Role

Chapter 3

Soon enough the cost of travelling from Upper to Lower Cragstone began to
take it's toll(literally) upon the fortunes of the Gravelbelly family.
His Da threw himself harder into his craft, trying to push out the very
best works in an effort to please the eye of the King. Though the works
surely improved the fancies of the King did not. Almost simultaneously it
could be said that the stoneworking business of the King's nephew through
marriage was beggining to pick up across the city. His Da was a wise man,
but Dribby knew it was loyalty what was blinding him to the happenings
present.

At a loss for what to do, Dribby continued to hone his craft in sneakery
at night. He was learning his way around locks one night when he gained
entry to a nondescript city cellar that he was curious about. It turned
out, according to the ledger found, that this was the warehouse of his
father's rival, the King's nephew-in-law. Finding the works therein to be
of inferior quality even to those works that he himself could make,
Dribby's own suspicions were confirmed. Such a lucky coincidence was oddly
marked at that moment by a toll of a nearby clock. Odd in the respect that
while the hour was midnight the clock chimed thirteen times, something
that shouldn't happen no matter the hour.
He took with him a bag of gold coins. Determined to right the situation,
Dribby came home and for the next several nights would take one of his
Da's statues from the front of their shop and leave a handful of coins in
it's place. His parents elated, Dribby's heart glowed at the justice he'd
taken from that warehouse.

When he returned the next time to the warehouse, however, there were big,
tough Svirfs waiting for someone to squeak in through the cellar doors.
He was caught and chained in the dead of the night. In the morning he saw
his father and the shame in his face when instead of displaying his wares
before the King he was forced to plead for his sons life. The King spared
Dribby, but at cost. Dribby may not live in the city of Cragstone ever
again, and all Gravelbelly's were prohibited from venturing to the Lower.
For his thieving ways the elder Gravelbelly disowned his son from their
home. Banished and downtrodden, Dribby made his way to Galadon to start
his new life without a family.