As you pick up this book the first thing you notice is it’s dark cover. In a faded red script the title of the text catches your eye: Gulch Luckbane

You open the book to the first chapter and begin skimming, you notice that certain passages of great import are marked with paper markers. After reading the basics of the first chapter and learning the mundane details of Gulch’s past in Aran’gird, you skip ahead to the interesting marked passages.



…Gulch kicked the passing slave on the rear for good measure as he cursed the fate that brought him here. Still young himself, it was amazing to think how much this new batch of slave workers would bring; hopefully enough to finish buying citizenship and passage into Galadon. He was pondering his future when suddenly a battle cry shook him to the bone. From nowhere three passing slaves threw off their tattered robes to reveal the brilliantly shining armor beneath. Gulch courageously dove through the stained glass window of the trading center, to warn the others inside, he told himself. He found a good spot under a polished marble table that he might better warn passerbys who didn’t have the advantage of height, and he waited. Unfortunately, he wasn’t waiting for very long. He heard the three adventurers before he saw them. A booming voice from just outside the door said “I’ve got dirt, in my eyes.” Gulch sunk a little lower into his ‘battle-ready’ huddled ball of hidden fear position as he heard the next voice say squeakily “Heal me.” The booming voice replied “ You’ve only got a few scratches, you don’t need to be healed.”
As the fearsome trio entered the room Gulch knew he was in trouble. Gulch didn’t know which he feared more of the three. From the brightly burning twin axes to the glowing lightning bolt tattoo that read ‘Light-4-Life’, the huge blue giant was certainly the most imposing. An elven archer was next, he didn’t seem very scary after all; he was rail thin and his eyes were crossed. The archer’s armor hurt Gulch’s eyes, especially the bright beads around his neck. A tiny gnome healer shuffled in next, looking much like a pair of overly large eyes and bulbous nose sticking out of a pile of hovering robes.
“I sense a great evil presence in this room,” the giant said deeply. The elf looked around in confusion and said, “Really? My guildmaster is going to love me when I tell him about this, I’m close. I’ve got to go soon by the way.” The gnome sighed softly and the giant rolled his eyes.
Gulch was still looking around for the great evil presence when they spotted him. The archer knocked an arrow and drew back the bowstring, making a comical sight with his crossed eyes and tongue hanging out slightly as he concentrated. “On the hour,” The giant bellowed. The gnome closed his eyes and started humming a familiar tune towards the giant who began to glow an even more brilliant shade of white. Gulch decided not to wait around for the entire hour for them to attack him. He had just started crawling out from under the table when the archer released his knocked arrow!....and shot it right out of the window well wide of Gulch. A scream from somewhere outside made the elf whoop with joy. “Got one!,” he shouted as he enthusiastically high-fived the gnome.
Gulch had had enough and bolted towards the door. He really didn’t know what hurt the most, the way the axes seared his flesh as the sank into his shoulders, or the way his backbone just barely snapped as the axes met each other in his spine. He was confused by the disappointed look on the groups faces as his world faded to darkness. Soon after Gulch’s spirit arrived at the dark temple in Galadon…

CHAPTER 2

….Gulch woke up with a pounding headache. He couldn’t move due to the bindings on his wrists, arms, feet, and legs. He was momentarily confused until it all of a sudden came back to him. The docks of Hamsah Mu’tazz had proved at first to be quite lucrative in the slave trade as Gulch was a fine salesman. A duergar’s luck can change with the tides in that place though. He was on the deck of a ship, tied and bound next to four others. With nothing better to do he sighed and went to sleep….

…..that being a slave was awful, he had never been more miserable. Kiadana was hot! He didn’t know which he hated more, the heat, the giants, or the irony. He continued to glare down and pick up the pile of waste and refuse, thanking the fates that he wasn’t a pleasure slave to the giants as he noticed another limb in the pile.
A bone chilling battle cry shook him out of his dark musings. A wave of blue death was running up the path in his direction, hacking and slashing fire giants down left and right. Cross-eyed elf, gnome, and giant didn’t even pause as Gulch was cleaved in half with the freezing axe head, working their way deeper into the mountain. Galadon had never looked so fine….


CHAPTER 3

….the foliage and cursed it’s thickness. He was regretting the decision to become an adventurer already. Learning to defend himself was a wise decision, but having to work and explore just to make someone teach him how to fight was ridiculous. He swore that when he found his way back to a road..path..or any form of civilization, he was never leaving it again. His luck was finally turning towards the better, he thought, as the trail presented itself. A thick strand of webbing crossed the path here and he laughed at it, slicing it easily with his new sword. He continued forward and noticed that the longer he followed the path, the more webbing there was. Not worried, and not overly brilliant, he continued hacking his way forward, eager to find the way out. He was trying to figure out how he managed to walk onto the thick canopy of a dense forest, and how to best get down without breaking himself, when he noticed the spider. The huge, huge spider. He was surprised that the sword sized fangs didn’t kill him as they punctured his chest. Being spun by the spider kind of reminded him of the time he hit the cliff wall after the jade elf pushed him off the side of a mountain. His insides kind of felt like they were melting, which they were thanks to the spider’s digestive enzymes, but being a duergar, luckily the process lasted much longer than it should have as he writhed there in pain.
He had been sitting there in the cocoon waiting to be eaten and putting good thought into becoming a priest of some kind when he heard the battle cry. More confused than anything, he looked through a space in the silk wrap and saw them. If he didn’t hate them so much he might have been impressed. The giant fought like a monster, using a large spear now. The cross-eyed elf shot flaming arrow after flaming arrow rapidly towards the spider. Some of the arrows even hit their mark, the others started small blazes that quickly spread through the canopy. As the spider died and curled in on itself, the giant triumphantly broke off his fangs and attached them to his belt. The gnome took noticed of Gulch about that time and shuffled over to him, beginning to hum and nod in his direction. Gulch began to feel good inside. With each nod from the gnome he felt divine power healing his body. Thinking of the God’s presence within him lifted his spirit, gave him new appreciation for life, made him want to be a better person..he was feeling very good as the gnome began to tear away the silk wrappings and free him. About the same time the last of his bindings wore off he caught the giant’s whitesteel spear with his chest, he turned to look at the spear tip jutting through his back and found it odd that his heart had found a way down to the forest floor below without him. Gulch had never been more bitter at the world. He sat at the dark temple’s altar and began plotting for an easy future, full of wealth, knowledge, and revenge. Maybe a priest…..



Desc:

The duergar that crosses your vision here seems almost unusual at first glance. He doesn’t strike you as overly imposing but neither does he seem harmless. You notice that his head is clean shaven under his helmet, looking remarkably like a smooth polished stone. His beard is neatly greased and braided into a point six inches from his chin. His eyes are a very pale shade of blue and he has wrinkles from often squinting in lighted areas. His teeth are all there and remarkably white, his gray tongue can often be seen running across them when he is in thought. He carries some weapons attached to his belt as well as a few sacks that clink loudly as he walks. Other then these things, none of his other physical characteristics seem noteworthy of your attention.

Warcries

W1 What’s yours is mine!
W2 Buy your way out of this one!
W3 My god is richer than yours!
W4 Feel the power of fiscal spirituality!
W5 Like you wouldn’t have gotten the same disease from the brothel..pay!



Tenets of the Fiscal Faith

Economy – The economy is a well balanced, fine-tuned machine that keeps civilization from becoming extinct. The economy keeps the people happy and all things growing. Without commerce even the gods would lose power. A world without gold or some basic means of trade is primal. Take away gold (which nations wage battles and fund campaigns with) and you lose war, without wars the faiths can’t fight, and without faiths constantly evolving and changing, the gods cannot grow in power. Small businesses keep cities running, people fed, workers paid, and traders trading. To keep the economy running you must always remember to keep the little people happy, they are the bottom dwellers, the foundation of civilized society.

Greed – Greed is the motivation of the world to grow. Life is based on greed. Everything and everyone is greedy to some extent. If people aren’t concerned with physical greed, they are usually obsessed and greedy for power. Even the battle between good and evil is based on one side taking power and control from the other.

Knowledge – True wealth comes from the power to think and learn. Learning to use others’ greed against them in order to use them to make yourself more wealthy could not be done without continuous gathering of information. Information can be sold for far more than baubles, thus knowledge is more powerful than any coin.

Concealment – Never letting others know your true intentions is critical towards keeping ideas original and a share of the market for yourself. Ideas can be stolen faster than diamonds yet luckily are much easier to hide.

Gold – Gold is the fuel of economics. Gold is power. Gulch sees gold as Qaledus’s physical power over mortals. Gold brings happiness and woe, war and peace, and is the center of power for thieves, cities, or any civilized area. The more gold one has, the more powerful they are.

Duty – Gulch feels the best way of securing his divine power is to first protect himself, but secondly to protect that which is important to his god; banks, cities, and the people that shop, spend, steal, kill, sell, take, give and seek knowledge, the little people in the cities. He collects his wealth and protects the economy while trying to stay alive and gain those things which he covets of others.