Miner Inconveniences

## Synopsis

In Season 2, Chapter 8: Miner Inconveniences, we concluded our business at the Broken Crown outpost by sweeping the building for any remaining clues and closing the eyes of the fallen innocents – an abundance of bodies from bottom to top reminding us of the carnage brought upon this seemingly innocuous place.

Safira made one last effort to retrieve the documents we couldn't procure from the hidden room in the basement, but it seemed we weren't realistically getting our hands on them without a lengthy time commitment – hours that we simply did not have to spare – so Erland retrieved the horses and we slung up our unconscious captive across the back of one with plans to interrogate him later if we got the chance.

While riding through the Northern Stouthills, we crossed paths with the owner of a small mining claim named Merethyl Pastina – who was in a foul mood and on her way to speak with the Broken Crown.  The larger claims in the area had been tampering with her equipment after she unearthed a small vein of Orichalcum – a valuable, magic-suppressing metal sometimes found in these hills.

Given the current state of the outpost, we made a point of talking her out of paying a visit – and also offered to spread the word that her employees were not to be meddled with in exchange for a modicum of minerals that we could collect sometime in the future.

Shortly after saying goodbye to Merethyl, our prisoner was showing signs of regaining consciousness – and we hurried to enact a plan wherein Orba would pretend to be a fellow bandit, similarly bound and captured.  In the short amount of time we had before he was fully awake, it was difficult to create a scenario where he could communicate yet not be suspicious of a setup – so we didn't learn much… but it wasn't entirely fruitless, either.

The Stitchers, if it was indeed them, used some kind of code to verify one's allegiance.  More than once he repeated the phrase "the ocean winds are salty, aren't they?" – and while we didn't have a response this time, we filed the expression away in our minds in case it came up again.

Another hour or so of riding and we'd put a good bit of distance between ourselves and Trickster's Thicket, which is why we were surprised to see two Elatrians out on what looked like a scouting mission.  A white-ish haired halfling was in tow behind their horses and immediately we put two and two together that they were searching for Ka'imi after she'd snuck back into Bez'ufir.

Erland was quick to let them know they'd grabbed the wrong person – but failed to consider that he, too, would be identifiable as one of the trespassers.  The elves wasted no time in trying to apprehend Erland, but the rest of us supplied the backup – and Safira even managed to shoot down their trained hawk, potentially cutting off access to reinforcements.

The halfling, Polon, was incredibly grateful for the rescue – and promised to tell his fellow members of the Sandile mining claim to back off of their hijinks over at the Pastina claim; a step in the right direction for fulfilling Merethyl's request.  He also told us of a good place to have a rest and grab a bite to eat: a campsite just up the road where many off-duty miners gathered in their spare time.

Seeing this as an opportunity to both gather our strength and mingle with laborers from the larger claims, we took a seat by the fire and plotted our next steps.  While sipping on some suspicious stew, Graven spotted a few games of skill and strength that seemed like a good way to socialize – but it was Erland who found a friend first… an old one, from his time at Atonement's End.

Ortiz had been hired as security by Stetson Powers, a wealthy landowner here in the Top Shelf, and he was pleased to see that Erland had landed on his feet with another contract.  The reminiscing was short-lived, however, because Ortiz had ascertained what he thought was concerning information about the monastery – information that he wanted to share with Erland in confidence.

Because there was no way Mr. Powers would let our whole party onto his property when he had valuables to protect, Erland had to excuse himself for a private discussion – and we watched him disappear over the hills not knowing exactly when he'd return.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: two natural ones were rolled in this Chapter. 1 each by Anthony and Matt.