Durkum

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Durkum is an imposing figure for a kobold, with the distinctive muscular build of his Swobold heritage. His deep blue scales shimmer with an almost metallic sheen, and his powerful frame is marked by old scars from countless battles. His eyes burn with a fierce green intensity, and his claws are naturally larger and sharper than those of typical kobolds. He wears practical leather and metal armor, much of it salvaged and repaired, with a massive two-handed sword strapped across his back.

Unlike normal kobolds, Durkum's musculature rivals that of a human warrior. Three parallel scars run diagonally across his left shoulder from his encounter with the Faceless. His scales have a unique pattern of darker blue patches that form almost tribal-like markings across his arms and chest. His voice carries a deeper resonance than typical kobolds, and he unconsciously flexes his claws when agitated or remembering painful memories.

Durkum was born with the unusual Swobold trait, making him far larger and stronger than typical kobolds. His size marked him as an outcast in traditional kobold society, where such differences were seen as unnatural and threatening. His parents, unable to understand or cope with their unusual child, eventually abandoned him to fend for himself in the wilderness near Bannon, forcing him to learn survival, combat, and self-reliance from an early age.

Everything changed when Durkum met Skreecha, a blue-scaled kobold fleeing from bandits who had destroyed her community. Where others saw his size as monstrous, she saw strength used for protection. Together, they made an abandoned village their home, with Skreecha transforming the ruins into something beautiful while Durkum learned gentleness and the joy of belonging somewhere. When their daughter Vesha was born, Durkum discovered a capacity for love he never knew existed.

The attack came without warning in the dead of night. Creatures Durkum calls "the Faceless" emerged from the darkness like a tide of animated decay, their forms shifting and indistinct. Despite his desperate fighting, there were too many. Skreecha died first, torn apart by claws that drained life itself. Little Vesha was killed while Durkum battled the endless wave of attackers. By the time he reached her, the Faceless had melted back into darkness, their grisly work complete.

Wounded nearly to death, Durkum spent three days in the ruins of his life before finding strength to leave. The journey to Verdant Hold was a nightmare of pain and determination, crawling when he couldn't walk, driven by the need to warn others of the threat. When he finally reached civilization, more dead than alive, his warnings were met with mixture of sympathy and skepticism. But Durkum knows what he saw, and he knows it will happen again.

Now partially healed but forever changed, Durkum carries "Skreecha's Fang," a sword forged from metal salvaged from their village and quenched with his own tears. He speaks to it sometimes, keeping his family alive in a world that has become cold and empty without them. Despite his tragedy, he hasn't let bitterness consume him entirely, following Skreecha's lesson that love shared makes the world brighter. He protects travelers, helps settlements, and searches for signs of the Faceless or other survivors.

In the early morning hours of Frostmoon 1, 1304 the full force of the Chromatic Council fell upon the city of Verdant Hold. Thousands died, but the Heaven's Chosen held the city and defeated the council once and for all. In that conflict, Durkum participated as a combatant because he wanted to do his part to protect the kind people who had taken him in recently. Even though his dreams had become a parade of nightmares he couldn't escape, he still held hope that he'd be able to recover and pursue the things that killed his family. The Battle for Verdant Hold was so much bigger than anyone expected and chaos took over quickly. Durkum found himself separated from his friends and stumbled upon a draconian attempting to force itself upon a young woman. Durkum roared and fought the creature, emerging victorious and saving the young girl. As he left the scene of the fight he never noticed the draconian warlord behind him. His final thoughts were of his wife and child... he was on his way to see them again, finally.

On Frostnight 2, 1304, a wave of powerful magic swept through the graveyard of Goodberry. Durkum's eyes opened to cold soil and unfamiliar sky. All around him, dozens of people stirred from the same impossible stillness, each as confused and hollow-eyed as the next. He staggered upright, legs failing him, the world tilting and wrong. His mind could not form a clear thought. The last thing he remembered was the dark behind him, and the weight of not minding it. He wandered through the crowd in a daze, dizzy, trembling, barely able to keep his feet beneath him. Then a voice cut through the fog. A voice he had carried in his chest like a wound for every moment since he lost it. He turned. Skreecha stood not ten feet away, holding Vesha pressed to her chest, her eyes sweeping the crowd, calling his name over and over. Durkum's legs gave out. He crossed the distance in a dead run and dropped to his knees in front of them, head bowed, claws pressed to the earth. He did not speak. He could not. There were no words large enough.

Durkum's primary mission is to find others who have survived Faceless attacks and warn settlements of this threat that most people don't believe exists. He wants to prevent other families from suffering the same fate as his own, using his personal tragedy as motivation to save others from similar horror. His goal is to gather enough evidence and testimony to convince authorities that the Faceless represent a genuine and growing danger to all communities.

Every action Durkum takes is dedicated to honoring the memory of his wife and daughter by protecting other families and continuing the gentleness they taught him. He wants to ensure that their deaths had meaning by preventing similar tragedies, using the love they shared as fuel for his protective mission. His goal is to become strong enough that no one under his protection will ever die again, channeling his grief into an unbreakable commitment to safeguarding the innocent.

Durkum seeks to discover the origin of the Faceless creatures and find a way to destroy their source permanently. He believes that somewhere there is an answer to what these creatures are, where they come from, and how to stop them from attacking other communities. His ultimate aspiration is to ensure that the Faceless threat is eliminated entirely, so that no other family will have to experience the horror and loss that defined his life. This quest gives him purpose in a world that took everything from him.