Skolda Ingotmantle
"Listen here, little toadstool! Ya want to find mithril, ya don’t wander round the hills with just a pickaxe and a prayer. Roamin those hills all aimless-like will get you starved or et up by beasts. You’ll wind up dead as a deer in a dire wolf den.
No, praying to Ao ain’t gonna help ya get rich. That’s Skolda’s job. And Skolda is me!
Why Skolda? What’ve these skinny old arms got to offer? Well, toadstool! I been mining mithril since your grandsire’s cheeks were smooth as a slug’s butt! Mithril is ground into me pores. Its running through me blood. I can hear those shining veins beneath the earth talking to the veins in me heart! Take me with ya into those hills, and you’ll be pullin’ mithril outen them rocks like a jester pulls scarves from his sleeves to entertain the kiddies.
Oh! If Skolda’s so good, why ain’t Skolda rich then, you ask? Well Skolda’s doing better than you are, ya lumpy patch of kobold crud. Could have me a house up in the Minor should I want it! But I like it here in The Halberd. And if truth be known, I done made my fortune once. Was one of the richest miners in Llorkh before the Take Over, I was.
Had me a hall dug deep in the mountain, and a pile of gems, and a passel of servants to scrub my dirty miner’s fingernails. But then they banished old Ironskull and things started to go sour… I had to sneak off into the night, and leave all my goodies behind…
“But that was a long time ago!” you says. Hah! A long time for you, little toadstool! That’s a mere fortnight in Skolda’s long 372 years… or maybe its 394 years… I lost a few decades around the 1270s…
Nevermind! What you need to know is that these old arms maybe ain’t no good for digging up earth and bustin’ up rocks, but these old eyes is still sharp enough to tell what earth needs dug and what rocks need bustin’!
Oh, so you don’t like what I charge for me prospecting? A few gold too much to invest in your entire future? You gonna trust your fortunes to some Korfish gully dwarf with a cut-rate dowsing stick? No, no, toadstool. Skolda’s the best. She’ll lead you true, straight to the mother lode.
Well then, it’s decided. You’re paying me my fee and I’m going with you. “But, but, but!” Stop your jabbering and your yapping, before I get ornery! Just hie up to your room and pack up your gear. Go on. Git! Pile up the rack time, too, cause we head out at first light. And we’re going to have a cartful of looooong days ahead of us.
One last thing: Don’t trust none of them long-ears to assay your ore. They’ll cheat ya sure as an ogre’ll eat ya. That advice is free of charge."
Wealth & Financial state
Middle-class
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