The forge room was expansive, with several wings going off to the sides with kilns, furnaces and anvils ready to go. In the walls were carvings of dwarves holding metalworks high, building things or fighting monsters. A sense of history was carved into stone, the ancient feeling building from a bygone era that had weathered centuries and remained for people to see.

The snow leopard woman fell onto her knees breathing a sigh of relief as her shoulders dropped, letting out her stress. “Finally, a working holy site. I never thought we would find one. Now we can add more as we go if we have too.”

The dwarf beside her tugged on his beard and frowned looking at the altar. “Ishaka? She has a shrine nearby connected back to her temple in Dastow?” He noticed our group and took one look at Yara. “Ah, great descendant of the golden goddess, I suspect this has your hand in it?”

Yara waved her hand and both people in front of the altar read whatever she sent to them. They shook her hand and thanked her, and whispered something else, with the dwarf shoving a coin bag into Yara’s hand. She tried to refuse but the older looking dwarf wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Lin raised her hand and waited for the snow leopard woman to notice. “Did something happen to the temple in Dastow?”

The air in the forge was changing, it was now a hot dry place, a great refuge from the cold, and one Yara seemed to enjoy. Yet I could see a pained expression in the eyes of the two people by the altar.

Insight : Success!

+3 XP gained.

Worry for the people, of problems back home or something more. They were deeply troubled, but my mind was locked onto what was happening in Dastow. The city I had heard about several times now, each time it came up it was swept up the rug.

The snow leopard woman put a hand over her heart. “I’m sorry I forgot my manners, I’m cleric Nadya of the Heninekia temple in Dastow. I’m only an assistant, a level five cleric, but I have become the guide to the beast-kin here. As for the city…well there was an incident with the gangs in the temple district. A fire broke out, there was quite a lot of damage and the temples were shut down until repairs were finished.”

“You can guess how fast that went knowing the council,” the dwarf grumbled, tapping his fingers on his bronze dusted armour. “By the length of my beard, I have the history to know what happens when leaders start pushing out followers of the gods. Delays kept happening, the costs kept going up, clerics trying to save their relics were arrested, and after the entire winter without an end in sight we made the choice to leave before things turned violent.”

Yara sent me the information, showing me a small menu to allow this shrine to connect to ours. There were a few options to charge a ‘tax’ on the blessings or experience they accessed as it went through Ishaka’s connections. She had set everything to zero, and I didn’t see any need to trouble these people.

Nadya placed a hand on the altar and read something. “Every altar between the city and here was damaged, defaced or unable to muster the divine power to connect back. But now with your help we can access the stored blessings!” She called for Elkan and his brother for help, and they left to bring the sick or wounded. “I must apologize, but I need to get to work helping our people.”

The dwarf motioned for us to follow him. “I’m sadly a warrior, not a healer, so I can show you around while she works. Just in case we need to trouble you more priestess. I haven’t had to hitch a cart to another god's power before.”

We followed him into one of the side wings, finding visible green and grey-brown ore veins in the stone wall, with an elaborate murial below them. On the far side of the room, past more ethereal fires in the walls was a large furnace, a small lumpy anvil, several tools and a box full of a red sandy mixture.

A knowledge prompt told me this was a dwarven bronze workshop, and the carvings were quite old, several hundred years old. Yet it seemed to have no clue what they meant.

“I don’t believe we have been introduced,” the dwarf said, reaching out a hand.

We took turns shaking his hand, and when I felt his weathered grind into my palm like sandpaper I was given the chance to swap character information.

Bronson, Rook Dwarf, Level 14 Forge Cleric

I let out a low whistle. “You must be a force to be reckoned with.”

“Except at my age my bones hurt, and I’m more likely to talk your ear off instead of swinging a hammer in a shield wall,” Bronson said, giving us a sad smile. “I’m best left to teach, recharge a few trinkets and fix up a few weapons before napping for a week. Speaking of which, would you like a history lesson?”

Lin yawned, and I had to agree with her. I was feeling exhausted after the hectic battle with the gryphon and marching all the way here. I was however more curious about this place, and something in the back of my mind was trying to call my attention, I just couldn’t tell what. I smiled looking at the forge, and picked up the rough, slightly misshapen hammer off the wall pegs. I turned the bronze head around in my hand, watching how its surface danced with the light, while the pits absorbed it. “Sure, what is this place Bronson?”

The dwarf started our tour at the first wall panel, a three by three foot sheet of rock carved with patterns to show a group of dwarves sailing on the seas. He asked for the hammer I held and used it as a pointer. “Long ago the dwarven ancestors fled their island home, a cold rocky land with volcanoes, rich ores and veins of magic crystals allowing us to forge great armies. It isn’t clear what the disaster was, this rune means great force of nature, so it could have been a volcano blowing up, a great tidal wave flooding our cities or even a dragon. Dragon’s are a force of nature. This is one of the reasons a few centuries ago we dropped these old runes for the modern dwarven one.”

He went to the next panel showing the dwarves arriving on the shore. They set up huts, little stone walls, and were surrounded by beasts that looked like blocky bears. They could have also been wolves, whatever the artist was trying to show it had teeth and was bigger than a dwarf. The last part of the panel showed two taller people, one that seemed human, and another with a tail showing up.

“The first season was harsh, some lost their lives to beasts, or cultists attacks. This rune means dark gods inhabit the land, and warns about preparing to ward off their influence. Something I’ve noticed at the defaced shrines we came across this past week.” Bronson said. He tapped on the two taller people. “But we met a friendly local tribe who worshipped good aligned gods trying to undo the damage. They gave us medicine, taught us what local plants were safe and how to thwart the beast attacks.”

Lin gasped. “The landing of the stoneborn fleet! I learned about it during a history class. I don’t remember much of the details, but the beast-kin were super happy because the dwarves brought the best sourdough starter with them. It’s all over my homeland now, I love that stuff.”

Bronson let out a hearty laugh and the two of them started chatting about meads to go with the bread. Yara nudged me and pointed at the sky over the dwarves in their huts. Several looming figures were circling around, including a flying snake spitting out flames.

Yara’s magenta eyes focused on each shape. “I feel like we might get some fun visitors soon. The type that should be greeted at the gates by a ballista.”

I felt soreness in my arm, the one once torn off by Lord Gastov. I placed a hand over it, feeling heat deep within it as I looked at the flying snake. “Let’s just hope the gnomes haven’t managed to saddle one of those yet.”

Yara clapped me on the shoulder. “Hey, trust me a few ballistae would have the raw power to pierce the hide of one of these gryphons. Besides, I barely got to fight the last one, I feel left out.”

“I guess I’ll need more automatons for distractions then,” I said.

Bronson led us to the final panel in the room showing the dwarves at their forges making all kinds of weapons and armour, and sharing them with the local tribe to band together to beat back the monsters. “The humans, beast-kin and dwarf army culled the creatures, limiting them to the dark woods, and migrated northward to find more habitable lands. There’s an inscription here, saying Borros made us great craftsmen so our work can benefit all friendly kin across the world. The purpose of this shrine, and many others, is to record how to make these metals. Like this room shows how to properly forge bronze, in case the world collapses and we have to relearn all over. The one next to us would be copper.”

Lin watched as Bronson showed us the billows, and how to tip the furnace spout. She laid one of her knives in the sand and Bronson told her how they would take the shape of it in wax to lay into the sandbox so the molten metal would burn it away giving a copy of the knife. He turned the hammer around in his hand, pointing out how to work to harden the edge, and how someone like himself could weave a little magic into each stage.

“Bronze is no steel, but it is pretty to look at,” Bronson said, tapping his armour with the hammer.

“So it’s a doomsday temple?” I asked, looking around the room. I saw by the ore veins on the other side of the room was a carving of a single dwarf doing the process of melting the ore in the furnace, then pouring it into a form to make an axe head. “Neat.”

“As long as Borros is kind the dwarves won’t have to go through that again. But like an ingot cast into the furnace, and hammered into place we won’t know what shape we will take until long after the coals have cooled and we have hardened into what we were meant to be,” Bronson said. “I just hope I am a useful piece for my god.”

Knowledge Religion : Partial Success!

Borros, the great dwarven god of craftsmen is known by several names. The great smith, the great builder and so on. Most of his religious worship follows a strict code of conduct, with emphasis on building relations, civilization and items. As such the dwarves have found plenty of places to meld into many societies because of their natural talents letting them become expert craftsmen quickly.

Most, if not all, of their sayings, scripture and rituals follow in line with this identity.

“Useful piece huh,” I said, resting my hand on my chin as I inspected the carving of the craft dwarf. I felt something in my mind click, something settling into place.”

We left the room to find Nadya with her hands over one of the bandaged fighters from our battle. Her hands glowed and the man took off his bandages to see his wounds completely healed. There were several more in need of aid and Bronson excused himself to help Nadya, placing a hand on her shoulder.

We quietly left them to their work, and I noticed as Nadya was casting healing spells Bronson held a small bronze hammer amulet in his hand, with power flowing out of him into the snow leopard woman. She didn’t seem to be feeling the effects of mana blight, and after each spell cast the lights in the room got a bit more bright and full.

A dwarf in battered mail armour with a dented shield met us at the top, and ushered us towards one of the huge statues in the small walled town to rest at. There were tents around, campfires with people tending to large pots, with others keeping watch. It seemed like a third of the camp’s residents were awake and on edge.

“Should we head back to home base or stick around?” Lin asked, her ears following whispers in the wind. “Emile had said the trade post was close by, but people were too tired to keep going.”

Yara let out a long yawn, and shivered as the cold air blew past. “I’m tired, Josh is probably low on magic, and it’s cold. I’m all for camping out.”

“Yeah, me too” I said, tugging my collar closed. “I want to see this trade post, and I want to see these people get someplace safe. If they have some fighters who are roaring to fight back I might have a need for them.”

I got questioning glances from the two of them and we headed towards our statue. There was a massive man in full armour beside a dainty woman who was tending to a stew pot. She was handing out bowls to passing guards, and when she saw us she waved us over. Her pointed ears had little hoop earrings, and her smile was brighter than the moon.

“Hello darlings, welcome to our little tent family. I watch out for the kids, my husband Masson watches out for monsters! He’s an experienced monster hunter so you are safe with us,” she said.

Masson grunted a greeting and rested a hand on his lap where a greatsword the size of me rested. He took one look at the three of us, a feeling of being watched followed, then he turned to his wife. “My darling, that’s a demoness warrior, an experienced rogue and a sword wielding wizard. I’m pretty sure the three of them are keeping us safe tonight.”

I felt Yara nudge me, and she showed me the huge man’s information.

Masson, half-giant, Level 3 Spud Farmer

The elf, or half-elf woman clasped her hands. “That’s even better! Please have some stew, and did you bring tents or do you need to borrow some?”

We twisted to point out our packs and tried to show we had our own rations. Yet she wouldn’t let us go to bed hungry, so I offered a trade for some of our food for theirs. I felt terrible taking food from these people as I didn’t know how much they actually had, so I made sure to slip some extras to Masson behind his wife’s back. He gave me a silent nod of approval and we found a spot beside one of the slab houses to set up our tent. The long abandoned garden plot by the home was the only nearby patch of unclaimed ground that wasn’t full of rocks to dig into our backs.

The tent was quite large, equivalent to a ten man tent, and the spacious interior gave us the space to lay out our bedrolls and gear. Yara immediately put the three together and our blankets before setting up no less than three of my clay heaters. The heavy layers of wool over us kept the heat in, and we stripped off our snow gear. I heard a low noise of banging metal and stuck my head out to see patrolling guards. The dwarves, beast-kin and human warriors had torches and were stopping by to chat with anyone that was awake. I could see we were in good hands, with vigilant guards to keep the camp safe overnight. I heard a hiss behind me, complaining about heating the great outdoors and I buttoned the flaps closed. Lin had her lantern out giving us some light.

Yara sat down, got under layers of blankets and sipped at her soup. “You two are going to have to be in bed with me, I refuse to freeze to death tonight.”

We ate and chatted about the various people here. Like I had noticed there were a lot of decently levelled ex adventures mixed in with the commoners, which kept my two companions at ease. An attack against the camp would be foolish as there was an armoury of magical gear here now. Soon we focused on the hot hearty meal to shake out the last bits of cold clinging to us. In my head I was connecting some dots, I just needed a few more things.

“What’s with this connection stuff Yara?” I asked, pointing my spoon towards where the stone hammer building was.

Yara stretched out in bed. “I talked to Sliva, she mentioned back in Avonna she and the other priestesses on the big islands connecting the temples together to move the blessings around. For the far islands around Avonna they set small little shrines on uninhabited rocky islands between them to bridge the gaps. Every once in a while if one failed they could drain it’s divine powers and send someone to fix it. She did also mention if a friendly god to Ishaka needed to, they could funnel their power through her temples, and she could do the same to them in return.”

Another click, and a sense of understanding filled me. I chuckled as I rolled my head back. “Now it makes sense.”

Yara poked at me with her tail on the nose. “It’s late, spit it out.”

“I’ve been played, right from the start. It’s why I’m here, and why most of you might be too,” I said.

Lin looked at me, her tail swishing behind her like she was going to pounce. I had her curiosity. “Go on.”

“Think about it, why was I dropped on Ewyernar right beside an abandoned settlement. Why right in the path of a cat girl who prayed to Heinekia, and why was I pushed to magic, then making a shrine to Ishaka?” I asked. I held up my spoon and chuckled. “When I met Icharn I heard other voices, I couldn’t hear their words, but I got a sense of who they might be. He’s working with Heinekia and Ishaka, and I was put right there to be in the perfect spot.” I reached over to steal a spoonful out of Lin’s bowl. “Which means-”

Yara bolted up sending her empty bowl and spoon flying past me. “Now we are big enough to connect to the other shrines. I kept noticing weird things happening at our shrine when I walked past it, little bits here and there. I think Ishaka is draining everything from the temple in Dastow to move it out.”

Lin bit her lip. “So Heinekia really is watching out for me…joy. But what do we do then?”

“What do we do?” I sat up and opened my arms. “Well for starters this is good news. There is a saying my family members like to tell me. Don’t just work to be good, work to be irreplaceable. Since the gods need us to stay there to use us we have a little bit of a safety net. Which means I think it's time to go on the offensive.”

Yara sighed. “I knew Sliva was there for a reason. Vacation my ass.”

Lin leaned in. “Who are we fighting boss?”

I worked my jaw side to side, feeling the taste of bile. They had been a thorn in my side since the start. I leaned in, bringing my voice low as I heard guards pass by. “Gnomes. Icharn has been tipping me off, and I know where they are. A giant tree near the dunge- I mean our fort.”

Yara let out another yawn. She vanished under the blankets until I could only see the tip of her nose. “It’s midnight, and I’d like to get some rest. We can talk about siege plans tomorrow because I’m all for kicking the little buggers out.”

Lin punched the palm of her other hand and smiled. “They must have gathered quite the little haul in their lair. I’m all for returning those stolen goods to the proper market. Maybe even line our own pockets.”

I got into bed, as did Lin, with a pile of blankets below and on top of us. It wasn’t nearly as cozy as the beds back home, but out here I bet we were the most comfortable. Lin blew out her lantern and settled back in. The three of us were like peas in a pod lined up under the blankets and Yara was already fast asleep.

“Hey Josh?” Lin whispered.

“Hmm?” I looked across into the darkness, barely able to make out Lin. “What’s up?”

Lin huffed, and seemed hesitant. “I know the gods play dangerous games and we are all caught up in this…but I’m glad. It’s good to know this craziness has some sense of order. Oh, since the gods like to pull you into chats all the time tell Heninekia I said thanks for making sure I have a roof over my head.”

I chuckled and reached over, meeting Lin halfway to squeeze her hand. “Want me to ask her for another crazy power?”

I heard her blow me a kiss. “If you could, that would be lovely.”

Yara grumbled. “Tell Ishaka to give me bed mates that are less noisy.”

“Good night you two,” I said.

I heard some mumbles and I rested my head on a thin pillow, willing myself to sleep. In my head I could see the board now, the pieces were set, the cards were on the table and several shadowy figures were around. I didn’t know which was friend or foe, but I had a target. A giant tree with a little statue of a gnome, with a swift flick of my wrist the red capped menace tipped over crashing onto the board.

One of the figures leaned into the light, he was covered head to toe in a long cloak, with a breastplate over a gambeson, and heavy gloves on his hands. His face was hidden in a hood, but I saw a glint of a silver fang in the darkness. He had a bow on his back that glowed with malice, and he raised a mitt full of cards. “Welcome to the game. Can’t wait to finally meet you.”