Sketch chuckled at the thought of all the rumors that circulated about the young alchemist. There were several rumors about his alleged marriage to a cat-girl, and had a young daughter. There was another rumor that he'd seduced the young lady who'd fought with both him and Sketch when the goblins invaded the town. He'd known several other young ladies that Sketch had never met, and the storyteller hoped that at least one had captured Nevin's heart. The young man had professed celibacy for the last 7 years, and Sketch hoped that if that was true, it would break soon. The young chemist was still in his prime, and Sketch wanted him to enjoy his youth while he still had it, there would be time to play the celibate hermit-scholar once he got older.

Sketch turned his thoughts to the young fae, Sketch knew that if he really was one of Mab's brood, the boy may never grow out of his childish looks. The boy wanted stories, Sketch knew quite a few, but he was hesitant of telling any that may offend Fenn, having so recently only returned to his good graces. Sketch despised being on anyone's bad side, he liked making friends. He mulled over the epics of Queen Mab, the Sorceress God from the Merlinic stories, and of the stories of Titania's beauty, and discarded both. He didn't want to tell any stories that would either offend Fenn by bringing up someone who opposed his court, or misrepresenting someone as powerful as Mab.

His eyes glittered as he thought of a story that would please everyone. He moved over to the barmaid that was playing hostess, and whispered into her ear. The young lady smiled, nodded her head, and ran to the center of the room. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a special treat today, Master Sketch,
from the Whistling Pig, has agreed to tell a story for us tonight! So, I'll ask that everyone order their drinks now, and sit and listen!"

After the room settled down, Sketch stood upon a wooden box that had been brought from the back and cleared his throat. The owner of the cafe, and aged old man with a crooked back and sparse grey hair, walked out and sat down on a stool, a grin wide on his face. "Ladies. Gentlemen. Anyone else who managed to sneak in, lend me a few minutes of your time as I tell you a story of Oberron, the Trickster King. His exploits are legendary, and his antics are revelrous,
but none of the stories about him match the one where he earned the very ire of iron itself!" Sketch waited for the cheers to quiet down before he continued.

"Long ago, in a time before man, the Earth was lonely. It's surface was covered by numerous oceans, in which swam infinite creatures, in it's forests lived many magical beings, and in it's skied flew thousands of birds. Yet, in it's heart, it truly loved none of them. The Earth desired something made from it's heart, that it could love as a mother loves it's children. One day, the Earth took it's own heart and molded it into a stone man. It labored for eons, molding each aspect of it until it was perfect. Once the statue was finished, it poured all of its love into the heart of the stone, and granted it life. The being created from the stone was called, a "dwarf."

The dwarves were loved so much by the Earth, that it taught them the secrets of stone and metal, of fire and forge. It gave them great valleys of gold, and chasms of diamonds. The kingdoms of the dwarves were legendary and prosperous, eclipsing the greatest kingdoms that came from any other race. Their coffers grew so full and heavy, that they soon had more gold in their empire than the rest of the world put together.

Eventually, the other races grew intensely jealous of the dwarves, yet none could stand against the might of their armies and war machines. The other races soon learned to ignore the stout folk and leave them in their dens under the Earth.

One leader on the surface, a wyld fae named Oberron, had learned that the stout folk had been unbeatable in both war and trade. He decided that if he wanted to take their gold, he'd do what the fae do best, and outsmart them. Oberron used the illusory powers of his people to create a great mountain, encrusted with precious stones and metals, larger than a city. To every sense, the mountain seemed real, and he made sure that his people were ready to create other illusions in order to make his scheme work.

Oberron, a king in his own right, ventured to the dwarf kingdom alone, and was greeted as a royal dignitary. He was welcomed by the dwarf king, and ate and drank the most opulent foods and ales. He engaged in merriment and drunken revelry with the dwarves, encouraging the dwarves to drink deeply, even for the dwarves.
Once the king was good and liquored, he walked up to the king and spoke to him.

"My dear king, let me ask you something...Your people are the strongest miners in the world correct? There's no stone the dwarves can't cut. I have a challenge for you, we have a great mountain in our kingdom, as large a city. The mountain holds precious stones and metals enough to make your riches seem like a paupers wallet.

My game is this... I'll wager our mountain and all that it contains versus all the gold in your kingdom. You and your miners have three chances to remove a pebble from our mountain. One small pebble is all that it takes for you're kingdom to gain such riches as it's never seen before."

Now, the dwarves were still trusting of the other races, young as they were. The king eagerly agreed to the challenge, thinking that his men could easily pass the test of the fae. He gathered his greatest miners, chemists and engineers and they created a plan to attempt to break the mountain and claim it's treasure.

On the day of the contest, the dwarf king strode out on the the playing field, and greeted Oberron with a chuckle. He moved to his team, and they began their attempt to take part of the mountain.

He first had his strongest miner, wielding a large, heavy pickax attempt to break it with one large powerful spring, but the magics of the fae, subtle and concealed, made the illusion appear undamaged, and the they broke the ax. To the onlookers, it appeared as though it had broken upon the mountain, and not a scratch showed on the rock.

The second time, the king sent his best chemist, to use explosives to blow the mountain to bits. The dwarf mixed his chemicals, and lit his wicks. The long trail from a safe distance slowly burned towards the bomb, and when it finally hit the charge, it created a giant explosion, so intense the earth itself shook. Yet, again, the magics of the fae went unnoticed, and the mountain stood pristine.

The king raged, growing red in the face. He finally ordered his engineers forward. They brought out a gaint drill, its engine creating such billowing smoke that it blocked out the sun. It's giant treads moved forward, and this time, the magics of the fae couldn't hold out against it's great mass. The spinning drill broke through the massive illusion, shattering it into pieces.

The king stood there, completely confused at what had happened. Oberron, cocky and confident walked over to the dwarves, laughing. "It looks like I win the bet, my stout chums. You tried valiantly, but not a single pebbles fell off the mountain, for indeed, it had no pebbles to begin with. Your three chances are gone friends, and your gold belongs to me."

In a sweep of his arms, Oberron summoned up the dwarves gold into a giant pile, laughing all the while. The dwarf king stood and let his rage boil. When he could no longer take the anger any longer, he let out a shout so loud, that it dwarfed the sound of earthquakes, thunderstorms and volcanoes. The Earth heard the scream and grew angry at the Fae's trick. The Earth turned all of the gold into a base metal, yet to be seen. The metal seemed to seethe with the anger of the Earth. The metal bit and burned the fae. and Oberron raged at being cheated out of his gold. And to this day, Iron has never forgiven the fae."

Sketch gave a grand bow, and allowed the crowd to clap for him as he stepped down. "Sir Fenn, I hope that story was informative."