I strode into Instructor Goldo’s office. It was decorated with broken weapons and torn banners hung on the wall. A stand holding a very short and wide full suit of plate mail took up much of the wall to the right. An assortment of axes were in the holder right beside it.

The Gold Dwarf sat behind a desk made from bound together shields under some type of acrylic. His big hands were clasped together. Goldo’s rough, deep voice said, “Come on in and have a seat.”

The chairs in his office were solid bottom, not a seat with legs. It was an obvious modification when dealing with extreme dwarven weight. The seat was also comfortably low. I noticed a human style chair behind me against the wall.

“May I have your crystal?” The instructor held out a hand. I put the green crystal on his rough palm. He got out one of the magical tablets like Nills used. The 3D image of me going through the cavern system appeared over it. Strange to see me as a dwarf. My new body hadn’t quite caught up to my self image.

“Hmm, well. Do you know what tower you’ll be selecting for your Magery?” Gold asked.

That question caught me off guard. “Not completely. I’m leaning towards Ember, but maybe Lunar.” I told him.

“Anything but Solar, eh?” He kept watching the combat scenes over and over. “You’ll want to reconsider the use of the shield. There’s much risk of spell failure for carrying it.”

“I’ve been putting it down when I cast and just picking it back up when it’s time for the axe.” I shrugged.

“Aye, I can see that.” He stroked his beard with those huge dwarven hands. Gold dwarves are alabaster pale with red veins visible through their skin. It makes them look made of marble. The contrast of the white skin and golden hair was really striking. “As you continue yer mage build there most likely will be no spare talents for combat or I’d advise you to pick up a Kote.”

“A coat?” I asked, turning my ear towards him to make sure I heard it correctly.

“Kote, with a k. Iron sleeves is another name for it. It’s a type of armor. Let me show you.” He got up and went to the back wall. He took down two metal tubes with underlying silk or something like it. The metal on the outside was scaled, like fish hide. There were projections that would cover the elbow and one that went over the back of your hand once it was tied onto the forearm. “Here, I’ll put it on you.”

Goldo came around his desk and tied the armor onto my forearm. There was a harness that went up the bicep and across my shoulders that felt a little awkward. “You’d need to use a talent to get the best use out of this. It’s amazing you trainees can do that. I had to work for fifty years to master these weapons and armor and you just select something in your memory place and have the knowledge.” He shook his head for a moment.

He went back to the wall and got a staff. “Use those shields to block my attacks.” He came up to me and I stood, uncertainly. With a loud Hiyaa he swung the staff overhand. I blocked with both arms. The impact shook me but didn’t hurt.

“Nice. Keep up now.” Goldo told me. He swung the lower end of the staff at my unmentionables. I hurriedly blocked with both forearms. My arms were long enough that with just forearm protection I could block impacts down to my knees.

He spun the staff and cracked me on the head. “There are two of them, block in different places.” The instructor became a hurricane of attacks. The staff whirled in his hands, seemingly hitting me in two places at once. I blocked about a third of the strikes. Finally, he stopped. “You see, they can be of value. Also has the same chance of spell failure as the round shield you’re currently using. It’s something to think about as you advance in power.”

I was standing there breathing hard, adrenaline shooting through my body. He calmly put the staff down and started unlacing the iron sleeves. “I didn’t expect that.”

Goldo stopped and stared me right in the eyes, one big finger pointed right at my nose. “ALWAYS expect attack. I’m aware you know nothing of your people, but the Silver Dwarves live in the deep places far under the surface. There is another dwarven race called the Iron Dwarves who worship the elder Gods. They’ve been waging a holy war on the silvers for millenia. ALWAYS expect attack. You’ll live longer.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “Is there anywhere I can get a book about silver dwarves? You saying that reminds me that I really don’t know anything about them.”

“Us. You know nothing about US, not them. You’re an us.” He smiled. The instructor went back to the shelf to the side of his desk. He studied the books for a moment, then pulled one. “This is by a great Gold Dwarven general. He led a free company down to fight beside the silvers. There may be references you don’t understand since it is written from our perspective, but it’ll give you a start. It’s also just a great book on leading dwarves in combat.”

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He handed me a book about two fingers think. Written on the cover in faded gold lettering was Down in the Deeps. My war beside our Silver Beard Cousins. “Wow, thank you. I’ll get it back to you as soon as I’ve read it.”

“Please do. That general was my grandfather. You know, it’s weird talking to the dwarves among you trainees. You all look like dwarves, but move and talk like humans.” He paused for a moment. “Ah well, nothing for it. Anyway, back to the analysis.” He moved back to the solid core chair behind his desk. As he sat on it, I became pretty sure it was made of solid metal.

“Since you will be trained in literally anything but actual combat magic, your style needs to reflect that.” He steepled his fingers in front of his face for a moment, lost in thought. “Do you have a plan for what you’ll do with your fortune priority?”

“Uh, not really.” I told him with an embarrassed look on my face.

“Do you understand the interaction between priorities? The way they all work together?” He asked me.

“I know I want to play a mage, so I need high priority in magic.” I brightened.

“That’s the basics, yes. But the interaction between priorities is what creates the character. We had to learn all this from Bidlack’s group.” Goldo said.

“Wait, what? Bidlack went through character creation?” I asked.

“Yeah, you didn’t know that? He’s from your world and was a part of the first group we brought over. One of the few survivors.” The gold dwarf nodded.

“Huh.” I said, mind spinning.

“Anyway, back to priorities. So if you want to play a mage roguish type you’d be high magic, then skills. Mage knight, high magic then combat. Straight mage, high magic then fortune.” Goldo said.

“I still just don’t get fortune. What does that have to do with magery?” I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.

“Why didn’t you ask Nills about that? A high fortune determines your access to equipment. It also allows you access to higher tiers of magic.” Gold told me.

“Wait, you can get higher-level spells?” I cocked my head curiously.

“No.” The instructor waved his hand in front of him in negation. “The order you can access is determined by your magic priority and character level. The TIER of magic you can access is determined by fortune. Why am I telling you this? I’m the combat instructor.” He sighed.

“Okay, so right now you get access to zeroth order spells, right?” He looked at me until I nodded. “I imagine in your memory place there were many spells named, but only a few you could get?”

“Yeah, it had these huge scrolls that stretched up into the sky. I only have three schools of magic at the moment and could access one spell in each.” I told him.

“Right, so the other spells in the zeroth order you couldn’t access were higher tier. They required more exotic components or are just rare. Your fortune level regulates access to them. So if you want to be the best caster you possibly can, I’d go high fortune and high magic. Possibly three to magic, two fortune, one skills or maybe even three to magic and three to fortune.” Gold told me.

“I think I understand.” I nodded slowly.

“All that will inform your combat style. If you’re low combat, you won’t be a battle mage, running around with axe and wand. That means your armor is about keeping the bad guys off you until your magic can end the threat. If you’re high skills, you might sneak around the battlefield, casting from the shadows. In that case, you’d need to either drop or camouflage your shield. So I can’t really help you create your combat style until we know that information.” He spread his hands as if to say he was sorry.

“Okay, so I need to decide on all of that first.” I nodded more enthusiastically.

“Yeah. Figure that out, at least in broad stroke. You don’t have to know exactly where every single priority point will go. I do need to know generalities, though.” Goldo stroked his beard thoughtfully.

“I do like what you’re doing with that rabbit.” He said. “Creating distractions and menacing them from another direction is a great use of a summons. Even better would be having them do battle for you, but you’re still zeroth level. There will be time for that. I’d seriously consider taking talents that increase the power of your summoned creatures.”

“There are those?” My eyebrows raised.

“There are a hundred talents you can choose from. One gives a bonus to just about anything you can think of.” He nodded.

“Is there a list somewhere I can study?” I asked hopefully.

“Not that I know of. From what I understand, they are different for everyone.” The instructor shrugged. “Now, be off with you. Come back when you better know your plan for priority points. We can do more for a combat style then.” He handed me the green crystal. I shook his hand and walked out of the room.

I went out into the hall. There was so much to consider for character creation. I’d always considered myself a bit of a min/maxer. Really, a gamer who squeezed every advantage, but it was totally different when you were doing it in real life.

Looking up, I saw Bron, the Bronze beard dwarf, listening to Conan the ogre, who paced and complained. “Dude, Stethyr told me I suck at sneaking. Can you believe that? I don’t suck, I just might not quite be great at it yet.” Bron nodded, arms crossed over his broad chest.

Conan saw me and nodded. “Hey Mike. How’re the skull sessions with the instructors going so far?”

“Pretty well. I’ve met with Goldo and Nills. Goldo basically told me I need to plan my build or there’s nothing he could do.” I shrugged.

“I know what Goldo’s going to tell me.” Conan said, flexing. “He’ll say I’m going to be the ultimate warrior.” The ogre said with a huge grin. It was weird seeing an ogre smile, but it did really show off their tusks.

Bron snorted at Conan’s confidence, and a ghost of a smile flitted across his face.

“Hey Bron, I’ve been meaning to talk to you. What’s your craft?” I asked the taller bronze beard.

“Bowyer.” He offered in his typical laconic style.

“Whoah, you could make me a bow?” Conan asked.

“Ha, sorry about that, buddy.” I clapped the other dwarf on the shoulder. He grunted.