He turned the rough red stone about with his fingers, his dark eyes searching the textures. The lens of magnification fixed on his face made his eyeball appear absurdly large, an orb of glittering coppery black.
"You a jeweler or some such?", the adventurer asked. Juutar shook his head briefly, continuing his appraisal of the garnet before him. "What do ye do with these then? If ye don't mind me askin'." The human mercenary was one of many who frequented the Beer Golem.
Juutar of clan Gundigoot set the stone down and removed the inspection lens from his eye. He then took off his unusual leather cap and set it on the table as well. The cap was lined with badger fur and the leather shone from an oiled polish. Atop the cap, sprouted the preserved wing of a bat - all that remained of Nobbi, Juutar's pet of several years. "They are for religious ceremony," the rock gnome said.
The human snorted with amusement. "So you want the rock or no?"
Juutar took out a coin stack from his purse and slid over forty dragons. The man's eyes widened, his mouth stretching with a greedy smile. "Deal!"
"It's a fair stone," Juutar replied calmly. "You did well to find it and sell to me."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The children who had gathered before him fidgeted in their posture, faces turned to him yet their young bodies struggled to keep still. They anticipated a display of magic, some dazzling cantrip perhaps, but Juutar the Earthcaller gave no such entertainment to accompany his storytelling.
"For thousands of years, the waters underground, the streams of life deep within the mountains and sleeping volcanoes, poured over the richest veins of ore. Until one day.. the Lords and Ladies of the Golden Hills were released from them! Flandal came from arandur and Garl came from gold. Baravar emerged from silver and Gaerdal from iron. They and their brothers and sisters set to exploring the world.
Garl the Great, the Wise Creator, saw that there were too few of them and so set his mind to create more. He searched the earth for the finest of minerals, cutting and shaping wondrous gems. One day he happened upon a great sealed cavern, its walls and ceiling studded with countless gemstones embedded in veins of the finest ore. Having broken the seal with his axe Arumdina, he set Gaerdal with his shield and Baravar with his illusions, on watch to defend the find from Urdlen the Destroyer.
For days upon days, Garl cut the gemstones, polished them and breathed his life into them, until they opened, blossoming into the first of us gnomes! He taught them songs and told them jokes, their laughter filled the mountains, caverns, hills, and trees. Those who blossomed from emeralds chose to dwell in the great forests, the gnomes of the green. Those who were born of rubies wandered far down into the heart of the earth to become gnomes of the deep. And those released from diamonds chose to dwell beneath the land. They became us, the gnomes of rock, the folk of the Warrens."