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Fallen Machina
Nihilore CC BY 4.0

Grog Strongjaw

Grog Strongjaw — “The Red Tide”

Grog Strongjaw, the Red Tide, standing bloodied in a rain-soaked ruined Westruun street with a lowered blackened greatsword

“Pike says it’s not that simple. I don’t know what simple means.” — Grog, fragment recovered from a Westruun tavern wall, scrawled in charcoal, 812 P.D.

Public Memory

Goliath barbarian. Vox Machina’s heaviest combatant. Sacked half of Westruun in 811 P.D. when the city refused Vox Machina’s “tribute,” butchered the Herd of Storms (his own birth tribe) when they tried to mediate, and was killed in 813 P.D. by the black dragon Umbrasyl during the Vasselheim retreat. Umbrasyl ate him whole. The Saviors recovered Grog’s bones from the dragon’s hoard a year later and returned them, by treaty, to the Herd of Storms — who buried them outside their territory, refusing to honor him in death.

In modern Westruun, his name is not spoken in public. Children know him only as “the Tide” or “the wrong giant.”

Whispered Truth

Grog was not, by any meaningful measure, evil. He was a man with no internal language for what he was doing and seven companions who told him what to do. He believed Pike. He believed Vex. He believed Scanlan. When his birth tribe came to ask him to come home, he hesitated. Witnesses recall him standing for nearly a minute before he attacked. The hesitation is in some accounts. It has been carefully removed from others.

His sword Craven Edge — a soul-drinking blade he wielded for two years — was destroyed by Lady Delilah at the Sun Tree, the same engagement that killed Pike and Sylas. Delilah’s account: “It begged me. The blade. It had been begging Grog for a long time and he hadn’t heard it. I heard it. I broke it. It was relieved.” This account is not in the public histories. It is in her private journal.

Stats & Build — if he returns

The default campaign assumes Grog is dead and will stay that way. The Herd of Storms scattered his bones for exactly this reason.

If a cult attempts a return, the most plausible mechanism is reconstructing him as a flesh-construct — a body sewn together from troll-meat with his fragments grafted in. The result is not Grog. It has his strength and none of his hesitation.

  • Tier 3 (level 12).
  • Class: Barbarian (Berserker) 12.
  • Signature gear (extant): Titanstone Knuckles (lost in the Underdark when he fell — recoverable in a deep arc), Vestiges (his armored gauntlets, in Whitestone’s vault), Craven Edge (destroyed; reforging it is a campaign-ending bad idea).
  • Suggested CR: 13.
  • Construct variant: immune to charm and fear, vulnerable to fire, and gains a fresh “Red Tide” recharge ability: a 30-ft. cone, all creatures Strength save DC 15 or be moved 20 ft. and prone.

Roleplay Hooks

  • Voice: simple, loud, surprisingly tender when spoken to alone. He would be a kind person in a different life. (In flashback only — the construct version has none of this.)
  • Soft spots: Pike. His cousin Worra. Beer. A specific kind of small dog he liked.
  • Hard spots: being told he is stupid (he knew, he just did not have a way to say it), his birth tribe (he loved them and killed them and never reconciled either fact).

Return Conditions

For a hostile return: a body-snatcher cult, a flesh-golem variant, or a corrupted Vestige. The most narratively interesting option is using Worra as a reluctant ally — she does not want him back, but she knows him better than anyone alive, and she may be the party’s best chance at stopping a return that’s already in motion.