The stories she tells may be a bit exorbitant, but they are so wonderfully and wittingly told, she captures your attention and invites your own imagination to live in her world for the moments you are talking to her. She can charm you if given the opportunity.

Unfortunately on her manic side, she can just flip out. Strangely however, she gives the impression of a small child who needs to be taken care of or maybe just talked though whatever episode she has immersed herself in for that moment. Gerba will realize she has behaved less than royal and either tries her wit to explain herself out of it, or simply ignore it and hope people see it as another quirky charm. For a gnome, Gerba is strikingly beautiful, but doesn’t appear to know it. She doesn’t know if she is a warrior princess or a peasant waiting to be discovered, and this coupled with her impulsiveness makes her difficult to predict. She tends to be overly trustful of strangers but doesn’t talk to other gnome women as much as you would think if given the opportunity.

What Happened?
Gerba’s father, Gerbo, always called her a princess. “Princess needing to someday return to her court” he would say. He would tell her grand stories of wondrous places in which our family was forced to leave by Giants, Goblins and Orks sent by an evil warlord. Gerba would always just listen, as her father would tell these stories, as they were just that.

Then Gerba hit puberty, and her sorcerer powers came into play. Gerba’s father said she was blessed but knew this was dangerous. Even for a Gnome, Gerba has always been overly impulsive. Now she had powers that she couldn’t control, it was years of singed walls and trees in the yard from premature flare and later, burning hands. Gerba’s father only encouraged her lack of control, while it was quite annoying after a while to Gerba’s mother.

Gerba’s mother, Ellywick always wanted Gerba to be a researcher like her, but Gerba wasn’t that bright and way to impulsive to sit and study. No, instead she enjoyed going hiking with her father and going on gem hunts, especially into the Dwarven cities where Gerba’s father had lots of friends. It’s on one of these trips with her father she met Erberk.

Erberk was the son of the weapon-smith. Each time into the under city of Dasmith, Gerba would talk with Erberk as their fathers talked. They got along famously and it was a friendship that developed over years. For a dwarf, Erberk had a quick sense of humor. And as Gerba was maturing, Erberk was always the first to compliment her on how beautiful she was becoming. Gerba eventually lost her heart to Erberk only to find out he was promised by his father to marry another dwarf, Torgga.

She was a hideous woman, ugly and stupid. Gerba was furious with Erberk for allowing himself to be promised to such a beast. “Two tentacles short of a sea hag,” she screamed, which was completely uncharacteristic for Gerba. She begged Erberk to forget her and come off adventuring with her. She even asked her father to try to talk to his father, but he said, “There are stronger forces at work,” as he held a gem up to the sun.

Gerba was at the end of her rope. She went to her mother. Her mother told her she was way to emotional and caught up in her own little world. She needed to forget Erberk and magic and settle down as to not waste so many more years. “But I am special mom. I need special people around me, to help me find my court.”

“Oh Gerba, you are plain. You father has filled your head with such rubbish. Your father has lied to you for so many years. You are not royal, you aren’t even average. You are a silly crazy little girl out of anyone’s reach. Your father has destroyed you.”

Ellywick then returned to the black pot she was trying to clean before Gerba arrived. “Before you were born Gerba, I used to be someone too. I used to be your fathers Queen, and he loved me. Then you came and took all his time and attention. You are just silly and selfish Gerba. Wise up and do something worth anything, and do not come crying to me about some ridiculous Dwarven boy.”

Now, Gerba knew up to this point, that the stories of royalty were just that, stories. But the massive rejection from her mother must have helped to flip the switch in her head. Just blur that line enough from fiction to reality. She didn’t know if her father really was lying to her and ruining her, or if her mother just hated her, or was it both? She wrote a note to Erberk:

She went to the Dwarf city that night and left the note on his door. She waited by the crossroads for two days and two nights, but Erberk never came. Finally, with puffy eyes and the skin on her face shriveled from salty tears, she left to find her own adventure, and to find her court.