gistfile1.txt

Falco Opalhead was born amongst his people in the Underdark.  This particular patch of the Underdark existed deep below the northeast corner of the Nether Mountains in Faerun.  In this particular network of deep caves toiled the Slabeye clan. Slabeyes mined agates and traded them to rock gnomes on the edge of the Arn Forest. 

Born to a proud mother and father, Falco was raised svirfneblin from his first breath. Falco's father, Fralthig, worked tirelessly on the agate veins. Fralthig was not a fighter, he was a miner. The Underdark was dangerous, the Slabeye clan had fighters, but Fralthig was not one of them. Falco's mother, Zadi, stayed in the Opalhead home raising their children. 

However, Zadi was a different svirfneblin than Fralthig. Unlike Fralthig, Zadi had lived many years of her life above ground. She was born under the Cloud Peaks near the southern edge of the Sword Coast. When she became old enough, she defied the wishes of the matrons of her clan and left the Underdark. She traveled for many years before hearing the rocksong again and finding a new home undernearth the Nethers with the Slabeyes. There she met Fralthig and fell in love. 

But Fralthig never wanted to hear her stories from surface. A small piece of Zadi's heart broke every time he shook his head and turned away when she began a story. 

When Zadi had her children, her heart was made whole again. And she told her children her stories--and they listened. Falco and his sister Shudlasha listened to their mother's tales of places, sights, and happenings that only a young mind--unburdened with maturity--could imagine they would ever see. 

As the years went on, Shudlasha followed in the footsteps of her father and became an excavater. Falco mined as well, and learned--as all svirfneblin did--to listen to the stone. For listening to the stone was to listen to the heart and mind of every svirfneblin around him. 

But Falco was also consumed with visions he had of what his mother had told him. One story in particular gripped his thoughts, and he imagined it with every color he had never seen in the Underdark: a thousand years ago the svirfneblin and the dwarves of Clan Battlehammer fought the drow occupation of Blingdenstone and drove the drow back to Menzoberranzan. Falco imagined the gnashing of metal and stone, the powerful dwarves shoulder-to-shoulder with brave svirfneblin warriors battling in the darkeness against the dreadful, evil drow. 

Zadi had made a pilgrimage to great dwarven city of Ascore, the gateway to the Frozen Sea. Gigantic statues of dwarven heroes lined the passageway to the city. On the other side was Ascore, with docks made for colossal stone ships that floated on water with the power of dwarven magic. 

Zadi had never told Falco what she found at Ascore. She told her son that if she told him what she saw that it would no longer be her pilgrimage, and it would not be his either. "A person's journey can only be taken by them. A journey given is no journey at all." As a boy, Falco remembers being confused by his mother's words. She told them stories all the time, why was this one any different? But, as he lay awake on his bed imagining Ascore now, he began to understand what she may have meant.

Falco left his home, and despite Ascore laying just past the Arn Forest from his home, he traveled the other direction in search of his journey. The svirneblin heroes and gleaming dwarven statues of Ascore always in his mind, he knew that for him--like his mother--Ascore would not be the beginning of his journey, but the end. 

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Falco journeys south over the Nether Mountains and into the Far Forest. There he is captured by a group of wood elves. Fearful at first, Falco is eventually taken under the wing of a young wood elf named Virrys. She teaches Falco that stone is not the only thing that sings: so do the wind and the trees. She also teaches him that The Far Forest was a name given by outsiders, mapmakers. Virrys teaches Falco that the elves that live here know this forest by the name Faerprax.

Virrys is a master archer and begins to train Falco in the art of bow and arrow. He trains tirelessly with the elves of Faerprax, flashes of the brave svirfneblin warriors at Blingdenstone pushing him further and further.

Finally, Virrys reveals to Falco the mysticism of the forest. She demonstrates how she can use this power to make her arrows do magical things like pass through trees and curve around rocks. She teaches him the incantantions but Falco quickly learns the words alone are not enough. For Falco to wield these arcane powers, he will need practice and… something else. He just doesn't know what yet.