Maluka “Maly” Hornfist

Maluka and her half-orc parents lived in the village outside of Dark Arrow Keep until her father Dagron rushed home one day and began throwing all of their belongings into packs and bags and loading them into a barrow. He then had a quiet conversation with her mother, gave Maly a tight hug and told her he was proud of her, and then ran out the door of their hut. Maly had a terrible feeling then that she’d never see him again.

Maly and her mother Nagida left the village of Dark Arrow that afternoon, following the River Surbrin, and walked most of the night. They slept in a tent until late morning, then set off again, keeping the river to their left. On the third day, they were stopped on the road by a trio of dwarves who made threatening gestures with their weapons and knocked over the barrow Nagida had been pulling, spilling the half-orcs’ belongings in the mud. Nagida said nothing, only gathered their possessions up again, lifted the handles of the barrow, and continued her westward trudge. The same thing happened again the next day with a different group of dwarves, and again Nagida said nothing.

Eventually, they broke from the river and made their way straight west for a time until they came to a road, then turned south and kept to that trail for days upon days, occasionally meeting but not engaging with other travelers. Finally, when it started to seem to Maly as though the road had been the only life she’d ever known, they arrived at the gates of Waterdeep, made their way to the poorest quarter of the city, and eked out a miserable living in a hovel shared with two other half-orc families. Nagida found work at a tannery, and while Maly apprenticed with a stonemason for a time, she believes that as an adventurer, she can make enough coin to move her mother to her own house and at least safer employment, though she’d prefer Nagida never have to work again.

Traits

“No one expects me to be anything but the big mean orc lady who punches people, and I’m good with that. I do actually like building things, though, and I’m good at that.”

Ideals

“I’m not much on books, but I don’t judge their covers.”

Bonds

“Ma has done so much for me, and she deserves good things to happen to her for a change.”

Flaws

“Yeah, I have a temper. So what?”

“I Know a Guy”

Maly’s strength was initially put to use hauling cobblestone for the Loyal Order of Street Laborers. The foreman of her crew was Layton Thatcher, a former adventurer who’d lost a foot to a dungeon trap in the Undermountain; it was his many stories that encouraged Maly to consider a change of career.

Friends & Enemies

Maly more-recently apprenticed as a stonemason and came to enjoy the work despite the constant berating she received from the master mason, a surly dwarf named Bogden Boulderbreaker. He holds a high position in the Guild of Stonecutters, Masons, Potters, and Tile-Makers, and his word alone could bar her from the profession in Waterdeep.