During a time of uncertainty and desperation, an alchemist was appointed to find a way to create stronger soldiers. With authority unchecked, he captured peasants from across the land to subject them to soul-rending experiments. One such peasant was thought to have died during the process, and was tossed into a furnace without thought. There, the first results began to manifest within the body. The peasant became a hulking, horrific thing which would always feel as hot as the flames which birthed it. When this experiment escaped, t

he alchemist vanished alongside all of his work.

With a larger than usual tip, a jittery tavern-keep from the region might say that the groaning husk of the creature still wanders through the forests nearby. He doesn't divulge what it might be looking for--even the notion that you might suggest such causes him to become tight-lipped--and after staring for a while, he'll certainly feign hearing a noise and scurry away to engage with the other patrons. But with patience, charm, and a fat enough coin purse, the veil will fall, and surely you'll hear the ordinary man's extraordinary account.