Minetown

Minetown was a newly-dug Magestone mine under Atlantean supervision - it had yet to be named properly by Imperial cartographers so it was just called that - Minetown. Most of the slaves who worked there were press-ganged into service by Armon's goons in Khamsin. The overseers were posted all along the roadway like some sort of traffic directors, each carrying a long staff.

Minetown was located northwest of Khamsin. Town was a grander description than it deserved, really. This place was more like a fortified gateway, its turfed palisade wall using up the bulk of the felled trees in the region. The walls on the official buildings inside still gleamed with the whiteness of raw wood. Around them a shantytown clustered like rubbish deposited by a strong wind, housing the women and children of the original population concentrated on this site. Beyond yawned the vast strip mine for which this whole complex served as sole entrance and exit. The slave-wagons rolled through a gate barely wide enough to accommodate it - perhaps they’d have to enlarge the opening when the mine went to full production.

In the land around Minetown there was a slight rise to the ground, and stony outcrops appeared more and more frequently. It was not a good land for farming. It had been left to grass, scrub, and occasional stands of trees. Until the last quarter of a mile, where there had been trees, now there were just the expanse of rotting stumps. Apparently, it had been a chop-and-drag operation, the cutters not even bothering to trim off the limbs. As a result, the earth was scarred and furrowed, the top growth scoured away. In rain, it would be an endless mud-hole. When the sun got higher and the breeze picked up, the air would fill with dust.

## History

In 419 Tz, Armon brought in Blaize, Karrudan's mole in the ranks of the Black Powder Rebels. Blaize made several attempt to show his importance to the Prophet-Magus to both the mage-officer at the mine and the superior overseer, but didn't succeed. Later that same year, Rikka and Tulwar Windfoot, seeking to rescue Blaize, organized an uprising in Minetown in the slave ranks, who set the place ablaze and promptly destroyed it along with killing most of the guards and overseers.

## Organization

The sentries didn't have much variation there. The new shift had marched the same beats, keeping the same times as their predecessors. Although the guards were supposed to keep a strict tally, they were much easier with incoming traffic than outgoing. The food was simple, produced in mass—some sort of grain and vegetable gruel with occasional chunks of mystery meat. A ladle of the stuff was dumped on a slab of bread, and turned to the next. Slaves were arranged in lines to make things easier when the workers reached the open-sided tents that were their sleeping quarters. Each file became a coffle as the guards snapped a leg cuff onto slaves’ ankles. The cuffs were attached with a short length of chain to a longer, heavier chain, which ran the length of the tent, firmly attached by ring bolts to a pair of huge bollards at either end. The only amenities were straw-filled pallets for each man, with waste pots placed in reasonable proximity. Privacy was nonexistent.

Graciela was the local Leech Medic, and also a spy of the Rebels in the mine. The Magus Therion, who almost always was seen while high off his rockers on some erl-essence was the one at the top of Minetown's hierarchy, though it was his clerk that did most of his duties, anyway. The head overseer had short-cropped, grizzled gray hair like a veteran Altem Guardsman. Unlike a guardsman, he had a gut that strained the fabric of his tunic. His lips seemed curved in a continual smile, but his eyes were as expressionless as polished gray pebbles. Human slaves only earned the press-gangers such as Armon 5 silver Imperials, whereas Dwarven slaves earned much, much more. Women and children might not work directly in the pit, but everyone in Minetown contributed to the effort, even if it was merely weaving baskets. Most were pale and strained, some ill, some pregnant, some with sick children.

***Atlantis Guild***

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 7
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 8