Ursuga Warcaller

After a long crusade, Baron Rodrik, a particularly wealthy and corrupt Banner Lord, decided to further expand his holdings by seizing a section of the Krokhan Desert rumored to be rich with gold. In truth it was only rich in dust, rocks, and scaled scuttle-crawlers, but Rodrik was a proud man, and he persisted with his mining efforts. It was not long before those efforts drove Rodrik to conflict with some of the Krokhan’s nomadic peoples. He barred the Adwala tribe from passing through the land he claimed as his own, which was traditionally part of their ancestral hunting grounds. Believing they may have known the location of the gold, he demanded they tell him where he could find it. When they insisted they knew nothing, he flew into a rage and ordered them slain. A short, brutal battle followed, with Rodrik’s knights falling on the Nomads, slaying many and enslaving the survivors. Ursuga was among the latter. The child of the Adwala chieftain, her mother concealed her identity before she died, knowing her daughter’s high standing would make her a target for the baron. Thinking that she was a mere serving girl, the daughter of the chieftain’s cook, the baron assigned her to work in his kitchens. Ursuga was clever for her age, and successfully concealed her identity. She grew up into a stout, strong woman, seemingly loyal to Rodrik, though in reality she harbored a burning desire to avenge her family and her people. With time, she became head cook to the baron, and she resisted the urge to use her high standing to her advantage. Poisoning Rodrik would not give her the same personal gratification as physically landing a killing blow, and make her too obvious a culprit. She also did not intend to merely take vengeance for the Adwala. Ursuga intended to survive for them too, and carry on their legacy. Her chance for vengeance and freedom eventually came when Rodrik grew bored of Krokhan and set his sights on the Sorrowlakes of Peltas. He took an expedition into that inhospitable realm, bringing Ursuga with him. Rodrik’s expedition quickly encountered fierce opposition. When he discovered an ancient, half-ruined temple, he roused its Lizardmen guardians to action. A ferocious battle ensued, and the wayward Banner Lord discovered the reptilian warriors were a harder prospect than an unsuspecting caravan of desert Nomads. In the midst of the fierce fighting, Rodrik battled a hulking, scaled beast at the temple’s heart, striving to gain access to the relics he believed lay beyond. It seemed that the baron was on the cusp of triumphing, when Ursuga approached him from behind and struck him a ringing blow on the helm with a massive, gold-plated dinner dish he had insisted she bring with them. Stunned, Rodrik could do little when the roaring Ursuga then took up one of the great drinking horns he had also commanded be brought and punched its sharp tip through his throat. As Ursuga’s cry of victory — one she had waited so long to utter — echoed through the embattled temple, she found herself staring into the yellow eyes of the hulking lizard beast Rodrik had been fighting. It made no aggressive moves towards her, seeming to appreciate that something momentous had just occurred and that Ursuga had no quarrel with it. If anything, something about its expression told Ursuga it believed it owed her its life. As the Lizardmen slew the last of Rodrik’s warriors, the creature warded them off from harming Ursuga, and she realized that it was a being as sentient and intelligent as her. The Lizardmen agreed to let her depart and, to her surprise, the creature followed her. The Lizardmen called it ‘Vergumkaar’, and claimed it intended to honor its debt to her, and that she should in turn show it aHrespect From that day forth, Ursuga had a loyal companion. Reforging Rodrik’s platter into a great, golden shield, she has set out to find and free the scattered remnants of her old tribe who were sold into slavery. In doing so she has embarked on a lifetime of adventure across Teleria, and stories of the mighty woman, accompanied by an equally mighty beast, both draped in the treasures won during their escapades, have become legend. Ursuga periodically returns to the Krokhan Desert, Vergumkaar by her side. If she finds the Nomad tribes there beset by enemies of any kind, she rallies them and leads them in battle. To the peoples of the desert she is therefore not only a great adventurer, but a legendary defender of freedom and liberty. Woe betide any enemy of the Krokhan peoples when the cry of the Warcaller goes out, and the tribes rally behind her.