Num Muddyboots slow travels out of fortress Whippedmachine to the hillock Lancedworks where he talks with well-dressed militia commander Vucar Groovecobalt.
He asks her about the surrounding area. The things that stand out are a camel monster curse and the mention of personages not by profession but by species, the indicator of being an outcast. Afterwards, he leaves, fast-traveling to human held lands. Slow traveling here would be a true waste of time.
In human held lands, after setting up base at the town Puretomes, Num discovers he can one-hand pikes, halberds, 2H-swds and great axes.
I'm leaning towards the idea that that's the specificity of having largeness in the character description, which has the properties of being both tall and broad. This is opposed to the mutually exclusive property of being broad or tall where becoming large is due to being an extreme version of either physical build.
Anyways, it's here at an empty meadhall that Num ends up taking the life of his first sentient, bandit bowgoblin Utes Blottedhexes. I was trying to delay combat engagement with sentients for as long as possible. It's after this run-in that Num acquires a band of dwarven followers who shadow him wherever he goes.
Later, in the hamlet Willfulclinches, Num finds its meadhall surrounded by rectangular periphery of books strewn everywhere. This is apparently recompense for mountain hall Trammelmines.
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It becomes clear once inside as to why this is so. The myth of the creative type's preference for disarray.
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Num mills about and reads every book around the meadhall. Num enters the hamlet itself as he's fairly certain there are ever more books and reads these as well. Most happen to be mediocre as befits found/discarded items, though he did find one at the meadhall that was masterful and another one here in the hamlet that is inspired.
Since these are all first editions, Num doesn't take any of them on the journey. In the end, he became a level 6 (talented) reader, though his analytical ability does not improve. It had started at average and has only increased due to tracking and quite possible ambusher.