Gurnarigan One-Eye
Gurnarigan the Gnomish hero is a character who's achievements are a mix of fable and legend. To his people he brought and end to many sufferings, and defeated Gnomish enemies wherever he found them. Despite being a hero from before The Great Disaster his legend lives on; his story has been told over and over again, and he is a source of inspiration to Gnomes everywhere.
There are many variants to his story, the one recounted here is popular among the Gnomes of the north of Arthea.
Gurnarigan's Early Adventures
A First Fight with Orcs
Many years ago, long before the The Great Disaster, Gurnarigan Gammenhorne lived in a pleasant delve at the foot of mighty mountains and at the edge of a green and lush forest. In his life as a youngster he enjoyed the open air and spent time working in the woodland with his father and between them they brought in wood for the clan to use as fuel. They also made charcoal on the slopes of the mountain, and helped carry heavy ores from deep in the mines to make tools.
One day the mines became threatened, a group of evil Orcs had moved into caves in the mountains overlooking the Gnomish vale, and they did not like their neighbours. They tried to frighten the Gnomes away. They attacked the farmers and the woodcutters out on the slopes of the mountains, they stole crops and they killed the animals that the Gnomes needed for food. When the Gnomes did not become frightened, or show any signs that they would give up their homes to allow the Orcs to trample all over their lands and ruin their delves, the Orcs became angry.
The foul beasts decided it was time to scare the Gnomes away properly. They attacked the peaceful people on the slopes, they killed farmers and woodcutters and fishermen. Gurnarigans father, who was now old and frail, was too slow and could not escape. He was caught by the Orcs hunters and they killed him. Gurnarigan's mother was so upset she cried for a month. Gurnarigan himself was incensed. He decided he would teach the Orcs a lesson, and he gathered the finest warriors his clan could find. Together they taught him to swing a mace, and fire a crossbow. He spent weeks learning his craft, until the Orcs returned once again.
This time he and his friends were waiting. Gurnarigan and his best friend Hedgon Burreler marched out to meet the invaders. The orcs just laughed at the two tiny figures as they strode forward out of the woodland towards them. The orcs looked at each other and then charged down the slope towards the Gnomes. Gurnarigan gave a signal and the crossbow soldiers hiding in the woodland behind him opened fire. Quarrels filled the air, and several of the orcs fell dead.
Now, Orcs are not the smartest of creatures, and instead of falling back, they grew angry and ran faster towards the gnomes. The crossbows fired again and again, and by the time the Orcs reached Gurnarigan, they had been cut down to just four orcs, three of whom were foot soldiers, and one was the leader. Gurnarigan and Hedgon raised their maces, and stepped forwards. The first two orcs were upon them, and fell to their first swings of the Gnomish maces. Next Gurnarigan faced up to the leader, while Hedgon fought the final Orc. It took Gurnarigan three blows to fell the leader, who was too slow and too cumbersome to hit the Gnome in reply. While Gurnarigan dealt with the leader, Hedgon easily finished off the other Orc.
Normally Gnomes are a tidy people, but they wanted the Orcs to stop attacking them, so Gurnarigan and his friends left the Orcs lying in the grass for their other hunting parties to find. They returned to their delve to rest; Gurnarigan had out-smarted the orcs.