Dolmar, the Iconic Cleric

Here is our iconic cleric: Dolmar Redhammer.

Playing Dolmar:
     Dolmar is a surly, jaded dwarf who loudly declares no interest in the adventuring lifestyle. When pressed on why he is traveling as part of an adventuring party, he defends himself by saying that he's seen enough fools rush into battle and get themselves killed.



Character Sheet:
Dolmar Redhammer  CR 1/2
Dwarf Cleric              XP 200
Humanoid (dwarf)     NG
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft, Perception +4
Defense
AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 17 (armor +5, Dex +1, shield +2)
hp 14 (1d8+6)
Fortitude +5, Reflex +1, Will +6; +2 vs poison, spells, and spell-like abilities
Offense
Speed 20 ft.
Melee light flail +2 to attack     1d8+2 damage     *2 critical
Ranged heavy crossbow +1 to attack     1d10 damage     19-20/*2 critical
Special Attacks channel positive energy 2/day (DC 9, 1d6)
Domain Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +5)
     7/day—rebuke death, touch of good (1 round)
Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +5)
     1st (2/day)—bane, summon monster I, protection from evil*
     0 (3/day)—detect poison, guidance, resistance
* Domain spell; Domains Good, Healing
Tactics
During Combat Dolmar prefers to open with casting bane upon his foes before summoning a creature. When dealing with outsiders or undead he catches as many of his allies as possible with protection from evil.
Statistics
Str 15, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 8
Base Attack +0; CMB +2; CMD 13
Feats Toughness
Skills Knowledge (religion) +4, Perception +5, Sense Motive +8
Languages Common and Dwarven
Traits Sacred Touch, Goldsniffer
SQ slow and steady, defensive training, greed, stability, stonecunning, aura of good
Gear light flail, heavy crossbow, quiver with 20 bolts, scale mail, heavy wooden shield, cleric kit (backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, candles [10], cheap holy text, flint and steel, iron pot, mess kit, rope, soap, spell component pouch, torches [10], trail rations [5 days], waterskin, and wooden holy symbol), and 17 gp

Backstory:

     Born to a pair of blacksmiths in the mighty city-state of Chor Kolav, Dolmar spent most of his childhood doing what he could to aid his parents in raising his 3 younger siblings. His parents worked long hours trying to keep up with the demand for the weapons and armor that they made for the army, leaving him to all but raise his brothers, Durgon and Chaz, and sister, Maidee, by himself.

    For a long time it continued in this manner: both parents would be at the forges all day and night while Dolmar would feed and care for his siblings. When he was thirty seven, the cusp of adulthood for dwarves, disaster struck. Dolmar’s mother came down with an illness, one which the priests were unable to cure in time. Though Dolmar never spent much time with her, she was still his mother.

     While Dolmar and his siblings were deeply saddened by their mother’s death, their father was devastated. He wouldn’t work and instead buried himself into drink. Dwarves naturally can drink more than humans, even they can bury themselves so far that they become drunks. Dolmar did his best to convince his father to return to work, but nothing he tried worked.

     When Dolmar asked what seeing his father laying about drinking his life away would do to his mother if she were to see him, something in the smith snapped. Dolmar’s siblings later told him that their father had broken the bottle of ale he had been drinking over Dolmar’s head, shattering it and knocking his son unconscious. The raging drunk had then started kicking the unconscious Dolmar until Dolmar’s siblings came into the room, drawn by the sound of violence, and Durgon and Chaz tackled their father while Maidee dragged Dolmar away from them.

     When Dolmar was a safe distance away, seeing that Durgon and Chaz had their father pinned, Maidee ran out of the house to find a city guard. She soon found one talking to a human in robes with a silver crescent moon symbol on his tabard. After explaining the situation, both guard and human followed Maidee to her family’s home. While the guard arrested their father, the human knelt next to Dolmar and with a whispered prayer placed a glowing hand upon Dolmar’s chest.

     The human explained to Maidee (after helping Durgon and Chaz move the now sleeping Dolmar to a bed) that he was a wandering priest of Maidanaa, goddess of life and healing that lived on the larger of the two moons. He was in Chor Kolav gathering supplies and checking in on the progress of the war against the hobgoblin empire to the north.

     A few hours later, Dolmar awoke. After Maidee relayed the story to him, Dolmar set out to find the priest that had healed him. Stopping by the two inns in the district did not result in finding him, but to Dolmar’s surprise he eventually found the human in the local temple to Anyold, goddess of motherhood and midwives.

     A short conversation later cleared up Dolmar’s confusion. Though there were differences in rites and such, the dwarven deity Anyold and the human deity Maidanaa were one and the same; simply different cultural reflections of the same goddess. Dolmar couldn’t help but be interested, and asked that the priest take him on as an apprentice. Though Dolmar expected the priest to ask why Dolmar was asking for an apprenticeship with him instead of joining the Church of Anyold, he simply smiled and agreed.

     For many years Dolmar studied under his new master learning the rites and teachings of Maidanaa. His brothers joined the military when Dolmar was in his seventh year of study, while Maidee became apprenticed to a seamstress that lived a few blocks away from where their house was.

     After studying for ten years, Dolmar’s master declared that in order to truly understand what he had been taught, Dolmar needed to put it into practice. He needed to go out into the world to spread Maidanaa’s healing light.

     Dolmar spent a few weeks thinking on how to go about his master’s latest directive, before deciding to sign up with the military for a battlefield healer position. The war doctrines of Chor Kolav meant that he would be kept well away from the front lines, healing those that were injured in battle. With that, Dolmar joined the military and was put into boot camp. The training was tough and Dolmar thought about leaving many times, but after a year he was finished and left the city for the first time in his life.

     Dolmar soon fell into an easy pattern: wake up, drink/eat coffee and hard tack for breakfast, bandage and heal soldiers, eat hard tack and sausage as hard as hard tack for lunch, bandage and heal more soldiers, eat more sausage and drink an ale for dinner, bandage and heal even more soldiers, go to bed. Easy, repetitive, and mind numbing. Dolmar lost track of the days as he treated soldier after soldier. Some he was able to save, some he wasn’t, some he could only make comfortable.

     After months of serving as a battlefield healer, something happened that broke Dolmar’s routine. He was stationed far away from the front lines, but the front line came to him. Out of the blue, dwarves and hobgoblins fell upon the camp where Dolmar was stationed in a wave of steel and blood. Limbs flew, blood spattered, and bodies were crushed under the sheer weight of soldiers.

     Dolmar, after months of healing the same soldiers over and over until they died, couldn’t take it. He turned and ran. He ran and ran and ran until he collapsed from exhaustion. Dolmar passed out.

     When he awoke, Dolmar raised himself to his feet and then continued south. He didn’t have a destination in mind, just that he couldn’t go back to the endless days of healing people that would be back the next day.

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