Denark Sureshame

Description
Denark is the rough and tumble and regularly drunk member of the Bluefangs. A fighter of incredible strength using no weapons other than his fists and trusty tankard. He specialised in grappling his foes and beating them into submission.

History
At just 55 Denark Sureship was the youngest of 10 brothers and member of the Sureship clan, a dwarven family hailing from Svand and one of the finest merchant trading companies in all the 5 kingdoms. The clan specialising in the import and export of goods between nations via the sea, including foods, wines, ales, skins and building materials.

3 years ago, on the week of the royal wedding of the new King, Todnick, the clan's dock manager in Tanis (and Denark's older brother) was taken ill after catching Demon's Fever. The flu like virus was going about and took Todnick out of action for days, leaving Denark to oversee the arrival of the final ship supplying goods for the royal feast; a ship containing all the wine for the affair coming in from Lanera aboard the trade ship 'The Frozen Nymph'.

However, not taking his temporary responsibilities seriously, Denark proceeded to get drunk with some dock workers. That night a storm started brewing and made the shore treacherous for the vessel, Denark headed to the clan lighthouse but and fell asleep half way up the stairs. 'The Frozen Nymph' hit the rocks and the cargo was lost, along with 15 crew.

The clan found Denark still asleep the next morning,

The Sureships were fined the cost of the goods they had lost and stripped of royal contracts for 2 years. The managed to cut a deal with another merchant company to fulfil half the order but it cost the company two fold what they would have made.

At the hearing to determine blame, which the King attended, Denark’s history of drinking and fighting was brought up, including several accounts of his unmatched strength including when he fought 8 city guards single-handedly, another time where he punched and knocked out a guard drake being used by bandits to steal from ships and the time he inadvertently saved the life of an admiral after drinking the poisoned pitcher of ale, which had no effect on Denark's dwarven stomach.

Denark was shamed in a de-naming ceremony, where he had his beard and hair shaved and was newly titled Denark ‘Sureshame’. This was the last straw for his wife who chose to return to Svandheim rather than stay with Denark and share in his new name, she took with her their 3 children.

Denark was told he could never again use the name 'Sureship' until he had redeemed himself. The King on hearing this decided it was an excellent opportunity for him to demonstrate the formation of the new Order of the Azure Wolves, given Denark's remarkable feats of combat ability. The Sureship clan had no choice but to indulge the King, it was agreed that if Denark completed his 200 missions he would be pardoned and his honour restored, allowing him to rejoin the clan.

The opportunity for redemption was not one the Denark appreciated though, choosing to spiral into more drinking and fighting than to concentrate of regaining his good name. 3 years have passed and he has spent most of it drunk. Because of his unreliability in that time he has only completed 14 missions.

Without missions to fill his time he spends most of his time brewing ale, with his own particularly strong recipe called ‘Dwarven Shame’.

Recently
Denark Sureshame was amongst the Bluefangs tasked with security detail aboard the maiden voyage of the RTS Silverwing. After being ejected from the helm for attempting to prove he could fly such a vessel, he rejoined the teams in the main dinner hall when the attacks began. During the plot, Denark maintained communication between the teams and informed both sides of the current situation as one dealt with the Mounted Drake attack on the top deck and the other attempted to slow the engine overload below deck. Once the party had driven of the 83rd Legion, and after the assassination of King Aldris, Denark assisted with the evacuation. As the lifeboats descended however Denark realised that they would never make it clear of the blast in time. As such he told both teams he would escape with the other, ensuring they would not try to stop him. He then raced to the helm and raised the airship up and out of the range of most of the lifeboats. Just when he though he could not pull the wheel any higher he was joined by Ted, Bror and finally Agro as they sailed it higher into the sky.

Though leaping from the helm with Bror moments before the explosion, Denark is believed to have perished in the explosion. Though never officially mentioned in the inquest, it is generally accepted by the Bluefangs that Denark's actions saved the lives of many of the survivors of the incident. His dwarven family were notified of this and in death his true name 'Sureship' was restored.

After a vote by the Bluefangs members, their new airship was named the Den Ark, in reference to the dwelling of wolves 'Den' and the boat like stylings of the vessel 'Ark', but mainly because it was the name of their fallen comrade.

Though Denark's Bluefang pendant was never recovered, another sits in it's stead on Wren's statue of a Raven in his office.