Pono

 is a human were-bear living on Rumblecusp. As an NPC, is played by Matthew Mercer.

Appearance
Pono is a human man, younger and baby-faced, though very muscular in the torso and arms, and covered in heavy, thick patches of wiry hair. In bear form, he is slightly smaller than his companion, Jaina. Hidden under his thick hair in back, there is a very intricate tattoo of the Clasp.

Personality
When he and the Mighty Nein first met, Jaina seemed to regard him as not terribly bright, but a nice guy. He appears to be quite forgetful and unable to recall large chunks of his memory.

Background
Pono has no memory of his life before arriving on Rumblecusp, saying that he's lived there as long as he can remember, but everything led to bringing him there. He bears a tattoo of the Clasp, suggesting he was a member at some time in his past. When questioned about whether he had always been a were-bear, Pono indicated some scars on his shoulder, commenting that "some circumstance got out of hand." Jaina later said that she'd gotten into a "bit of a tussle with [him], but he's taken good care of it."

Pono leaped out of the jungle in bear form to rip the head off a displacer beast his companion Jaina had wounded, while the Mighty Nein watched. He and Jaina then befriended the party and escorted them back to the village. Notably, neither he nor Jaina had any clear idea of where they had come from before arriving on Rumblecusp some unknown number of years earlier.

The Mighty Nein learned that Pono's name before arriving on Rumblecusp was Kieren. He was still on the island as of the dinosaur hunt, although he declined to join the party for it.

Relationships
Pono is one of the villagers the Mighty Nein encountered on Rumblecusp.

Notable Items

 * a massive great-axe

Quotations

 * (about lycanthropy) "They call it a curse, but thankfully, she [Jaina] knows her way around, and it’s helped me a bit."
 * “The thing is, when you come to the center of the world, the rest of it doesn’t matter that much.”