Part 5

A lot of dwarves talk about minerals like they know something. Gold this, marble that, bauxite etc. But truth is, only a few know anyway about adamantine. Adamantine holds an edge 5 times better than iron, and is likewise 5 times harder. Yet it weighs only a fraction of iron.

You say something is worth its weight in gold, but adamantine is worth 966 times as much as gold by weight. This miserable little hellhole is known as "headshoots" (named after an event in which one of the founders had his head burnt to a crisp by an undead imp), and they have adamantine here. You might be wondering why that matters to me. Turns out, I'm the overseer of mineral productivity. The kingdom's fallen into something of a decline recently, and a lot of the dead wood is being shipped off to dangerous places on ridiculously dangerous missions. These damnable seven were told that they were on a vital mission to find still parts, of all things. Of course no such shortage exists, but the dregs of society fall for pretty much anything as long as you make them feel important enough.

Long story short, we sent a bunch of idiots into the wilderness to die, but now that they've happened upon adamantine, it's up to me to set up a respectable outpost and mining operation. Hopefully they'll make it on their own for a few more days, though, because the giant scorpion scratching at their front door is making no signs of leaving. For now, I'll watch and wait.

-Overseer Vox