Thorn Runehammer


Alignment	Lawful Neutral
Domains	Protection, Earth, Travel
Favored Weapon	Warhammer
Symbol	A rune-covered warhammer
Typical Worshipers	Dwarves, fighters, monks, soldiers

Info

Thorn Runehammer is a gruff, plain-spoken god who has little patience for flattery, pleading, or grand speeches. He is stubborn and slow to be moved, and he expects his people to find their own way in their own time rather than be led by the hand. He favors craftsmanship, patient labor, and the quiet tending of things that grow over show or ambition. He enjoys a wager and a hard-fought game, and he respects those who play to win.

Thorn is the patron of the dwarves, who honor him as a king of old. He is a god of law, and his teachings are practical rather than lofty. He keeps watch over the road the dead travel, and he is counted among the gods who restored the passage of souls to the afterlife.

Divine Identity

Thorn is the god of the dwarves and law.

His alignment is Lawful Neutral, and his domains are Protection, Earth, and Travel. His favored weapon is the warhammer.

Thorn is one of the eight ascended gods who joined Demmazon in the pantheon through the power of The Five Gifts. Six ascended during the Fall of the Age of Wonders. Thorn and Orin-Kel ascended roughly a century later at the conclusion of Under the Bus.

Unlike the six gods raised during the fall, Thorn remained mortal for approximately a century after the Fall. His mortal life therefore continued well into the era following the separation of the realms.

Ascension

Thorn's ascension occurred during the final crisis of Under the Bus.

The failure of Raise Dead and Resurrection was ultimately connected to a supernatural barrier that trapped spiritual energy, preventing souls from passing normally into the afterlife or returning to their bodies. The barrier was also providing power to the plagues afflicting the world.

The cause was initially uncertain. The truth was that Marstalbin had created the barrier as a counterstroke tied to the destruction of the prison that had held Demmazon. When Demmazon was freed and separated his realm from the mortal world, the trap took effect.

Even after recovering the Green Gift, Thorn could not simply wield its power to destroy the barrier. He would have to do what the mortals at the end of the Age of Wonders had done: absorb the power of a Gift and ascend.

Orinder provided another crucial element. His unusual ability to restore the dead continued to function despite the barrier. Thorn and the others determined that Orinder's power could create an opening in the barrier that Thorn could exploit.

By this time, however, Orinder had been devastated by the death of Kelestaria and was unwilling to take on such a responsibility.

The heroes devised a solution. Thorn would split the power of the Green Gift, taking half himself while channeling the other half through Orinder. Orinder would act as a conduit, allowing Thorn to use his unique connection to the dead against the barrier.

Once the process began, Orinder saw another possibility. He seized upon the power and directed it toward Kelestaria's spirit.

The result was not Kelestaria's return to mortal life. Orinder and Kelestaria were fused into a new divine being: Orin-Kel.

Thorn succeeded in destroying the barrier, restoring the passage of souls to the afterlife and allowing the dead to once again be returned to their bodies through magic.

Thorn and Orin-Kel then ascended beyond the barrier to join the rest of the pantheon.

Mortal Life

King of the Dwarves

Before becoming a god, Thorn Runehammer was King of the Dwarves.

The surviving sources do not establish the name of his kingdom or capital, the details of his dynasty, or whether he had a spouse or children.

He was already king when Demmazon chose the champions who would wield the Five Gifts during the Korvak War.

The Korvak War

Thorn was one of the five original Gift Bearers:

Champion	Gift	True Nature
Vestal Stone	White Gift	All-Powerful
Kjeldin	Red Gift	Offensive — Evocation and Necromancy
Salendaius Moonstrike	Blue Gift	Transformation — Conjuration and Transmutation
Alantarin the Wise	Yellow Gift	Protection — Abjuration and Divination
Thorn Runehammer	Green Gift	Deception — Enchantment and Illusion

Thorn survived the Korvak War.

Near the end of the war, the surviving Gift Bearers faced the Korvak leader, a being of such tremendous power that even the Gifts could not destroy him outright. The remaining Gift Bearers combined their powers to create a trap that would imprison him in an extradimensional, extraplanar space.

Vestal Stone sacrificed himself to lure the Korvak leader into the trap. The plan succeeded, ending the greatest remaining threat of the invasion.

The Green Gift

The true nature of Thorn's Gift was itself a deception.

The Green Gift was the Gift of Deception, focused in Enchantment and Illusion.

It was widely believed to be the Gift of Transmutation.

According to Thorn, fewer than ten people knew the truth before he revealed it to the party during Under the Bus.

The actual transformation-oriented Gift was the Blue Gift, focused in Conjuration and Transmutation.

After the Korvak War

After the war, Thorn and Alantarin the Wise recognized the danger of leaving the Gifts freely in mortal hands. They believed the Gifts represented too much power, responsibility, and temptation.

The historical account held that Thorn returned the Green Gift to Demmazon.

That was a deception.

Thorn secretly hid the Green Gift beneath the Temple to Demmazon in Aegea, in the place where Demmazon had first revealed himself to the world. He allowed the world to believe that the Gift had been returned to Demmazon.

Thus two falsehoods became part of the historical understanding of Thorn's Gift:

that the Green Gift was the Gift of Transmutation;
that Thorn had returned it to Demmazon.

In truth, it was the Gift of Deception, and it remained hidden in the mortal world.

The Age of Wonders

Following the Korvak War, Thorn returned to his duties as King of the Dwarves.

He worked to improve relations between the dwarves and the other races. Dwarven craftsmanship was put to extensive use in rebuilding the cities destroyed during the Korvak invasion.

The cooperation that had developed among the races during the war, combined with the spread of magical knowledge, helped usher in the Age of Wonders.

The Green Gift remained hidden throughout this period.

The Dwarves During the Fall

For much of the conflict that brought about the end of the Age of Wonders, Thorn and the dwarves were largely absent from events elsewhere in the world because they were fighting for the survival of their own homeland.

Undead poured from deep tunnels to the north, forcing the dwarves into a prolonged struggle before they finally drove them back and sealed the tunnels.

The dwarves then attempted to warn the other nations of the threat, traveling through their Travel Gates. Instead, they encountered a massive orc army within the gates themselves. The dwarves fought the orcs for approximately a month before finally sealing their Travel Gate and setting out overland for Aegea.

When they reached Aegea, they found the city destroyed and the elven lands to the east controlled by orcs.

Rather than immediately returning home, Thorn led the dwarves north toward Menasta in search of survivors. As they approached, their scouts discovered that the city was under attack by Riatin's undead army.

The Siege of Menasta

Thorn led approximately 5,000 dwarven fighters to the relief of Menasta.

The dwarves drove rapidly into the undead army surrounding the city and helped turn the course of the battle. Without Riatin present to direct them, many of the remaining undead broke away in search of easier prey, while the rest were destroyed by the combined defenders.

Following the battle, Thorn participated in discussions among the surviving human rulers, the dwarves, and the leaders of the New Alliance. The leaders concluded that the efforts to keep the surviving nations divided were deliberate and that their enemies feared what might happen if those nations united.

To Thorn, the pattern was familiar from the Korvak War:

"Aye, it has the STINK of the Korvak wars all o'er it!"

The surviving powers consequently moved toward greater cooperation against their common enemies.

The Fall of the Age of Wonders

When the conflict surrounding Correries and the Gifts reached its climax, the Heroes of Aegea traveled to the End of the World, led by visions and seeking Demmazon.

Correries followed them to Demmazon's temple with Ulanthar, Milaynee, and his forces.

Magerris pursued Correries with his own allies: Tarmikos, Krom, and Thorn Runehammer.

Within Demmazon's temple, Correries divided the power of one of his Gifts between Ulanthar and Milaynee, raising them to godhood. Faced with Correries and his newly ascended allies, Magerris used the remaining Gift held by his side to raise Krom and Tarmikos.

While the six new gods battled, the Heroes of Aegea continued into the temple to free Demmazon.

Correries sent an avatar to stop them. During the resulting battle, Correries trapped Jack's soul within a gemstone.

The Heroes reached Demmazon's prison and sacrificed themselves to disrupt it long enough for Demmazon to break free.

Once free, Demmazon determined that the battle among the newly ascended gods would destroy the already damaged world. He separated his realm from the mortal world, trapping the six new gods with him.

Thorn and the surviving mortals fled toward the rapidly closing boundary between the realms.

Fewer than a dozen escaped.

Thorn was the last.

He was standing directly on the boundary when it closed.

Severed from Magic

The closing of the boundary severed Thorn's connection to magic completely.

He became what he described as a walking dead-magic zone.

The following effects are explicitly established:

Thorn could not use magic.
Magic could not affect Thorn.
His touch suppressed the magical light surrounding Bo Duke; the light returned when Thorn released him.
Thorn could not cross the surviving magical gateway into Demmazon's realm.
His touch later broke the magic binding Jack's soul within the Rogue Stone.

His inability to interact normally with magic was also why Thorn could not personally play Battle Chess and required someone else to move the magical pieces on his behalf.

The Survivors

After escaping Demmazon's realm, Thorn and the other survivors spent several days adrift before reaching newly formed land in the region where the two realms had once joined.

The land was barren and volcanic.

A druid among the survivors helped establish vegetation, eventually creating the forest later encountered by the party.

Over time, all of the original survivors except Thorn died.

Thorn remained.

Retirement at the End of the World

After the deaths of the other survivors, Thorn withdrew from the wider world.

The survivors had lived together in a larger lodge. Once Thorn was alone, he moved into a smaller hut because he no longer needed so much space.

He spent his retirement tending the forest, its plants and animals, and cultivating a garden.

When the party finally encountered the legendary former King of the Dwarves and Gift Bearer, they found a dirty old dwarf working the earth with a hoe and spreading seeds.

Thorn wanted nothing to do with them.

He dismissed their attempts at persuasion and pleading, insisting that their problems were not his concern and that they were disturbing an old dwarf's retirement.

Mortal Statistics

Class: Fighter
Level: 20

Even without access to magic, Thorn remained a formidable warrior.

A battle axe is explicitly associated with mortal Thorn. During the party's first meeting with him, after agreeing to speak with them, Thorn reached behind a tree, retrieved a wicked-looking battle axe, strapped it to his belt, and led them toward his home.

No name or magical properties for this axe are currently established.

The battle axe used by mortal Thorn should not be confused with the warhammer, which is his favored weapon as a deity.

Battle Chess

Thorn enjoyed Battle Chess and was both competitive and mischievous about it.

The party's attempts to persuade him to help them went nowhere until Battle Chess entered the conversation. Thorn proposed a wager: if the party won, he would tell them what they wanted to know; if he won, they would return across the ocean and tell everyone there was nothing to find.

Because of his dead-magic condition, Thorn could not manipulate the magical game himself and required a champion. He selected Bo Duke to play on his behalf.

Regardless of which side won, Thorn had arranged the wager to amuse himself: he had never actually told the party which side he was betting on.

His fondness for wagers and hard-fought games remained one of the clearest glimpses of the personality behind Thorn's otherwise gruff exterior.

Kelestaria

Kelestaria became one of the most important people in Thorn's later mortal life.

Her mother had been one of the survivors who escaped the separation of the realms. After her mother died, Thorn took responsibility for raising Kelestaria.

Thorn regarded her as "like a daughter" and was fiercely protective of her.

Kelestaria appeared to be a young elven woman, but her true form was that of a unicorn. Dew Gooder discovered this while using True Seeing.

During the party's expedition into Demmazon's realm, Kelestaria and Orinder spent considerable time together and began falling in love.

Jack and the Aegisstaff

When the party found Thorn, they were searching for The Aegisstaff.

Thorn told them that he knew where the Aegisstaff was and could help them recover it, but first he wanted something from them.

During the Fall, Correries's avatar had trapped Jack's soul within a Rogue Stone during the Heroes of Aegea's attempt to free Demmazon.

Thorn believed the stone was still within Demmazon's temple.

He had discovered a surviving fragment of the gateway that once connected the two realms, but because the gateway was magical and Thorn was completely cut off from magic, he could not pass through it himself.

He therefore asked the party to enter Demmazon's realm and recover the stone containing Jack's soul.

Thorn viewed this as a small service he could still perform for the Heroes who had sacrificed themselves. He believed that too many people had died during the separation of the realms and that his own efforts to save them had fallen short.

In exchange for recovering Jack, Thorn promised to help the party recover the Aegisstaff.

Jack's Return

The party eventually returned with the Rogue Stone.

When Thorn grasped it, his dead-magic nature broke the magic binding Jack's soul within the gem.

Jack appeared before them, alive again after approximately a century trapped within the stone.

Thorn and the party then began the difficult task of explaining what had happened to the world—and to Jack's friends—during his absence.

Return to the World

As the crisis deepened, Thorn became increasingly involved in events beyond his isolated home.

He assisted where he could and worked to foster relations with the elves.

He nevertheless refused to seek out the surviving dwarves.

The mountains where he had once made his home no longer existed, and he believed the surviving dwarves had moved elsewhere. Thorn maintained that his people were stubborn and would find their own way in their own time regardless of what he told them.

He also acknowledged that some dwarves might blame him for what had happened to their homeland and believed he might not be welcome among them.

The Green Gift Recovered

As the conflicts involving Cain, Filtiarn, and the Church of Demmazon escalated, numerous factions sought control of the Aegisstaff.

The resulting struggle ultimately ended with the destruction of The Aegisstaff.

With one of their greatest hopes apparently lost, Thorn finally revealed the secret he had kept since the Korvak War:

The Green Gift had never left the world.

It remained hidden deep beneath the ruins of Aegea, now beneath the ocean that had flooded the region.

Recovering it required overcoming the magical protections surrounding its hiding place.

Kelestaria's Sacrifice

The final protections around the Green Gift demanded a terrible price.

Kelestaria sacrificed herself so that Thorn and the others could recover the Gift.

She was killed by a death effect.

Because of the nature of her death, Orinder's unusual ability to Raise Dead could not restore her.

Her death devastated Orinder.

For Thorn, it meant the loss of the woman he had raised and regarded as a daughter.

Defeat of Cain and Filtiarn

With the Green Gift recovered, Thorn was again able to wield the artifact he had carried during the Korvak War.

Using its power, Thorn and his allies ultimately defeated Cain, Filtiarn, and the corrupt leadership of the Church of Demmazon.

Filtiarn was not destroyed. Thorn defeated and imprisoned him.

Cain likewise survived his defeat. His desiccated remains were sealed away rather than destroyed.

These victories still left the deeper crisis unresolved: the supernatural barrier preventing souls from passing properly between life and death.

Destroying that barrier ultimately required Thorn's ascension.

Personality and Character

Gruff and Plain-Spoken

Thorn has little patience for unnecessary ceremony, persuasion, or pleading.

When the party first encountered him, their attempts to convince him to help were met with stubborn refusal. Thorn preferred directness and saw little reason to waste words once he had made up his mind.

Stubborn and Independent

Thorn is extremely difficult to move once he has reached a decision.

He also extends that expectation of independence to others. His attitude toward the surviving dwarves was that they would find their own way in their own time, regardless of what he might tell them.

Patient Labor

During his retirement, Thorn spent his time tending plants and animals, working the earth, and helping maintain the small patch of life that the survivors had created in an otherwise barren land.

This preference for useful, patient work remains reflected in his divine character.

Protective

Thorn's relationship with Kelestaria reveals a strongly protective side.

After her mother's death, he took responsibility for raising her, regarded her as a daughter, and made his protectiveness abundantly clear to anyone who showed interest in her.

Competitive

Thorn enjoys competition, particularly Battle Chess.

He appreciates a good game, a wager, and an opponent who genuinely tries to win.

Dry Humor

Thorn's Battle Chess wager demonstrates a mischievous streak beneath his gruff demeanor. He took obvious pleasure in arranging the wager without ever telling the party which side he had actually bet on.

Duty and Responsibility

A recurring theme throughout Thorn's mortal life is his willingness to accept responsibility when he believes something must be done.

He bore one of the Five Gifts during the Korvak War, helped imprison the Korvak leader, returned to rule and rebuild after the war, concealed the Green Gift when he believed its power was too dangerous, attempted to save others during the Fall, raised Kelestaria after her mother's death, sought to free Jack, returned from retirement when the world again required him, and finally accepted the power that transformed him into a god.

Regret over the Fall

Thorn believed his efforts to save people during the separation of the realms had fallen short and that too many had died.

He also refused to seek out the surviving dwarves, in part because he believed some might blame him for the destruction of their homeland.

The sources establish Thorn's regret and sense of responsibility for these events. They do not establish a formal psychological characterization beyond that.

Relationships

Character	Relationship
Demmazon	Thorn's god during his mortal life; creator of the Five Gifts
Vestal Stone	Fellow original Gift Bearer
Kjeldin	Fellow original Gift Bearer
Salendaius Moonstrike	Fellow original Gift Bearer
Alantarin the Wise	Fellow original Gift Bearer; shared Thorn's concern over leaving the Gifts in mortal hands
Magerris	Ally during the final conflict of the Age of Wonders
Krom	Fellow ally of Magerris during the Fall; ascended during the final battle
Tarmikos	Fellow ally of Magerris during the Fall; ascended during the final battle
Kelestaria	Raised by Thorn after her mother's death and regarded by him as a daughter
Orinder	Kelestaria's lover; later fused with her as Orin-Kel
Orin-Kel	Ascended alongside Thorn
Jack	Hero whose trapped soul Thorn sent the party to recover
Heroes of Aegea	Thorn sought to honor their sacrifice by recovering Jack
Magdala	Guardian of Demmazon's abandoned temple encountered during the recovery of Jack's soul
Cain	Ancient enemy defeated after Thorn recovered the Green Gift
Filtiarn	Enemy defeated and imprisoned by Thorn
Correries	Enemy during the Fall of the Age of Wonders
Marstalbin	Korvak whose final trap created the spiritual barrier Thorn ultimately destroyed

Legacy

Thorn's mortal life spans some of the most important events in ancient history.

He was:

King of the Dwarves;
one of Demmazon's five original Gift Bearers;
bearer of the Green Gift;
a veteran of the Korvak War;
one of the Gift Bearers who created the trap that imprisoned the Korvak leader;
a ruler who helped rebuild the world during the early Age of Wonders;
an ally of Magerris during the final conflict of the Age of Wonders;
led the dwarves through their wars against the orc and undead forces threatening their homeland during the Fall;
led approximately 5,000 dwarven fighters to the relief of Menasta;
one of the few mortals to escape the separation of the realms;
the last person through the closing boundary between the worlds;
completely severed from magic by that event;
the man who raised Kelestaria after her mother's death;
instrumental in recovering Jack;
keeper of the secret location of the Green Gift;
instrumental in the defeat and imprisonment of Filtiarn;
instrumental in destroying the barrier that trapped the souls of the dead;
one of the final two gods to ascend through the power of the Five Gifts;
and ultimately the god of the dwarves and law.

His history is unusual even among the ascended gods. The six gods raised during the Fall immediately passed beyond the mortal world with Demmazon. Thorn remained behind for approximately another century before his own ascension.

He therefore became a direct living connection between the world before the Fall and the world that followed it.

Uncertain or Undocumented Information

The following information is not currently established well enough to treat as canon:

Thorn's birth date or exact age.
His parents or clan.
Detailed physical description.
The name of his original dwarven kingdom or capital.
Whether he had a spouse or biological children.
A complete account of his actions throughout the Korvak War.
The exact process by which the false belief that Green was the Transmutation Gift became widespread.
Complete details of the protections surrounding the Green Gift.
A complete mortal character sheet beyond the established Fighter 20 information.
Complete divine statistics.
The organization and hierarchy of Thorn's later church.
The nature of Thorn's relationship with Orin-Kel after their ascension.

Sources and Canon Notes

Primary Campaign Sources

Campaign Outline — early campaign planning establishing Thorn's eventual ascension as the god of the dwarves and law.
The Korvak War — history of the original Gift Bearers and the Korvak War.
End of the World (3/5/2010) — Thorn's planned first appearance, Fighter 20 status, Battle Chess encounter, and battle axe.
To the End of the World (4/13/2010) — campaign recap of the expedition to Thorn's home.
History of the World: Part I (5/12/2010) — Thorn's account of the Korvak War, the Gifts, the Age of Wonders, the Fall, and the separation of the realms.
The Fight Continues (9/4/2010) — recovery of Jack's soul and the party's return to Thorn.
Dark Times (8/24/2011) — later state of the campaign and Thorn's activities after returning to the world.
Post Campaign Notes — intended conclusion of Under the Bus, including recovery of the Green Gift, Kelestaria's sacrifice, defeat of Cain and Filtiarn, the spiritual barrier, Orin-Kel, and Thorn's ascension.
Original handwritten pantheon reference — divine alignment, domains, favored weapon, and symbol.

Later Canon Clarifications

Later campaign reconstruction and DM clarification establish that:

The Green Gift was the Gift of Deception, focused in Enchantment and Illusion.
The belief that Green was the Gift of Transmutation was false.
Thorn's statement that he had "returned" the Green Gift to Demmazon was a deliberate deception.
Thorn hid the Green Gift beneath the Temple to Demmazon in Aegea.
Filtiarn was defeated and imprisoned, not killed.
Cain was defeated and sealed in a desiccated state, not destroyed.
Thorn ascended at the end of Under the Bus.
Orin-Kel is the fusion of two mortals, Orinder and Kelestaria.
Thorn is Lawful Neutral.
Thorn's domains are Protection, Earth, and Travel.
Thorn's favored weapon is the warhammer.
Thorn's symbol is a rune-covered warhammer.

Present-Day Divine Characterization

The description at the beginning of this entry represents Thorn as he is understood and worshiped as a god. Elements such as his association with craftsmanship, patient labor, independence, and the passage of the dead reflect the character and divine identity established for Thorn in the present-day campaign setting rather than quotations from the surviving Under the Bus-era records.