>>5638388The absence of Sir Heinrich Ysoef is felt most keenly by his fellow adventurers and allies: the Paladin called Sir Chase, the elven forest-mystic of the Silverwood named Nenaias, and of COURSE that damnable Hargrat Deepvein. The last of them is your loudest opposition, constantly and vocally petitioning for the land rights of the dwarves, the dangers of a kobold uprising in an era of shapeshifting ‘Reptoids’, and the theory that the dwarven converts to your cause are either disguised Reptilians or are being manipulated by such.
“It sssoundss to me like petty ssquabbling amongssst a people known to fall into sssuch internal sstrife when greed for gold iss involved,” you comment.
“Oh? More words from some upjumped commoner from lands unknown, come from nowhere and nothing to tell us how we oughtv to do things in the North?” Deepvein mocks you openly.
Any sense of politeness and propriety fell away many, many meetings ago.
“Sire, and sirs, we dwarves of Treasuretrove, Blackmantle, Gems-B-We, Graphite-Grey… We leased these lands under human law, the PALADINS’ law,” Deepvein reiterates. “We kept to that law. We paid our leases. And, yes, we’ve had our… Squabbles, from time-to-time. But we’re DWARVES, damnit. We handled these things ourselves. We never, EVER, made them a problem for the race of man, or let it get in the way of our agreements with you. Dwarves HONOUR their word. They HANDLE their business.”
There are murmurs of agreement from the assembled humans.
“I tell you now, this is NOT a matter of dwarves-against-dwarves. There is a hand in this… Scaly-skinned, sharp-clawed, evil, demonic! The forces of darkness mass in the Bloodrise Mountains, and if we dwarves are swallowed up by it… Well, the humans below the mountains won’t be far behind. They’ve already lost villages, adventurers, tracts of land to these kobolds, and to whatever dark lord is driving them to these BRAZEN assaults. This is why we joined together—all four companies—to fund my men and put a stop to it.”
“A monopoly on mineral rightsss, and yous sstill sseek ssubssidy and aid from humansss to ssuport your claim againssst little lizardsss?” you ask. “Sso much for ‘handling your own busssinessss’, I ssuppossse. It sssoundss like you jusst wan the exxcuse to ssave money on ssecurity.”
