First of all, Vlakoth looks RAD with those glasses and that coat. Also, we may be screwed depending on how orthodox these elves are in their beliefs. We don't have any wood to trade them, so we're good in that department (the complete lack of trees and subsequent tree cutting might be the reason they're being so polite to us). If they don't accept animal products we may be completely without trade goods. I'm not sure what their policy is on bone crafts because they could easily have been taken from a long dead skeleton, but we could probably get away with shell crafts because they just pile up at the bottom of the sea even without us harvesting the live ones. My remedy for this problem is to encrust what we have with the scrap cut gems we have laying around to increase their value and give the elves a distraction from the fact that they're made of animal. I'd say keep the larger gems on their own so we have an emergency product to fall back to if they don't accept the crafts. Finally, if we really have to, we can sell a few of the extra swords we got from defeating the skeletons. These swords could have their handles encrusted with gems in a way that wouldn't impead the wielder, as well as potentially etching the flat of the blade with engravings to increase value. I may very well be over assuming the gem setting skill of the fort, I've only seen gem cutters so I have no idea if anyone has even remote skill in gem setting, but the gem cutters are the ones most likely to succeed at it so they could try. I also realized that the human migrant that just came was never given a name, sooo, I'm not sure what to do about that. As for what we could actually procure from the elves, we've got some options to choose from, but we should probably wait on a firm decision until we know exactly what they carry. Wow, the broker is going to have a hard time with this deal... oh wait, I'm the broker. Heh.
Well, at the very least I would appreciate if I could bring Frost with me to trade. Not only could he help me figure out what the elven economy is like and see if I'm getting good deals, but it would help for the elves to see that they are trading with a fort that contains one of them, and not just animal people which they seem to think are lesser. Yes they are selling animal people as slaves, but we could do with more hands on deck. If we were to buy one we would obviously grant them citizenship and treat them as equals once the elves leave. We don't want to spark a war or let the elves abduct anyone, so I'd like it for everyone to be on their best behavior. I'm not sure what we're going to do if the elves are selling any animals that the animal men evolved from, but lets keep tempers low. Scourge, as much as I hate to say it you probably should keep a little distance from the caravan after we find that they aren't selling polar bears. We should also inquire if they have any applicable skills other than servant skills like hauling and cleaning. I would hope that they would at least have some skill in cooking, which would be helpful seeing as we have no cook. This could potentially help with future trading, as well prepared meals are pretty valuable. If they're both equally skilled my money would be on choosing the snail man/woman/hermaphrodite (I think all snails are hermaphrodites but I don't know how that translates to animal men). I'm sure a certain...uh... saucy tigerman of ours will want to choose the tigerwoman that he's been craving, but we should put it up to a vote. If we can't afford everything we want, we can always ask them to bring a tigerwoman next year. We definitely need some livestock seeing as our blood stocks are low and we have so many blood drinking creatures in our fort. We should see what they have before we make a decision, but our priority should be for a breeding pair of something. Other than that, we can just see what cool and/or inexpensive things they have and judge to see if it's worth the money in potential uses.
The exquisite food and drink is probably a waste, Lorumet is a pretty good brewer and can provide us with some quality drinks. Cloths, probably also a waste. We just got the string from Tuk Tuk, and after someone weaves it into cloth I can make us something out of it as needed (I keep forgetting that I gave Akituh a little bit of clothes making skills). Wood is probably something we need, after we blew our wood on that cool sign covered in boots. We also just got a vampire carpenter, so we have someone who can actually make some good things out of it. We should buy at least a few logs, logs are cheap and we'll see how much money we have left after we have the essentials and blow it on more logs. At least one or two of those logs should be used to make lye for emergency soap, no one has soap making, but the quality of the soap doesn't really matter. Finally, we should probably politely ask the kobold what her plans for the future are. Not a "get out you dead beat", but just an inquisition as to whether she plans to move in or return to her home and the children she was allegedly feeding. I would also say we shouldn't sell the artifact no matter how desperate we are, it will be good for attracting migrants, and is overall just a symbol of GremlinFort at this point. I'm probably going to do a real journal entry soon with more story tid bits after I stop being lazy decide to get around to it finish formulating how I want to handle it. Oh, and with Scourge being a legendary gem cutter now, it might be a good idea for Goden to choose a secondary profession, something we need currently in the fort to help it function.