Will Hayward

Master Healer Will Hayward

Physical Description

Special abilities

Scout (Stealth and Investigation) or Look-out (Perception)

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Will was a sickly baby born to nobody-knows-who, presumably in the Shire since there are few hobbits outside that lush idyll. Abandoned on the doorstep of old Mrs Snowdrop Took, a wealthy widow and an accomplished healer, he was adopted into her household. Quickly nursed back to health by Snowdrop's expert ministrations, his childhood was normal and happy... until the dreams started.
Since the age of 10, Will has been haunted by dreams of Middle Earth - a middle earth which is dark, cold and unfamiliar. He passes through a strange dreamverse like a dark spirit, watching and observing fragments he barely understands, with little to no control over his actions. A few times, he has reached out and touched those in his dreams, hoping to help them. Instead, strange black boils have grown where he has touched them. Much of what he sees features events long past, the stuff of legend, or even events have never happened.
Will ignored these dreams for as long as he could. After all, hobbits are most disapproving of anything out of the ordinary, and hate the scent of the strange around people. And so he learned healing and medicines from Snowdrop, and learned to tend the garden and grow herbs. His uncles taught him to smoke, and roll dice and drink beer. And gradually Will grew from a boy to a man - his days full of the brightness and quiet bustle of the shire, and his nights filled with secret terrors.
Finally, when Will confided in Mrs Snowdrop, who in turn sought an audience with Gandalf. Looking down at his knees as Gandalf stared off into the middle distance smoking his pipe, Will told him in fits and starts about the dreams. Gandalf's eyebrows grew heavy, but he said nothing, only asking sometimes for clarification or more information. When Will had finished, Gandalf was silent for a good long while. At length, he looked down at Will sternly, then ruffled his hair affectionately and invited him to come with him on a journey - not far, and by no means an adventure, just a little journey. After all, he said, it's good for a young man to see the world. Look how well Mr Baggins did from it.
And so Will set out, first to Bree and then to the court of Elrond at Rivendell. Will learned the healing of the Elves as well as studying their archives. It was here that he first started to see signs of the Shadow in adventurers who sought refuge in Rivendell, signs he recognized from his own dreams. For a long time he has hung back, allowing others to fight the darkness he knows to be rising in the world. But for him, the time of applying poultices is over. He realizes that he must take a more active part in the fight against evil. It's time to venture into the wild world, and bring the fight to the enemy.

Education

Dark Secrets: Will is certain that his dreams are touched and influenced by the shadow. He is learning all he can about it.

Failures & Embarrassments

Despair: My dream is too abstract and too incomplete. I'll never understand it and what I'm supposed to do about it.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Hope: When I resolve what my dreams are telling me, I shall finally be at peace

Vices & Personality flaws

Secretive: Will has previously regretted sharing things about his strange origins and dreams with others - men and hobbits alike shy away from the eldritch hints of his past. He prefers to keep certain things to himself unless he's sure that they are true.

Will is a Master Healer and his reputation as a healer precedes him. His research into Shadow lore, driven by his desperation to understand the dreams which haunt him, has already led him across much of Middle Earth.

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Alignment

NG

Gender

Male

Height

50lb

Weight

Slightly under 3ft tall