Duval Estate.

Gerard watched as the small group of dragues shuffled as they stood waiting for him to begin his experiment. The Noble Goblin fastened some thick leather gloves on and covered himself in a matching leather apron and improvised mask for protection for what he was about to do. He called out an order to the dragues.

"Stand on the marked spots."

The dragues shuffled uncertainly and confused. Gerard sighed and marched over to one of the pitiful creatures and dragged it onto a spot on the concrete floor of the cellar marked by a strip of tape. He then proceeded to do the same for every, single, one. He sighed and shook his head as he returned to the corpse of the basilisk and made to continue with the experiment.

"Beginning experiment."

The handful of other Noble Goblins and even Red Cap guards took shelter behind barrels of wine and whiskey while keeping their gazes tied to the experiment commencing. Gerard then reached out and peeled an eyelid crusted with stone and sand open, revealing a pale and cloudy eye underneath. He then reached out a gloved finger and began to move the eye.

It gave a wet scratching sound as it moved whichever direction Gerard forced it to look in. Over barrels, wooden beams, even the concrete floor just in case. When nothing obviously changed, Gerard moved onto the next phase of this little experiment. So he then turned the eye to where the dragues stood in a diagonal line with the closest being just a couple feet away from him to the farthest being all the way and standing, or slouching to be precise, with its hunched back against the stone wall.

The results were near instant, he thought as the closest drague, despite being under the gaze of a single eye for less than a second, already began to calcify! The creature whined and tried to move its increasingly stiff limbs as self-preservation overwrote the order gave to it. Not like it mattered as the closest one was nothing more than a terrified statue within but a few seconds!

He then adjusted the eye to look at the next drague and came to a similar result. Then the next, then the next. The farther away the drague stood the more time it took before they found themselves calcified statues. From several seconds a couple feet away to gray splotches forming across their skin after more than ten feet.

When he opened a second eye the effect was doubled in intensity at close range to the point that a drague was flash frozen instantly. But as they got farther away the effects remained the same regardless of how many of the basilisk eyes were opened and focused.

With that experiment out of the way, he now moved on to finding out the why's and how's of the calcification. The gathered cohort of Noble Goblins and Red Caps quietly clapped as the calcified dragues were dragged away by their still fleshy kin. Though not delicately as some were simply pushed over and shattered to make transport of the gory stone easier for the pathetic menial goblins.

"Scalpel." Gerard stated and held out a gloved hand to where a maid, also clad in thick leather, stood nearby and handing him the small surgical knife from a tray of assorted and related instruments.

He took the small stainless steel blade and eased it into the socket behind the glassy eye. As he moved the knife it felt like he was cutting into soft stone more than flesh even behind the stony exterior. When he finally managed to force the blade behind the eye was he able to pop it out of the socket, where he saw the string of veins and nerves connecting the eye to the brain and cardiovascular system.

But he also saw some sort of strange looking organ that he was sure wasn't supposed to be there. It wasn't connected to any string of nerves from the looks of it, Gerard thought as he moved the organ further into the light of the cellar. It was little bigger than his own gloved hand and like everything else within the creature felt like a mix between solid stone and soft flesh with the sound of something grating as he twisted and squeezed the strange organ between his fingers.

"EH?!" Came a noise from nearby and Gerard turned to see a drague flash frozen nearby.

Gerard turned his gaze from the stony goblin to where the eye laid on the table nearby. Humming in thought he pinched the cords between the glassy eye and the strange organ and adjusted the eye to peer at another nearby drague. The goblin gave a frightfully pathetic wheeze as its yellowed eyes went wide with fear as it stood and waited to meet a similar fate as the others.

Only to find itself still flesh, bone, and bruises. It started to cackle gleefully at surviving. Until Gerard un-pinched the cord of veins that separated the eye from the strange organ, turning the gleeful drague into a celebrate statue in the blink of an eye.

"Fascinating."

He grabbed the scalpel and with a flick of his wrist separated the eye from the cords that connected it to the strange organ. A thick yellowish white fluid seeped from the severed bunch of cords. At first Gerard though it sickly puss, until he used the knife to open up the organ proper. Revealing a soup of white fluid with small mustard yellow stones the size of the tip of his pinky floating about in it.

Gerard hummed in thought and sat aside the knife before snapping his fingers to the maid.

"Bring the Geiger Counter."

The maid nodded and reached beneath the table and produced a device covered in dust and was heavy and unwieldy to the goblins' short stature. If Gerard's theory was correct, then this device, left over from when the Duvals wanted to expand into mining uranium during the Cold War, will tell him the truth.

The maid flipped on the device, causing it to crackle as it read the natural radiation in the air. He nodded and the maid moved it around just to experiment and test the device. The crackling getting louder or lower as it moved near light fixtures and away. Satisfied, Gerard had the maid point the device towards the organ and the strange sludge within it.

The Geiger Counter screamed, and Gerard had his answer. He motioned for the maid to turn the device off while he drained the organ of the fluid and uranium clumps into a jar. Something he did to the remaining three eyes. Giving him four jars of the thick white fluid with floating mustard stones within.

From what he could see and theorize, the basilisks either are born with a pocket of uranium behind their eyes or eat the stone during their life. From there they are able to use this strange organ to filter and focus the radiation into their eyes, causing rapid calcification in living matter.

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A potent weapon, he thought and turned towards the basilisk eggs they had collected. He could have one or two of them smashed in order to further his theory by dissecting them. But the chance at turning them into a fine addition to their forces was too much to pass up on for a theory he'll find out once they hatch anyway. When they're born they'll either calcify anything around them or they wont. Then he'll have his answer.

It was also his hope that perhaps at a young age they could be trained into sufficient beasts of burden. It was either that or continue to rely on the trogs to act as dimwitted and slow organic haulers of supplies as well as moronic grenadiers.

Then there was what to do with the corpses, he thought as he took off the protective gear now that the basilisk was now and truly a none-threat. While the goblins weren't ones to look past a free meal, the stony exterior of the lizards made getting to the only somewhat soft organs more of a challenge than most goblins would rather avoid out of principle. Even if they managed to break through and into the organs, as Gerard just found out, they'd be barely more edible than the hide itself was.

Which meant they now had a surplus of basilisk corpses. The only goblins that seem even remotely interested in them outside of potential food were those at the workshop that wanted one for reasons he could only guess. He suppose the hide could make for a decent armor but that was about it. Maybe some knives made from the teeth and claws?

He was hesitant to feed the corpse into a spawning pool. Goblins were already an aggressive lot, he wasn't sure what adding something that seemed just as if not more aggressive would do on top of the potential ability for them to petrify anything nearby.

Then he thought of a drague spawning pool. The pitiful beasts were already fearful and subservient of their betters, could putting a basilisk into the mix keep the lizards more mild-tempered while also making them more servile, Gerard thought as he rubbed his chin in thought.

Gerard sighed.

"Put the corpse in the freezer with the others."

The servants nodded and set about their task as Gerard left the basement cellar. So many things to do that needed to be done, he thought as he entered the kitchen area. At least while Morty was indisposed at the moment he didn't have to worry about anything new potentially cropping up in the meantime due to his temperament.

Which left him with matters such as the "fair" that Morty has been wanting to do. At this point it may as well be a Christmas Fair with the holiday nearing closer and closer. The clerical goblins among them were looking forward to the opportunity to preach and proselytize while others were just looking for the chance to show off their wares and workmanship. Or lack there of, he thought with a sigh. Despite being mentally more refined than their baser kin, even the Noble Goblins were having trouble when it came to quality over quantity. They were goblins after all and quantity was their strength.

He looked up as a maid neared and spoke after doing a curtsy.

"Someone is here to see Master Mortimer."

"Did you inform them that he is indisposed at the moment?"

"Yes. But they insist on at least speaking to someone in charge."

"What for?"

"He said he had an offer that we couldn't refuse."

Gerard hummed in thought and dismissed the maid to return to her duties while he made his way to the front door. He was skeptical to be sure. So far their presence has been tolerated in town, barely and he doubt whoever it was was coming in the goodness of their heart. Proved all the more when he opened the door and saw a red-haired dwarf waiting just outside.

"Can I help you?"

The dwarf turned at the sound of his voice and raised a brow.

"Are all you gobs here so freshened up?"

"Indeed. We are Noble Goblins. Who might you be?" Gerard explained then asked.

The dwarf nodded and cleared his throat.

"Arguin, son o' Arwin, son o' Arlin. Head representative o' tha guilds."

Gerard cocked his brow as the name sounded familiar.

"You belong to the dwarven clans?"

Arguin spat.

"No. I represent tha independent guilds that've yet ta be swallowed by mah kin."

"Hmm, and what is it you are here to do exactly?" Gerard asked though he already knew what he was here for after piecing together that this was the same dwarf he wrote a letter of introduction to not long ago.

"Well, from what I and mah lads have gathered, yer boss is tha only competition fer mah kin at tha Hub."

"And this pertains to us how?" Gerard asked, though he could already start to get the picture.

"It's either him or mah kin." The dwarf stated simply.

"And this does not bother you? I heard dwarves were very close to their kin."

"Aye. But what's tha' human sayin'? Family breeds contempt?"

"Familiarity."

"Aye, that. We dwarves grow old and either that means we're thick as stone between us, or we can barely be in tha same room as one another. Us in tha guilds are tha latter. Before back in Daele thin's were more or less settled. We had our spaces, they had theirs. But now? In this new world? They're bein' greedy lil gulls and snatchin' up what they can. Me and mah lads are already strugglin' fer work without bein' bled dry by our own kin!"

"So take it up with the police. I'm sure they'd be more than glad to hear your complaints." Gerard suggested, while they might not be doing things that are entirely legal, he knew for a fact that the dwarves weren't much better.

The dwarf threw his thick arms up in exasperation.

"We tried! Heard from folk in town 'bout laws and such! Took it ta tha guards! They said they'd 'get 'round ta it when they can'. Barely enough o' 'em ta wrestle a single dwarf I doubt they'd force anythin' o' mah kin."

"So what exactly is it you are asking?" Gerard asked though he already knew what it was.

"A partnership." The dwarf declared.

Gerard hummed.

"What kind?"

"Yer boss has materials, but what I've seen o' his products I'd say he needs all tha help he can get." The dwarf replied bluntly.

"For now. But as you can see, we are making progress." Gerard stated and gestured to the Red Cap guards and himself.

"Aye. But you've been here longer than mah kin have. Yet they're already turnin' out tools and weapons better than what yer boss gots."

"Perhaps. But from what I have heard they also have their own share of troubles to deal with."

"Aye. But they're dwarves, they'll get past 'em one way or another. In tha meantime, I propose while they're busy dealin' with their troubles, mah lads and I deal with yer boss and get some solid footin' underneath us before mah kin can sink their claws inta tha place any further."

Good, Gerard thought as he put on a look of contemplation. While the dwarf seemed to think he would be dealing with Morty and not him, that wasn't a problem.

"Very well, I can deliver your offer to Master Mortimer in the meantime."

"Why can't I speak with him?" The dwarf asked huffily.

"He is currently indisposed at the moment." Gerard stated.

"Too indisposed ta meet with potential partners?"

"I am sure you would be too if you encountered basilisks in one of your mines." Gerard replied.

The dwarf winced.

"Yeah, that'll do it. How is he?"

"Recovering. He fared better than some of our... workforce did."

"So when can I speak ta him then?" The dwarf asked in an effort to get past the awkwardness of the situation.

"For now you may speak to me and we can discuss things."

"You?" The dwarf asked skeptically.

"Indeed. I oversee matters such as these in Mortimer's place during such inconveniences."

The dwarf grumbled and looked back down the road like he wanted to turn and walk away right then and there. He then sighed and turned back towards Gerard.

"Fine."

"Excellent. Come in then."

"I think it'd be better if I didn't." The dwarf replied and eyeballed the two hobgoblin guards.

Gerard sighed.

"Very well. Then we will speak terms here then?"

"Better place as any." The dwarf replied.

From there the two discussed terms of their new partnership. The goblins, under the disguise and legitimacy of Morty and the Duval Family name, would supply the guilds with materials, lumber, stone, iron, etc. In exchange for a cut of the profits earned, the guilds were allowed to sell the end product at whatever rate they deemed fitting while also declaring the product their own make and material.

This meant the guilds would now have some teeth to them when dealing with the dwarves at the railyard while also giving the Duval Family a needed source of income and trade outside of the batches of lumber sold to someone in town who they had yet to learn who. While for the time being they weren't going to get the knowledge and legitimacy of being the ones to trade their wares at a higher quality, it meant that they could weaken their enemies via a proxy while the goblins themselves continued to get better and better.

Something Gerard was more than willing to do. Let your enemies and rivals fight while they got stronger. Isn't the first time, nor the last, that he'll employ such a tactic, he thought as he and the dwarven rep parted ways with promises of future cooperation. With that out of the way, Gerard can turn to other matters.

Like what to do with the nobles.

Progress has been going strong in terms of mixing bloodlines with the goblins. Not quite to the degree he would like as there have yet to be sighs of conception, but enough that he could say that the future in regards to the nobles was firmly in their favor. Which just left the issue of the current heads of the noble families themselves. They needed to die. But in a manner that was tragic and wouldn't pose doubts about the legitimacy of the heirs.

He already had something that might do the trick, but he would have to wait for other moving parts to get into place in order for such a thing to occur. Which left him with other things to do. So many other things to do. But that was a task he was prepared for and welcomed for the end product would be well worth it.