Blaehaewen Society

1. Uustine Ustanos, the Scrimshaw Sculptor

Uustine Ustanos was the founder of the Blaehaewen Society, a chivalric order composed of non-combatants who ended up in a dungeon and found that their professional lives changed. Uustine was a mild-mannered kid who had made it to the big city of Camliel, where he and others were pressganged into dungeon raiding teams to attack Thannerion Massiv. The teams were expected to make progress by overwhelming the dungeon's defenses by sheer numbers and were accordingly poorly armed, and poorly armored. Ustanos was given a sling, a sack of hurling stones, and a heavy jerkin. The team was predictably badly beaten and suffered greater than 90% losses, most inflicted by an accidental encounter with a juvenile behemoth. He survived and managed to find a hiding place. The behemoths couldn't reach him, and he was technically escaped from the Oligarch's wranglers so this was better. With his supplies of hard tack, access to a trickle of water, and his scrimshaw tools, he occupied his time. There were plenty of land hippo teeth and bones, so he whittled, engraved, carved, and poured himself into making a pile of scrimshaw art.

When he escaped the dungeon two weeks later, he had lost a good deal of weight, and had a feverish intent in his soul. He left with his pack bulging with behemoth tusks, lumps of behemoth ambergris, and a great spear. After fighting his way past a few minor creatures and then evading a few of the Oligarch's guards, he made it back to Camliel. There, he traded a lump of ambergris for passage back home. He spent the trip back making some of the most beautiful scrimshaw the crew had seen. His skill was no longer increasing, because while carving away at tusks in the essence-rich dungeon, he had basically maxed out his skill. He was a grandmaster of scrimshaw. After reaching port, he sold a few of his pieces from the ship and traveled to Terrasquestone, where he liquidated the rest of his stock, selling the ambergris and scrimshaw for a substantial profit.

He opened a sundry shop in the Mitoyen Market where he bought, sold, and traded basic goods, and quickly found he was wasting his time. He dumped the shop and leased a great house in the inner city. He opened a by-invitation-only boutique making meerschaums, variant pipes, smoking accessories, stoppers for brutally expensive wines, and handles for daggers worn by nobles and royalty. On certain days, his business is open to artisans and craftsmen who have had similar experiences as him, being thrown into dungeons and coming out changed. These meetings are typically held once a month, at the Blaehaewen House, on Woebegone boulevard. 

2. Cenwulf, the Painter

Cenwulf was not so much as an unwilling dungeon explorer so much as a fellow who thought he was going on a vacation and almost died. Formerly a city guard, and then caravan guard, Cenwulf had seen a great deal of the world before he eventually retired. He had spent enough time on his feet, with a halberd in his grip. He replaced the halberd with a paintbrush and paints and dabbled in landscapes and still life paintings, to no great success. It wasn't until a nephew with a magic longsword and ambition showed up and changed things. The young man wanted to take on the Gyre, and it fell to Cenwulf to end up as a babysitter to a bunch of barely adults with sharp weapons and ambition, so they didn't end up dungeon fodder.

The raid went well enough until they encountered a particularly tough otyugh that sent them running. His leg injured, Cenwulf stayed behind so the kids could escape, bearing his nephew's discarded longsword. Seeing the actual raiders flee, the otyugh stopped attacking, looked at Cenwulf, and just ... left. He limped back to the Necrohol and decided to rest in one of the abandoned shops, at least until his leg felt better. The shop was a ransacked art supply, and he found plenty of brushes, pots of different paints, and lacking canvas, he had plenty of wall. He spent time scavenging from the Necrohol, dragging old bottles of wine, moldy wheels of cheese, and salted and cured meats, and slathering paint on the walls. He painted places, people he could remember, monsters, he even threw down some shocking and scandalous graffiti and obscene art.

When he recovered enough to leave, Cenwulf loaded his bag with cured meat, paint pots, and a leather scroll case full of strange paintbrushes he had used. Upon reaching the surface, he returned the longsword to his nephew, who had given up the adventuring lifestyle to follow the family profession of being a city guardsman. He returned to his home and paints, and his artwork had skyrocketed in skill. He sold every painting he made, an in a month, he had an outstanding list of people who wanted him to paint murals in their homes, or their halls. He has been invited to make something for the Hall of Gifts, and is a new member of the Blaehaewen House, where he has brought his more controversial paintings, mostly stuff that the nobility would publically call lewd, and then quietly purchase for dozens or hundreds of gold each.

3. Ennomir the Red Cleaver, the Chef

Ennomir was originally known as Enno Mop-Head due to his rail thin body, unruly red hair, and his propensity to hide in corners and avoid people in social situations. He was unwillingly pressed into a dungeon raiding party due to the debts he had racked up and seemed to be in no position to repay. The gamblers' guildhall decided that he should be voluntold to join a party, try his hand at the Gyre, and then have a chance of either paying off what he owed or have his account cleared on account of being dead. The guild's party was effective and made to the outskirts of Understone. There, the party was broken and forced to retreat. Ennomir decided he would rather try his hand at getting out on his own than trusting in people who had brought him down into the Gyre with a knife at his back. Armed only with a few knives and a board shield, he started on his way back out of the Gyre. He made it to the Necrohol and decided to rest, and found the broken shell of an inn's kitchen. Breaking shelves and furniture he got the great oven running, and he started making trips to bring down easy monsters and breaking their carcasses down. Sitting in a concealed cubby hole, he cooked for himself.

He was found a month and a half later by a different explorer group who followed their noses to his alcove. He had been making a cockatrice fricassee and liberally pouring tankards of a rather fine white wine he had found in a large barrel. Finding the soused chef cooking like a madman, they very politely offered to take him back to the surface. The leader of the band had wept as he tried the cockatrice foie gras Ennomir had actually managed to make. He returned to the surface and went through several postings working in different kitchens, leaving all of them to focus on doing his own thing, and is now a caterer to the high nobility and senior guildsmen of the city. Most of the time he works in the Adventurers-Upon-Return great hall kitchen, but only for banquets and celebrations.

He has since gained the moniker as the Red Cleaver as he carries a red cleaver that he uses to break down monster flesh, and his cuisine is the talk of the city. He has also bulked out, sports a collection of tattoos, and has a wightpewter wedding ring he doesn't talk about. He is a regular at the Blaehaewen House, where he puts on a culinary show that is effectively dungeon inspired hibachi with exotic ingredients, unlikely ingredients, and the like.

Ennomir the Red Cleaver has a wife, Meldhora Unarzoth, of Understone. She is a wight cnawdmaler, or tattoo artist, and is the one who is continually expanding Ennomir's P'ellmore Easle body tattoo. He routinely visits Understone where his wife and children live very comfortable lives, and sometimes they visit the surface, especially for festivals that Understone completely lacks. He also has plied his trade at the Garlandier, the High Lord's Table, and in capitals and great castles around Cridhedun.

4. Golderyn Browne, the Poet

Golderyn 'Rinny' Browne spent most of her life working in the tavern, starting as a scullery maid cleaning pots and working the kitchen. When her tits popped out she was sent to wait tables, and when there were more wenches younger and prettier than her, she was sent out the door. She had had a few trysts with bold adventurers, a few short relationships, and a handful of kids whose fathers were all dead, missing, or too important to call on a tavern wench, and was suddenly out on the streets. She survived a year before being taken in by the Esteemed Order of Wretches and Waifs and became a burglar and thief.

She went into the Gyre with a band of fellow wretches and waifs looking for some luck and gold and absolutely did not find it. Instead, she found her ground cut down with the survivors escaping and leaving her behind to a thing that called itself Marv. Marv was a particularly large and intelligent Otyugh and decided to keep Browne since she had a nice singing voice and knew a few doggerel poems. Given the choice between being eaten by the horror and acting as its tavern wench, singing it songs and telling it all the jokes and poems she knew, well, she got to singing like a bird.

Blah blah blah, she learned performance in the Gyre as a poetic pet to a dungeon monster who eventually let her go. Once home, she wrote down te new stories she had learned, a few she concocted, and retellings of the old ones and gained a degree of success and fame. Some notoriety too since a few of her penned epics name names of active heroes who aren't keen on their names being tied to bastard children in the beggar's ward

5. The Musician

6. The Author

7. The Historian