The Ash-Fall Hold Grows

Hreardan strode through The Ash-Fall Hold as he cast his stern gaze over the growing halls, had walked from the indomitable stone gatehouse where with great skill and care, and the power of the Runesmiters magma was channeled and pooled ready to be deployed in the defence of the Hold. And now he paced the labyrinthine halls and corridors, quarters and training rooms, the maze of tunnels being thrown out into the rock by the industrious duardin. The walls were lined with flowing channels of magma that cast a red glow across a floor of polished black. His bare feet padded softly on that floor and he felt the comforting warmth of the volcano, it grew stronger as he walked, heading further into the volcano and to the newest areas of the Hold. Here he could hear the ring of firesteel pickaxes on the hard rock, and the roar of rock flowing into magma at the Runesmiters’ commands.

He passed under a final archway and entered into a dark and roughly hewn cave, filled with duardin toiling away to cut what would soon be a great feasting hall out of the stone. After barely a week of work it was already a huge cavern, vaguely circular in shape and held up by rocky pillars. The work had progressed quickly, and Hreardan smiled, the efforts of his fellow Runesmiters had made expanding the Hold far quicker and easier than it otherwise would have been, their power over the rock and the volcano allowing them to hollow out entire chambers in a matter of hours.

“Greetings Hreardan!” A Runesmiter - Aradnar - walked up to him, calling over the echoing of pickaxes carving away at stone.

“Aradnar! Good to see you! And to see you’re progressing fast!”

“Aye, aye, it's going well” He nodded as vigorously as his grim war-mask allowed “But working with picks is damn slow, but give us another month or so, and we’ll be done”

“Good, we knew this would take time, but look how far we’ve come” And they really had, Hreardan thought. The Ash-Fyrd hold had grown massively in the time since they had arrived in this land, and now, he felt confident, they were well defended, secure, and now it was their time to thrive in this Lost Archipelago.