“Hey Guild Master, can you pass those taters?” Becky asked.

Hans sat at the dinner table of Mayor Charlie’s apartment above the bakery. Larger than the guild apartment, the space had the humble character of a working class home built far from the comforts of a big city, but it was immaculately kept. The walls and ceilings were panels of stained wood sanded so smooth they felt soft. The floors were wood as well, smaller more delicate strips accented with yarn rugs as thick as a sailor’s rope.

Watercolors appearing to depict places around Gomi dotted the walls, and an easel sat in the corner with a half-finished painting of the Dead End Mountains as seen on the road going out of town.

Galinda, Charlie’s tusk-touched wife, was responsible for the carpentry and the watercolors. Her demeanor was gruff and her words were blunt, but seeing her and Charlie in the kitchen together was like watching any other happily married pair, though the stark size difference was still jarring at times.

As it turned out, Galad was Galinda’s brother. Despite what they say about small town folk all knowing each other, that discovery was a revelation for Hans, framing his conversations with Mayor Charlie in a new perspective. Charlie wasn’t just protecting his citizens, he was protecting his family.

And Hans hadn’t forgotten how Galad described his connection with other tusks. He said they were all brothers and sisters, which meant Charlie had a lot of in-laws.

Charlie’s cooking was increasing Hans’ admiration as well. With a bit of venison steak melting in his mouth–freshly butchered that day–he passed a plate of steaming potatoes to Becky the druid. An open bottle of fool’s root vodka sat on the table between them. It was Hans’ gift to the hosts, and it was nearly empty.

“I apologize for bringing business to the dinner table, but I’m going to forget again if I don’t ask,” Hans started. “How do I go about ordering rations and books? Does that go through you like the mail or is that different?”

“Hmm,” Charlie said, his mouth full of steak. “You can always talk to the next merchant caravan that visits about anything you like. I don’t mind doing that for you as long as you don’t give me grief about the price I negotiated.” A little bit of food shot across the table when Charlie laughed at his own words.

“I trust you.” Hans was surprised to hear himself say that. Had he grown that comfortable with Gomi in just a few days?

“Might need more of your touch with the books, though,” Charlie added. “That’s not a common order, and you’ll probably want to source them from a few towns away at most, otherwise they won’t be here before the snow.”

“Tough winters here?”

The three people at the table laughed as if Hans had made a joke. When they saw Hans staring back at them blankly, they stopped.

“City boy is going to learn a lot about winter,” Becky said, still chuckling.

“We get a good bit of snow,” Charlie said.

Becky nearly spit out her food. “A good bit? Charles, we got to be straight with the Guild Master or he’ll freeze to death in a snowdrift somewhere.”

“That bad?”

“Lots of snow,” Galinda said. “Snow stacks up as tall as me.”

Wait. Huh? No one told me that.

Hans checked each face, looking for the tells of playful exaggeration. “You’re serious.”

Everyone offered an “mmhmm” with their mouths full of food.

“The Guild really didn’t tell you anything at all, did they?” Charlie mused. “Road into town is usually buried for two or three months. One bad winter it was five.”

“When you say buried, do you mean no merchant caravans?”

“Yep. No one coming or going at all. Except for one year when I was a boy. A mage made a wrong turn and didn’t realize it until he had melted the whole road clear.”

“You better stock your pantry,” Becky said. Steak juice dribbled into her beard. “Even the forest gets quiet. Hardly anything to hunt.”

“Speaking of hunting,” Hans said while his mind reeled from the significant lifestyle change on the horizon, “I’ve never met a Druid that hunts. They’ve always been really protective of wildlife.”

“That’s easy. Nature has predators and prey. They’re not predators.”

Hans went to laugh and saw that Becky wasn’t joking. She said it with the same matter-of-factness as if she had said “I’m a dwarf.” And she didn’t elaborate, just went back to enjoying her food.

“Quentin was telling me you adventured with Master Devontes,” Charlie said.

“That’s true.”

“Is he as much of a pretty boy as everyone says? He strikes me as a beautiful, beautiful man,” Becky said.

“He is a handsome individual, yes.”

“Was it just that one adventure with the underdark troll?”

“Wow, so Quentin told you the whole story,” Hans said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “We crossed paths quite a bit there for a while, in his early years. He hit Gold, and his career took off. Diamond within the year. Platinum six months after that. Adventurers like that don’t slum it with the rest of us too often.”

“How was he in the early ranks?”

Hans thought. “I’ve got a good one from when he was Iron, and it reminds me. I wanted to give you the heads up that I’m sending a letter to an old colleague. Olza’s got this flower she can’t identify and I think she could help. Becky found it, originally, actually.”

“Master Devontes reminds you of a flower?” Galinda asked.

“Ha no, no. This colleague is in the story I’m thinking of. I still need to talk to Olza about it, but thought you should be aware.”

“Thank you, lad,” Charlie answered. “By your mentioning, I can tell you’ve already given that letter some thought as far as Gomi is concerned. Please, we’re eager to hear your story.”

Charlie emptied the last of the vodka into his cup and retrieved a whisky bottle from his kitchen, setting it on the table for the group.

“I was Silver at the time, and so was the colleague I mentioned. Her name is Mazo,” Hans began. “Mazo is a halfling Blue Mage.”

“Blue Mages are crazy,” Becky said like the potato stuck on her fork was a microphone. Charlie and Galinda agreed.

“I take it you’re all familiar with how a Blue Mage learns their spells?”

In the world of spellcraft, Blue Mages were both notorious and incredibly rare, due to their high mortality rate. Unlike a Black or White Mage–wizards who specialize in offensive magic and defensive or support magic, respectively–Blue Mages did not learn their primary spells from books. Instead, they “captured” or “learned” a monster’s ability and used it for themselves.

The most iconic Blue Mage became famous for his dragon’s breath, equal in strength to a juvenile red dragon. For context, an elder dragon can torch a city block with a breath where a juvenile could only manage a single house.

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Relative to its family, juvenile dragon’s breath is weak. Relative to what a person can usually manage with their abilities, juvenile dragon’s breath had the power to win wars.

Though scholars argued that Blue Mages had the greatest potential of all spellcasters, only 1 out of 1000 students of spellcraft took the Blue Mage path. Of those who did, half were dead in their first year.

Learning a monster’s ability required three elements: a monster, an incantation that begins the ritual, and an incantation of the Blue Mage’s design, which they will use any time they cast that spell derived from the ability they just absorbed.

Absorbed is the keyword.

The catch to this process was that the Blue Mage had to experience the ability being used upon them. Therefore, to learn to breathe dragon’s fire, for example, a Blue Mage had to survive dragon’s fire without botching the ritual. Dying counts as botching, by the way. Hence the high mortality rate of Blue Mages.

The only grace in this process was that whatever laws of nature governed the spell transfer process were loose in their definition of “experiencing” an ability. Consequently, Blue Mages went to wild extremes to prepare to learn a spell, layering themselves with armor and protection spells. A few Blue Mages relied on debuffs as well, but anything that weakened their target also weakened the ability they wanted to learn, so that approach was relatively uncommon.

“Mazo wanted to learn what she called an ‘earth smash.’ Apparently, when an earth elemental slams the ground–or an enemy–with both hands locked together, they’re actually using an innate ability.”

“Interesting,” Charlie said.

“Mazo asked me if I would help her, and I was already planning to take two Irons out to this cave system near Hoseki. It’s known for being an earth elemental hotspot. Good training for newbies.”

One of those Irons was Master Devontes, and the other was the rogue from Hans’ story about the troll. While Mazo and Hans set up the ritual, the Irons could get some practice against earth elementals. That was the idea, at least.

Hans again emphasized that Mazo was a halfling. The average earth elemental could step on a halfling and not notice, making the “experiencing the ability” part of the process particularly perilous for Mazo. Somehow, she had to absorb a blow that had the force to flatten a human rib cage.

Mazo built a shield she called “the snail shell.” It was shaped like an overturned metal pot, designed to completely cover her from all sides. The snail shell was the result of Mazo’s experimentation with weaker monsters. If she put a wall between her and the attack, the ritual failed. If she was holding a shield, it didn’t, so she kept building progressively bigger and bigger shields, resulting in the snail shell.

Her theory was that since she could move the snail shell, it didn’t trip the rule that solid walls did.

Like most halflings, Mazo was not particularly muscular. She could lift the thick metal snail shell, but only for a few seconds at a time.

“You made Master Devontes carry that shield the whole way?” Becky asked.

“He wasn’t ‘Master’ Devontes at the time, and the rogue helped.”

With the Irons lugging the equipment, the rest of the plan could proceed. Due to her limited mobility in the snail shell, Mazo needed Hans to lure an earth elemental to her. From there, the halfling would get the monster’s attention, and with any luck, its first move would be the ability she wanted. If it wasn’t, and the snail shell was looking weak, Hans would step in and end the fight.

If not end it, hold the elemental’s attention long enough for Mazo to get out from under her shield.

“We slew 23 elementals on the first day,” Hans said. “No new ability.”

Luring a physical manifestation of an earth spirit was more difficult than they anticipated. Of the one earth elemental the party got to attack Mazo–all of the others kept their attention on Hans, only shifting when one of the Irons dealt damage–it opened with a stomp. Hans chopped the earthen leg before it could descend on the snail shell.

The party camped in the caverns that night so they could try again in the morning.

“It was Devon’s turn to take watch, so the rest of us were asleep. Suddenly, I’m waking up to Devon yelling for help. He was 17, so his voice was cracking every other word as he ran. I didn’t know that a pile of dirt could look angry, but behind him was the angriest earth elemental I’ve ever seen in my life. That thing was stalking down the hall like my dad when he caught me sneaking out.”

The audience at the dinner table was transfixed.

“He ends up leading it past us. That thing stomped through camp and didn’t care about anyone else. It was locked onto Devontes.”

Mazo told the Iron to take it to the end of the hall and doubleback. She had a good feeling about this elemental, she said. Devontes argued with her all the way to the dead end and back, his voice squeaking the louder he needed to yell, but he did as he was told.

While Devontes practiced running, Hans and the rogue helped Mazo into her snail shell and quickly cleared their camping gear from the elemental’s path, what was left of their gear at least.

When he made his return trip, instead of running past the snail shell as they had tried the day before, Devontes stopped right in front of it and turned to face the earth elemental.

“He stood right there as this thing is charging him. It raises its hands to earth smash Devontes, and the kid–remember he’s only Iron at this point–rolls backward over the shell. Backwards somersault right as the fists were coming down. The earth elemental hits the snail shell instead, missing him by a horse hair.”

“So the mage succeeded,” Galinda said.

“Yes, and we were excited. It was a gods awful morning hour, but we were celebrating. Devontes was a little off, though, like he was ashamed of something. He eventually tells us that the earth elemental didn’t stumble across our camp.”

“What? Then where did it come from?” Becky asked.

Hans smiled, his cheeks a little red from the liquor. “When Young Master Devontes was on watch, he stepped away from camp to relieve himself.”

Galinda broke into a cackle, pounding her hand on the table with delight. Becky and Charlie looked at her curiously.

“You don’t get it?” Galinda asked. When Becky and Charlie shook their heads, “He peed on the earth elemental. That’s why it was so angry.”

Becky laughed so hard potatoes came out of her nose.

Quest Update: Pick up the guild provisions from the caravan after next.

Quest Update: Prepare a booklist for Mayor Charlie.

***

The warmth of summer hung in the night air as Hans staggered home. For a moment, he thought about knocking on Olza’s door to tell her about his idea to write to Mazo, but then the sober part of his mind reminded him that the hour was late. He continued on, looking at the stars over Dead End Mountain.

If this falls apart, maybe I just see how far I can get.

New Quest: Attempt to cross the Dead End Mountains.

I shouldn’t be thinking like that.

Quest Abandoned: Attempt to cross the Dead End Mountains.

Hans entered the guild hall and sat in the desk chair on the first floor, playing back the conversations of the night as he used a Create Water spell to fill a glass. He realized he enjoyed the company. He had fallen in with some good people, and laughing so much was a release he sorely needed.

Then he recalled a specific part of their talk. “Oh bugger.”

New Quest: Prepare for winter.

He knew that mountains had snow, but it occurred to him just then that he had never wintered in them. Hiked in them, hunted in them, camped in them, yes. But those were different from being snowed in for several months. As he thought about it, he was a bit naive to believe that all he’d need for a mountain winter was a good pair of boots and a heavier coat.

Thinking of being cut off from the rest of the kingdom for multiple months appealed to him. He hadn’t realized it, but a part of him perpetually worried that he would run into someone he used to know, like a Guild official or an adventurer like Devontes. As improbable as that was this far from anywhere.

If the roads were blocked, no one could bother him. For that entire period, he could be at complete peace. His mind was skilled at frothing the smallest of anxieties into a plague of worry, but even it couldn’t argue with the logic in this case.

Another realization slipped into place.

If I’m relieved by the idea of being cut off, I can’t imagine how the Tribe feels.

He thought of Gunther and Kane and their solo trek to reach Gomi. Two kids, running to safety. Then he thought of Galad and Galinda. Connecting some of the dots, he figured that Charlie’s story about the tusks in Kirai had come directly from the Mayor’s wife. Galad described himself as a founding member, and Hans knew that the two older founders of the Tribe had passed away. Those founders were Galad’s and Galinda’s parents.

That founding pair was in Kirai. Galad and Galinda must have been children when that happened. The things they must have seen. The things they endured.

Hans scolded himself for allowing his thoughts to get so grim. A sound outside distracted him, like a horse chewing and an old man’s snoring combined. Standing to look out the window, he saw Becky passed out on Becki’s back, face up, her mouth hanging open. Becki was wandering the town eating anything green, unbothered by her sleeping master.

“You two must do that a lot,” Hans chuckled to himself.

He quietly wished he had more tusk beer and went to bed.

Quest Update: Prepare for winter, and don’t forget the beer.

***

Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

Mend the rift with Devon.

Complete the manuscript for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

Pick up the guild provisions from the caravan after next.

Pick up training equipment from the smith when it is completed.

Wait for Olza to deliver the rest of the potion order.

Reestablish job-completion and monster-hunting recordkeeping.

Identify the unknown purple flower from Olza.

Keep the guild hall clean.

Prepare a booklist for Mayor Charlie.

Write a letter to Mazo for help with Olza’s flower, after asking Olza’s permission.

Grow the Gomi chapter without attracting outside attention.

Prepare for winter, and don’t forget the beer.