Ann's Story for Chris Campaign

New  PC for time off DM'ing campaign!

                Annalette, Ann for short, was raised in a loving, traditional dwarven home under the White Cap mountain range. Guided by her successful trading clan, she showed the metalworking capabilities held in such great esteem by her people at an early age. A prodigy with the hammer, her first century was spent learning and practicing her craft. While extremely strong and hardy due to long days working the forge, Ann never demonstrated the temperament of a warrior and excluded herself from all combat training. A fact she came to regret sorely when her mountain home was ravaged by a band of orcish irregulars under the command of the famed fire giant warleader, Bloodhands. Ann was horribly burned during her escape from the hold and only made it out at all due to a brilliant holding action on the part of her more martially inclined family members. Ann eventually collapsed a few hours outside of the town of Avgard and would surely have died of her injuries were it not for the fortunate intervention of a traveling merchant that happened upon her wasted form. Ann recovered swiftly after awakening in the village days later and was able to demonstrate her worth as a smith in time.

                Ann took up a partnership with the savvy, but less capable, owner of the “Drunken Flame” smithy, a human named Stordina. For the next 20 years, she maintained a brisk trade with the human merchant, a man named Topper, that saved her life all those years ago. Thanks to his trading acumen her armor, weapons, and tools have become an integral part in the life of many in the area. So reliable are her wares that Ann has become a well known figure in the community, a position she detests.

                While never outgoing, Ann's personality has changed significantly since her early years due to her disfiguring scars. While maintaining her feverish devotion to the forge, Ann has become distant and taciturn, shunning most contact and taking comfort only in her fires.

                Ann blames herself for not being capable of defending her family during  the war, a belief that occasionally manifests itself as unreasoning fear at the worst of times. To combat this, she has begun training  to be ready should she need to defend herself in the future. While oddly lacking in the ability to adequately wield a sword or axe, Ann has developed a combat style that suits her extraordinary strength and personal preference for putting large, often pointy, pieces of metal between herself and danger. This combat style, modeled on vaguely remembered clan histories of the dwarven berserkers, focuses on smashing (or smashing into) the vulnerable ankles and knees of  taller adversaries. Ann is no fool and knows her lack of maneuverability on the battlefield is a handicap that must be quickly remedied with suitably dwarvish practicality.

                Ann's relatively stable life was turned upside-down recently by a brief tryst with an itinerant dwarven priest of Hoar, god of vengeance. Drawn to his intensity and clear purpose, Ann has taken up worship of the harsh god herself with the intention of righting the perceived wrongs of her past. She has slowly been building up her resources and finding allies capable of supporting her long term mission of reclaiming her ancestral halls from Bloodhands with promises of the wealth hidden within.