The Miners' Tale

'''The Golden Age of Zebrin'''

Zebrin crystals had been the life blood of Storrin Hold, and many others holds of the Dargellan Range, as far back as anyone could remember. At least 500 years ago, probably more, the dwarves of the hold diligently pried them from their veins deep beneath the earth. Merchants would trade good coin for them and that coin bought the hold all the good food and ale that it needed. Dwarves aren’t inclined to pry into the affairs of other creatures, especially when those affairs relate to magical things (as zebrin crystals surely did), but over many years it became clear to the dwarves who the ultimate buyers of all the crystals were.

Through they passed from the holds into the hands of jovial merchants, who surely passed them on to equally jovial gem dealers, who likely passed them onto other intermediaries, eventually they all ended up in the hands of kobolds. The kobolds were careful about it, never buying too many in one go or buying directly from the same person too often, but over the years enough casual comments from merchants, and the fact that no wizard had a use for them, and no noble decked themselves out in them eventually made it clear. The folk of Storrin Hold never really discussed it, it was just the kind of fact that everyone knew.

Around 200 years ago something changed. Over a few years the market seemed to fall apart dramatically and the demand from the end buyers dropped away. Almost all the holds stopped mining, except for Storrin Hold, because their crystals were the best. For another 160 years they pushed on, running four mines in the harsh environs of Kryndar Valley and continuing to get a good handful of gold for each crystal they bought up from the pit. Demand dropped slowly still and by 1372 all but one mine closed.

'''Glodrek Iarainnòrd'''

Glodrek had done most of his apprenticeship in Kryndar Mine 3, and he’d always disliked that one in particular, an irony he mulled over often in his 10 years of imprisonment. The original shaft had been dug too high and the veins of crystals there quickly ran out. Luckily the rock of the floor was naturally cracked and through the use of some apparently very simple freezing magic these cracks were used to shatter the rock exceptionally quickly, creating a deep vertical pit down to the much richer veins below. Still, having to wind his way down the big spiral ramp to get to the veins made Glodrek think of failures, and he didn’t like failures.

After mines 1, 3 and 4 closed down, Glodrek was chosen to be foreman of #2, the last remaining mine. This mine was much better crafted, no legacy of mistakes here. It was a long way for Storrin Hold, he and his crew would stay for weeks at a time before swapping out with another team from the hold. He enjoyed the camaraderie that came with being with just a few trusted comrades in such a harsh environment. When the news came in 1402 that this last mine was closing too he took it on the chin, but knew he’d miss his life. “At least we won’t be doing any more of that nasty work.” Said Holdmistress Elgan when announcing the shut down. Everyone knew what she meant though no one said anymore.

It was several months later that Glodrek and his crew returned to the mine. Getting a start on a new gem mine had become the priority but with winter predicted to hit the valley early that year the need to retrieve equipment previously left behind had become more urgent. They were yet to reach the mine when they saw the giants. Giants had always been there in Kryndar and whilst they didn’t get along with Storrin Hold they tended to leave each other in peace. Today they were aggressive and demanding. The dwarves tried to stand their ground but when one of them went down to a single hit from a massive stony club Glodrek realized they were beat. Surely wherever the giants wanted them to go couldn’t be so bad that it was worth losing another comrade for. So they marched forward as they were told, and when they realized they were heading back to #3 mine their hearts rose – maybe the giants just wanted something from the old abandoned mine, maybe they’d taken up residence there and wanted to bully the dwarves into fixing something. It couldn’t be all that bad.

The hope was short lived. They arrived to see a group of five kobolds standing in the mine’s entrance – “Down the ramp!” one barked “You need to mine!” “But Master, we’ve just stopped mining zebrin as no one wants it anymore, #2 mine is still mostly operational though, we can keep selling them to you if you want them...” Glodrek protested, but to no avail. They were marched down to the bottom of the now rotten and rickety ramp, handed picks and hammer and told to get to works. Moments after the kobolds left a great crashing and roar of fire came from above and bits of the ramp fell burning to the floor of the pit.

In the pit

It took a few days to truly grasp what had happened. The rest of the ramp was destroyed by rocks dropped from above until there was nothing left. Food was flung from the edge and occasionally a bucket was lowered on a rope with a demand for crystals. The threats started quickly. “Mine or you starve, and once you starve we destroy Storrin Hold and everyone in it!” It eventually dawned on Glodrek and his team that they were never to be freed.

Over the next few months the original crew of seven dropped to four. Two died from overwork and starvation, one simply ceased to drink any water after the despair became too great. Some nine months in the first newcomer arrived – a scout who’d come from Storrin Hold at the first sign of spring to look for Glodrek’s team, only to join them in their underground desolation. Over the next seven years several more dwarves arrived in a range of circumstances, all caught by giants in the valley and herded to the mine before finding what awaited them. Numerous more died. Two tried to escape out the pit – one tried to climb but fell with an arrow in her back, another tried to hide on the large winch system that had replaced the bucket only to have his burnt corpse flung back down. The crew considered trying to dig to freedom, but the kobolds sometimes came down to check on them and a tunnel out would take months to complete. Also, none of the zebrin veins ran in a useful direction so those months would be months where no mining took place.

The prisoners came to know the four kobolds who guarded them, Zellandit, Bleggan, Grullel and Flezzle (the 5th who’d been there at the beginning had vanished early on), and though they only ever caught glimpses of the dragon – Larkark – they came to understand her aggressive and paranoid personality all too well. She seemed prone to fits of rage and changing her orders in an instant, unlike every other dragon they’d ever seen, and the fact that she seemed to be here alone as such a small dragon made them conclude she was a rogue and the kobolds were also rogues in a sense – beholden to a master who had defied her own masters but whom they themselves dared not defy.

Glymwynne

It was early spring of 1409 (by Glymwynne’s own reckoning – the dwarves in the pit had no way to keep track of time) when the first and only non-dwarf joined the sorry crew in the pit.

Glymwynne was an elven wizard of Threfall and had been apprenticed to a master – Aldryd - who studied arcane item construction. Aldryd had a deep interest in what dragons used zebrin crystals for, noticing like the dwarves that they had once been mined in great quantities but had no use he could discern. Over the last 150 years he tracked their mining, learning that they were transported to remote fortified areas across Xian-Tau until around 200 years ago, at which point most mines closed and such places were mostly abandoned – he tried to explore one but found it guarded by a stone golem and worried it may have been left there by kobolds, so he left and didn’t return.

Through noting that most seemed to end up on ships travelling to the Magdellana Islands, he theorized that the small number of mines left were ultimately exporting to Zianne (the forbidden continent), a theory he backed up through scrying on the shallow waters around the forbidden continent and finding high concentrations of them around river mouths. He also knew from scraps of old draconic texts they were part of something called “Telquist de Nrark” - The Great Trap.

6 years ago Aldryd vanished without trace but Glymwynne decided to continue on with his work. She concluded that export to Zianne must have stopped, hence the last of the mines closing. Wondering if maybe there were some clues as to the nature of the crystals in the areas that they were mined, she travelled to investigate the mines herself, where she met a group of stone giants who sent her to her fate.

Upon being released and finding that almost all the crystals mined in the last 10 years have simply ended up in Larkark’s hoard she concluded that the dragon must have simply harboured some made fixation for the crystals. She says the industry must have existed for some greater purpose than to allow dragons to sit on piles of crystals but is filled with rage that she spent three years as a slave simply to stoke the ego of a selfish young runaway dragon.