Duarum Alio

Wandering Artificer. Transforms into a hulking beast in the midst of battle. Has a undesirable disposition towards stangers.

Little did the party realize, this old man was in possession of the Heart of Stone from their initial meeting.

Personal History
Duarum was a professor of Magical Manipulation. He specialized in the storage and redirection of magical energy by the use of various objects. His artificer abilities were well known and respected.

One day his friend brought him a stone he had discovered in the caverns within the island. The stone portrayed similar properties to the stones Duarum worked with and designed. Unbeknownst to either of them this was the Heart of Stone. To Duarum's surprise the stone could absord massive amounts of magical energy, more than any stone he had been able to develop. Duarum began to look for a way to reverse the flow so that the energy that the stone stored could then be released.

A local military official of the City of Raquet heard of the stone and Duarum's attempts to release it's stores of energy. He thought the stone could be used as an anti magic weapon. He then hired Duarum to create such a weapon. Duarum, being low on money as an self employed inventor, reluctantly agreed. While working on the stone one day he broke through the barrier and glimpsed the inside of the stone. But when he did he and the stone fused, each absorbing the other. With the stone's barrier weakend and a new physical form, all the grief, resentment, and anger the stone had absorbed from the people of the land over the past years and now from Duarum himself could take shape. Duarum transformed into a massive, stone colored, brute. With this new rage boiling inside he smashed his way out of his building and into the surrounding forest.

Thinking that Duarum had stolen his new weapon the military official gave chase sending his soldiers to collect the missing professor and whatever he had yielded from the stone. For the next few years Duarum fled the forces chasing him.