From the book:
Stibbles McScooples (Formerly MuckScoopers) was born in a pony stable to a family of honest farmhands. With 11 siblings and a cramped forest burrow, he learned how to expand the size of his home and became a burrower by trade. Stibbles made a name for himself as the most talented home designer in his gnome village, expanding their domain to cover nearly half the forest. At the age of 46, he dug a home for himself and his soon to be wife, finding a long-forgotten cache of 1,000 gold pieces. After a tragic honeymoon that cost him his future, he decided to leave his home and wander the great wilderness to the north.
Respecting the natural world as he wandered through it, simply picking berries and avoiding trouble, he soon caught the eye of a lone druid who guarded the area. After weeks of trailing, the druid spoke to Stibbles and offered him a place in the jungle as a new guardian. With nothing better to do, Stibbles agreed and quickly became adept at understanding and communicating with simpler creatures.
After the elder druid became one with the earth, Stibbles grew bored, and decided to try his hand at a life of adventuring. Joining the ranks of a rag-tag team, he went dungeon delving in a variety of ancient ruins. Over time arguments and greed tore the group apart forever, leaving Stibbles as one half of the remaining duo. But a quick bathroom break at a tavern during the discussion of a new contract put the gnome back on his own.
Years of solo traveling continued, involving drow captivity, a flaming tavern and a powerful undead, a fleeting romance turned rivalry, and an overwhelming number of bears. Stibbles began to reflect on his ventures, finding humanoids a tad unreliable when it came to companionship. At the ripe age of 236 (which is still rather young for a gnome), he decided to seek companionship with the strangest of creatures. Dealing with a plethora of new creatures as he ventured became taxing on his memory, and he decided to document their behavior. A mass of his writings did in fact, against Stibbles’ arguments, come from the mouth of a bai ze.