Siflin, and her talkative shrub

Forest gnomes are famously secretive. In fact, a whole town can be built around their little burrows without anyone noticing them. So it was that one day, Sif's family realised an innocuous camp of adventurers had grown into the bustle of Daring Heights. The old tricks - illusions of ill omen and plenty of side-eye from the local critters - kept their home-trees standing in a quiet little corner of the town. And like that, the family hunkered down and waited for all of this to blow over. Human settlements are so fleeting, after all.

Except for Sif, that is, the first of family to grow up in the town. Brimming with a sense of injustice, she was reclusive and bitter towards the townspeople, but curiosity was always her strongest instinct. With a vast appetite for little trinkets and alchemical ingredients to tinker with, she teamed up with other downtrodden urchins and ne'er-do-wells, learning to haggle and steal what she needed. Her gnomish skills, and close relationship with the town's vermin (especially her mouse, Crumb), made her a useful ally to a street gang in the Sprawl, for a time.

Sif had time to re-evaluate things in jail. She'd nearly estranged her family and endangered her life on several occasions. She would forever be loyal to her comrades on the streets, but she knew she was uncommonly smart and, although she had slowly forgiven and fallen in love with Daring Heights, her heart was always in the forest. So, she snuck out of jail (pretty easy for a gnome, actually), met her family, and told them she was taking up a life of adventuring. She cried when, the next day, they presented her with a crossbow, armour and rucksack, the sum of their savings. The most precious gift was inside - a cutting from her home tree.

So far, the jobs haven't exactly been thrilling - scouting and watch duty mostly - but they've given time for Sif to get used to her new way of life and gather ingredients. Most significantly, under Sif's... alchemically-enhanced... nurturing, the tree cutting has been slowly blossoming into sentience. Horatio (Horace to friends) is a precocious sapling with enough to say for themself and Sif together. That suits Sif just fine. Their current hobbies are dragon chess, sunbathing and sidling up to unsuspecting guards. They've also expressed an interest in learning to swim.