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★ Character Information ★

Character Name: Grog Strongjaw
Character Age: adult (exact age not given in canon)
Character Species: Goliath - 8’7” tall with grey skin and black tattoos.
Current Health: healthy
Outfit: as pictured.

Character Canon: Critical Role
Link to History: wiki
Canon Point: Campaign 1, episode 95, during the one year time skip
Canon Iteration: Original canon

★ Folkmore Roles & Attributes ★

Skills: Grog is very strong, and excels at most athletic endeavors that involve strength. He is also incredibly good at intimidating people. He's good at paying attention to the people around him, and knowing when someone needs help (in the form of a health potion during battle, or a listening ear during moments of reflection). He's a decent tracker, though not as good at tracking as other members of his adventuring party. Grog is very observant, and good at remembering small things like stories and ideas. One thing he is NOT good at, is literacy. He has a -2 penalty on all Intellect-based skills, and has trouble reading or writing any words longer than 4 or 5 letters.

Canon Abilities: Grog is a level 15 Barbarian and a level 2 Fighter.

As a Barbarian, Grog can enter a Rage, which makes him stronger, more durable, and makes his attacks deal more damage. He can attack recklessly which makes him more likely to land his attacks, but has the trade off of making his opponent's attacks also more likely to hit him. He can make multiple attacks per round of combat, and is more likely to be the first to attack. When he scores a critical hit, his attacks deal even more damage than any other class of adventurer's critical attacks, with that effect increasing as he becomes a higher level Barbarian. Grog's Barbarian path is that of the Berzerker, which means he can go into a frenzied rage, allowing to make even more attacks at the cause of exhausting himself once he exits the rage after the battle. While he is raging, he cannot be charmed of frightened.

As a Fighter, Grog gains the abilities of Action Surge, which allows him to take even more attacks in one round, and Second Wind, which allows him to boost his stamina and recover health (each of these features can be used once per day).

Additionally, Grog has taken several feats to make him a better fighter. He is Tough, which gives him more vitality and health, he is Mobile, which means he is unimpeded by difficult terrain when dashing on his turn, and that he doesn't provoke any attacks of opportunity from an opponent who he has targeted with a melee attack. His final feat is that of Great Weapon Master, which means when he scores a critical hit or knocks an opponent unconscious with a melee weapon, he can make another melee attack as a bonus action. Additionally, he can choose to take an accuracy penalty on an attack in exchange for dealing more brutal damage.

Role: Familiar
Role Qualities/Attributes: Grog will be able to shape shift into various animal forms, however every animal he changes into will be the biggest possible version of that type of animal, whether it is one found on Earth, or a "dire" or "giant" version found in D&D. When possible, the animal or creature that Grog shape shifts into will have a grey/black color scheme (i.e. a black dragon versus a red dragon). Until he gets more used to shape shifting, every transformation will come along with a loud belch, as if the transformation is being expelled from him like a burp.
Role Reasoning: While Grog is generally good-aligned (heroic, compassionate, brave), he is far happier in a support role, helping to back up and coordinate with his friends, rather than being the one making any decisions about plans or strategy.

★ Personality ★

OPTION 2 QUESTIONS (PICK 4-5) 100-300 WORD LIMIT EACH:

What is the most important and defining relationship(s) in your character's life and why?

Grog's relationship with everyone in Vox Machina is important, but over anyone else, his most important relationships are with Pike Trickfoot and Scanlan Shorthalt.

Back before any of these adventures began, Grog was living with his herd of goliaths, the Herd of Storms, which was led by his uncle, Kevdak. One day, the herd came across an old gnomish man named Wilhand Trickfoot, traveling on his own with a cart of vegetables. Kevdak and the others wanted to attack the gnome, but Grog stood up to his uncle and defended Wilhand. For his disobedience, Kevdak and the rest of the herd beat Grog to within an inch of his life. Wilhand later sent his great-great-granddaughter Pike to find Grog and heal him. Pike brought Grog to Westruun, where he lived with the Trickfoot and started a new life. If it wasn't for Pike, Grog never would have become the adventurer he is now, able to be both strong and kind.

After he parted ways with Pike, Grog teamed up with Scanlan and a few other adventures, just traveling around making a buck. Grog and Scanlan bonded over their love of ale and women, often visiting brothels together. They had each other's backs on many occasions, and grew to be the best of friends. Later, when Scanlan decided to leave Vox Machina, Grog was hurt, but he respected Scanlan's reasons for wanting to go, knowing that they hadn't taken him seriously as a member of their party.

If your character could change one thing about their past, what would it be and why? Or why not?

I don’t think Grog would change a thing about his past. Sure, there were hard times. Times when he nearly died or where his friends nearly died. Sometimes, they actually did die, and had to be brought back to life through an intricate ritual. If there’s one thing that Grog would want to change, he would want to change to make it so that Scanlan never left Vox Machina. But he knows that that was Scanlan’s choice to make, not his. The last thing he would want would be to make Scanlan stay against his will. Even though Scanlan’s parting from the group hurt Grog, and made him eventually grow to resent Scanlan for doing it— to the point that when Scanlan was finally reunited with Vox Machina, Grog refused to be in the same room with him— he knows that Scanlan left for his own reasons, and that his reasons were not unfounded.

What is a time where your character failed drastically at something and how did it impact them, what did they do about it?

After Vox Machina defeated the Briarwoods, Percy gave Sylas Briarwood's sword, Craven Edge, to Grog, as he was the only party member capable of wielding a greatsword. Craven Edge was a sentient weapon that stole strength from those whose blood it tasted, and imparted that strength upon its wielder. It would hold conversations with Grog, which he hid from his friends, telling Grog all about how the sword was hungry for blood.

Finally, during a pitched battle, Grog threw Craven Edge, attached to a chain, through a portal, trying to escape suffocation in the Elemental Plane of Air. When the sword found purchase, he pulled himself through the portal to safety. Unbeknownst to him, the sword had found purchase in the stomach of Grog's closest friend, Pike Trickfoot. The damage dealt to Pike was then used to strengthen Grog, unleashing Craven Edge's larger, stronger form.

Pike was able to be healed after the battle, at which point the group took a short rest. After the rest, however, Craven Edge was empty and hungry, and consumed Grog's soul in order to sate its hunger, killing him instantly. The party performed a revivification ritual to save his life, and the truth of Craven Edge's dark power was revealed, which led the group to decide to banish it to another plane of existence, where it could never hurt anyone again. Grog, still under Craven Edge's influence, tried to argue that they could work with the sword, and use it to their advantage, but he was overruled. Eventually, Pike cast a spell which severed the sword's thrall over Grog, and he saw how foolish he had been.

Which Taylor Swift era is your character going through right now and why?

At Grog's current canon point, his adventuring group, Vox Machina, is in the middle of taking a one year break. After saving the world from dragons, finishing Keyleth's aramente, and closing off some loose ends in the Nine Hells, the group decided to go their separate ways and work on their own individual projects. Disappearing from the public eye for a while. For Grog, that meant spending time in Vasselheim defending his title in the crucible, putting his past feud with and fight against his uncle Kevdak literally behind him, by tattooing Kevdak's signature bear tattoo on his own back.

As such, I would equate this to Taylor's Folkmore/Evermore era, where she retreated during the pandemic and came back older, wiser, and more self-reflective than before. If anything, Grog is getting a little bored in his downtime, and is searching for new ways to pass the time, such as toying with the idea of drawing another card from the Deck of Many Things.

If you could give your character a Taylor Swift playlist, which songs would be on it and what would they represent about your character?

Look What You Made Me Do

But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time
Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time
I got a list of names, and yours is in red, underlined
I check it once, then I check it twice, oh!
Ooh, look what you made me do
Look what you made me do
Look what you just made me do
Look what you just made me...
···
I'm sorry, but the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now
Why? Oh, 'cause she's dead

Grog growing in strength and fighting prowess, then returning to the Herd of Storms to challenge and defeat Kevdak.

mad woman

What did you think I'd say to that?
Does a scorpion sting when fighting back?
They strike to kill and you know I will
You know I will
···
Every time you call me crazy
I get more crazy
What about that?
And when you say I seem angry
I get more angry

Grog embracing his berserker rage fighting style.

Karma

Ask me what I learned from all those years
Ask me what I earned from all those tears
Ask me why so many fade, but I'm still here
(I'm still, I'm still here)
'Cause karma is the thunder
Rattling your ground
Karma's on your scent like a bounty hunter
Karma's gonna track you down
Step by step from town to town
Sweet like justice, karma is a queen
Karma takes all my friends to the summit

Grog and the rest of Vox Machina overcoming their adversities and becoming high level adventurers.

right where you left me

Friends break up, friends get married
Strangers get born, strangers get buried
Trends change, rumors fly through new skies
But I'm right where you left me
Matches burn after the other
Pages turn and stick to each other
Wages earned and lessons learned
But I, I'm right where you left me
···
I, I swear you could hear a hair pin drop
Right when I felt the moment stop
Glass shattered on the white cloth
Everybody moved on, I, I stayed there

Grog's feelings when Scanlan left Vox Machina.

Bad Blood

Did you think we'd be fine?
Still got scars on my back from your knife
So don't think it's in the past
These kind of wounds they last and they last
Now did you think it all through?
All these things will catch up to you
And time can heal, but this won't
So if you come in my way, just don't
Oh, it's so sad to think about the good times
You and I
···
Band-aids don't fix bullet holes (hey!)
You say sorry just for show (hey!)
If you live like that, you live with ghosts (hey!)
Hm, if you love like that, blood runs cold

Grog's response when Scanlan shows his face again (after his current canon point).

I Did Something Bad

They never see it comin'
What I do next
This is how the world works
You gotta leave before you get left
I can feel the flames on my skin
He says, "Don't throw away a good thing"
But if he drops my name, then I owe him nothin'
And if he spends my change, then he had it comin'
They say I did something bad
Then why's it feel so good?
They say I did something bad
But why's it feel so good?
Most fun I ever had
And I'd do it over and over and over again if I could
It just felt so good, good

Again, this is just Grog embracing his rage.

★ Player Information ★

Player Name: Chris
Pronouns: she/they
Are you over 18?: much
Contact(s):