Kitbash challenge - Vermintide

Moril Oakensword is obviously an adaptation of Oakenshield from Lord of the Rings but it has a narrative function that I like.

Moril was just a name that stood out from a googled list of dwarven names.

Moril’s Father Thraim Oakensword was not born with that last name. It was given him as a punishment for a near fatal mistake he made during his smithing apprenticeship. As Thraim finished the pieces of armour that Moril proudly wears today he was told to smith a sword for a minor royal as soon as possible. Thraim was good at what he did, but was still learning. His drunken mentor failed to judge that the time pressure and the pressure of making a sword for a royal had gotten to Thraim and the sword was presented to the royal too soon.

A battle (a now infamous battle) was fought and sadly the young royal was badly wounded. The sword had splintered and crumbled like cheap piece of wood on first contact with the enemy and it was only the bravery of his entourage that saved his life.

The king demanded that Thraim’s last name be struck from all the records and that he and his offspring be stained with the name Oakensword.

To try to remove the shame Thraim completed the pilgrimage to the Shrine of Grimnir and became a slayer. He had hoped to die valiantly in battle. He proved to be very hard to kill, so much so that he has had to hunt more dangerous enemies. Thraim has killed trolls, giants, daemons and even dragons and his death oath goes unfulfilled.

Many years have passed. The stories of his father’s exploits have filtered back to Moril and he has ventured out on an adventure to find Thraim.

He is not sure whether he just wants to let him know he’s loved and a source of pride before he finally gets too old to continue his phenomenal success as a Slayer. Perhaps it was more selfish and he just wanted to see him for his own sense of loss of a father figure as he grew up.

Moril met up with Mordecai Von Malleüs the witch hunter and stumbled into an investigation into a coven and their familiars that he cheerfully dispatched.

He didn’t intend to stay with Mordecai for long, but without any leads on where his father was it seemed sensible to follow someone with a knack for finding dangerous situations.

As Moril slipped his pipe into his belt and saw a horde of Skaven beasts begin to swell in numbers he was emotionally torn. He was fearful that he wouldn’t have the strength to last out the night against such a huge number of enemies, but he also hoped that a challenge of this magnitude might draw his father out of the wilderness.