WRENN PILWICKEN
(Created by Erik Malm)
In 1451 DR, Mount Hotenow in the Crags cataclysmically erupted, ripping apart the city of Neverwinter and opening the Chasm which left the city exposed to the plaguechanged depths of the Underdark.
To the south, in a gnome enclave deep within the Neverwinter Woods, this was the very moment at which Wrenn Pilwicken was born.
The Hotenow eruption also affected the Neverwinter Woods. The thin skein of reality between the Feywild and the mortal plane was ripped apart, leaving, in addition to many portals, remnants and extrusions of the fey 
realms scattered throughout the forest. This notably included the ruins of Sharandar, the treetop capital of the elven empire of Iliyanbruen which once ruled much of the North. Iliyanbruen was formed in -1100 DR when the even larger elven empire of Illefarn dissolved. It stood for more than a millennium before collapsing in 177 DR. As their empire fell, the elves of Iliyanbruen sought to preserve the beauties of Sharandar within the echoes of the Feywild; like some precious jewel preserved within amber. The eruption left in its wake a multitude of echoes of an echo that had lived in a ream.
Wrenn grew up in this history-haunted wood. Although he could speak to animals, like his brethren, and felt a connection to the forest, he found himself drawn to the wider wonders of nature. In his youngling teens, Wrenn began venturing beyond the borders of Neverwinter Woods. His journeys took him west to the coast, south into the foothills of the Sword Mountains, and even dared one journey into the upper reaches of the ancient dwarven city of Gauntlgrym, located in the Crags northeast of Mount Hotenow.
Journeying even farther into the Sword Mountains, Wrenn met a dwarven druid named Dolodrus Rubybane. Rubybane taught him the importance of preserving the balance among the elements and began to train him in the ways of the druids, introducing him to the worship of Silvanus, one of the Gods of Harmony (along with Chauntea, goddess of agriculture, and Lathander the Morninglord, god of the dawn) who stood opposed to the Gods of Fury (Talos the Destroyer, Auril the Frostmaiden, Malar the Beastlord, and Umberlee the Bitch Queen).
Wrenn visited the druid often, but upon one of his trips he discovered that Rubybane was simply… gone. Everything suggested he had simply moved on during the winter.
Returning to Neverwinter Woods, Wrenn became interested in finding ways of restoring balance between the feywild cysts and the natural world. One of his most memorable encounters during this time was with an archmage named Orapius, who presented himself as being a wizard of Sembia seeking the lost heritage of Netheril. (Netheril was an empire even older than Iliyanbruen, marked by an upper class who lived in floating cities. Netheril infamously fell when a disruption of the Weave caused arcane magic to temporarily fail, causing their cities to fall from the sky.) Orapius was eventually revealed to be a fey lord merely impersonating a Netherese mage.
Recently, Wrenn heard that Auril the Frostmaiden was disrupting the natural order in Icewind Dale, cursing it with an eternal winter. He felt compelled to journey north to see if he could help return balance to the blighted land. Working his way north and seeking both information and passage in Luskan, he was captured by slavers who intended to sell him to the whaling fleets of the Sea of Moving Ice. (Possibly as bait.)
While sailing north, the slavers’ ship was surprised by a blizzaught – a powerful snow elemental taking the form of a sentient blizzard. In the deadly confusion (and suffering a moment of panic himself), Wrenn was able to wildshape for the first and, so far, only time into an arctic fox, hiding deep within the ship as the storm tore it apart. Despite their desperate prayers (and even sacrifices) to Auril, one by one the crew succumbed to the elements as the ship became trapped in the moving ice sheets. Wrenn was able to survive, much to his horror, only by eating the remains of his captors.
As the ship slowly drifted through the sea of moving ice, locked between the ice flows, one day he heard a sound like thunder as the hull itself cracked, crushed between the icebergs. Wrenn could see the coast in the distance and, not knowing what else to do, fled without hope across the shifting ice, praying he could find a path to stable land.
After two days of fleeing across the ice flow, soaking wet and nearly frozen to death, Wrenn finally collapsed on the solid shore of Icewind Dale. His last memory was of an approaching axe beak. On the edge of consciousness, Wrenn wasn’t sure if he understood the axe beak to be saying,” What are you doing here?” because he could speak with animals or if the axe beak was… actually speaking in Common?
Although he knew that his life would probably end at the beak of this territorial creature, he just barely managed to whisper, “Help me… Please…” as the darkness and the cold consumed him.
DESCRIPTION
Wrenn is a fierce 2’8” tall, lithe even for a gnome. He has a sandy blond mop of medium length hair that’s always a little unkempt, as if he just got caught in the wind or something. He keeps his beard neater, in a dwarven style with an elaborate braid. Unlike many gnomes, he wears fairly subdued clothes, with colors selected to blend into his surroundings. But he does wear jewelry — a necklace, several bracelets, a selection of earrings — composed of brightly colored stones, many of which he has tales to tell of, for he found them on his “rambles” (as he refers to his adventures).
Typo: “The eruption left in its wake a multitude of echoes of an echo that had lived in a ream.”
Missing D in “dream.”