As we took positions around the small table in Zaka's home, the atmosphere became tense. A lot of things were riding on the discussion that was to e. As everyo situated, I opehe discussion with a question, "What terms are you seeking?"

  Shasta turo the unarmored dwarf to speak with him, likely reying the question. I could finally get a good look at the dwarf who is seemingly the leader here. His face was marred with lots of scars, but trasting that, he has quite the bulbous nose and finely groomed facial hair giving a somewhat friendly but serious impression. It's clear that he has seen a lot in life, but also takes his appearance seriously.

  As I observed the dwarf, Shasta and him seemed to have a small argument before Shasta spoke to us again.

  "These isnds are to bee a protectorate of the Dwarven Military Leader Kao Ostark. The artifact crystal simir to ParTor will be given as tribute in exge for the protectorate status. Further, a military outpost will be pced on this isnd. Soldiers are to be fed by residents of this isnd as part of their protectorate status. As a further sequence, all current prisoners shall be turned over to us." Shasta said, seemingly upset with what she's was saying.

  "First, those are worse terms than what we discussed before. Here's our ter offer, this isnd, and other isnds in this are reized diplomatically as an indepe nation with us in charge. We'll allow a dwarven embassy to be built. In addition we'll provide the artifact crystal year as a sign of goodwill, aurn our one prisoner." I said.

  After Shasta reyed the information I swear I saw a glint iher dwarf's eye as he begin begins his response.

  Shasta transted again, "How about a promise? While you'll be reized as indepe, we'll build a military outpost on one of the other isnds. That outpost will be sidered our territory, but on lease from you. The regur embassy will still be built here, and we'll take the artifact crystal back with us when we leave in the ing weeks, along with the prisoner."

  At this point, I think I uood why the dwarf had a glint in his eye. He likely was ner to iation, where as I myself am a novibsp; By starting the iation from such a hardlia makes the current promise seem more moderate, but it's actually still worse than what I had discussed with Shasta before.

  I wasn't pletely ered though, and I gave another ter offer, "Instead of on another isnd, your base be on this isnd. Still leased from us, of course. The crystal is actually noiable for another year. Not only is it necessary for our own stru, but if we were to remove it now, I suspect your return trip would end in failure without the crystal in pce here. You may, however, leave with our prisooday."

  As Shasta and the dwarf had another bad forth, the dwarf seemed upset about something initially, but eventually had a ter offer. "Instead of any unnecessary leasing discussions, why not simply let us take the isnd closest to the mainnd. From here, it's about seven days of sailing if the weather is fair. The crystal wait a year, and we'll take the prisooday." Shasta said on behalf of the dwarf.

  I didn't have any idea if that was or wasn't a good deal, and I didn't have anyone on my side of the iation who would kher. The other dwarf was carefully gauging my response, so I felt pressured to not ask for extra info. However, to not ask would mean that we potentially miss out on a good deal.

  I eventually asked, careful of my w, "As I am unversed in any isnds further than the in the isnd . I'm afraid I myself haven't travelled nearly enough. My panion might know more, although he hasn't travelled by sea in many years. This distant isnd, you tell me more about it, since you've travelled there retly?"

  After further bad forth between Shasta and the other dwarf, she replies, "I myself have been given permission to tell you what I know about the isnd. The first isnd is a bit smaller than any of the other isnds. It barely has a hill remaining in its ter, but boasts multiple beaches. This is between you and me, but it seems like a fair deal, and there are two isnds between it and here which are also uninhabited."

  There is always the ce that I was having the wool pulled over my eyes, but ultimately, it might not be too bad of a deal. I mean, not having to deal with the dwarves directly as some kind of vassal state is good, and we aren't even on any of the other isnds. Maybe at some point iure it will be a problem, but holy, it's just as likely not to.

  "Fine, t these terms. You follow us and we'll give you the prisoner, so you may take him with you. Also, you may send unarmed men to collect your dead." I say.

  The other dwarf seemed quite pleased with the result, as he hummed to himself while we lead him to the jail to collect the human prisoner. After they gathered the prisohe iating party left the vilge. I myself am shocked we came out of the whole endeavor intabsp; I'm sure that down the road there will be headaches as a sequence of this discussion, but for today, I am just gd to be doh the fighting again.

  Over the wo days, some dwarves came at random times to gather up their dead. It was somewhat awkward, but I just reminded myself that they had also devastated the other town on the isnd, so I shouldn't feel direct sympathy. These people were soldiers, and should be treated as such.

  The eagle also came down to feed during that time, but repared another bundle for it, so it gdly just ate the . A few dwarves that were handling the dead at the time looked on with initial fear, but calmed when the eagle didn't attack them. It makes me wonder just how deep their cultural retionship with the eagles is. To me, it seems like many don't i directly with them, and only seem to have some spiritual belief about the eagles themselves. That was to our be this time, so I'm not going to tell them that it's just superstition, and the eagles are like almost any other wild animal.

  We've been fully repairing the walls in this time, but have remained on lockdown. I don't know how good a dwarf's word is, or even if any dots would have any meaning. Without third party withey could easily just decide to attack us again, and no one would know that they betrayed us. So, until we verify they've left, we're going to be on high alert.

  Iime since we fought, we've gotten a good t of survivors. Unsurprisingly, almost all the goblins who participated in the fighting and survived have prestiged, and three evolved into hobgoblins. Zaka is also getting really close to his level cap. I think it'll be quite good for him to be fully mobile again, which I hope will happen when he prestiges or evolves.

  Three more days have passed, and we haven't seen any dwarves in this time. Upstream from the vilge, we found that the dwarves had made a temporary dam to halt our water supply, but without mainte had overflowed. Not wanting it to cause any actal damage, I slowly breached the dam to draier. We're going to send some scouts out tomorrow to look for any further information on the dwarves in the nearby area. If everything seems fine, we'll send a rger scouting party out to the far side of the isnd to report if the dwarves have left or not, and also allow goblins to resume fishing, as long as they're escorted to and from the bay area.

  After twelve more days, the scouts have returned and it seems the dwarves have left the isnd. Which means we no longer o have all individuals outside the city walls be escorted. It also means that Zaka pns on re-summoning imps to get moblins to repce the popution of the vilge that was lost. Thankfully, most of the damage was doo the city wall, and we've already repaired that.

  After the iations, I pn on attempting to grow another massive crystal this year. This time though, I pn ing a few goblins with me to work the fe and handle food, allowio work at a faster pabsp; I really hope I get it done in a single year, as it took lohan that in the past for me when I was w alone.