Fester Mantarick
Zennonaize Soldier
A non-descript pikeman in service of the Dono, Fester finished ten years of service restless and unsure of how to spend the rest of his life. In the summer of 274 AC, he loaded his trusty pack, which may or may not have been a parting gift from the his company's quartermaster, and struck out north, determined to find his fortune in the untracked north of the Troll's Finger. "Yes", he told his friends as they gathered at a local watering hole in Zennon to both wish him goodbye and ensure that they had collected on ay debts that the pikeman might owe them, "I know there are trolls up there. But, I bet there is treasure, too!" With prayers to Kayla on their lips and invocations to Zardula for Fester's immortal soul in their hearts, they waved goodbye.
Few thought of Fester in the intervening seasons. None expected him to return so when the snows came none thought about how he might be freezing, alone, in the dark pines of the Snowden Forests, too afraid to light a fire for fear of attracting trolls. None even thought to toast him as his old company reunited briefly the following spring to provide security at the Race for the Lilacs. Even when he did return in autumn, some 15 months later, his long hair a tangled almost solid knot and his beard a foot long and tied with twigs, no one even connected the stranger with their mad friend.
Everyone remembered Fester, however, when he produced two full bags of gold coins, sized oddly and marked with the visage of a king listed in no history books. In fact, he had so many friends that when he purchased the title of Baron and small estate along the edge of the Tallwood, he had to hire a score of men from his old company to evict the hanger-ons.
Sadly, a fire raced through the estate nearly a decade later, leaving no survivors, the remaining gold coins mysteriously missing. Few thought to investigate, as building that close to the Tallwood was asking for trouble. It was obvious that the trolls had descended upon the estate. And despite the fact that Fester never made any maps of his journeys north, locals started calling the ridge of hills north of the forest Fester's Ridge in his honor.