Nib Nighthand

Nib stands just over three feet tall, wiry rather than plump, with the weathered look of someone who has spent as much time on wagon benches and ship decks as behind a counter. His dark eyes are sharp and always moving, weighing people and goods with the same appraising glance.

He dresses in practical but quality clothing, layered with vests and a short coat, everything stitched with extra pockets for keys, ledgers, trinkets, and tobacco pouches. His boots are well-soled, his shirt sleeves rolled, and there is almost always a curved pipe either between his teeth or tucked neatly into his belt.

• Voice: Warm, quick, with a hint of gnomish cadence from Gnomesberg and the Greenway caravans.
• Habits:
• Taps his pipe stem against his teeth when considering a deal.
• Hops up on crates or steps so he can look tall-folk in the eye.
• Calls most people “friend” or “neighbor” unless they’ve earned a sharper title.

Background & Origins

Though halfling by blood, Nib is a child of G1 - G8 Gnomesberg Gnome Quarter, the gnome district of Verbobonc. As a boy he ran messages through the hill-homes and shop-fronts, earning coppers from tinker-masters and scribes. Gnome caravaners from the Tulvar and Greenway Valley took a liking to the nimble lad and began bringing him along—to the Kron Hills mines, roadside fairs, and river landings.

On those journeys he learned:

• The road network between the Kron Hills, Greenway Valley, and Verbobonc.
• How to haggle in three languages without anyone losing face.
• How deep the resentment runs when gnome ore and crafts are undervalued by human factors in the city.

By his twenties, Nib had already traveled widely as a factor and sometime adventurer, chasing rare curios and one-of-a-kind items across the Central Flanaess. When the opportunity arose to lease a massive warehouse on the edge of the Market Square, he pooled gnome loans, halfling luck, and every favor he could call in to found Nib’s Importers—a four-and-a-half–story “treasure chest” looming over the Business Quarter.

His bardic knack—storytelling, music, and keen insight—became just another set of tools in his trade: a song to soften a dockmaster, a tale to loosen a noble’s purse strings, or a gentle jape to defuse tempers in the counting room.

Personality

Nib is charismatic, persuasive, and fundamentally kind. He wants deals where both sides walk away pleased, preferably laughing. His Neutral Good alignment expresses itself as:

• Fair dealing: He abhors cheats and will quietly blacklist merchants who habitually underweigh gnome ore or mis-price caravan goods.
• Bridge-building: He thrives as a go-between—gnomes trust him as “one of ours,” while human traders and noble factors see a reliable city merchant with a prime address and impeccable records.
• Curiosity: His shop is curated less to maximize profit and more to display wonders—oddities from Sunndi, the Snow Barbarians, Celene, and beyond.

He dislikes overt strong-arm tactics and prefers to “let the numbers talk.” When forced to choose, he sides with the Free Alliance gnomes and small folk, seeing them as perennially at risk of exploitation by larger powers.

Web of Relationships

Gnomesberg & Hilewy’s Gnome Palace

Raised among the gnomes, Nib is a familiar face at G2 Hilewy’s Gnome Palace —the seat of gnome civic life in Verbobonc. Stewards and scribes there often send younger kin to apprentice under him for a season “to learn tall-folk trade,” while Nib in turn uses the palace to sound out gnome sentiment on tariffs, mine disputes, and caravan safety.

Free Alliance of the Kron Hills & Prince Jimm

From the Free Alliance article, we know Kron Hills gnome leaders— Prince Jimm Pithriggen among them—are deeply concerned with fair trade, safe roads, and control of their mineral wealth.

Nib’s role (largely inferred from that structure) is to be:

• A trusted front in Verbobonc where Alliance caravans can sell without fear of being cheated.
• An informal “back-channel” messenger between Jimm’s house, Gnomesberg, and select human merchant lords around the square.

He is not formally on the Alliance council, but his warehouse’s manifests and ledgers often serve as the proof in arguments over who shipped what, and for how much.

Human Merchants & Temples

Human trade houses in the Business Quarter respect Nib for his scale and reach—though some resent that so much gnome trade flows through his hands first.

He maintains cordial relations with:

• The Chapel of Zilchus and other trade-gods’ clergy, who inspect high-value deals and keep the quarter honest.
• The Vigil Wardens, using them when necessary to discourage theft or protect incoming caravans he has underwritten.

Nib is careful never to appear partisan in city politics; his real loyalties are to the flow of goods, fair weights, and the gnomes and halflings who would otherwise be squeezed.

Nib in Your Game – Roleplaying Notes

When you speak as Nib at the table:

• Tone: Friendly, wry, a little breathless when excited about an unusual item.
• Angle: He’s always thinking in ledgers—who owes what to whom, and which deal can be turned into three more friendships.

Quick mannerisms you can lean on:

• He climbs a crate or step so he can look PCs in the eye.
• He peppers talk with little road proverbs—“Coin hates an empty road,” “Never weigh ore on a stranger’s scale,” and so on.

Sample Lines

• “Now then, friend—thou look’st like folk who’ve seen more than the city gates. Let’s have a look at what the road’s given thee, and see if we can’t turn it into something finer.”
• “I’ll not cheat thee, and I’ll not be cheated. That’s the bargain. If thou canst live with it, we’ll get on famously.”
• “Prince Jimm frets about bandits, Hilewy frets about contracts, and I fret about whether my customers come back smiling. Between us, we might just keep the hills and the city from cutting each other’s throats.”

Secrets & Hooks

• Ledger of Favors: Nib keeps a separate, hidden book—not of coin, but of favors owed across Gnomesberg, the Free Alliance, and human merchant circles. Stealing, protecting, or altering this ledger could shift the balance of power in the Business Quarter overnight.
• Smuggled Temple Crate: A recent shipment from the Kron Hills includes a sealed chest bearing unfamiliar sigils—Temple of Elemental Evil or Suel in origin. Nib is furious to find such a thing hidden among his stock and quietly hires the PCs to trace it back to the sender.
• Alliance Pressure: Hardline gnome leaders in the hills whisper that Verbobonc can’t be trusted. They want Nib to raise prices sharply on human buyers, effectively weaponizing his shop in a tariff war. Does he comply? The PCs might be asked by Jimm, Hilewy, or a human lord to sway his choice.
• A Bard’s Old Road: In his adventuring youth Nib once traveled near Nulb or the Temple region and came away with a half-remembered song describing a now-forgotten shrine. If coaxed (or plied with his favorite tobacco), he might give the party the last missing clue to a side-entrance or hidden cache.