Gormbard Lowbanks was born and raised in Bree. He followed in the other Lowbanks family footsteps and started training to become a Burglar. The Lowbanks were well known around Bree as a fine upstanding family who could be relied upon to provide a good Burglar when required. Gormbard had shown great promise as a Burglar but unfortunately he fell in with the bad crowd whilst drinking in the Prancing Pony.
The group were well known to The Bree Watch and soon Gormbard was using his skill and cunning to pick pockets and cheat at card games. One of Gormbard’s most profitable scams was to pose as a merchant from the Shire selling pipeweed, Shire Pipeweed fetches a handsome price in Bree. But what Gormbard put in the bales was in fact common dried pondweed and quite worthless. By the time the merchant discovered this Gormbard was long gone with a very full purse. Soon the Town Watch and the head of the Lowbanks Family had heard of Gormbards activities and were both hunting him. Fortunately for Gormbard it was the Lowbanks that got to him first. He was given the choice of being exiled from his family and Bree or face the wrath of the Town Watch.
So it was a wet winters morning before the sun had risen when Gormbard crept out of the smaller north gate and left the town of Bree, ostracised by his family and with few prospects he set off to find a new home. Gormbard headed for the Shire, the Men of Bree had proved to be untrustworthy and a bad influence so he would go and seek a new home far away from them. After a few days travel Gormbard crossed the Brandywine Bridge and into the Shire very cold and even wetter from the rain he entered the first Inn he came to.
The Inn was called The Golden Perch and he drew a few suspicious looks when he entered; the Inns patrons seemed to have some kind of sixth sense when it came to foreigners. The landlord was happy to have someone rent a room no matter where they came from so Gormbard spent the first three days of his exile learning all he could of the Shire. He had a good sum of his ill-gotten gains with him so after he bought a few rounds of drinks for the whole Inn he soon went from suspicious foreign Hobbit to “Good old” Gormbard. As nice as The Golden Perch was Gormbard found it to be terribly quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of Bree. Generally the patrons of the Inn were mushroom farmers or fishermen and their conversations barely deviated from fish or fungi. Craving somewhere a little more stimulating Gormbard settled his bill and, with the advice of one of the bar staff, he turned westward for the town of Michel Delving.
