However, when the troggs began their invasion of Gnomeregan, Gelbin was unprepared to stop them. At the behest of his top adviser, Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg, he ordered that the city be bathed in toxic radiation. So the radiation bomb was released. Though the radiation stopped the troggs' advance, it ultimately killed more gnomes than troggs. Now the High Tinker carries the weight of the dead on his shoulders and seeks to avenge his people by reclaiming their lost city.