Saw wasn’t born to a tribe of bugbears, or even into a proper kobold den. As a hatchling, he was abandoned near the entrance to a cave system that housed an unlikely pack. Razorclaw, a scarred old alpha wolf with a surprising tolerance for smaller creatures, had taken in a lost kobold pup – Knick – a few seasons prior with his wife, Jerabel. Knick, with his yips and boundless energy, had become Razorclaw’s adopted son. So when they found a squalling, orange mess at their doorstep, they didn’t hesitate to bring it in.
Saw thrived in the strange family. He learned the hunt from Razorclaw, mimicking the wolf’s silent stalks and lightning-fast attacks. From Knick, he picked up a love for tinkering and throwing. Knick, resourceful and endlessly curious, would craft tiny spears from scavenged bone and sharpen pebbles until they gleamed. Saw, with his surprising dexterity, could launch these makeshift projectiles with surprising accuracy, even at long distances.
However, Saw lacked the natural claws and fangs of his adopted siblings. This frustrated him; he wanted to contribute equally during hunts. One day, while exploring a forgotten corner of the cave system, Saw stumbled upon a trove of weathered weapons – the remnants of an adventuring party long turned to dust. Among them was a long, sturdy staff, its wood polished smooth by time. It felt perfect in Saw’s grip. He began practicing with the staff, mimicking the jabs and thrusts he’d observed Razorclaw use. He wasn’t the most graceful fighter, but his reach and surprising strength made him a formidable opponent.
Years passed, and the cave became too small for Saw’s burgeoning curiosity. Knick, ever the inventor, had begun experimenting with strange contraptions, fueled by whispers of a prestigious academy far to the north – Strixhaven. The idea of a place dedicated to learning and invention was irresistible to both of them. With Razorclaw’s blessing, they set out, Saw wielding his trusty staff and a pouch full of Knick’s latest pebble inventions. Strixhaven, with its emphasis on practical application of magical theories, was a perfect fit for Saw’s unique skillset.
He poured over Quandrix tomes, learning the mathematics of trajectory and the physics of impact, all with the goal of perfecting his long-range combat style. He even began incorporating scavenged rocks and metals into his armor, creating surprisingly sturdy protection that moved with surprising ease. His ability to ride any beast he encountered, a natural talent honed by growing up with Razorclaw’s pack, became another weapon in his arsenal.
Upon graduating & traveling to the Starry Shores, Saw was hired as a mercenary to guard a shipment of goods being transported. Midway through the operation, his employer was kidnapped, and Saw, with a small band of his fellow mercenaries, rescued them from a nearby cave. During this, Saw went face-to-face with another Bugbear for the first time in his life, brutally murdering the savage opponent.
Drinking away his pain later at the Astral Oasis, a portal opened up, surprising Saw. No one else seemed to care, so he threw one more dart at the board, getting an 8, and entered the portal. He was transported to a mystical land with some other adventurers who had met a similar fate, and they wound up in a battle arena against some ice aurochs. Saw was a magnificent competitor and their team won splendidly, being showered in the local currency.
From here, another portal opened up and Saw was transported to the wild west with Bonnie the bard. Saw and some other cowboys and cowgirls got in a shoot-out with some nuns while looking for a halfling that had gone missing, supposedly dead. After resolving the issues with the local sheriff, and earning a hefty reward, Saw used a portal to return to the Astral Oasis.
Just as he started his new drink, a tiefling witch named Neon flew into the tavern on her broom being piloted by her Imp familiar. In a bit of a fluster, Neon asked Saw and some other tavern dwellers to fetch some shopping for her. Saw was quick to agree, hoping to earn some more coin in this strange new place, the Starry Shores.
During the shopping expedition, Saw repeatedly embarrassed himself in front of some rough n tough adventurers, and then Saw and his new friends beat those adventurers to death, Saw killed one with a well-placed dart throw. There were also some children who lost their dog, and Saw asked everyone in town if they had seen it. Ultimately, they discovered an evil pie shop was killing people and turning them into pies, including the dog. In any event, they were able to get Neon the things she needed for her party, but she didn’t pay them very much gold.
After another drink, Saw heard a clink sound behind him, looking over to see a small strange coin. Flipping it between his fingers, he found a button of sorts which, when pressed, transported him, yet again, to a strange new world. This one seemed to be populated by mostly insects, Thri-Kreen. Sent on a mission to find a lost professor, Saw was eager to try out some new tricks he had learned in the Starry Shores but was taken down by some automaton constructs and brutally murdered, turned to dust, but Z3, a Thri-Kreen member of the Stinger Squad, collected the dust and brought it back to the Carapace Cantina.
Upon awaking inside an egg in the Carapace Cantina, familiar with the process of hatching from the first time he did it, Saw finds himself in a new body with members of the Colony. Looking at his new, much smaller, body, covered in a carapace instead of his ginger fur, and feeling his new mental connection to this new species, Saw instantly felt like an equal member of the hivemind, as if he had finally found his real tribe, his pack, his family, after all these years. Adjusting to his new speech patterns, his name shifted to be pronounced with a slight Thri-Kreen inflection, the common pronunciation closer now to the clicks and such of his natural language, written as “Zaw.” Still yearning to be a famous arena champion, but now with a new burning drive to best represent his insect pack family, Zaw continues his adventures towards victory.
Z3, General Zinder, and the rest of the Colony help him adjust to his new life and they celebrate his rebirth with a shot of pure bleach which cleanses the last bits of BugBear DNA from Zaw’s very soul. Shortly thereafter, Z3 offers him an herbal joint that sends him into a deep hallucinatory trance focused on his Quasmari studies of metaphysics & critical damage, unable to move in the meantime, resulting in a better focus with his new body.
As Zaw returns to the real world, the general sends him on a quest to bring honor to the Queen, which he quickly accepts to prove his merit. With a band of plucky adventurers, his first mission as a Thri-Kreen goes pretty smoothly, other than again being turned into dust for a short period of time, and Zaw helps defeat a Deathclaw.
Gaining the respect of his peers, Zaw decides to try-out for the Stinger Squad and gets sent on a dangerous mission to destroy an encampment of Surge parasite creatures. Venturing through both the feywild and the shadowfell changes a person even more than Zaw had previously been changed, but the team finds the Surge fortress.
While the rest of the team is distracting the enemy at the gate, Zaw misty-steps into a guard tower, becomes invisible, and surveys the battle-field. Knowing what he has to do, the BugBear turned ThriKreen surprises a Surge magician, breaking its concentration and giving the party cleric a chance to save other Colony members, before being hit by attacks from all sides and collapsing on the ground, as usual.
With the last bits of arcane energy knocking around Zaw’s aura, he points his metal lance at the Surge hive-mind captain & unleashes hellfire, eviscerating the strange entity and severing control over the host of parasites, which collapse across the battle field. Z3 uses some portal magic and Zaw winds up back in the Carapace Cantina, where he spends the next 17 hours pretending to be a dragon.