Chapter 43

This Means War!

“Torger I’m serious, we have to get the dwarves mobilized and go head off the goblins. There were about a hundred of them!”

Torger leaned back in his chair and sighed, then looked to Baybil who did the same thing. Baybil answered “You don’t need to get involved Torger. They are marching to kill me. I was the one in charge of the raid to kill a goblin queen. A hundred goblins, probably coming from the badlands, is a small force. Their goal is to lure me into meeting them in the open, on fair ground instead of behind a city shield. The elves will kill them before they get here, especially if they have advanced warning like Graul is saying.”

“That’s a convenient answer my friend, let others do the work for you. But it’s not right. We have to help.”

“Not right? The goblins will be dead before we even get there. Dwarves entering Elven territory is asking for trouble. If you want to go, by all means have at it. The village is secure and prosperous. You’ve done an excellent job of keeping everyone happy and wealthy. The annual mayors’ meeting is in two months and Strong Arm is busy getting his village ready to host it. The dwarves in your village will have plenty of gold to spend.”

Torger relented. With a sigh he said “OK Baybil, you’re not joining the fight, you made that clear. You’re even changing the subject off the goblins marching towards you. I will go to fight the goblins. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks. Until then-“

Torger didn’t get to finish his sentence as Antic suddenly appeared in the mayor’s house, completely naked. Torger raised his eyebrows. “The goblins are that strong that they fought through the elves?”

Antic grunted. “No. Cottols. I was running to warn the elves the goblins were on the way when a cottol hidden behind a tree stunned me. There were two of them. With no armor or weapon, I had no chance!”

Antic had grown increasingly angry as he gave his report. He turned to go to his room to get another set of clothes, but Graul stopped him. “So what really happened then, is you were running away from the goblins faster than the others were running away, and you got caught in an ambush.”

Antic ignored Graul and stormed off. Graul shook his head. “He will never get an award for bravery.”

Torger said “It is time for Rome to get back from his daily rounds. I’ll leave him and Antic behind.”

They waited a few minutes and Antic came back dressed but still angry at having to endure pain and dying. A few minutes later Arden appeared. They all looked at him surprised. Antic asked “What happened?”

“The goblins made it to the elf village. The elves shot a volley of arrows, but a couple of hobgoblins put up shields. The goblins returned a volley. A stray arrow pierced my heart. I bled out in seconds, before anyone could cast a few cures on me. The bad news is there are three trolls that joined the goblins. After seeing them I wonder if the cottols that took out Antic were working with them.”

Baybil waved it off. “The cottols are dumb beasts and wouldn’t coordinate an attack with another species. But the trolls are bothersome. It’s nothing the elves can’t handle, but it’s rare for them to join up with an army.”

Torger looked at Baybil. “What do you mean ‘rare’?”

“I just mean it’s not unheard of. If more beings join them, then we could have problems.”

Torger was ready to respond when Rome appeared. He arrived in the mayor’s house and looked around. It was obvious Torger and Graul were worried, and Antic was angry, and it wasn’t unusual to see Arden standing in the group naked. Back on Earth Arden made a habit of walking around naked to make others uncomfortable.

Rome said “It looks like I missed something.”

Torger answered “I need you to Teleport all of us to Lake Tahoe. We’re under attack.”

Baybil responded “Don’t be so cautious. We’re not under attack, the elves are, and I’m sure they have it well under control.”

Torger ignored him. “How long until we can all be there?”

“I can send the four of you in an hour, then wait a half hour to teleport myself there.”

Torger shook his head. “I forgot teleport three doesn’t include the caster. Teleport yourself to Lake Tahoe, buy some mana potions, then come back to pick us up.” Torger handed him a small pouch full of silver coins.

Ten minutes later Rome returned. Arden was dressed, and Antic had convinced Torger he should be allowed to stay behind to make sure the miners weren’t stealing gold. Graul objected but Torger whispered to him “This battle won’t be determined by a spear. His weapon and cowardice will only get in the way.”

Rome reported. “Many goblins are dead, many elves were wounded then cured. A messenger was sent to warn Lagwil. A goblin leader tried to tell the elves they had no quarrel with the elves, just the dwarf that killed a goblin queen. The elves didn’t care and started the attack anyway. They are expecting you.”

Baybil put his head down and looked conflicted, but Torger knew he still wouldn’t get involved, even though this was specifically Baybil’s battle. Torger nodded to Rome, who drank a mana potion then cast the spell, and Torger, Graul, and Arden entered the elf village, fully equipped with armor and weapons. They looked around and saw elves shouting and shooting arrows.

Arden spotted Jex and ran to her, with the others a step behind him. She was shooting arrow after arrow just as quickly and accurately as the finest elf archers. Torger looked and saw her arrows were the only arrows flying through the magic shields. The elf arrows were inflicting heavy damage on the shields, and a shield shattered and fell, but then the hobgoblin recast it immediately.

Brun ran up and grabbed the duffle bag. He pulled out his gold staff, and began getting ready for battle. As he was drinking a mana potion he said “I’m glad you finally made it. We’re doing okay, but some swords on the ground would help a lot. Their shields are powerful and they have a lot more arrows than we do. The elves are running out of potions fast, but we’ve already taken out the trolls and cottols so now it’s mostly clean up.”

The others looked and sure enough three trolls and five cottols were lying dead on the field, along with about thirty goblins. Jex was shooting elf arrows made of maple shafts and iron arrowheads. That meant the elves had already spent all of the silver and gold arrowheads. The Bow of Artemis seemed to allow the arrows to fly right through the goblin shields, but the hobgoblins were able to wave their staffs to throw the arrows slightly off course. The remaining seventy goblins were picking up arrows off the ground and returning them to the elves, with no semblance of being skilled archers. But still, seventy arrows every four or five seconds caused the elves to constantly seek shelter.

Just as Rome appeared, Torger, Graul, and Arden charged forward, each with Shield 2 protecting them. The elves Shield 2 was much stronger than the humans Shield 2, because the elves had the ability to strengthen the shields, making them have an equivalent of 400 health instead of 100 health.

Torger ran to one goblin shield and stabbed it with Red Fury, and Graul ran to the other shield and stabbed it with Inferno. Both shields cracked and returned a Lighting 2 attack, but the brothers shook it off and stabbed again, collapsing both shields. Arden ran forward and swung his mace, accurately meeting a goblin’s helmet. The helmet flew several feet and the neck snapped. Arden stepped over the dead body to swing again, but being at only level ten with cudgels he forgot to use his shield. Multiple arrows pierced him and he collapsed to the ground.

Torger and Graul had much better results. On the run there volleys of arrows shattered their magic shields the elves had cast on them, but it allowed them to get close while unharmed. Once the goblin magic shields were cracked, the hobgoblins focused on them. That allowed Jex and the elves to easily pick off goblins, while Brun cast Ice 1 as fast as he could at the vulnerable goblins. The spell did little damage, but it distracted them for a second, making them easy targets for friendly arrows. Rome cast Shield 2 and Haste 2 on Torger and Graul, who were just trying to dodge spells and arrows. They had succeeded in drawing all the attention to themselves, and the goblins were too stupid to see the larger war strategy. Each goblin wanted to kill the humans, and they all forgot about the elf arrows.

A goblin arrow struck Torger in the leg and he went down. He was so focused on enduring the pain of the hobgoblin spells that he didn’t realize his shield had once again shattered. Once he was on the ground a large group of goblins ran at him and clobbered him with copper swords that only cut an inch deep at a time in the few areas he wasn’t covered in steel. The pain was intense before he finally died.

Graul had suffered a similar fate. He appeared at Home a few seconds before Torger. They looked at each other and grinned. “We did it! There were only about a dozen goblins left when I died!”

“Good job! And good fighting!”

They turned to see Arden sitting in Torger’s chair. “Oh come on Arden! Don’t sit in my chair while you’re naked! I wonder if there’s a disinfectant spell here?”

“Oh don’t worry Torger. There are no germs here, except with spells. So tell me what happened.”

Torger and Graul explained the battle after Arden died while the three of them were getting dressed. Baybil listened with interest and couldn’t believe cottols had joined. An hour later Brun and Jex appeared, having been teleported by Rome, who came a few minutes later. Rome did not look pleased.

Torger asked “How did it go? What happened?”

Jex answered “You guys did great. Charging into the middle of the battle broke their concentration and it made easy target practice for me and the elves. The elves are grateful you showed up when you did.”

Torger saw she wasn’t cheerful about the victory. “But what? What went wrong?”

Rome answered “The elves say that battle was our fault. They say the goblins wanted to attack us and the elves had to fight our battle for us.” Rome took a deep breath and looked at Torger with a hint of sorrow. “They want us to pay for the fight. All the potions they used, all the arrows they used, and a day’s labor for each elf in the village. The bill is twenty-five gold.” Rome handed Torger a paper detailing mid and high level mana potions and dozens of silver and gold tipped arrows.

Torger wadded up the paper and threw it on the ground and shook his head in disgust, but Baybil had read it too and he yelled “That’s an outrage! They didn’t have to fight. The goblins could have gone around and come to us.”

Torger looked at him. “You know full well that would never happen. The elves are in the right to charge us for their losses. I didn’t think they would do this, but they did have losses. Did we collect loot from the battlefield?”

Brun answered “The elves have to burn and bury the bodies so liches don’t show up. They said war spoils will cover that cost.”

“If they find a single gem that will more than cover all their expenses. Let’s go to the tavern and celebrate a good victory and talk about this more tomorrow.”

The Regulators and Baybil spent several hours in the tavern telling their stories of the battle to any dwarves that would listen, which by dinnertime turned out to be the whole town wanted to listen. As Antic sat and listened, he was glad he didn’t die again in battle, but felt left out of not being able to tell his own tales of glory. He knew everyone looked at him as a wimp, but he couldn’t stay consistently bold like the others. Some days he would rush into battle with his friends, and other days he wanted to hide under a rock. This was an inglorious day for him, and he felt weak, but listening to three of them describe how they died made him not want that part of battle. At the end of the day he felt he had made the right decision to stay behind.

The next day they all woke up with horrible hangovers. Torger’s morning meeting with his friends didn’t actually get started until almost noon.

“We need to discuss what to do. Baybil, how likely is it that the goblins will attack again?”

“You can see for yourself what your hatred and feared levels are with goblins.”

Torger checked his Notoriety and found goblins feared him 59/100 and hated him 66/100. He told the results to Baybil. “They strongly hate you, as they have ever since we attacked the prison, but yesterday’s battle greatly increased their fear of you, which will keep you safe. So there is a difference of seven. There is only a seven in a hundred chance that they will attack again. Yesterday’s battle made them put their tail between their legs.”

That made Torger feel better. “OK we can focus on what’s really important; making money. Last year at the mayor’s meeting I saw really cool stuff that I couldn’t hope to afford. I want to save up as much as possible to try again this year. Antic, how is the mining going?”

Before he could answer, Rome said “I’m going to make my daily rounds. I’ll be back in a few hours.” He left.

Antic answered “The dwarves are still drawing a whole lot of gold out of the mine every day, but the village only keeps one percent of it. We get almost as much money from income taxes, beer sales, and tariffs from Rome’s trading. If you pay the elves the twenty-five gold, we’ll have thirteen gold coins left.”

Jex spoke up “No you won’t. I’m out of arrows. The elves are going to find and keep my thirty super-arrows.”

Torger looked at Antic. He got the message without being asked. “A super arrow costs about seventy-five silver; fifty for half a gold coin for the arrowhead, fifteen for the steel, and ten for labor, so you can get seventeen new arrows from what we have.”

“That sucks. I need two hundred gold at least before the end of the year. This is the plan: Jex you’re going to have to get by with silver tipped arrows instead of gold tipped, as many as we can afford.” She didn’t like it but nodded in agreement. “All our weapons and armor are good and current. Thank you again Brun for bringing our stuff back from the battlefield yesterday.” Brun nodded. “We have steady income, but not enough. What do we do?”

Baybil answered “You raise taxes of course. You charge far less taxes than any other mayor ever, and you’re suffering financially for it.”

“Baybil, what has our production for the last two months been like compared to any other mayor?”

“That’s not the point. I’m saying-“

“That is the point. These dwarves are working harder than ever because they get to keep their money. How much is production up?”

Baybil stared at him then mumbled “A few hundred years ago a village had fifteen dwarves pull out nearly four thousand pounds of ore in two months. Easily a record. Home has beaten that by twenty-six percent.”

“And I’m still broke. Let’s talk about morale. Right now my villagers are at seventy-eight. How does that compare?”

Baybil sighed. “Not a record, but in the top ten percent of any mayor ever.”

“Why?”

“Money is flowing freely. There is plenty of coins circulating. They are well fed, have a variety of different foods, plenty of ale, they have money to buy new weapons and armor for themselves and the steel to make them, there is plenty of water, the children are well taken care of, and everyone has a job doing whatever they want without regulations. Crime is minimal, the less lucrative but necessary jobs are government subsidized, their clothes are patched and clean and most importantly they don’t fear for their safety.”

“And if I raise taxes production goes down and theft goes up. There has to be a different way.”

“Raise taxes or fight the goblins or mine the gold yourself.”

Torger stopped. “What? Fight goblins or mine the gold. Baybil you’ve nailed it!” Torger looked at his friends. “Remember our time as slaves? That was training for us to mine our own gold.”

His friends groaned but Torger marched them all to the blacksmith and placed an order for six picks and six shovels. He explained that they would get to keep ninety percent of everything they mined, but that only cheered them up a little. Mining was physically brutal work.

As they were walking out Rome came running up. He was back too early. “What’s wrong man? You look like you’ve seen a lich.”

Trying to talk too fast all at once Rome said “They attack, Indio, dwarves fight, slaves hiding, real bad.”

“Whoa, slow down. I heard attack, Indio, and slaves bad. Make sense of that for me.”

On Brun’s advice Rome took a deep breath and held it for ten seconds. “The goblins attacked Indio. One group was coming to attack us here but got stopped by the elves yesterday, but another group of goblins took the south route and attacked Indio. It’s a similar thing with about a hundred goblins, two hobgoblins, three trolls, and five razorlings instead of cottols. The dwarves weren’t expecting it. Several prison guards have died and all the slaves are hiding in the mines. The village shield has collapsed and they will be overrun in an hour or two.”

Torger whistled. “OK Regulators. It looks like we’re going to get some extra cash by fighting for it! Get your gear on and Rome drink a mana potion. Antic stay here with Rome, we’ll go clean up this mess.”

Antic surprised everyone. “No, if you don’t mind, I was left out of the fighting yesterday. Today I want to fight.”

Torger started to respond but Jex stopped him. “Remember I don’t have any arrows. I’m useless in a fight right now. You guys go.”

Arden smiled. “Good choice hon. You stay here and stay safe.”

Ten minutes later, after Rome had drank three weak dwarf mana potions, the other five men arrived in Indio. Chaos was all around them. Dwarves were swinging axes and goblins were using spears, swords, and bows. The razorlings were dead but the trolls were being ignored as they were beating on the rock piles of the mines. It seemed the prisoners cut the support beams at the mouth of three separate mines, causing cave-ins. The trolls were too stupid to pull the loose rocks away so they were trying to push the piles into the mines to make it to the helpless prisoners.

Everyone immediately sprung into action. Arden ran to the nearest goblin that was using a spear against a dwarf with a shield and axe. The goblin never saw the mace come down on its head. Antic used Power Cord to keep two goblin melee fighters at bay. Brun started casting Ice 1, and slightly damaged fourteen goblins, each of which were cut down by a dwarf a second later. And as usual Graul and Torger stole the show. They ran straight for the archers that were blocking the hobgoblins. The dozen arrows shot at each of them bounced harmlessly off Graul’s steel shield and Torger’s steel armor, and didn’t even slow down their running. They each got hit with Lightning 2 but toughed through the pain and began slashing through the goblin archers. More and more spells hit them but they kept slicing off the archer’s heads until all twenty-four archers were dead. But the brothers couldn’t stand up to the continued onslaught of spells, and both of them died before they could reach the hobgoblins.

Antic watched another goblin run away from him. He had killed three with his halberd, the new Power Cord, which dealt Lighting 1 and Fire 1 with each hit. The halberd was a foot and a half longer than goblin spears, so they couldn’t get close to him. After he killed the first three, the rest stopped fighting him. He had an arrow sticking out of his right bicep, but in his battle rage he ignored it and chased down the fleeing goblin and stabbed it. Next came an unusual goblin. It was bigger than the rest and carried a wood shield and blacksmith’s hammer. This goblin must have been a mid ranking warrior because it didn’t look afraid in battle and the others stayed away from it. Antic smiled as it approached. The goblin raised its shield and hammer in a defensive stance. Very unusual. They usually just charged or retreated, but never calculated in battle.

Antic thrust Power Cord above the shield, spun it a quarter turn, and yanked back hard. The hook caught the top of the shield on the back side. The shield pulled the goblin close and off balance, because its arm was stuck in the handles. Antic rotated the halberd another quarter turn and swung it a few inches until the axe part sunk into the neck of the goblin which also cast the spells into it, then he stepped back, pulling the axe part along the neck. Blood splattered the ground and the goblin dropped to his knees with a look of shock on its face.

Feeling bold Antic ran towards a troll. As soon as he started he felt something was wrong. He looked around and saw melee fights everywhere, but arrows were missing from the battle. He looked to the archers and saw Graul and Torger chop the heads off the last two archers. Antic watched as they fell to the ground getting hit over and over with spells from the hobgoblins. Anger swelled inside him as he watched his friends die. He changed direction and ran at the three that killed his friends. Luckily for Antic they had used all their mana and all their potions during the battle. He enjoyed the terrified looks in their eyes as he ran at them. They had no means of defending themselves, and a well placed thrust to the heart took out the first one, and another turned to flee but the long stretch of the halberd decapitated it. The last one he wanted to feel pain. He used the axe part to chop off its leg below the knee. It fell to the ground as it was running away. He raised the halberd and chopped off the left hand, then the right hand. Without hands the hobgoblin couldn’t point to cast a spell. Antic left the bleeding miserable creature there and returned to the trolls. When he made it he saw all three surrounded by dwarves. The trolls died a minute later, as did the tortured hobgoblin.

Chapter 44

Happy New Year

Torger watched with excitement as the first merchant came to Modesto. The Regulators had found two rubies, a sapphire, and nearly seventy silver and sixty copper when searching the goblin bodies in Indio. After that they burned and buried the bodies, which took two days with the prisoner’s help. The prisoners were trapped in the mines for a full day as the guards and Regulators dug them out. When it came time to divide the loot Torger and Kirsk had different ideas.

“I need to rebuild my village. I need the money more than you do.”

“No Kirsk, you need labor, which you have plenty of it here. You wouldn’t have a village if it weren’t for us.”

“We killed more goblins than you guys did.”

“Me and my brother each killed twelve archers. Is there a dwarf here who can say he killed twelve goblins?” Torger looked around but all the dwarves didn’t respond.

Kirsk said “Archers are easy targets. Any dwarf here could kill a dozen archers.”

“That’s not entirely true, but I’ll play your game. Say an archer is half a goblin with a spear. Then we killed six goblins. How many dwarves here killed at least six goblins?”

Four raised their hand. “See, even at that we’re still in the top third. We’ll take the rubies and sapphire, you can keep the silver and copper.”

“No way! Our village killed about two-thirds of all. We’ll keep the two rubies and silver and copper, and generously give you the sapphire.”

After more negotiations Torger walked away with the bigger ruby and all the silver and copper. Then he and his friends spent a month digging in the mines, except Rome who still made his daily trips. And it seemed Kirsk was the first merchant to arrive to Rich Fields for the annual mayors meeting. Torger knew Kirsk would be looking to buy not sell, but Torger was prepared to get into a few bidding wars.

When Kirsk arrived he looked around in wonder. He was with five armed bodyguards. Torger had been waiting to see the other mayors. “Hello Kirsk. You can see Strong Arm has been busy. Stone Fist has directed construction of four tunnels and two houses for the mayor’s meeting. Everyone should have a place to stay, and since you’re here first, you get to stay where you want. Do you want a room in an underground tunnel or a room in a house?”

“Underground is where we dwarves belong, but I’m not the first one here am I? I bet you already picked out the best spot for yourself.”

“Of course I did Kirsk. But we can be friendly about it. Since we have no war chiefs, once Tambik arrives we can get started. Have you heard from him?”

“He sends a messenger about once a month. He hasn’t got caught up in your new ways of thinking. He runs his village the way dwarves have for thousands of years. He makes sure they have food and water first, then taxes them for all he can get. He should be here in a couple of days.”

That night a caravan arrived. There were three covered wagons, each pulled by two bison. Two wagons opened up and sold dried meats, spices, cane sugar, basic weapons and armor, cheap jewels, quality leather boots, a variety of vegetables and vegetable seeds, and cotton clothing. The third one stayed closed and the owner said it wouldn’t be opened until there was a large crowd.

The next day more merchants showed up selling the same stuff, but one had performers. They set up a stage then covered it with a large tent and once every twenty minutes five people could go in to see the current show for forty coppers. They had jugglers, a sword swallower, fire spitter, a couple deformed dwarves, wrestlers and magicians who had unusual spells like levitating items or invisibility or the ability to see through solid objects. That night all the performers would put on a play for the whole village, if they collected enough donations before the show started.

The play was a story of a young in love dwarf couple, but the male was called away to war and he nearly died. Battle hardened his heart and he swore off love and became a great general. It was not exactly a tear jerker, but Kirsk said all the dwarf plays are true stories. It’s basically history class.

The next night Tambik showed up and the four mayors quietly left the festivus. They followed Stone Fist to the secret location. Stone Fist had built it himself and only he knew where it was at, which was underneath a tree that looked like most other trees in the forest. Stone Fist rolled a stone away and a hole twenty inches in diameter led down. Baybil climbed in first, going down a ladder.

When Torger got inside, he saw a large wood table with five chairs. One chair was obviously for him. There were sconces on the walls to provide light, and a narrow vent pipe to prevent suffocation. Stone Fist rolled the stone back and they were trapped inside, but also completely hidden from anyone. Everyone took their seats and Baybil began.

“Great god of the anvil Muldwil, we ask your favor to be upon our meeting tonight. Rid us of any deceit or hidden threats, and we will govern your dwarves the way you have always wanted us to do.”

Baybil walked to a sconce and dropped in a powder that flashed. He did it to each of the four sconces. They stopped flickering with firelight and instead glowed blue for a couple seconds. Torger gasped and pointed. The blue light showed an invisible naked goblin crouched in the corner. Baybil was the first to seize it. “A spy! Where have you come from vermin?”

The goblin looked frightened but refused to talk. Baybil shook it and it slipped a few leaves into its mouth and started chewing. Baybil slammed the creature against a wall then hit it on the back to dislodge the leaves, but it was too late, the goblin was dead.

Kirsk yelled “Guards!”

Strong Arm shut him up. “Quiet you fool. We have to decide first if we want others to know about it.”

Baybil nodded and shouted “Kymerksidan.” The word didn’t translate but Torger assumed it was an all clear safe word for hidden guards above ground. The vent pipe let out stale air as well as loud shouts. He asked about it.

Baybil explained “Each year the tribal chief selects two trusted dwarves to act as guards for the meeting. I told them they were selected a few hours ago, so they would have no time to plan our demise. That was the safe word I gave them. As for the spy, if others find out about it we would have no choice but to declare a full scale war on goblins. We have to discuss if that’s really what we want to do.”

No one spoke for over a minute. Torger finally said “We have no war chiefs, and the tribe is spread wide. Me and Tambik are hundreds of miles apart. Strong Arm and I owe the elves a lot of gold, and I’m only going to be mayor for another six months. This is a terrible time for the Cucamonga tribe to go to war. However, my friends and I will be hunted in ten months. We have little to lose. If seven humans attacked goblins, that would not change relations between dwarves and goblins.”

Everyone sat there pondering his words, and Torger was screaming inside for someone to give a thumbs up or thumbs down. Apparently these dwarves liked to think everything through before speaking. Finally Strong Arm said “It is a good plan, as far as dwarves are concerned. The goblins must pay for their attacks in Carson City and Indio, but our tribe is weak right now. We cannot go to war. But it is a dwarf war, not a human war. I don’t like the idea of others fighting on our behalf.”

Tambik agreed. “We are weak right now, and perhaps that is why the goblins are pushing us. Maybe they want to find out if they could launch a large attack and win.”

Baybil stroked his beard and muttered mmm hmmm. Everyone looked at him but he said no more. Kirsk was the last to speak, if you could call Baybil’s mumble speaking. Kirsk said “I think we are all in agreement that our villages and overall tribe need to be stronger before we do anything. We need a full council, more weapons, and more money, and most importantly more dwarves. Each village should have twenty more dwarves and twenty more axes before we consider a large war.”

Torger asked “Why does it have to be this tribe that does all the fighting? Why not band together with another tribe or two?”

Baybil answered “They won’t do it. You can’t gain experience fighting someone else’s battle, and dividing the spoils often leads to minor skirmishes. Did you gain any experience fighting the goblins a couple months ago?”

“No. It is odd, and I talked about it with my friends, I mean my human friends, but we couldn’t figure it out.”

“It’s because you weren’t fighting for yourself, you were fighting for someone else. There is no reward in that. The goblins were trying to attack me. I’m sure the elves got no experience, but Kirsk did, didn’t you?”

“We cleaned up as far as experience goes. Twenty-eight hundred experience to twenty-two fighters, but nine of those died in that battle. The loss of life hurt the village deeply, but the surviving fighters are stronger. We got experience and you didn’t because the goblins attacked us. We did not get experience from the goblins you and your people killed, and neither did you. It would have been nice if we could have got all of it, but if you didn’t come help, we would have all died. Thank you for your help, I don’t think I got the chance to say it.”

“You’re welcome Kirsk. So you are telling me other dwarf tribes won’t protect you because there isn’t enough of a reward in it for them. That’s messed up, but moving forward, if we humans do attack the goblins, would we get experience then?”

“Yes, if you’re the one launching the attack. But now you’re seeing that without the personal reward it becomes much more difficult to do the morally right thing, and the temptation to get out increases. During battle, if other dwarves join in and start seeing their friends die, the lack of personal gain from the war leaves them with nothing to hold on to. They will desert.”

“Perhaps some will, but many people on earth fight in armies voluntarily.”

“Many people? I doubt that. How many able bodied men and women volunteer for front line combat in a foreign country without the promise of promotions or a bigger cut of the spoils? One in a hundred?”

“I don’t know. Globally it’s probably less. And I see your point about forcing people leading to desertions. The war has to mean something to the fighters. The Kurds are the best example I can think of for most young people joining the fight, but they have the most to gain or lose. That means nothing to you, but it puts our predicament into perspective for me. I’m still set on fighting these goblins on behalf of this tribe. Point me in the right direction.”

Baybil responded “Not so fast. You have an obligation here first. You are a mayor until June, and the best mayor I’ve ever seen. You are not about to skip out before you pay your debt to the elves. Then I would be happy to see you go kick some goblin ass. Now we need to discuss replacing you in June and finding two war chiefs, then we can discuss strengthening our tribe and each individual village.”

It was well past midnight when Torger climbed out of the secret cave. His eyes burned from dreariness, but they had agreed to make a young dwarf named Thirrell Torger’s successor. Thirrell was a miner at Home and the hardest working one. He was polite and sociable, helped others and was always curious about the village finances and safety, as well as asking the Regulators about their fighting tactics after every battle. A dwarf from Indio and a dwarf from Blythe would become the war chiefs. Torger was basically grounded for six months. Under Baybil’s watchful eye, he had to train Thirrell how to be the best mayor he could be.

Torger slept late the next morning, and walked around the village that day, the last day of the year. That night he became anxious. This was what he had been waiting for. He saved all his gold from mining, and hoped he had enough. He walked to the one covered wagon that was still closed. The guard standing in front of it sighed. “Not yet Torger. Go get a drink.”

Torger walked to the tavern and ordered a glass of mead, but he had a hard time getting into any conversation. Dwarves tried to talk to him and he would smile and nod, but his mind was on the upcoming auction. An hour later the expected herald came into the tavern and announced the high auction would start soon. Torger jumped out of his seat and ran to the wagon. He was the first one there. The merchant looked at him and smiled.

Torger began looking at the merchandise with pure joy plastered to his face. He didn’t hear the merchant the first time but heard him the second time. “What’s your name son?”

“Oh, uh Torger. And what’s yours sir?”

“My names Milderwank, and I see you’ll be bidding tonight. When you want to bid raise your hand and call out your name.”

“If that’s how you run your auction that’s your business. What can you tell me about this chest plate?”

“I’ll get back to that. How would you have me run my auction? You think you could do a better job?”

This conversation was derailing fast and if Torger didn’t straighten it out he could get kicked out. “However you want to run your auction is fine by me. I ran an auction only one time, so I have almost no experience to speak of, but I gave each bidder a roc feather to raise if they wanted to bid. Now how about this shield?”

The auctioneer at first looked angry and was going to yell at Torger, but instead caught himself. “Actually son, I think it might be easier for me to see someone holding up a roc feather than it would be to see their hand. Lots of people shift in auctions and I’m unsure if they’re bidding or not. I like your idea.”

“Good. It would also help you to see if you stood on a chair. Can this crossbow really store ten bolts?”

“Hmm? Yes. Kurnik, go into the tavern and get me a chair to stand on for the auction!” A teenaged dwarf ran inside.

Torger got a good look at all the high end weapons and armor. As far as he knew this was the very best quality made from the best materials in the world. Even Guntrink and Strong Arm gaped and whistled at some of the items. Torger pulled them aside. “Guys, tell me honestly, which items could you make yourselves and which are beyond your abilities.”

Strong Arm said “I could make that mithril halberd and chainmail, maybe the obsidian shield, definitely the repeating crossbow. Anything of dragon scale is beyond me, and anything with level two magical enchantments are out.”

Guntrink couldn’t be outdone. “I could make the obsidian shield, helmet, and shoes, and anything you see out of mithril.”

Strong Arm choked. “You couldn’t make a knife out of obsidian. No way could you make anything on that wagon.”

Guntrink said “Oh yeah? I’ll make the dragon scale armor set if you go kill a dragon for me.”

“I have a better chance of killing a dragon than you do of turning the scales into something useful.”

Torger interrupted “Guys, cool it. I’ve only got one shot at this. Have either of you found the good stuff I asked about?”

The men bowed their heads a little and began a conspiratorial whisper. “No. I haven’t found any from anyone. I’ve put out the word looking to buy, but no hits.”

“Me neither” Guntrink admitted. “I’m sure someone has some around here. Maybe they sold it early, and whoever bought it won’t sell for any price.”

“I was afraid of that. Keep your ears alert. This is our last night. So back to the cart. Dragon scale is the supreme choice then? Any cautions?”

“Yeah” said Guntrink. “The dragon scale helmet and boots are fakes. The chest plate and shield are real.”

“Really?” asked Strong Arm. “I’m going to go have another look.”

“Hurry. It will be starting soon.”

A few minutes later Strong Arm came back. “Good eye Guntrink. I’ll give you that. The helmet and boots are real dragon scale, but made from a baby dragon. They’re too soft, about the strength of steel. Also the diamond infused with poison three has a small crack in it.”

Torger was shocked. “Good to know. I would not go into battle with an unreliable bow like that.”

“Yes. There is a small chance that occasionally the spell will backfire on the archer. Getting hit with your own poison three spell in battle would be a death sentence.”

Milderwank stepped onto the chair and the crowd fell silent. He gave a long preamble about quality, reputation, and rules of bidding. The first item was a simple dagger made of mithril. Several people bid on it and it sold for twenty-one gold. Strong Arm whispered that was the value of the mithril if they melted it down. Next was a mithril helmet with the same result-scrap metal for rich people. Next was the obsidian shield. Torger raised his feather a few times but quit at seventy-five gold and it sold for ninety-one. The next item was the grand daddy of them all- the dragon scale shield. It could completely neutralize Fire 4 and Poison 4 if it was between its owner and the enemy caster. It was a large curved rectangle similar to a roman style. It was three feet tall and two feet wide and few dwarves had the strength or height to use it effectively in battle. It was a primitive APC. Torger had never coveted something so much in his life. His strength was high enough and his boots were mithril with permanent Haste 2. This shield was better than that. But it wasn’t for himself. He owned a two handed sword after all.

The bidding started at a hundred gold, and his heart sank. He had saved five hundred and twelve gold from the village and the mining, and that included his friends donating their share. He also had his eye on two items and was hoping the blacksmiths could find some raw mithril like he had asked for. He cleared his head and focused on the auction again. The bidding was at two fifty and climbing. He put the feather up. Three hundred would be too rich for him. He would have to give up something if this shield topped two eighty. His mind buzzed with the frenzy of bidders and the beauty of the shield. A minute later he heard “Sold” and saw his own feather in the air. He looked at the auctioneer stunned. Milderwank looked at him.

“Congratulations to Torger for this fantastic buy at three hundred and ten gold!”

What? He over spent! Now what? His mind settled down as the dragon scale armor and damaged bow sold. He looked around and saw Guntrink waving him over. “I think I found someone. He says the ruby will get you twelve pounds.”

“What do you think?”

“I think that’s a great ruby. If there were two sellers, you could get twenty pounds. But it’s all we got.”

“No. I’m too nervous with all this whispering and suspicions. It doesn’t seem right.”

“I know Torger, but everyone here would slit your throat for a ruby like that. You can’t trust anyone outside your own village. Keep it down and I’ll tell him you want twenty pounds or no deal. That will make him go away.”

Torger returned to his seat. When he had been negotiating with Kirsk after the goblin battle, he had no idea that each gem was the equivalent of several hundred gold coins, and he got the biggest ruby which Strong Arm put at about six hundred and seventy gold. That one ruby was worth what most dwarves would make in two and a half lifetimes. It was way too valuable to show in public, just like his boots, sword and Jex’s bow. And now his dragon scale shield.

Torger was relieved when Guntrink returned and said “No deal.” Whoever had twelve pounds of mithril didn’t want to advertise that much wealth either. The auction continued and one of the two diamond staffs came up for bid. Before the auctioneer even gave the opening price Torger’s hand was in the air, feather raised high.

That night Graul, Brun, and Arden all stayed up guarding Torger’s room. The other three Regulators were at Home. Around noon Rome appeared and a half hour later he sent them ahead, back to home, assuring them it was safe and they wouldn’t be teleported to the city under siege.

Torger proudly handed a diamond encrusted staff to Rome, one to Brun, and the dragon scale shield he gave to Arden. He looked at his friend and said “Arden, with this shield, do everything you can to protect your wife and your brother. I know that has always been your top priority in life, now you have the best protection for them that money can buy.”