Description
Grugaran stands over 23 feet tall, towering over many other stone giants. His once blue-gray skin has lost all reminiscence of life. A once tall and powerful stone giant, now stands hunched, thin, and pale. His paper-thin skin wraps tightly over long frail bones. Clad in moldering robes, covered in dust, swollen joints crack with every footstep.
Rebirth of the Death King
Vargo the Fearless was the leader of Kothoorzo, a small human community within the High Forest. His people, historically nomads that traveled through the woods, lived there peacefully for decades. One day their beloved landmark, a massive sacred oak known as the Double Tree of Kothorzo, began to rot. The source of this rot came from beneath. Little did Vargo know, denizens of the Underdark had been cyphoning the tree’s power from beneath. He refused to see the landmark of his people perish, however they would not stand a chance against what lurked below. Desperately he sought help from non-traditional methods; he prayed to the gods, whoever would listen to his cry for help. Even the evil ones.
The tree continued to decay as Vargo searched for help, until one day the Double Tree cracked open. Surrounded by rot, Vargo pulled from the tree a giant green emerald that shined bright from within. Peering into the stone he could see a sea of the top canopy of tree’s ever-blowing in the wind and beyond. Feeling a surge of energy well up inside of him, he heard a voice within the stone call out to him. The faint distant voice made an offer to grant him with the power necessary to defeat his subterranean foes in exchange for his patronage.
Vargo accepted and this act of desperation allowed him to defeat the forces that plagued the Double Tree and the lands around Kothoorzo. His newfound patron followed through on his promise as they lived in peace and the Double Tree began to heal. After barely one season however, the evil returned but this time much greater in number.
As the battle waned, Vargo found himself the sole survivor among the many that had perished. The sacred Double Tree was completely destroyed and Kothoorzo had become a smoldering ruin. These lands would come to be known as the Ruins of Karse; the cursed lands. Although he felt betrayed by his newfound patron, Vargo had no other choice but to heed the call of his patron when the time came.
All was lost for Vargo the Fearless when he was forced to enter lichdom, a practice that took many years. This required an uninterrupted extension of time which he found at the Sacred Stone Monastery. In exchange for protection, they gave him a safe quiet place to perform this life-altering transformation.
Over the course of time Vargo the Fearless was forgotten. The whispers from the green emerald that once saved his people, continued to grow as did his patron’s demands. The help of his patron within the sentient emerald enabled Vargo to be reborn in lichdom as Wulgreth. His patron recognized the power that he now possessed. With the Bice Crag, the emerald Titan Stone he coveted for centuries now, Wulgreth traveled far to the south to the Giant’s Run Mountains. He ventured deep under the mountains into the ruins of a once great stone giant kingdom known as Nedeheim.
Led by his patron’s guidance, Wulgreth found the Temple in which his patron’s physical body rested. Through a ritual his newfound powers allowed him to transfer his patron’s spirit back into his physical form. What remained of the giant temple was nearly destroyed after the Bice Crag ejected the spirit of Grugaran into his stone giant body. Wulgreth, still under the servitude of his patron, stood before the ancient giant who had become the King of Death. Grugaran the Dodkong was born anew.
To this day, the mission of Gurgaran, the Death King prevails...
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