Who is that scruffy dwarf?

Not much good gets said of a dwarf who hears the call of the earth. Not even one with a mighty historical name like Dain Stoneheart. "Grashk'ruch' is what the other younglings called him in the wee mining schools, where he refused to swing his pick. Roughly translated into common it means " rockhead", or possibly "stonefish". Dwarfish is a tough language but what's important is the sentiment. Dwarves can convey a lot of meaning with a glance or a nod, neither of which were ever directed at Dain until he was nearly 50 and had been demoted so far that his lot was guiding tourists around the Hold. Not that his clan was thrilled at that either; he spent far too much time talking about the rocks and caves and didn't point out the masterful stonework of the central chasm bridge, or even discuss the golden filigree gates of the temple.

It didn't matter to his kin that Dain could move the earth with a thought; that's undwarfish. It didn't matter that he could hear the wishes of the stones; rocks were for breaking or carving. Dain found himself alone in the foreign land that was his home.

One might call it fate then, when during a tour attended by a Tsarian diplomat, there was an Aberration attack. Jumping quickly in front of the confused group, Dain coaxed the tunnel's rock walls into action and sealed off the passage, crushing the monsters that had almost reached him. The grateful envoy mentioned this to the Hold's Chief Engineer, who certainly didn’t keep his rank by missing opportunities. Dain was quickly promoted to Special Permanent Attache to the Tsarian Council of Magi and the next day found himself on the surface for the first time, headed for Tsar.

After a few weeks of travel sickness and sore hindquarters, Dain found himself even further out of his depth in the city of Tsar. Given no special duties by the clan and all but forgotten by the envoy, Dain was drawn to the sewers below the city, searching for a connection to the earth. These being the infamous catacombs of Tsar that he had wandered into, he was quickly set upon by an Aboleth. During the difficult battle, Dain found and drew upon the same power that he had felt back at home; the earth's power. As he channeled Nature's hatred of the foul creature into the pulsing stone walls of the sewer, something clicked inside him and he felt bizarrely peaceful.

Later, a guard patrol sent to investigate a possible cave-in dug his unconscious form out of the rubble. Captain Tolah remarked that she had never seen a smiling dwarf before, and that it was creepy. After they found the smeared remains of the particularly dangerous foe along the passage floor, Dain was quickly offered a new career that he took to with gusto.

Dain went back to that cave-in during his next day off and cleaned it up good as 'new'. He kept one small pebble, however, and hung it around his neck. When questioned about it, he just says that it keeps him safe.