Eodem: A Rifle and Sword Adventure (Complete)

Chapter 44: a Baleful Turn

Gary De Sardet huffed a cloud out of effervescent cigarette smoke from his lungs as he dismissed the Team that gave their reports after safely returning back to Nirnkarim Headquarters. He let out a heavy sigh as he swallowed what he just heard. He grows wearier the more this rebellion continues to stretch its duration the riskier things could get for everyone thanks in no part of the Hold Dwarves' homefield advantage.

Not only that, but the more he continues the fight, this proxy war the UFE is conducting, the more of the chilling story behind the seemingly serene Dwarven Mountains revealed its ugly-self to the UFE. In the Ostalrocs, Mining is its claim to fame and thus the most valued form of labor one can find in the region. The mines are all controlled by the Hold's via the Mogul Dynasties who are descendants of great Wizards who specialize in Geomancy. Not only were the profits of rare earth minerals such as Actocolite, Scandanite and Ghyranite were of common place but also Mana Crystals themselves that grows beneath the ground the moutains sat upon. However, despite its lucrative values it holds around Gliesia, the Mogul's maintain a systematic and draconic control of the Mining Industries only remotely on paper in check by the Mining Guilds who acts like a primitive Labor Union between the servile Terrace Dwarves and their opulent lavish Hold Dwarven masters. The Mogul's one and only interests above all else was to maintain their sole control and mastery of the prices and supply of Mana Crystals, Actocolite, Scandanite and Ghyranite within the Continent. There was stiff competition between the Dwarves, the Elves and the Yujegong Empire for the sale of such minerals to the rest of the world as in the case of their hastily panicked emergency conscription of Terrace Dwarves from an earlier Trade Deal between them and the Empire involving a lucrative Order to supply enough of wonder-minerals to equip an army 'worthy of a Chosen One of Legend'. It would have gone smoothly like any other deal as before was it not for the actions of one Captain Mendoza and a caravan of said wonder-minerals being liberated off of its contents. Now the Dwarves were hastily strip-mining the Ostalrocs to make up for the lost shipment.

In their haste, they enacted the tyrannical Forced Labor laws to get the manpower they needed to mine the minerals to fulfill the contract made by the Empire. Many Miners would be subjected to treacherous conditions such as cave-ins, exhaustion and monster attacks in which a dozen casualties would be a normal occurrence every month. Even with the terrifying conditions within the mines that the Dwarves had utilized in the past, several cunning strategies to recruit more workers as it was cheaper for the Mogul Geomancers to recruit more workers, than to improve working conditions in the mines to maintain a competitive edge within the continent. This exploitative system was especially appealing for the Geomancers of the Mogul Dynasties as their Magicks of Geomancy required a significant amount of Mana Energies to dig further in the ground which said Mana Crystals was more suited for sale to the Mages who demand such goods. But such a large dragon that feeds on the decadent Hold Dwarves requires more food to feed it less it leaves and brings with it the good fortune said dragon brought to the Ostalrocs. In their first attempt to feed said metaphorical dragon it was the establishment of a rudimentary Feudal system of castes between the lordly Hold Dwarves and the commoner Terrace Dwarves that is still being lived by today in the Ostalrocs. When the demand only grew higher, the second attempt was incentivizing Penal and Debt forgiveness to Offenders. The third time, it was attempted through half-promising from silver-tongued Judges to make pursuing a career in the mines appealing before slowly pullin out said statements in the interest of 'shortcomings'. Ultimately, it was the fourth attempt the present-day Forced Labor laws normally reserved for times of War was when the Hold Dwarves had the greatest possible amount of manpower available at their disposal. Such a system was like a bubble, doomed to pop anytime soon and De Sardet will see it that it does pop.

For the past few days after assuming control of the situation and organizing an insurgency for the Terrace Dwarves to be freed of their centuries-old bondage to their opulently decadent Hold masters has seen promising success. His strategy was to snowball the resistance against the Hold Dwarves by rescuing slaves, the assassination of key political figures, and acquiring supplies stolen from enemy armories. Based on the statistics he recorded he initially started with about 1000 Insurgent Dwarves based on the existing amount of supporters that Lutheor Mirrien's kinsmen had collected throughout their time before which had grown to a healthy after some fruitful Slave Raids acquired an additional 1,200 ex-slaves joining their cause ranging from Humans, Dwarves, some of Kimora and Ho'don's kinsmen too. As for assassinations, they have eliminated about 10 Geomancers, 25 Officials working for Mogul Dolmond in Military or Civilian aspects and approximately 200 combined numbers of the elite Ever-Beards and Sting Eye infantry via Ambushes. Lastly, in terms of Supplies, the Resistance managed to secure about 500 pieces of high-quality weapons from Forges that were either raided or destroyed depending on what would be the best-desired outcome before the attack.