Frederick Dundragon

"Come on down to The Dundragon Adventuring Guild! We'll give you training, hot meals, cold ale, and a comfy bed! Make your own future, build your own destiny, or just slay that pesky magical pest that's been eating your crops or stealing your livestock. To join the Dundragons is to become a Dundragon, and y'all know there's nothing like staying with family!"

Before Knotside

Frederick Dundragon started his adventuring career in the underground cities of his dwarven brethren, hunting down monsters and completing quests. He served in various armies and mercenary bands before he, along with five other veteran Dwarves, decided to strike out on their own as an adventuring party in the above world. They took job after job as they traversed the country, earning a good reputation as always getting the job done, and being incredibly efficient. If offered room and board, and some quality ale or mead, they would take a decreased pay for a job well done. Eventually they traveled down the coast and then up a river, coming across a city on the rise. They were attempting to expand, and as such needed to build a large wall to surround and protect their city, as was the will of the Kingdom currently ruling them. However, they had been stopped in their tracks by a family of Hill Giants who had moved in just up the river. They stole livestock and hurled rocks at construction crews, setting fire to hire bales in the night as they grabbed whatever they could eat from the farms. Frederick and his friends were hired rather quickly by the ruling King who promised them payment in gold and large plots of land in their city if they so wished.   The dwarves took up arms, marched up the river, and made quick work of the Hill Giants who had taken up residence. Through cunning they were able to be invited right into their 'hold', a barely held together structure of reeds, branches, brush, logs, and mud that was right on the river. Once inside they used their strength and experience fighting giants to quickly overpower them and kill their matriarch and any who tried to oppose them while the others were easily chased off. They tore down the large hut with the help of the citizens, and quickly received their reward. In addition to the gold given for completing their quest they were each offered a choice plot of land near the heart of the City, all of their plots neighboring one another. Besides Frederick, most of the Dwarves wanted to continue on and head back to under the mountains, tired of the above world and its tiring and helpless humans. Frederick took the land shares of his fellow dwarves, seeing an opportunity they did not, and he set towards his new long term goal, to create and adventurers guild, the first of its kind in the city, and in most of the human cities nearby.  

Life in Knotside

  Despite taking up residency in a mostly human city Frederick still went out on jobs, slaying monsters in the woods and hills nearby, and occasionally went on a quest with a group of adventurers passing through, saving every gold piece he earned. The large plot of land started with a simple building, barely a shed that he himself lived in so as to keep the claim to his land and store his belongings. Parties would set up camps on his land for a small fee, and occasionally convince the battle hardened Dwarf to join up with them for an equal share of the loot. Each party he joined became fast friends with him, and the word spread of the kindly Dwarf who wanted to build a true adventurers guild in the city. He followed this lifestyle for years, watching kingdoms fight over control of Knotside, until one day he received a visit to his humble abode from the then current King of Knotside, Barnabus Heartvale. The King asked for his aid, he asked Frederick to band together the many parties of adventurers currently using his land as a campgrounds, and to have them fight to free Knotside once and for all. The King promised funds for his guild, but Frederick agreed simply on the basis that he could not watch his beloved city suffer any longer. Frederick banded the various parties and troupes together, and when the time came he and his friends flooded the city, convincing the residents to take up arms alongside their King. The revolt was a resounding success, and as Knotside became a city free from the control of the feuding kingdoms that surrounded them Frederick was able to move forwards in his plans.   The King kept true to his word, and compensated Frederick and his adventuring friends, secured him the guildsmiths to help build his guild, and did everything he could to expedite the process. It was a grand venture, and a risky one at that, but eventually the dust settled and Fredericks dream was finally starting. The Dundragon Adventurers Guild was complete. By now Frederick himself was extremely well known in Knotside, his face easily recognizable as the kindly dwarf who helped others set aside their differences to free the city. Some of the adventurers who had aided him and the city in the revolt saw the same wonder and hope he had years ago and moved officially into the city to aid Frederick as employees and partners. Frederick, now known lovingly throughout the city as "Big Fred", worked hard to keep his guild running as smoothly as possible. The years fly by, and living in a mostly human city has been hard, those he helped, adventurers he befriended and called family, and the few who stepped up and helped him in the cities darkest hours, have grown old. He has buried dozens of friends, of close allies, and in some cases entire adventuring parties who had come to him for help. He attends each funeral, in his old gear, dents and all, and speaks of each person and how they had helped make a better world. To Fred, to join the Dundragon guild is to become a Dundragon yourself. Even now, as he gains in years, he walks the city, giving to the poor, volunteering and helping the needy, and giving those who want a chance at the adventuring life a chance at the happiness and joy he had in his youth.