In Shadow Valley, Murphy and Triss were discussing the Black Calamity War with the half-elf elders there.
Since Adele had already handled most of the initial contact, Murphy, as Transia's governor, only needed to make a few promises and paint a rosy picture for these naturally wary half-elves to maintain their friendly relationship.
The Shadow Valley half-elves' "inspection delegation" was ready to set off. They were sent through a portal to Wolfburg, then given a quick tour of Transia to help them decide what the valley should do next.
However, although it seemed as if the half-elves had a choice, in reality, they had very little room to maneuver.
Everyone knew that Shadow Valley, in its current state, couldn't possibly hold off the gnolls in the Black Calamity. They might be able to use the terrain to keep the gnolls out of the valley, but once the gnolls surrounded it, the valley's meager resources would leave the half-elves with only one option: starve to death.
All things considered, Murphy wasn't worried about the half-elves causing trouble.
There weren't many of them, and they couldn't make much of a stir. But they could give the players another race template to choose from. To be honest, half-elves weren't especially attractive, and not every half-elf could have a unique character model like Adele's. They were rather slender, which might appeal to some players who were into "skinny" characters.
Still, their features were indeed more refined than humans', which would certainly please the looks-conscious players. It was easy to imagine that, before long, Lumina would have more and more "kin."
While these high-level talks were going on, Hogg, who had been escorted to the valley by the Palanno knights, was also conducting some diplomatic maneuvering of his own.
But the person Hogg was talking