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midnight_medea Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 11:40 am
Isambard headed back into the hall on Cyrus' suggestion and this time really took it in. He noted that it was a fine building, constructed from stone and wood from the forest trees. The roof beams were beautifully carved with various scenes from what he imagined would be myth and legend. The stone walls were adorned with gold and and tapestries. It was a beautiful piece of construction, made by people who had once been comfortable and wealthy. He looked to the furniture and was surprised to see that much of it was constructed from metal and wood. That excited him, that meant that they were mining it, and knew how to smelt it and extract the ore from the rocks.
He walked past the inhabitants, huddled together in family groups, some sicker than others. He wanted to speak with the woman who they had met on arrival. She was intelligent and more importantly she seemed to be in charge of the show.
"Excuse me." he said as he approached. "Could I have a word?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 11:48 am
Freja looked up at the interruption. Seeing the smaller of the strange men, she breathed in deeply and gave the small boy before her a warm smile.
"You have done well Eivyn. Sleep now son and I will be back to give you the rest of your meal," she said gently, running a work worn hand over the boy's pale hair. Setting the half eaten bowl of broth off to the side, she rose to her feet and turned to face the man.
"Have you found the problem?" she asked directly, lifting her brow.
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midnight_medea Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:04 pm
Isambard smirked a little at her direct question, she clearly saw herself as someone who could push him around.
"Yes, there was a cave in, at the source of the stream. Myself and my companion went deep inside the cave and found the path had been blocked by rubble, it was shiny, black and soft. It crumbled when we touched it. The water has been flowing through it, the stream is well contaminated with that, and dead animals." He raised an eyebrow back at her. "Was your son mining near there?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:10 pm
Freja's lips drew tight as he delivered his news. Folding her arms, she glanced across the hall to where her son was eating like a pig. In his confused state, he had forgotten about the new people and had carried on as he had been before they arrived.
"Yes. He was," she said with clear displeasure. "The source of the springs is sacred to us. He said that he was not going near there, but the truth has come out since then," she said quietly. "The stone you described sounds like galena. If the water has been running through that, then we are lucky we are not all dead."
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midnight_medea Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:16 pm
Isambard looked at her son and nodded gravely.
"You are very lucky that Maia has such spirit and went looking for help. You are her grandmother, right? I ca see she clearly takes after you." He meant it, he could see the drive and strength in the woman. "I have the men looking for carts and equipment to move it. I can take it off your hands as it it will be useful to me and my people. We want to secure the wall that was breached too, to make sure it does not happen again. What was he looking for in those mines?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:27 pm
Freja lifted her chin in obvious pride at the praise. She was very proud of her granddaughter for having the strength to stand up against her father in order to do what was right.
"I am not sure why you would want such a dangerous stone, but if you wish to have it, I will not keep it from you," she said with a small nod of her head. It certainly would be the least she could give him and his entourage for their help. His question caused her expression to become closed and guarded. "Why do you wish to know?"
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midnight_medea Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:40 pm
Isambard laughed a little as she got defensive.
"I am not here to steal any of your secrets. I am just curious what would drive a man to take such a risk." He looked across the hall, a symbol above ther throne catching his eye. A sickle and Hammer. Interesting. he thought, staring at it for a moment. "As for that mineral we have found, it might be dangerous but it is very useful. Lead, taken from it can be used for roofing, windows, soldering pipes and metal to metal. It just needs to be treated with care." He turned his eyes back to her. "what is that?" he pointed to the symbol.
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:51 pm
Freja breathed in deeply and reminded herself that she needed to be more grateful for his presence. When his attention caught on something, she glanced in the direction he had looked, but did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Turning her pale eyes back to him as he began to list the merits of the stone he wished to keep, she smirked lightly. She supposed that was true about anything. Handle it carefully and with great respect and it will show its true properties. Turning at his question, she followed his gesture back across the hall to the symbol above the throne.
"That is the symbol of our god, Mordain, the Creator and Worksmith. He created us to draw from the earth the precious things so that we might use them to expand and create as well. The thing my son was so driven to get was the ore of the God himself. This is his punishment for believing himself to be worthy of such a gift."
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midnight_medea Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 1:40 pm
Isambard looked back to it. That was him wasn't it? Hammer and Sickle, the industries of agriculture, metal work and construction. He turned to look back at the woman. Isambard raised an eyebrow. Metal of the gods, well that could only be one thing.
"A punishment he brought down on all of you." he said softly. "Do you leave your village much? Do you know of the town not too far from here, there is a large building there, the Pantheon they call it."
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Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 2:01 pm
Freja nodded gravely in agreement. Her son had very nearly damned them all with his lust for power.
"We have had no need to leave our village for quite some time. My granddaughter and her party were the first to leave. I do know there was once a city we traded with, but I have never heard of a thing called a Pantheon."
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midnight_medea Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 6:12 am
"They call it the home of the gods." He replied. "It is a magical building, the town we are from is next to it and it is quite true, gods wander among mortals there. Gods of all shapes, sizes and influences. It had been empty for a long time, the gods were said to have faded as people lost faith. Though recently they have been seen again, reborn from gemstones and given to a mortal willing to sacrifice themselves to the deity's rebirth.
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 6:22 am
Freja listened carefully to what he was saying. As he spoke, she felt that she wanted to doubt him, but she knew she didn't. She believed wholly in the gods. How could she not when her people had been on the brink of death, with all hope lost, and these people turned up to save them? Saying nothing for a long moment, she studied the man before her. She still could not put her finger on what was different about him, though she felt a small inkling in the back of her old mind.
"And you have seen these gods? Does ours walk amongst them?" she asked.
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midnight_medea Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 6:28 am
Isambard smirked a little and gave a nod of his head. He knew he must look odd to them, his eyes were mismatched, one the green of his host, the other the colour of furnace flames and just as changeable. His skin was odd too, jointed as though he were a mechanical doll, a machine man.
"My name is Isambard, I am the god of Industry, perhaps similar to your god, that symbol strikes me as familiar, very familiar."
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 6:37 am
Freja breathed in deeply and gave a nod as he confirmed the inkling in the back of her mind. Turning her eyes back to the symbol above the throne, she studied it for a long moment as she collected her thoughts. He was the god of industry, the god of hard work and progress. He was right, he was not so dissimilar from their Moradin.
"Perhaps," she smiled for the first time since their arrival as she turned her pale eyes back to him. "Names are irrelevant and changeable. What matters is the being behind them and what it is they do to earn recognition."
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midnight_medea Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 7:21 am
Industry nodded in agreement. Exactly, sit on your a** all day and nothing got done, you might be a god in words but to mortals you were nothing.
"What is it you mine here?" he asked, he could guess but wanted to know. It would be good to open a trade route with these people and they would need it.
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