Giarrok

Giarrok, commonly known as Fire-Tongue, was a Gnoll sorcerer who was chieftain of the Fire Claws, a small tribe of his kin who lived in the Umar Hills in Amn.

History
A rarity among his species, Giarrok was born an only child. For this percieved aberration, he and his mother were exiled from the Stonetooth tribe by the tribe shaman. Giarrok is the gnoll word for "revenge" and his mother gave him this name since he could not earn his name during his first hunt as most gnoll cubs do. He and his mother lived in a partially ruined keep on the borderlands of the Forest of Tethir. When he was only a year old he developed unusually dark fur for a gnoll and also a unique marking, a jet black stripe which stretched from his left eye all the way down to the bottom of his ribcage. At two years old, he was fully grown, an impressive specimen stopping growth just shy of 8 feet tall. He and his mother both believed that these attributes marked him as favoured by Yeenoghu so his mother brought him back to the Stonetooth tribe. Unfortunately, the tribe's hunters slaughtered Giarrok's mother on sight. In a rage, the powerful gnoll unleashed his first sorcerer spells against them.

Giarrok soon obtained a weasel familiar he named Korrok and together, they harried the Stonetooth's members for two years, killing warriors, females and cubs one by one until he finally decided to murder the tribe's chieftain, declaring himself ruler of the tribe in his stead. His actions had weakened the tribe, now called the Fire Claws (after his favourite Burning Hands spell). Only 15 warriors were left, the rest of the tribe were females and cubs so he moved them to the keep where he and his mother had lived.

After tracking a group of rogues he and his warriors learned how to waylay those who would track them themselves and used the thieves near-perfect ambush spot to attack travellers passing their way.

Appearance
As mentioned, Giarrok was almost 8 feet tall, had almost mahogany coloured fur and a long black stripe down his left side. Preferring to bare-chested to arrogantly show off his battle-scars, he wore only a ragged loincloth, a bandoleer topped with a gnoll skull and the previous chieftain's golden bracers to mark himself as leader. Otherwise he appeared as a typical gnoll.

Personality
Having experienced only outstanding successes since his mother's murder, Giarrok grew incredibly arrogant. He believed himself to be the chosen of Yeenoghu and took the fear his tribe treated him with for granted, even the fear they reserved for Korrok!

Goals
Giarrok desired to capture human slaves who he would force to rebuild Fire Claw Keep and teach his warriors what they know about combat.

Fire Claw Tribe
Giarrok's tribe was only small, consisting of 36 gnolls, only 17 of which were warriors (and 7 of whom were female). 6 females raised the 12 cubs at the keep (5 of whom were Giarrok's offspring). The keep itself (which was originally a logging camp) located an equal distance between Brost and Trademeet was in a sorry state. It had been destroyed by the elves of the Wealdath before Brost had been founded and was only really a 15 foot high curtain wall in bad condition with wooden planks acting as archers posts to fire down from the battlements. Two of the portcullis' bars were sundered, which allowed access despite it's permanantly lowered position. A couple of wooden buildings inside the keep had survived and were used as shelters (though the barracks held the tribe's accumulated treasure). The gnolls knew how to use the holes in these buildings (created from fire damage) to surprise any enemies who somehow find their way inside.