Gweyr
| Gweyr | |
|---|---|
|
Busts of Gweyr by DCLzexon | |
| Creator | The Observer |
| Information | |
| Species | Lupine |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation |
Mercenary Captain (former) Tavernkeeper Nursery assistant |
| Family |
Garret (son) Gwyn (daughter) |
| Spouse | Garth |
| Religion | Tiran |
| Location |
Glacial Rift (during Winter Wolf) Hawkethorne Nursery (post-Winter Wolf) |
| Stats | |
| Level | 6 |
| Health | 330 |
| Resolve | 204 |
"No good deed goes unpunished, [pc.name]. I single-handedly saved them all from being slaves to some madman in a robe, and there and then Sanders tells me to walk the ice, else they'd lynch me."
Gweyr is the wife of Garth and mother to Garret and Gwyn. Nearly two decades ago she helped found Hawkethorne and built The Frost Hound with Garth, but was cast away from the town after an incident with Master Tollus. Since then she's been watching her family from afar and unsuccessfully tracking the cult leader, finding neither hide nor hair of him until he moved into the Glacial Rift. Now, with your help, she wants to exact her revenge and foil Tollus once and for all.
"My own wife whelped in the morning and was plowing the fields by midday. She's her mother's daughter, no two ways about it. We're a line of hardy, hearty folk, and Gwyn's mother was an exceptional woman. I miss her, I really do."
—Garth
"I don't really have any concrete memories of her save for her face. An old brick. The smell of blood, without any danger in it. Her hands on my head, for some reason. The streets, filled with snow. And... that's about it. I might care more about her fate than Gwyn does, but still not enough to hope that she'll ever come back. Life goes on."
—Garret
"I'm so much better than my own mommy, who shat Garret and I out, dumped us on Daddy first chance she got, and vanished. Fuck that bitch — don't know what Daddy ever saw in her, except maybe a warm body on a cold night."
—Gwyn
Appearance
If Garth is towering, Gweyr is massive. She's got at least a full head of height over her husband, and is thick to match; the constant cold of the rift has only encouraged her to grow stouter like everything else here in a bid to stave off the cold. Perhaps in her youth she might've been more stereotypically feminine and curvaceous, but the years and rigors of the Rift have taken their toll on her, turning her more stolid and blocky — or at least, what you can tell of her frame under the thick furs and pelts. Her fur is grey, but has been blotched to greyish-white in several places, especially about her muzzle; not that you can see most of it given how well she's wrapped up in her clothes.
And what clothes they are. The thick coat and fur-lined boots of leather and hide — all made by herself — are one thing, but the way she's bound her tail is another. It makes sense to wrap up her extremities like this lest she lose them to frostbite, but seeing the pelt tied about her tail like wrappings is... well. That's not to mention the snowshoes, or the slitted bone coverings she wears over her eyes, propped up upon her muzzle.
"You have to wear these when you go out during the day," Gweyr explains. "All the snow and ice constantly reflects the sun into your eyes, and if you don't protect yourself, you'll go blind; that's one of the first things I learned from the pale elves when I arrived in this place. Not all at once, but over weeks and months; the damage adds up and when you realise what's going on it's too late to do anything about it. And the snowshoes, they spread out my weight so I don't sink into drifts when I walk on them. Not that any of the natives have any problems with either... but if you're not born of the Rift, it hates you with a passion you can't even begin to imagine."
She certainly looks like a mad hermit, that's for sure. Meaty fingers and hammer hands bear hard, ragged claws, and you notice that several of Gweyr's teeth are misaligned and overgrown, jutting from her jaws like an orc's tusks.
Given that there's a source of hot water in her home, you don't imagine baths are in short supply, but soap... well, that's another matter. If anything, the wolfess looks like a weather-beaten boulder, if nothing else. Her arms and thews are thick, her bosom is as massive as it is solid, and while her furs are clearly comfortable and easy to move in they nevertheless give the impression that the wolfess is just straining at their seams with every step that she takes. A massive, imposing monster; it's not surprising how she wound up being the captain of a mercenary company in her youth, or how she and Garth wound up building a place as impressive as the Frost Hound between the two of them. Even so, up in this miserable place, perhaps Gweyr is at home in a hellscape that hates her as much as she hates it. Anyone lesser would've either perished or given up.
Interactions
First Encounter
To begin with, yes... Garth offered to let you stay free of charge indefinitely. You already have some idea of how all this is coming together, but you still have to say the words once more: just who is Gweyr?
"Garth's my husband, silly."
To encounter Gweyr, you need to have completed the Centaur Village dungeon in Harboring a Fugitive, and have made reasonable progress exploring the first zone of the Glacial Rift. As you're trudging through the frozen tundra, you narrowly avoid having your leg ripped to shreds by a giant snare. Gweyr emerges, apologising for the trap. You make your introductions, and she asks what you're doing in the Rift as you don't look like one of those people. Who she means is quickly apparent if Quintillus is in the party; she notices his cultist garb, barrels into him, and nearly breaks his fingers when he tries to cast a spell. You quickly explain things before she can injure your bunny companion permanently. She invites you back to where she's staying, though with a healthy amount of suspicion if Quin's present.
Gweyr listens with interest, as you describe your adventures with the Demon Cult, divulging that she has history with the group. You ask just who she is, and she reveals that she's Garth's wife. Sixteen years ago, Master Tollus rallied many of those in Hawkethorne into the beginnings of his cult. They outnumbered the residents, and Gweyr, Garth, Brother Sanders, and River could not agree on what to do. However, then the group kidnapped a local girl to use as a sacrifice, and Gweyr took matters into her own hands. Tollus believed that nobody in the town would be willing to go through human shields, but he was wrong.
Tollus retreated into the night, foiled, but after what she did to stop the cult, Gweyr was no longer welcome either. Sanders cast her out from the town and sent her to walk the ice, ostensibly as punishment, but also to keep her or her family from being targeted as revenge. Since then, she's dedicated her life to finding Tollus and his group, but her leads all turned up empty... until now.
Subsequent Encounters
After your initial meeting, you can find Gweyr in her cave, sitting by the fire or cooking seal blubber. She doesn't have much of a social life after being exiled to a frozen inhospitable wasteland, though you can stop to have a chat with her. She has multiple talks possible for each Talk option, and when you're ready to progress in her quest you check Task with her.
- Appearance: So, this is Garth's wife, huh. Wonder if you can see what he saw in her...
- Talk: See what you can learn about this old wolfess.
- Task: Let's get to crushing Tollus and his goons already. What did she have in mind?
Paralogue
"Then why don't we make yourself comfortable by the fire, and I'll take you back to a time when Hawkethorne was a lot smaller than it is today..."
Before you can go out and kick Master Tollus out of the Glacial Rift, Gweyr first wants you to know what she did. That way, you can know if you're comfortable working with her. If you're not, she'd rather know now rather than when the two of you are depending on each other to stay alive.
You enter a paralogue, where you take control of Gweyr during Tollus's attempted takeover of Hawkethorne. Rather than get into it right away though, Gweyr is in bed with Garth. Gweyr is dressed in a cute, frilly maid outfit, and has a large strap-on ready to peg her husband with.
- Go On...: You like where THIS story is going...
- Wait A Sec!: Wait, yuck, this isn't what you want to hear. Poor Garth!
You can choose to recount the lurid spectacle of Garth getting well and truly pounded by his wife, or skip to the end to preserve the gruff innkeeper's dignity. Either way, Gweyr and Garth's post-coital snuggling is interrupted by Brother Sanders frantically pounding on the door. The cult has kidnapped a girl and dragged her out past the eastern gate, and they need to do something. Gweyr agrees, only being a little bit smug that she was right all along about needing to get the cult out of their town. Garth wants to help, but Gweyr says he needs to stay in the tavern and protect their children. There are many cult members in the town, and when they see Gweyr battling against them there may be reprisals. Shrugging a gambeson over her nightgown, Gweyr arms herself and sets out.
It doesn't take long to find trouble. Gweyr runs into cultists accosting River and trying to vandalise the Waystone, an amateurish ambush, and a wall of cultists holding off Sanders. Every time, she makes the same promise — if they leave and return home now, she'll spare their lives. If not, she'll kill them. And every time they taunt her, seemingly under the impression she's bluffing.
They were incorrect.
Gweyr ends up at the eastern gates, facing down Tollus and Leold over the corpses of the brainwashed cult members who thought she was bluffing. Tollus goes to prepare magic and Gweyr breaks his fingers. Leold attacks with a massive spiked gauntlet, leading to a duel with Gweyr. To have the best chance of winning this battle, alternate between Bloodrage and Chill Touch, triggering Unbreakable if your health gets low. Once Leold's health falls under a third, equip Gweyr's Quarterstaff and use Execute. If you win, you run Leold through with your sword, twice, to make sure he's dead. If you lose, Brother Sanders returns in the nick of time to run Leold through with his lance.
With the cult thwarted, Gweyr turns to find the town staring at her. The parents of the girl Sanders and Rivers were able to save are relieved, but the rest of the town — including the parents of all the youths Gweyr butchered — are horrified. Sanders, disgusted, gives Gweyr an hour to gather her things and leave. Otherwise, he can't guarantee her safety or the safety of her family. Gweyr says goodbye to her husband, tells a much younger Garret she has to go on a journey and to take care of Garth and Gwyn, and trudges off into the night.
Back to the present, Gweyr is somber as she asks your opinion. Do you think she's a monster?
- Yes
- No
Whatever your answer, the story ends there. If you still want to face the Demon Cult with her, she asks you to talk to her once she's had some time to herself.
Thwarting Master Tollus
Return to Gweyr and select Task to continue Winter Wolf. First, Gweyr will assign you to help destroy the cultist stockpile to force the cult to resupply. One party will need to serve as a Distraction while the other handles the Sabotage of the stockpile — Gweyr will take whichever role you don't choose and comment on your performance. Depending on how well you do, her opinion can range from considering you to be nearly as good as she was back in the day, to believing that Garth made a mistake vouching for you and there was a reason he was never responsible for assessing new recruits.
The next step is to target the resupply Mage-Ship. Gweyr accompanies you as you track it, and when she spies an unsecured gunport she grappling hooks herself, you, and any companions into the ship. She joins you as traverse the ship, helping you get past obstacles, and reminiscing on when she used to things like this with Garth. As you make your escape from the ship, she hears the voice of Leold commanding the ship's crew as they dump their supplies into an underwater trench. Gweyr says she's going to make preparations for the next stage of the quest, but needs you to seek out Imora to secure her help following the cult to the bottom of the ocean.
Once you have Imora's aid, select Task one last time to travel to the Abyssal Depths with Gweyr. She continues to be very helpful, keeping you from plummeting off a broken bridge or standing by your side in combat. The Lureling's ambient psychic influence affects everyone in the dungeon, though Gweyr refuses to elaborate on anything she's feeling. She's also affected by your combat encounter with Master Tollus and Leold; the two of them are young and spry from potions of youth they've been hoarding from their yearly sacrifices. Gweyr on the other hand has slowed with age, and finds herself struggling to keep up. Once you get past them and confront the Lureling, it brings up something in her memories. She shouts Garth's name, but doesn't say what she was remembering.
After the adventure, Gweyr says this is probably her last adventure. Now, with everything done, and Tollus as comprehensively foiled as she could manage, she might be ready to lay down and die.
Homecoming
It takes a little longer than expected — not surprising in retrospect, but certainly melancholic. Gweyr pauses for a moment to inspect the hanging wolfshead sign over the entrance, to thumb the grain of the doorway's timbers. The old wolfess takes a deep breath, squares her shoulders, and then rubs her temples.
She's afraid.
With Gweyr unwilling to listen to reason from you, your next move in Winter Wolf is to find someone to talk sense into her. Surprisingly, that person is Garret. Accompanying you up to the Glacial Rift, Garret tries the extremely unconventional approach of chatting his mother up. Gweyr, not realising it's her son at first, is bemused. In time, she recognises Garret's empty-headed bravado as being hereditary, and wraps her son in a bone-crushing hug. Of everyone, Garret is able to convince Gweyr that it's time to come home to Hawkethorne, regardless of what Brother Sanders or her own daughter might think. She'll need a couple of days in the Rift with her son to wrap up her business, but will head down to town when she's ready.
Two days later, you can meet her and Garret making their grand return. River greets Gweyr warmly, thanking her for her actions all those years ago. Brother Sanders, possibly accompanied by Liaden, is much less warm. The two grizzled veterans have a tense face-off, though Sanders makes sure to keep his daughter from doing anything rash and being gutted like a fish. Gweyr declares she only wants to live the rest of her life with her husband and children, and Sanders eventually relents.
That confrontation was downright pleasant compared to Gweyr entering The Frost Hound and finding Gwyn manning the bar. Gweyr's daughter is absolutely livid to see her, screaming at her mother in front of the tavern. Garth intervenes and reunites with his wife at long-last as Garret leads Gwyn to the back. Gweyr heads off with her husband, to settle a few matters like Garth's fidelity while she was gone, and if Jael'yn is present, why there's an elf wearing her old maid costume.
In The Nursery
Gweyr settles in the Hawkethorne Nursery, working across from Gwyn. In talks with Garth, Garret, River, and Brother Sanders, you learn that Gweyr has re-integrated into town life. She's more or less assumed control of the town militia, makes regular visits to the chapel, and is even making friends. Gweyr is quite personable when she's not on a revenge-suicide mission in a frozen hellscape. Upon entering the nursery, you can trigger a scene where Gweyr announces to Garret that she's gotten him a place in her old mercenary company, so he can either work off all that wanderlust or die trying. Garret is thrilled.
If you've had children with Gwyn, Garret, or both, Gweyr will have a friendly yet subtly threatening chat with you about it. If you have children with Gwyn for the first time while Gweyr's in Hawkethorne, she'll take over Garth's interaction with the champion. Gweyr also reveals that after Garth and Garret drove off the fellow who took advantage of Gwyn and sired children with her, Gweyr took an interest in him once he was out of sight of the town gates. This interaction is much more openly threatening.
She has a raft of new talk scenes now that she's available in town as well. Each option aside from Things has multiple possible talk scenes as well.
- Chat
- Things: What happened to all the stuff she had in that cozy little cave of hers, anyways? (one-time, +10 storage)
- Garth: Ask her about her husband.
- Heartlands: She said she was on campaign in the Heartlands when she was younger. What's that place like, and can she tell you something about her life in the Crossed Swords?
- Gwyn: You understand she's trying to mend bridges with her daughter...
- Garret: So, what's she going to do about her idiot son?
- Hawkethorne: What can she tell you about Hawkethorne's past, and what does she think of the village as it is now?
- Cult: Now that the cult's been defeated in the rift, what happens next?
Combat
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Quest Related
Winter Wolf
Winter Wolf follows Gweyr's adventures across the Glacial Rift trying to get revenge on her old nemesis, Master Tollus. I guess you help as well.