How Vratni Came to Bree
Vratni Copperhand wasn’t meant to end up in Bree. Not permanently, anyway. His original plan, if you could call it a plan and not a half-scribbled note on a tavern napkin was to travel west from the Blue Mountains, peddling a fresh batch of “authentic Dwarven curios” (some genuine, most questionable, and one a painted rock). He’d intended to reach the Shire by spring, thinking Hobbit-folk might pay well for novelty and beard oils.
But Bree… Bree had potential.
After being chased out of Combe by a suspicious widow who swore her missing milk churn bore a striking resemblance to one of his wares, Vratni rolled into Bree with a creaky cart, a half-lame pony, and a sales pitch he could deliver in three dialects (badly). And there, between a leaky stable roof and a suspiciously cheap room at The Prancing Pony, he saw opportunity. A crossroads town! Travellers! Guards with sore feet! Elves with coin and no sense of market value! It was a merchant’s dream… or at least a sturdy enough compromise.
The past was the past, but this whole trip West had begun after a slight misunderstanding involving a disputed shipment of “antique” Dwarrow-crafted chamber pots (which Vratni swears were authentic), and a slightly more significant fire in the trade hall of Noglond that he definitely didn’t mean to start... Vratni made the sensible decision to expand his “mercantile frontiers.” Bree, after all, had potential: a bustling crossroads, plenty of wide-eyed Menfolk who’d never held genuine Dwarven goods (or anything shiny, really), and, perhaps most importantly, no prior knowledge of Vratni’s enterprising reputation.
His arrival in Bree was humble. He had just two crates, one lame pony named 'Tansy', and a ledger that had seen better days. It was this very ledger, charred at the corners and scented faintly of mushroom ale, that Vratni resolved to begin anew. "Every true venture begins with a new page," he declared to no one in particular outside The Prancing Pony.
Of course, Vratni doesn’t call it a “diary.” It is his 'Business Ledger of Honest Dealings & Very Real Profit Projections, Volume II' (Volume I was lost in the incident involving the aforementioned pony and a rather vicious Brigand and a nosy Hobbit). In it, he now records trades, thoughts, and the occasional tale of narrow escapes from civic complaints.
In truth, part of him misses home, and keeping a written account helps him feel a little less far from the forges and familiar tunnels of the Blue Mountains. It’s also handy for remembering who he owes coin to (or who owes him), and which Bree-landers to avoid before breakfast.
And so, Vratni Copperhand settled into Bree, a dwarf on the make, with a twinkle in his eye, a few holes in his shoes, and a suspiciously overstuffed pocket full of “limited-time offers.”
