Again, the 4 day trip to the dwarf mines at the high's at the edge of the northern plateau had not really gone well. Once Andrew Dracos had gone every two months or so to exchange medicines for crystal and any minerals of interest, and then go on to the Orc camps to exchange medicines for various ingredients, some of questionable origin. Now he only went when necessary as the dwarves had become surly and greedy, the result of their growing wealth. They now begrudged him his share of the gold that they mined from veins which he scryed out for them - and he had provided the enchanted picks and designs for water pumping gear. Dracos felt that from now on he should only scry out the veins which were smaller, and harder to work.
Now the dwarves were even buying convict slaves and serfs from the lowland Dukedom to help do non mining work! At one time the dwarves were so poor that they let him take any unwanted ore he wanted as payment. The castierite tin ore was the most valuable, but so low grade that it was not worth the effort carrying any back home, except for alchemical purposes. However, by concentrating on his command of fire and frost into learning real Fire Mastery and limited Frost Mastery, he was able to magically smelt the ore on a mining hut's 'kitchen' fire and after a days work, take home a decent ingot. This could then be sold for ready cash to the Lord's Reeve, rather than the village Blacksmith who was a poor serf like nearly all the rest in the village. A better price could be got by selling direct to smiths and artisans in the nearest lowland town, that is if it was worth the 10 miles of effort of lugging it there. Later, when Hiku, the weak foal he had taken in leu of payment for veterinary help, had grown up (with some aid from health potions and a decent diet), he was able to take tin, copper and lead to sell in the nearest town.
Now the dwarves risked the anger of the wood elves by raiding the woodland for fuel so that they could smelt all the ore. This spelt disaster for the mountain slopes and the woods as they would not even coppice the trees, it was all just smash and grab. Eventually there would be a reckoning of some sort, but Dracos had no intention of taking sides, one was as greedy as the other was unreasonable. It wouldn't stop him selling medicines to the dwarves and hardened spear tips to the elves, provided that they paid him what he wanted. Serve them both right.
His trade with the Orcs of the plateau never amounted to much and one dealt with them at arms length, while with the few remaining goblin families, living in the mountain valleys at the plateau's southern edge, never. Apart from his dislike of the untrustworthy goblins, the mountain area was dying, corrupted by the dark magic coming out of the Witch / Wraith Realm, and spilling into the forest below, an area he called The Haunted Woods. To the east, where there were only hills instead of mountains, the Haunted Woods seemed to serve as a boundary, or barrier of sorts, for the Wraith Realm.
Only to the north of the plateau were the trips still really useful. It's volcanic valleys, whose lava caves were occupied by Zartan and his demons, provided Dracos with sulphur and cobalt ore. Dracos had a cordial arrangement with Zartan - he ignored Zartan's minions (and agents), and they ignored him. Zartan was quite eager to trade and exchange information, political and magical, since he regarded Dracos as neutral and a possible go between. Zartan had promised to get him some more wyvern eggs and maybe some dragon eggs. Apart from Zartan feeling that as a Deamon Lord he should live it a volcanic cavern, it also provided dragon protection. The three large volcanic caldera's with their warm lakes provided the ideal conditions for dragons from the northern Mammoth plains to built their nests every few years. There was food enough in the calderas for the hatchlings, but the juveniles needed to find food throughout the area, and the incoming and outgoing mothers instinctively eliminated any potential threats to their young. When Dracos was an adolescent the dragons had merely regarded him has an odd juvenile, but now he was strong enough and skilled enough to command them as only a Dragon Lord could. He had capitalised on this by providing Zartan with crystals enchanted with a Dragon Warding Spell which he had fashioned with help from the local Druid hermit.
Zartan's human looking daemon minions were the result of him magically introducing the blood of himself and his Balrog offspring into willing, and unwilling, human victims. Dracos could try doing that to create draconian servants but so far the opportunity had not presented itself, and he had little practice with the technique; he had only used alligator blood to make a potion that he had used on the local monitor lizards. It had had interesting effects, enlarging them and making then stand upright. The effect could also be reversed by magic and, he sensed, removed, though he had not tried to do that. Along with the wyverns, the Lesser Dragon Lizards served as guards around the place in the woods, a few miles from his village, that was His Lair where most of his gold and silver accumulated over more than 20 years of trading was stashed.
Dracos had also tried the potion on a bird, Graculus. Graculus had been a young green parakeet. Flocks of them sometimes came up from the lowlands to raid the orchards and they were popular as pets. Dracos had got Gracullus's to drink the potion so that it went into his blood, and the transformation had become permanent. Graculus had grown into a giant parakeet with a crocodile like head, tail and fingers, and more than a passing taste for meat. Though a poor flyer, Graculus had parrot intelligence and was naturally endowed with Dracos's own Dragon Magic. Graculus's future mate, Gracena, was at home keeping his boys company. Now what would the effect be on birds of prey and predatory ground birds?
Dracos's trading with the migratory wood elves who lived in the woods between the head of the river and Mirkwood, the area next to The Haunted Woods, yielded useful drugs, but they were a suspicious and capricious lot. They used various traps, which he could easily detect and avoid. They also used poisoned blowpipes and arrows, which he disliked because it took time to think about and summon an incineration spell. He continued to work on various types of shielding spell to deal with these dangers, but was not yet happy with the results. Even though he could easily use a chameleon spell or become invisible, Elves had senses, including magical ones, that made these methods of concealment almost worthless. Thus he never entered their territory uninvited, on foot. Flying would give him the advantage, not that there was much to be gained by this as he could not carry more than a small pack slung from his torso when in dragon form.
Like The Haunted Woods, Mirkwood which fringed it was expanding because of the foul creatures from The Witch King's Realm as Zartan called it. Zartan had diplomatic dealings with the undead Wraith Witch King and his witches. Dracos's lair was in no danger though, as the Druids had taught him about ward spells. He had set up a spell ward of enchanted crystals around His Lair and at the nearby hill passes next to the heights. Any foul or 'undead' creatures that did pass into the woods he frequented were no threat to him, his magic bolts were athema to them as was the Dragon Magic in his enchanted weapons. However, he drained their dark magic into un-enchanted crystal wands, creating black cursed wands.
He always kept a black wand hidden in the wagon, to curse someone, normally a knight, aristo or mage (what's the difference) who had done him a serious wrong. On the odd occasion Dracos had cursed the odd lowland lordling who he had seen beating up a serf or taking sexual advantage. However it was wiser to hide his abilities, most people at home were already nervous of him. At home he was only rumoured to be a shape shifter; the people that years ago had seen him transform into a dragon when physically provoked by one of the lord's sons and the assistant of, and now successor to, the resident mage ( fakir really ) though it better not to talk about it. Only among the market and travelling fair trading community was generally known that he used magic to protect himself against cutpurse and swindler, and that for a price he could produce enchanted items provided that no questions were asked.
The Mages Guild, a money grubbing aristocratically owned set-up which like the monasteries was supposed to be open to all of ability, held an exclusive monopoly on the use of magic and enchanting that Dracos resented. He had more magic in his little finger than in the whole of the body of any mere fakir; mages relied heavily on their staffs, wands, charms and amulets. Over the years, Dracos had had to spend a fortune in bribes to unfrocked mages and hard up apprentices in order to learn magic spells that he could then use either directly or when enchanting. Sometimes he could pay a bribe to borrow a book to read or copy, sometimes he just broke into the Guild Libraries at night.