Bruenor Battlehammer

Bruenor is the adoptive father of Cattie-Brie and Wulfgar, King of Mithral Hall, friend to Drizzt Do'Urden and Regis, and crafter of Aegis-fang. Bruenor was the eighth, tenth, and thirteenth king of Mithral Hall from 1356 DR to 1362 DR and 1370 DR to 1409 DR.
As a youngster he was forced to flee his ancestral home at Mithral Hall when the kingdom was attacked by a great shadow dragon named Shimmergloom and an army of duergar. His exiled family and kin then took up residence in Icewind Dale close to Ten Towns living by selling weapons and armor to the local merchants.

Retaking Mithral Hall

For all of his adult life, Bruenor dreamed of returning to Mithral Hall to reclaim his homeland. Along with Drizzt and Wulfgar, Bruenor set off to find his homeland of Mithral Hall. Regis joined them, fleeing from Pasha Pook's master assassin Artemis Entreri, who was sent to kill Regis and take back his ruby pendant. After many challenges on the way to Mithral Hall, the Hall was a short-lived joyous occasion. The Companions of the Hall did battle with Shimmergloom, but Bruenor set the dragon on fire and became caught on it, riding it all the way to its doom, and his companions feared him killed.
Over the next few weeks, Bruenor worked his way up from the lowest points of Mithral Hall, covering his beard and hair in ash to disguise its color from the duergar that now resided in Mithral Hall, and killing any who found him out. Eventually, he had to escape by climbing up a chimney shaft, during which he was attacked by a giant spider. Though he was bitten, Bruenor managed to kill the spider and find his way up to a vent to the outside. Finally overcome by the poison, Bruenor lost consciousness.
He awoke to discover himself in the care of Alustriel Silverhand, ruler of Silverymoon. The lady had divined Bruenor's predicament and went to help. With her aid Bruenor was able to give chase to Drizzt and Wulfgar, who were, in turn, pursuing Entreri. Covering the hundreds of miles in a flaming chariot provided by Alustriel, Bruenor and Catti-brie arrived in time to aid Drizzt and Wulfgar.
In the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR, Bruenor and his armies returned and drove out the duergar, and Bruenor set himself up as King of Mithral Hall, with a few thousand settlers from other dwarven kingdoms swearing their allegiance to him. The peace was very short-lived, however, as a small party of Drow, led by Drizzt's now-deranged sister Vierna Do'Urden and his brother Dinin Do'Urden, entered The Underdark seeking Drizzt and killed a party of innocent Mithral Hall prospectors. Bruenor and the companions went to investigate, which resulted in the rooting out of the drow. Vierna summoned a servant of Lolth, a yochlol, and during the battle, Wulfgar caused the ceiling to cave in crushing himself and the yochlol to death. The companions mourned his loss deeply, most of all Bruenor.
The death of his adoptive son sent Bruenor into a profound depression. When Drizzt left to go to Menzoberranzan to settle accounts with his people, Catti-brie saw Bruenor as being too engrossed in his own grief to be a useful companion when she followed Drizzt. When she and Drizzt came back, weeks later, their news of a planned drow war on Mithral Hall forced Bruenor out of his depression.

Drow Assault and Abdication

In the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR, with aid from neighboring kingdoms such as, Blingdenstone, and others, Bruenor and his kingdom survived a drow assault on Mithral Hall. Bruenor and his friends even sought out the leaders of the drow army: the matron mothers of the most powerful houses. In the battle, Bruenor, with much difficulty, cleaved Yvonnel Baenre in half, killing her and ending her millennium-long domination of the drow city. After the battle, they found Gandalug Battlehammer—the original founder of Mithral Hall and Bruenor's ancestor—who had been Matron Baenre's magically held prisoner for almost two millennia. The discovery of another legitimate king allowed Bruenor to abdicate to his ancestor in 1362 DR and pursue his own ambitions in Icewind Dale and the mines Clan Battlehammer had made there.

Return to Mithral Hall & the Orc War

Bruenor's time in Icewind Dale was short-lived as Gandalug died a few years after resuming his reign. In the Year of the Tankard, 1370 DR, Bruenor and an escort of battleragers under the command of Thibbledorf Pwent (Bruenor's friend, though Bruenor often displayed much disdain for his most outrageous battlerager) returned to Mithral Hall, along with Drizzt, Catti-brie, and Regis. The journey led them to the town of Shallows, which Bruenor sought to defend from a force from the horde of the orc warchief Obould Many Arrows, led by his son Urlgen.
During the battle, Drizzt was separated from Bruenor and the companions, and believed Bruenor slain. In fact, Bruenor had suffered significant injuries during the battle and survived only because of the continued efforts of the dwarven priests. The remaining dwarves managed to take the injured dwarves back to Mithral Hall, where Bruenor lay on the verge of death until Regis managed to lure him back to consciousness. Bruenor's reputation increased with his return from Moradin's halls, but he led the dwarves in a nearly suicidal charge to reclaim the river Surbrin from the horde in typical stubborn dwarf fashion.
Drizzt returned towards the conclusion of the war and, after a very prolonged and high-casualty battle with Obould, Bruenor eventually made peace with the orc king, signing the Treaty of Garumn's Gorge and proving to all in the North that he was a revolutionary dwarf, although in truth he was always very skeptical of the whole affair. His dwarven instincts about the orcs made it hard for him to believe a treaty could be for the greater good. For many years, he remained King of Mithral Hall, grumbling about his orcish colleague all the while, though he grudgingly acknowledged the efforts Obould made at trying to keep the orcs under control.

Gauntlgrym & Bruenor's Death

After his daughter Catti-brie married Drizzt, and was struck down by the Spellplague in the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR, along with Regis, Bruenor faked his death so he could leave Mithral Hall in search of Gauntlgrym, the fabled home of the Delzoun dwarves. It came down to the still relatively young Drizzt and an ageing Bruenor to continue searching for Gauntlgrym. They did eventually find Gauntlgrym, but they were not the first to rediscover the underground city and they ran into conflict that led to Bruenor's death. Bruenor died in the Year of the Elves' Weeping, 1462 DR, alongside Thibbledorf Pwent, as a result of injuries sustained while defending Gauntlgrym from the pit fiend Beealtimatuche. Before he died, he successfully saved Gauntlgrym from destruction by sealing the primordial of fire.