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Durgan

NPCs
Dwarf · Commoner, custom workshop overseer · Level 0

Durgan

Family workshop manager and master repairer
“a hinge with one screw left in it.”
AC12
HP9/9
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

At the table

“That was the mine”
From how they speak

Voice

A dry, chest-resonant rasp shaped by forge smoke, shouted instructions, and years of measuring his words before committing to a price. He sounds most alive when explaining how something is made.

His voice has a dry rasp from years of forge smoke and calling over hammer noise. He speaks in clipped, workmanlike phrases, with a small upward hitch at the end when checking that someone has understood. His humor is earthy and unshowy; when he is upset, his words become more concrete, not louder.

Speech patterns

Uses practical comparisons: a bad promise is 'a hinge with one screw left in it.'
Asks short questions about costs, materials, and who will be affected before agreeing to anything.
When discussing the collapse, says 'That was the mine's doing' and changes the subject.
Uses 'we' when talking about the workshops, even when he is the only person making a decision.

How to play them

Treat Durgan as a capable craftsperson and business owner, not as a tragedy. He responds to directness, useful work, and evidence that someone has considered the consequences for his workers. He will discuss Othas if asked plainly, but will not accept pity as an apology.

Goal

Keep the family workshops independent and make sure the mine is properly braced before another crew is sent underground.

Motivation

To protect the people and livelihood he rebuilt after the collapse, without letting grief turn his relationship with Othas into a permanent account of debts.

Secret · GM only

Appearance

A broad, compact dwarf with a deliberate, measured gait, leaning into a stout ash crutch polished dark where his palm grips it. His beard is braided into two blunt forks, each tied with a washer from the family shop. When he laughs, his wide jaw opens to show square, slightly overlapping teeth; when he eats, he bites through crust and meat with the efficiency of someone used to working through a meal. A tiny brass whistle hangs from his neck, its mouthpiece worn smooth from years of being chewed while he thinks. His welcome is warm but never soft, and the workshop smells of hot oil and iron seem to cling to him.

Clothing

A soot-brown work coat patched at both elbows, a leather apron with a dozen narrow tool loops, thick wool trousers cut and neatly hemmed above the left knee, and a reinforced boot on his remaining foot. His clothes are clean enough for customers but always carry a faint scent of hot iron.

Body language

Plants his crutch firmly before turning, never pivots on the missing leg, and angles his shoulders toward whoever is speaking. He points with a blunt thumb rather than a finger. When uncomfortable, he rolls the brass whistle against his lower lip, then catches himself and puts both hands to work.

Height
4 feet 6 inches
Build
Broad-shouldered and stout, with a powerful upper body from years of carrying tools and shifting stock. He has one leg and relies on a heavy crutch for balance.
Eyes
Dark hazel
Hair
Iron gray, with a dark brown streak at the chin
Skin
Warm brown with a permanent dusting of soot in the creases around his nails
Age
Fifty-six
Gender
Male
Size
Medium

Distinguishing features

His left leg is gone below the knee; he walks with a heavy ash crutch whose handle is polished by years of use.
A wide, squared jaw and overlapping front teeth show whenever he laughs or bites into food.
A brass shift whistle hangs at his throat, its mouthpiece worn smooth from being chewed during long calculations.

Personality

12 traits and drives

Durgan is generous with tools, time, and second chances, yet exacting about promises and waste. In a busy shop he is brisk, funny, and visibly pleased when an apprentice solves a problem alone. In private, especially with Othas, he becomes guarded and practical, using old work stories to circle what he cannot say directly. He does not hold a grudge, but he has not stopped grieving.

Alignment
Neutral good

Quirks

Chews the whistle's mouthpiece while counting or calculating, then insists he was not doing it.
Taps twice on a finished piece of work before calling it sound.
Arranges washers by thickness when a conversation becomes uncomfortable.
Bites the corner from every loaf before cutting it, claiming it tells him whether the crust will hold.

Habits

Checks a tool's balance before handing it to anyone, even when he trusts them.
Makes a point of assigning apprentices work they can complete independently, then watches from across the room.
When a visitor mentions the collapse, redirects the conversation toward the condition of the mine supports.
If Othas is present, treats him with the same practical familiarity as always, but finds a task to do whenever the conversation turns tender.

Traits · 3

Protective of people under his care, but refuses to coddle them.
Jovial in a crowded workshop, guarded in a quiet room.
Forgives quickly when someone takes responsibility, but remembers the cost of their choices.

Flaws · 3

Uses work to dodge conversations that might make him vulnerable.
Has a habit of taking responsibility away from others, then resenting the burden.
Sometimes calls his refusal to ask for help 'being practical.'

Fears · 3

That Othas will mistake his forgiveness for proof the collapse did not matter.
That the mine factor will take the workshops and scatter the people who depend on them.
Being treated as a symbol of survival instead of a working man with decisions to make.

Wants and needs · 3

Wants the workshop to remain independent.
Needs a safer way to settle the mine-support dispute than risking the workers' livelihoods.
Wants Othas to understand that forgiveness is not the same as forgetting.

Combat

AC 12 · HP 9 · 15 ft. (custom: one leg, using a crutch)

Durgan is a civilian, not a trained combatant. He keeps a workbench or heavy equipment between himself and danger, calls for help, and uses his crutch only if escape is blocked. He will put himself between a threat and an apprentice, but will not chase a fleeing enemy.

Durgan

Medium humanoid (dwarf), neutral good
Armor Class12
Hit Points9
Speed15 ft. (custom: one leg, using a crutch)
Level0
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsConstitution
SkillsSmith's toolsInsightPersuasion
SensesPassive Perception 11
Languages
Common,
Dwarvish
Custom feature. Workshop authority. Durgan can identify the likely maker and intended use of ordinary mine or smithing tools by examining them for a minute.
Custom feature. Crutch-fighting. Durgan is practiced at using his heavy ash crutch to keep an opponent at a distance, though he is not a trained warrior.

Actions

Crutch. Melee Weapon Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 () bludgeoning damage. Durgan uses his crutch as a club, but avoids fighting unless cornered.
Shop-floor Direction. Durgan barks a precise instruction to a nearby worker or ally who can hear him. That creature can immediately move up to 5 feet without provoking an opportunity attack. Custom feature; no effect on creatures that cannot understand him.

Reactions

Get Behind the Bench. When a creature within 5 feet targets an apprentice or workshop worker with an attack, Durgan can move up to 5 feet toward that creature and impose disadvantage on the attack roll if he is in reach and the attacker can see him. Custom feature; Durgan can use this once per encounter.

Services they sell

Repairs mining tools, hinges, cart fittings, and household hardware
Can assess the condition of ordinary mine supports and equipment
Can arrange honest work with local craftspeople

Rewards they can give

A fair price and reliable repairs from the workshops
A carefully made tool or replacement part suited to a practical problem
His trust, and a candid account of the mine's current dangers

Equipment

  • Ash crutch (mobility aid and improvised weapon)A stout ash crutch with a leather-wrapped handle and a steel-capped foot, balanced for stability rather than speed.
  • Workshop apron and tools (tools)A heavy leather apron carrying a small hammer, chalk, awl, and measuring cord.
  • Shift whistle (personal keepsake)A brass whistle formerly used to signal the end of a mine shift; its mouthpiece is visibly worn.

Possessions

The brass shift whistle from the mine where he was injured
A worn copy of the workshop contracts and repair records
A small box of carefully sorted washers, each saved from a job that taught him something

Background

Durgan and his younger brother Othas grew up in the family workshops above the old mine road, where every meal came with a hammer ringing somewhere nearby. Durgan learned to fit hinges, mend carts, and keep the household accounts; Othas had the quicker instinct for danger underground. During a winter shift, a support gave way in the mine. Othas had warned the crew to retreat, but the warning came too late to prevent the collapse. Durgan was trapped beneath a fallen beam and lost his left leg before the rescue crew reached him. His survival depended on a young miner, Zbrik, who crawled back into the rubble after everyone else had been ordered out. Durgan returned to the workshops with a crutch and a stubborn insistence that the family would not become a charity case. He now oversees repairs, contracts, and the apprentices, and has made the workshops reliable enough to keep several families employed. He tells Othas he holds no grudge, and means it in the way he understands the words: he will not punish his brother. But he has never told Othas that he still wakes remembering the moment the beam fell. He is currently fighting a dispute with a mine factor who wants to buy the workshops cheaply, while trying to persuade Zbrik to stop risking his life to prove he saved Durgan for a reason.

Role in the story

A grounded connection to Othas who can offer the party work, information about the mine, and a complicated family perspective on the collapse. His forgiveness is real, but it does not erase what happened.

“Durgan learned to fit hinges, mend carts, and keep the household accounts; Othas had the quicker instinct for danger underground.”
From their background
Faction
The family workshops, an independent repair business known locally as the Bellowslope Shops, named for the bellows trade that once supported the district.

Known connections

Othas, his younger brother and the person he trusts most, though old grief still sits between them.
Zbrik, the miner who rescued him from the collapse; Durgan is grateful, and frustrated that Zbrik keeps courting danger.
The apprentices and workers at the family workshops, whom Durgan treats as an extended household.
Major secret · GM only
Minor secrets · GM only

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