Gruthdin – Dark Dwarf Pugilist

Gruthdin’s story is one common to most Dark Dwarves who now live among the Glanbelite Drow. Like most his kin, his early life was spent in slavery, bound to the service of the Irinaxi Drow who saw his people as little more than property and tools, the first line to stand in front of the horrors of the dark as they were forced into manual labour in gruelling and deadly conditions. Over the years Gruthdin had seen hundreds of his kin perish either at the behest of their master’s commands, or at the end of their blades. Death had numbed him, and even his own mortality held little weight in his mind. Each day was simply another routine, one where he hoped he might see his end in some merciful manner, but no such mercy came. After an escalation in their work camp one day, Gruthdin was forced to defend himself when he was attacked by a delirious kindred who claimed Gruthdin had been stealing his rations and straw from his mattress. The fight was short and brutal, Gruthdin breaking his assailant’s skull with a rock shortly after the first punch was thrown, killing him in but a moment. Instead of being sentenced to death or punished, Gruthdin’s master was instead impressed, and hailed for the slave to be moved to the slaver fighting pits of Iriksha as his personal champion instead. The routine of smashing rocks was swapped to smashing skulls, subjected to bloody bare knuckle fights day after day, leaving with bruises and broken bones, only to be healed up and sent out for entertainment again the next day. Gruthdin became the prize of his master, having made him more coin in the fighting pits than he ever would have been worth in the mines. It would ultimately become his undoing, and lead to the freedom of Gruthdin who while staying at the manor of his master, came to realise a time when only his master and a handful of house guards remained in the home. He had observed enough to know to plot a clandestine trail at night, allowing him to sneak into the manor’s bedchamber undetected. There he roused his master from his slumber, before slamming his head against the bedframe until little more than pulp and blood was left. The noise alerted the guards, and Gruthdin took off into the dark expanses of Lo Fuin’s Underground. By chance, his master’s manor was being scouted by a group of Glanbelite Drow nomads, who were planning to raid it for his store of riches and food. The pursuing guards were slayed by them, and Gruthdin was ultimately taken in by them after aiding them in plotting out their raid against the compound, and instructing them where the riches and valuables were kept. This clan accepted Gruthdin into their fold after he refused to travel with the other liberated slaves to Hirika, the central city of the Glanbelite Drow. Instead, he wanted to repay his life debt to these Drow, and in turn they granted him a place of belonging: a home, even if every night his head lay upon a different rock from their nomadic ways. Now he is aiming to repay their debt in a time of need, as they come face to face with the foul spawn of Vaezirak.