Aura started her tale.

“It’s best if I start at the beginning. My mother and father were in an adventuring party with aunt Janet, and after a few years of working together fell in love. My mother was a catkin by the way. She caught some disease on one of their adventures and I was born prematurely. My father blamed it on the adventuring at the time having tried to convince my mother to quit, at least until after the birth, my mother being headstrong and stubborn as most catkin are wouldn't hear of it. As he was now a single parent and I was a bit sickly he decided to quit adventuring and settle down. His class being a tinker he decided after settling down to become a blacksmith.”

Moira fascinated by Aura’s scales sat down next to her and started to stroke her head like a cat. She didn't seem to mind and started to give some soft purrs between strokes.

“He settled down in a mostly gnome above ground villages on the outskirts of the Kerborim empire.” Looking at our blank faces, both me and Grim never being very good at geography she added. “It's the main dwarven empire on the Fflorinian continent. They hold most of the center mountain ranges and some of the surrounding lands, the rest is split up between some small elven kingdoms and some beast clans. Gnomes haven't had a major kingdom since the 9th age.”

Grim being hungry again went and got us some rabbit jerky to snack on.

“I was teased a lot growing up not looking like any of the other kids and at first being too sickly to really do anything about it. My dad working very hard didn't seem to notice it until by the time I was ten and was getting bigger than the other kids I was expelled from school for fighting and putting two other kids in the hospital. The school neglected to say that I was attacked by five kids at the same time. After that my dad home-schooled me and I started to learn some tinkering and blacksmithing from spending so much time with him. I took the adventurers exam on my birthday against my fathers' wishes. But I saw the pride in his eyes when I came home and was able to tell him that I got the Golificer class. An artificer specializing in golems. Unlike other classes that summon golems out of earth or fire or other elements, I have to build mine. The biggest benefit is that once built and given artificial life I can then summon and resummon them. And I can tinker and upgrade them. The first one that I’m working on was the wolf golem that you saw at the workshop Drakon.” Then looking at Grim. “Mhm this rabbit jerky is really good, don't suppose you have any more?” And Grim scrounged up a bit more, with a bit of a proud smile on his face from the compliment to his cooking.

“After I got the new class my dad got in contact with aunt Janet who by this time had retired herself and working at the guildhall here in town. Figuring a change of scenery was good, him me, and his apprentices packed up shop and got on the first trade ship we could find that would bring us here. We got here last week and the rest of the story you know by now.”

“I’m a little bit of a fighter and apparently now the commander of an undead army of at the moment mostly defensive troops. Grim here can cut stuff up with his blades and can cook skin and butcher. What strengths can you bring to the party? I mean apart from the golems.” I asked

“Well, the golems when they are done will be pretty cool by themselves especially now that they will get Odin’s buffs if I can get the materials together to build a second one. The first will only take a few more evenings of work. Other than that I’m working on a plate-mail suit of armor for myself with a built-in crossbow in one arm and retractable claws. So I can be your ranged support for now but can fight in close combat in a pinch. As the suit is a part of my class I can summon it off and on at will a bit like Moira’s transformation. When not in my armor I guess I’m not too bad at stealth because of the Catkin heritage. And with a bit of luck, I might get my dad’s ability to breathe fire.”

“Um, what your dad can breathe fire?” I asked looking surprised and maybe a little bit worried.

“Yeah, it's a part of his kobold heritage. Kobold legend says that they are descendants from dragons and certain kobold bloodlines, including the one coming down through my grandmother, have the ability to breathe fire. My dad also shoots small balls of fire from his eyes if he gets really angry but they don't do much damage, which is a good thing for his apprentices as when he lights the fire under their asses to work harder. He literally lights the fire under their asses.”

We all broke up laughing at that one. “Which reminds me it's probably a good idea for me to head back home. Shall we meet back here for breakfast? I can take the stuff that bought at the same time, and we can start planning our next move.”

“Yeah cause we are going to need to move pretty quickly tomorrow to find a healer and a tracker to find the den mother for Grim’s quest,” I replied.

“I already know who I might be able to ask. I'll go and try to get them tomorrow and hopefully will be able to get them to come for breakfast and planning” Grim chimed in.

And at that, we all went our separate ways to get some sleep. I Commanded the skeletons to come in in grab the new gear from Grim’s workshop along the way.

After I was in bed for about ten minutes the door opened and Grim walked in again with pillows and a blanket. I just grinned at him while he made himself comfortable on the floor where he quickly fell asleep and started snoring. Welcoming the sound I quickly fell asleep myself.