Ganute Ironfist

Nickname: Nute
Gender: Male
Age: Old Enough
Status: Single
Place of Origin: Candletock
Clan: Steelseeker
Profession: Explorer / Inventor / Amateur Author

Description 
Ganute stands 4' 5" tall is round bellied and barrel chested as is typical for his people. His frame bulges from thick muscles carefully cultivated as a young dwarf in the mines and forges. He has long coarse red hair, including tufts poking out his ears. His bear d and mustache each end with braids, one at each end of his mustache, his beard parted in the middle and formed into two braids on each side.

He is often in his exploring gear, most self-made and invented, and carries a hefty pack that often shows a web of thin line that holds down all manner of contraption. One each side he has  a pick and hammer which he is quite capable of wielding as weapons if the need arises. When he goes into town he is easily recognized by his dark goggles to protect his eyes from the sunlight until his eyes get used to the light levels above ground.

Identifying Marks 
His left forearm bears a permanent portion of a page about some species of cave slug complete with drawing from when a blind rockhound ate his supplies.

Quote 
"Hey aren you a cute lil' feller, OUCH! Hey now what'd ya go and do that ferrrr.... Ugh..." Collapses from the bite of a carnivorous cave frog which made him pass out from its venom. He ended up calling it a Slumbertoat.

Background 
Ganute /Gah-noot/ Ironfist of the Steelseeker clan being the middle son (out of nine) of the renowned mining clan found himself overlooked and over matched by his eight other siblings. This still left him above many others with the uncanny ability to "sniff" out rich veins of ores. With the exception of the occasional family brawl, Ganute often found himself in deep abandoned tunnels and even the natural tunnels below the rock and earth.

Down in the forgotten depths is where he found his passion. Exploring the never ending maze of tunnels and rifts and while doing so observing and cataloging the creatures and plants that dwell and thrive below. In this new passion he discovered a link back to his family profession of mining, and a smattering of smiths from mutually profitable marriages. Many of his journeys and trials required unique tools and he put his mind to creating them. After the first few he discovered he had a nack for developing these odd items, most of which completely befuddled his family making him more of joke in their sight. He cared little for they aided him nicely and he continued his spelunking. From his affinity for the deep critters his siblings quickly dubbed him "Nute" /Newt/ after one day brining home one of his discoveries to better study it.

With more and more expeditions he found it increasingly difficult to remember everything that he stumbled across. One sympathetic sibling, a sister named Tilly, suggested he make a book. So he undertook the task of organizing his notes and drawings of varying qualities, which was a feat since he had been exploring for fifteen years! Once sorted he bundled the carefully and went in search of someone to make his smattering of notes into a book.

His search eventually lead him to Candletock Publishing. After some insisted redrawing of his earlier work and a few changes to the format to make it actually readable the first three editions of "Nute's Subterranean Field Guide" were released over the next few years. By the age of fifty Ganute was an author and had even made some money from the books. He of course made more from academics wanting samples of the creatures and plants he discovered, and still more from selling the ready-made remedies for the bites and scrapes received by armature explorers in the depths.

Since his initial publications, Ganute has made a fourth guide, produced a map of portions of the tunnels (which is tightly guarded by the clan), and even written some "kiddie tales" about the adventures of a glowing deep rat named Vergil, complete with illustrations. It has also been mentioned on several occasions that he find a scribe to take along on his journeys to "assist" and allow him to better focus on what he is observing. More likely this is intended to cut down on the time deciphering and rewriting his barely legible handwriting.