Illarion.org

In the early hours of the day, four dwarves left from Goldburg/Silverbrand leading a single cow. The mission.....to steal what was left in the old Miner's Guild for the new Halls they had.

As they left, they looks about for wolves and such. With careful planning beforehand, they led the cow to the edge of the mountain pass said to be inhabited by Stone Gollems.

Faber, noticing how hard the stones would be for the cow, volunteered to stay behind as his comrades completed the mission.

Led by Chester copperpot, the three then tried to enter by the safest way, in a tunnel to an upper ledge.

Suddenly, the three stopped in their tracks as they saw a stone gollem blocking the way.

"Run" said Chester, and they did so, taking the longer, second path up the steep way to the entrance. As they approached however, they heard distant sounds within. Cautiously, the crew looked inside and travelled down the tunnel to the door of the old, and rotting Miner's Guild.

Placing a 'purchased' key in the door, Chester opened the door, only to be faced by a single human Bandit!

Bravely, the three charged the intruder, killing him quickly.

alone now, they heard more sounds upstairs....

Confident in their new-found abilities and friendship, Hrar blew ahorn, Chester ripped off his shirt and Garius charged the ladder with them, to be faced by 5 more of the bandits...

Fighting was fierce and long as the young dwarves of Goldburg attacked the bandits....however, in the end, they won!

Chester and Garius both took some hits, while Hrar grinned at them with nearly no scratches.

"Let's get that Depot! It's what we came for!" Chester instructed.

The three of them then went down and heaved upon the depot until all three carried it. It was quite heavy, but three dwraves can carry the world if the reward is enough! (Free Beer is good too!)

Slowly, with words of encouragement from Chester, they slowly moved through the tunnels. Just as they left, there were more sounds in the old mine. Hrar asked "Shall we?"

Chester shook his head no, saying, "Priorities...Depot to the cow first, fight later!" With smiles, they continues carrying the depot to where Faber was waiting patiently with the cow. Together all four of them heaved it upon the cow and lashed it to her back with good strong rope.

They all rested a moment. They discussed their next haul and planned to get the Gem-Grinder and an anvil.

Together the three again made their way to the tunnels and the first sounds became louder.

"Shall we?" Hrar said. "Aye" the others agreed as they drew their swords.

Valiantly, they entered the tunnel to the mine to meet the threat.

Upon turning the corner, a whole group of bandits appeard, led by two mages....

"Strategy," chester thought.

"Form a line!" Chester yelled, and the three of them swiftly lined up, blocking a narrow part of the tunnel. One by one the bandits came and were cut down. After three bandits, then a mage cam upon them.

Shaking. Hrar meant to run away from it, but Chester held his ground. Soon the line reformed as Hrar and Garius held against the Mage. He soon feel against their combined might.

"Charge" yelled Chester as he led the others into the mine to dispatch the other bandits.

Garius and Hrar fought valiantly and they were soon victorious!

"Let's Hurry before more come" Hrar suggested. Together, they re-entered the Miner's Guild and carried away the Gem-cutter and Anvil. As they made their way back to the cow, Faber could see that they were smiling and the sun began to set. Together they strapped them to a cow.

It was suggested that maybe they could send for more help, but Chester reassured them that the true test of a new clan is the ability to defeat it's enemies by itself. "We can do it! I'm proud of you lads!" he said.

With that, Chester led them to get some furniture. Slowly they re-entered the caves, and seeing no danger, picked up the Bed and chairs.

"Crash" went one of the armchairs as Chester grabbed it. It appeared to be rotted. With a shrug, he carried one, then took a lantern from the table, while Hrar and Garius struggled with the bed.

They turned and twisted the bedframe up and down to get it through the narrow tunnels, and were finally successful when the appeared to Faber carrying it with smiles. Together they strapped the booty on the cow.

"One last time," Chester said patting his bag full of 10 Molotove Cocktails, "Then I will set these off to ensure no one can use those caves again and compete with the dwarves of Goldburg or Silverbrand!"

There was a cheer, as the three then re-entered the Miner's Guild, and began to carry off the last stools and Table. Chester advise3d them to get clear before he set off the cocktails and he started looking for weaknesses and cracks in the surrounding rockface. Hrar and Garius cheered as they left.

Carefully, Chester took some thread, cut it for 2 minutes burn time and placed them in three cocktails. He then placed them by the doors and cracks and lit them.

Running down the ladder, Chester heard them begin to explode. There was a shake and shudder as the rocks began falling from the ceiling. Lightins a few more, Chetser threw some into the room as he left, exploding them by the ladder and the door.

Running, he then threw one behind him at the outer door to the stone gollems, the heat from it grazing his heels. Reaching the cave entrance, he threw three more into the Mine tunnels, breaking more rocks from the ceiling. Seeing Rocks fall before his eyes, he ran back and threw the last one at the entrance.

As the tunnel entrance collapsed there was a lot of shaking of the ground and dust exploded from the rocky ruins, a cloud so thick, surely all of Gobaith could see them. Chester smiled happily and ran to meet with his comrades at the cow.

Cheers and congratulations to them all, they turned the cow toward Goldburg to later carry the spoils down into the depths of the new Guild, now tested and found successful!

Merri looked up from the carpenter table as he saw a huge pillar of smoke rise into the air.

"What the heck is that?"

It looks like it's coming from the copper mountains, he thought.

He put grabbed the few supplies he had on the table into his little arms as if he was giving someone a giant hug. He scampered over to his depot and let fall everything from his arms into it. After he scooted around his endless supply of junk within, he managed to grab a small green cloak and put it on.

I had better go check to see if everything is alright with the guild.

He left the town north and headed east. He followed the stream to its source and then found the small opening which led to the ladder which led to the front door of the Miner's guild. To his great disdain, he saw that the tunnel which led to the front door had collapsed. After a great sigh, he went back down the ladder, back out the front of the cave and followed the river back almost to town. He then passed the bridge that led towards Garon's house. Continuing along and whistling, he passed the entrance to the public mine. A little further and he went north into a mountain pass. Careful to stay along the edge of the cliffs to avoid the golems, he reached the next passage into the guild. To his great horror, that had also collapsed.

What the heck is going on here?

"Maybe the secret entrance?"

The secret entrance that he himself had made. No one could have known about it. He left the way he had come, passing Garon's house, passing the bridge, following the river back to its source.

Many weeks before, after much playing in the water, and after a busy day of mining, he had found a strange current. He dived under water and, after going deep enough, was sucked into a very strong current. Holding his breath and tumbling under the water he became very afraid. Just as his lungs started to burn he was spewed out of a small opening and fell into a calm lake. He immediately started swimming for the shore, and as he got there he lay gasping. After a few moments he started to explore.

He looked up into the high cavern, scared and alone. He saw daylight way up at the top, just a small gleam. He started to climb a conveniently branchy vine. As he got to the top, he had to force the air from his lungs to fit through the small crack. His 3 foot, 50 pound body could barely fit! However he decided to climb back down. As the whole cavern was filled with the branchy vine, he continued to explore. He realized that he was directly under the miners guild.

A few days later he decided to make the escape, should he ever need it. He carefully constructed a loose slab under the fireplace that could be moved. He broke the stone and he dug through the dirt until he almost fell through the floor, into the cavern. After tying himself off to the table, he pushed through the rest of the way. He fell, as did the floor. He hauled himself up using the rope and carefully placed the slab back in place.

Merri dove under the water and was again thrown into the calm lake. He looked up at the familiar opening, and just as he had expected, the vine had grown to make easy access to his secret entrance as well. He climbed up and emerged into the main hall of the guild.

What he saw drove him to tears. All the furniture was missing except for a somehow broken chair. He climbed down into the workshop to see all of the missing tools. Who would do this?

Sure he had not been to the guild in a while, but it had been no longer then a month since his last visit. Even his depot with all his extra ores was missing. He sat in the corner and cried a bit more. Why are people so mean to me? They know I owned this place! I never do anything and everyone always attacks me and hits me and steals from me!

He then got up with a child like defiance and started to search the whole vicinity, searching for any type of clues that could possibly be found.