"Do you know what is the worst part about rushing something? That it is never done as well as it could be if you just took your time and did it right the first time." Old Ed stated. People did not like it when he was too honest but that is what you get from a good bar tender.
"Yes, yes it could be better but so long as the foundation is in good condition we are willing to drop more gold on the damn thing latter to get everything running now." Smithy said while issuing orders to get the celler set up so they could all have a drink. The construction workers were all glad to hear that, free beer is free beer.
"Do not worry my friend, what comes will come and we will endure it like everything before. There is more then enough money to go around and get everything done." Teamasa said with a smile on her face. She had know Old Ed for almost her entire life and this was nothing new. Just another thing that had come to pass but even so she liked to have more time for planning.
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The group had not managed to plan for any of the problems that they were now facing. The Dragonlord's favor would only go so far and they were almost at the end of it. It could still speed up the process of getting paper work throught the infamously slow system of goverment but that was about it. They could not stonewall them like they could others in the city but that did not mean things were going to be easy.
In a city this old there was bound to be some structure buried under all the earth around it, and most likely something under that. The city was in some regards over two hundred thousand years old. It had been around for almost as long as the Dragonlord that rulled over it. In some regards at least.
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It had been turned to dust by times march so many times that it was hard to count. It had been sacked and raised to the ground more then a few hundred times over the years. Heroes had come by the thousands and warring nations had united into grand armies to kill the old Dragon. To bring it to an end but none had succeded. Even when his keep was burning around him, when the Kings that he had found worthy had become dispicable tyrants, when monsters emerged from some fools botched rituals to kill the world he had stood tall. A being of ancient flame and terrible might still lived in the world today, it is how people still knew that the world was unfair.
Because some of the old guard still refused to die and pass on the torch. They had made the flame so long ago, it was theres to do with as they pleased.
One of the reasons that the old Dragon had endured so much and so long was because whenever the city was razed was that there would enevatibly be something lost in the turmoil. Some great artifact of unimaginable power that would get buried under the rubble and lost to time. A hord of all that was lost sat under the city, so much that it could never all be found and dug up. With it came power for the Dragon and magical might to add to his own no matter how much you took from him.
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There would always be something lost lost in the depths where the criminal element ran things in the shadows. Lost fortunes hiden away and those that knew about them were killed off.
They Dragon had grown up in a time of strife were Dragonlords fell by the day to each other and those that would claim what was theirs. He had fist risen as a young pup in a time where might was only worth as much as a single day and intelegence was what would see you through to tomorrow.
It was why he rebuilt on the same place over and over, to keep the dredges of the power he had in times past. Those dredges added up to a stagering amount of power which was only comparible to his hord, and most of all it could never be taken from him. Not unless someone mangaged to do the impossible and kill him at the hight of his power or could take the very land he had claimed over so many eons. His peoples right to the land was bases on all those that had died for it or on it and added their bones to the land. Their blood to the soil. Their hopes to the next generation to come.
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They were almost done with the tavern and had gotten it all conected to the underground network. They had a cellar full of spirits and below that one full of the kind of stuff that was worth its weight in gold. The types of things that the resident alchemist's and wizard could really sink their teeth into. Now they were finally up to what they considered to be full strength and were ready to get going. They just had to make a single stop and spend far to much gold to ever be happy with.
It was time to buy a mine.
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"So you are sure you want to buy this mine. It is empty and there is no more ore in it. completely strip mined out of everything that could be called valuable. Are you sure that you want this one?" The clerk asked trying to talk them out of a bad purchase. She knew that they were being cheated but could not get the owners to go any lower on the price.
"We need it to fulfill a promise we made. It will also go into several other projects we have underway. There really is no better way to go forwards but to pay far to much for it sadly enough." Teamasa said while nodding her head.
"Fine but I do not like this. it will run you five thousand gold to get the damn thing. Can you pay?" She said mostly as a formality.
"Here! Just take it." Embrda said clearly wanting to run away with the chest of gold that they had brought.
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Teamasa issued some orders to her undead waiting around the area of the mine. They would go in and start carving out tunnles and rooms for the dungeon that they were going to make. The good thing about having an untiring workforce no matter how small is that they never slowed or stopped.
They just needed orders.
When they finished what was already layed out for them the group would need to go to the mine to give them more but by that time they would have saved possibly months of time and effort on the project. Better yet with the impressions of the 'bandits' that were killed there still lingering and the undead working on the place it would start to grow in necrotic power. Much like the fortress they had made the mine would start to change. It would become smokey and you would always smell it in the air. On the tunnles, everywhere. Even the ones not yet dug. The perfect place for assassins to train and gather.
Unseen death would change the place and make it truly dangerious. Exploring it would become a real adventure that was for sure.