Zook Taren

High King Zook Taren (a.k.a. His Royal Highness)

"Beware! Your kneecaps are mine!!"

— Zook Taren, High King of Hroff

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Being short, even for a gnome, Zook had to make an extra effort to train himself to keep up with the tall folk. He is very athletic and very fit for his kind and unexpectantly strong. Zook is spry on his feet, able to cover substantial distances on and off the battlefield.

Body Features

Due to very thin dwarven blood, Zook does not possess the same pointed ears that many gnomes do. Instead, his ears are large and rounded. He has several piercings adorned with golden jewelry and spiky, almost pink hair with several streaks of white throughout. His body is strewn with scars and marks from his many battles in the gladiatorial arena and adventures in his younger years and is more than willing to share how he received each and everyone one of them.

Facial Features

Zook has piercing emerald eyes below tufts of bushy pinkish brows. HIs glorious pink muttonchops extend from his cheeks reaching almost to his shoulders. His nose is large and bulbous, another trait passed down from his thin dwarven ancestry, and a smirking grin on his face that shows his personality almost immediately.

Created With: Hero Forge

Identifying Characteristics

Across his eyes and cheekbones, his skin is slightly raw almost like a healed burn mark. He received this scar fighting demonic creatures known as Vrocks. In the midst of rage, he was able to defeat the beasts, but the Vrocks were able to embed their spores into his face, poisoning and disfiguring the gnome. Once the adrenaline of his rage subsided, his body lay motionless on the battlefield. His companion, Laokis, had to cover several miles with Zook's body where he was resurrected at a temple of Pelor, his life breathing back into his lungs upon completion of the ritual.

Physical Quirks

Zook is often seen mincing, particularly in his gait. He almost skips from location to location and is very exuberant in his gestures. Though he is a gnome, he actually prefers to be sitting in the tall-folk seats and stool, allowing him to dangle his feet in an almost child-like manner. He also enjoys the amusement brought from his peeking up from the table. Most of the things he does, he does for humor and loves to make people laugh with his flamboyancy.

Special Abilities

Though it is hard to anger Zook, he has a rage about him able to send him into a frenzied tunnel vision of swipes and slashes. He allows has a strong affinity for wild-magic, strange and uncontrollable occurrences happening as he fights in combat. He uses this affinity to disable or disorient his opponents. He has unparalleled skill with a Great Axe, often wielding one much bigger and heavier than he could ever be.

Apparel & Accessories

Since his adventuring days have been mostly concluded aside from the occasional expedition, he is often seen in regal court attire. Gold fasteners and silky blues with a tri-cape over his back are a normal sight to see this gnome in. A golden crown with his escaping pink hair is rested on his head and his Rybinite, Orbinite, Golden Great Axe is never seen very far from his reach. Back in his gladiatorial or adventurous days, he was seen in much more casual clothing with a rugged, worn battleax at his side and loose-fitting goggles over his forehead.

Specialized Equipment

Zook has several pieces of magical equipment that help him in combat. The first of which is Goggles of Night Vision. Though he is already gifted with Darkvision, these enhance those natural gnomish abilities, double this natural sensory vision. His cloak has the properties of Displacement, allowing him to flicker in and out of the Ethereal Plane during combat, making him much hard to land blows on. His bracers enjoy him a magical barrier around his being, adding protection to his unarmored body. Lastly, he wields the legendary Sibling's Grace forged long ago by the archwizard, Ahghairon for Zook's father's father, Zyuk.

Created With: Hero Forge

Sibling's Grace

Forged by the archwizard Ahghairon, this intelligent greataxe was crafted to defend Hroff. Its current wielder is the High King, Zook Taren. Sibling's Grace has a solid obinite handle etched with tiny runes, wrapped in blue dragonhide with a star sapphire set into the pommel. The axe head is forged from silver, electrum, and rybinite allows whose edges constantly shimmer with a deep blue luminescence.

While equipped, Zook enjoys a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. The Shield spell provides no defense against the axe, which passes through that spell's barrier of magical force. When striking a fiend or undead, cold blue flames erupt from its blade and deal an extra 2d6 radiant damage to the target.

• Hurling. The greataxe has 3 charges. Expending 1 charge and making a ranged attack with the axe, hurling it as if it had the thrown property with a normal range of 60 feet and a long range of 180 feet. Whether it hits or misses, the axe flies back to the wielder at the end of their turn. Sibling's Grace regains all expended charges daily at dawn.
• Illumination. This axe glows with a bright bluish light out to 30' and a dim light for an additional 30'.
• Sentience. Sibling's Grace is a sentient neutral good weapon with an Intelligence of 12, a Wisdom of 15, and a Charisma of 15. It has hearing and darkvision out to a range of 120' and can communicate telepathically with its wielder. It has a calm, delicate voice and wishes nothing more than the defense of Hroff.

Should someone try to use Sibling's Grace against its will, the axe can become ten times heavier than normal, and can magically adhere to any Medium or larger object or surface it comes into contact with. Once it does, the axe can't be wielded and nothing short of a Wish Spell can separate the axe from the item or surface to which it adhered to.

Mental characteristics

Gender Identity

He/Him

Sexuality

Pansexual

Created With: Hero Forge

Alignment

Chaotic Good

Current Location

Hroff Proper

Species

Gnome

Ethnicity

Hroffian

Currently Held Titles

• High King of Hroff

Age

83

Date of Birth

The 10^th Day of Zagbis
in the 458^th Year of Rebirth

Circumstances of Birth

Eldest of 11 Brothers

Birthplace

Fiddledug

Current Residence

Hroff Proper

Gender

Male

Eyes

Green & Optimistic

Hair

Wild & Pink w/ Streaks of White

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Fair

Height

3'3" (0.99_m)

Weight

39_lbs (17.7_kg)

Quotes & Catchphrases

"Greetin's and Salutations! C'mon in, grab a seat, eat some meat, our ale's a treat! So stay a while and welcome to my humble abode!!"

Aligned Organization

Hroff Alliance

Known Languages

Tof'kran, Gnomish, Giant, Elven, Celestial

Class
Wild Magic Barbarian

Created With: Hero Forge

Court's Ajourned

Engineered by some of the greatest gnome artificers the Kingdom of Hroff has at its disposal, the Court's Adjourned is a six-shot projectile weapon that Zook keeps holstered on his left side, equipped with silver bullets and imbued with explosive magic.

Firearms are a relatively new weapon unique to the Tof'kran people. Though Zook currently possesses the only six-shot firearm, the rate at which the Tok Empire is developing new engineering marvels is alarming, to say the least. With their legal limitations on magic, their technological advance in comparison to the Hroff Alliance has been much quicker and exponential. There are rumors that they will soon be able to equip entire armies with firearms that could turn the tides of war.