@malatesta Here is my first pass at my character:
Elvish Fighter (Jeweller/Gemcutter, unsure of fighter focus yet, but finesse/dex is my bag)
Personality Trait: I like to talk at length about my profession.
Ideal: I am slow to action, because there is always more to a scenario than what is seen at first glance. Also, everyone should be able to have something beautiful to wear.
Bond: I must solve the mystery of this gemstone.
Flaw: It is extremely hard for me to sell gems/jewelry for money.
Background: Oh, there isn’t too much to tell. I’m a jeweler by trade, you see. I’ve spent most of my life learning and studying the best methods for gemcutting, how to properly set a stone, and so on. I have had a modest shop in Malat, catering to the rich and poor alike. Many other jewelers ignore the poorer, but I think it is important, critical actually to help people own things they find beautiful. Practicing my art on lesser gemstones, well that’s still practice so I don’t mind. And also… oh but I digress.
Before my shop? Well, that was before and doesn’t really matter.
Last year, after a lifetime of dedicating myself to my art, there was an unfortunate accident in my shop which caused me to lose my shop, as well as all my inventory. It was a staggering loss. So many wonderful gems I’d collected over the years…
Anyway, I decided a change of pace was needed. Instead of waiting for vendors and explorers to bring gems they find to me, I’ve decided to go out and find them myself. I’ve heard a human friend of mine is in town, he and I always came to a good understanding when he’d bring in somethings for appraisal and sale. I think we may try to work together in a more official sense.
Also, speaking of gems, have you ever seen a stone like this? He turns a small gold ring about on his finger, showing it’s small blue stone. It is unusual in that depending on how you look at it, the colors seem to change from bright blue to bright green. And there is a sparkling within the gem, more than any other stone you’ve seen.
You haven’t? Oh, that’s okay. I found it a while ago, not much is known about it. It’s not important.
Secret-ish Background: Several months ago, a human man entered my shop. He was well dressed, and was polite. He had a task that needed doing. He had a gem, a very special and rare gem he had acquired and he needed it cut in a certain way. I normally prefer to decide how I just my gems, but when he showed me the stone… well let’s say my life has two sections now. Before I saw that gem, and after.
It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. I’m sure you thought it curious, for of course I’m talking about the gemstone set in the ring I showed you. But I can assure you, it is one of the rarest things I have ever seen, simply because I have never read or even heard of such a stone. It’s important to note too… it is NOT magical in any way.
Back to my story, the gentlemen left me with the very detailed instructions on how to cut the stone. The instructions were obviously copied from somewhere else. The parchment was new, but the text was written in an ancient language I’ve never seen. Nevertheless, gem cutting is it’s own language, and I was able to decipher from the diagrams how to proceed.
I told the customer it would be ready the following day at noon. All that night I worked on the gem, following the cut patterns from the parchment provided. The cuts were in places I would be sure would cause damage, but instead it caused its facets to become more brilliant.
It took so long that I didn’t have the 4hours of rest I normally need that evening. I stopped by a local inn and rested/meditated in the corner for a while, the owner is a friend of mine and has let me do that on occasion. In my fatigue I ended up resting too long. I dashed out of the inn and ran towards my shop. I was only 15 minutes late, I hoped the customer would understand.
What I found instead is the entire building my shop was a part of (There were 7 shops all built with one frame), was burned to the ground. It had apparently just happened, yet the flames were already out. Witnesses were claiming it was like a fire they had never seen, it burned much faster than it should have.
The thing that was the most upsetting was the body.
It was my customer, ran through with a pike of black iron, propped aloft right in the section of rubble where my shop used to be.
Though normally not a person of action, I am observant. I think he stole the gem from someone, and that someone wants it back.
I tried talking to members of my guild, but they pale when they see me coming, and refuse to talk to me, other than to say I am no longer a member.
The fire ruined everything I had. All the gemstones were in a small vault that was fireproof, but when I dug to retrieve it I found it entirely missing.
Since then, I’ve been attacked several times by professional assassins. Luckily, I am finding that I am adept at fighting in my own right.
Still, it’s put people in danger, so I am exiling myself to ruins and dungeons, to find gems and jewelry to one day take up my profession again, but also to try to solve what is so special about this gemstone.