Inventory: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a67vHtu3AYXmToWFnadIKJeLPGjgnmquNRDzMfopcYY/edit?usp=sharing
Loben doesn't have many memories before the slave camp. He was born in the gnome communities in the Blemu Hills of the Bone March. The community was rather small, maybe a dozen families living in the ruins of another older community with an unknown name. These gnomes were transient for a while, moving at night and only scarcely gathering food. When they finally settled, they thought it was safe. Unfortunately that was not to last, as an orc raiding party hit the camp after tracing back a hunter who stayed out way too late trying to get food. All of the gnomes were either enslaved or killed, including Loben's father. In the orc slaver's care, many of the tribe were sold off or killed for food. Only a handful remained by the time Loben was old enough to seem edible to the Orc. So, using skills he'd honed hiding from danger so far, he snuck out of camp. While he could survive on scraps, he made a concerted effort to improve his skills so he could save his mother. He followed the Orc's as they moved, trying to steal scraps or save a few slaves when he could. It wasn't easy, but Loben's small stature helped him sneak around and he learned the orc's habits and patterns. Moving around, he ran into a priest/sage of Celestian. He moved with the boy, understanding his plight and teaching him of a broader world and telling him of a great powerful god in the sky who wanders just like him, looking for truths and secrets. Over time they became friends and the sage even helped sometimes. After a dozen years of this, the orc leader had had enough and during the hours when they normally didn't move, he up and left the area for good. Loben tried to trail them but had operated on patterns and landmarks, not tracking. So when they left, they were gone. Sadly, the interest of the priest/sage Marcus waned as well and he decided to depart that same day. This left Loben with absolutely nothing.. except the one hope that maybe he could gain favor with Celestian and pray that he could help find his mother.. who was still alive somewhere. First things first though, he had to survive. Stealing from orcs was easy, so Loben tried with humans. He had no set moral code so it led to a some mischief but he still had a set goal. He was going to earn the favor of Celestian. Wandering worked well with the faith and his trade so that's what he did, always hunting for new truths and secrets and looking for money and land to build an observatory someday. He learned of the technology when robbing a passing folk mage. He thought it'd be perfect. A letter from Marcus oddly arrived via a Celestian wanderer. Marcus had apparently fallen from a cliff while trying to reach a summit of some kind. The letter was a bloody map that was torn in places but seemed to indicate a particular peak where Celestian could be reached. So much damage was done that most of that was hyperbole and hoping but there was now another path. So many options of what to do, perhaps wandering some more and finding more answers or that mountain will help. Time will tell.. but this is not a goal he's backing out of easily.