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 <40 years ago> 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.