Mongoose Enters the Guild

A curious Gnome and Grolsch's Blade

He knew his obsessive curiosity could get him in trouble. It always had. That same curiosity was why he was a stranger in this new city, kicked out of his own village, bearing with pride the deragatory nickname even his family had started using for him: "Mongoose." Well, curiosity and a very bad reaction to being startled when he was discovered in the Mayor's closet. The poor fellow wouldn't be needing those hats any more, as his head was forever after a stranger to his shoulders.

Small even for his race, Mongoose the Gnome stood before the open door of the impressive house, knowing that something special awaited inside. First, the lock was well concieved, and difficult to pick. The trap in it was so cleverly hidden that he'd almost missed the thing.

Stepping inside, he wasn't dissapointed. Whoever owned this house knew what they were doing. If he didn't know better, Mongoose would have thought the owner must be a Rogue, seeing the locks that blocked his way to various rooms. But of course he'd never heard of a Rogue leading such a ... well, respectable life. Behind one such locked door was a pantry, and Mongoose held his breath as he noticed the slight scuff marks near the base of a shelf: it was movable. Carefully finding the crux point, the Gnome opened the secret panel, finding a collection of poisons and mixing utensils that made him stop in wonder. Here indeed was someone who had mastered the art. The mere smell of one container, labeled as "Gnomish broken goblin gizzard ogre treats" or some such told Mongoose that the whole lot was best left alone. Even an accidental spill could be lethal.

Bursting with curiosity, Mongoose explored further, finding a trophy room where all the trophies were given to a man named Grolsch... and a portrait of the most amazing Kali-given treasure of them all, a breathtaking beauty by the name of "Chastity," according to the inscription. But, once he picked the last lock, even the rest of what he had seen paled in contrast.

Before him stood the most exquisite blade he had ever seen, locked in a glass case that, for the life of him, Mongoose couldn't open. He kept telling himself he merely wanted to hold it, to feel its balance in his hand, to slice and stab the air with it, and then return it. "Better to just borrow and return anything from this fellow," he told himself repeatedly as he tried to work the case's lock, "if he found another with his blade, 'm sure the poison in my gullet would be a painful and slow one." Having no luck, the Gnome even attempted scaling to the skylight over the case, hoping some secret release could be found on the top... all to no purpose. And now it was getting late, and Mongoose wasn't sure if the owner was due back, or had someone watching his house, or.... and now he heard screams coming from the streets. Putting everything back in order, Mongoose quickly slipped out the door again.
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Laying down to sleep that night, the little Rogue thought of all he'd seen in that intense day. Surprisingly friendly Rogues like Daru who welcomed him into a Guild (A Guild!! A place where they teach you how to sneak and stab! And it was all legal-like! How Wonderful!)...Dragons pounding the streets while strange hooded men went on babbling about skeletons, a Prince who claimed he was in charge of this city (well, at least Mongoose had controlled himself enough not to find out what a prince keeps in his pockets) and even a huge spider that talked and seemed friendly, despite the gnome-sized bundles of web that she called "entertaining dinners."

But throughout it all, as he drifted to sleep, his thoughts returned again and again to that beautiful blade. It even made it difficult to sleep as he imagined what it would feel like in his palm... what he could do to an ogre with such a work of sinister art in his hand. Finally, he assured himself that he would one day be a great enough rogue to own such a thing as his own... "probably easier to spend years accomplishing that than to pick that infernal lock anyways," Mongoose assured himself as his eyes slowly closed.