of three, the point at which younglings of the clan are expected to learn the fundamentals of clan life. Ukrom's half-orc nature was not ignored by the other children as they ostracized him from the moment they were taught how. Ukrom's rapidly growing physcial abilty and self reliance over the next few years eventually precluded further physical harassment from his peers by the age of five. This unmatched might lended itself well to the agreement between Ukrom and the other younglings, wherein Ukrom said that if they left him alone he would promise not to snap their necks.

At the age of eight years old, as is customary for males in the clan, Ukrom was tasked with defeating one of his peers in one-on-one combat to demonstrate his physical prowess. The clan, still viewing him as anathema to their proud orcish heritage, pitted the chief's youngest son, Durzam, against him in an effort to discredit and remove Ukrom once and for all. Ukrom and Durzam did battle with their weapons of choice in a fight that Ukrom was set to lose from the beginning. Despite the odds against him, his intellect coupled with his unbridled fury saw Ukrom defeat Durzam in combat to the outrage of the rest of the clan. Finally feeling some pride in himself, Ukrom stepped forwards before the chief to recieve his offical assignment as a full member of the clan. Ukrom was instead booted 15 feet backwards into the fighting pit, where the chief himself beat Ukrom within an inch of his life, spitting on his barely breathing body. "You will never be one of us", he growled as he returned to his tent. Vokash supressed her tears as she carried Ukrom back to his tent. Hours later he awoke, bloody and broken, and he asked his mother one final time with what little strength he had, "please tell me, I need to know who made me like this".

Ukrom learned, much to the pain of Vokash, that his non-consensual conception was a result of a malicious man that had drugged her in Mel Shenshir. Vokash had joined a group of orcs from the clan for celebratory drinking within the city after having brought low a particularly large sand worm. In her inebriated state, this man took advantage of Vokash's lack of awareness and unknowingly became responsible for Ukrom's years of social torment and Vokash's years of guilt. Ukrom and Vokash decided it was no longer safe for him to remain with the clan, so he planned to wander out into the desert and continue on as a nomad. Vokash, fearing for his safety again, pointed him in the direction of a ruined city south of their orc stronghold where he might hunt and scavenge in safer grounds and seek refuge from the elements. Ukrom departed for Klurikon early the following morning and found himself reaching the city within the week. Ukrom met a group of bandits within the city, and quickly earned their respect as a proficient hunter, scavenger and fighter. He was taken in by the group known as The Ravagers and became good friends with them over the three months they spent hunting and scavenging within the city. Ukrom and his new friends often ran into a shadowy bird-like creature by the name of Filip amongst the ruins of Klurikon. He possessed abilities and knowledge beyond that of The Ravagers, allowing the two parties to establish a working relationship. The Ravagers revealed over the months that they were acolytes of Erebos, and taught Ukrom what they knew about the god of the dead. Ukrom had never felt particular joy or discontent in ending the lives of animals or people, but the idea of dedicating kills to Erebos was a comforting idea.

With Ukrom's skillset The Ravagers were formidable enough to survive further out from the ruined city by preying on weaker bandit groups and lightly protected trade caravans. The Ravagers enjoyed their freedom and wild success for the next five years, pillaging caravans, raiding encampments, and looting small settlements across the Fortenmar desert. By the age of 13 Ukrom had become a devout follower of Erebos, dedicating every kill of beast, man or abomination to the god of death. The pride he felt in his perceived divine purpose prompted him to convince the rest of The Ravagers to expand their territory southwards towards the Sidhe. Buying into Ukrom's increasing zealotry, The Ravagers headed south from Klurikon until they found a group of seemingly unsuspecting travellers around a campfire. They fell upon the travellers with their ferocity, but found that their strikes passed through the forms of the travellers harmlessly. Ukrom, confused, looked to the rest of the group just in time to see the four of them drop to the floor unconscious. Ukrom shortly followed.

Ukrom awoke with his wrists and ankles bound by manacles in a lightless, stone hewn cell. The rest of The Ravagers were unconscious on the floor beside him, with only one other figure seemingly awake looking directly at him from the other side of the bars. The slender humanoid before him got up, with a cruel smile, and retrieved what appeared to be three more of his compatriots. The Ravagers, at least those who survived, endured almost a year of torture for what their captors described as "their hubris". Physical and arcane means of punishment were delivered anywhere between several times an hour to once a week. For the days or even weeks The Ravagers did not receive visits from their captors, they were forced to contend with disease and starvation. After 11 months only Ukrom had survived in the cell, forced to use his former friends as bedding to ward off the harsh winter weather. On the anniversary of their capture a distant memory came to Ukrom in the form of a shadowy bird creature at the door of his cell. Ukrom tried to wake himself up and shake this illusion of his mind, but the bird creature pried open the door and helped Ukrom to his feet. It took some time for Ukrom to realise that he had just been rescued from his living hell and the bird creature, Filip, began assisting Ukrom away from his stone cell in The Sidhe and towards the city of Mel Shenshir.

Almost a month it took Ukrom and Filip to stumble towards Mel Shenshir, as the half-orc had very little strength to walk and almost none to defend himself with. Filip delivered Ukrom to The Simic Combine so that he could recieve the life saving treatment he required, though Ukrom never had the chance to thank him nor ask him why he had saved him. It took a period of two weeks in the care of the The Simic Combine for Ukrom's full physical recovery, though there was a lot less they could do for his fear addled mind. The unparalleled terror of his ordeal curbed his wanderlust to the extent that Ukrom did not leave the city for another two years. Without gold, weapons, or any contacts to speak of, Ukrom had only his faith and the few that had saved his life to hold on to. His saviours asked few questions of where he had been, and saw that his physique even in its malnourished form would be best used in the arena. Ukrom made a name for himself over the next four years fighting in the arena against a range of adversaries. His popularity resulted in free accomodation within The Red Candle and a friendship with one of the fight promoters in the arena. Once again his physical prowess attracted undue attention, this time from a wealthier gambler amongst the crowd. A one-on-one fight was arranged between Ukrom and a Minotaur, another fight in which Ukrom was expected to fail. 12 years on from his first doomed fight, Ukrom had grown to become unmatched by his peers in physical combat and zealous purpose, enough to slay the minotaur well before anyone could have expected. Victory was short lived as, that evening in The Red Candle, whispers of plans to kill Ukrom reached him. The bartender informed him in private that the man behind the minotaur fight had lost a considerbale amount of money and a valuable asset due to that fight and was seeking to enact revenge on Ukrom when he was unable to defend himself.

Uprooted from another seat of comfort, Ukrom could only think to escape westwards to look for work as far away from his previous prison and now from the city of Mel Shenshir as he could. Ukrom charted a ship across Driana's Vein with the winnings he had accrued over the two years he'd spent in Mel Shenshir. He passed briefly through Rathir, and continued westward until he found the small town of Glendara to rest in for some time. After two weeks of respite in the small mining town Ukrom found steady work in Lady Milner's mine, putting his strength to use for labour rather than murder for a couple of months. However, once terrors started springing up from deeper within the mine threatening and killing his fellow workers, Ukrom asked Lady Milner's permission to root out the source of the incursions for fiscal compensation. A contract was signed, and Ukrom headed down into the mines with his greataxe to serve the god of death once again.