Kaplan Brash

Male Human Fighter, Level 1
Played by Alan

Str 15 Dex 13 Con 15 Int 13 Wis 14 Cha 11
HP 12 AC 18 Alignment Neutral Good
Height 6' 2" Weight 220 lbs Age 32

Class Abilities Second Wind, Fighting Style (Protection)

Skills Athletics, Animal Handling, Insight, Survival

Languages Common

Equipment Chain mail, shield, warhammer, light hammer, mason's tools, shovel, chalk (100 pieces), grappling hook, explorer's pack

Biography Kaplan Brash was born in the modest, unremarkable village of Frosthaven, though it was never his ambition to die there. Frugal and forethoughtful, in his youth Kaplan worked dutifully and spent little, until the day he gave the news to his mother that he was leaving for the metropolis of Vornheim to join the Town Guard. Though she pleaded for him to stay, warning that the decadence and corruption of city life would only bring him misery, Kaplan's mind was set. He packed up what few possessions he cherished, chief among them the mason's hammer that belonged to his late father, and he left.

Vornheim proved to be everything he'd hoped, and nothing like his mother had dreaded. His career as a fortifier for the Town Guard was one of good repute, and for several years he lived in quiet contentment, grateful for each day of hard work, hot meals, and the boisterous companionship of his fellow masons and guardsmen. His skill with the hammer continued to improve, and life would be perfect if not for his one nagging regret, that things had ended things so bitterly with his mother. He would write to her each month in earnest, and more than once he asked her to stay with him and see the life he'd built for himself - her replies were always swift and polite, but never heartfelt.

And so the days passed, with more good in them than bad, until one night when he was woken by a loud banging at his door. To his shock, he was arrested, accused of murders and other heinous acts over the last month that he hadn't committed. Many of his friends and fellow guardsmen were present as he was carried away, watching with frightful eyes. At first, he assumed they were scared for him, but as their testimonies came to light during his trials, he learned that some of those closest to him claimed to have beared witness to the supposed crimes, swearing on their families' honour that the man they saw was Kaplan - they weren't scared for him, he realized, they were scared of him.

The trials were swift and merciless, the judgement brutal. Kaplan was sentenced to one month in the frozen wastes of the mountains, with only a single item of his choosing to take with him - he chose his father's hammer, his most cherished possession. Through some combination of luck, hardiness, survival instincts and determination, Kaplan survived the ordeal, and was allowed to return to his job and dwelling, but it was a shade of his former life. His fellow workers feared and despised him, and he in turn was filled with resentment toward the city. He left, his reputation forever tarnished, with nowhere to go but back to his family home in Frosthaven.

To his surprise, on his return his mother's welcome warm and forgiving, and no trace remained of the dark cloud that had loomed above them for so many years. He told her of the crimes he'd been accused of, though of course word of them had already reached her, and he promised her he was not responsible. She told him there was never a doubt in her mind that he wasn't.

And so Kaplan returned to the life he'd once known. The neighbours of Frosthaven were perhaps less hesitant of him, having known him since he was a boy and being in need of a mason besides, but there was little joy left for him to find in his work. More years went by, and it was enough for him to survive on, but the Kaplan who was ambitious and confident was gone. He laboured mostly to lose himself amidst the toil.

Then, his fate changed a second time, again with him being startled in the night by a loud bang. He leapt from his bed to find his home ambushed by an undead creature. He fought it and killed it, but he was too late - the evil thing had already reached his mother's room and attacked her. Kaplan found her wounded, bleeding to death. Knowing there was little time left for her, she hastened to tell Kaplan a secret she had struggled with keeping from him his whole life. "I'm not your mother, and you're not my child," she said, her words becoming harder to understand as the blood filled her lungs and bubbled up her throat. She began to say more, but whatever Kaplan thought he might have heard in her final, dying murmur might in fact have been anything.

He was still reeling from the shock of so much at once when more undead creatures overwhelmed him. As his strength failed him and the pain overcame him, he began to lose consciousness. It was never his ambition to die in Frosthaven, Kaplan reflected, but somehow after everything he'd been through, it felt oddly appropriate.