“AaAaaaaahhhh, I will cover your meal, yes I will,” 27 promised. “In fact, I made much money with my kickback from selling many highest-of-quality goods today, yes I did. I’m feeling most generous after how far we’ve traveled together on this journey… plus, I know everyone but Drek is broke. I’ll pay for food and one drink for everybody. AaAaaaaahhhh, and that’ll include you, too, Borin!”

“Well! Alright then!” Borin rejoiced.

With that, the crew of six head to the Ladle Tavern for the evening. Colb found himself entering a dimly-lit building made from bismuthslate bricks, and filled with birchpine wood tables. The other customers in the tavern consisted of mostly humans, with some dwarves speckled in as well.

The crew enjoyed some good-quality, human-made meals and drinks, and shared stories with the dwarf blacksmith that had invited them.

Colb discussed the day he discovered a love for cooking, and how he established a tavern of his own back in Skaal. 27 discussed some stories from Yiklar University, including some lighthearted pranks he’d played on the teachers with his fellow students.

Borin described how he’d gotten into blacksmithing as a child, and the day he met Vitra – who ended up being an excellent partner, as her potion-based enchantments could elevate his work beyond that of other dwarves. Borin also revealed that, before building Vitra’s Lab in Claus, he and Vitra had done a three-month excursion through the Frosted Wastes. This story particularly intrigued the goblins, as that’s where they knew Wealth Mountain to be.

When 27 pushed Borin for more details about that journey, the dwarf went on to describe how Vitra first met Bitty in the Frosted Wastes, and how she spent days playing with the little creature while he worked on navigating the brutally cold region. Borin revealed that they ultimately failed in their mission of finding Tanja, but taming a rare winter foxferret seemed to satisfy Vitra, since she at least wasn’t returning home completely empty-handed.

“Hmmm, your mission was searching for Tanja?” Colb asked. “Vitra mentioned something about ‘following Tanja’s good will’ when she taught me alchemy this afternoon, yes? What does that mean? Who is Tanja?”

“Ah, that’s sort of a religion thing,” Borin replied. “You’d need to know your Human Empire uh… what’s the word… history? You’d need to know your Human Empire history for that one. If you want a quick lesson, I can tell you she’s a human from Ebora who died around 300 years ago. Her full name was Jane Freda Tanja, but she just went by her last name, Tanja. Let’s see… Tanja was famously the first human to combine magic and science into a single field of study, making her the founder of alchemy. She led construction on the town of Nala, which is a little village south of the Frosted Wastes. She spent much of her time in Nala because she liked exploring northwards in the snowy region. She was the first human to tame a winter foxferret, which she named Flufei. Let’s see… what else… oh yea, and she was obsessed with… gosh, I don’t think there’s a Goblish word for it.”

“Hmmm, do you know in another language?” Colb asked.

“Transmutation,” Borin said, reverting to his native language.

“Basically, Tanja was obsessed with the art of trying to use magic and science to change cheap materials into rare and expensive materials,” Borin clarified, switching back to Goblish. “Stuff like iridhodium, goldatinum, rubiamonds – you name it, she wanted to find a way to effectively create it. She theorized potion-making could achieve that gold, but never succeeded. Regardless, her invention of potion-making in general has been the focus of Vitra’s career.”

“Hmmm, if Tanja died around 300 years ago, why were you two looking for her?” Colb asked.

“Well, I say she died, but Vitra says her body was never found,” Borin clarified. “I figure she ventured out into the Frosted Wastes a little too far one day, and never made it back to Nala. It’s a brutal place for certain. Vitra’s got all sort of theories – maybe she invented immortality, or went into some sort of cryo-sleep… I think it’s all nonsense, to be honest. Vitra’s just obsessed with this historical figure.”

“Hmmm, what do you mean by obsessed?” Colb asked.

“Well, I mean, look at Vitra, then think about the story I just said. Jane Tanja famously likes being referred to by her last name? Bam. Rachel Vitra goes by Vitra. Tanja goes into the Frosted Wastes and tames a winter foxferret? Bam. Vitra goes into the Frosted Wastes and tames a winter foxferret. Tanja invents alchemy? Bam. Vitra dedicates her life to alchemy. There’s a lot of parallels – I mean, if you saw a picture of Tanja, you’d notice Vitra copies her hair style, her clothes… she’s just clearly a big fan.”

Kashmir cracked a little smile. “Vitra sounds a little wacko,” she muttered.

“Well, you know how it is. Tanja’s sort of got a cultish, religious following,” Borin said, swirling his drink around as he spoke. “Lots of humans don’t understand or like magic, and yet – Tanja is by far the most well-known person in Human Empire history. I mean, we’re talking more famous than even the royal Cognemi family, and they’ve produced all the leaders since this empire was founded. Personally, I think the humans all find her interesting because of her quest to make rare materials out of common materials. Wealth always catches people’s interest, doesn’t it?”

“AaAaaaaahhhh, I cannot argue with that,” 27 agreed, sipping his drink.

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“Hmmm, so a lot of humans worship Tanja? As if she were a deity?” Colb asked. Borin nodded, shoving a daisywheat breadstick into his hair-covered mouth as he did so. “Do you?” Colb inquired.

“Nah,” he said. “I’m not really into all that stuff… and if I were, I’d probably worship Maxten given where I’m from. He’s a very famous dwarf, died something like 2,000 years ago, slaughtered a king, established the Dwarven Republic, blah, blah. If you ever visit the Dwarven Republic, people love him.”

“Slaughtered a king? I could get behind that,” Kashmir added.

Colb gave her a concerned look. “Hmmm, what about all this progress you’d made today, yes? Talking is better than fighting, yes?”

“Alright… yea,” Kashmir agreed. “I’m just saying, royalty is dumb, so I get it. I think I’m allowed to have that opinion, as someone who has been marked as a traitor by a tyrannical queen of my own, just for doing what I thought was the right thing… which I didn’t end up… even doing…”

Kashmir suddenly looked sick in the face, and put her head in her hands. She plopped her elbows onto the table, which made a crackling sound as it started to freeze.

“Oh, woa, what happened?” Borin worried.

“Rrghegh, no idea,” Drek replied. “She only speaks in Elvish, so the three of us just kind of nod while Colb takes care of it.”

“Well no, I understand Elvish too. I was just surprised she got so sad out of nowhere,” Borin clarified.

“Hmmm, Kashmir? It’s okay…” Colb comforted. “You can still come with us, yes? You don’t have to stay here, or go home. It’s okay that your plan changed, yes? That means that you grew, and learned more, yes?”

“I thought it was my destiny to save this island,” Kashmir sniffled. “I assumed Jaiphione wanted me to come here, and kick out the humans… but now that I’ve seen them, I don’t even feel like… like the humans should leave at all… and now there’s nothing left for me to do…”

“Oy, Jaiphione? Sounds like another religion,” Borin burped. “Look, kid, don’t tell Vitra I said this… but don’t spend your life trying to follow the will of some dead person that can’t even talk to you.”

“For your information… Jaiphione created the very island you’re standing on,” Kashmir huffed. Tears of snow dripped off her eyes and landed in small mounds on the table.

“Listen,” Borin sighed. “When I convinced Vitra to give up on the Frosted Wastes, and we came to this place… our research skyrocketed. Honestly, you can tell she’s much happier with the work we’re doing here, and so am I. Just because Tanja loved the Frosted Wastes, doesn’t mean that was the best thing for our research. Just because you believe this Jaiphione person created the island I’m standing on, doesn’t mean it’s your destiny to stand here, too.”

“Well, I can’t go home…” Kashmir whimpered.

“Hmmm, again, why don’t you come with us?” Colb pitched. “Our next stop, coincidentally, is the Frosted Wastes, yes? That’s not in the Elvish Kingdom, yes?”

“Oy, well there you go!” Borin said. “The Frosted Wastes… it’s very cold there. Brutally cold. Someone like you is going to love that.”

“…Yea?” Kashmir sniffled, looking up at Borin through snow-covered eyes.

“Oh yea, and hey – maybe you can pull a Vitra? Adopt yourself a winter foxferret?” Borin continued. “They’re quite rare, but if you can befriend one, you’ll find yourself with an intelligent and thoughtful creature by your side. They’re pretty friendly, too, especially if you pet them frequently. Of course, normally you’d need protection to even touch them, like the armor I’m wearing, since their skin is colder than ice. Heh, but your skin’s super cold like that, too. You probably never have to worry about frostbites, do you?”

“Um… no, I don’t,” Kashmir agreed.

“Well, then there you go! That’s a purpose,” Borin said. “Taking care of another creature, that’s a great purpose right there. Doesn’t even have to be a winter foxferret; anything from a climate that cold would probably get along with you just fine.”

Kashmir sniffled. “I guess so… well, I suppose I don’t have anything left to do here… and I’m dead if I set foot back on the Elvish Kingdom mainland… so, that sounds like a better plan than anything else I can think of.” She rubbed the snow off her eyes, and glanced at Colb. “I’ll go with you guys… thank you for inviting me.”

Colb smiled. “Hmmm, we’d love to have you, yes?” he cheered. With that, Colb announced Kashmir’s decision to the rest of the group in Goblish. The group toasted to the official fifth member of their team, then continued to share stories and enjoy food late into the evening.

A few hours after sunset, the group was ready to leave the Ladle Tavern. As his companions walked out the door, Colb tipped their server with the two goldatinum coins he’d found on the pirate ship earlier that day.

“I really appreciate you coming with me,” Borin stumbled as the group left the tavern. He seemed a little tipsy from the vast number of drinks he’d ordered. “And the food and that one free drink, too. If you follow me back to the lab, I’ll give you something for your trouble.”

“Hmmm, I’ll help you get to the lab, and get home, yes?” Colb offered. He hadn’t sipped more than the one drink 27 bought for him today, and he wanted to share some kindness to this dwarf that had brought such a nice evening to the team. “I’ll meet the rest of you at the boat, yes?”

The group of four nodded in agreement, then returned to their pirate ship, with Stibs helping Drek carry his small-but-heavy treasure chest along the way.

Colb led a wobbly Borin back the way they’d come, to the metal building with a complicated door. Borin opened it easily, having forgotten to lock it on their way to the Ladle Tavern, and led Colb inside the chilly room.

“Here,” he mumbled, picking up a ragged sack. “Let’s see…” The dwarf grabbed a telescope, a sheet of paper, and a random vial off Vitra’s desk, then tossed them all into the sack. “There…” he said, handing the bag to Colb. “You like po… potions, right? You were making some today, so… so… here’s one of our newest inventions for you,” he hiccupped.

“Hmmm, thank you, yes?” Colb said, peering into the sack. The telescope was metal, with Borin’s name etched into the side of it. The glass potion bottle contained a viscous, radiant white liquid. The sheet of paper appeared to be instructions, depicting a hand-drawn image of a human hand pouring the white potion all over the telescope.

“I live… uh… close,” Borin hiccupped.

“Hmmm, let’s get you home, yes?” Colb agreed. He shut the sack, tossed it over his back, and helped the hairy dwarf walk as he stumbled back to his nearby hole-in-the-ground house.

Colb then returned to the pirate ship, where the weary crew had already fallen asleep. Just like the night before, 27 had set up his Yiklar Folding Cabin for the goblins, while Kashmir slept beneath the stars. Colb quietly stepped into the cabin, making himself comfortable in the sleeping area.

Hmmm, this feels great, Colb thought to himself as he settled into bed. We’ve got a boat, and a gift from Borin, and Kashmir joined the team, and I made a health potion with Vitra for the next time someone gets hurt… things seem to be going quite well, yes? We’re off to the Frosted Wastes next, yes? Hmmm! Wealth Mountain, here we come!