The end of our year-long journey. The grim dark gates of Khirndarim were finally in si- actually. Where are the gates? All that I was able to see was a sheer cliff face made of solid stone.
"Um, Newman, shouldn't there be a gate of some sort here?" Peter asked the question before I could. Looking all along the gray stone for some opening or door. Newman just chuckled before answering the question.
"During the wars with the elves and the first demon lord, the Thomboldahr mountains started hiding their gates to prevent anyone from attacking it. You can't kill what you can't see was their philosophy back then. After Tochka split off from the empire, they started trading with the humans again." Newman pointed at a large bell that was randomly poking out from the cliff face. "They added those bells a couple centuries ago so that people could find the doors, and they will ring when the gates are about to open."
"When will the gates open?" I asked as I surveyed the bleak and cold lands around us, not relishing the idea of camping out here for any length of time.
"Depends on the last time they opened them. If they opened them up yesterday, then we'll have to wait a week or two before they check for merchants. The dwarves here can't open the gates too often, or on a regular schedule, if they did that then they would risk increasing the number of dragon attacks they have to deal with."
"Dragons!?" Peter yelped, he started looking at the skies in a panic.
"Don't worry, kid. They aren't interested in toothpicks." Richard teased. "Besides, they only want gold, silver, and jewels. Grain and dwarven weapons would be useless to them. So they won't bother attacking us. And no, they aren't fun to fight."
Bekhi closed her mouth, leaving her usual question about new monsters unspoken. I decided to ask for more practical information about them.
"How do dragons usually fight? Are there any weapons or runes that are especially effective against them?"
"They're a pain in the ass if one decides to pick a fight." Richard said with furrowed eyebrows and a glance at the sky. "Depending on what type of dragon it is, they either blast you from the sky, or kill you with their teeth and claws. Your options to fight them are to either snipe its eyes, or run like hell."
"Running's bad." Kat said. "Dragon will just chase you for fun. Play cat and mouse with you until it gets bored and kills you. Better to hide under a wagon until it gets bored and flies away on its own. Or to wait for some idiot to run away to distract it."
"All of those are valid options." Newman elaborated. "However, with your runed weapons, Kvalinn, I'd say something like that Rune of Might could possibly kill it. But a better option would be to lob a couple of those exploding hammers that Bekhi used against the mercenaries to encourage it to leave."
"How do the people usually fight them?" I asked, looking from one adventurer to the next for more information.
"Humans put powerful ballista on towers to kill or deter dragons, while dwarves fortify their gates with heavy iron nets and runed ballista to kill anything that passes through. Although if it's an ancient dragon or older, then both humans and dwarves abandon the city completely to avoid a painful death."
"Ancient dragon?"
"One who was born during the time when the second demon lord roamed the frozen lands of Tochka." Sir Potap answered this time. "The second demon lord took the shape of an immense dragon and even with the assistance of a hero summoned from another world, it still took over ten years to kill. During those years, the cursed beast fertilized hundreds of eggs, and produced a breed of dragon that plagues the world to this day."
"Sir Potap, I did not see you approach." Newman respectfully nodded towards the Tochkan knight. "Do you and your men need assistance getting your camp ready?"
"I thank you for your offer, but there is no need. The only benefit to having my command so drastically reduced in number is that it is exceptionally easy to set up camp for the night." Sir Potap gave a depressed sigh. He had joined us at the Tochkan capital city with fifty handpicked soldiers, but the attack by the yetis, mercenaries and serfs had killed all but three of them.
"Are you alright?" Peter's hand hovered towards the despondent knight, he was unsure if it would be offensive to pat Sir Potap comfortingly on the shoulder.
Taking in a deep breath of the chilly air, Sir Potap attempted to recover himself. "I will be fine, eventually. After losing so many of the Tzar's men, I will doubtless be ordered to guard towns under threat of monster attacks for some time. But after a few years have passed I should be able to return to court again."
"If you are going to be battling monsters, perhaps you would like a new weapon with which to fight them?" I looked at Sir Potap's current sword. It appeared a bit older, and had definitely seen better days. But Sir Potap just shook his head.
"I thank you for your offer, Kvalinn. But here in Tochka, such a gift would be seen as a preemptive bribe, or a trade for future favors, and might tarnish my reputation as Sir Potap the Honest. So with a heavy heart I must decline your offer until I have the funds to purchase a weapon from you."
If my map of Tochka didn't already have a huge red X on it, reminding me to never settle down here, that speech would have caused me to add even more reasons to never try to set up shop here. I idly wondered if a holiday like Christmas would just be seen as a way to anonymously bribe people.
Later that night, when we were resting around a small campfire after dinner, Newman asked us all what our plans were once this trip was over. "I'll be taking a shipment of coal to several Tochkan provinces if any of you want to join me. Then after another winter here, I'll be returning home to Handel."
"Hard pass." Richard said flatly. "The Vermogen run is next spring, so I'll hang around here taking hunting quests until then."
"Same." Kat nodded as she expressed her desire to follow Richard's plan.
"I wish I could join you, Newman. But my girl is back home in the empire waiting for me." Peter let out a dreamy sigh as he looked south.
"What's the Vermogen run?" Bekhi asked curiously. Richard grinned as he began to explain.
"A long time ago, every mountain in the league agreed to jack up the price of the minerals they sell to Vermogen, but since none of them trusted each other to follow through on the deal they had to come up with an odd solution. Every couple of years or so, each mountain sends whatever they dug up and a contingent of warriors to this mountain, and when the riches from every mountain have gathered, they take it all in one go to Vermogen for the international merchants to sell. Escorting that caravan is extremely dangerous, but extremely well paying. 50 gold ($50,000) for just a couple months work, plus a bonus for every dragon and yeti you kill."
"Where do I sign up!?" Bekhi's eyes were shining, and she was grinning in enthusiasm at the prospect of a several month long non stop fight.
"At the adventurer's guild. But are you sure you want to sign up for it?" Bekhi glared daggers at him for even suggesting she wasn't good enough for the trip, so Richard hastily raised his hands in surrender. "I mean, are you gonna leave Kvalinn and Gerde behind while you make the run? It's not exactly a trip you can take an infant on."
Bekhi realized that Richard was not actually saying that she wasn't good enough, so she let her hand back off from her weapon. She then looked over at me with indecision. It was clear that she really wanted to go on this trip, but she also wanted to keep Gerde safe.
"I'll stay behind and take care of Gerde." I said with a smile. It would be good to spend some time underground after so long on the surface, and perhaps here I could open up a shop to make weapons and gadgets.
"Hey, Newman. Do you think I'd get a lot of business if I set up a weapon smith here?" My question caused everyone but Bekhi to start laughing. Even Kat, who normally didn't even laugh at Peters's best jokes, chuckled a little. Seeing that I didn't understand what was so funny, Newman dried the tears from his eyes and explained.
"Kvalinn, the Thomboldahr mountains are rich in many things. Gold, silver, gemstones, tin, copper, lead, nickel, and even a little mithril, but one thing that none of the mountains have is iron. Not in any significant quantities at least. That's why we had to bring these dwarven weapons all the way from Einangrad. Because they can't make any here. Did you think we were taking the weapons all this way just for fun?" This set off a new round of laughter from both him and Richard that lasted just long enough to get annoying.
"I get it. There's almost no iron here. But surely they need a weaponsmith to maintain their current weapons?" Newman just shook his head.
"The Warrior Clan maintains their own weapons until they are no longer usable, then they hand them over to the Tool Clan for the metal to be salvaged and repurposed. If they run out of metal weapons then they resort to stone. To the best of my knowledge, there are no weapon shops in Khirndarim or any dwarven border town that I've visited."
I regretfully crossed off the entire Thomboldahr mountain range from my list of places to settle down. If there wasn't enough metal for weapons, the number one thing all dwarves loved and revered, then there was no chance that there was enough metal here for me to even think about starting an industrial revolution here.
"I'm sure I'll find something to keep me occupied while you go on the Vermogen run, Bekhi. Perhaps I can use my talents with the runesmiths here." Since the amount of weapons available here was limited, then they would probably want those weapons to be as powerful as possible with runes. I listened to Bekhi and Kat talking about the Vermogen run for the rest of the night and mentally wished them safe travels.
BONG! BONG! BONG!
"There's the bell! Everyone! Get your weapons ready!" Newman instantly had his sword out and was waving the teamsters to their carts as soon as he heard the bell, he also began urging those under him to prepare for a fight. The other adventuring party leaders and merchants that had accumulated outside the gate in the previous weeks were all doing the same thing.
"What fight?" Bekhi asked as she instinctively reached for her weapons. "Aren't they just opening the gates?"
"That fight!" Richard tensely pointed with one his arrows towards the horizon.
Bekhi and I looked to where he was pointing. At first we couldn't see anything, but we soon saw an absolute horde of monsters. Not just yeti either. There were ice wraiths, snow wolves, frost trolls, and even a small winter wyvern!"
"Ancestor's beard!" I pulled out a couple of my doomsday weapons, gave Gerde the small hammer I had made for her and placed her on a wagon.
"Hjerouhrdinn's hammer! This is gonna be awesome!" Bekhi reached out for one of my doomsday weapons with a feral grin. "Also, Kvalinn, we are gonna talk about that weapon you just gave Gerde! We agreed on no weapons for her until her fifth winter! Now what does this weapon you gave me do?"
"No clue! It's one of my experimental weapons." I answered with a shrug. The double bladed battleax I had handed her had a rune that was made by translating a heavy metal song from my previous life. The resulting rune was the Rune of Heroism, and I was too scared to try it in case it ended up infringing on some copyrighted superhero. Interdimensional lawyers are no joke!
"If this ends up killing me, then I will beat you for eternity in the halls of the ancestors!" Bekhi adjusted her grip on her ax and shield and waited with a grin and bated breath for the monsters.
Working together, the adventuring parties and merchant guards formed up in a semicircle with their backs to the cliff and the wagons behind them. They wanted the wagons to be able to get inside the gate as soon as it appeared.
"Richard! Peter! Fire at will!" Newman yelled out when the assorted monsters were in range. The other team leaders shouted the same orders to their long range fighters.
Unfortunately for me, at the same time the monsters got into range of bow and arrow, I felt the Rune of Wrath on my left hand start burning, and anything that was in the least magical started rushing at me with the rune flaming in their eyes. Some of the less dangerous stuff like wolves and yetis kept on their original course towards the other adventurers, but the rest now only saw me.
"For the ancestors!" Bekhi yelled out before taking on the wyvern that had swooped down to make me into lunch. She leaped higher than I had thought possible for any dwarf and straddled its long neck while hacking at it with her ax.
Kat yelled her own unique battle cry in Zaihanian, which she had told us roughly translated to "For freedom!" It was her way of reminding herself that she faced these dangers so that one day she could free those stuck in slavery back in Zaihan. She then started slashing and slicing the assorted beasts.
"For the forge fires!" I blocked a snow wolf's jaws before slashing at a frost troll's hairy hand, and dodging an ice wraith's touch. It was the world's most dangerous game of dodgeball. The wolves attacked with their teeth and claws, the trolls tried biting down on me or grabbing me with their huge hands, and the ice wraiths just tried touching me, but since their touch causes severe frostbite it was just as deadly.
"Quickly! Take care of the yeti and wolves and help that dwarf!" I heard one of the other adventurers call out. Bekhi had finished off the wyvern and was now slaying the beasts at a tremendous speed, but I was still under intense pressure.
Just as a snow wolf had gotten past my shield and started chomping on my left arm, not that it could pierce my skin due to the Rune of Protection on my back but it still hurt like it did, the wolf fell dead with a crossbow bolt impaling its side. The gates had finally opened enough for dwarven warriors armed with crossbows to join the fight.
"For the frozen north!" Cried one warrior.
"For the honor of the clan!" Shouted another.
"By my beard! That is one unlucky dwarf!" An older dwarf with a longer beard said while looking at me.
"Get the wagons inside! Now!" The gate commander ordered the teamster who was closest to the still opening gate. His second in command then took on the job of traffic cop and directed the wagons inside one at a time while making sure that the heavily armed and armored warriors were still getting out. The gate commander however joined the fray next to me.
"Barirdrolim's backside! How much wormwood are you smuggling!? I've never seen the beasts react this way before, but you are holding them off well enough." Evidently the gate commander thought the reason for all the monsters attacking me was that I was smuggling wormwood. An uncommon plant that tended to attract monsters and was outlawed in most places for that reason.
After another ten minutes of fierce fighting, the last wagon finally passed through the gates into the darkness of the mountain. The commander nodded to himself before calling out another order. "Use the beer bolts on the remaining yeti, we're feasting tonight!"
The gate commander's words caused a cheer from the dwarven warriors. I made a mental note to find out what 'beer bolts' were. As a weaponsmith, I was always curious about new weapons.
Several crossbow bolts flew true to their targets and the last remaining yeti and other monsters were slain. Leaving Bekhi looking annoyed that her fight had been finished too soon.
"Botvid's bilge! I just finished warming up and now it's over!" Bekhi grumbled to herself and looked to the dreary plains for any more monsters to fight. But there must not have been any more in the hearing range of the gate bell, because none showed themselves.
"There were actually more monsters than usual, lass." The gate commander said with a raised eyebrow of disbelief. "Also, isn't that a winter wyvern? Why aren't there more casualties?"
"Because Kvalinn's weapons are too powerful." Bekhi handed the battleax back to me. "Hang onto this one, Kvalinn. It felt amazing to use but the fight ended too quickly with how good it was. Now let's go see what you gave Gerde."
The two of us then went to go find the wagon I had stashed Gerde in while the dwarves in the warrior clan began collecting their crossbow bolts and the carcasses of any edible monsters. I noticed that they went after the yeti that had been killed with the beer bolts first, and with giant smiles on their faces.
"Gerde! You can come out now!" I tried coaxing Gerde out from wherever she was hiding, and after a few minutes of searching we found the wagon.
"Papa. Mama. Are the bad monsters gone?" Gerde was leaning out of the back of the wagon, her ears flat against her head in nervousness and she was clutching at the tiny hammer I had given her.
"Yes, the monsters are all gone, and your mama and papa are safe. Now can I see what your papa gave you?" Bekhi held out her hand for the hammer, but Gerde clutched it against her body.
"C-can I fight too next time?" She asked as her eyes bounced between the ground and at the dead monsters being brought through the gates. "Mama is so brave, and I don't want to hide all the time."
Bekhi's face had a conflicted smile on it. She had manifested her own incredible fighting talents at a young age, and as a result she had been sent down to Nurnwuhr, away from her family, to attend school. She had happily met me, but every other child in the school had looked at her in suspicion or derision for being a surface dwarf. Her warrior spirit soon won the mental argument though. "I'll start training you how to fight once we find someplace to sleep."
"Yay! Thanks, mama!" Gerde almost jumped out of the wagon to hug Bekhi, but at the last minute she realized she was still clutching the hammer and paused. Bekhi used that moment of indecision to snatch the weapon.
"Just to be safe, Gerde. I'll hold onto this until we begin training. Now, what dangerous, explosive, or just plain unsafe rune did you add to this, Kvalinn." Bekhi then began inspecting the hammer. It was rather small, since I had made it for Gerde's tiny hands, so the rune lines were as difficult to read as the small print for electronics. "The rune of luck?"
"I thought if the situation ever got so bad that I needed to give Gerde a weapon, she would need luck to survive, rather than any runes of heat or strength." Bekhi hurriedly put the weapon in her bag after checking to make sure no one else saw it.
"Never make that rune again, Kvalinn. And don't tell anyone that you can make it." I tilted my head in surprise. Bekhi usually nixed my weapons due to their being too strong and started swearing about how she couldn't use them, this time she looked more nervous than she had for any other of my weapons. "The rune was outlawed in human countries after several criminals used it to escape death, or won at gambling. Weren't you listening to Newman's tale of Donald the Lucky?"
Thinking back over the hundreds of fireside stories Newman had told us over the past year. I foggily recalled the tale of Donald the Lucky. He had been a human adventurer who had somehow gained both the rune of luck, and the favor of Hapiau, goddess of luck, and with all that going for him, he had begun a reign of terror over the local countryside. Coming across unguarded merchants while they were tying their shoes, or finding a broken down carriage whose owners had just happened to have stepped away for a minute, and robbing them blind. If an adventurer tried capturing him, he'd always escape by the skin of his teeth or wager his freedom in a game of chance that he always won. As for when the local authorities tried to capture him, they'd always have bad luck. The bridges would go out, or the captain would catch a cold, the men would trip over their own feet and break their weapons, or some other random bad luck. When Donald eventually died of old age, the rune was reclaimed by Hapiau and the rune magic was classified as forbidden. I only knew about the rune because it was written about in Hjerouhrdinn's books under the 'forbidden' section.
"I'll make a plain hammer for Gerde later." I said after thinking of a compromise. "One with the rune of softness so she can't hurt herself in training."
Bekhi nodded, indicating that was acceptable. Then she picked Gerde off the wagon and went to go make sure the rest of our party was alright. I went over to where the gate commander was getting names and origins of the wagon parties to try to find out what those beer bolts were.
"What's your name, what's your cargo, and who's in your party?" The gate commander asked Newman while a subordinate was writing down the information on a slab of stone with some charcoal. There must have been no paper to write with.
"I'm Newman, bringing ten wagons of dwarven weapons from Einangrad. We also brought along twenty carts of grains from Tochka. Sir Potap over there has the paperwork. As for our party, we have a total of six adventurers including myself, three human and two dwarves, and one infant."
The subordinate was slowly speaking aloud as he wrote to make sure he had the information correct. "Two dwarves… and one infant…" His pen paused as he reread what he had just written, then both he and the gate commander looked at Newman as if they were waiting for him to say "Psych!" But his face never changed into the joking smile they were expecting.
"Who in the blue blazes brought an infant on an adventuring job!?" The gate commander roared out. "The cold weather alone is enough to kill full grown men and dwarves! Let alone an infant!"
Sensing this would be a bad time to ask about weapons, I was about to beat a hasty retreat when Richard shoved me forward with a grin. "This is the guy who brought along a baby."
"You!" The gate commander stomped up to me. "What were you thinking!? Bringing a child with you while adventuring!? Why didn't you just leave the child with its mother? Or with your extended family?"
"Because her mother is adventuring with me, and since our extended family is back home in Einangrad we couldn't leave her with them. We adopted her while on the road." My answer did not seem to satisfy the gate commander, who stared at me like I had two heads for several minutes before closing his jaw.
To further shock the commander, Richard subtly winked at Peter, who pushed Bekhi and Gerde out from behind a wagon. After glaring at Peter for a second, Bekhi stepped forward to give the traditional dwarven greeting.
"Greetings, I am Bekhi Mubrimssdottir of the Shepherd clan. May the ancestors grant us victories over our foes." She then nudged Gerde forward to do the same. During the boredom of waiting for the gates to open, we had been teaching her more words of Dwarven and the traditional greeting was included in those lessons.
Lacking a hammer, Gerde held out her empty fist like she had been taught, and began in a shaky voice. "G-g-greetings, I-I am G-gerde. May the- May the ancestors take pride in our meeting." She then dashed to hide behind her mother, for some reason she had started to become shy of strangers recently.
"By the beards of the ancestors." The gate commander whispered in shock. He then rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't asleep before staring at Gerde some more. "Is that a beastkin? I've heard stories of them from some of the human adventurers, but they all assured me that beastkin were a myth."
"Yes, Gerde is a beastkin." I answered. "I found her abandoned in the Eternal forest, Bekhi and I are raising her as our adoptive daughter." This seemed to startle the gate commander from his daze, he turned to glare sharply at me.
"You. What's your name?"
"I am Kvalinn Runecursed."
"And your clan?" He asked tersely. I mentally winced at the unintentional low blow.
"I have none." I replied in a strained voice. After looking at me closely for a few minutes, the gate commander nodded to himself.
"You wouldn't be out as an adventurer without something going on. But as long as there are no grudges against you here then it's none of my business. I am Ingrur Goldenarmor, commander of the Khirndarim gate. May the ancestors sing of your brave deeds in their halls."
"Thank you, Ingrur." I nodded respectfully towards him for not prying. "By the way, I was wondering what those beer bolts were that you used at the end?" Ingrur grinned and beckoned over one of the warriors, he then handed a crossbow bolt to me.
"It's something better than a new weapon, they are magical runed crossbow bolts. We received them in a shipment around five years ago and we found that any beast shot with them tastes as though their meat was marinated in the best dwarven beer. Whenever we use them, the meat from even the toughest and oldest yeti melts in your mouth. Unfortunately our local runesmiths haven't been able to replicate the rune, so we only have what we received from Einangrad."
Taking the crossbow bolt in my hand, I was instantly hit with a wave of nostalgia. This bolt was undoubtedly one that my father had made. Both the metal, and the quality of the work were unmistakable. Looking closer, I recognized the rune as the Rune of Beer, the very first rune that I had ever accidentally created back when I was a tiny lad of five winters. Evidently my work had traveled a lot more than I had!
Handing the bolt back to Ingrur, I complimented its upkeep. "I'm surprised you have been able to keep them in one piece for over five years."
"Well it wasn't easy. Unfortunately, several have broken or been lost in wounded animals, and many have run out of magic. So we do our best to keep the ones we have left in good repair."
"If you have a rune forge in the city I can craft more for you. I happen to be the one who crafted these bolts, the runes for them at least."
"Ha! Good one, lad." Ingrur laughed and thought I was joking at first, but when I didn't join in the laugh, he looked at me incredulously. "Seriously? You're the one who created the Rune of Beer? Next thing you're going to tell me is that you trained under the legendary Elder Thrikrondromm of Einangrad mountain."
"I did. He taught me how to make many runes like this." I pulled out my sword that had the Rune of Sharpness on it, and showed it to Ingrur. He stared between me and the blade for a few minutes before coming to a decision.
"One of my cousins is in the Runesmith Guild and has a forge in town. After we release everyone from quarantine, I'll take you there so that you can prove your boasts." Ingrur then left with the assistant to get the paperwork from Sir Potap for the grain shipment.
"What was that all about, Kvalinn?" Newman asked. We had been speaking in the dwarven language so he hadn't understood a word of what we were saying. I quickly summarized and asked what Ingrur meant by quarantine. Apparently Salwch, god of sickness, would occasionally try to send plagues and infections throughout the northern world and the quarantine was to make sure that disease didn't spread into the mountains.
"It's just for a week, and the food is always good." Richard said as he sniffed at the aroma of cooking yeti. "After they let us out, Newman will go with us to the guild to sign off on the completion of our quest and then we can relax with the warrior clan until the Vermogen run."
After all the necessary paperwork was filled out and border inspections were completed, we were served generous portions of yeti meat with dwarven beer. It was watered down considerably for the humans in our party, but Bekhi and I got to enjoy the strong flavor of actual dwarven beer for the first time in a while. Of course, Gerde was served milk and yeti meat that hadn't been killed by the beer bolts. While dwarven children are given beer from a young age and thrive on it, the same can't be said for the children of other races, so I was glad Ingrur procured the unique food for Gerde.
I settled down that evening with a full stomach and a decent buzz, and relaxed while half listening to another well told story from Newman. I might not have found a place to settle down long term, but if I got access to the rune forge then I might be able to make a name for myself short term and build up the necessary funds to set up a shop somewhere. There just had to be someplace out in this world that had everything I needed to make my gadgets.