Luchog Smithwick, the Shifty Gnome

“Ugh what now?” he thought to himself as the branch he had been sleeping on ever so slightly bounced up and down. Slowly turning his head to look towards the ground, he saw what had caused the tremor, another Drow patrol on the hunt for humans. Well nothing for him to worry about, being a gnome and all. Oh if the Drow found him, they’d probably kill him, or enslave him, or torture him, after all they were Drow. But he was safe in his tree, after all this is why he took to sleeping in trees. Humans were much to big to sleep in the trees he chose, so the Drow didn’t even glance up. “And there they go. Good, now I can get back to sleep. Damn Drow shouldn’t be around this time of morning anyway. It’s been sun up for over an hour, they must be really close to humans to deal with the pain of being in the open during the day.” Oh well not his problem. Humans could look after themselves, and if they couldn’t, then still, not his problem. He was just about to fall asleep when he heard the screams. “Well Luchog, old buddy, time to find a new tree, you’re not gonna be getting much sleep with all that commotion,” he muttered as he made his way down to the forest floor. He perked up his ears and listened for a minute before moving off in the opposite direction of the screams. As he walked, Luchog thought about his time in the woods so far. In truth, he mainly thought about these times because he couldn’t really remember a time when he wasn’t in the woods. He couldn’t remember his father. He barely remembered his mother. He didn’t even know if he had any siblings. And as is the case, his thoughts brought him to his earliest memory, the night he entered the woods. He couldn’t remember much, just flashes. Dark skinned elves laughing as they slaughtered the fleeing inhabitants of the small hidden village. He remembered that it wasn’t just a gnome village, it was more of a mixture of many races. There were humans, gnomes, halflings, elves and half-elves, even a few dwarves if his memories were right. And that was the reason for the attack. The Drow didn’t want any large settlements, especially of humans. Luchog remembered being sent outside by his mother and told to run into the woods and hide. So he did, and still was. He’d learned a few tricks in avoiding the Drow, such as sleeping in trees, sleeping during the day, and above all else, staying away from humans. That was rule #1 and something Luchog tried very hard to always follow. He got the feeling though, that someday, he didn’t know when, he wouldn’t be able to follow this very simple rule. That fact scared him more than anything, because where humans gathered, so did Drow. And the Drow were what filled his nightmares, them and the screams…