Role

Chapter 2

In his youth, maybe still only forty five or six, Outhyen went on a trip with a
different gem procuring group towards the east. They stopped at a couple
small settlements, took a dreary and hot trip through an old, dried stream bed
and came out at this massive port city. Since it had a large river running
just south of it, he expected a plethora of stones to be for sale but it
seemed like the city and its inhabitants simply took that for granted, only
building a few grates and landings along the banks. Disappointed by the
wares, he jumped a skiff and headed off along the shore of the river himself.

He couldn't have been gone all that long but he kept drifting along the
swiftly flowing current anyway. Staring below the rippling surface he spied
several rough garnets and a dull piece of obsidian that had been sand crazed
thanks to the river's bounty. Before he knew it though, the riverbed grew
further and further away until he couldn't see it clearly. As he strained,
the skiff tipped over and dumped him into the water.

Now, any good svirfnebli worth their stone can swim, but when he fell in with
the sack of stone tied to his waste, he quickly had to make a choice, his life
or the stones. Grabbing his trusty chipping knife from his pouch, he sliced
the leather bindings and watched the sack thud on the ocean floor, puffing up
a dark cloud as it did. As it did, he looked around the depths in amazement
at the majesty below. His eyes, so accustomed to scanning the depths of the
chasms and crevices took in the beauty of layers of silts and a magnificent
coral reef.