Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Dwarf Mine

Galiena takes a single step back away from Kaynin, buying herself some room to maneuver and draws the hammer, though still does not attack the dwarf.

"You will incur the wrath of Ulesh and St Barbara both!" she warns. "Let us pass!"

Kaynin is completely focused on the diamond. He lets his pickaxe rest on the floor, the head down, the handle pointing up. His hands make greedy grasping motions.
"Give me that diamond" he says, "It is not yours, it is the property of the McCain worker dwarves"
Kaynin is sandwiched between Pint and Galiena. However there are another five dwarves, all armed with pickaxes and ready.

Pint holds the diamond away from Kaynin's greedy hands.

"I dinnae, mate. I kinna took this diamond fair and square from Ursa. I told him not to do somethin' and he did it anyway, see? So I took this as compensation."

"But how 'bout I trade ye fer it? Fair deal. Ye let us pass and I'll give ye the diamond."

While Kaynin is distracted, Galiena takes the opportunity to slip by him. If things come to blows, which seems likely, at least Kaynin would be cut off from the others. Hopefully the others wouldn't want to see him killed or injured. Then again, he seemed a most unlikable fellow, so maybe they're hoping for just that.

Galiena slips past Kaynin. So now Kaynin is cut off from the other five dwarves.
"Give me the diamond, you can go" he says.
Fr Michael moves close to Kaynin.
"How do we know you'll keep your side of the bargain?" he says, "Let sister Galiena out first. Then we give you the diamond."
"We don't need you" says Kaynin, "we can get the diamond if we want. But give it to us."
He holds his hands out.

Meanwhile, you hear a bit of a noise behind you, from further up the tunnel from where you have just come.

Hearing the noise behind him, Pint knows he needs to move quickly.

"Ye know how this works, mate! Get outta the way first!" Pint presses the tip of his Urgrosh spear on Kaynin's gut and starts moving along with Galiena, so that he has at least a clear way towards the exit of the mine, barring the five dwarves still blocking the way.

"Tell yer men to stand down." Pint lifts the gem up menacingly. "Lest ye want me to smash this thing on a rock."

"Don't you dare use violence against me" says Kaynin, to Pint. "You know who I am, I'm second in command of the committee."
But he's obviously scared
"Come on, sister Galiena" says Fr Michael, and takes Galiena by the hand. At a stoop, you run past the five dwarves and towards the mine shaft.
Kaynin does a double take. Then from behind you come Ursa and a body of dwarves.
"They've stolen the diamond" shouts Ursa, "and that traitor Kaynin is with them. Attack, attack, attack!"

They were past the dwarves! She and Fr Michael could flee to the shaft and ring the bell and her promise to not return until he was freed would be kept.

But, she realized with a sinking feeling in her stomach, she would be letting down Ulesh. She had taken a vow... to keep the peace at all times. And here, behind her, was a mob of angry dwarves in the midst of a schism for which she might be at least partially responsible.

Peace meant that lives shouldn't be lost in pointless conflict. And her vow meant she had to try to put a stop to it.

Tranquility is upheld through strength she repeated to herself as a reminder.

"Go, brother!" she said to Michael, letting go of his hand. "Ring the bell in the cage! I'll be there soon!"

She turned back toward the mob and beseeched Ulesh for his aid. Her voice boomed through the tunnel, enhanced by the will of Ulesh. "McCain dwarves! Cease these hostilities! There is no treachery here aside from what has stemmed from the murder of Chief Grimley! Your grievances are just, your strike legal, but the cloud of that unholy act must first be cleared. And for that, there is only 1 among you that needs to answer for that crime..."

She points her hammer at Ursa, finding herself wishing it had been Kaynin she could point it at instead. But her own preferences played no part here.

"Let us deliver him to justice. Only then can a resolution to this conflict be found."

((Cast: Thaumaturgy - Your voice booms up to three times as loud as normal for 1 minute. I'm not sure if she'd get through that whole speech without incident. So cut her off wherever appropriate! ))

Pint gave a nearly sadistic grin as Kaynin threatened him, almost able to smell the fear from the other dwarf.

"Mate, do ye think I give a dead dog's arse about who ye are?" If Kaynin was trying pull rank on Pint just because they were both dwarves, he was about to have another thing coming.

Before Pint could do something reckless like drive the spear of his Urgrosh into Kaynin's heart, he hears the other dwarves coming, quickly followed by Galiena commanding them to stop this madness.

Pint takes that opportunity to back pedal away from Kaynin and past his guards, so that he is in front of Galiena. He's not planning to flee just yet as he intends to stay and guard the foolhardly cleric, for all its worth. He continues to clutch the diamond on one hand whilst his other holds his Urgrosh as if it were a sword.

"Sister Galiena!" says Ursa, "how could you?" He's obviously hurt. "Grimley was in league with the human oppressor."
"They've betrayed the dwarf revolution and stolen the diamond" he says to the dwarves, "kill the humans and arrest comrade Kaynin".

"You gave the diamond of the dwarf workers to this human prostitute and her dwarf pimp" says Kaynin, "even she has admitted it. Arrest comrade Ursa!"
"I always knew you were a traitor, Kaynin" says Ursa, "and now we have proof. Dwarves for me!". The dwarves with Ursa charge forwards. There's confused fighting. Then you hear the mechanism of the cage being raised or lowered - you're not sure which.

Well... she had tried.

And failed miserably.

She looked on in shock for several seconds at the melee between those loyal to Ursa vs those loyal to Kaynin, but what else could she do to stop them? She had already basically sided with the greedy scumbag Kaynin.... who repaid the favor by referring to her as a prostitute.

"Let's ensure Fr Michael gets out..." she called to Pint and turned toward the shaft, but sounded defeated. Ulesh would not be pleased with her efforts here this night. It looked as if she had traded many dwarven lives for that of a single cleric.

Pint on the other hand considered this quite the victory. He laughed as the dwarves started fighting among themselves and pocketed the diamond. He didn't even mind the insult to he and Galiena, they were welcome to think whatever they wanted.

"Daft idiots. Let's get the bloody hell outta 'ere!" Said the dwarven mercenary as he ran away from the fight, trying to ensure that Galiena followed by grasping her hand.

Pint pockets the diamond and takes Galiena's hand. But the tunnel is dwarf height. Galiena has to run at a stoop, which, despite the fact that she has longer legs than the dwarves, means she can't make good speed. And two dwarves have seen what is going on.
"He's got the diamond" one shouts, "after him!"
"Arrest Kaynin" shouts Ursa, though it seems Kaynin's supporters are getting the better of it - it's hard to tell who is on which side.
The two dwarves will catch you up in a couple of seconds, and they have their pickaxes at the ready.

Pint rolls his eyes when he hears the two dwarves chasing after them. "Oh choke on it ye soddin' basterds!" He says as he chucks the diamond at the dwarves, at least trying to hit one of them in the face with it. Sheesh, these guys are greedy! And he thought that he was putting a bad example for being a money hungry mercenary, turns out he's pretty moderate for a dwarf.

The diamond hits the lead dwarf in the face, then falls in between the railway tracks. The two dwarves scramble for it, and Pint runs with Galiena. You reach the bottom of the shaft. The cage isn't there, so presumably it's at the top. There's a rope with a bell.

"Smart move!" she practically yells as they run. She hunched to avoid hitting her head on the ceiling until they reach the taller area at the bottom of the shaft.

She reached immediately for the bell. How many times was she supposed to ring it again? Once to go up? Or was that to go down? With the rush of adrenaline she could barely remember, so rang it once and started counting... if it didn't sound like anything was happening in 5 seconds, she'd ring it again.

Galiena tugs on the rope, the bell rings, and the cage starts to descend. You enter it, and Pint, an experienced dwarf, knows that it's three pulls to ascend.
Slowly, the cage makes its way to the surface. Then there's a little patch of grey, turning into light. You have been so long underground, it is now past dawn.
Lord Percival, Adan, and Malfey are there to greet you, together with Fr Michael.

"Thank goodness you are both alright" says Lord Percival, "we were just wondering whether to send more dwarves down to try to get you out. What has happened?"

As soon as they are within the light, Pint steps out and lets out a long exhalation of frustration. "By Moradin's beard! I donna think I've ever been so glad to see the surface."

Then he looks at Lord Percival with no small amount of annoyance. "A fine bloody mess is wot's happened down there! Ye told me ye had a hostage situation, not that there's a bloody civil war ready to explode! I ought to charge ye double!"