Mad, they had called him. Mad! Truth be told the description was perfectly accurate, but Fath continued to insist they could have made their criticisms a little more delicately. Everyone had loved the irrigation system. The Baron had even granted him an extra supply of crumpets for the work. Nobody had wanted to even hear about the design for the brass thinking engine! Time and time again he had attempted to present his plans to the nobility, but all they seemed to want was brass armour stands, and much good he could do there! Eventually Fath had reached his limit and triggered the flooding mechanism during a routine inspection of the crop fields. That showed them. It showed them all.
Unfortunately, it showed them all that he was too dangerous to be left in the outside world and subsequently Fath was carted away in chains to the Mountainhomes. He eventually met up with Frey while being assigned to the Mountainhomes' sewage works. Hearing about the rioting within the prison network, Fath was able to engineer a critical pressure buildup within the mountain sewage system, culminating in a violent black line rupture right in the middle of the guards' barracks. The delay allowed him and the others sufficient time to make their escape.
"Wait for it," growled Broose. "Get as close as we can without them seeing us, then open up on them."
The boat slunk forward in the shadows of the canal, edging closer and closer to the lock before one of the marksdwarves cried out. Fath rose, firing a bolt into his chest and knocking him into the water. As Urgash's dogs leapt from the below-deck hatch over to the soldiers on the left, followed swiftly by Frey and his pick, Broose launched himself onto the right-hand dock, matching the axedwarves there blow for blow. Fath pulled himself onto the dock and ducked and dodged past the combatants until he reached the mechanisms controlling the canal lock. Producing his tools he jury-rigged the lock in a matter of moments, leaping back onto the boat as the gates rose to allow it passage.
Driving his pick into the chest of the marksdwarf before him, Frey leapt back onto the boat as it drifted into the lock, followed suit by the hounds, leaving their targets dazed on the jetty tiles.
"Get a move on!" Fath yelled to Broose, who found himself struggling trying to hold off the strokes of the soldiers flanking him. "These floodgates are about to come right back down!"
Raising his axe, Broose deflected a harsh blow from one of the soldiers, turning and kicking the other in the chest to keep him away. In the corner of his eye, the boat had nearly passed completely into the lock. Swearing, Broose brought the hilt of his axe up into the soldier's jaw, then battered his fellow in the chest with the blade, leaping off the jetty and grabbing hold of the tail end of the boat. Wrenching himself up onto the deck, Broose spared a brief grin to the pair of shouting axedwarves as the floodgate slammed down between them.
Water began to pour into the lock, slowly pushing the boat upwards through the darkness.