Bruenor Battlehammer

"Ye do what ye has to do!"

- Bruenor's Motto

Bruenor Battlehammer was the eighth and tenth king of Mithral Hall from 1356 DR - 1362 DR and 1370 DR - 1409 DR. He was the dwarven adoptive father of Catti-brie and Wulfgar, friend to Drizzt Do'Urden and Regis, crafter of Aegis-fang, and a member of the Companions of the Hall. He was reincarnated in 1463 DR as Reginald Roundshield of Citadel Felbarr.

Description
Bruenor had wild red hair and beard. He had a large, hawk-like, pointy nose that had been broken several times. His eyes were grayish blue and he stood four-and-a-half-feet tall. . In 1357 DR, he lost his right eye in battle and gained a great scar running from his forehead to his jaw. However, his eye was later restored.

After his reincarnation, Bruenor looked the same as in his previous life, only much younger.

Personality
Bruenor was gruff and stubborn, but he showed a tender side for his daughter, Catti-brie, and even Wulfgar at times. He was somewhat suspicious of magic. He was willing to put aside his prejudices for other races when needed, which helped him gain the friendship of Drizzt. He was a strong leader and equally strong fighter. His legacy of leadership still persisted decades after his death.

After his reincarnation, he struggled with his belief in his god and with the unfairness of the world in general, but he eventually gained a goal for his life (returning as the 13th king of Mithral Hall and uniting the Silver Marches). Although he had initially agreed to help Drizzt, for several years he had given up on that plan, until he met his cursed friend Thibbledorf Pwent, who reminded him of the importance of loyalty to his friends.

Childhood
In the 1100s DR, when Bruenor was just a boy, his people were run out of Mithral Hall by the shadow dragon Shimmergloom and his duergar minions.

Icewind Dale
Bruenor's clan took up residence in Icewind Dale under Kelvin's Cairn, close to the Ten-Towns. Clan Battlehammer supplied the towns with well-made dwarven weapons and armor. When Bruenor came of age, he took his rightful place as leader of the clan.

Reclaiming Mithral Hall
For all of his adult life, Bruenor dreamed of returning to Mithral Hall to reclaim his homeland. After the battle with the wizard Akar Kessel and the artifact Crenshinibon, Bruenor tricked his friend Drizzt Do'Urden into helping in the search for Mithral Hall by pretending to be dying after sustaining injuries during the battle.

Along with Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar, Bruenor set off to find his homeland of Mithral Hall. But while they traveled across Icewind Dale, Regis joined them, fleeing from Pasha Pook's master assassin, who was sent to kill Regis and take back his ruby pendant, but Regis had fled before Artemis Entreri arrived at his house in Byrn Shander, but kidnapped Catti-brie, and began a hunt across the north to track down Regis, joining up with members from the Host Tower of the Arcane in Luskan on the search, who wished to hunt down and capture Drizzt Do'Urden, as Dendybar the Mottled mistakenly believed that he had Crenshinibon, or at least knew where to find it.

After many challenges on the way to Mithral Hall, including the crossing of the Trollmoors, after being refused entry by guards in Nesmé, Drizzt's heritage often striking fear into the common folk of the north, the arrival of the Companions of the Hall was a short lived joyous occasion, After a battle with Artemis and his cronies in the entry levels of Mithral Hall, Drizzt and Artemis were separated from the others by a ancient dwarven trap. Icingdeath, Drizzt's Scimitar, was left behind in the Chamber with Bruenor, he took it with him and stayed with Catti-brie, Regis, and Wulfgar on the upper levels as the brokenhearted band searched for their way out, thinking that Drizzt was dead.

When the Companions of the Hall did battle with Shimmergloom, the Shadow Dragon whom had captured Mithral Hall from Clan Battlehammer. The Companions of the Hall thought Bruenor was dead when they saw him ride the shadow dragon whom Bruenor had set on fire, riding it all the way to the death of the dragon. In the meantime Artemis Entreri had taken Regis at dagger point to return him to Calimport. The apparent death of Bruenor and the capture of Regis had disheartened the companions, and they chose to leave the Halls of Mithral Hall, having a running battle with the Duergar that had served Shimmergloom. Drizzt and Wulfgar vowed to retrieve Regis, after getting Catti-brie to safety. Bruenor in the meantime had climbed from the corpse of Shimmergloom, the only thing that kept him alive was Icingdeath, that Drizzt had lost in the battle with Artemis Entreri.

Over the next few weeks, Bruenor worked his way up from the lowest points of Mithral Hall, covering his beard and hair in ash to disguise its color from the duergar that now resided in Mithral Hall, and killing any who found him out. Eventually, he had to escape by climbing up a chimney shaft -- during which he was attacked by a giant spider. Though he was bitten, Bruenor managed to kill the spider and find his way up to a vent to the outside. Finally overcome by the poison, Bruenor lost consciousness.

He awoke to discover himself in the care of Alustriel Silverhand, ruler of Silverymoon. The lady had divined Bruenor's predicament and moved in to help. With her aid-—and that of the Harpells of Longsaddle-—Bruenor was able to give chase to Drizzt and Wulfgar, who were, in turn, pursuing Entreri. Covering the hundreds of miles in a flaming chariot provided by Alustriel, Bruenor and Catti-brie arrived in time to aid Drizzt and Wulfgar in a battle with pirates on Captain Deudermont's ship, Sea Sprite.

Calimshan
Afterward, the reunited Companions went to Calimshan, disembarking at the coastal city of Memnon, and traveling across the Calim Desert, to Calimport, where they tangled with Artemis Entreri in the underworld of the assassin's home turf, along with the criminal underbelly of the thieves guild of Pasha Pook, Regis's previous employer. After being banished to the Plane of Tarterus through the Taros Hoop, a magical artifact held by Pasha Pook, Bruenor thought he had lost his beloved daughter, and after escaping the plane, went enraged and began fighting like a dwarf possessed. After Drizzt and the very much alive Catti-brie returned to the Prime Material Plane, they rescued Regis and caused the downfall of one of the most dominant thieves guilds in the city.

Defending Mithral Hall
After leaving Regis in Calimport as the new guildmaster of the Thieves' Guild, They went back to their home in the north, and spent the winter gathering up forces to take back Mithral Hall -- Bruenor's long-held dream. Bruenor and his armies drove out the duergar, and Bruenor was set up as King of Mithral Hall, with a few thousand settlers from other dwarven kingdoms, such as Citadel Felbarr, swearing their allegiance to him. The peace was very short lived, however, as a small party of drow, lead by Drizzt's now deranged sister, Vierna Do'Urden, and his brother, Dinin Do'Urden, now transformed into a drider, both seeking to regain the favor from the dark elf dieity, Lolth, entered the Underdark seeking Drizzt, killing a party of innocent Mithral Hall prospectors. Bruenor, along with the other companions went to investigate, which resulted in the rooting out of the drow, this being unforeseen by Vierna she summoned a servant of Lolth, a yochlol. During the battle, Wulfgar, caused the ceiling to cave in crushing himslef and the yochlol to death, sending the companions into a deep depression, most of all Bruenor. In the skirmishes during this dark time for Mithral Hall, Bruenor lost an eye (which the priest Cordio Muffinhead amongst the other clerics of Mithral Hall later regenerate for him).

The death of his adoptive son sent Bruenor into a profound depression. When Drizzt left to go to Menzoberranzan to settle accounts with his people, Catti-brie saw Bruenor as being too engrossed in his own grief to be a useful companion when she chased Drizzt. She was not however unaided in the ever so dark tunnels of the lower Underdark, and met with Alustriel who provided her with a magical circlet that lit the darkest areas with magical star/moonlight. When she and Drizzt came back, weeks later, their news of a planned drow war on Mithral Hall forced Bruenor out of his depression.

Drow assault and abdication
With aid from neighboring kingdoms and people, Bruenor and his kingdom survived the Drow assault upon Mithral Hall. Bruenor and his friends even set themselves to seeking out the leaders of the drow army -- the matron mothers of the most powerful houses. In the battle upon their meeting, Bruenor, with much difficulty, cleaved Yvonnel Baenre in half, killing her and ending her millennium-long domination of the drow city. After the battle, they found Gandalug Battlehammer -- the original founder of Mithral Hall and Bruenor's ancestor -- who had been Matron Baenre's magically held prisoner for almost two millennia. The discovery of another legitimate king allowed Bruenor to abdicate to his ancestor in 1362 DR and pursue his own ambitions in Icewind Dale and the mines Clan Battlehammer had made there.

During Drizzt's and Catti-brie's six-year absence from his side, Bruenor became closer friends with Regis.

Reunion with Wulfgar
When the balor Errtu gained the Crystal Shard, Bruenor joined his friends in defeating the tanar'ri out on the Sea of Moving Ice. Errtu was winning the fight. As it turned out, Wulfgar had not been killed six years before, rather, he had been taken to the court of the drow goddess Lolth, who traded him to Errtu in exchange for Errtu's services to her. Errtu then spent years torturing Wulfgar, killing him, and reviving him, tearing apart false images of his friends to break his spirit, and seeking a chance to cause Drizzt to release Errtu's banishment. After Drizzt accidentally released the banishment, Errtu brought Wulfgar back to the Prime Material Plane to witness his friends' destruction. The arrival of Aegis-fang and the speaking aloud of its name returned it to Wulfgar's waiting hands behind a sheet of ice which in turn allowed the friends to destroy the demon, again banishing it for a hundred years.

However, the joyous reunion was a short lived occasion. After Drizzt and Catti-brie tried to get Wulfgar to open up and forgive himself, he struck Catti-brie. Embarrassed and ashamed, Wulfgar left the companions once again. Once Bruenor learned of the incident he was extremely angry with Wulfgar, and wanted to throttle him. After some time, the companions were hunting for Aegis-fang, after they learned that it was stolen from Wulfgar during his tenure at the Cutlass Tavern in Luskan as a bouncer. After learning that a bloodthirsty pirate and her band of female pirates had the weapon, Bruenor and his friends set off to find it. They once again joined up with Wulfgar, although a relieved but still angry Bruenor made sure to punch Wulfgar in the face for striking his daughter, and for having worried them. They finally retrieved Aegis-Fang from the pirates before returning to Icewind Dale.

Return to Mithral Hall and Many Arrows
Bruenor's time in Icewind Dale was short-lived as Gandalug died a few years after resuming his indenture upon the throne. In 1370 DR, Bruenor with the escort of battleragers under the command of Thibbledorf Pwent (Bruenor's friend, though Bruenor often displayed much disdain for his most outrageous battlerager) turned to Mithral Hall. They began the trek back to Mithral Hall, along with Drizzt, Catti-brie, Regis and Wulfgar, who brought Delly Curtie, Wulfgar's new partner, and their adopted daughter, Colson. On the journey they came across two survivors of a dwarven caravan out of Mirabar. The caravan had been attacked by a group that were aligned with the horde of orcs that were soon to change the north thereafter. The journey led them to the town of Shallows, which Bruenor sought to defend from a force from Obould's horde, led by his son Urlgen.

During the battle, Drizzt was separated from Bruenor and the companions, but mistaking a dwarf who was killed in the collapse of the wizard's tower in Shallows, he went into a dark rage, His 'hunter' persona and went out striking for vengeance against those who had taken Bruenor from him. The reality was though that Bruenor had taken such damage during the battle, that he was only alive due to the continued efforts of the dwarven priests. This continued well into the next book of The Hunter's Blades trilogy, where the remaining dwarves managed to take the injured dwarves back to Mithral Hall, where Bruenor laid on the verge of death until Regis managed to lure him back to consciousness with the enchanted ruby. Bruenor's reputation increased with his return from Moradin's halls, he led the dwarves in a nearly suicidal charge to reclaim the river Surbrin from the horde in typical stubborn dwarf fashion.

Drizzt returned towards the conclusion of the war, and after a very prolonged and high-casualty war with Obould, he eventually made peace with the orc king, signing the Treaty of Garumn's Gorge and proving to all in the North that Bruenor was a revolutionary, although in truth he was always very skeptical of the whole affair. His dwarven instincts about the orcs made it hard for Bruenor to believe a treaty could be for the greater good. For many years, he remained King of Mithral Hall, grumbling about his orcish colleague all the while, though he grudgingly acknowledged the efforts Obould made at trying to keep the orcs under control. During this time, much to Bruenor's dismay, Wulfgar left Mithral Hall to return to Icewind Dale.

Spellplague
After his daughter Catti-brie married Drizzt, and was struck down by the Spellplague, along with Regis who tried to break her out of it with His enchanted ruby, The companions traveled to the Spirit Soaring, home of the Priest and Chosen of Deneir, Cadderly Bonaduce in the efforts to find a cure for the mysterious affliction. However, after a battle with the combined soul of the Liches of the Crystal Shard and a Red Dragon, and with the help of Jarlaxle, the Drow leader of the mercenary Band Bregan D'aerthe, they destroyed the abomination. However, Cadderly was killed, and the companions left back for Mithral Hall, with Catti-brie and Regis still afflicted. Upon their return, Mielikki, the patron goddess of Catti-brie, came to claim her spirit, along with Regis, Bruenor was devastated as was Drizzt.

Gauntlgrym
After Bruenor faked his death so he could leave Mithral Hall in search of Gauntlgrym, the fabled home of the Delzoun dwarves. His search began in 1409 DR, and along with Drizzt, Thibbledorf Pwent, the gnome alchemist Nanfoodle, and the orc priestess of Gruumsh Jessa, they set out to find Gauntlgrym. After many years of searching, Nanfoodle and Jessa died of old age and Thibbledorf Pwent left to stay at the dwarven mines in Icewind Dale due to his knees finally giving out after years of violent abuse to them due to his battleraging. It came down to the still relatively young Drizzt and an ageing Bruenor to continue searching for Gauntlgrym. They did eventually find Gauntlgrym, but they they were not the first to rediscover the underground city and they ran into conflict that led to Bruenor's death.

Death
Bruenor died in 1462 DR along Thibbledorf Pwent due to injuries he sustained while defending Gauntlgrym from the pit fiend Beealtimatuche summoned by the lich Valindra Shadowmantle Before he died, he successfully saved Gauntlgrym from destruction by sealing the Primordial of fire. Instead of going to the Halls of Moradin, he joined Catti-brie, Regis, and Wulfgar in Iruladoon, much to his dismay, though his reunion with them was joyful.

Reincarnation
After his death and being rejoined with Catti-brie, Wulfgar and Regis in Iruladoon, Bruenor was given the chance to be reborn. He was then reborn as Reginald Roundshield of Citadel Felbarr. Later, he traveled to Gauntlgrym to pick up his beloved axe, helm, and shield of foaming ale. He also found Pwent, who has been turned into a vampire and was protecting Gauntlgrym from the drow. He resolved to return to settle things with Pwent after aiding Drizzt. He joined up with Catti-brie, Regis, and Wulfgar in to Icewind Dale to help Drizzt in 1484 DR.

Equipment
Bruenor strapped a single-bladed axe and a gold-colored shield with the foaming mug symbol of Clan Battlehamer to his back. He wore a one-horned helmet. but it was lost in the Battle of Shallows. Drizzt, thinking that Bruenor had died, took the one-horned helm and placed it on a stick in the cave he used as shelter as a way to bring him back from being the Hunter. After Bruenor was revived he reclaimed his one-horned helm.

In Gauntlgrym before his death, the dwarf gods enchanted his weapons. His many-notched axe became silver and the foam of the mug on his shield was perfect white silver that made it look almost like real silver. At that time, he could draw out mugs of ale from behind his shield that strengthen the drinker. He carried the items to his death.

Catti-brie
Bruenor adopted Catti-brie as his own daughter when her parents were killed in a goblin attack. He raised her in Clan Battlehammer in Icewind Dale and had a tender spot for her. He considered the day he buried his daughter the worst day of his life.

Wulfgar
After Wulfgar's people were defeated in battle, Bruenor captured Wulfgar had placed him under indentured service for five years. Despite that, a father-son relationship sprang up among the two.

Regis
Bruenor's long-time friend Regis often served as a trusted advisor to Bruenor.

Drizzt Do'Urden
Bruenor met Drizzt Do'Urden after the drow watched out for his daughter on the slopes of Kelvin's Cairn in Icewind Dale. Although at first he was not pleased to have a dark elf as a neighbor, he overcame his prejudices and the two became great friends. The pair traveled together for the last fifty years of Bruenor's life.

Allies
Bruenor was a member of the Companions of the Hall and of the Council of 12 Peers,.

Appearances
Dark Elf Trilogy
 * Sojourn (1991)

Icewind Dale trilogy
 * 1) The Crystal Shard (1988)
 * 2) Streams of Silver (1989)
 * 3) The Halfling's Gem (1990)

Legacy of the Drow series
 * 1) The Legacy (1992)
 * 2) Starless Night (1993)
 * 3) Siege of Darkness (1994)

Paths of Darkness series
 * The Silent Blade (1998)
 * Sea of Swords (2001)

Hunter's Blades trilogy
 * 1) The Thousand Orcs (2002)
 * 2) The Lone Drow (2003)
 * 3) The Two Swords (2004)

Transitions trilogy
 * 1) The Orc King (2007)
 * 2) The Pirate King (2008)
 * 3) The Ghost King (2009)

Neverwinter Saga
 * Gauntlgrym (novel) (2010)

The Sundering series
 * The Companions (2013)