Wofi - Sure thing, as with the others, you'll be human'd once there's a free migrant.
4th Felsite 679 - MorningWeiss Ironscroll grunted as he sent the axe into the trunk of the blood thorn. He had quickly learnt that the crimson trees were easily the densest sort of tree encountered in the caverns. He had no idea what exactly Nathaniel wanted with blood thorn and nether cap logs, but at the rate he was going it would take him an entire just to fell the blood thorns - and that was if there were no distractions, which wasn't assured considering the human had made his way down to the Lower Levels, the wild third level of the caverns where the militia rarely, if ever, ventured. And after this there was more to do, he had to help furnish Nathaniel's little sanctum, carve out his own quarters, investigate the artifacts, so much, it seemed a never-ending list from this side.
As the blood thorn finally fell he stooped down, careful to avoid its eponymous spines and with a grunt hauled the small tree up onto his shoulder. He could only hope that Nathaniel hadn't wanted the larger trees, since the animal trainer had been forced to only fell the smaller trees if he was to have a hope in hell of being able to haul it all the way up the stairs from the Lower Levels up to the Fiery Cistern.
With great effort he hauled the tree trunk up to the Fiery Cistern, giving the guards on duty a cursory nod as they let him through. As he was passing the forges, he heard an angry yell, looking round to see the blind philosopher Arsethotheles bearing on a poor animal trainer who had been hauling bars from the smelters to the stockpiles and who clearly found the blind dwarf - and his eye-sockets embedded with cherry opals - quite the intimidating sight.
"Ah'm blind but ah'm not stupid! Give me back that silver!" The maddwarf had spent well over two years now often working in the forges, smelting bolts from silver. Where the inspiration had come from no one know, but the philosopher certainly knew his way around a forge, navigating using nothing but his excellent memory and hearing.
The animal trainer didn't seem to understand exactly what Arsethotheles wanted, eyes wide as she replied in a frantic voice. "I haven't got it! You didn't have any!"
"Lies! Give! It! Back!"
The philosopher rounded on her, drawing back a fist and swinging wildly, managing to hit her arm.
She gave a yelp, stumbling back and narrowly avoiding tripping into the magma. Arsethotheles swung again, but not seeing where she had gone, his fist simply sailed over her head uselessly until it hit something else: a palm.
Looking down curiously, the troll Thud took hold of the dwarf's arm, keeping him back. "Hey, fightin's not da way to make friends!" he said, apparently having completely misconstrued the situation.
"The," Arsethotheles corrected almost automatically, his education kicking in.
"Da?"
"
The."
The scene was interrupted as a hand came down on Arsethotheles' shoulder. Frowning and looking thoroughly unimpressed was a policedwarf. "Not a good move, Arsethotheles. I'm afraid I'm arresting you on charges of Disorderly Conduct: the penalty of which is a imprisonment." The philosopher didn't even have a chance to react as the policedwarf took a firm grasp of his wrist, Thud letting go, twisting it round his back and leading him forward, all as the maddwarf protested all the way to his cell, leaving the animal trainer to nurse her bruise, and the troll to try and learn correct pronunciation on his own.
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Derm sighed deeply as he put down the list of worksheets. Ever since Stronghammer had ordered that all people using workshops had to be signed in and out, his paperwork problem had only gotten worse.
"You put Arsethotheles in prison?" he asked again.
Across from him, Sigun, the policedwarf on duty, nodded. "Aye, 26 days in prison, that's the penalty according to the law."
"A month," Derm said, disbelievingly, "you're going to keep him in there for a month for throwing a small tantrum and punching someone once, leaving only a bruise?"
"That's right sir. It may have been a single punch, but it's still assault, it almost caused the victim to fall into the magma, and it could have been much nastier."
Derm ran a hand through his beard. "Could have, but wasn't."
"The law is clear sir. With respect, the police force naturally looks to you for leadership, but the Mayor sets the laws, and I believe he decided dwarven law would be kept until further notice."
"So 26 days in prison?"
"26 days in prison."
Derm sighed again, waving her out, looking glum down at the paper strewn across his desk. Locking up Arsethotheles was bound to cause some voices to be raised, especially those that were already still furious over having to sign in and out simply to use a workshop, or who saw a conspiracy to imprison whatever race or kind of person they thought. And Derm - as Sheriff - would be blamed for the whole incident. He sighed again, picking up his quill. He'd never expected this when he took up the job of Sheriff, he should have, he guessed, but it was too late now.
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Brosso the Magnificent sighed melodramatically as he took a deep puff of his cigar, blowing the smoke out over the magma, the small dark cloud illuminated by the glow of the liquid rock. "I tell you," he repeated, "it's not a good sign. The blind maddwarf assaults people. And you know they say that the blind see the future. And before that of course: three deaths. One of which was one of our own going crazy and attacking our own militia! Not a good sign at all."
Besides him, Rashem, Kuro, Katana and a rather bored-looking dwarf shared a glance. The three were on duty guarding the entrance to the magma forges down on the Fiery Cistern. "Didn't strike you to be one to look for omens in everything," Rashem replied to Brosso, leaning on his hammer.
"Not at all! I just heard someone else mention it." The circus-director took another deep puff of his cigar. "I tell you though, if I were in Stronghammer's place I'd get better armour for all the militia, proper weaponry too, better defenses, the whole lot."
"That so?" Kuro said, looking rather disinterested with Brosso's conversation.
"Certainly! The more of those abominations we kill the better, after all. Stronghammer wants to hide, I'd rather take the fight to them and get rid of those beasts once and for all."
That got the dwarf a chuckle from the goblin. "Can't argue with that."
Brosso took another drag of his cigar, blowing the smoke out across the magma. "Still, I guess we just have to trust Stronghammer to do the best he can. I suppose we should be grateful it was only three deaths. Could have been any of us though." He tipped his hat slightly, giving them a nod. "Gentlepeople," he murmured before leaving, a small smile on his face. With both the Imiwa's elves, the Iron Guard and his own work, he'd little by little be sure to get some support from the militia, he was certain. He had, after all, a half-year to finish building support ready for the next elections. And once he was elected, he'd finally be able to help this community the way it was supposed to be.
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EveningUgo Sosleng grinned out across the cleared space that would soon be his secret laboratory. With the help of Grau, Juggernaut, Meinhard and the remaining Jager, they had cleared out the rubble from the excavation, piling it up while waiting to decide what to do with it, and now they would soon furnish the place. Under guise of Jager business, Meinhard had already procured a heavy door made of lead, camouflaged to appear as part of the rock face. The heavy lead would ensure that no one accidentally opened it simply by leaning on it, while the camouflage would mean anyone not specifically looking for it was unlikely to ever find it; and that was if anyone even came down to the Lower Levels. Ugo now planned to approach Fori in the coming days and try to get her on board with his plans, and then hopefully to fake the death during experimentation of a few of the caged Nothings and surreptitiously bring them down to the secret labs. The goblin scientist had already been hard at work, having followed the militia in the past months, taking samples of the remaining vomit of the forgotten beast Okag, as well as a corpse of the goblin squads for future experiments.