Ragnum Ironknuckles

Ragnum was born into wealth few people ever saw, the son of a brewing and distilling empire in Skypeak that kept its fortune quiet in the Dwarven mountain kingdom. That changed the night a rival faction had his clan assassinated. Ragnum survived only by chance, and fled south believing his entire family was being hunted down. Though he never learned the truth, he spent weeks moving on instinct more than plan, until he managed to catch a ride south with a passing caravan headed for Khazalet. 

In Khazalet, he learned of the Ruckus Ring, an underground fighting circuit that asked no questions about where its fighters came from or what they were running from. Ragnum threw himself into it, and found he had a talent for violence he never knew he had. He kept fighting, kept training, and kept the same goal in the back of his mind through every match: to become strong enough to find whoever gave the order that killed his family, and make them answer for it. Between bouts, he had a deep love of drink, and would often drift into periods of alcohol-induced blackouts.

The worst of these periods involved an improbability that Ragnum was never able to explain. The next thing he knew, he was near-naked and deep underground, missing a chunk from his ear and covered in cuts, bruises, and blood that clearly wasn't his. His arrival caused quite a stir to the rock Gnomes living there. Miners showing up to their morning shifts at the Lockford cavemouth found shouting and pandemonium instead: a nearly naked dwarf, drunkenly arguing with the mining authorities. It seemed impossible, but Ragnum had emerged from his stupor hundreds of miles from Khazalet, in a mining settlement called Little Lockford.

When four of the strongest gnomish miners moved in to haul him off, it turned out to be a mistake. He easily incapacitated all four despite his hangover, and chaos gave way as he began yelling in some unknown tongue, pickaxe now his own, charging into the mines. Nobody tried to stop him. His laughter and shouting echoed through the shafts all day while the rest of the crew kept well clear of him. That evening, the miners emerged to find a minecart overflowing with gems at the end of the shaft he had disappeared down that morning. No one else had gone down that shaft, so it had to be him, though it seemed impossible for one dwarf to have dug up so much in a day.

The foreman found it easier than expected to get over losing four of his best miners for the shift. Rumors traveled fast in Little Lockford, but not fast enough, because Ragnum was already at the Motherlode tavern nursing a Rubbleclub Classic by the time the miners got there. He had somehow found pants and remembered the ability to speak Common in the same afternoon. He was chatting with the bartender like a regular, and as the crew walked in he called out, "Good to see you lads, first round is on me!".

Ragnum became a local legend, someone to be feared and respected in equal measure. Theories about who he was and where he came from multiplied, but he never confirmed or denied any of them. For years afterward, Ragnum was a regular at the Motherlode and the top miner at the cavemouth whenever he decided to show up. The foreman never worked up the nerve to enforce regular hours, so Ragnum kept his own. At the pub he claimed a table in the back corner, and the seat took the shape of him over time. Few people were brave enough to sit there even when he was out; usually, it was an Artificer convinced their newest Construct could finally beat him. For decades nobody managed to defeat him, until he was challenged by the Overseer Tixie Taffebeser Tockworth.

Tixie had built a hulking automaton, a Clockwork Stone Defender stripped of its shields and rebuilt with massive fists instead. At first Ragnum thought he had it handled, as the construct was slow, and he moved around it easily, landing hit after hit against its hardened shell. Then he made one mistake, and found himself face to fist with a gauntlet the size of his torso; off balance and badly hurt, he was knocked out by a second hit. 

Emboldened by the victory, Tixie initiate the Big Little Lockford Lockdown not long after. Ragnum was in the mines at the time, and returning from shift, was forced to flee her automatons with his crew. Mayor Zamzu Quickzipper Ukkem Zapp Mulberry Kreem ordered a magical bulwark to be placed at the gates of Old Lockford, and Ragnum was left with little as a camp was set up outside the city.