Chapter 45

Springtime

The next day Torger took two gold staffs to Lagwil. “How much will these reduce my debt?”

“You owe us thirty pounds of refined gold, and Strong Arm owes the same. These staffs weigh a little over three pounds each.”

“They’re not raw gold and you know it. These are a little on the rare side. Let’s call them five pounds each.”

“No, four pounds each is fair.”

“Four and a half.”

Torger enjoyed a pleasant day with the elves after the deal. Winter had finally come. It was mid January and a light snow was falling. That night Rome appeared in the village, which the elves didn’t appreciate, and a half hour later he sent Torger back to Home then made the trip himself.

The Regulators did nothing the next day but sit in the tavern talking. Baybil gently teased Torger “We had dwarves come from several tribes and some from hundreds of miles away, and it was some of the most profitable trading our tribe has seen in generations, but when they all left all they could talk about was baseball and Yahtzee. You really cleaned up on those inventions. How much did you make anyway?”

Torger answered “Not a whole lot. Graul and I sold a few dozen bats and Strong Arm sold about a hundred mitts and baseballs. His apprentice became very good at making leather armor from all the practice he had making the mitts and balls. And we sold about a hundred pairs of dice. But it was Antic who really made a lot.”

Antic smiled widely and without shame. “You’re the one who made me head of security in the gambling house, and it was your idea to take ten percent of each pot. We had no way of knowing it would be such a big hit.”

Months earlier Torger had figured out how to gamble using Yahtzee, and only he and Graul had the skill to carve perfect wooden dice, so they had an easy monopoly on the supply. Each table held five players who would each put in fifty silver. Of the two hundred and fifty in the pot, Antic would take ten percent to make sure the game was fair. Each time a dwarf was the first to get something- three one’s or three two’s or three or four of a kind or full house etc., the dwarf would take ten silver. The first dwarf to get a yahtzee would get a hundred silver. The one with the most points at the end would get the remainder of the pot, which was usually sixty-five silver left. They had set up three tables in the gambling house, and they had to create a take a number system for the dwarves to come in and try their luck.

Antic continued “I worked in that house sixteen hours a day for four days.” He dropped a large leather pouch on the table and several silver coins spilled out. “I made about four gees in silver. Jex, I know you got used to the awesome power of gold arrowheads, but I will give you a few hundred silver arrowheads if you cover my back in battles from now on.”

Graul groaned but Torger thought it over. “That’s ok with me. Jex is easily the best ranged support this planet has ever seen. And now that Arden has the dragon scale shield to protect her, the three of them could hold off a few dozen razorlings or rocs or whatever else while me and Graul wreak havoc with our swords. And if Antic is willing to pay for the arrows that’s less gold mining we’ll have to do.”

There was a lot more discussion that night but by the time everyone went to bed they all knew what they had to do.

The next day Rome made his rounds, and Torger began teaching Thirrell how to be a good mayor. Hastaff had moved to Home from Indio during the festivus, and got to work turning the silver coins into silver arrowheads, and the other five Regulators begrudgingly went to work in the mines. Since snow had arrived dwarves were scurrying to get firewood for the winter and Torger realized how valuable the prisoners were when they were mining for salt and coal under the goblin oppressors. Stacks of coal would have been better than trying to dry out green wood, but he lived in SoCal, and winter had never been a problem for him, so he shrugged off his oversight. The dwarves were not happy about it and morale dropped eight points.

Torger walked around the village every day with Thirrell. He taught him to check the village morale often. The higher the morale, the more work they got done. He also taught him to lead by example, and get into the mines once a month and work with his villagers, and wash some clothes with them and help out in the kitchen and work with menial tasks with leather and metal armor. He also taught him that the village shield and defense could only be increased if Thirrell himself went into the surrounding area and killed monsters then spent the ability points on the expanding or strengthening the shield.

One day they walked around a building and saw two dwarves sitting and talking. They weren’t doing anything bad, but they were supposed to be helping Stone Fist build a small house for village guests, but they were obviously slacking off. Torger was irate and made them gather and chop a half cord of firewood a day and clean the latrines everyday for a month. “You don’t need lazy dwarves in your village Thirrell. If anyone isn’t pulling their weight let everyone know there will be consequences, and enforce those consequences.” There had been several occasions over the previous couple of years that Torger had given extra chores to lazy dwarves, and to embarrass them more he assigned a dwarf to stand near them every day for a week watching them work diligently. The incurably lazy had left the village and Torger let the whole population know the village would be better off without freeloaders. Thirrell had seen him do that first hand a few times. At the same time, morale and money was so good in Home that other dwarves from far away and even from other tribes had come to earn a prosperous living for good honest work. Torger had the perfect touch of keeping everyone both happy and honest. Dwarves who worked to improve the infrastructure were well paid, and all villagers had free lodging and food, and the village had two dwarves who knew the Cure 1 spell in case anyone got hurt.

When the snow was mostly melted in early May, the Regulators left the mines and took Thirrell to go hunting. The bears had come out of hibernation and were hungry, as well as the cottols, rocs, and trolls. The team easily mopped up all monsters for fifteen miles in every direction, and there were a lot of monsters. They all hit their max kills for experience, and by then most monsters were around level thirty, so their ability points skyrocketed. They all reached maximum in health, stamina, strength, and mana, and knew most of the spells available to them. Arden was the weakest among them and he was at level 59. The highest they could get in theory was level 75, and Jex seemed to have maxed out her bows skill at 75.

In mid June the day of departure came. Baybil walked around the village with Torger. “My friend, you have been a great blessing to our tribe. Muldwil and his sons have looked kindly on us to send us such an intelligent and selfless ruler. I wish this didn’t have to be goodbye.”

“It doesn’t have to be. You could join us in our fight against the Tyters. If you join with the elves, we could win!”

“We’ve been over this Torger. Too many times to count. We will continue on and persevere as a tribe long after you are gone. You are asking us to throw away the safety of the tribe to protect you. As painful as it is to say, you are still just another game for the tyters. You are by far stronger than any prey they have ever faced, and I hope you do win, but my main priority has to be the tribe, not a few individuals.”

Torger didn’t like it, but he knew he wouldn’t change Baybil’s mind. Instead he turned to Thirrell. “Young dwarf, you have a great sense of ambition and relentless stamina. You have learned much in the past six months, and I wish I could teach you more, but time is up. Remember to always keep morale high in the village.”

“Thank you Torger, my mentor and my friend. I know I will not be able to keep the village as prosperous as you made it, but you have been the best mayor our tribe has ever seen. No one would be able to lead as well as you, but I will do my best.”

Torger smiled, started to speak, then stopped himself. Instead he turned and walked to the edge of the village where his friends were waiting. He didn’t like a piece of Thirrell’s leadership, but he could no longer stay and continue to train the young dwarf. The new mayor seemed to take a little too much pride in finding and punishing dwarves who slacked off. Torger shook his head. That would not be his problem.

The Regulators walked to Yosemite Valley. They were greeted by Lagwil and Yiloding at the edge of the village. Torger nodded his head to them. “It is a great honor that the two most prestigious elves of the Pomo tribe have come to greet us personally. I assure you I have all your gold.” He said the last part with a grin knowing they never doubted he would accomplish what he said he would.

“And it has been a great honor to have met such remarkably talented and wise humans. I wish we had a great gift to give you in your fight against the tyters, but we have nothing of tremendous value to offer. Instead please take these.” Yiloding handed each of them three high health and high stamina potions.

The cost would have been high for those potions, and Torger had already expected they would give him a gift. He handed Yiloding a backpack full of refined gold, exactly sixty pounds. “I thank you for your generosity. Our relations have been mutually beneficial, and it has been an honor to work alongside you for the greater good of Nuva.” He handed them a quiver filled with twenty arrows with silver arrowheads.

Lagwil accepted them and nodded. “I will leave you with a word of advice. The hunters will come for you as a sport or a game, and they will bring inferior weapons to make it more challenging for themselves. The extraction team won’t care if you live or die and will bring all the strength and technology they have if you get in their way.”

Torger nodded and thanked her. They all walked through the village and it was the first time anyone other than Torger and Rome saw the inside of an elf village. Everyone knew what a great honor it was that the tribal chief himself led non elves through the main village. Once they exited on the east side, the humans kept walking.

They marched east towards the Great Salt Flats. Travelling dwarf merchants had said there was a large goblin population there, possibly a few thousand strong. It was likely they had sent the spy to see if they could eliminate the weak Cucamonga tribe, and take more land for themselves. The Regulator’s task was to cut their number in half, buying decades of enforced peace between the dwarves and goblins. Each Regulator was between level 59 and 65, and most goblins were level 18, but it was seven against possibly as high as three thousand.

After they had left Home and then Yosemite, the dwarves and elves changed their status with humans to neutral. That meant the Regulators could no longer teleport to Cucamonga dwarf or Pomo elf cities. That left them with three places: The small cave owned by Arden and Jex in Indio, the cave owned by Antic near Palm Springs, and Kellogg Hill owned by Brun. They were truly alone now, and about to face the first of three major battles. As they walked they each heard what sounded like a radio transmission in their head, and it was being run through Translate.

“(Static) …in route now… arrive in three… any hunters respond.”

They looked at each other. Brun asked “What was that?”

Everyone didn’t know but insisted on talking as if they did, except Rome. He stayed silent until they all looked at him. “The extraction team is close enough to begin sending communication to Nuva. They will arrive in three months, and they don’t know if there are any hunters on the planet. My guess is that soon they will be able to hear us talking and realize we have absorbed some of their technology into ourselves. If I’m right, and I hope I’m not, they will be able to pinpoint each one of our locations on this planet.”

Torger shook his head but tried to rally everyone. “Nothing we can do about it now. Let’s focus on the goblins first. And Rome, I sure am happy you came up with the plan to welcome them to their hunting grounds.”

Arden got a vicious grin on his face, but only the three of them knew where Rome had really been going everyday. Torger took the lead and the others continued to march towards certain but temporary goblin death.