Regi hated coming to these things, sitting in the background cuddling a strong whiskey if his inventions were so great why couldn't they just send a message saying 'Oh hey congrats for not being bad' but nope they make him sit here till he had to walk on stage rattling on about his machines and runes to nobles who didn't like the idea of a poor person being better than him. when his thoughts finished he hadn't noticed how tightly he clenched the glass in his hand or the fact a child was looking up at him holding out one of the scrolls for the event, allowing a small smile to cross his face watching as the kid wandered away.

As he went up on stage the only thing on his mind was the after party, sure the first few times he was excited to be invited to them since it would allow him to talk to others about his machines and other sciences but he quickly realised it consisted of cheesy businessmen trying to buy his work, he quickly snapped out of his thought pulling the cover off his machine and announcing "This is the Tunneller Mk62" he turned the metallic beast on watching the runes light up "Equipped with auto smelting due to the high temperature related fire runes and auto disposing due to the air runes firing the refuse backwards" the crowd politely clapped allowing him to walk off the stage into the finely decorated room where he could watch the other Inventors through a large window while ignoring dwarves badgering him for sales and offering him drinks he decided to try to pay deeper interest to the stage.

Ever since Vikki had heard of Invention Conventions that were held in the Dwarven city of Baltil, she knew that she had to witness what are the local artisans capable of. What she did not know, though, was that the City in its entirety was a one large exhibition of complex contraptions, not unlike the Gnomish Kingdom in which she grew up. The young Artificer was quick to begin comparing the local creations to these she knew from home. And from what she had gathered and understood, the Dwarves had manufactured many intriguing materials, such as mage glass, which was durable enough to maintain the weight of many a folk. Vikki smiled at the thought of seeing the agape mouths of Gnomes back at home, amazed at their Human peer's discovery.

She had also marveled at the odd choice for their automatons' plating. Gold and silver? A risky and expensive choice, as far as she knew. Perhaps these metals have properties she had not learned of yet? Otherwise, she gave them little chance of winning a clash with brazen automatons from back home. After a while of marveling, the young woman remembered what she came for, and so she went on to seek directions. The locals she had approached were a most friendly bunch, even if not the most informed. Still, with their aid she had learned a few things about how to move around the City and eventually she had found herself at the doors of a large hall, the massive pillars of which continuously shifted up and down, as if they were pistons. She was surprised to see - or, better yet, to hear - how quietly they moved for their size. All in all, for a City this industrialised, it surely did not emit anywhere near as much noxious particles and was nowhere near as loud as her homeland.

But, Vikki could only marvel for so long before the exhibition would come to an end. And so she walked in. At the reception hall she was greeted by a kind dwarven lady, with a well-groomed red beard and a silvery brace worn over her head, who had politely asked the Artificer to turn in her crossbow before she was allowed in. Vikki obliged without a shadow of doubt, and the receptionist, having taken the crossbow and a quiver given to her, she slid open the doors of a metallic, tubular container, the inside of which was brightly glowing with magic. Having put inside the weapon and its ammunition, which seemed to disappear in the bright light, the Dwarven woman turned towards the Artificer and asked:

- "Are you currently under the magical effect which preserves your health or life anyhow, ma'am?"

- "Excuse me?" - Vikki had asked in response, visibly surprised by the odd question.

- "In order to keep the Hall, guests, inventors and their creations safe, we reserve the right to withhold weapons and dampen spellcasting abilities of every entering guests. There are cases where guests are exempted from the latter of the measures, though, and so I am asking you the question. Are you, then, ma'am?" - the receptionist sounded as if she were weary with having to explain herself to what probably made for a vast majority of the guests that had entered before Vikki. The young Artificer quickly caught onto that, and not willing to give the Dwarven woman any more trouble, she answered that she was under none of such effects. Afterwards, she was asked to give her hand, onto which, with quick, practiced movements, the receptionist had painted a rune of sorts, while whispering an incantation under her narrow nose. Said rune gave a faint, bluish glow after it was painted, and Vikki indeed felt her magical reserves slowly ebbing away.

There was so much for formalities. Having been wished a nice visit by the receptionist, Vikki had walked into the exhibition room. Oh, goodness gracious, there were so many fantastic creations for her to witness, she could hardly make up her mind where to look. To the left, she saw a number of large, blocky contraptions, which she did not find very interesting. Their functions, although useful - such as that of a pillar standing twice as tall as herself, made apparently from copper and lined with runic symbols, which stored magical energy or that of a massive furnace, crowned with many glass instruments, which supposedly cleaned water within of any nasty substance that might have dissolved in it - seemed too boring for the young, action-craving Artificer to pay them more attention. To her right, however, there seemed to be a vast number of smaller projects, most of which built by young and ambitious folk not unlike herself. Some young Dwarf was presenting a thick, plated bodysuit, which supposedly protected the wearer from each of the hazardous elements for extended periods of time. A pair of an Elf and another Dwarf were presenting what they claimed to be the fruit of their combined efforts - a repeating crossbow, told to outperform its predecessors thanks to 'unique solutions' and 'best available materials', of which both took the duo quite long to describe…

Having turned to the middle of the Hall, however, Vikki saw a vast scene, on which a Human man, apparently as young as herself, presented what she understood to be a mining drone, half as tall as its creator. While the concept was not a novelty to her, she was quite impressed by how well made it was, and by a man this young, no less! Having paid more of her attention to the man's presentation, she learned that there was more to the machine than mining, for it offered a number of additional functions, and it was all in such a small package! Genuinely impressed with the presentation, she clapped along with the crowd, which, oddly enough, had quickly dispersed, giving way to the young man and his creation, which made their way to a separate room. Without second thought, the young woman had followed them in, not willing to miss a chance to commune with an alike mind.

Having stood next to the man, who seemed occupied with observing the exhibition through a window, she asked with her usual, soft voice:

- "Mark sixty-two, hm? Sounds like you've put much time and effort into bringing your invention to its current stage. Such dedication. I am impressed."

If he were to turn towards the voice, he would have seen a young human woman, standing barely five feet tall, eyeing him with her big, gray eyes as a faint smile went on to widen on her pale face.

- "The name is Vikki. Not unlike yourself, I work with mechanical creations and, to a degree, with magic. Only recently I arrived in these lands." - she added, awaiting the man's response.

"Hmmm?" he replied looking down at the girl his brown eyes showing he was deep in thought when she talked before realising he continued "Well when you have an idea that you think fruitful you have to add it to the list then with each test you add a mark, I even had one of my trinkets up to Mark Hundred and two" his answer seemed uneasy not fully trusting the short girl in front of him before hearing her next line he spoke up, "Oh what a relief someone my age, its get terribly boring when all the people are ancient with big long beards" he chuckled before looking back at the window.

Opening a notebook with many diagrams and paragraphs of information in he scribble away ignoring a tall thin man wearing a business suit choosing to answer sharply "As you can see I'm talking to someone" he glanced down at the girl before continuing to her "These people simply want inventions to beat the competition, remind me of soulless golems from the gnome districts, or the new undead from that outpost everyone is talking about" he pointed to a drawing of the map with notes taken about the ideas and materials found in the location, "Oh right I completely forgot, My name is Reginn Obi but you can call me Regi" he stuck his hand out to her before quickly adding "So you must be full of ideas, you have to tell me over some food?"

Vikki snickered, hearing her interlocutor's remark regarding the beard-bearing masters of the craft, who were failing to present their teaching and views in an interesting way. For the major part, anyway. She still fondly remembered her surrogate grandfather and all the models he had presented to her in order to explain the plethora of different mechanisms, all in a way that had left her child self most intrigued.

Then she saw the young inventor producing a notebook, not unlike that of her own, where he was adding something to the bunch of diagrams indecipherable to the unknowing eyes. To Vikki they seemed like aids in measuring movements of artificial limbs, but failing to take a proper look, she could not be certain. Seeing him then brushing off some nobleman, presumably one who sought doing business with him, she listened to the young man's explanation, and how he compared such individuals with Gnomish golems and undead. Now, that got her intrigued - surely he must have meant the local gnomes, and not the ones from the remote island she hailed from, for she remembered the automatons from back home as rather refined, even if not as much as the ones she saw recently in Baltil. Nonetheless, she understood his remark as a joke, one that relied on an exaggeration to get its point across. She tried her hand at one, too:

- "I would disagree on the undead part. In the Desert alone, they are a rather diverse and… lively bunch, as much as it can be said about the unliving. You would have known what I meant, if you were to see one's enthusiasm for flesh" - the young woman had then promptly ceased rambling, seeing she has been dragging her joke onwards for a tad too long. When he pointed the aforementioned Desert outpost on the map, Vikki only politely glanced the way he pointed, so he would not feel that his efforts were being ignored. She knew full well where the place was, having traveled here before and even gotten herself in trouble on occasions. And, she found it odd how he seemed to think that he needed to point out which outpost he had in mind, as if a vast desert raised above ground by a powerful corrupted mage was no big news. Perhaps a habit he picked communing with too many of the ill-informed folk? She would not be a stranger to the similar feeling.

Then came the moment she had been waiting for quite a while - the man's introduction. He was even kind enough to invite her for a meal, during which the two would discuss ideas, of which the young inventor believed she was 'full'. Vikki reached out and shook the man's hand. For a woman her size, she had a rather strong grip, and the man, who introduced himself as Reginn Obi, could feel the small patches of callused skin on her hand - fruit of having operated many levers and tools, which he most likely knew full well.

- "I'm afraid not as full as you might imagine; I had arrived here specifically to learn - about what does the big world have to offer, including different approaches to the crafts. Still, I like your offer. To sit down in a relaxed environment would be a good way to learn a thing or two from each other."

He chuckled at her poor joke, he was used to hearing bad puns and long jokes from his comrades in The Hand before he quickly finished his drink "There's an amazing little cafe run by a Kobold, serves the best noodles you will ever try" he laughed opening the door for her and walking out into the crowds of people, "When I got lost in the forests south of here, I discovered this mountain city maybe after months of wandering the Dwarves that accepted me into their blacksmith guild accepted me with open arms and now are like my brothers and sisters" he spoke loudly to be heard across the crowd before continuing "I think two years ago was my first Convention and I created an Auto-Crossbow, I guess that's just a starting point for all inventors" pointing at the two over joyous inventors still trying to convince people their weapon was the best.

When they finally got to the small cafe the young blacksmith was greeted by an old looking wolf kobold who asked him how his presentation, Regi allowed himself to smile and joke with the lady about the business-men being a pain before ordering some bowls of noodles and taking a seat, "And with your previous statement, everyone can imagine creations, but only the thinkers can create them into reality, if you simply learn ways of doing one thing without creating your owns how will you ever live up to your dreams?" he quickly looked the women up and down before asking "And from the looks of your clothing I'm guessing you learnt a lot from either the High Elves or Gnomes due to the colour, however, you lack the belief your better than me so I guess raised by gnomes?" he chuckled at his guess, sure the chances of it being high from the type of garments she wore but there was something different about them than the gnomes he was used to addressing which made him feel uneasy.

Shortly after this the loud explosion echoed through the halls making Regi looked deeply worried out at the rushing people and the sudden appearance of all sort of rough looking races appearing armed to the teeth in outdated weaponry and easily hidden weapons with a quick curse he spoke "Attacking a no weapons zone, it means it will take guards too long to get here before they steal everything" almost like a well-oiled machine Regi tore the oil lamp from the wall with a sound of protest from the owner but before the sound even left the Wolf's mouth the blacksmith was already building something to help defend the shop and try to halt the burglary going on in the convention. it took a few minutes but he looked at the makeshift canister filled with the oil from the lantern and a small napkin as a fuse, quickly walking towards the door he glanced out before looking at Vikki "Any Ideas?" he smirked.