Arbane was born to Chradon and Ugwala Hornblood in the halls of Storm Watch above Culven's Ride. He was quickly brought up as close to his father as possible who was a Sky Raider in some standing with the clan. It was not abnormal for a father to just assume that his offspring would also become an adept; and often, they were disappointed at the outcome. Arbane loved working on the ships that protected the city, it became almost a game for him to figure out where a new plank was needed to increase the structure of the hull. He would often take those worn but still useful planks out, clean them up, and help someone in the town with patching up their ceiling where it leaked. Or maybe he would use it to repair the fences around the animal pens that littered the homes of Culven's Ride. It was to this errand that he first noticed his love for the animals that he protected. The week before, Esraell the beautiful Elven woman who worked at the Griphon's Nest had accidentally left the gate open on one of the pens that hold the boars. Arbane had been tending to the holes in Grundt's ceiling when he heard the commotion. After rounding the boars up, Arbane came up with an idea. That afternoon, he came back to the Griphon's Nest with something that he had Brodan Ironforge make for him. Using a steel band from a wine cask, Brodan folded the metal in on itself several times till it almost became round. Then, Arbane had him fasion it into a coil by winding it around a long pole. Arbane had spent his lunch that day drawing up the plans for the simple device. Arbane attached the coil to the boar pen, and then to the gate. This made sure that the gate would always close when opened. As he was doing this, one of the Boars had come up to him and sat down next to him. It was one of the female boars who are usually very wild when someone enters the pen. She let Arbane scratch behind her ear, and then looked up into his eyes. Arbane could have sworn he heard her say thanks, but shook his head and smiled at his stupidity.

Arbane was 17 when all this happened. Ever since, he has repaired many fences, and plugged many ceilings. He always said that no-one should have to live outside the means of his fellow townsfolk.

On one of these days, while searching for a lost mule from Barith's farm, Arbane had tracked it about 2 miles west of town when the sky let forth with a downpour. Up until about 9 months ago, a downpour this close to the town was unheard of, but since the magic of Storm Watch had been destroyed, Arbane knew that he must find shelter. He found it in a small cave along the valley wall. What he had failed to see, was the large hole in the ground that had been eroded through by the rain. Down Arbane fell, a good 30 feet, and he heard a snap as his left ankle broke under his weight when he landed. He layed there unmoving for a good hour before waking up. The shear burning pain of his foot made him howl.

He was in pitch blackness, and could only see some rodents about 20 feet away. He figured that the cavern he was in must be fairly large by the distance some of those rats were.

The second day, Arbane woke listening to some sounds overhead. Arbane listend to sniffing, and grunting sounds, and kept quiet, not knowing exactly what was up there. This sniffing and grunting went on for nearly an hour before Arbane heard the bear growl and pace away. It was still up there though, and every day for 5 days, the bear would spend about an hour or so at sunup and an hour at sundown peering down into the cavern, sniffing and grunting at Arbane. On the 6th day, Arbane was fed up. He yelled at the bear a couple of times, trying to get it to come down the hole. Unfortunatly, the bear was not that stupid. What did happen though, was an understanding began to build up between the two of them. The bear wasn't going to get down, and Arbane wasn't going to get out. The moss and little rain water left that Arbane had found was dwindling down, and his spirits were only lifted by the sound of his 'friend' the bear from above.

On the 8th day, the bear did not return from his early morning hunt. It was mid-afternoon before Arbane heard anything. The bear crashed through the cave above, breathing heavily, and roaring threats at someone or something. Arbane got slowly up to his knees to see if he could see anything. The bear was still roaring, but Arbane could now just make out the sounds of voices. 'He went in here' yelled one voice. Arbane yelled, 'hello? help me please, someone up there?' But the sound was muffled by the walls of the cave and the bear roaring above. Then the voices got louder and Arbane heard the bear let out another roar. This roar Arbane knew was pain. 'No, Stop' Arbane yelled, but the roar was deafening even his voice in the cavern.

Then all of a sudden, the roaring ended, and a chear was heard from above. A sodden Arbane yelled up, 'Hello? Anyone hear me?". A voice yelled down the hole, 'Is someone down there?'.

After getting a rope secure around his waist, Arbane was lifted out of the hole and into the cave above. He then saw, as he knew he would, the dead body of the bear that had been his companion for the last few days. He knelt next to it and said, 'You shall not have this prize on your wall'. Then he picked up the carcass and tossed it into the hole. The dwarf started to open his mouth to say something, but the Elven Archer Utarie put a restraining hand on the dwarf's shoulder, knowing full well what had just occured. It was at that moment that the magic came to Arbane. Like a lightning bolt from a year past, it struck him to his knees, and he began to cry. Knowing full well of the importance of this moment, Utarie grabbed the dwarf by the arm and led him out of the cave, leaving Arbane to contemplate his new existance as a Beastmaster Adept.

Thus begins the journal of Arbane ___________, Beastmaster of Culven's Ride.