The Hunt for the Unicorn Begins.

[Coulter Minith]

Timestamp: The Second Brightening, in the Month of Pontius, in the Season of Winter, Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XV Post Fractum.

Rumours…what were rumours…a few simple words, spoken usually by an idiot or busybody whom hadn’t thought through their words before speaking. Rumours were also powerful things, some would say magical in nature. A single rumour of gold, for example, could start a mass migration of thousands into the most inhospitable of places; all started with a single rumours from an individual. It was rumours, however, that were also the starting block of many a fine adventure, and Coulter Minith believed that the few rumours he had heard, from his cleaner, were the rumours that would start another great adventure and the four-foot tall dwarf could hardly wait.

Usually the former Prefect of Daltina wouldn’t have bothered with rumours, especially rumours involving magic, but the dwarfen male had no pressing issue to deal with, and you could only drink some many dwarfen ales. Therefore the experienced dwarfen warrior could see that there were five clear choices open to the wannabe adventurer. It seemed that four dwarfen brothers were the only known witnesses to a disappearance of part of the Dolwood, a magical forest in the heartlands of the Centripax Province, and clearly that was somewhere to start investigating these rumours. The only other choice was to do nothing, but that wasn’t really the dwarfen way.

Therefore with his mind made up, on the morning of his second brightening within the darkness of the underground City of Dargis, Coulter Minith decided that he would start his investigation with Gard Studdard and see where he’s leads would take him. Dressed in his civilian clothing which considered of a black shirt, trousers and boots, the young dwarfen male set out from the Inn heading in what he hoped was the correct direction of the office to Studdard Mining Company.

OOC: I have written a write-up for the headquarters of the Studdard Mining Company in the Realmcraft for Centripax. Just waiting for Anne's and Firebird's opinions upon it before involving it within this thread.

[Firebird]

The main headquarters and offices of the Studdard Mining Company were situated on the outskirt of Dargis, in a district far away from the more heavily populated and lit residental quarters found within the City of Dargis. Surrounded completely on all sides by a five foot wall made of locally supplied unworked granite, which had been poorly painted in cheap white-wash, the headquarters of the Studdard Mining Company looked like a frightening minor fortress in the darkness of the underdark.

The only entrance open to the public, though there were several publicly unknown tunnels leading under the building to the mines below, was a large gate of reinforced oak found upon the west facing wall in the direction of the main road leading to the centre of Dargis. The gate itself was the only source of light upon the wall with two lit torches on either side of the entrance. An old and worn wooden sign hung above the gate, in flaky old paint it read. ‘Stud ard Mi ing C mp ny.’

With the only source of light being the four torches on either side of the entrance, a casual observer would see very little of the buildings found within the complex except a vague outline of a large two-story building and several small store huts, all of which looked to be made out of what seemed to be the same locally supplied unworked granite as the wall surrounding them.

After several minutes of knocking on the reinforced gate, a peephole would open and a voice yell out. ‘What ye want..?’

[Coulter Minith]

Grazing upon the fortress like structure that was several candlemarks distance from his boarding house, the young dwarfen adventurer know to some in Dargis as Coulter Minith couldn’t believe that a company that mined the precious riches of the underdark owned such a building complex. Everything from the poor paint job with cheap paint to the unworked and rough granite wall surrounding the complex, spoke of a company who either didn’t have enough money to pay for a decent job to be done; or where too lazy, too tight-fisted with golden crowns to pay for decent works/repairs in the first place.

Knowing the reputation of the four brothers of Studdard, Coulter Minith guessed the more likely reason for the poor workmanship was the latter reason. However, the four-foot tall dwarfen warrior was not here to give financial aid, or even beauty tips to the owners of the mining company; Coulter had been told many times himself he could probably do with some beauty tips himself, but was here to find out what had happened in the Dolwood a couple of cycle ago.

Therefore with the reason he was here firmly held at the forefront of his mind, the black-bearded dwarf decided the best appear when dealing with this investigation was possible to tell the truth. After hearing the gatekeeper yell out, ‘What ye want…’ Coulter Minith would reply with. ‘Go tell ye boss, Laird Minith of the Clan Minith is here to see him, and tell him aye know what he and his brothers re up to in the Dolwood…’

Sometimes the best policy was to lie, lie, lie, and the young dwarfen warrior had heard a number of lies in his time as Prefect of Daltina and knew what he was doing. Therefore with his hands at his side, and his rocky coloured eyes taken in his surrounds, Coulter Minith waited patiently for something to happen. Just because Coulter was in Dargis, didn’t mean a dwarf was safe.

[Joyau delaLune]

..............................................

[Firebird]

Inside the offices of the Studdard Mining Company sat the bookkeeper, a short bespeckled halfling who had a large bublous nose and short tufts of hair turning gray. He was 3 foot tall and sat at a high desk pouring over figures. Upon hearing someone banging at the gate door, he slid down from his tall stool and stuck his head out of the doorway of his office. He called over to the security officer, a tall, 4'5" red haired dwarf, "What's the ruckus, I need to concentrate on my numbers and can't do it with all that racket. The security officer who had been sleeping, something he did quite often when the boss was away and old Night Stalker was back in the shafts, jumped up quickly.

"I'll see who's there!" He sauntered over to the door and opened the small window door which was about 2' off the floor. Bending over he saw a black bearded stocky dwarf standing out there yelling.

The guard yelled at the man. Are you daft, or just crazy, there ain't no Lairds in Dargis. He actually thought the dwarf was quite insane. And was about to slam the door. "My boss ain't here, he's in Zerdargia. But he don't want to see the likes of you. If you disturb my, I mean, our peace again, I'll have the Guard lock you up."
Slamming the door, he looked at the clerk. "Some crazy sob who says he's some kind of laird. He started laughing and the more he laughed the quicker his belly shook. Curses he thought, now I'm not going to be able to sleep. Well, it was about lunch time anyway. Yawning he returned back to his office. The halfling went back to his figures, shaking his head sadly. When Gard was away, every one slacked off a little, except for the hard working miners who were under the supervision of Judd.

[Coulter Minith]

Having a door slammed in his bearded face, or in this case a small peephole, wasn’t something that Coulter Minith as Laird of Clan Minith was used to, or for that matter found that he could take a liken to. However reacting instinctually like any true and proper warrior, no matter their race and/or allegiances, the four-foot tall dwarf reacted by trying to grasp the handle of his sheathed short-sword upon his belt. Like any true and proper warrior Coulter Minith was ready to defend his reputation and honour from being insulted and trampled by anyone, especially an unseen insulter yelling at him without even looking to see whom was knocking and yelling.

Of course the young dwarfen warrior’s hardened hand grasped nothing but air. For this was the ancient dwarfen city of Dargis, and like every other visitor, dwarfen or otherwise, to graze upon its ancient dome rocky roof, Coulter Minith’s numerous weapons had been taken from him by the dwarfen guards guarding the only known entrance to the former underground empire; probably to stop him and people like the dwarfen warrior from reacting to insults with bloody violent.

However this trip to the middle of nowhere was not a complete waste of time, and the Laird of Clan Minith had gained some valuable information from whoever had slammed the small peep-hole shut, and Coulter Minith now knew that his suspect was in the Aelyrian Empire city of Zerdargia.

The dwarfen city of Zerdargia held many fond memories for the young black-bearded dwarf. It was in the City of Zerdargia that his now-travelling brother owned the Headquarters to the Templar of Steel, a mercenary company of warriors, and Coulter Minith could remember many a fine brightening of drinking and story-telling within those stonewalls. However the young dwarfen adventurer had not walked those ancient dwarfen streets for many a brightening and perhaps it was time to check on things since the attack by the Church of Faith a few eras ago.

With many thoughts of returning to Zerdargia, and the numerous problems such a journey would face, Coulter Minith began retracing his steps away from the Studdard Mining Company’s Headquarters heading in the directions of the centre of Dargis.