Borga 'Iron-Hearth' Stonefist — The Shield That Never Broke

Ability Scores

STR

16

+3

DEX

12

+1

CON

16

+3

INT

19

+4

WIS

13

+1

CHA

10

+0

Combat

Armor Class: 19; Half Plate + Shield + Enhanced Defense Infusion
Hit Points: 94; Hit Dice: 10d8
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft.
Proficiency: +4
Passive Perception: 15

Attacks

Force Ballista (Cannon)+83d8 force

Hearth-Wrench (Mace)+71d6+3 bludgeoning

Personality

Borga hums low, rumbling lullabies while working on lethal machinery. She refers to her Eldritch Cannons as 'the girls' and meticulously knits colorful wool 'cosies' to protect their barrels from the morning chill.

Ideal

Sanctuary. No one should ever have to wake up to the sound of their own roof burning.

Bond

The 'Iron-Hearth Orphanage,' a moving fortress-wagon she designed to keep the displaced children of the wastes safe.

Flaw

She is overly protective to a fault, often refusing to let allies enter danger unless she has personally 'safety-checked' their armor with a hammer.

Backstory

Borga was born to the Ash-Crag clan, a people who believed that only what you could hold with a closed fist was yours. That philosophy crumbled when the Iron-Bound Raiders descended. Borga watched her village’s thatched roofs ignite and her kin scatter, not for lack of courage, but for lack of a plan. As she pulled a shivering elder from the embers, she didn't feel the traditional Orcish blood-rage; she felt a cold, crystalline clarity. A wall is just stone, she realized, but a home is a promise that must be kept with fire and steel.

She spent the next decade apprenticed to a clockmaker in a distant border-citadel, trading her immense strength for the secrets of gears and black powder. She eventually fused her ancestral smithing traditions with high-arcana to create the 'Invulnerable Home' protocol. Borga doesn't seek to conquer territory; she seeks to make every doorstep she touches an impassable fortress. To the orphans of the borderlands, she is 'Auntie Borga,' the woman who knits wool caps for her brass spiders and ensures that tonight, and every night after, the monsters stay on the outside of the door.

Abilities & Actions

Woolen Aegis (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest)

As a bonus action, Borga fits one of her knitted 'cosies' onto her Eldritch Cannon. For the next hour, the cannon has resistance to all damage, and any creature within 5 feet of the cannon (including Borga) has half cover as the cosy emits a soft, shimmering abjuration field.

Iron-Hearth Fortification

When Borga uses her Protector Eldritch Cannon, the burst of temporary hit points is infused with her resolve. Allies who receive these temporary hit points also gain a +1 bonus to their Armor Class as long as the temporary hit points remain.

Flash of Genius (4/Day)

When Borga or another creature she can see within 30 feet makes an ability check or a saving throw, she can use her reaction to add +4 to the roll as she barks a precise tactical correction or throws a stabilizing tool.

Arcane Firearm: 'The Hearth-Light'

Borga uses a heavy, rune-etched wrench as her spellcasting focus. When she casts an Artificer spell through it, she rolls a d8 and gains a bonus to one of the spell’s damage rolls equal to the number rolled.

DM Notes

Borga speaks with a voice like grinding stones softened by a layer of velvet. She will never start a fight, but she will end one with terrifying efficiency if a 'civilian' is threatened. When stressed, she compulsively checks the temperature of her teapot. Reaction Pattern: If an enemy targets a child or non-combatant, Borga drops all pretense of warmth and uses her next turn to reposition her cannons for a 'Full Hearth Lockdown' (simultaneous Shield and Force Ballista fire).