Shasta

A Roaming Artificer
Shasta is a Gnome who spent most of her early life apprenticed to a couple of inventors, Melchior and Hanpan, who were friends of her parents. Shasta's engineering skills were not bad, but she never quite had the spark of a Gnome inventor. When she completed her design for a more efficient bow, Shasta kept returning to it to make it just a little better, almost enamored with her single creation and with not much interest in moving on to a new project. For the most part she found herself better suited to the appraisal of crafting materials for the Gnome's inventions. It started when one day she noticed a change in quality of iron her mentor was using, she began to keep small samples of materials and compare them throughout the weeks, researching, and devising tests. Finding that the quality was not consistent, Shasta received approval to go to the continent and establish more reliable trade with four other Gnomes.

During their travels, she came to realize that there were many more rare materials which could not be obtained on the open market, or when they could be found, they were not affordable. In addition, while learning more as an appraiser, she became more interested in studying the craftsmanship of other races, especially Dwarves. When she felt that the Gnome Trade was well enough established without her, she set off on her own as a treasure hunter, with the intent to find ancient ruins, old caves, abandoned mines, marking on a map anything that would need more man-power to excavate in the hope to one day send a team of Gnomes back over her tracks. As she travels and explores she pockets any interesting finds such as old crafts or precious stones for herself, and attempts to hunt down fierce beasts for their hides.