Hawkstone: The Archetype of a RANGER + the Tragic Life of One of My Earliest NPCs

the curse sickened him and he collapsed in the swamp and would have drowned but by leiki sent her unicorn Steed to save him and that Steed was the goddess laru hawkstone a Ranger's life in the old gray box the box set that introduced the Realms to the world as a campaign setting and not just my campaign referenced in my articles in the pages of dragon I provided an array of non-player characters movers and shakers in the setting some were featured in later products but for others the box set was

their only moment on stage and many of them have interesting stories both before and after the snapshot provided by those pages in the box set one of these is the Ranger hawkstone that's not his real name by the way it's just what he went by after he fled an unhappy youth in teer as the youngest third son bullied by a tyrannical Noble father hawkstone was born rri dugall but never used that name after heading east as a 14-year-old stowaway on a caravan Bound for tazir hawkstone is interesting b

ecause he had a busy life with lots of twists and turns and enough adventuring exploits to spawn scores of Tavern Tales which they did all over the vast and The Dales Cormier and sambia one can hear old Tales of hawkstone being retold over the later tankards rri dugall was discovered by the Caravan merchants not far out of tether but he paid handsomely for his passage with Dole coin he brought with him in the form of six money belts worn under his clothes when asked his name he replied hawkstone

just hawkstone as he'd hidden in a wagon lying down behind crates stamped Ember and hawkstone fine ironware this was a long vanished a Catlin firm that made pots pans and lids for say its Partners also had interesting lives but we'll save them for another time when the Caravan broke up in tazir hawkstone sought back room work so he'd not be seen by many passing folk and perhaps recognized and hauled home he found it as a Bellow's hand at the large local Smithy of vendor's Forge Works where he b

efriended the night shift Smith Bon T swords when idles vendor went bankrupt and creditor swooped a year later belar departed to found his own smithy and took hawkstone with him where for a decade hawkstone labored nightly so at last bin could work a a day shift and sleep when the sun did and discovered his natural aptitude for forging tempering and finishing Blades by the time nightchill fever abruptly carried off beler and his wife Nan hawkstone was an accomplished swordsmith he took over the

Smithy renamed it the Hearth of the sword and made swords producing only durable long swords and short swords in such bulk that Caravan merchants took to stopping by and buying up all of his stock or trading ever better steel bars for it Hawk Stone's Fame grew as his blades spread across the heartlands Cormier and into sambia for a time a hawkstone blade commanded double the normal price he loved his work and devoted himself to it and might have gone on producing swords for the rest of his life

had a certain client not stepped onto to his Forge floor if you're enjoying this video please leave me a like or subscribe if you want to see other videos in the future please hit the Bell icon and if you want a steady stream of Realms lore please John out to my patreon Ed Greenwood on patreon and consider becoming a protector of the Realms the tall quiet Darkly beautiful Ranger Lor aland who broken one blade and lost another in a desperate fight against a hobgoblin raiding band and was seeking

Replacements hawkstone was smitten on sight and gifted her with what he considered his best blade she responded by bringing six friends to the Smithy to buy weapons and when they left hawkstone impulsively followed her letting his Forge die untended it was as well for her that he did as lay was attacked by nin sent us assassins near her rented lodgings when alone and they might have overwhelmed her had hawkstone not burst onto the scene to heue three of them down in a Trice he and Loray became f

riends and soon more than friends and when she departed to zir to return to her beloved forests hawkstone went with her walking away from his Smithy and sword making for the woman he loved together hawkstone and Laura wandered The Dales and the vast aiding the Harpers against brigin zent and Petty ruler aggressions and hobgoblin and orc Raiders for two years before they accepted a mission to escort a young and rebellious roaring horn Noble from Cormier to his kin in water deep and a new life the

re the journey involved Wild Adventures in ir aberer and scornubel and when they brought arar roaring horn safely to the High House of roaring horn the two Rangers were promptly contacted by a half elf who gave his name only as solder an undercover agent of the Lord's Alliance who offered them high pay for certain diplomatic missions up and down the sword Coast they accepted though their Harper and Alliance work soon devolved into an ongoing life of wilderland adventures all over the sword Coast

North that lasted another decade and involved several trips back along the heartland's trade routes into Cormier sambia the vast and the moon sea north in the spring of 1354 Dr they settled into a Harper own Shack at top wooded Del Jax Hill north of Silvery Moon so a very pregnant lé could give birth to their first child a daughter but she died in the birthing and the child came for his dead welled with grief hawkstone buried them both and headed south alone wielding the sword he' gifted to his

lé as he sought evildoers to Hue he fully intended to throw his life away in battle against evil but staggered away from his third such fry wounded to collapse on his face in a Glade deep in the high Forest but crashed down not onto Moss but into an Embrace that plunged him into tingling magic he was in the arms of the goddess Miki who healed him and told him not to waste his life out of Sorrow for his lost love nor to return to the forge but to serve her instead preserving forests from wood cu

tters and despoiling beasts like dragons and battling evil hardened hawkstone pledged to her promising to follow her guidance and made his way alone across Fon to the dragon reach keeping to the backlands where he wandered grim and Melancholy helping those in need fighting monsters and aiding Druids elves and Harpers in maintaining and preserving forests this soon brought him into conflict with the black dragon yoth who was damning the river Liss to drown great sways of the surrounding forest an

d greatly enlarge the flooded Forest to make a larger domain for months he and the dragon waged war on each other hawkstone destroying dams and many vators of the Dragon sent to kill him until he managed to penetrate the worm's Lair take yoth by surprise and slay him sorely wounded in the battle hawkstone plundered Yo's horde in search of healing and found healing potions The Shield that later became known as hawkstone bullwark and something that bore a curse the curse sickened him and he collap

sed in the swamp and would have drowned but by leaking sent her unicorn Steed to save him and that Steed was the goddess laru laru broke the curse and not only save hawkstone she entranced him smitten he followed her and she guided him out of the swamps ear Vanishing heartened a new hawkstone became the wandering protector of moon sea folk fighting raiding ogres from thar and Giants from the great Glacier he acquired the magical derva from a tomb he took Shelter From a blizzard in during the yea

rs he roamed and fought having Many Adventures and often striding unheralded out of a storm or the night to Aid lost Travelers or wounded and beset adventurers unbeknownst to hawkstone the goddess laru was as interested in him as he was in her and one night when he was weeping for his lost laor alone over a campfire she came to him as the guiding unicorn who' saved him before but shifted to human form and comforted him to try and drive away his grief over Lor they became lovers and thereafter re

mained fast friends when hawkstone was laid low at last slain by a small army of ogres who trapped him into a Last Stand and overwhelmed him through sheer numbers though at a great cost of Thor and lives a moon sea metal Bar's Caravan was guided to his hacked corpse by a shining unicorn that tro air and under its watchful eye they laid him to rest right there on what was then a nameless height but is now hawkston Hill three Heights west of glister with his shield and sword grave robbers took the

m both years later and in doing so freed Hawk Stone's ghost to walk as a striding Sade eyed silent Apparition that can do nothing more than warn of impending attack by its appearances all over the moon Sea north so as many Tavern Tales remind us hawkstone guards against evil still and that is just a bit of the long tail of hawkstone hi welcome back to realm speak and this time around we're doing this Shanti the goddess of agriculture Shanti and Shanti yes I created Shanti and I created Shanti th

inking of her as the land what if the landscape gently Rolling Hills only they're all you know cultivated or and they have fences made of stumps and then stones and then hedro um everywhere what if what if that was a motherly figure who would open gigantic eyes and look at you that was shock and still is [Music]