Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[PainRack]

"Dwarves of the realm, you ask why Portalgrip should be made a barony. A hole in the ground, surrounded by walls of the most puny construction. Of piddling wealth and numbers compared to our great mountain halls.
Portalgrip is situated in the wilderness, our trade caravans venture into the deep forest where no light shines, only shades of dim green. Its unprofitable our merchants say, citing the difficulty of wandering past the ancient necromantic tower of Tinwheels. The elves of Subtle Viper are snakes, hissing at our worldly goods while offering trifles in return.
Better to cast off the Key of Fortifications than to spend any more treasure and blood in this Doren forsaken land. Close the gates, turn up the lamps and cast off the light of the outside lands.
Has any of you forgotten why 7 dwarves was sent so far from our mountainhomes?
Tinwheels is STILL standing. A blight on the forest. An ancient order of necromancers, formed by ONE OF US. Does any dwarf here still remember honour? Our fathers, sires, torn from the cycle of life and death..... they cry out to us, their descendants to end their agony. Their blood call to us.......
And what did Portalgrip find? Beneath the silt of the ocean, they found GOOD. PRECIOUS. GOLD. The land is rich,covered in iron, copper and gold. Zas is singing Urist, he's calling to us miners and merchants the good wealth of the earth. And the raw metal, the gift of the gods........adamantine.
Already. Gold coins, forged in the blood of Zas has flowed to us here in the homes. This gold flask I now possess is one of the profits of this trade, is it not? Is it not worth waiting for a few more years at least, for this baby to flourish into an adult? Imagine the gold that will flow then.
Lastly, let's not forget the position that they are in. Portalgrip opens the oceans to us. Already, they break the hostile trade routes to the elves. As wealth flows, we expect the Parched Lions, long hidden in the faraway isle to call upon us. Already, a profitable trade of mere stone trinkets and strong wine has enriched us with raw cloth, new spirits of unknown lands and wood for our mines.
Our allies, the Young Union see this wealth better than we do. They pass through our mountain halls to call upon this lonely settlement, they bring goods and they too sell to the elves.
Our foes too see this oppurtinity. Kobolds, thieving scum, has been spotted in this region hoping to steal something more valuable than socks. Already, Portalgrip has seen sieges from goblin greedy for our children and goods.

Elves of the Subtle Vipers? Snakes they are, true, hostile to our brethren in the north. But Limul and Abras sees that their coin spends as well as others. Plagued too are they by the beasts and the undead. Let their quarrels with the Sunny Letter rest between them, who here can forget that the Sunny Letter claimed Dark Fortresses and towers that our fathers had bled for? Who here forgets the deceit by which they claimed and divided the spoils with the Young Unions? Not me.

Already, we have laid rest to some of our brothers, slaves to the necromancers. Already, Portalgrip is wealthy. Already, it has stood off multiple attacks. It is time to recognise the deeds of this settlement and the expedition leader that we tasked to claim this forsaken land. I vote that we make Portalgrip a baroncy, of the Molten Urns of Secreting.

[PainRack]

"Dwarves..... You know me as the general of our realm. I have voted no to the enshrinement of Portalgrip to our lands.
I am a simple Farmer by trade. The pleasure of coin, the plodding of a wagon into the wild........ I know this not. But I do know the meaning of honour, something Adil there has forgotten.
Trade with the elves?  By my beard, has the shine of mere wood crafts, paltry berries bedazzled our liason so much that she has forgotten the blood of our brethen in the north? The eastern shield of dwarfdom is held secure by the Sunny Letters, a shield that is being destroyed by the Subtle Vipers. The Parched Lions has hidden deep in the forests for so long that all contact has been lost with them....... Save for ships seen heading towards the mainland to the east. Of vessels manned by our beardless ally in the north sunk in the open sea.

Adil promises wealth! Glory! IF we only wait. A mere 12 years he say, time for this settlement to flourish and grow, as a baby grows to be a dwarf. Aye. And does he remember how long, it takes for such a child to grow to the fullness of adult? For him to be more than a mere hauler of wood and plant?

By the blood of our ancestors, our halls has long been secured. The great enemy of the north has been destroyed. Let the Sunny Letters and the Young Union claim them if they wish, they are not proper dwarven halls. Let the sun shine upon them and parch them dry in those obsidian towers. We need them not.
What we do need is fresh, NEW blood. Blood that we risk in this foolish venture.

Adil here has not wielded a mace in battle. Saw the blood of his comrades splash on him. The cries of the fallen. Our ancestors have, and I pray that no other dwarf here needs to see it again. Portalgrip is too far, too open, to vulnerable, with TOO many enemies to secure. Not without expenditure of blood. Be not deceived by the small losses so far. We have seen only a finger of the enemy strength. I seek wealth in our mountains. The oceans can wait, not when it exposes dwarves in the open sun to the arrows of goblins.
They are drawn there not by the wealth of Portalgrip, but by its VULNERABILITY. Why else do you think Kobold thieves head there?

As for the undead. Let them trouble the elves. We are safe here behind rock and stone. I see no point in spilling dwarven blood for elvish lives, not when we have seen no elvish skeletons roaming the forest. If they are such a threat to the peace of dwarves, they would trouble elvish lands first and then perhaps, the shieldarm of the north would be left intact.

I vote that we cast off this land in the south. That we move our dwarves back behind stone and hill. That our trade remains purely to the north, where true dwarven friends reign. And that we not risk the spilling of more blood in sunny lands.

[PainRack]

Dwarves........ This is a council. I hear your words and take heed.

Adil, Outpost liason, you promise great wealth in southern lands. We have seen precious little of this so far. If any, our human allies have benefited more from this than we do, what with their masted ships in the sea. Still, you make a point. A fort of 4 years is but an infant, nothing compared to our great halls. We should feed and clothe it before it stands tall amongst us but this does not constitute ennoblement.
But one. In 4  years, it has discovered adamantine. And gold. And has become rich enough to become a flourishing metropolis of 237 dwarves, almost half the size of the mountain homes. Dwarves from the wild has joined it, even brethren from the Sunny Letter. A new mountain hall would add new blood to our ancient race.

General.. You are the voice of wisdom and caution. You mention the risks, the potential for blood. All this is true. Yet, so far, we have spent precious little so far. The vultures are gathering but perhaps, our new blood will tell. Already,  heroes of our realm has moved to this new fort, has it not?

Perhaps they seek some excitement, a thrill to their blood. Perhaps our halls has been closed for too long. You seek the protection of our race. Dangers have been few thus far, deaths more to mishaps and accidents. I seek the strengthening of our civilisation general. A mere...... saltwater crocodile was enough to breach your defences and slay citizens of my realm. I look to the shield of the east and I see that their king, their general, their citizens are strong, their blood roars and sing to the death of their foes. At this moment, they are in the ascendant. How long will they remain so, if the elves continue their assaults?

A realm in the open might rejuevenate our kingdom. Our heroes need not seek death in the wild when they can find it at Portalgrip. Despite the danger, they too promise greath advantages. Not just in wealth of gold and iron. But in access to the oceans. In raw materials. In trade.........


I ennoble Portalgrip. Proclaim this to the realm. Supply them their steel and their flux. Supply them more iron and metals. Supply them their gems. I desire to see what they will give us in return.

The council is dismissed.