"So you're the sorcerer?" Flori rested his iron crossbow on his shoulder. "I knew the Deepforge Tribe couldn't find a psionic sorcerer they could trust. Sure enough, they dragged in a human like you to make up the numbers."
A workshop hummed inside a small cavern outside New Rolling Stone City. It was outside this workshop that Renato met his "companions" for the coming mission.
"I didn't expect the supposedly veteran dungeon scout to be you either, 'Tunnel Rat.'" Renato glanced at the troll squatting nearby, scraping moss off the rock wall with his fingers and stuffing it into his mouth. "And why did you bring him along? Is the Acid Tunnel Mine closed?"
"Fuck the mine. Whoever wants to serve those paupers can go right ahead." Flori spat on the ground. "I work for Deepforge now. The nobles pay more for a single trip than those lowlifes would pay after squatting in the Acid Tunnel Mine for ten years."
He jerked his chin toward the troll and said:
"Big Tooth's smart. He's tough, too. He can take a hit and carry supplies. Doesn't need gold, just food..."
"But how is he supposed to keep up with us?" Renato interrupted. "He's too big. If we bring him along, we'll probably have to do several times as much digging."
Balin emerged from the workshop, brushing coal dust off his hands.
He had clearly heard Renato and replied:
"We won't have to dig by hand. Get ready. We're leaving right away."
Before he had finished speaking, a piercing screech of metal against metal erupted from the workshop.
The workshop's stone wall shattered from within, sending dust billowing out.
A massive duergar construct strode out. The mechanical creation stood roughly twelve feet tall, its shell covered in thick fine steel plate armor, with