Oscar was feeling a number of conflicting emotions today in rapid succession that he dearly wished he wasn’t.

General discomfort and irritation of returning to unbelievably cold Northrend to trade with the primitive natives who barely understood the value of coin, excitement of the potential turn of profit they would get trading cheap ores for much more valuable exotic goods that would sell well back home, outrage at being told by these walruspeople that they would have to ‘renegotiate’ their standard deal with them, surprise at learning about their new trading partner, glee at the thought of trading with a proper kingdom and the opportunities it would open up in the market with him and his associates at the forefront of it, to terror to finding out these ‘nerubians’ were spiderpeople of all things, and finally now… desperately trying to maintain his years long honed trader’s face as he tried to maintain eye contact with said spiderpeople.

It was easier said than done considering it was hard to figure out which set of eyes he should be focusing on.

Still, his pride as a trader would not let him lose such a valuable opportunity standing right before him, so even as he sweated in his heavy furs despite the cold of the continent he kept up his practiced smile and opened up talks of trade with this ‘Krivax’. He was very curious about what this Azjol-Nerub could potentially offer the Eastern Kingdoms after all, ideally making trading missions to this continent much more worthwhile than previous visits. So when the nerubians were done speaking with the Explorers’ League members and their discussions with the walruspeople were over, he took his chance and hoped for the best.

He was not disappointed, and it did much to distract him from his fear.

“This silk is marvelous!” he said in undisguised awe as he was shown several sheets of the material, something that apparently the nerubians could produce relatively cheaply, so most of the costs involved would end up being in transporting it.

“Thank you,” Krivax said with what Oscar thought was a smile. Thankfully, the magics of the chieftain’s hut allowed them to communicate freely so at least words were coming in clearly. “It's pretty basic compared to what actually skilled Weavers can do, but it has many uses even in its base form.”

“I am aware since silk is a luxury material back home. Only Dalaran and Quel'Thalas can produce it in any reasonable amount, and even then only the richest can afford it,” Oscar explained. “I am slightly afraid that if it's as easy to produce as you say that you could crash the market for it back home.”

“Oh… that would not be good I assume,” Krivax said nervously. “We could limit the amount we can trade at a time to reduce overall cost but not totally devalue it if that helps.”

“That would likely be best, but for now it is no problem since few traders come to Northrend as is for the moment, though I'm sure that will change once word spreads,” Oscar said. “Your ores won’t fetch as high of a price due to Ironforge’s high output rate, but the prices of certain ones remain consistent for the most part so long as you moderate that as well.”

“Good to know,” Krivax nodded. “There are likely many other things that my people can trade, but at this time this is the most I can offer personally.”

“Of course, of course,” Oscar waved him off. “This is plenty for the time being. Larger trade deals can be made later on as our relationship with your people grows.”

“Sounds very good, though since we have no maritime tradition at this time we’ll likely have to rely on your ships for transporting said goods.” Krivax pointed out.

“We’ll need to find enough ships and sailors for such, but I'm sure that can be arranged in time as well,” Oscar nodded as he idly tried to figure out the logistics of such a system.

“Good, good,” Krivax nodded. “Now that we’ve gone over what my people can offer I suppose now it's your turn to do the same.”

“That does leave the question of what you need,” Oscar fired back with an honest smirk.

“Not much to be honest, but magical reagents or luxury goods such as new foods and the like would likely interest my people and get them more interested in the surface world. It’s been working with the tuskarr and shellfish after all,” Krivax shrugged. “I don’t suppose you can offer tomes of knowledge, literature, philosophy, and arcane lore?”

Oscar came up slightly short but quickly recovered.

“While there are many tomes in the Eastern Kingdoms most are in the ownership of the Church of the Holy Light, noble houses, royal libraries, and similar institutions who would be… slow to part with such things easily, even for large amounts of gold,” Oscar explained. “And the vast majority of anything related to arcane magic can only be found among the High Elves and the mages of Dalaran.”

“Hmmm, would they be up for a trade? Azjol-Nerub has vast libraries full of knowledge accumulated over the course of thousands of years. I am sure they would find something among our collection worth swapping for,” Krivax asked curiously.

Thousands of years?! Are we dealing with elves in spider form?! Oscar’s mind screamed, but he kept his features schooled.

“Perhaps, but that is something you would need to ask them directly since I am simply a humble trader and sadly have no ties to such groups,” Oscar admitted, knowing it was never good to build up your own image too high or else you wouldn’t be able to live up to expectations.

“A shame, but understandable, since it's not like you knew about us at all,” Krivax shrugged. “Hopefully we can meet with representatives of said groups at a later date, but for now we would be happy to trade simple things with you that you are willing to part with such as maps, books, and anything else you have on you currently that can help us learn more about your people.”

“I believe I can arrange that,” Oscar said, knowing that the captain has a small library in his cabin that he would need to beg and plead with to give up at least a decent amount of it with the promise of a larger cut of the silk profits.

“Excellent, then I hope this deal is most pleasing and that we can partake in more in the future,” Krivax said with a nod as they sealed their agreement with a handshake… which had Oscar shiver as the nerubian’s clawed hand was placed in his own.

Good profit or not, this will take getting used to.

---

“... That is quite the tale, and certainly changes a lot,” Captain Stanton Prescott admitted after Oscar gave the full version of events in private with the man.

After he and the League members had returned to the ship to report back on the meeting with the nerubians the former had returned to the village to continue speaking with their newest acquaintances while he remained behind to talk with the captain about how this changed their mission on behalf of House Ashfort.

“As it stands, even after negotiations with the tuskarr, we will be at a net loss for this whole journey, however, this news of a brand new and apparently quite wealthy and powerful kingdom stands to pay us back hundreds of times over if we play our cards right,” Oscar explained. “I will be going to the nerubian city-state in a few days, and while there I hope to broker a larger trade deal with the city leadership, perhaps as payment for transporting a diplomatic delegation back to the Eastern Kingdoms.”

“Which will not only net us quite a profit, but House Ashfort has first grabs at any new trade routes made and the glory of helping establish diplomatic ties with a foreign kingdom,” the captain summarized as he rubbed his beard chin. “Which ought to seriously boost their reputation among the Lordaeron upper class.”

“Exactly! This will be a massive coup, politically speaking, and House Ashfort and the rest of us can ride the wave when it comes rather than be overtaken by it,” Oscar couldn’t help the slightly predatory grin that came to his face at the thought.

“Still sounds risky since these are giant spider people of all things, and from the sounds of it most of them are not the overly friendly sort,” the captain pointed out as he took a drink of alcohol from the private stash he brought out during the report.

“Yes, but even the most isolationist kingdoms still want some things outside of their borders, for even the elves still trade with the human kingdoms despite not allowing us in theirs,” Oscar pointed out.

“Elves don’t eat people… as far as I know,” the captain said. “I’ve seen actual non-talking giant spiders wrap up and suck the juices out of men before.”

“From all accounts, they have no interest in eating people, Captain,” Oscar waved him off, but still couldn’t get the image out of his head of the nerubians happily crunching down on a crab shell and all.

“It's your neck that you’re risking, so it’s your choice in the end,” the captain shrugged. “Guess that means we’ll be stuck here for a little bit while you work your magic. Gonna have to give the crew a bit of extended shore leave while you're gone, not that there is much to do here, and get them ready to most likely receive more… unique-looking passengers then. Of course, if you aren’t back in a week I'm gonna assume the worst and sail off.”

“Fair enough, but I assure you it won’t come to that,” Oscar said… and privately hoped.

“This is the risk you merchants all take for coin and glory, I suppose,” the Captain laughed while Oscar chuckled since he couldn’t deny that fact.

If all went well, then he would become one of the richest men in the Eastern Kingdoms in a few short years, an image that made any risk seem worth it.