Gimble and Rat: The Inside Scoop

An excerpt from the book Living, but not Quite Legends of Highmoon , By Arterth ("Arty") Finix, Grand Historian of Lesser Known Highmoon Personages

Gimble, once a lowly bugbear from the Bugbear district of Highmoon, Rogana, was a down-on-his-luck warrior. Not having much money to begin with, his house collapsed (luckily he was not in it at the time). Having no source of viable income, he soon resorted to eating out of dumpsters. Then (depending on your view of the matter) the worst thing, or the best thing ever to happen to Gimble, happened. The dumpster he was eating out of got thrown into a garbage wagon. In said garbage wagon he meet his soon to be constant companion, Rat. Rat, the intelligent talking member of the Rodentia rodentia species. In other words, a Rat with a smart mouth. After a few minutes of posturing on both sides, they quickly became friends. At the end of the line, they barely escaped from being thrown into the incinerator, which in case you didn't know is fueled by a fire elemental.

From there, Gimble and Rat decided to become, well for lack of a better term, bounty hunters. With a quick stop at a McMercanaries 1 to buy some cheap weapons, they were off.

At this point a good deal of history concerning the two has been lost, though it is believed that it was during this period that Gimble developed his love of exotic weaponry. Forswearing the lives they had previous led, Gimble and Rat quickily became notorious people on the "fringes" of society.

Gimble quickly became a licensed sage with the City of Highmoon, after proving his ability to read, which is a skill almost unheard of in a bugbear, and cemented his position with the publication of his book "A Codex of Weaponry: Forms and Functions of Rare and Hard to Find Exotic Weaponry" which details no less than fifty different types of "exotic" weaponry that has been on display in various parts of Highmoon. To read from the Codex, it is on display in the Library of Highmoon.

A small disjuncture here, or possibly just rumor of what happened during this time period, is the fact that Gimble and Rat were accosted by Kelindo, the Man of Mists. While being staunchly defended by both Gimble and Rat, there is no corroborative evidence to support this claim 2 .

After this so-called run-in, they meet up with an off-worlder named Gideon Al'Thor 3 , who they helped return to her home world by getting her in touch with Sycron the Collector (for more information about the Lord Mage of Highmoon, please see the novel of the same name by none other than yours truly 4 ), who it is rumored showed them his famous collection of weaponry, exotic and otherwise. Niether Gimble or Rat can remember what weapons they saw exactly, but they both believe them to be "Really Neat."

In the latest news, Gimble has had his library privileges revoked by Mrs. Seldom 5 . This unfortunate turn of events has severly hindered his sage business. From all known accounts, they are paying damages to the Library in excess of 200 crown, and cleaning fees. They are also attempting to enlist the aid of the afforementioned Sycron the Collector to get their library privileges back.

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Now, for the First Time:


AF: SO, how does it feel to be the first person of your race to get a sage license?
G: Ummm, I'm the first? Whoa! I didn't know that.
AF: Yes, you are. I take it you are surprised?
G: To say the least!
R: No, to say the least would mean you shut yer mouth.
AF: Ha,ha,ha. Very funny, Rat. Now, Gimble it is a widespread rumor that you have had your library privileges revoked. How did this happen?
G: Ummm. Lets just say that it was part of an unfortunate circumstance.
R: Yeah, one that got Rufus killed.
AF: Rufus?
R: Yeah, the halfling that was in charge of the dumps.
G: Rest his soul.
R: His soles will get a lot of rest now, since he won't be walking very much anymore without a necromancer's involvement.
AF: This Rufus, he's dead? What happened?
G: Well, he died, and we gave him a proper send off, along with the entire teamster's union of Garbage Collection. We crem...cream...burned him in the incinerator, which is how he would have wanted it.
AF: No, I mean how did Rufus dying have anything to do with the Library?
G: Ummm. Well, it didn't. But its a long story that we really shouldn't tell you.
R: Yeah. Sycron told us not to. I'm not going mess with that guy. He's got power coming out of the as...
G: RAT!
R: Astral Plane. I was going to say Astral Plane.
AF: I hear that you are petitioning Sycron the Collector to try and get your privileges back, is there any truth to that?
G: Yes.
R: Yeah, we're putting this library thing ahead of money.
AF: What do you mean?
R: We're going to waive our finder's fees if he can get us back in.
G: Rat! I think you've said quite enough.
AF: Finder's fees? I take it you two are working on some project for him?
G: Ummm, I think we've said enough about that.
R: Yeah. The less said about Syc, the better. Its like I said earlier, he's got magic coming out of his wa...
G: Rat!
R: Wands. I was going to say wands.
AF: Ok, I won't say anything more.
G: We'll just say that while crashing a certain noble's house party, we found something that the man was looking for.
R: Now if we could just get it out of that study...
AF: Which noble? I won't tell.
G: Lord Tallcastle 6 .
AF: Well, gentlemen, I think we have said enough. I have to go write my article now. Thank you.
G: No, THANK YOU! We ain't been interviewed before.
R: At least not when we weren't being arrested.