The story of Keldorn as you all have probably heard in pieces during his travels with the party. That is except for Rose. Should she inquire Keldorn would be willing to tell her this story of is life as well as what had happened since he had joined up with the party.
You wish to hear a story of my life? Which life is it that you wish to hear of? For I have live two distinct lives. One of slavery and one of freedom. My life of slavery was a horrible one. One of abuse and disgrace. As a child I was a servant to my master and was used to clean the blood from the practice field. You seem a little shocked that there is blood on the practice field. Well this was no ordinary practice field. It was a practice field for gladiators. Yes my master was a gladiator trainer. He trained slaves, criminals, and those foolish enough to wish to become gladiators to fight and die with such style as to rouse the crowd into a cheering frenzy. Such was to be my lot in life when I became old enough and big enough.
Unfortunately for me this time came sooner than for most as I was large for my age and as such was thrown to the lions much to soon. Upon the day that I measured five and a half feet tall I was told to choose a weapon with which I would learn to fight. Being as young as I was I found the biggest weapon that I could carry, the war axe. Initially I had to wield the thing with two hands, but over the course of my crude month long training session with it I learned to wield it single handedly. This was also due in part to my increasing strength and familiarity with the weapon.
After my month of training with the weapon I was thrown into an animal bout with nothing but a loin cloth and my axe. When the animals came out the more experienced gladiators went for the big ones that seemed to run away from them. So, following their lead in my mind and being inexperienced, I went for one of the smaller animals that was keeping to the shaded areas in front of the stands. It had a snout like a dog yet it walked upright like a small man. As I cautiously approached the thing it jabbered something at me that I could not understand. Thinking that it might be afraid I charged right at it only to end up with a short spear jabbed into my chest. Apparently the thing was armed and knew how to fight. As I crumpled to the ground and lay there slowly bleeding the rest of the gladiators, those still alive, finished killing the remaining animals including the small thing that jabbed its spear into me. After the fight the gladiators began to remove their fallen comrades and when they went to move me they found that somehow I was still alive. Unconscious but alive.
I was taken back to the gladiator school and was left in a cell to live or die on my own. One of the other slaves, an old short fellow by the name of Bloodstone Hammerfist, who had been injured was put in the cell next to me and was able to convince those that put me in my cell to place me next to the shared wall of his cell so that he could make sure that I had a better chance to survive. Feeling sorry for me the other gladiators placed me next to his cell. For the next week Bloodstone treated my wounds as best as he could and tried to wake up. After a week of deep unconsciousness I awoke to a blurry sight of someone leering over me through the bars. I tried to speak but my parched throat kept me from saying anything useful. The figure leaning over me introduced himself as Bloodstone Hammerfist and told me that he was going to take care of me as long as I did what he told me to do. I was in no condition to argue so I agreed and weakly shook my head in agreement. Bloodstone told me to lie still and to pretend that I was asleep when the guards or master came around on their patrols. Not being in a state to argue I went along with Bloodstone’s advice and lay there quietly with my eyes closed.
The next day when I awoke I felt better to the point that I could move around in my cell without feeling dizzy and nauseous. My master came around and, seeing that I was awake, demanded that I start training again as punishment for my poor performance the week before. So I began training again. Time and again in the practice a single blow would knock me out for a while. Every time this happened I was roused with smelling salts and cold water to my face. This went on for several weeks from before the sun came up until I would collapse from fatigue. Week after week of such rigors began to harden my body to the strains of extended activity. Over years of being trained like this it became easy for me to stay standing when others had become winded. But I am getting ahead of myself. When it came time for the next gladiator games I was sent again and this time I was told to either remain standing through the entire match or to make sure that I died on the field of battle.
As the battle started I chose another of the small creatures that I nearly killed me in my first bout and this time and I went after it with a new vigor of revenge for what its brother had done to me. Both of us circled for a while before it took its spear and jabbed it at me. Learning from last time I side stepped and brought my heavy axe down upon its small skull. Through an act of amazing dexterity it was able to use its spear to take most of the brunt of my swing and I only grazed its arm. It followed through with a quick jab of its spear into my stomach. As I felt the blood flowing from my wound and felt myself becoming weak with loss of blood I gave one final heave and brought my axe crashing down and nearly split the little animal in two pieces from head to toe. As the creature fell from my blow I turned to see the rest of the gladiators finishing up the rest of animals that had been brought into the ring. After the battle was over I trudged off the field amazed that a blow that had dropped me just three weeks earlier had not doped me this time just due to sheer will alone. I later found this to be most useful and it allowed me to survive many battles in the future, though it did take much honing over the coming years.
Upon returning to the school Bloodstone told me about how as a gladiator becomes more experienced some of them learn how to take blows that would normally be fatal and instead keep going and not fall. He said that it was a hard thing to accomplish and that I should fee blessed to be able to do it at such a young age with so little experience. Though he said that it would take many years before I would be able to control me body and mind enough to be able to regularly accomplish such a feat. I later decided that it was the fear and rush of the moment that allowed me to survive. According to Bloodstone the blow that I suffered this time was not as serious as the last time though it was grievous none the less.
Over the next several years I learned how to take blows better so that they did not draw as much blood as before. It was also during this time that Bloodstone taught me how to wield a shield that would allow me to better protect myself. Setting my sights on the large body shields used as decorations along the walls of the master’s house I decided that I wanted to be trained on how to use such large shields without having them encumber me to the point of not being able to move and fight. Through years of practice with both my axe and the shield I was able to learn to use the two efficiently together and was better able to protect myself. It was as I became better with both axe and shield that I improved my skills in the arena and was able to take on large animals and eventually be promoted to fighting other gladiators to the death. While doing all of this I was taught the art of showmanship with my weapon so as to draw the crowd in and appease them.
Once I was put into the category of fighting other gladiators I was given the choice of being lightly armored and more mobile or having lots of armor and being a little slower. With my previous experiences of being speared through the chest despite being lightly armored and being faster I decided to go with the heavy armor so that I could take hits like that without having blood drawn. So I was trained to wear many different types of armor but the one that I liked the best was many rings of metal looped together and it then formed to the body. I was later told by Bloodstone that this type of armor was known as chain mail. So it was with chain mail and my large shield and axe that I began going into all my combats and began to make a name for myself in the novice circuits of the gladiator combats. After spending several years of killing other humans for the sport and pleasure of those who sat there and watched I grew tired of killing just for their entertainment and so decided that if ever given the opportunity I would run away from my master and all the needless killing that he forced me to do.
While in one of the larger cities for a week long period of games I decided that this would be my best opportunity to make a run for my freedom and so after suiting up for my combat I made a break for the doors. The guards seeing what I was going to do got in front of me and I was forced to kill them in order for me to escape into the area beyond. During the fight with the guards the attention of the masters oldest son was drawn to my attempted escape and so he to came over to stop me from running away. Despite having nothing against the young master I was forced to kill him as well. This probably angered my master quite a bit and while this made me feel a sense of joy for causing my master pain it made me sad at having to end such a young life, and one who was so kind and caring towards the other gladiators.
After escaping from the arena I ran from the city and headed towards one of the smaller outlying cities in the hope that I would be able to hide better from the patrols that would surely be sent after me. Yet to my dismay this did not work as well as I had hoped because of the minor amount of fame that I had earned through my combats in the arena. I tried to keep moving from town to town but no matter where I went it was easy for the patrols to follow me. In the end I had to kill several of the groups who were sent after me. But knowing that I could not face them all at one time I waited until several of them had broken off from the main group and then I picked them off one at a time. It was after running for several months that I decided that the only way that I would be able to run away and have a chance of gaining true freedom I would have to leave the country. I knew that I would never be able to make it inland and across the rugged mountains so instead I looked to the sea as a way for me to escape. In one of the villages that I was running through I noticed that a captain was looking for mercenaries for the defense of his ship from pirates on a long voyage to a far off land. I approached the captain and told him that I would be willing to sign on for the tip there but would be unable to return with him. He said that he was looking for people to make the whole trip with him and that he would not pay me for half a trip. I told him that I would protect his ship if he would just take me there and feed me along the way. To this he agreed. The next day we set sail and I did not look back with a sense of fear of the unknown but instead looked forward to leaving my old life behind me and starting anew wherever it was that I was going.
Several weeks into the voyage, after weathering a severe storm, the lookout spotted a small island and the captain decided that he would try and refill our water while we were here. I and several others volunteered to go ashore in one of the ships boats and attempt to find some water. While ashore we found the spring that was at the top of a large hill in the middle of the island and so it was there that I we camped while the barrels refilled. My comrades from the ship decided that night that they were going hunting for some small game for dinner and said that I should stay and watch the camp as I was to big and noisy and would scare away the animals. Sitting down on one of the logs that we had drug up as benches I took off my helmet and sat down thinking about what I would do in the new land and listened to the jungle sounds. It took me a while to notice but the jungle noises had become quiet and something strange was happening in the air above the camp. There was a point of light that was getting bigger and seemed to be coming closer. I stood and readied myself for combat with whatever it was. As the light came in contact with my body I felt jarred and everything became dark. Soon after there was a sliding noise and two portals opened. As I looked around and slowly exited one of them it was Tormal and Li that I met on the outside. From there all of you know my story as well as I do.
