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30 years ago... The sun sat high in the sky and all the children in the town of Rockland were out playing in the streets. All of the children, that is, save for Gordon. Gordon sat in the main room of his smallish house and read from a book on minerals that was loaned to him from a friend. He continued his reading for nearly an hour, when his mother scolded him and forced to him to go play with the other children. As he walked out to join the other children, he changed his scowl to a smile as easily as most blink. He looked over to others present as they played individual games, not paying attention to most others. A smile came to Gordon’s face as he whistled loudly, drawing the attention of the children. Once their attention was focused on him, Gordon spoke loudly, “Hello my friends. It is a lovely day today, and I have a new game for you today. I want you to look for any pretty stones, then bring them back here. If you bring back a good one, you win a whole five potch.” With that, the children screamed with excitement and ran off in search of “pretty stones.” Gordon sat back and watched as the little ones returned with various stones. Gordon looked over the selection, sorted out the various junk stones, and then took the ones that were of value, according to his book, and gave the finder’s the appropriate potch, which he earned doing various chores while the others searched. As the children went back off to play their games, Gordon smiled greedily to himself. The days went on fairly much the same, with Gordon reading, then sending the children on various errands, while doing chores to reward the “victorious” ones. Soon it became apparent that different kids were better at different tasks, and Gordon wisely “assigned” these kids to the tasks that were best at. During this time, however, Gordon never sold anything. All the various objects that were brought to Gordon were kept by him, hidden deep within his mattress. As the years slowly passed, the children eventually began to learn how to make more money, to feed their ever-growing greed. They sold their findings directly to local merchants. Gordon still continued his operations, but began using even younger children. His collection was soon quite impressive, consisting of a wide variety of objects, from precious gemstones to rare books to rune crystals. However, he still kept company with the children his age, and listened carefully to their actions and ambitions. The nearby mountainside had for ages been home to a multitude of monsters. It was a dangerous place, and children were forbidden to climb its heights. Despite that fact, Gordon was very interesting in exploring it, for the vast majority of rune crystals were found very close it. So, Gordon slowly began spreading rumors that the Empire would purchase the remains of monsters for a large sum of money. With that, greedy youths began purchasing weaponry and armor with the money that they had acquired over the last several months. Eventually, a large group prepared to head up into the mountain, and Gordon agreed to accompany the group, to keep an eye out for less aggressive threats, such as the relatively common land slides. Gordon squinted as the sun reached its zenith and shone down on the rag-tag group. Alexander was the most impressive of the group, as he towered at least a head taller than everyone else present did. He wore rich chain mail links and possessed an impressive long sword. Cristophe was a sleek fellow with a wiry frame and sly features. His equipment was less obvious, for he wore delicate ninja garb and wielded a pair of assassin’s dagger and a bandoleer of throwing knives. As for Jonan, he only had a fire rune covering his right hand, which complemented his studious appearance. The others weren’t worth mentioning, for their inability to purchase high quality equipment lowered their worth greatly. So the group looked at the small path winding up the side of the mountain and began travelling up the meandering path. Gordon kept his eyes out for the rare minerals that he had come to covet, and occasionally picked up one that caught his eye. His companions, however, had their eyes open for other things, such as the terrible that were found on the mountainside. Suddenly, the ground began to heave and hoe, and split open. Four strong, insectoid creatures popped out in a shower of rock shards. Fortunately, the group was ready. Gordon and Jonan remained in the center while the others moved out to do battle. Alexander pulled his blade from his shoulder scabbard and stood in a battle stance, alone, in front of one of the huge beasts. The beast began to move, striking out with chitinous claws. However, Alexander moved with a ready grace, dodging the ineffectual blow and returning one of his own to the claw. The blade cut through the insect’s thick carapace and struck all the way through, severing the limb completely from the rest of the beast. Emitting a high pitched squeal, the beast backed off as Alexander lifted his crimson blade to split the skull of his defeated foe. Cristophe watched his foe warily as he fingered a throwing knife. The beast charged and Cristophe threw his knife, landing resoundly into the beast’s eye, causing ichor to spew forth. However, the beast still continued to move forward. Cristophe was faster though, and he leaped onto the beast’s back, in its blind spot. He then pulled out his dagger and punctured the thick exoskeleton of the beast. The beast began writhing around, attempting to throw Cristophe off. Fortunately, Cristophe managed to hold on, and he opened a small glass vial from inside his vest, and poured a few grains into the newly formed hole. Quickly sealing the vial, Cristophe placed the jar away as the life faded from his fallen foe. The other two beasts fell in short order to the others. The corpses were quickly beheaded, and the removed heads were quickly hollowed out, so that they could remain as evidence of the monster’s death. Two of the less fortunate warriors had been knocked unconscious during the battle, so Gordon applied a medicine to their wounds, sealing them up, then sent them back down to town to fully recover. With that, the ascent began anew. Hours passed into monotony as the intrepid group advanced further and further up. Eventually, Gordon signaled for them to stop, and motioned towards a cave entrance, whispering softly, “There should be more in there.” So they moved inward, warier than ever. Gordon kept to the side, still looking for the precious stones, as well as for the rune crystals he knew were near. Here and there, he found one, and stuck it in a small pouch at his side. After picking up a rune crystal, Jonan approached Gordon and spoke so that others could not hear, “That is a lighting rune crystal, as I am sure you are aware. If you give it to me, I will keep your true intentions secret.” Gordon simply nodded and handed the crystal over. The long, narrow tunnel continued on for some time, before opening up into a larger cavern. The group warily entered, keeping an eye out for any possible foes. As the first few entered the room, the ground rumbled and the insectoid creatures from earlier popped out of the ground, but in much larger numbers. In addition, a much larger one appeared in the central chamber. The battle was soon joined. Slashing blades and claws met and the cavern rang with the sound of battle. Jonan wisely utilized the strength of his fire rune and cast forth its magic, taking down many of the insectoid terrors. Despite their power, the group soon found themselves overwhelmed by the hordes of the enemy. Gordon suddenly realized what had to be done and yelled out, “Take down the big one!” Jonan closed his eyes and forced the power from the lightning rune crystal onto the newly formed lightning rune on his hand. With that, Jonan yelled out at the top of his lungs as a bolt of pure energy flung from his hand and contacted with the thick carapace of the largest beast, flinging it backwards as its corpse began to smolder. Seeing the death of their leader, the remaining beasts fled quickly. The members of the group that remained conscious let out a cheer at the sight of their apparent victory. Gordon surveyed the cavern, noting the large deposit of precious stones and rune crystals littered around the edge of the room. Gordon faced those still standing and said levelly, “My friends, we do not have enough medicine to heal all of companions, so I believe that we should simply carry them back. I will follow after you soon, I just need to make a quick sketch of this place.” The remaining members of the group were all too weary to argue with Gordon, and fortunately, Jonan was unconscious from his magical attack. Gordon then picked up all the stones he could carry and put them away. Chuckling softly, Gordon walked out the cavern, then down back into town. Years had passed since the encounter. Most of the “adventurers” had remained back in Rockland. In the end, only Cristophe, Gordon, Jonan, and Alexander left the small town to move on. Alexander suffered a crippling injury to his knee, which prevented him from fighting ever again. He ended up being a blacksmith in Gregminster. Cristophe became an assassin, using his skills of stealth and deceit to advance quickly amongst the social ranks. However, after an incident with the Emperor that will not be spoken of, he was forced to flee to Rokkaku, where he trained with the ninja present there. Jonan apprenticed himself to the local runemaster at Gregminster, to advance his own learning. As for Gordon, well he advanced much further that his compatriots. He had played his cards right and managed to accomplish much in a short period of time. He quickly sold all of his gem and rune stones, for massive profit gains. He then purchased large quantities of grain. After a short period of near total poverty, the cost of grain increased rapidly, due to the sudden dearth of it on the market. At this point, Gordon sold the grain, earning massive quantities of potch, enough to make him a minor player in the political activities of his day. Soon, Gordon began to see the terrible corruption and decadence of the imperial reign. However, that didn’t bother him nearly as much as the terrible taxes on imports and exports, as well as purely domestic trade. Ever mindful of political change, Gordon soon began to note the signs of dissension amongst the common people of the land. As the spark of rebellion was set by the young McDohl boy, Gordon moved quickly to supply the army with weapons, at only slight profit to himself. Gordon slowly gathered together with resources and stockpiled trade goods of all sorts, and wisely so for when the final siege began, the citizens of Gregminster were willing to pay outrageous prices for the simplest of goods. When the Emperor was finally defeated in battle and the Empire destroyed for good, Gordon’s plans were just beginning. Along with the massive profits from the siege and his allies in the newly formed Toran Republic, Gordon soon amassed great influence over mercantile affairs of the republic. However, he then chose to sit back on his laurels and stopped taking active action in the mercantile world, instead focusing on luxuries and his personal life, even going so far to adopt a son, Coates. But it was here that the seeds of his fall were planted….
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