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Captain's Log. 24th of Sandstone.
The traders from our dwarven kindred departed yesterday, and this precipitated a small gathering including myself, BurnedToast, and Xotes, as well as a few others.

Although not normally given to nostalgia, wine does precipitate a contemplative mood, and we chatted about the old days, going so far back as to before Nist Akath was even founded, which seems another lifetime ago, now.

I remembered to them, my youth.
I told them the stories of my family, how we were a trading family, and always on the move. My father was the caravan leader, and although I had an older brother, the company was passed to me.
Xotes and BurnedToast already knew of this, being later employed by me. They did not, however, know of my brother.
So I told them the story of his adventurous nature. Always getting stuck into things he shouldn't. My father didn't want such a risky dwarf running his company, and I received the company after he died.

Despite offering my brother an equal share in it, he declined, saying he never had had a head for business, and shortly departed the company, heading for parts unknown, seeking his true calling. I have never heard from him since, and believe him to be dead.

BurnedToast is another example of never fitting in to normal dwarf society. His father was a diplomat in the nearby human kingdom of Smenreomon Oti. As such, he had spent all his life around humans when growing up.
As he reached adulthood, he found he never truly fit in with other dwarves in the mountainhomes, and being unable to become a diplomat himself, joined with my company in order to travel around with similarly minded dwarves.

Xotes, on the other hand, was orphaned at an early age, and was taken in by a benefactor, as she describes him. They had to move around a lot, due to the nature of his work, which she described as secret (and would not hint at it).
As such, she met a lot of people, including dwarves, humans and elves, obtaining a network of friends worthy of any spymaster.

Xotes still remains our most vital link for information from the mountainhomes, and gets all the information that I would otherwise miss out on.

The others present were all young, and wanting to find glory and riches. The mountainhomes provide little employment, but the amount of work in Nist Akath was legendary.

That said, I can't help but wonder why the migrants stopped coming.

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