Olaf Snowfalcon
All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.
The next character story! 
Olaf Snowfalcon
["Uller" Deities & Demigods, p123
Drawn by David S. LaForce,
colored by myself.]
In high school our D&D 'campaign,' at least as I experienced it, tended to be a series of PC versus PC duels and fights, interspersed with occasional team ups for adventures. We didn't have a single dungeonmaster instead several of us took over the role to run adventures. We each had our own characters of course. Just as we competed in sports, or playing Risk or Axis & Allies, we competed in the campaign to dominate each other. It's a bit embarrassing how on the nose it was for adolescent males!
I was always committed to the story lines, I couldn't just min/max a character. But in order to allow my primary character, Taran, to compete better I decided he needed a henchmen. So, I created Olaf Snowfalcon. Olaf was a ranger, that was my favorite class in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Taran would have been a ranger but the class didn't exist in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set rules that I used to create him. But I was playing AD&D now, so Olaf was a ranger. I loved that rangers in AD&D attracted a small number of interesting followers at "name" level.
I had been confirmed as a Roman Catholic at our local Parish, and part of that process meant taking a Saint's name as my "confirmation" name. I choose the most militant, medieval saint I could find of, Saint Olaf of Norway. It was a cool name, so I gave it to my new henchman, I don't recall where "Snowfalcon" came from, just sounded cool I guess. Beyond that, I was inspired by the illustration of the god Uller in the Deities & Demigods book. In the picture Uller just looks like a seasoned ranger.
Olaf worked out well,so well that I decided to retire Taran and run other characters. But I wanted to move his stronghold from the Wild Coast to Perrenland (our campaign was set in Greyhawk) first, so he would be out of the way. That didn't turn out so well, but Olaf wasn't with him when the disaster struck so... since then I have sporadically played Olaf and recently used him as an NPC mentor to the players in my table top campaign.
Name: Olaf Snowfalcon
Player: GMW
Race/Sex/Class/Level: human male ranger 10
Date of Birth/Death: 552 CY / still alive
Homeland: Wild Coast
Appearance: Olaf is a tanned hunter type with a scar over his left eye
Equipment: +1 Longsword, Wand of Magic Detection, +1 Longbow, +3 Shield, Horn of Blasting
Height/Weight/Hair/Eyes: 5‘8", 160 lbs, blond hair and mustache, blue eyes
History: Olaf is an orphan. His father had been an adventurer, one of the Frost Barbarians, and his mother a local farm lass. His father left before she realized she was pregnant and she died in childbirth (Olaf later learned his father was slain while raiding the coasts the of the Great Kingdom in the 560s). One of his mother's kin was a Gnarley Forest ranger, when the orphan was eight he took Olaf on as an apprentice. Olaf graduated from the apprenticeship when he turned twenty, and decided he wanted to see the world.
A war captain, Taran Goblinkiller, was forming a band to find and explore an "Isle of Dread." Olaf signed on as one of Taran's henchmen. He journeyed with Taran to the Isle, then went on further adventures with him before Taran settled down to rule a holding in the Welkwood. Olaf served Taran faithfully for several years, until the warlord was slain trying to establish a stronghold north of Perrenland.
After Taran‘s death Olaf adventured throughout Oerth, primarily against giant and drowholds around the Crystalmist mountains, before settling in the Axewood as a vassal of Grenowin, Duke of Ulek. He gained a dozen followers, among them Thorondur, a pegasus, Draco, a young adult copper dragon, and Jack-be-Nimble, a brownie who all aided him in keeping the Axewood free of evil.
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| Olaf on his pegasus, Thorondur. |
Unfortunately, Draco was slain when Olaf attempted to avenge his former lord, Taran, by attacking the castle of his killer, Abdul the Butcher. After those failures, Olaf gave up on revenge. he spent the next decade as one of the Axewood's caretaker, fostering peace between its inhabitants and the surrounding communities. During the Greyhawk Wars Olaf served with the Duchy's army aiding Furyondy against Iuz, and then was recalled with the rest of the Ulek forces when the orcs of the Pomarj threatened the Lortmil Mountains.
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| Olaf in his "Gyr" persona, which he adopted for the Giants on the Borderlands campaign. |
Although he was Duke Grenowin's vassal, as the Ranger Lord of the Axewood Olaf travelled on both sides of the river and became good friends with Baron Anladon II of Axewood, the lord of the Keoish part of the forest. Through Anladon, Olaf became good friends with King Skotti of Keoland. They often exchanged tales of adventures over ale in Anladon's hunting lodge.
In 589 and 590, when the giant menace again emerged from the Jotens and the Crystalmists while Skotti was trying to take Westkeep in the Hold of the Sea Princes, the king turned to Olaf, hoping to use adventurers to stop these incursions.
Olaf went to the region and travelled about in disguise at first, selecting adventurers to aid in his effort. He was aided by Thorondur and Jack-be-Nimble. Olaf led the campaign against the giants from Borderlands Keep, fighting several battles with the giants, withstanding a siege of the keep, and eventually defeating the Giant armies in the field. This allowed King Skotti to focus on Westkeep, which he took a couple months later, his line of communications secured.
It is uncertain what is next for Olaf, but the fire of adventure has been relit inside him.
Commonly Found: Axewood Forest in the Duchy of Ulek
Chronology of Olaf Snowfalcon
572 CY Olaf follows Taran in the expedition to the 'Isle of Dread.'
573 - 575 CY Olaf serves Taran at his Welkwood stronghold, Wald Festung.
576 CY Taran decides to found a stronghold north of Perrenland. Olaf decides it is time to strike out on his own and so he doesn't travel north with Taran. This forces Taran to hire the scout who later betrays him. Taran feels great guilt over this ever after.
After Taran‘s death, Olaf Snowfalcon teamed with Elrohir Amroth and his henchmen to explore the Joten, Crystalmist, and Hellfurnace mountains. They fought hill, frost, and fire giants, and explored drowholds in the Underdark. Olaf‘s success as leader of these expeditions allowed him to gain a new patron, Grenowin, Duke of Ulek. Duke Grenowin made Olaf the Ranger Lord over the Axewood. Olaf established a small stronghold and gained some followers, including a pegasus named Thorondur, a young adult copper dragon with the unimaginative name of Draco, and Olaf‘s 'valet' Jack-be-Nimble, a brownie.
Still determined to gain some revenge on Abdul for the death of Taran, Olaf Snowfalcon hired Elrohir to sabotage Abdul’s efforts to build a stronghold in the southern Wild Coast. In the dark of night, on his hippogriff, Elrohir flew over the large pile of lumber assembled for the construction of Abdul's stronghold and dropped several lit flasks of oil on it resulting in a massive fire.
577 CY Olaf Snowfalcon and Elrohir Amroth continue to seek revenge for Taran‘s death. Abdul‘s neighbor, Baron Kroten, feared the half-ogre bandit lord and agreed to allow the pair and their followers to use his lands as a staging area. Olaf Snowfalcon on his Pegasus, his copper dragon Draco, and Elrohir‘s followers Blinggood and Sam on the thief's hippogriff staged an aerial attack on Abdul‘s castle while Elrohir attempted to sneak in and take Abdul‘s treasures. The attack was a disaster; Abdul had hidden wires over his stronghold to prevent flyer attacks, and these crippled Draco, allowing Abdul to kill the dragon. Meanwhile, Elrohir broke his invisibility with an ill-advised attack on a guard and Abdul‘s forces captured the elven thief. The others fled the debacle.
578 CY to 590 CY Olaf spent this decade living in the Axwood, protecting the forest and its inhabitants while otherwise living a quiet life.
The exception is during the Greyhawk Wars, when Olaf fought with the Duchy of Ulek's army first in Furyondy against Iuz and then in the southern Lortmils against the orcs of the Pomarj. .
Jack-Be-Nimble, Olaf's brownie companion.
590 CY Giants on the Borderlands Olaf is asked by King Skotti of Keoland to take command of the response to the increased giant raids on Keoland's western frontier. Olaf took Thorondur and Jack-be-Nimble to the area incognito to evaluate the various adventurers flocking to the King's offer of a bounty. Olaf adopted the nom de guerre Gyr and joined a band which he aided sporadically and introduced the brownie to, while he scouted the lands from the back of his pegasus and made himself known to the Castellan of Borderlands Keep, which he established as the headquarters of Keoland's forces against the giants.
Coldeven (March), 590 CY Gyr openly revealed himself as Ranger Lord Olaf Snowfalcon and Marshal of the Border Army. His forces consist of the Keep's garrison, the Honorbound mercenary band and a detachment of the Knights of the Watch. He has made an alliance with the dwarves of the Badaxe mine. He sends a small force to fight the Battle of the Hamlet, getting the people to safety though the hamlet is destroyed.
Unfortunately Olaf's second in command, the Castellan of the Keep on the Borderlands, is assassinated in his chambers. Olaf is forced to send a team to the the river town of Garrotten to investigate. They discover the mayor is part of an assassin's guild that conducted the murder. They storm the mayor's castle, paper's inside reveal that the Scarlett Brotherhood is at least coordinating with the giants.
Meanwhile, Olaf leads his army in the Battle of the Giant's Pass. His army is defeated by the giant army led by frost giant Big Johann and Olaf and his troops retreat inside the Keep on the Borderlands.
14 Planting (April), 590 CY While the giants besiege the Keep on the Borderlands, Olaf sends adventuring bands to strike the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. In response, Big Johann launched a full assault on the Keep's main gate. Olaf's forces win this battle decidedly. The giants and their allies are routed and most were slain, including Big Johann himself.
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| Olaf on Thorondur outflanking the Frost Giant Jarl Grugnur. Shortly thereafter Olaf slew the Frost Giant. |
Adventure Bibliography: X1 The Isle of Dread, G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King, D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth,
Disclaimer: This blog recounts the fictional events of a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Views expressed by characters within the blog are those of the characters, not the players, dungeon master, nor the blog's author. All other views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.
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