Preston Dumpston IV

Level 1 Dwarf Investigator

Mining, smelting, forging, and building are not the kinds of activities that Preston finds enjoyable. He fancies himself a scholar, an investigator, a seeker of truth and justice. He has a scientific mind and has studied a variety of subjects from alchemy to legal history with great interest.

Preston never met a puzzle he wasn't delighted to solve, and his ability to focus completely on a specific task has served him well in his career as an investigator. Sometimes, however, his singular focus causes him to miss other things happening around him and gives him an almost absent minded air. He gets so wrapped up in minor details that larger dangers around him go unnoticed until it's too late.

Physical Description

Apparel & Accessories

Preston never goes anywhere without his trusty bowler hat, and his eyepiece for close up investigations. It should be noted that his eyepiece is not correctly formed to be a magnifying lens and offers absolutely no benefit to his sight.

Mental characteristics

Education

Preston never officially enrolled in Seven Towers University, but he took private lessons in alchemy from a tutor named Tagert Lanskill who was a friend of the university and had access to their archives. He was a skilled teacher, though Preston was not a very attentive student. Eventually, Lanskill left Preston to continue his studies on his own, abruptly and without explanation.

Failures & Embarrassments

His intense and often bumbling attempts at brewing potions earned him plenty of odd looks from his clan mates growing up, and while they were scouting Mythricite deposits in The Drakeridge, he would often get distracted testing a new solution on local flora, fauna, and minerals. One day, he became so lost in his own studies that he wandered away from the clan camp, and failed to notice a gnoll raiding band. The gnolls took his clan mates captive, hoping for a ransom, and by the time Preston even recognized the problem there was nothing he could do but rush to the city and notify Enforcement. Preston has always been embarrassed that he didn't notice the gnoll scouts to warn his companions of the ambush, and worse, that he'd had to turn to outsiders to rescue his captured relatives.

Intellectual Characteristics

Preston is quick to notice details in his surroundings, and equally quick to forget them. He is constantly "discovering" things he's been specifically told about, or that he found himself just a short time prior. He really is quite an intelligent fellow, and if he could aptly recall all the information locked away in his mind, he'd make quite a formidable force.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Preston finds that he cannot abide injustice, and there is plenty of that to be found in Vantam. He has taken a particular interest in exonerating the falsely imprisoned, and often investigates cases already considered solved if he believes it was solved in error. This has made him quite unpopular with Enforcement, as they hate to have their work second guessed.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

There is no doubt that Preston is highly intelligent. There is also no doubt he is a total buffoon. Despite this, he is an excellent judge of character. Perhaps that is what makes him so good at knowing when someone has been falsely accused.

Personality Quirks

Preston's absentmindedness can get the better of him in high pressure situations. He will sometimes mix up his alchemical reagents in a pinch, and the resulting concoctions may not be what he and his allies were hoping for. 

Almost unheard of for a dwarf, Preston is afraid of the dark. He grew up hearing tales about a living darkness from which terrible creatures emerged and abducted a member of his own clan long ago. He believes now that the darkness is a malicious entity, waiting to snatch up the unwary.

Social

Family Ties

The Kheluz Kar dwarves are a far-reaching clan, and he has a cousin who gained a great deal of fame in Trapsborough some 30 years past. Presently, however, Preston cares for his great aunt, Sybil Dumpston, who is the very reason Preston moved to Vantam to begin with.

Social Aptitude

Preston has a sincere confidence in his ability to discover the truth behind every matter. This is a mostly unearned confidence, but it does drive him ever forward. People find this amusing at first, but as he gets deeper and deeper into trouble, it becomes tiresome and dangerous.

Wealth & Financial state

Whatever money Preston acquires quickly vanishes into one of his many flasks as he tries to perfect and explore the limits of his alchemy.

Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Current Location

Vantam

Year of Birth

986 AM 67 Years old

Eyes

Brown

Hair

None but a long, well-manicured beard and mustache

Height

4'2"

Weight

214lbs