The blacklanders meanwhile, had made their way about halfway between the beach where they made landfall, and the festival they had come to attend. Once the delegationrealized the queen herself had come to adress them, they gave a respectful bow as one.

Then came the awkward moment they had brought scholars to deal with. Again, Akan stepped forward to speak. “That is written language, it is used to communicate things between people in a way much more reliable than mere memory. You will see its use when we have explained in more detail, but for now, know that each of these disparate are a message of peace from one of our tribes.” The lizardfolk kept talking, he seemed most at ease out of anyone in the delegation, probably because he and his kin looked quite alike the kasharites, if somewhat more bulky and muscular overall.

“This writing is just one of the many advances we can offer you, we can see you have yet to discover the secrets of metalworking, and judging by the rather varied stock of your beasts of burden, animal husbandry as well. What are those? Well, the details are not important, but know that they will do you more good than any physical gift we might have brought along today. Not that we have decrepated to do just that.”

As the lizardman continued gushing about how much the blacklands could offer kashar, Bleda and his apprentice were taking the time to judge the landscape along with Foreman Yarreek of the kobolds. The kobold had been a miner for gods know how long, and knew better than anyone in the delegation whether a geographical region could house metal deposits ripe for exploitation, and the difficulties such exploitation could bring. “What do you think Yars, will they be able to sustain themselves or will they have to rely on others for their metal?” Bleda spoke, the Kobold took a while to respond, busy as he was inspecting some loose rocks he picked off the ground. “The roots would keep things relatively stable, but digging down to where you could conceivably find metal would be quite difficult. Their best bet with what I’ve seen of their technology as of yet would be to find a surface deposit and dig down from there.”

Bleda sighed at the kobold’s indirect answer. “So, if no such surface deposits were present?”

“Then they would indeed be at the mercy of their neighbours in that respect.” The kobold replied matter-of-factly. “Of course, we have seen little more than just the beach we landed on and this strip of savannah we’ve been walking trough, so I can’t make an accurate assessment of their entire territory. It would be much easier if I had a general idea of the topography of the entire territory.”

“Well, they seem friendly enough, shouldn’t be too hard to get that info out of them if you ask the right questions.” Bleda looked down at his apprentice, who had been staring awestruck at the kasharite’s queen. “Oi! What are you looking at! I told you it’s rude to stare, especially at your betters!” The lizardwoman snapped out of it with a gasp. “I’m sorry, It’s just so… impressive to see a lizardwoman standing there at the head of an entire nation… And their men aren’t half bad either.” As she said such, she wandered off staring at a particularly fine-looking royal guard. Elliciting an exasperated sight from the orcish smith. “I swear, that girl is going to smash against a wall chasing her dreams one of those days.” The kobold nodded in silent agreement before resuming his examination of the savannah soil.



@Lauder

The Thangors escorted the Queen to meet these new arrivals. Tall and strong, with well forged arms and armor, the Thangors had always been protective over their Kashar allies. Kane the Drabarian walked in long and slow strides, as if he was some great beast to be admired instead of a humanoid simply walking. One hundred Thangor warriors, and both Gerti and the High Thane's heir Arden walked at the fore. They halted before these new strangers and took their measure as they spoke.

Kane and the two Thangor leaders took it upon themselves to stand beside the Queen just as the Lizardman had begun speaking of economics. "Welcome friends." Arden said. "Seems odd fate you saw fit to visit the fine land of Kashar bearing gifts just as we did."
"Indeed." Gerti said, the auburn haired warrior woman tilting her head as she regarded these new visitors. Behind them both, the Warriors of Thangoradrim stood vigil and wary, though their weapons were sheathed. "You needn't worry on their metal working." Arden said. "We've come to help them on that account. But, I will say that if you've truly come in friendship, then you are our friends as well. I say, let us drink and be merry! Matters of politics can be better discussed over some fine Ale, I say."
@Lauder@Natsucooldude

The arrival of the thangors created some mild tension within the blacklanders. Such was quickly dispelled with offers of celebration and, more importantly, some quality ale. Grimbar Ironliver of the ogres was first to respond to the offer. “I would love to discuss the finer points of coöperation going forward, but I somewhat doubt any of you would be able to handle a true ogre brew!.” The ogre spoke with a subtly joking tone. It was the most expression one could expect from an ogre. Stepping in quickly to avoid misunderstandings, an orc quickly followed up with a more expressive “Of course, from what we hear, you thangors are made of iron. So I would give it a 50/50 chance you’ll power through.” His tone was light-hearted and joking. It was obvious he meant to respond positively to the thangor’s offer.

Luckily, things proceeded somewhat smoothly from there, and the delegation quickly arrived at the festival.

-ONE GOOD EVENING OF CELEBRATION LATER-
The blacklanders had made camp near the festival site. Things had gone smoothly apart from an incident involving a goblin almost drowning in a barrel of ale. The five delegation leaders were sat around each other in the center of the camp. Again, the lizardfolk leader spoke first. “So, we’ve met with our future allies… My friends, would you say these people have need of our guidance and protection?”

Yarreek was the first to respond, the kobold had been asking around about the topography of the land and had spent most of the evening scribbling up a map of the kashar territories. “From what I know right now, there is most likely more than enough metal in the soil here to bring them past their current reliance on crude stone tools… But didn’t the thangors already offer to help them set up?”

Bleda cut off any responses with a loud laugh. “The thangors are humans… DO you really think they’ll leave the kasharites alone? No, we need to stay here to keep things in check. We’ll act commital to the thangors and use them as useful idiots until such a time as where they’ve outlived their usefullness.”

There was a muted gasp from one of the other leaders. Bleda’s suggestion of using the thangors as puppets was a clear violation of the black book’s teachings on the matter. “Orc… The book says all are equal.” The ogre chief said.

“And you think humans will respect us back? Chief, was it not your brother who was harassed and murdered by a marauding band of human bandits?” Bleda knew his companions well. The incident referred to had been a common occurence in the days before the alliance. Caused by the ogres calm demeanours causing misunderstandings and likely common greed from humans. None ever dared retaliate for such transgressions, for it was a well-known wisdom that humans come back in force, uncaring of whether you acted in righteous self-defence. The ogre was silent, as was everyone else.

“It is decided then, we will become the guiding hand that brings this nation into the modern age, and we will be the shield that protects it from those that would oppurtunistically plunder it. Yarreek, get a scribe to write up a first draft. We bring our proposal before the queen at sunrise.”

And so the blackland delegation dedicated itself to an alliance of good intention.@Lauder@POOHEAD189

The High Queen listened on to the Balcklanders speak, hearing of these new things that had never truly been introduced to them in any real manner. When the lizardman asked what the large birds were, Thatcher gave him an answer. "These are the Askari, our mounts that are both vicious and fast," she answered in a happy tone. Though it was also nice that the Thangoradrim had arrived as well, they were close friends to the Kashar after all. Thatcher was at least happy enough that the celebration would be had, everyone should have a good time.

-After the celebration-

"I do not know about these outlanders, I don't trust them," a councilman stanted before he was silence with the raising of a hand by the High Queen.

"Is this not what you have said over the Thangor? And now look where we have become, allies! They are good people and these new outlanders have all come with good intentions! They offer us knowledge of things that we never knew about," Thatcher said to the councilman, whilst trying to get the other members of the council to agree with her. With a sigh, she shook her head before going on to say, "Listen, I know you see me as a child for I have not come to age, yet, the gods have chosen me as High Queen for a reason. I know that not all outlanders will mean us well. I just feel that peaceful actions are something that we should all consider. Now, raise your hand if you will consider the Blacklanders becoming our friends."

Everyone raised their hands.

Berkenfer the Bold downed a pint of the Ogre brew yet again, before tottering slightly and wheeling over. It took two other Thangors to catch him so he wouldn't fall. Another man, Graken Skarsgard, arm wrestled yet another Orc. The beautiful Gerti spoke with a few of the Kashar, regailing them with tales of sea exploits she had witnessed first hand, telling of monstrous beasts that swam within the deep. Arden, the High Thane's heir, simply drank and patted friends on the back, enjoying the night for what it was. A fine feast, the Thangors would remember it as.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the Feast.
"They make for fine drinking companions." A soldier said, nodding. A few of the Thangor warriors murmured in agreement. "Aye, and so would the Black Orks that raid us and the Dwarves that supply them" Grimbold piped in, and a few of the warriors gave hoots. This exchanged went back and forth for many minutes. They seemed to think that, as far as appearances go, they seemed like good folk. And their common people seemed honest enough. "But it's their leaders we would need to watch out for." Gerti said. "We have a duty to the Kashar to keep them safe."
"And so we shall." Arden said, standing up. A Prince in all but name, he placed his hands on his hips and addressed the crowd of his battle brothers. "The Kashar will decide for themselves on if they can trust these Blacklanders. As for us, we will keep an eye on them, but greet them in fellowship. They have shown no aggression, and have shown to be fine people. So we shall treat them as such!"
"Aye!"

@RisenDead@Natsucooldude@Lauder