Editing Deus Ex Machina

{{TErow| 6 | [[Minotaur]]s| [[Burton]] was once founded near an ore mine, a scarce luxury in the region, but now its reserves are almost depleted. The wastelands are not called the wastelands for nothing: they are poor in resources, and we now must trade for them, paying with our factories’ products. Most of them go to cover internal needs, as development swallows rolled metal, castings and everything else like a bottomless pit, leaving only meager crumbs of the total output to be traded. Of course, customers are willing to pay for them very dearly, but construction on this scale takes a lot of resources. And by that I mean a whole lot. And then there are the surprise attacks on our supply trains by [[minotaur]]s and other rabble. The [[minotaur]]s of [[Jadame]] had never previously been overtly hostile to their new neighbors; they seemed to be content with keeping to their underground [[labyrinth]]s, only ever coming to the surface out of some dire need.<br>Whatever the reason for these depredations, the timing couldn’t have been worse; the competition of the century is at risk!}}

{{TErow| 14 | [[Kastore]] and [[Frederick]]| Today is a big day. Sure, when deadlines are tight, every hour counts, but this day is truly exceptional, so I had no choice but to halt the work for a bit. We had to get prepared and clean up at least a little bit, so as to avoid making asses out of ourselves with the distinguished guest watching. [[Frederick]] arrived at my workshop with his new acquaintance, [[Kastore]], the king of faraway [[Deyja]], for a joint inspection. I had always imagined that kings were all about indulging in luxury and slapping their servants around; imagine my surprise when I learned that even before the competition began, [[Kastore]] had been personally involved in research into the artifact [[Henrietta]] had brought back from the Tomb and developing the beam generator prototype. I have no idea how, but this [[warlock]] seems to know way more about technology and process physics than all of us put together!<p>So it must be true what they say: these [[sorcerer]]s make a deal with the devil to gain their knowledge. Or the devils... [[Frederick]] had shared with me some observations he'd made while examining the odd celestial bodies these uninvited guests had arrived here on. Ah, never mind that. Today, the two men looked around my workshop, checked out the blueprints, and entered into an argument. Once done with that, they turned their attention to me, and [[Frederick]] was the first to speak. He was clearly pleased by the pace at which the construction was progressing; invested as usual, he asked me countless questions about the minutiae and my plans for the future. [[Kastore]], however, was the complete opposite. Nary a muscle moving on his face, he just crossed out a few formulas in the calculations and values on the drawings, filling in others instead. Then, with the same deadpan expression, he inquired whether I needed any new materials or tools, commented that our work processes dearly needed adjusting, and left. By evening, I learned from my trusted connections in [[Burton]] that I had passed the inspection, but so did my rival. The entire town’s workflow was to be reorganized, with [[Kastore]] leading the project personally.</p>}}

{{TErow| 22 | [[Bertram]] Ore Hint| loc={{orange}}|{{h|Bertram|0=}}: I had to get up early, for a caravan of [[Dark Elves]] from [[Ravenshore]] was arriving in the morning! My colleagues in the [[Merchant Guild]] were delighted to treat me to regular supplies of select raw materials for my experiments... for a price, of course.<p>...I knew something had gone wrong the moment I saw the empty wagons. Caravans were usually accompanied by guards, but this time there were none around. Moreover, the wagons themselves were suspiciously few.<p>“What happened?”, I finally implored one of the merchants.<p>“I mean, isn’t it kind of obvious? We got jumped by [[ogre]]s and [[minotaur]]s on our way here, that’s what happened! Their leader, [[Rumeon]], demanded that we give over the goods immediately. We barely made it out alive.”<p>What bother! Things weren’t going in accordance with my plans. The [[gantry]] design I had come up with called for a great deal of construction materials, primarily metals, including rare alloying additives such as stalt and kergar, rare commodities on the market.<p>On my way back to my workshop I met one of the [[gunslinger]]s I had hired to guard the place.<p>“[[Jangaard]]," I called out to him, "Know anything about a [[Rumeon]]? It seems he’s the bandit who's been robbing our merchants.”<p>The mercenary grinned.<p>“Damn right I know about him, but not from here. From back in [[Antagarich]]. That [[minotaur]] was a mercenary in service of [[Nighon]] during the war with [[Erathia]], before switching over to [[Deyja]].”<p>“[[Deyja]], you say?”<p>I pondered. Some thought was bothering me.<p>“Never mind, though. Have you found out anything about the other [[minotaur]]s?”<p>“I've been watching those bandits lately. They seem to be crawling out of the old [[Dark Dwarf]] mines. I hear there's still a bunch of precious stuff to be had down there. Those were the [[minotaur]]s’ mines before the dwarves, but that was a long time ago... we weren't even in [[Jadame]] then.”<p>I lit a pipe and began thinking. Is there much iron ore left there? Maybe that's where we should look for the materials to build the gantry.<p>I retired to my shop, pulled out the plans, and plunged deep into thought.</p>}}

{{TErow| 50 | [[Todd]] Deadline Warning (311-317)| loc={{blue}}|{{h|Todd|0=}}: Things are going from bad to worse. My sources close to [[Bertram]] report that his first [[gantry]] is nearing completion and that he is about to begin assembling the first [[dreadnought]].<p>I have only a few days left. I must put everything I have in me on the line, or it will all be just a big waste.</p>}}

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