Side Piece of Lore: Something about that Gnome

halfgiant

Upon the first Obelisk sync between the Manaverse and the Forgotten Mess, there was a lot of excitement with new people coming thru and people leaving. Yes, both Kargin and Rorek in the corner arguing about getting the hell out, yelling something about Dregnoth. During the commotion, the Librarian from the Argopolis Library came thru, and in tow a Gnome. That Gnome passed all the scrutiny of the typical entry scans of anyone new into the city, and did not trip any alarms, and detections. Unbeknownst to the city, that Gnome, called Gorlen Blackhammer is a Clone of Daren the Powermaster. For those that don’t know Daren he is a founding member of the Argopolis city back in the Forgotten Mess, a Managanger Arch being that actually is no longer a Powermaster, but has since transformed into a Race known as The One ( an actually closely guarded secret very very few are aware of, most still refer to him as Powermaster ) and has come to a new multiverse to perform research of the mana-ethereal plane, and to find new magical formulas, lore and spells.

Since his arrival he toils around the library helping the librarian get the V’Ral/Manaverse repository of magical knowledge setup, and he keeps office hours at his Gorlen’s Books and Other Oddities Shop in town, a low level shop that sells various non-magical yet very rare spell components, item components, and high end spell books. Outside of the Library or the Shop, he doesn’t spend much time in V’Ral, or the continent in which the Laputan’s reside. In his words… “That business between V’Ral and the Laputans, that is their business, i don’t want any part of that nonsense. If i get involved it will just make everything worse and nobody wants that.”

When he is not in V’Ral he takes on various caster alter-identities as he explores the various schools of magic, and libraries on the other continents and island nations, and explores the mana-ethereal plane. When he is in V’Ral, you can find him, as the Gnome - Gorlen Blackhammer, organizing and shelving books in the library, or widdling a new figurine outside his shop for some young wizard to enchant. Gorlen likes to act like a hard nosed merchant, and is always talking about cutting deals with his young wizard customers, but in all actuality he is absolutely terrible at it. He is far too absent minded, and frequently when he is in his shop a lot of times he is half in the bag with an open keg. When the shop first opened Rolandites laughed at how easily they could rob the guy blind, almost to the point of having sympathy for him (almost), but none of them can figure out how he continues to stay open making a profit. Naturally many of them don’t look too hard at the shop dealings since he really isn’t selling anything magical, and quickly dismiss him as a bit kooky or eccentric.

For fun on occasion, he catches rumor or a piece of intel in the Manaverse that might lead to a particular item, piece of knowledge, or untapped Manacite that is very rare and he has a ‘client’ he could sell it to so occasionally he commissions adventures within the city to pursue such tasks.

Rumors that swirl around the city about the Gnome, that you may hear:

That Gnome that runs that shop, can never remember what specials or discounts he has going on, and he is always drunk, if you can make a decent bluff or merchant check you can almost always get reagents half off!
Gorlen Blackhammer, nobody really knows the guy, i drank with him all night woke up the next morning and i don’t think i still know anything more about him than i did before.
Many assume Gorlen lives above his shop, but nobody ever sees him come and go from the city.
He does hire adventurers on occasion to investigate rumor or intel, for rare items or untapped manacite.
Once the mages in the city said it felt like the weave dimmed or ‘burbed’ one day, just briefly it had looked like it came from Sorvani’s tower, but the Obelisk said it was made to look that way, and he was eventually able to trace it back to an area were Gorlen’s shop was, the obelisk gave the shop a deep scan but only found Gorlen passed out sleeping off a limited run of the beer dwarfs stash.
It’s rumored that an upcoming mage in V’Ral, swung by the shop to pick up a new spellbook, and ended up drinking with Gorlen all night. This lad finished at the top of his class at the school of magic, and had been long rumored to have the best chances of becoming a Powermaster. When Gorlen asked him what he was studying, the young lad told him he aspired to be a Powermaster. What followed was a drunken rant from Gorlen, or so the young powermaster in training thought:

So, you say you want to become a PowerMaster. My advice don’t! I trained in the Arcane arts back in Argopolis, a lifetime ago. And a few of my classmates were PowerMasters in training, rarely do they die of old age, though they can live a very long time (ponders if any of them are around anymore). I did once see one of the cities cofounder’s, just once, he came and taught one of our classes, he was a PowerMaster, a Managanger! It was like reality bent around him as he simply walked thru the city. The very language he spoke was magic itself, wielding such ancient formulas and lore - the very essence of magic itself. [Shakes his head, as if coming out of a daydream]
Bah, [drinks from his mug] all of that comes with a price, facing your racial enemy the Ancients, yeah, I bet nobody told you that when bestowing the virtues of PowerMastery! Yep, you will have a racial enemy. Fighting Netherese Archliches, Type 12 Demons, Mana Poison, and a whole assortment of nasties, if that doesn’t deter you then maybe you are crazy enough to spend a lifetime mastering all three towers of magic, arcane, divine, and psionic. Once you have mastered those then the questing begins to undergo the transformation into Powermastery, good luck with that, many never come back!
[wonders over to the Keg, grumbling, fills his mug, easing back into his chair, beginning to light up a pipe.] Listen kid, if you insist on attempting to master the three schools of magic, and become an apex spellcaster like a PowerMaster, there isn’t much I can say to stop you as you already have this bad notion in your head. All I can do is pass along the advice that Daren fella told us in class that day.
[Scratches his beard, and rubs his bald head as he collects his thoughts] He said to achieve mastery of the three schools of magic isn’t to have dominance or to conquer magic but to achieve enlightenment thru the knowledge of it, to move with it, to weave it into your life, making it your companion, friend, ally, accomplice, partner, etc… magic is no one’s slave, it is to be respected and if you put back into it what it has given you it will always be there for you, for when you need it the most.

Gorlen Blackhammer (Drunk Gnome sitting in front of his shop in V’Ral)