Gidwin Bronzehammer

I am Gidwin, son of Toldwin, and servant of Clangeddin Silverbeard, may His axe ever shine against our enemies. 

I am a master of the forge, bending iron and steel to my will and hardening my body with each strike of the hammer.  The song of the anvil rings through the ages among my people, and each of us answers it in their own way; but we are united even in our differences, strong and stout as the bones of the earth.

I have marched with the soldiers of my race against those who would see our strongholds plundered and our people scattered.  I have lead those soldiers in battle, shared their victory songs, and sang to the memories of those who did not return to our halls.

Bronzehammer is the name given to me by my men, and it is the name I bear to honor all of those I fought and bled with.  My hammer is the instrument of my god, the fire of his wrath and retribution.  War is where I was chosen to minister to my brothers and sisters, and it is in battle that the truest heart is known, be it in valor or in cowardice.

Now I wander a land my people have never delved, and I seek to wage war against a creature the likes of which I have never encountered in all my years afield.  Strahd is no devil, as his people call him, he is something far worse: a virtual god in this accursed realm.  Five of us entered the mists; I am all that remains.  I fled for my own survival, having watched my fellows slain in the blink of an eye.  For days I hid myself, certain that the vampire would soon discover me and slake his thirst with my blood.  By the grace of Clangeddin I have lived to fight another day; I have allies that seek the same thing I do.  A day will come when Strahd rues the day he let me slip through his fingers; and, on that day, war will come upon him like the onset of an earthquake-violent and deadly.

I am Gidwin Bronzehammer, and I swear before the gods that I will not rest until Strahd is slain at my feet.