We each take one healing poultice from Geeves and head upriver to Groghaven. It takes us several hours but is uneventful. The town is right on the river. This is a silver and iron mining town that has smelters and forges. It smells quite bad.

A government functionary greets us and asks us for a docking fee. He charges us 5 silver per day to dock which Tobruk pays. He tells us that the best place for us to drink being Dwarves, not the Drunken Shitpit, but Snotling Fondlers is our best option.

Our options for lodging is The Wicked Trickster or the Gypsy Lodge (where the decor is a little strange). The Trickster is run by halflings and we decide to go there. The owner is pretty theatrical and gets dinner ready for us.

We head to the forge which is huge with a lot of stock, but we quickly realize that the prices are quite high. There is reportedly a dwarven forge out of town a couple of miles with really good quality stuff, so we decide to head there. Vedasi is looking to sell the diamond that we got from the inn.

The dwarves are brothers, named Dhumaad & Grourford. They are not impressed with Brokk’s sword but go crazy over Tobruk’s axe. They actually weep when Tobruk lets them hold it. Because of this we are able to haggle with them better. Brokk is talked into getting a really nice hammer ordered and buys some other things. The others buy custom armor for a pretty penny. It will take the dwarves a while to make all of this.

They give one caveat — if we are monster fighters, we must watch out for the one inside the keep. They ask if we can put the screws to the Boss if we can.

When asked about the gem, the dwarves suggest going to the dwarf Regnard in town to sell it for a “fair price.”

They offer to have us come back and drink with them, and they roll out a barrel of Bugman’s finest which is very good beer. The elves and Jean partake as well. We are now immune to fear tests but it is like drinking 4 regular beers.

They tell us about the Boss. She wants to take the entire area over and take out Giovanni and Hauptner. She will probably take out Giovanni first with Hauptner’s help, and then take out Hauptner as soon as she has no use for him. He is smitten with her and they are lovers. She also dislikes elves with a fiery passion, the dwarves suggest that they stay home when we go to meet her.

We head back into town and they try to charge us, but Tobruk intimidates them and they back off. The next morning we get up and go to the gem store to try and pawn the blue diamond. The old dwarf here takes no notice of the customers until Vedasi slams the diamond down on the counter. He looks at it and seems to want to buy it. Vedasi haggles with him and is able to get 2100 crowns for the gem, silver platter and some other items.

Jean and Brokk go to see the Boss. She is in the mid-40s and is in good shape, very athletic, however she is not extremely beautiful. Her guards have pistols and there are a half-dozen men with her in very good armor and well-armed. She is very casual but says that we have made a lot of waves around here and she wants a cut. She asks for 10% of our earnings and says that we have two items she wants — the ornate dagger and the mask from the boat that we took over.

Jean puts his best game face on and says that he doesn’t know about the dagger and the mask, but he will ask the others in our party about it when we return to the keep. She believes him. Jean gives her the map that he made for her. She is very impressed and says that this will count as our tax for the next month.

It’s now about noon, so we get on the boat and head back north. On our way, Jean determines a way that we could visit the dwarves without going through Groghaven and overland rather than via the river.