"We'll take the oside the walls." Shasta transtes for Karsh.

  sidering the amount of animation I'd seeween them during that versation, I holy expected the respoo be 'We'll take her, we're leaving'. I wasn't oo look a gift horse in the mouth though, so I hurried us onto the opibsp; I produced a piece of part and a piece of charcoal shaved down to make it useful for writing. I divided the part into two parts with a charark, one smaller, a to help yout their yard, then the rest thly design their house.

  "Alright, first we o decide on the shape and size of your house in your lot. If you want to discuss it, the me know how you want it to look, we sketch it on this piece of paper. Keep in mind all the rooms you'll want, and the basement space," I say while holding up the part.

  After Shasta transtes, Karsh and his wife discuss the topic for quite a while. While they do, I pte the sequences of what I'm doing. On one hand, it's almost certainly necessary to make a house in order to keep them satisfied here. Oher, it's surely going to cause there to be a demand for houses. It's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as I train at least one of the stone shaping goblins to take over that job. Then it's just a matter of money. If I didn't think this dwarf would be valuable, I wouldn't be doing it.

  I ed up my internal monologue just about the same time Karsh and his wife fiheir discussion about their house. Through Shasta, we unicated various details about the design and ies for the house. There were maures that I would expect, such as multiple bedrooms, a pce to go to the bathroom, a kit, and a root celr.

  There were also maures I didn't expebsp; They want a wood privacy fence around a portion of their backyard for airing undry to dry, and where their kids py safely. It seems like they live in normal, albeit shorter, houses. They also requested that the walls not be pne, but be etched to look like blocks, sihat is what houses in the dwarven try are made from. It's doable, but that's going to be a pain. They also requested it only be oory tall, so their house is going to end up taking up a lot of the avaible space of their lot along two edges, leaving a minimal yard cut out from the remaining er.

  All the bedrooms will have shuttered windows, and they'll have a door at both the front and into the backyard. pared to the houses we've lived in up until now, it's quite the luxurious pbsp; Goblins don't have close family units though, so a lot of this sort of design is superfluous for us demons.

  After everything was written out and designed, I ended up using an additional two pieces of part, and we'd spent quite a few hours out here discussing. I'll be busy for quite a while w on this house, as will the carpenter. Before that though, I'm going to get Karsh introduced to our fe and the metal we have avaible down here.

  I invited him and his wife to see the fe, but she deed, so we took her back to the inn before tinuing to the fe. Ohere, he seemed initially disappointed, followed by excited.

  "The ingots you sold st year were made here?" he asked and Shasta transted.

  "By a different dwarf, yes."

  "I'll be ho, it's a pretty low quality fe and furnabsp; However, if a fe this quality could produce that metal, I'm fired up for what I'll be able to do with a proper setup!"

  His words stung my pride a little, but he's right. I basically made this furnad fe from theory, so I'm sure he has much better ideas of how to make a better one. Hopefully he's a quick learner in nguages, because otherwise trying to unicate designs for a fe will be hard outside of schematibsp; Doable, but hard.

  Finally, after a full day, it was time for dinner. Karsh didn't seem to mind the fact that his dinner was mostly fish and a small amount of s beets, but his family and especially his kids, didn't seem to thrilled with the meal. Hopefully our imported crops grow well this year so they have a taste of their homend. Either that, or they find a type of fish they love to eat, or at least that they stomach having for every meal.

  Before Shasta and the crew left, I asked her to wait around for a little bit aranste for Karsh while he got to work at our furnad fe area. Thankfully she agreed, and so I brought Karsh some of the ingots I had made before.

  "Such a waste..." he said. When Shasta trahat, he put his hand over his mouth realizing he'd iently let that slip.

  I let out a small, dry, chuckle. I knew I wasn't making the highest quality metal, but to hear it stated like that still stung. Although I suppose I got Thermal Hands out of the ordeal, so it wasn't a total waste.

  "I know it's not the highest quality, but hopefully you make do for a while with this. During the winter we 't access more ore, but in spring we get you some to work with. If you need any molds or casts made for things, let me know. As for things we could potentially use, pots and pans, nails, and spearheads. Once we have fresh ore, I'll have more plicated items that I'd like made."

  After I said all that, Karsh looked visibly disappointed.

  "Think of it this way, you'll hopefully have a better fe and furnace by the time you get to work with the higher quality metal."

  After I say that, Karsh's mood lightens a bit and he asks, "So, what do I do for fuel?"

  Right, I should probably show him around the auxiliary parts of his job.

  "For the time being, you pull from our charcoal stockpiles for free as we have a massive excess and I'd much rather have pleted metal products avaible. Iure, we have a bunch of charcoal kilns, but you should ask about cutting trees down before you do so. I'll show you to the various stockpile locations."

  After Shasta firansting, I start leading him to the various different locations where we're st charcoal.

  "Before I fet," I begin while pulling out a few cords of s I prepared ht, "Everyoarts out with some amount of curren our try, due to the way we reprodubsp; This is six times the amount an average goblin would start with, since you have a family of six. You're wele to sell the items you make to anyone. Otherwise, I'll give you a stipend as long as you're w on things I need. Sometimes I do free work if I think it's valuable to me or the unity, but I'll generally charge you for my bor moving forward. I'm going to be setting a general debt for the stru of your house, but I won't have it accumute ara debt and, as long as you're w on things for me, I'll generally just reduce it until it's gone."

  Karsh looks a little worried about all this information. "Is this a lot or a little money? Also, do I need any permissions to use anything?

  "The market is a short distance from where your house will be located, and the food is cheap, if a little repetitive. Money shouldn't be a problem, but if you have issues, let me know. I'm also going to give you a bunch of stoablets that are lightly colored so you use them to draw things with charcoal to help with unication until you learn the nguage."

  It seems like I've assuaged some of his s for now, but it's clear that the gravity of moving to a new try is starting to set in for him. I just hope that he doesn't decide he wants to leave. Well, he'll basically be stuck here for a year once spring es, since ships 't seem to make it here any time but winter, so I'm sure that's also a bit ing.

  After I've shown him to where he find the charcoal, as well as where the kilns are, I'm greeted by a pleasant surprise. The eagle came down to feed, and when it did, Karsh's face lit up.

  "The eagles really do protect this pce!" he says.

  "Well, the eagle, singur. It lives up on the mountain and has protected us in the past." After my half-truth, Shasta gives me a side eye, but doesn't say anything. I pretend not to notice however, and shortly after we say oodbyes to each other. Shasta and her escorts head off along the new road, no longer encumbered by cargo. I head off to make some stone sbs out of lightstone, and leave Karsh to his own devices for the day.