Gretal Owlwood

Gretal Owlwood never had a normal life. Her mother claims that ever since she was born, strange things would always happen around her: flowers would grow where they normally wouldn’t, everything would just be soaked with no water even in sight, other dwarves around her would temporarily shrink in size, anything. As she grew up and learned, she began to read magic spells she could use and practiced them, but these too came with more strange consequences. Some would be harmless, just small things that went away as fast as they came, but some were dangerous and Gretal’s mother tried to keep her away from others. From a young age Gretal would always ask if something was wrong with her, if she was a freak and should just leave their home in Bergethem. Her mother always insisted that she was simply gifted, and the random effects were something she picked up from her father. Gretal never knew her father, and whenever she asked her mom about him, she would avoid the question and cover herself, like something was very wrong, eventually Gretal stopped asking, knowing it would make her mother uncomfortable. When Gretal was 40, she had gotten some of her magic under control and was able to play with the other dwarven children without the parents fretting over them, but once they were playing in the snow covered mountains. They were making snow forts, snow dwarves, and a snowball fight ensued. Gretal managed to avoid many of the snowballs thrown at her, but when one hit, it didn’t hurt, and when she threw one gently at a friend to throw at someone else, she knocked them off their feet and bruises formed on them. She ran over to make sure they were ok, when they got up, looked at her and started laughing. Gretal felt her own jaw and felt hair. She rushed to a thawed out pond and looked at her reflection, where she now had a short beard. She ran home in tears, with her and her mom trying everything to take it off, but nothing would work. A knock at the door alerted them as Gignowynn Lavacoat, one of the council of 14 in Bergethem. She heard of what happened, and offered Gretal to train with her to develop her magic even further, claiming the beard as just a symbol of her power, and wove a small crystal into it. It would concentrate her magic and make it more stable and controllable. Gretal would become Gingowynns apprentice, and begin to learn wizard evocation spells to add to her arsenal of sorcerer spells. Slowly with studying and training, Gretal would become a powerful spellcaster, and would soon become respected in her home.