“You call yourselves Dwarfs? Halflings could produce more ore than you excuses for miners!” screamed Gloamanthal. Some of his other names included the Accursed One, the One Who Cannot be Slain, or the Chosen One. All of these names and many more besides had been used to describe the devil-man with black ensorceled armor who cracked the whip into the backs of the Dwarf miners. “More Blue Stone is needed! Even now the Green One seeks assistance against us. He will raise his merry band of nitwits and return to thwart our plans! You Dwarf’s dally like children and produce poultry results!”
“CRACK!!!” went the whip striking home on the bare back of the nearest unfortunate Dwarf.
Three Dwarf miners toiled with axes against a rock face inside an expertly excavated tunnel. The tunnel walls exuded a faint blue radiance, barely detectable to human eyes, but Dwarven eyes were not human. Used to living for months at a time in the hearts of mountains Dwarfs need no artificial light. And the servants of Chaos also welcomed the darkness, thriving in the blackest of dungeons.
For more than a fortnight the Dwarfs had been mining, excavating and carving into the depths of Mount Isabella. It had taken several days to locate and access the Blue Stone deposit, and several more to carve out the space needed to house the required constructions. The Waagersson Dwarfs couldn’t understand the purpose of this use of Blue Stone, and all five deeply regretted their decisions to throw their lot in with the Chaos Lord, but there seemed no way out now.
For the past year, the brothers had been mining Blue Stone in their home range of the Scandian Mountains, and secretly supplying it to Gloamanthal. Dwarfs were naturally resistant to the ill effects of Blue Stone and the gold offered by the Chaos Lord had been enough to reverse the financial fortunes of the Waagersson family. No longer were the Waagerssons scorned or ignored. All of the old grudges had been settled with their newfound gold supply.
It had been a relatively simple formula for their recently acquired mining success. Every Dwarf family held the location of a mining strike as a family secret. The Waagersson’s new mine had been no exception.
The new mine began with the brothers making efforts to find gold in an unexplored hillside, in a range of peaks previously avoided by Dwarf miners. The other families scorned their efforts, and predicted another failure for the Waagersson brothers. Unexpectedly, instead of finding gold, they had struck a pure vein of Blue Stone which extended deep into the mountain. Blue Stone holds little value for Dwarfs and so the Waagerssons almost abandoned the mine site. In fact the brothers had decided to return home in shame to explain their failures to their wives when an unexpected visitor entered their remote valley. The visitor had appeared to be a lone human who was representing an organisation that required Blue Stone. He said that the organisation was prepared to trade gold, ounce for ounce in exchange for high quality Blue Stone. The Waagerssons agreed to the terms of the deal, which the representative insisted remain secret.
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The brothers kept the details of their lucrative new mine a secret from everyone. Even their beautiful Dwarven wives knew nothing. Like good Dwarf husbands they brought home all the gold, for the betterment of their families.
Months passed, and the representative, a man named Sigurd, abided by the terms of the deal and purchased the entire production of the secret mine. In response to their inquiries, the Waagerssons learned that the Blue Stone was required to perform a series of vital experiments by a Wizard of great power and prestige. One day, when arriving in the valley to deliver another shipment of gold in exchange for Blue Stone Sigurd had requested the Waagerssons attend a meeting with his client.
This meeting was agreed to, and one snowy day in the depths of winter in the Scandian Mountains the Waagersson brothers met Gloamanthal. They were shocked to discover that the source of their new found status and wealth had originated from a Chaos Lord, but gold is gold after all.
Gloamanthal explained that his Blue Stone experiments had reached a successful conclusion. He would no longer require the Blue Stone mined by the Waagersson brothers. Again the brothers were shocked. What would they do now? No one else in their right mind would pay them for Blue Stone. The Waagerssons would have to explore for a new mine, in the middle of winter. What would their wives say?
The Chaos Lord offered a new deal, and promised 10 times more gold. The new deal required the brothers to travel to a new Blue Stone mine, in a distant land. What could they do but accept the new deal?
So now here they were, tortured as slaves in a foreign land, far from their homes and families. Entangled in an insane prison experiment, being conducted by a mad Wizard. No way out and two jailers for each inmate. Gloamanthal never let up.
“CRACK!!!” went the whip. More blood. Would this ever end?
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Another day of digging, scraping, hauling and refining. The Blue Stone had to be purified. “Concentrated poison. That is all that is being produced by this experiment,” muttered Billy Waagersson to his brother, Harald.
“Silence!” screamed the Chaos Chosen guardsman. “No talking is permitted!”
“CRACK!” went the whip.
Billy noticed a red glow forming in the adjacent cavern. Gloamanthal must be consulting his Demonic leader again.
“The pit is constructed as you ordered, Lord Teufel! We will begin to assemble the purifying machine tomorrow, as you have instructed,” reported Gloamanthal.
Five Chaos Chosen lay on the stone floor, each located at the apex of a five pointed star carved into the floor. Blood, from self-inflicted wounds flowed towards the center of the star. Above the combined ichor hovered the image of a horned Demon, encased in red glowing ornately carved armor. Demonic symbols decorated the ancient steel.
“Your pitiful efforts are noted. I should kill you all, and find worthy replacements,” responded the Demon Lord.
Gloamanthals shoulders slumped, and he cast his gaze towards the floor.
“But I won’t. The destruction of this mountain must succeed! You cannot fail! I simply will not permit failure! Speed up the processing. That pit must be filled with purified Blue Stone! As soon as the machinery is operational you will drive the Dwarfs each and every second that you have available. Never let up!” commanded Lord Teufel.
Teufel paused and considered the situation. He cast his penetrating gaze out towards the adjacent cavern and came to a decision.
“I will launch a new attack on the Green One. I will strike into the very heart of the Empire. With luck we will kill them all, but at the very least the heroism of my finest soldiers will buy you more time to complete the destruction of the mountain”.
“This is the last failure I will tolerate. When I next view the Green One’s ridiculous hillside homestead, I expect to see it in ruins.” With that the image failed, and the blood evaporated.