Garnel Stoneblender

Gnome ally. Young adult gnome illusionist & Ethium researcher. Rescued in the ruined tower (Session 3+).

Visual Description & Character Traits

Appearance: Young adult gnome — short, slightly scruffy-looking, with a wild mop of bright red hair sticking up in all directions, wearing round spectacles and ink-stained clothing.
Behavior & Habits: His eyes are constantly darting around with bright wonder and nervous energy. He writes with an inkpot and quill in leather-bound folders of parchment sheets and loose paper, carrying fine charcoal pencils for sketching floor runes and diagrams.
Tools & Equipment: Carries tinkering gnome devices — small brass lenses, ticking copper callipers, inkpots, quills, fine charcoal sketching pencils, and dials used to measure magical currents and Ethium stone resonance.
Narrative Rule: In story text, Garnel is never named until he introduces himself ("I'm Garnel... Garnel Stoneblender").

Grandmother Mala Stoneblender researched Ethium; he has scraps of her research and her discoveries into the stones
Tried to retrieve her books from a mage guild he believed had stolen them
Worked as porter, then scribe; found most books destroyed; recovered the only remaining one and caused a stir escaping
Ran into the Hammers; they confiscated the book as ransom and forced him to work for them
Kidnapped / held in Sunfall before ending up forced to read runes in Ethium’s ruined tower

Found in the tower dungeon: Hammers + orc brute forcing him to read wall runes with his tinkering measuring tools; helps the party when attacked (may cower at first in combat)
Helped configure the healing pool with Ethium stones (water from a source elsewhere)
Thinks the pool has healing properties; research on the well needs a couple of days
Later: may stay researching at the pool, or tip the party to a Kruthik nest with crystals (rumour overheard from Hammer / Gang captors)
Session 5 seed (if played): if he returns to Fallcrest with the party, may recognise Mala’s handwriting among papers in Nimozaran’s study — soft beat that the two researchers knew each other. See table plan Beat G.

Inbox duplicate: Garnel Stoneblender.md (same backstory bullets — leave as archive).