After his wife had left to take care of the young Thoric. Vorin had decided that he needed to work on the figures to see if he could discover or glean what the beast was that was causing a reduction in production. This would also allow him to hopefully make plans for his expedition to solve the problems and clear the mines. Grabbing the sheep skins with the information about the mine for the last year on it he began to pour over them.

Before he could get started well he hears his wife begin to sing a gnomish lullaby. He smiles. Since Kat had moved in all those years ago they had given up on having a child and they had tried a lot. When she was pronounced pregnant it was a glorious day and he had celebrated with all his friends and family. Throughout the 2-year pregnancy, he had worried because the baby was so large. Breldra constantly visited to check mother and child and assured them all would be well. When he had gotten the message about the baby and danger he was with the king and his advisors discussing the mine output. Before the king could say anything, he had already rushed from the room. Thank heavens his majesty understood.

While he was reminiscing, he heard his wife scream. Then another scream this time the word fire was plainly said. Vorin stands and grabs his cloak made from woven earth and metal. He rushes toward the nursery passing his wife rushing to the front door. Entering the nursery, he sees a clothing chest and a pile of diapers on fire. Throwing the cloak over the chest the fire is instantly smothered and goes out. The cloak is completely undamaged because one thing about the dwarfs was they were the best earth of metal workers who discovered how to make earth and metal pliable enough to weave.

Rushing to the front of the manor he finds his wife screaming for servants to fetch the clerics, water brigades, and anyone else that can help in a near hysterical fit. Kat must be panicking because it happened so close to their son.

Vorin shouts,” Calm down everyone! The fire is out. Everyone is safe but I will need some servants to clean the nursery. Kat what happened walk and talk with me to calm yourself.”

“Well, I changed our son and began feeding him. Suddenly he seemed to be suckling extremely hard when I felt what little mana I have in me flow into him while at the same time the mana from the flames of the fire torches responded to him as he had called them. The flames arc downward toward our son which is worrisome in its own right but regardless the clean diapers were on top of the clothing chest between him and the flames.”, she responded.

“WHAT! Our son can manipulate fire mana? Dwarves don’t have mana. And the humans rarely have fire mana. How is this possible? I told you Breldra knew something with that comment!”

“What do we do Vorin? He isn’t even a full year old and can already use at least fire mana. No child of any race that I have ever heard of could do this. And in all the time I studied in the humanoid kingdoms the earliest I heard of a child using mana was a human at age 5 and they are short lived. What do we do?”

“I don’t know love. Let’s have the servants set up a temporary bassinet in our room for a few days so was can watch over our son. I will have all the mana torches removed. And make sure that all the other torches have nothing flammable around them. Do you think you can make a light with your light magic when we need it for bedtime?”

“Yes. I am exhausted again. Can we rest?”

“Of course, I will handle this love.”

Thoric feels like he is being held firmly against his mother’s bosom rushing somewhere. He feels the change in the air as it gets cooler. He assumes they have left the manor due to the fire from somewhere. He had heard his mother scream something, but he couldn’t understand her in either language.

A short time later he can make out his father standing next to his mother and yell something one time very loud. Everything instantly calms down after that. He must have solved the problem. Regardless all that excitement plus a full belly meant he was getting really sleepy again. He yawns and burps very loudly. Sleep claims him.

After a couple of hours all is calmed and setup in the house. A bassinet sits beside the Lord and Ladies bed. The servants are curious about what happened, but no one will tell them. All the furniture throughout the manor is moved away from mana torches and the whole place is aired to get rid of the smoky smell. The lord and lady are sitting together trying to come up with a plan.

Vorin speaks softly to his wife,” Finding someone to train our son is something we can discuss later. It will be years before he can even talk much less be trained. I will go ahead and notify the king now so that we can get the ball rolling for allowing someone into the kingdom when that day comes though. I do know that in 10 years with the 50-year meeting of the good kingdoms will be hosted by the dwarven kingdom. Hopefully at that time, one of the delegations will have a wizard or sorcerer with them that we can get our son tested by to see what mana he has and how much affinity he has for them.”

“I am at a loss Vorin. I studied childbirth extensively and never really looked at mana for them. All the studies I read passed over them or said the youngest mana users were always at least 5 and human. We both know how short the lifespan is for a human. A 3-year-old is like 8 to a dwarf. I am worried. Breldra can’t help because even though she is a priest and can do spellcraft all her mana is sourced by her deity like all the other clerics and priest. The gnomes can’t really help because our mana must be unlocked with our first bond creature. I still remember my little rabbit and the feeling of light and water mana being unlocked in me.”

Vorin thinks long and hard. Something clicks in his brain. A memory from the war with the orcs and how terrible controlling their witch doctors were. With a frightened face, he turns to his wife to give a possible solution. However, before he can, she snaps, “What is it? That’s your ‘I am going to piss you off face’.”

“Well, I do know of a way. During the war, we faced the witch doctors of the orcs. When we captured them, we placed mana nullifying manacles on them to prevent them from calling on mana. I think….”

“Oh no. You’re not chaining our son in the manor like a criminal. I will leave before I allow that!”

“No. No. No. I am not talking about that I am talking about a set of bracelets that he will wear. I will have the smiths make a simple ball and clasp lock that we can easily unlock. Hell, even he will be able to unlock it by the time he is old enough to begin learning about mana.”

Kat calms down replying,” That would be okay I guess. How soon can we have them made?”

Vorin thinks for a moment and snaps his fingers,” Actually probably in a few hours. Captain Fireore owes me a favor and he still has a lot of our old supplies from back in the day. I will go get a few and have them resized to a couple of different sizes we can put on our son as he grows. Why don’t you go rest while I take care of that love? I have a few things I still need to take care of anyway.”

“Okay, my husband. I am exhausted again. Good night.” Kat bends down and gives him a kiss as she goes off to the bedroom to catch some sleep.

After Kat leaves he tears off a piece of parchment and using a charcoal pencil pens a note to his friend about the manacles. He calls a servant and ask him to run the note and await the supplies then take them to the manor smith. As the servant leaves he goes out to the smithy and gives the instructions to the house smith who immediately stokes the fire to get ready. After this, he goes back inside to continue working on the mine issue.

Looking back to the reports and output list noticed that approximately six months ago production had decreased, however, only within the last two or three weeks had reports been filtering in about miners being attacked. Thinking back to his youth when he was being taught in the temple of Ilmarinen about mining, blacksmithing, and things that one would see when doing either of these things something tickled his memory.

The one thing he recalled was a pest called the ore beetle. It started off about the size of a melon when it was born and quickly grew. They weren’t very common but were not unheard of. Usually, they would burrow thru the ground seeking a vein of iron or better metals but usually ignored copper. They would only eat tin if they couldn’t find one of the better metals. Once they found a vein they tended to not move and consume as much of the ore as possible over a few years until they grew to the size of a large wagon. Then they would enter a period of hyper-aggression while they formed a nest and laid eggs. Usually, a full clutch of eggs numbered in the hundreds and some of the dwarven enclaves had had to completely move after the beetles had consumed all the ore in an area.

He remembers when he served in Lord Deephammer’s troupes in the southern reaches during his mandatory service years they had found a beetle about the size of a war ram. Luckily all it took to take down was a well-placed shot from the ballista. He did remember that the bows and crossbows were very ineffective against it. If the western mine was occupied by one, they must clear it post haste.

Paper had not been discovered yet, so most people used animal skin parchment or clay tablets to write on. The dwarves had plenty of earth, so clay was the preferred method. He reached into the clay box and grabs a handful of clay wetting his hands while he pushes it into the writing mold. After he has it pressed in he grabs a copper stylus and etches in his order for ballista and instructions on what he thinks is causing the problems in the western mines. As he finished he enters the kitchen and sits the tablet near the cook fire to harden before he sends it to the logistics master on what to prepare for the hunt.

About 2 hours later he hears the smith hammering in the smithy. Grabbing the now partially hardened clay tablet he sends it off while going down to the smithy. He grabs a set of tongs and apron and helps the Smith finish the first set of bracelets. He uses two of his fingers in diameter to size them. They wouldn’t be able to affect a full caster very much but should effectively dampen their son’s mana pool at least for a while. Surely it could grow that fast. Slipping into the bedroom he gentle locks them onto his son and crawls into bed with his wife. What an eventful birthday for his little man.

Sometime later he wakes in completely darkness. Thinking to himself, yup hungry again. Now, where is a mom? Wait something feels off. He feels something cold wrapped around his wrist. He questions himself that whatever it has the effect of making him a weird feeling. It’s not painful, itchy, or very irritating, it just feels like something is off. Regardless his grumbling stomach takes precedent. Well, I know how to get her attention he thinks. First, let’s try the easy way and he tries to make whimpering and happy baby noises. He waits a few minutes with no response. Okay, mom, you ask for this, as he takes a deep breath and screams at the top of his lungs. He hears a thump and loud curse as a faint light appears showing him his mother with disheveled hair and all. He can tell he woke her but once again just like clockwork his mother bares her breast and give him something to eat.

After he finishes eating once again he gets extremely sleepy. He noticed that this time when he suckled no tingling sensation. Thinking to himself that he is going to enjoy being a child because this will be his last chance to experience it he falls back to sleep.

Name Thoric Steelsoul Age < 1 Year Abilities Metal Sense Unlocked-Unskilled 1% Mana Pool: Fire Unlocked-Novice 5% (Locked at Unskilled 0%) Mana Pool: Others Locked/Unknown Skills Engineering Mechanical Grandmaster-40% Electrical Master-22% Smithing Knowledge Skilled - 80% Ability Unskilled-0%-Hes a baby Tinkering Knowledge Expert - 27% Ability Unskilled-0%-Hes a baby Modern Knowledge Novice to Grandmaster but currently unknown worthiness