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"You shouldn't have to be sleeping with the comrades, sister" says the dwarf, "it's not right. Comrade Ursa will get you your own chamber. Where is he? I believe he's on guard duty down the tunnel to the main shaft." He gestures vaguely in the direction of one of the tunnels (there are two, with the coalface and diamond pipe going between them).

"The McCains discovered a diamond pipe" says one of the dwarves to Pint, "So naturally, they started mining it, much nicer work than mining coal. They sold a few diamonds, with Lord Percival taking his cut. Then the story went out that the diamonds were unlucky. So Lord Percival said he wouldn't accept them any more, and could they go back to mining just coal? That was the point at which they went on strike. So we Dunstans have been drafted in to break the strike."
"Now it was about two days ago that Lord Percival sent a longshanks cleric, Fr Michael, down the mine to negotiate a last minute settlement. He didn't come back. Then Adan here and another longshanks cleric, a female one called Galiena, went to try to get Fr Michael out. Adan was fobbed off with excuses, whilst Galiena said she wouldn't return to the surface at all without Fr Michael. So now instead of one, there's two longshanks clerics lost somewhere down the mine."
"Finally, there was a big explosion of firedamp down the mine. Now that's curious, I know you get mining explosions from time to time. But the timing is curious. We sent dwarves down, and the McCains reported that Griimley McCain, chief of the McCains, had been killed in the explosion. Which changes the situation totally."

Pint and the dwarves trudge on. Being dwarves, they can stand in the tunnel upright, but only just. It's too short for men to stand, which means that if it came to a fight, Lord Percival's human soldiers would stand no chance against dwarf defenders.

Being taller than the average dwarf by about half a head, Pint had to duck slightly when he and the other dwarves trudged into the tunnel proper. He could see why the humans hadn't tried to force the dwarves out to force now, tunnel fighting would be suicide to them. Back at Pint's homeland, tactics such as this were used to slaughter orcish hordes and while fighting humans was rare, it happened often enough that they would know better than to try and pick a fight with the dwarves in their home turf. Perhaps Pint hadn't given the local humans enough credit.. they weren't cowards or incompetent, they simply knew they could fight these dwarves without suffering a ton of casualties and thus had to hire other dwarves to do the work for them.

That said, Pint's opinion of the humans soon lowered when he heard what exactly was going on. "Wait, what? Unlucky diamonds?" Pint's eyebrows furrowed while he pushed the cart. "I've 'eard of cursed diamonds but ne'er unlucky ones." What a mess this was. It didn't make any sense to him, if this Percival fellow didn't want the diamonds then he should just let the McCain's keep them. Of course, he wasn't going to say this out loud as he was here supposedly on Lord Percival's behalf.

Right now, all he could hope was that the clerics he was trying to rescue had it all figured out. Otherwise a lot of good dwarves would be losing their lives on account of human stupidity.

((She might be.. but I'm still struggling with the map in my head to formulate a plan on how to get him out. Am I right in assuming the only way out (that she knows of) is going through this large room with all the machines?))

"I'll look for him... thank you," she gives the dwarf a tired smile and heads in the direction he indicated, picking the opposite tunnel from the one where she'd just come from.

The route to Fr Michael's cell leads through the machine room. From the machine room are two side tunnels leading to the railway tunnels. Galiena takes her leave of the dwarves and goes down the opposite railway tunnel to the one she has used to travel from the coalface to the machine room.

What does she do with her light? She hears the sounds of voices.

Pint and the dwarves are pushing a cart of supplies up that track.
"Unlucky diamonds, longshanks nonsense if you ask me" says a dwarf, "But we've got to live with it. A diamond's only worth something if it can be sold."
Suddenly figures emerge
"We're not just anybody" they say "we're the committee. Chief Grimley is dead, and the revolutionary committee of the dwarven workers has taken over what was Colston colliery and renamed it Dwarf Mine. Welcome brothers."

When figures emerged, Pint's first and most natural reaction was to reach for his weapons. In a flash, his Urgrosh was out and ready to hack and slash.

But, instead of angry dwarves with hammers and axes he was met with some blokes that called themselves the committee. And not only did they not want to fight him, they were welcoming him!

'What the sod is going on?' Pint thought to himself whilst frozen in place. This was starting to get a lot more complicated than he thought. What was first looked like a rescue attempt on some clerics looked like it was quickly going to become a conflict between dwarves and humans.

While Pint had no qualms to joining his brothers and hack some foolish humans to bits, he did have a mission to accomplish first and so he decided to play along for now.

"Ey! Well that's some bloody good timing ye got there brothers! Mind giving us a hand pushing this cart then? It's soddin' heavy it is!" He looked to Dunstan dwarves with a glare trying to compel them to move along. If they could just find these clerics maybe everything will make more sense.

Ursa, she thought at first. No, Kaynin maybe? Or both? There was definitely more than one...

It was difficult to tell the McCain dwarves apart from their voices alone and she wasn't quite close enough yet to make out the exact words. But she kept the light shining as she approached. Without it, she knew that only meant they'd be able to see her, but she'd not be able to see them...

"We'll take the supplies" says a dwarf who appears to be in the lead, "I see you're working for the longshanks Lord Percival. Well tell him that now that Grimley is dead - bless his soul - we're prepared to end the strike. Just ask him what terms and conditions he can offer us - wait a minute, who is that?"

A light appears shining down the tunnel. It is miraculously white, as though created by some angel, and hardly flickers, unlike light from a flame. However it bobs, and appears to be moving towards the dwarves clustered round the mine truck.

Galiena approaches closer, and can make out Kaynin's voice, also a powerful dwarf she does not recognise.

Kaynin draws a dagger, and turns backwards to face Galiena's light. "If this is some sort of trick ..." he says. Then he seems to remember himself. "You can't be too careful with the longshanks, comrades" he says to Pint and his companions, "They're not honest like us dwarves."

The tired and weaponless cleric backs away momentarily as Kaynin draws the blade, startled by the act. "No trick, Kaynin..." she can't quite bring herself to call him 'comrade'.

She glances at the cart and other dwarves, recognizing Adan. The other, she assumed, was one of the Dunstans.

"I'm not trying to escape, just find a place to sleep," she purposely put the word 'escape' in there for Adan's benefit. "The dwarf at the fan sent me here to ask Ursa, he thought he was down this way."

((I try to reply every evening, GMT, as long as I have some answers))

"Comrade Ursa has more important things to do than to see to you" says Kaynin, "but since you're here, everyone can see that sister Galiena is alive and well. Now we'll take these supplies, you others return to the surface and tell Lord Percival that we're prepared to end the strike."
"So what about Fr Michael?" says Adan.
"Fr Michael is fine. He's very tired and is resting" says Kaynin, "Sister Galiena wants to stay with us, don't you sister?"

"Aye?" Pint's eyes widened a little when the dwarven leader told him that since the explosion had killed their previous chief, they were willing to end the strike. Rather than questioned their motives, Pint was all too willing to accept their terms and go back to the surface with the good news. Easiest money he's done in a while that's for sure. He was still assuming he was getting paid for this anyway..

As the light approached them and Kaynin told him that it could be human trickery, Pint chuckled in agreement and rolled his shoulder, setting himself in a low fighting stance with Urgrosh at the ready. "Yeh got that right." Naturally inclined to agree with his dwarven brethren, Pint was all too willing to drop everything he was doing and fight alongside other dwarves against whatever this was. It was refreshing working with other dwarves, as an adventurer he'd been forced to work with humans, elves, gnomes, orcs and what have yous, forgetting how reliable and attentive his own kin were. It was nice that when confronted with something strange everyone reacted naturally and reached for their weapons rather than panic as other races would.

However, as the shining light was revealed to be none other than Galiena, the young dwarven lad scowled a little. "Oi! Wait a minute!" He stood up. "She's one of the clerics I'm lookin' fer!"

"Look, mate." He turned over to Kaynin. "If ye blokes are ready to end the strike, lemme bring these two humans back to the surface. Everyone thinks ya got 'em kidnapped. It'll be a sign of good will, aye?"

Galiena glanced from Adan, to this taller dwarf, questioning in her mind if he really was one of the Dunstan dwarves.

"Sister Galiena wants to stay with us, don't you sister?" asked Kaynin.

Tread carefully... she warned herself, knowing she could easily find herself imprisoned in a cell should her answer displease Kaynin too much. And if the dwarves were really ready to end the strike, she did not wish to risk that now.

"Until a peaceful resolution is found and Fr Michael can be released," she answered lightly, confirming Pint's statement that at least one of the clerics were being held against their will.

"You heard her" says Kayin, "sister Galiena stays with us. She supports the dwarf revolution, she's our Snow White. As for Fr Michael, he's currently ill and she's going to cure him. She needs a stick of incense - do you have that in your supplies? It was specifically asked for?"
"What have you done to Fr Michael?" says Adan, "He was perfectly healthy when he went down the mine, only two days ago?"
"Listen" says Kaynin, "there's a dwarf revolution against the longshanks. Not all longshanks, like our sister here, but against exploitative longshanks that crush the dwarf workers. And if you won't be part of that, you'll find yourself blacklisted from the dwarf people."
He turns to Pint.
"Just give us that incense", he says.

Pint couldn't help but roll his eyes and rub his forehead when Kaynin did the daft thing and refer to Galiena as their Snow White. "Mate, ye know that's a human stereotype they think 'bout us and yeh shouldn't be encouraging it." Only a craftsman dwarf would think that children's story was a good tale.. warrior dwarves like Pint always thought it was very demeaning.

But more so than that, it was clear to Pint now that this Kaynin fellow was lying about something. So much for dwarven reliability he thought. Pint set the spear head of his Urgrosh down on the ground and leaned on his weapon whilst he regarded everyone around him. With the other dwarf Adan screaming at Kayin about the health of another cleric and with Galiena reluctantly offering herself as a captive despite the fact that Kayin just said that they were willing to end the strike. Something wasn't adding up, in particular because all this was caused by the death of their leader, something that should have these dwarves up in arms instead of meekly surrendering.

"Have it." Pint finally said as he looked back to Kayin and motioned towards the cart. "Far it be from me to stand against me own kin." Though Pint wasn't lying that he'd rather side with the dwarves in this particular conflict, he was mostly muddying the waters. He might not care for rules in particular, but he had given his word that he'd bring these humans back and he intended to make good on that. Therefore, he hoped to use the incense and the supplies as a distraction while he got what was really going on from this cleric. He was going to give the supplies away anyway.

Pint then stepped towards Galiena, trying to put some distance between he and Kaynin. "Mind if I talk to ye for a bit?"

Snow White? The cleric lifted her brow at Kaynin's comment, unsure if it was supposed to be derogatory or simply a quip. But at least it seemed her answer had not roused any suspicion.

"Of course," the cleric answered Pint, as if she hadn't anything to hide. "I'll walk with you back to the shaft," she said, leaving it to Kaynin if he would make an overt show of putting a stop to their communication.

"She's our human woman" says Kaynin, "not for clan Dunstan. And she supports our dwarf revolution." he nods towards Galiena, who then talks to Pint, offering to walk him to the shaft.

"Dear comrade sister" says Kaynin, "don't you need to attend to Fr Michael? Now where is that stick of incense, I can't find it in this big cart full of supplies. It must be there somewhere."

There are two other dwarves with him, whom Galiena now knows are on the committee. These seem to be reacting with increasing concern. They start rummaging through the cart, spilling the supplies onto the track.

((Infravision only shows up heat in red and black, but you have Galiena's light, so can see the cart quite well.))

Pint tensed up a bit when Kaynin called Galiena 'their human woman'. His spine shivered a little and he gripped the axe hand guard of his Urgrosh a little tighter. What had sounded like a fairly harmless comment of calling her Snow White now was starting to have less than innocent implications. Where the dwarves here planning on keeping Galiena as their pet? Their slave?? Pint really didn't want to think about it.

He kept walking along with the cleric woman, but the mess the dwarves where doing back there was not lost on him. What kind of dwarf knocks over a cart of supplies and makes a right mess about things in order to look for something? Not even a fairly reckless dwarf like Pint was so sloppy, and these were craftsmen dwarves! What was going on here??

When he figured they were out of ear shot from Kaynin and his dwarves, Pint leaned in a bit closer to Galiena, the corner of his eyes still trained on the other dwarves. He was tall for a dwarf but not incredibly so, meaning the top of his head reached about Galiena's chin. Still.. it was close enough so he could whisper to her.

"Say the word and I can get ye outta the mines." He offered, hand still gripping his weapon. "I donna like the look of those dwarves. I highly suggest ye reconsider stayin' 'ere, human."

"I will in just a few moments, Kaynin. Habek here has a sick brother I was tending to back on the surface...", digging herself in a little deeper with more lies. The name she picked was of another dwarf she was acquainted with, back in Ashdown. "Does he fair any better, Habek?" she asked as she followed Pint down the tunnel, needing to crouch and duck to avoid hitting her head.

When he whispered to her, she shook her head ever so slightly. "Not without Fr Michael," she whispered back.

Then in a more normal tone of voice, as if she were talking of "Habek's" brother, she said "I fear for his life. Has he been keeping quiet in the cell set for him in the back of the presbytery?"

"Comrade sister Galiena" says Kaynin in a loud voice, "Come back here. We need your light to find this incense which we need to cure Fr Michael. Then you can go back to the surface."

"Oh no they can't", says another dwarf, "we're not just anyone, we're the committee, and the committee needs to vote on it".