Zook Turen, a Deep Gnome or more correctly, a Svirfneblin, comes from the city of Blingdenstone which is far to the north on the Sword Coast.
As with all Gnomes he is short of stature. He is hairless with a slightly grey tinge to his flesh – like dusty marble.
He’s from a respectable family of various skills and abilities. They are, like all their neighbours, followers of Callardurnan Smooth-hands who is the patron God of the Svirfneblin. They live with their kin near the family business.

His father runs a hardware and tool shop which sells repaired and new hardware as well as some other trinkets that had been used as barter.

His grandfather had grown up in Silverymoon (after all his relatives were killed by the Drow during the sacking of Blingdenstone– see S.C.A.G). He had been forced to use his cunning to survive and so he honed his illusory skills. This is something he and Zook had in common, and Grandpa Turen had taught him all he knew and also told him of Leira “mistshadow” goddess of illusions and trickery. Zook was quite the illusionist even at a young age. Good enough for an apprenticeship his grandpa thought.

Being a duty-bound sort, Zook is known to be courageous and quite intrepid. However, after a recent disastrous episode with some burrowing enemies, the part of Blingdenstone where his clan came from had been made to cave in for the good of the city. This calamity forced his clan to live in old dis-used sewers near the centre of the old Gnomish city. “Making the most of it” I suppose you would call it. His family had gone to their clan’s aid immediately. The exertions of all this have left Zook both mentally and physically fatigued.

One day while Zook and his grandpa mind the shop, a human called Evan Waldsson visiting the shop barters for some pretty standard tools. After the ubiquitous “hmm stranger eh?” from the Gnomes, he explains he is from the hamlet of Longsaddle and on his way home. Once Grandpa realises he is from Longsaddle he asks a few questions about the Wizards who run the place about whom Evan gives little in way of information about. When told his goods are slightly more expensive than he expected they agree to barter a small trinket he is carrying – in the shape of an urn.

It's only when this stranger leaves that grandpa examines the urn more closely – on the back is scratched the emblem of Leira – the Goddess. A triangle with a swirl inside it. He’d been waiting for this day. The call.

​Zook prepares to travel to Longsaddle.