After we had been presented with the last of our rewards, there wasn’t much that needed to be done in the dwarven town but the idea to replenish our supplies, especially those things that couldn’t easily be found in the forest or on the road. To do so, we had to link up with the quartermaster of the dwarven hold, they simply didn’t use a normal system of commerce internally. Essentially, their economy and division of labour was organised from the top down, in a system that seemed to be a mix between socialism, a feudal guild-system and a meritocracy. I wasn’t quite sure how it worked, and neither was anyone in my party, but it seemed to do so, the dwarves had their roles and duties, completing them to the best of their ability. Part of me was curious, wanting to study it, but the overwhelmingly large part didn’t really care. It worked for them and that was that.

At the end of the day, it meant that we had to take quite some of the gold and silver we had been given by the Thane, and it had been a literal sack of gold, and give it back to their community. I didn’t have a problem with it, we had yet to really need gold or have an opportunity to truly spend it. Maybe once we got to more civilised parts, not that the tales on the forum and videos I had seen of western Aretia seemed to suggest civilisation above city-states in the area. Oh, there were massive semi-nomadic tribes but I had a feeling they would have a similar mentality to us, what use was gold, could you eat it? Fight with it? Maybe we would be able to use coin, but I wasn’t counting on it.

The dwarven quartermaster was happy to assist us, even coming into the outer portion of his building, so that the others were able to easily interact with him, not just me and maybe Rai, who could comfortably enter the dwarven tunnels. He brought what amounted to a catalogue with him, made from similar material to the tomes I had been reading the last few days, filled with listings of the supplies the dwarves had in storage, their projected need for them, with cautious margins of error to prepare for unexpected circumstances.

The accountant in me was quite intrigued by the way they were tracking their supplies, making sure that there wouldn’t be a shortage unless truly extraordinary circumstances occurred. When I asked about it, the quartermaster was quite pleased with my interest and showed me what data he used for his margins and what factors he used to compute the margins of error. Those made me hide a chuckle, there were factors and contingencies for almost every imaginable circumstance and a few I wouldn’t have included as well.

Heavy winter, with extraordinary amounts of snow? Sure, preparing for that seemed like a reasonable precaution.

Earthquake, potentially with volcanic activity, graduated for distance of the epicenter? If you were living in a tectonically active area, it was reasonable, if the area was stable with only minor earthquakes for the last few centuries? Not so much.

Meteor strikes? Divine Intervention? Dragon invasion? Army of Undead attacking? Well, the last one seemed a lot more reasonable than it would have seemed twenty days ago, given that we had eradicated what amounted to a small army of undead in a nearby swamp so maybe he had a point. It also reminded me of that one town I had quite literally wiped out with undead, not that it had taken an army, but maybe the dwarf had a point. Maybe undead armies were a reasonable precaution. It made me consider that maybe, just maybe, the other events were more probable than I would ever think and their precautions were reasonable.

In any way, the quartermaster was quite happy to help us, listening to our needs and going through his ledger what we would need on our journey and what would be a fair price to pay for it.

Our interest was quite simple, we needed some trail-rations, especially things like flour and other non-perishable foodstuffs that we couldn’t acquire in the wilds. Hunting for game and searching for edible plants was relatively easy but trying to find enough wild barley for flour was nigh impossible. Similarly, salt was something the dwarves seemed to have quite a bit of, thanks to a nearby salt-mine that they slowly mined, while it was something that required tremendous luck to find in the wild. The quartermaster was happy to sell us as much as we wanted and we put a large bag, more than we would need unless we started to salt every kill we made, into one of our magic bags.

All in all, working with the dwarf was quite pleasant and soon our magic bags were well-filled with supplies to last us for a while, at least if we kept hunting and replenishing them as we went.

Once we were done with the mundane supplies, I had to go and hunt for something else. The tomes I had been reading had talked about specific materials that were used for the dwarven art of runeforging and I was interested in acquiring some of those materials. In addition, the Ice-Web Silk my outfit was made of had peaked my curiosity, its inherent ability to gather Astral Power and use it in what might be rudimentary Ice-Magic was something I wanted to study. However any experimentation that might damage my new clothes was off the table, the clothes were just too marvelous to risk, so I wanted to get some of the base material, maybe even an explanation of the process they had used to weave it into cloth, to work with.

For the rune-forging materials, I went to meet Gelorin, who had become something of a friend in the last few days, a patient voice that had answered any question I had asked regarding their magic, even done some simple demonstrations for me, allowing me to understand far more than I would have managed with pure book-learning.

Meeting him was quite easy, I simply asked one of the younger dwarves to deliver a message, asking Gelorin to meet me. The children, who had yet to be incorporated into the dwarven work-system, had the normal curiosity of children and some of them had been hanging around the rest of my party, asking questions when they allowed it.

“Greetings, Master Gelorin.” I greeted the dwarf when he walked out of the building containing the library.

“Greetings, Mystic Morgana. What can I do for you?” he asked, his voice pleasant.

“As you know, my companions and I plan to leave the hold tomorrow morning and we have been stocking up on supplies for our trip. I wanted to ask if it is possible to acquire some more exotic materials, used to further my studies of my craft, especially some Ice-Web Silk.” I asked, not beating around the bush.

“I expected something like that. Yes, there are some materials you can acquire but they won’t be cheap. Luckily, I happen to know that you were paid a small fortune by the Thane, so I think we can come to an agreement.” he grinned, his voice sounding not surprised at all. It was a good thing that I had been reading their books and was reasonably sure to have an workable idea of the value of the things I wanted, or the dwarves could have overcharged me outrageously and I wouldn’t even had a chance to know.

“Excellent. Now, I have a few materials in mind and hope that we can come to an understanding.” I told him, before starting to give him a short list. It was based on the dwarven literature and a bit of conjecture on my part, but his nodding made me think that I was on the right path.

“Yes, we have most of what you need and, as you know, it is of little use to us.” he admitted, giving me the look of a proud teacher. I had to nod at that, I knew that the dwarves mainly had affinities for Earth-, Metal- and Gem-Magic, with a little fire thrown in for good measure. What I had asked for was obviously aligned to Ice-, Air and Darkness-Magic, affinities that were rare amongst dwarves. It meant they had little of the material but even less of a need.

From there on, we started to haggle about a fair price, most of it paid in silver but some of it was paid with a few shards of Eternal Ice, making my supplies dwindle further. Maybe I’d be able to create some soon, once I managed to break through the second Divide.

All in all, the negotiations were quite successful and while I left a lot of gold and silver with the dwarf, I managed to get materials to experiment with, which would make me more powerful. I considered it a win and happily swirled into my Hallow, to enjoy a short flight over the valley.