Episode 4 – Friends

It was Nathalie who had suggested that the orc and the gnome should go into business together after listening to them talk night after night about the technical and environmental problems of extending Stormhaven’s sewerage and water supply systems. She had been listening to them for months without giving it a second thought. Nathalie had always been empathetic, but after returning from her training with the Seer, Guian Starshadow, there seemed something different about her. There was no obvious magic but somehow she always seemed to say the right thing at the right time. Boz saw the difference immediately and observed that the seer had not changed her nature but had helped her become what she always was.

Nathalie’s remark to the unusual friends seemed casual and half-joking but for Gruk and Fitz it was though lights had been switched on in both of their heads. The old gnome, Fitz, was close to retirement and suddenly saw the tremendous potential of a partnership with the orc. Gruk had shown a genius level grasp of engineering principles despite his lack of practical experience but Fitz had despaired that his friend would only find work as a labourer because of the prejudiced assumptions about orcish intelligence that persisted even in liberal Stormhaven. Setting up an independent business had occured to neither of the men but the genie was out of the bottle and there was no putting it back.

In the evenings following the inception of their idea Fitz and Gruk would be found in their corner of the tavern huddled over plans for the prospective business. Often Nathalie would join them and while she laughed off their invitation to become a partner in the venture she made suggestion after suggestion that seemed to add wings to their deliberations. She also arranged financing for the enterprise from Boz. The Taverner, seeing the potential for profit as well as philantropy, was soon arranging not only an investment as a partner but to be the pair’s first client as he had been considering making renovations and extensions to the Sleeping Dragon.

It amused Boz when Nathalie suggested the name ‘Gruk and Fitz – we Grok and Fix Problems’. It amused Natalie that it had amused Boz.