Murgo the Imcando

Murgo was an old Dwarf of the Imcando clan, living from the late Fourth Age, into year one of the Sixth. Living a tragic life in his later years, the only thing that kept Murgo from ending his life himself, was his staunch Saradominist beliefs. A skilled smith, Murgo lived in a small town within Ice Mountain up until the Barbarian Crusades of the Middle-Fifth Age. Seeing many of his family butchered before his own eyes, Murgo's massive hatred for Fremennik was only compared to self-pity and inner sorrow. Building a fortress around himself, Murgo retired to his solemn existance, awaiting his eventual demise.



Early Life
Murgo became a Smith as soon as he was able to hold a hammer. There wasn't much lineage to back him, his father was a miner, and his mother an enchantress. Murgo learned quickly, as many Dwarves do, already capable of working steel by the age of twenty.

With his father's ore earnings, and his mother's work with creating forges and lights, young Murgo had a fairly steady stream of practice material.

Murgo's early life was fairly care-free. Aside from the occasional, futile attempt of a rogue Goblin to steal their stuff, there was no war, just a time of peace.

Human Borders
Humans had soon mastered the art of crafting runes, giving a far more steady supply of materials for the Imcando to forge with, but in exchange, weapons had to be made to feul a growing Empire. Murgo loved sword-crafting, above all. He couldn't swing a blade for his life, but Murgo became a highly ambitious smith with blade craft. His skill was unmatched to others in his town at his age, allowing him to gather a small fortune by making adamant swords. Between his wealth, hard-working personality, and love for his family, Murgo was a prize among the town. He soon married another Imcando, a woman named Beatrice. As she was an Enchantress, the two began to make truely magical items together, from complicated locks, to Constructs, and more.

Murgo, inspired by his wife, managed to smith a few masterful Runite blades, true art to outsiders, though any elder Imcando could point out a few flaws. The slightest fraction of a degree off on the angle, a milligram's weight off on the pommel. Murgo was determined, to finish his life's achievement... The perfect Runite sword. Though, after his three best attempts, he gave in. His son Fuhrgo was born, and he determined it was better to help his son go through his life, rather than spend the remainder of it doing what was nearly impossible.

War
This goal was never accomplished by Murgo. Fifteen years after Fuhrgo was born, the barbarians began their crusade. Dwarves were calm, after hearing Keldagrim was safe, they assumed the same. However, the sudden need of Asgarnian allies for swords, whether they were Guthixians, Zamorakians, or Saradominists, sent orders into a frenzy. Masterful swords, cheap, mass-produced pikes, everything was ordered from Ice Mountain to fuel the human armies' faltering defenses.

Whether the Barbarians noticed the metal coming out, or the runes going in, Murgo didn't know. What he did know, was he locked his forge in his home, to focus on smithing a large order of steel swords.

Beatrice broke the lock with her hammer, as the Barbarians enterred the Mountain. Murgo, never a fighter, grabbed his hammer alongside his family for a brutal last stand. Five Barbarians, first two, then three, burst into his home. The first two shot an arrow threw his son's throat. The second three, cleaved off his wife's head with a mithril sword, won by defeating a Knight in battle. A sword Murgo himself forged. In a burst of fury, Murgo hurled the fire of the forge into the Barbarians, burning them to a crisp. Satisfied with their raid, many of the Barbarians pulled back out, moving south for the crown jewel of their crusade, the Wizard's Tower.

They left Murgo alone, none of his friends and family survived the raid on his town. Turned bitter, Murgo began to grow increasingly paranoid of another attack. After forging burial armour for his wife and son, he buried them in the town, barely able to see them due to the amount of tears in his eyes.

Paranoia
Always fearing another raid, Murgo turned his town into a fortress. He bought a Bronze Dragon hatchling, brutally severing it's wings and leaving it in front of his house, chained to the floor. Forming an ingenius way to feed it, chickens, and eventually lamb, were brought up from the floor to avoid interaction with it.

Locking himself within his mind, Murgo began to wish for death himself. He lacked the will to end his own life, a bi-product of lengthy Saradominist teachings it was wrong. So he ate, drank, slept, and worked alone, until six suits of armour were made, two of them, from his wife's notes, made into Constructs.

Murgo's final smithing job, was his own burial armour. An open face helmet to drink and eat through, the Elderly dwarf waited... And waited, for the Barbarian's return.

Demise
Eventually, Murgo ran out of booze from the town supplies, ran out of the home-brew he made, and was sober enough to realise the Barbarians weren't returning. Knowing no other Imcando, Murgo turned to the Keldagrim dwarves within Falador. He carved a gold plate, awaiting people to claim his life works as inheritance, placing it upon the Artisan Workshop.

The Dwarves there, however, were not in the mood for Dungeon Delving. While they searched for Dwarves who were, they also called the slayer master Zarin Renderra was contacted to find human adventurers capable of combat to protect the Dwarves who did go. A team of five, Midnight the Knightess, Abraham the Wildman, Evelyn Aren, Jannah the Halfling, and Hrorland the Dwarf, volunteered to delve into the history of the mysterious plate. After trial and tribulation, they met Murgo.

Murgo offered them his life's work, as he planned. His runite smithing hammer, his father's runite pickaxe head, and the only three runite blades he forged in his life. In exchange, he wanted only his own death. He wanted to see his family, and awaited one of them to end it. Hrorland and Jannah hated the idea, believing that there was much for him to teach the world that was otherwise lost to the genocide, while Midnight was against killing in general. Evelyn moved to end the Dwarf's misery, but Midnight stopped her after Abraham called it "The law of the Jungle" to end Murgo's life.

Every arguement against his death, Murgo considered. He was aware his works would be horrific if the world found them again. Anything he gave to his Lord Saradomin, would surely find it's way to Zamorak, Bandos, or Armadyl. Seeing the Golems on his brief journey outside, Murgo did not want to imagine how destructive they'd become if an Imcando was forced to make one. After his short moment of doubt, thinking he could help the world, he reconsidered what happened to his own people, and did not want it to befall any other race. He allowed Abraham to use his own work to sever his head, ending the Dwarf's pain and suffering.

With Jannah taking the hammer, Hrorland the Pickaxe head, and the blades going to Abraham, Evelyn, and Midnight, Midnight had one request to the rest of the party... Not to remove the sword, wherever she put it. Planting the sword in front of the statue of Saradomin that let them into the place, Midnight's message was sent.

Equipment
Murgo had many tools as he grew old, but of the few he favoured most, it were these five, the five he gave away to continue his legacy mattered to him most.

The Hammer
A heavy tool made of Runite, Murgo's hammer was made to work any metal that could melt in the Imcando forges, though, he admittedly never tried it on Dragon metal. Inlaid with complex, ornate markings, the hammer was the last tool Murgo ever used, to complete his burial armour.

Upon his death, it was given to Jannah, a half-dwarf half-human with impressive smithing abilities.

The Axehead
A tool left by his father, it was going to be passed down to Fuhrgo, who wished to become a miner. The Pickaxe's wood was removed after it began to rot, leaving only the Runite head. It bore markings, similar to the hammer, to show Murgo's family name in the artistic way his forefathers preffered.

When Murgo died, what remained of his father's pickaxe was given to Hrorland, a renowned miner of Keldagrim looking to reform the Miner's Guild located there.

Three Blades
Each one identical to human eyes, only a truely mastered smith could notice the tiny flaws. Whether the pommel was off by a milligram too much, or the angle a fraction of a degree off, even the inscription not being in the absolute center, the three blades were Murgo's best attempts at swordwork, as well as his last attempts done for pure enjoyment of smithing.

Each blade was 75 centimeters, from pommel to tip. They all had a pattern of Saradomin Star, Murgo, Saradomin Star, etched into their "upper" sides' fullers, to show who created them. The Blurite used was best shown as the sword was tilted, to show the darker material in the light.

One blade, the one briefly carried by Midnight, is planted at the entrance to Murgo's fortress in front of the statue of Saradomin, tip down inbetween two tiles.

Another is currently carried by Evelyn Aren, a sword that has not yet tasted blood.

The third, and final, is carried by Abraham the Wildman, the sword used to fulfill Murgo's last request and end his life.

Appearance
As Murgo met his end, his appearance as any living being knows it was a long, white beard, a pale figure, and burial armour.

The Dwarven Burial armour was made from metal, polished a shining white, before being adorned with a blurite trim and markings of Saradomin, in gold. Carefully crafted, it was a suit of armour that appeared simple, until the light hit it properly, revealing acid-made etchings to tell Murgo's life story, ending with the forging of his own armour.

Murgo himself, was of modest height for a Dwarf, standing only 3 feet and 8 inches. However, before he had grown old, he had a weight of 250 pounds, most of which he bragged, was muscle and bone. After he aged, and the muscles faded to frailty, Murgo remained at 150 pounds, a layer of fat forming where muscle once was.

Trivia

 * Murgo is the shortest lived of all Nat Renderra's characters, but also contains more planning than many of them.
 * The plot "Of Magic and Metal" was Murgo's first, and last, appearance onto World 42.
 * Even though he was capable of forging Runite Shortswords, Murgo was unable to make many things out of Mithril or Adamant; his life was entirely devoted to Swordcraft past Steel-working.