Hank, Tom, Joe and Kurt had started their way to meet Blake in the eleven settlement. Apparently the new positions gave them some adornments. Joe was the most obvious had he had a more ornate robe, with a dark green stole, that lay flat down his chest, on it had a symbol of a two headed hydra, with his scales being the back color, and the symbol white, similar to the High Shaman's. The two headed hydra was actually designed to be Kurt's official seal now, after Harvey, and showing the dual nature of him and Layla's power or something. Hank now bore a dark green sash across his chest with the same symbol. While Tom seemed to get a fancier hat with the symbol, and a dark green accent. Kurt would eventually have to get something for himself with the seal.

They came to the village and were greeted as usual, it was very uncommon for the settlement to have visitors, the eleven seemed to be much more of a private people than human or goblins. Though they seemed to always give warm welcomes. The welcomes though also always feel as if they signaled you as an outsider at the same time. They were all under Kurt rule and they had melded into the work force well. Sara especially had taken some to the Duchery. She had mentioned her well water seemed to resonate with the species very well.

The four of them met with Blake who was expecting them inside of his workshop. Hank was the most excited about getting a new sword. Goblins had blacksmiths, but they lacked the spell techniques and some of the forging techniques the elves used were superior. If goblins made for commoners, elves made for nobility. The price was that goblins could output a lot faster than the elves, as they were expected to equip and maintain multiple broods. While a Spellsmith is just their clan, and perhaps extra for a price.

Elven clans are more like extended family units than what humans call Clans. It would be likely eventually their Kingdom would have multiple eleven clans with time as this one grew and split, but that was a while away.

"So you make the swords?" said Hank.

"Yes, I heard you were looking for a Khopesh."

"I don't know what that is," said Hank, "can it cut things?"

"Ohh yes, one second," Blake went looking through his shop, and found an odd blade and came back, "it would be similar to this, but I think you need one a bit bigger."

[A/N: I assume most readers don't know what a Khopesh is, it's an Egyptian curved sword, you can google it, but I'm going to try and explain it.]

The khopesh's blade looked like a straight blade that turned into a sickle, it had a pronounced cured starting about a fifth up the length. Once you got to the tip it seemed to have a hook on the inside of the curve. It looked very dangerous.

"You see you goblins like those scimitar style blades, a full curve. Because as you ride you need that curve in order not to end up getting yourself stuck, and the slice of a curve blade lends itself to slashing. Thrusting is almost non-existent."

"Yeah, I tried a straight blade once, on a mount it doesn't work as well," said Hank. Taking the base from Blake, giving it a few swings. "Hmm, it's different, the blade is thicker, less give, I like it."

"Well the design actually adds back the thrust, as you can see the point is actually in line with the hole and the start of the blade," said Blake, "while keeping most of the benefits of the curve blade, I assume you won't always be on a mount, so this gives you a lot of options."

"One edge though," said Hank.

"Ahh, that part of it's last additional use, if you use the blunted side, alien with the hook, the idea is you can now pull someone's shield down."

"Ohhh, that's ingenious, everyone expects their shield to be pushed! And I can stab right after as well! Yes something like this would be great, but a bit bigger," said Hank with a smile.

"Of course, that is a bit small for you, about two more inches I would say."

"And a Bow?" said Tom.

"Yeah Bows are all mostly the same, are you more for raw power, or for taking quicker shots, we have a Long Bow and War Bow. War Bow has a heavy long draw, while the long bow has less and can fire a lot faster."

"War Bow," said Tom.

"And for me?" said Joe.

"That is the hard part, that really the part I sort of needed all of you for, the spells and which ones goblins can even use. If you can't actually use any I have some more limited options. Your staff now seemed to be unremarkable."

"There is nothing inherently special about a shaman's staff, it is just a piece of wood."

"Really, but you all have the same basic shape, tall straight mostly, I assumed there was a reason."

"Ohh it's because we are short."

"Huh?"

"Well many of our spells require a cloud to encompass a party, this is much easier from an elevated position, thus the bags at the top. So most follow the pattern you describe, though some like to find something nicer. I find they break sometimes, so I'm not as concerned."

"Hmm, so most of the magic you do is really at the top of staff."

"You could say that. Is that different for you?"

"Absolutely, the staff usually has a spell right in it," said Blake.

"Really?"

"Yes, most of the time the staff is specialized toward an element, the one the elf prefers. I think we will have to do a little testing."

"This is all fascinating to me, do you also chant clothing like leather armor?"

"I don't but there is another one here that does why?"

"Well wouldn't it be better to also enchant his bags?"

"Ohh, that might be interesting as well," said Joe.

"I think we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves, I have an idea that might not need that," said Blake.

"What do you mean?" said Joe.

"Well I've also seen some incense burning."

"Yes, that is a more supportive technique, I tend not to be in those situations all that much, but that may change."

Blake was being bombarded with questions, and managed to put a stop to most of it, he was adamant he needed to check what the goblins could do. Blake brought a few blades, a few staffs, a bow and selected several arrows for them. He led them a bit outside the settlement.

"Now we aren't testing for power here, just activation and possibly compatibility. There are really three actions, passive actions which are usually the weakest but require you to do nothing, pushing mana into the spell work this is a bit more limited but gives a lot of power, and then incantation activation, this allows a lot more variability of actions. So we are going to test all three and see if they work for you goblins, once I know that we can see what will be best," said Blake.

He started with Hank, and he seemed to be able to use the ones without the incantations, the blade would glow and gave off a weird glow, "ohh I feel that working"

"Good, do you feel any faster?"

"A little bit but not much."

"Okay, take this one and while you swing say, kai vira sey."

Hank had trouble pronouncing the words, and even after a few attempts which sounded like the right word, nothing happened. "Hmm, then we are going to probably focus on something that uses the mana that seems the most effective to you, do you have a preferred element?"

"Lightning," said Hank, "those always seem to do the most from the Shamans."

"Hmm, I think I can work something with that, how many do you think you mana drain a lot?"

Hank then took another swing, but this time the weird glow was more solid and intense, "I think I have a lot more control then just how many, that one was a bit much."

"Ohh that's really good, I think I can get you something."

All of it was fascinating to Kurt, "damn it like you are the opposite of me Hank."

"Yes, that seems to be true, you have a decent reaction to passive but need the activation. The opposite of him, while we elves can use all three to more or less the same extent, some have pretenses of course."

Next up was Tom, he seems to like the bows. But the arrows were giving off some serious power sometimes. The arrows themselves seemed to have different elements tied to them. One tore through the air at what seemed like an impossible speed, and broke the target.

"That one felt good."

"Yes it seems you are most capable with wind."

"Yeah, and it's like I can make the wind give me more accuracy."

"Then we will prepare most wind arrows, with less of the other, having a good fire or rock arrow will have advantages. That's less me though, you could actually keep that Bow if you wish."

"Ohh I do," said Tom.

"No fair!" said Hank.

"I assure you, your blade will be customized to your liking."

"I guess the last one is me," said Joe.

The staff didn't really seem to fit Joe, and there was a pointing at the target spell, that didn't seem to be much of Joe's style. But similarly he could activate with putting mana in, but he couldn't get the incantation to work. "That's strange," said Kurt, "I would have thought shaman would be able to, I've seen you chant before."

"Yes," Joe said turning toward, "may I ask what the spell is trying to do?"

"It's sort of an Ice ball thing," said Blake.

"Hmm, I want to try something," Joe got out a bag and fashioned it on to the top of the staff, "let see what happens when I cast an ice spell. I'm not very good at this one, so if it actually works well I would call it a great success."

Joe started to chant some other words, and shake the staff like he would be casting normally. A small icicle formed in front of the bag on his staff, about the size of a beer bottle. It then shot forward, quickly but Kurt wouldn't have called it explosively. It wasn't very impressive compared to things he's seen Joe before, or compared to some of the others had done.

"Ohh yes, that much better than I normally can do it, goblins are really known for ice, I like my fireballs actually. I can do the lightning but, there are many better than me, so I would prefer a fire element. But I definitely feel an effect."

"That's perfect and gives me an idea, I think you'll like it, is there any chance I can borrow one of your incense burners?"

"I guess so, I only really have one, but I can't get another, I don't really use it like others would." Joe had gotten a small metal object attached to a chain.

"It's fine I want to basically copy the design with a tweak or two. We don't really do that stuff."

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