A dwarf walks into the bar and walks over to my table planting himself in the chair opposite me. The dwarf sets a shield on the ground, it's made of bones and scales. The shield is among the most advanced pieces of craftsmen ship I've ever seen.
I smile at the dwarf, "Hello. My name is Owen Oaks."
"I am Nef," the dwarf says looking around.
"Butterbur has had dwarves in the bar often enough to know to bring you a tankard."
"He'd do well at Thorin's Inn."
"Where have you come from?" I ask.
"Forochel, I am so very glad to be out of the cold. It took two days for the ice to finish melting from my beard."
"It's cold but I've heard it's beautiful."
"Who cares about that when your entire body is an icicle," Nef says.
"What were you doing in the snow?"
"My captain told me it would be an interesting experiance for us. Worst idea he's ever had."
"If nothing else you know how to survive in cold weather now," I say.
"Only lesson it taught me was to wait until I'm leaving a place before angering the local craftsmen."
"I find it best to never anger anyone if you can help it."
"I asked him about his craft and all he had were bones and scales," Nef says. "I told him that he couldn't make anything useful with just that and he got upset."
"You mean things like the shield you brought in?"
"Yeah I was able to convince a traveler to have him make it for me. All I wanted was my old shield fixed but he refused and said he wouldn't work on something of such poor quality."
"It may have just been that he didn't have anything that could be used to fix it," I say.
"He was very clear about it said he was surprised it didn't break sooner. After all the time and effort that went into finding it after I lost it."
"You at least managed to get a new shield made for you."
"After the continued arguement he said he'd make a shield if it would shut me up," Nef says.
"You were able to get a very impressive shield out of it."
"How am I supposed to afford the maintenance on something as good as this."
"It does look like it might be expenssive to work on," I say. "But isn't having something well made a big enough boon to ignore the cost."
"I suppose it might be worth it but I'm going to have to make even more money now. I hope we get back to looking for treasure soon."