Gudmund Crow

Carpenter, Shipwright, and Keeper of the Widow’s Bones
“If the gods want her sunk, they’ll have to pry her from my hammer.”

Profile

• Race: Human (Northlander)
• Age: 38–39
• Class (Equivalent): Fighter / Artisan hybrid (Shipwright archetype)
• Narrative Level: 6
• Origin: Ironhaven Shipyards, Northern Coast
• Alignment: Neutral Good
• Titles:

Crow of Ironhaven

The Widow’s Bones

Hammerhand

Appearance

Gudmund looks hewn from the same timber he repairs — dense, scarred, and unyielding.
He’s tall but stooped from decades bent over keels and beams, his back broad enough to bear a mast and his hands thick with callus and burn. His skin is wind-leathered, pocked with old splinters, and always smells faintly of tar and oak oil.

His black hair has turned iron-gray at the temples; his beard, short and full, holds permanent sawdust. A single raven feather is braided into it — a gift from Skald, who once said, “You watch over corpses of ships like a crow on a battlefield.”

He wears a sleeveless leather vest patched with hemp cord and salt stains, a tool belt of nails, mallets, and carving knives, and the same iron hammer he’s carried since his apprenticeship — Old Oath. The hammer’s head is engraved with runes so worn they’re almost invisible, its haft wrapped in layers of tarred cord.

Even in storm-thrown chaos, Gudmund’s stance never wavers. When the deck tilts beneath everyone else’s feet, he simply plants his boots and braces as though part of the keel itself.

Personality

Gudmund embodies the quiet, relentless endurance of the North.
He is blunt, unsentimental, and allergic to superstition — a man who trusts his hands more than prayers.
Where others speak of faith, he speaks of pressure points, weight balance, and grain direction.

His loyalty runs as deep as the keel he guards. He rarely says thank you or good job, but he’ll spend a sleepless night reforging a shattered spar rather than let a crewmate wake to danger.

He hides affection behind insults, humor behind grumbling, and love behind the rhythmic strike of hammer and nail.
If Gudmund mends your gear, you’ve earned his trust. If he ignores you, you haven’t yet.

He drinks with Skald, trades insults with Brynja, tolerates Ketil’s questions, and quietly watches Kara from the shadows of the rigging, gauging her every decision by the way the ship groans or sighs under command.

To Gudmund, the Whale’s Road Widow isn’t just a vessel — she’s a living creature that demands attention, patience, and the occasional curse word.

Abilities & Traits

Master Carpenter
Reduces repair time by half; can reinforce or patch hulls mid-voyage using salvaged timber, bone, or scrap metal.

Structural Empathy
Feels vibration, strain, and warp in the ship like a sixth sense. Can detect failing structures or weak points in fortifications or siege machines within 30 ft.

Improvised Engineer
Can repurpose wreckage, chain, or armor plates into makeshift weapons, barricades, or braces. Gains advantage on crafting checks made under duress.

Tar and Blood
Once per long rest, may seal a mortal wound — his own, an ally’s, or a section of ship — using heated pitch and whispered oath. Stabilizes target and grants resistance to further damage for one turn.

The Widow’s Bones
While Gudmund lives, the Whale’s Road Widow gains resistance to damage from storms, fire, or siege; his living connection to her acts as a supernatural reinforcement born of devotion and labor.

History

Born in Ironhaven, a coastal city of forge smoke and brine, Gudmund was the son of a shipwright family that built Drakkan’s early longships. He learned to shape oak ribs before he could write his name. His father died aboard one of his own creations when a poorly built reinforcement snapped mid-swell — a flaw Gudmund hadn’t seen. The guilt branded him harder than any scar.

From that day, Gudmund swore two oaths:

1. Never build a ship he wouldn’t sail himself.
2. Never let a single plank fail beneath his hands again.

He met Kara Storm-Mane when she first took command of the half-rotted Whale’s Road Widow. Where others called her doomed, Gudmund saw potential — a hull worth saving. Together they rebuilt her from skeleton to sail. During her first true storm, Kara handed him a hammer and said, “She listens to you better than me. Keep her alive.”

He has ever since. Through pirate raids, leviathan strikes, and even the Helldrake’s fire, Gudmund has patched her with everything from stolen iron plates to his own blood.

To the crew, he’s the man who keeps the sea out. To Gudmund, the ship is the only thing in this world that never lied to him.

Relationships

Kara Storm-Mane:
They share unspoken respect. She commands the wind; he commands the wood. She trusts his word on the ship above all others.

Brynja One-Eye:
Constant friction between their tempers — she tests how far he’ll push repairs, he calls her mad for testing the hull. Beneath the arguments lies mutual reliance.

Skald:
Oldest friend and drinking rival. Skald tells the stories; Gudmund fixes the wreckage afterward.

Ketil “The Pup”:
Apprentice in name only — Gudmund hides pride behind insults. The boy’s enthusiasm reminds him of himself before tragedy.