The second mining mission went well. The tunnel they'd re-entered didn't attack them and the only creature that drew near this time, one of the scuttling bone things, appeared outside and kept its distance when harried and shouted at.

People finally noticed that Kotta hadn't done any digging yet, and stuck a pick in his hands. He went to work with seeming cheer.

One of the tunnel guards said, "I see stairs leading down. Might've shuffled while we were out."

"I'd ignore the invitation," said Dad beside him.

The diggers said that the metal deposits now were unnatural and under the dungeon's control, so that they soon exhausted the most obvious patch of iron and would need to venture deeper or wait for more to regenerate. "It's nice that we have a regrowing supply, anyway. But it might not stay near the surface."

Polestar helped carry the ore out, both by hauling it himself and by guiding the cart donkey. He returned, saying, "I'm looking for work. If you can feed me I'll stick around for a bit on guard duty."

One of the locals said, "We've got too little work right now, sorry."

Just then, a voice called out, "Want some help in there?"

Tazo had just switched off rail duty, so she went out to look. That party of adventurers had come.

Their spiky-haired Human leader said, "We poked around the main dungeon area, and it took my whole team to keep control of the situation. What say you hire us for extra security?"

"I think we've got a solution," said the same man who'd just turned Polestar down.

Spikes looked disappointed. He spotted Tazo and the others, and said, "You're all working on this from here? What's your battle plan?"

Tazo explained. The party's main Mage whistled. "You went ahead quickly with developing that spell!"

"Master Urika found the key part, a way to carry the magic."

The mayor said, "What we'd pay you for is to catch Baron Kolm's head Necromancer. Or to get our hands on Kolm himself."

Spikes said, "We've seen no sign of either. Maybe they died down there."

Polestar stamped the ground. He asked the local leader, "Would your town or your neighbors turn me in to the Scaled Nation for being an escapee from there?"

"What? No, if anything that wins you our sympathy."

"Then I want to make the rounds of these towns and check on them. Your... nobleman won't let you live in peace until he's dealt with one way or another."

#

The delver party took a stab at the mine tunnels, killing a few beasts and retrieving more of the terrible iron chains while incidentally keeping the dungeon's attention away from the mining group. But they reported only more dark and threatening corridors they weren't prepared to invade yet. So, their next goal was to report their findings to the Dungeoneers' Society and move onto somewhere easier for now.

Kotta went with Polestar to visit the other villages of Baron Kolm. Tazo tried to get the Kobold to explain, but he was cagey about his plans beyond watching Polestar's back. It sounded like he wanted to preach. Besides, there was a temple in the next town over and he'd been delaying his ascent to the next level, like her.

Kotta so far had united the races in this town by confusing all of them. The Bard's conviction was sincere, but he'd also compared the new ideas to how he'd reshaped and smoothed over certain details at Tukka's Hollow to make for a more satisfying story. Maybe traveling with Polestar would help straighten him out in terms of at least getting the otherworld ideas right.

Whether they were good ideas, she wasn't sure, because her brother had admitted his world had gone through several world-wide wars. He was right to advance technology and make the world richer, able to do things that were once thought impossible, and he was just getting started at that. She was less confident about upsetting the basic rules of how the kingdom worked.

She shouldered a heavy pack full of iron to carry to their eastbound raft. "I mean, Dad, who ever heard of installing a Baron by having the commoners just pick somebody?"

Dad was carrying a heavier load, of course. He grinned, exposing his teeth. "This is a long-term project. If it works, we have a friendly face controlling the mines."

"What about the Duke?"

They hiked down toward the river. "That gentleman has been neglecting to do his job. First by reining in Baron Flintarch from being a lead weight on his villagers' necks, and then by not watching Baron Kolm enough, and now by failing to get someone new there to handle the crisis. So we're doing him a favor. Getting production up and running so they can keep paying taxes." He looked around and spoke more quietly. "I've been meaning to ask you privately. How sure are you that the Duke wasn't in on this blood sacrifice?"

"You'd have to ask Vonn. I wasn't the one down there in the depths. But the Duke's so far away, and Kolm was obviously doing something insane and awful. The Duke wouldn't let something like that happen if he knew about it."

Dad only grunted.

Urika got waylaid by requests to stay in the area and handle some local disputes and paperwork, just as Dad seemed to want. The Smith grumbled and requested some clothes and tools from his shop. He seemed to know he was being drawn into deeper obligations and was telling himself it was just more iron-making work, more responsibility to get a production line up and running.

But before Tazo left, Urika said to her, "I am likely doomed."

She said, "The Duke might appoint someone any day now."

"Perhaps."

Tazo and Dad went downstream toward home at last. She felt that she'd shed her friends, leaving them behind to work on projects of their own. Maybe it'd be good for them all. She hoped so, anyway. For now she had time to spend with Dad, keeping watch on the dangerous northern shore as they drifted past the tainted land.

"I hope Vonn hasn't managed to burn the shop down while we're gone."

"I doubt it. He's been too busy to learn fire magic."