[center][b][h1]Amsgar[/h1][/b][/center]

The tailor was happy to accept the abbot’s offer of tea and a sit down.  He was in no hurry to go back out in that cold drizzle.  And he figured the abbot had brought some good tea with him.  Amsgar missed good tea and coffee, like he missed warm weather and clothes that didn’t feel like he was wearing one of his family’s rugs.  And he hoped the abbot and his new dwarf helper would do something that would bring more of these nice things in.

[b]”My ‘story’, Mr. Abbot,”[/b] he repeated neutrally.  He peered silently into his teacup, as if the story he was to tell were somehow within.  In a way it was; he and the tea leaves had probably made similar journeys to get here.  [b]”I come from far away, from a land where the mountains are cold as they are here, but the seas warm.  My family, the Durak family, are famed for the rugs they make there.”[/b]  Bitterness and pride mingled in his voice.

[b]”Some years ago, my older brothers married, but I had not yet.  Neither of their wives liked me, and we quarreled.  Fortunately, at that same time, an opportunity had presented itself to do business in another part of the world, farther north.  Perhaps to find a new sort of wool to use in making our rugs, perhaps even to start making them in those distant lands.  My family sent me to look into it, in the hopes that in my absence things would cool down.  Or, failing that, that I could start a new branch of the family business there, and not be around to vex my sisters-in-law.”[/b]

Amsgar sighed.  [b]”You know the saying about things that sound to good to be true?  We have a saying like that, too, but I did not listen.  I could not imagine that my own brothers would act against my interests.”[/b]  He set down his teacup sharply and glared at Andrew.  [b]”But they did, Mr. Abbot.  They did not pay me for the wool nor the live sheep I sent back to them, nor all the samples of locally produced dies and wool cloth.  And they never filled the orders I took.  They even went to so far as to contact the financiers to cancel my line of credit.  I had to sell almost everything to book passage on a ship home.”[/b]

He sighed again and shook his head.  [b]”And here again young Amsgar did not listen to the sayings.  He thought he had found a reliable ship’s captain, but he turned out to be incompetent.  We drifted badly off course in a storm, and had to make landfall here.  When the [i]Dragon Wind[/i] set sail again, it did so without me.  I had left the few valuables I still owned in my berth, thinking it safer than bringing them ashore to Pigeon Spit.”[/b]  Amsgar laughed mirthlessly and swept his hands about him.  [b]”And thus, I am here, your humble tailor Amsgar.  I don’t even bother naming myself Durak anymore.”[/b]

Amsgar picked up his teacup and drained it.  He peered inside to examine the leaves.  [b]”This is fine tea, Mr. Abbot, whence do you get it?”[/b]

[center][b][h1]Bork[/h1][/b][/center]

Bork realized with a start that he was still wearing the hat and doffed it before sitting down.  [b]”Well, I wanted to thank you for the hat, first”[/b] he began, [b]”but I also wanted to ask about all the gear that suddenly showed up.  What did you have in mind for that?”[/b]  That had initially been all the dwarf wanted to talk about.  The catlady could wait until Nelthurin came by again.  Bork had an idea the harbor master knew something more than he let on.

He greeted the news that the patients were doing well with an inward groan, not because he wished them ill, but because it reminded him that he had forgotten to ask.  He limited himself to nodding and responding:  [b]“That’s good to hear.”[/b]  

He perked up more when the abbot mentioned looking for ores.  [b]”Is that so?  Well, I’m looking for ores for stuff other than copper.  Mainly tin and iron ores.  Hematite, magnetite, and stannite.  They’re common enough, and having our own source of them would help immensely.  Make our own bronze and iron tools.  Next, I’d be looking for galena.  That’s an ore mainly for lead, but it also usually contains small amounts of silver, too.”[/b]  

He thought for a bit.  [b]”Did I hear cannon go off when you arrived?  Because one thing you can usually get out of copper ores and pyrite is sulfur.  But only alchemists use it, though.  To everybody else, it’s just a smelly fire hazard.  But if somebody’s using black powder, then there’s a market for sulfur somewhere, even without a local alchemist.”[/b]