Smia was a Gurrin. She had been born on the slopes of Diggerberg. She had grown up between the ovens melting ores into raw metals. She had passed her Master Practical after being taught by the iron moles. And yet, she preferred forging over digging. Still, her family was her true love. She would never stop being a Gurrin. And miners needed someone to fix their equipment on the sometimes day-long mining tours. Someone that could pull their weight and dig up ores and gemstones, at least a little.

The Denka Clan was close with the Gurrin. They held Diggerberg together, the mountaintop covered in smithies. After her Master Practical, Smia had taken the exile of dropping her Class. The weakness coming with losing all the accumulated Attributes was crippling in the first days but she pressed on. She learned the trade of a smith. She was Clanless until she passed another Master Practical. But she knew what she wanted and pressed on to regain her mining Skills as general Skills. It only took eight years of hard work to get through the exam once more and regain her name. Smia Gurrin.

Now, half a year later, she was in a place she had never expected to see. An underground goblin village. And the goblins were nice. They were reasonable people. Almost dwarves, she had thought last night, quickly pushing the idea away. The cultural differences were still too large. They had expected her and Harra to sleep with the men. Scandalous!

Nevertheless, she was happy. The Shadow Owl had brought them on an adventure that would be put in the history books. Who taught goblins mining and smithing? They did. The ragtag group of temporary exiles. Smia thought back to the reason for being sent to Borsdown’s quarry. They were too slow. What did it matter how fast they were when Harra and Hedreck were the perfect team to unearth the most precious of gemstones and ores. They had brought back a vis crystal superior to even the major nodes. The fact that two of them were focused on ore processing and forging made it obvious they would work a little slower. Then again, this new task was perfect to rectify that. Lothar was the exact opposite of them, digging too fast and destroying valuables. They had improved a lot already and with the limited tools, it would be necessary to find a new vein quickly.

It took three more days. Harra, their locator, had finally found something. Copper. It would do for some basic tools, at least. Especially cookware and simple nails. Smia had gone up the tunnel leading into the village and excavated a smithy upwards from the village, closer to the surface. She would need two more days to get the ventilation set up properly to have a fire burn underground without killing everyone. She had made sure to have the opening leading both above and below the room with the entrance situated in the middle. That way no harmful gases should flow out of her workplace. At the same time, Fredreck and Redrick built a room directly opposite the forge to prepare for refining greater amounts of ore. That was the most important part to get right, after all.

Three goblins had helped her get everything set up. Or rather, she had shown them what parts a smithy held and instructed them to build a simple bloomery and forge. The anvil and hammers were hers, for now. The goblins would be starting with the basics. Making coke, smelting ores, turning them into ingots and some of the finishing touches. Sharpening a blade was much easier than forming one, after all.

It took a week before they had a suitable supply of copper ingots to get started with the real training. Smia started by hammering them into even plates with swift strikes. Her [Hammering] Skill had turned into [Rapid Strikes] at the first Breakpoint. She was proud of her speed at an anvil. The goblins were suitably impressed as well. When she had five plates ready for everyone, she handed out small hammers and had them get to work. A few stone workbenches were laid out along the wall and within a few minutes, the room was filled with the clanging of steel on copper. It was music in any dwarven ears. Other than maybe those librarians. And the farmers. And quite a few others, now that she thought about it. Maybe installing a thick door to insulate the noise would be a smart choice…

It did not take long for the first goblin to hold his bowl up with a triumphant cry. Smia walked over and took it from him. The plate had been punched along the ring as she had instructed and then driven outwards in a spiralling motion. There were too few punches. She could clearly see every little indent the hammer had made. On top of that, the power had not been adjusted.

“More hits. Weaker outside. Start over”, she said.

The greenskin was about a head taller than her but at that moment he seemed like a child in front of a disappointed mother.

“Yes, Master…”, he muttered and picked up a new plate.

The other two goblins were not much better but for slightly different reasons. The girl had been using too little force and was much too slow with only a shallow bowl as the end result. At least it was smooth. The other guy had heard her first criticism and tried to adjust and go over the parts he had done already. That had weakened the material at one point too much to the point it cracked. They both had to start again.

Five hours and another 10 bowls per goblin later, Smia decided their basics were passable enough to start applying their knowledge to new shapes. Only to be interrupted by one of the goblin hunters. It was dinnertime.

“Guess you’re done for today”, she grumbled.

The goblins whooped and jumped up, eager to use their best bowls for dinner.

“Leave those here. I’ll remelt them later.”

At that point, Fredreck joined them as well.

“If they want to keep their first work, let ‘em”, he said, “Those may not be usable but they’re the first goblin craft taught after dwarven methods. There’s something special about ‘em.”

Smia sighed.

“Fine, keep ‘em.”

When the goblins left, their crude copper bowls in hand, Fredreck pulled her aside.

“You don’t need to be so rough with ‘em”, he said, “They’re happy enough to learn without being pushed.”

“I want ‘em to be the best they can be. There’ll be hard times ahead when we get to working steel.”

“Fine. But don’t be rough just for sake of being rough.”

Smia thought about it for a moment and then nodded. She might have been taking a little too much from her smithing teachers. The goblins were enthusiastic about the craft. It would take a few months to get them up to speed anyway.

That night, the dwarves sat together in the men’s hut. It was a little larger and they had a few things to discuss with everyone involved.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s get started!”, Fredreck said, “Hedreck, you first.”

“Right”, the dwarf began. He was the youngest of their group at only 34 years old, “I’ve got the copper vein mapped out ‘sides one part. It’s not too big. I’ll say it won’t do for more than some basic tools. Unless there’s another depot hidden somewhere close, which I can’t tell.”

“You think you’ll be able to dig out what we need for training?”, Fredreck asked.

“I’m thinking I’ll show the basics to a few gobs. They’ll have to try hard to mess up.”

“I’m for it”, Harra said, “I’ve got a sense there’s a bunch more not too far from yesterday’s tunnel. Haven’t looked for it since we got enough for now.”

“…go for it”, Fredreck said after a moment of thought, “Harra, you next.”

“Right. We’ve got that second lead on copper but I’ve also got a huge response for vis crystals. Tenebrae and aer, mostly the former.”

“That’s from the white forest node”, Lothar said, “I took a look around there the last few days.”

“That so?”, Harra mused, “Guess we’ll have to wait with mining it.”

Fredreck nodded.

“I’m thinking the Shadow Owl wants to sell much of those to pay us. Roguk told me they consider the node and any of the crystals to be hers.”

“… I see. I’ve got a lead on iron as well and something that might be tin or zinc. The two are hard to tell apart at the distance.”

“How long ‘til you get there?”, Fredreck asked.

“Three days? Maybe four?”

“Lothar, you’ll start widening the tunnels. Once you’ve caught up to Harra, help her get to the iron.”

The only [Digger] in their group gave a court nod.

“Redrick and I have been talking to some of the goblins about refining ore. We’ll have ‘em ready when the iron starts coming up. The coke ovens are burning and the bloomeries are ready for some basic processing. The blast furnace is gonna take another few days, though. I want to have steel going in two weeks at the latest.

“Smia, how are your students doing?”

“Two of them took apprentice Classes earlier today. The third is hopefully gonna take his before we start tomorrow. I’ll have them make simple tools, pots, and bowls for the next week and remelt the copper. Don’t worry about bringing up too much right now.”

“Sounds good”, Hedreck said.

“Alright, anything else?”, Fredreck asked.

“I’ve got something”, Lothar began, “I checked the white forest and the node is probably bigger than major. There’s a huge crystal in a cavern at the far back coming out of a chasm.”

“How deep?”, Fredreck asked, suddenly attentive.

“Not a Rift, far as I could tell. There’s ground below somewhere. We should have another kilometre of stone below us, right?”

“At least… If there’s such a large node… It might be good to talk to the Shadow Owl.”

Everyone nodded.

“Pretty sure she knows”, Lothar said, “At least from what I heard from the goblin hunters. Also, We might wanna change that title for her. It’s kinda… basic. Compared to all the stuff she does, at least.”

That got everyone thinking. Their discussion soon dissolved into a chaotic order of finding a more fitting descriptor for Fio. Guardian was off the table since she had no node. The things they heard and saw in Borsdown and the goblin village made them consider it anyway. After an hour of coming no closer to a conclusion, Fredreck ended the meeting.

“No reason to get worked up over that now. We’ll have to check it with Borsdown’s Captain, anyway. Let’s get some rest. We got work to do tomorrow!”

“Aye!”, came the chorus from the other dwarves.

Smia and Harra made for their hut.

“I still think End of Orks is the best title for her”, Harra said.

“Nah, never. Prosperity is way better!”

The women laughed as they got ready for sleep. This was a productive and entertaining trip.