Adam stepped out into the new world. The air that he inhaled deep into his lungs was fresh and very different from the air of Britain. It was sweeter with a hint of magic, whatever one would imagine the smell of magic to be, this was definitely it. Not only was there the faint hint of magic, there was something else beyond it, the smell of sweet adventure.

The blast of sound that struck Adam was nowhere near as harsh as the sounds of the city he had been forced away from, though they were exactly what he imagined the sounds of a fantasy world to be. The sound of horseshoes against cobblestone as a carriage went about it’s day, the sound of a smith striking hot iron off in the distance, the sounds of various mothers haggling for wares and those very merchants trying to catch a fair price against such wrath. Even the futility of it had a sound.

The colours of this world were very different too. Greens were greener, reds redder, and what took to his sight were the beautiful buildings that dotted the town. There were the standard uniform buildings one could expect, shacks and the sort for those to live in, but there were also buildings with large domes about, some even had spires across the top. He could see two towers that overlooked the town like nagging aunts waiting for you to finish your tea so you can go and clean the crumbs of biscuits from the corners of your lips.

He stepped out of the path of a carriage before he glanced aside to see that the centre of the town was on his left. He trekked his way through the urban jungle, dodging and weaving past a large number of people, keeping a hand close to his blade and part of his mind on his items, he didn’t want to seem like he wanted to be stolen from.

It was then he came across to the centre of the town where he saw a towering statue which was surrounded by a fountain on all ends. It was a marvellous piece of a great warrior of some kind, donned within heavy armour with a large axe that he gripped more like a staff with the handle of the axe planted on the ground, his hands firmly gripping under the double-sided axe-head. He stood stoic, the town’s watchful protector.

Around the centre were large buildings, make up of hard stone of some sort. There were also a few more statues around the place, closer to the size of an actual man, rather than the giant that was the centre statue with the axe. A pair stood tall outside a large building which was domed, with a pair of guards in heavy chain standing between the statues and ahead of the doors. They also carried with them spears, and looked near identical to the statues. The guard's wore armour that was steel-grey, and tabards that were red, with a gold tree imprinted in the centre.

Adam understood truly why this place was called Red Oak, their branding was displayed out to the point he would never forget it as long as he lived. He glanced about to see whether or not he could find the guild hall, which hadn’t taken long at all. It was made of stone just like some of the buildings near the centre, but it had been built over a hilly area of the town where it could overlook parts of the area. It was also domed, with a large fence around it. It was large, more like a mayor’s office. It was then he turned to look back at the other domed building and gathered that must have been the actual mayor’s office, or at least a place where someone who held great power would reside during the day.

He ignored the thought and then marched on forth towards the guild hall, following the scent of adventure as he trekked down another main street. The heavy striking of hammer on hot iron grew louder with each step until he turned around the street where his prize lay and then found himself outside a smithy.

There was a short, rotund, heavily bearded man that was currently striking metal with a green-grey hammer. The way he struck the metal was rhythmic, mesmerising, as though with each strike of his hammer he was breathing to life something more than just a blade, an instrument of death.

‘Wait a second,’ Adam thought as he narrowed his eyes. ‘That’s no man!’

The fellow was indeed short, and indeed he was a man in the sense he was male, with a thick beard that was bunched up towards the middle with a band of some sort, and sweat pouring around small goggles that covered his eyes. His face was dark, both from the shadow of the building, but also from coal and the grime of effort. Adam could tell this was not a man by the shape of his ears, which were more leaf shaped than round.

It was a dwarf.

A dwarf!

The excitement within Adam showered through his body like the sparks of the hammer that struck the metal in front of him, his heart pounding wildly. He had met a devil man, which he assumed was a devilkin, but this was a dwarf. Every nerds dream, which was quite an average dream to have and it was also quite average to be a little nerdy too, was to meet a dwarf. He swallowed and then crept closer with legs that quivered with each step, growing heavier and heavier with each passing moment as the excitement started to crescendo within him.

Then he stopped, not but a few feet away from the dwarf. He swallowed his nervousness, but quickly more nervousness flowed into his mouth. His heart pounded wildly, thundering within his chest like a mass of drums. Then he willed forth words, speaking in a tongue that he had never spoke before, and yet it felt so real and normal to his lips and ears.

“Beautiful weather we’re having, don’t you think so good sir?” Adam said with a voice that was a little deeper than his fey throat was used to.

The dwarf stopped striking the hammer, freezing in place for half a moment before he pulled back away from the metal he was working on. He looked towards Adam and pulled his goggles and let them drop to hang around his neck like an amulet, and stared at Adam with such an intensely confused look that Adam wasn’t sure if the dwarf believed himself to be awake.

“Ah cannae believe me ears, ah thought ah heard ya speaking tha good earthly tongue of tha dwarves, and yet ah see yer pointed ears and yer fey glow,” he said as he blinked rapidly at the half-elf.

“It is so, I do speak the good word of the father of earth and mother of salt.”

The dwarf pulled back and placed a hand onto his chest as if to stop a heart attack from rocking through his body, his eyes terror-wide, his ears flickering for a moment as the dull tones of dwarven caressed his ears, and yet they would not relax for it came from the throat of a fey blooded man. Well, half-man.

“Ah cannae believe me ears, it’s true?” he exclaimed and the passerby people turned to see what the commotion was about, causing Adam to flush brightly red from the embarrassment of it all.

“I’m sorry for bothering you, master dwarf,” Adam said as he cleared his throat. “I suppose I should be leaving you to your business.” Adam began to turn to leave the dwarf.

“Aye, hold it right there, laddeh,” the dwarf pointed towards Adam, “ya cannae just be leaving me with that can ya? Aye, get over here won’t ya,” the dwarf said as he shambled away into his shop, disappearing for a moment before he then reappeared with a pair of stools in hand. He dropped one ahead of Adam with a suspicious look still in his eye, as though a cat seeing new food stuffs for the first time. “Sit laddeh.”

Adam decided against arguing with the dwarf, he felt that it would have been a bad idea.

HISTORY

D20 (14) + SMART (4) + TRAINED (2) = 20

SUCCESS!

Indeed even in this world, the shortly good folk of the earth called the dwarves were a grumpy lot, this he confirmed searching through what he knew of the world with his mind. It wasn't that he knew it to be true, it was just that this body had already lived for a few years to gain such knowledge and so he knew it too, though it required some effort to bring such knowledge to the surface of his mind.

He sat opposite the dwarf who continued to stare with a keen eye, sizing him up like he was a piece of meat on sale, with eyes of dark brown-grey of the earth that sat below them.

"So… how do ya know the good tongue of tha earth father and tha salt mother?"

"My father taught me," Adam said. "He knew dwarven, he had worked with a dwarf by the name of Jerry."

"Jerry?" the dwarf frowned. "Aye, truly?"

"As true as I can recall," which was true enough to him.

The dwarf nodded his head slowly, a sadness taking to his face as the moustache dipped in either side of his lips. "Ah Jerry ya say, laddeh. A shame ta hear it, a shame that is ah says."

"What's a shame master dwarf?" Adam asked curiously, wondering what the dwarf was thinking.

"Enuff of that master dwarf business, call me Thundersmith, son of Arnold Thundersmith. Ma great great grandfather was Ozon Thundersmith, the very same Ozon Thundersmith that wrestled the eye from the black hydra and forged the Black Bane over the seas of Dunne," the dwarf said proudly as he puffed up his chest.

"That's great to hear, Thundersmith, you have quite a family history."

HISTORY

D20 (18) + SMART (4) + TRAINED (2) = 24

SUCCESS!

“Is that the same Ozon Thundersmith, son of Izoon Thundersmith, who not only forged Black Bane, but the, uh,” he tried to recall the word for it in basic but couldn’t manage to do so, “Silver Orcbane from the Mountain Pass between Dunne and Sett?”

“Aye, that’s the same, that’s right!" the dwarf exclaimed with a small smile on his face which didn’t remain small for long.

"Ah right, excuse me, my name is Adam," Adam said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Ya as well, laddeh Adam, ya as well. Ain’t many around these parts here that know tha good history of ma family,” the dwarf grinned wide.

“You were speaking of the dwarf named Jerry?” Adam asked.

The smile dissipated and the dwarf nodded, sighing. “Aye, aye. A dwarf named Jerry,” he placed a hand on his knee, resting his weight onto it. “Jerry is tha name of a dwarf who gave up their name and family and tradition, sad business it is, usually exile it is.” The dwarf looked up to Adam with a raised brow. “So yer father taught you tha good earthly speech, that so laddeh? A human?”

“That’s right, a full blooded human,” Adam said. “I get my elven side from my mother.”

“A shame ah says, half of ya’s alright then.”

Adam smiled and then nodded. “Is that so?”

“Aye, yer fatha taught you much else?”

“He taught me how to smith,” Adam said with a nod, “although I’m not sure I should say I smith around a dwarf such as yourself. I was mesmerised by the way you struck with your hammer, and your hammer is a beauty too.”

The dwarf’s moustache flowed out like a flower blooming as a wide grin appeared on his face. “Tha’s right,” he said as he raised his hammer from his side and revealed it in all it’s glory. It was a heavy thing, at least that was what Adam could tell just by the way the dwarf’s muscles strained so obviously, and it was mostly green with sprinklings of grey all over the place. The dwarf allowed the half-elf to continue looking at it keenly.

INVESTIGATION

D20 (19) + SMART (4) + TRAINED (2) = 25

SUCCESS!

No. It wasn’t quite green-grey, it was something much different. The green was made of some kind of… pulsing magical energy of sorts, like a gem that had been poured into a mould with liquid silver which mixed together to form this beautiful hammer. It wasn’t a normal hammer, it was an enchanted hammer, though not the kind with runes, but perhaps enchanted by other conduits?

“What is that exactly? It doesn’t seem like a normal hammer, is it enchanted perhaps?” Adam asked as politely as he could.

“Ay, yer keen senses don’t betray ya, elf-Adam. This here be a hammer of with tha blessing of tha salt mother, who has given the hammer a breath of the salt and earth so I may bring out tha true essence of tha earth,” the dwarf said as he reached over with his thick meaty hands and then caressed the side of the hammer dearly. “My beautiful Bethazy,” the dwarf said. “Beth and ah have known each other fer near a half century now, ever since ah became an earth-smith.”

“The hammer, Bethazy, she’s truly beautiful.”

The dwarf’s eyes shot over to Adam with a great suspicious glare as he clutched his hammer closer to his chest. Adam straightened and reeled back as the dwarf continued to eye him suspiciously.

“Ay, ya have great taste,” Thundersmith said as he relaxed eventually when he realised that the half-elf was merely admiring it as a fellow smith, “not too bad for an elf.”

“Half an elf,” Adam said politely.

Thundersmith laughed a great laugh resting his hammer into it’s slot on his belt and then nodded his head. “Ay, then ya aren’t half bad, ain’t that right?”

Adam smiled and then nodded. “As you say.”

“All elves are bad, but half-elves, they ain’t half bad, that’s what we dwarves say,” Thundersmith said with a nod of his head. “What of yer mother? She taught you much?”

“She taught me a little, elven of course, but a little bit of enchanting.”

“Enchanting ya say,” Thundersmith leaned in and his voice became a whisper, “so you can enchant, laddeh?”

Adam nodded his head as Thundersmith looked around the area, glancing a few looks behind Adam and then behind himself.

“I would say to you to be careful of whom you mention that to, young man,” he said with a light whisper, “enchanters, those of a noble profession, are a rare people around here and they are sometimes called upon for far too many things for far too little.”

“R-right, thank you kindly master dwarf,” Adam said before quickly continuing, “Thundersmith, sir.”

“Am no sir, lad, but we smiths have ta look after one another, aye?” Thundersmith nodded once more and then pulled back. “So what brings ya this way then?” Thundersmith asked as he gazed curiously across the armour and then the weapons and then back up to the boy’s face.

“I’m here to become an adventurer,” Adam said.

“Ay? An adventurer?”

“That’s right, I want to make some money and the sort.”

“Oh? Yer not going to be an-” he looked about quickly, “enchanter, a noble profession, like your mother?” he asked.

“No, I can’t really do that.”

“Oh she’s stopping you, is she lad?” Thundersmith shook his head and tutted. “This is why you can’t trust elves.”

“She’s dead,” Adam replied politely, as politely as he could, staring deep into the dwarf’s earthly eyes.

Thundersmith’s eyes flashed open as he pulled back. He froze as though he was a deer in headlights, staring up at Adam’s face. Very quickly his face shifted to shame and his eyes fell across to his feet, “Ay, ah didn’t know lad. Am sorry to hear that and ah don’t think she was a bad’un.”

“She wasn’t, but thank you,” Adam said quietly. “I understand that it was just a light hearted joke, I won’t hold it against you.”

The dwarf looked up to Adam, still with a bit of shame in his eyes. He cleared his throat and said, “I don’t think yer half bad.”

Adam smiled. “Thank you,” he said as he reached up and then rubbed the side of his eyes, trying to stop the burning sensation of tears. Though this mother was not real, or at least wasn’t real anymore, he still thought of his own mother who he would be unable to see any longer.

“Ay, an adventurer ya say?” Thundersmith eyed the boy up, trying to change the topic. “If ya can’t find any work at tha guild, ah can always use an apprentice about now and again, so come ma way and ah’ll see if yer any good for work.”

Adam smiled wide with a joyful smile of a boy that was far too naive, “I appreciate that, Thundersmith. I’ll take you up on that offer then.”

“Ay, but we’ll only be speaking in tha good speech of tha earth father and tha salt mother at work,” he said, “understood, young man?”

“I-” Adam said before he quickly continued, “understand, oh good dwarf.”

The dwarf nodded. “I will allow you on your way then, I appreciate your humouring of this humble dwarf.”

“I will thank you, humble dwarf, for humouring one of my own kin. It was a pleasure,” Adam returned in the polite speech of the earthly tongue.

Then Adam was off, leaving the master dwarf to his own work as he continued his way to the adventuring guild. Meeting a dwarf had been the highlight of a century, though he wondered if perhaps he could meet so many other creatures and beings of fairly tales and fantasy worlds. Well, that was something that was rather obvious as he was currently in a fantasy world, so it would have been rather difficult to not meet with them eventually.

He wondered what he would find at the adventuring guild. So far he had met two people that were not human and they had been quite kindly to him. The third he had half spoken to had been human, who had also been quite kind but in a cheeky kind of way. Was the town truly this diverse, or was he just a lucky youngster? Well that was a thought for another time, for he had finally reached the adventuring guild.

It was made of heavy stone and looked quite industrial, built for a particular thing in mind, and that was to be long standing and to house the adventuring guild and adventurers. He could see the building continued some ways into the back, wondering what they used those buildings for. He could see the fence on either side, one area where there was a sort of archery range, and the other fenced off area was currently housing a handful of peoples who were sparring against one another with blades of red oak, most of them rather casual as they fought one another.

He inhaled deeply and stared at the pair of doors. They were made of red oak as well with a design engraved on the front. There were intricate details all across the border, some of it scripts of other languages as he saw a greeting in both basic, dwarven and elven across the top. The main attraction of the door was something else entirely, as on each door there was a carving, each separate to one another. One was a warrior ready to slay a giant beast, perhaps a serpent of some kind, and the other image was of a great mage wielding some lightning powers.

‘Cool,’ he thought.