Completed Down Deep [Coalinga Mines]

After a few day in the upper tunnels, Zephari decides to delve deeper.

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Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

Down Deep [Coalinga Mines]

Postby Zephari on May 1st, 2015, 1:03 am

OOC NoteI wrote this assuming the Coalinga mines follow the basic rules of mine structures, and that mizahar has the same type of geology as real life, if I am incorrect about this, please forgive me.

Timestamp: 19th of spring 515 AV

When Zephari awoke in from the early mourning light seeping in through the small window in her cottage, she immediately felt something was different today. Having only lived in Riverfall for a short time, less than a month, every day when she woke up Zephari felt somewhat out of place. The smell of the Suvan sea and the green freshness of the windswept condos always felt very strange.

But not today. Today it felt somewhat normal, and even comfortable. Looking over to her side table she noticed the date realizing she needed to work today, quickly got ready and headed out for the mines. "As much as I enjoy this job, its hard to keep up with those blue giants" she thought, as she grabbed her pick and walked outside. She had been working at the Coalinga mines for just under 2 weeks and she loved it, though it had been brutal work. She kept a good smile on her face until she was outside the main part of the city, then she let her focus drift to the land. It was so different from her homeland, which composed of nothing but hot and mostly lifeless desert.

Wandering amongst the tall lush grasslands of Riverfall Zephari let out a sigh, "I can't believe I stayed in the damned desert for so long when places like this exist" she said quietly to herself. Her mind drifted back to her home, and her family, which she had abandoned only several years ago. She felt a slight heaviness in her heart, thinking of them, but it was quickly replaced by anger. Not anger at her family, but anger at her father, who had pusher her away from her family. Looking up from the ground, she suddenly realized she was almost at the mines already, as she has lost track of time in her head. "Well lets see what wonders the earth can give today."

Upon coming to the lift, Zephari notices Typhus Chivan, the Head honcho of the mines. She quickly ducks behind one of the many tents, not wanting to directly come into contact with him. Out of all of the giant blue men, he is the one Zephari likes the least, mainly for him seeming to be very cold and calculated. SHe'd had to talk to him over several occasions while getting this job, and it was unpleasant. Thought he did seem to do his job very well.

After making sure he had moved on, Zephari got onto the lift, which descended into the mine. Over the last few work days she had been working in the most upper tunnels and chamber of the mine, which had been the most heavily mined over the years. As such she had only found a few chunks of low quality ore, and small shards of quartz. This time, with a new found feeling of comfort, she didn't get off the lift at the top, instead waiting for it to descend several levels, where she got off at around the 7th level of tunnels. Upon getting off the lift, Zephari's eyes went wide. While she wasn't the most experience miner in the world, she really did love the geology involved. Almost instantly she noticed that the base rock this far down was much cleaner, and much denser, by the fact that it had less mixes of colors, instead large areas of singular colors, mainly blacks and reds.

Picking a tunnel to her right, she started walking, looking for a place to start. She passed several Akalak reimancers, who simply gave her a nod. "Not a single non blue worker down this far..." thought Zephari, some of the comfort feeling dissipating. In the upper tunnels there where at least a few other non Akalak workers, who were most likely not full time miners. She came to one of the tour tunnels, which acted as a crossroad for the labyrinth of under ground tunnels. "Well at least this could lead me somewhere that isn't already being mined at." she said quietly, thought it still echoed in the small tunnels.

After walking for about an half an hour, Zephari noticed a black streak in the arch entrance of a side tunnel. Knowing that darker colored intrusions in rocks can lead to metallic ores, she followed it. the streak was jet black against the grey and white stone, so it was very easy to follow. Eventually the streak widened at one point. Stopping to examine it Zephari noticed reflective flecks in the streak, after holding her lantern against up to it. taking out her pick Zephari took a couple swings at the normal rock just above the intrusion. The white parts of the rock where soft and easily broken away, so she broke away larger portions of of normal part of the wall. After swinging for about 10 minutes, she had a large area of the darker area exposed and sticking out. "Well this is promising." she said, happy with herself for finding some actually minerals, thought she did not know what. Taking a minute to line up a carefully place swing, she breaks off the chunk. Now able to examine the broken chunk, it is obviously silver and iron ore. Mixes like this are common, but somewhat valuable. "Finally found something worth while!" Zephari said proudly, and loudly. The echo carried on for several seconds. After spending 3 or so hours mining out the wide area of the intrusion, there is now a pile of about 50 pounds of ore, which Zephari crams into her backpack with great effort. Taking a rest and a drink of water, she marks the spot on her tunnel map.

"Perhaps I over did it a little!" Zephari says as she painfully trys to heft her backpack onto her shoulders. She was always over estimating how strong she was. While Zephari was certainly not the skinny stick figure some women are, thanks to digging and working in caravans her entire life. She was most certainly not a body builder. But not wanting to leave the ore behind, she pushed herself to get moving. Through pure stubbornness and a little bit of stupidity she started moving back through the tunnels towards the mine back to towards the great lift. After just getting about half way back, she collapsed back into the ground, already worn out. "Damnit all! Why can't I have back muscles like those blue giants?" she said angrily. Taking a small break to rest and calm down, Zephari begrudgingly removes a few pounds of ore from the backpack and keep moving. "I'm gonna get myself hurt if I keep doing this to myself." she thought, trying to keep a steady pace. Final the great lift came into view, and Zephari got on it, sighing with relief. Looking around her at the other miners, all Akalaks, she noticed that their hauls for the day weren't a ton larger than hers, but still significantly larger. Zephari smiled, as the lift came to the surface, the light of the setting sun greeting her. Once her eyes adjusted she grabbed her pack and headed off to ore market to sell her haul.

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Down Deep [Coalinga Mines]

Postby Aoren on May 19th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Zephari

Experience
Skill XP Earned
Observation +1 EXP
Mining +1 EXP
Bodybuilding +1 EXP
Planning +1 EXP
Geology +1 EXP


Lores
Lore Earned
Location: Coalinga Mines
Geology: Recognizing Silver Ore
Geology: Recognizing Iron Ore




Notes :
This was a good read despite the shortness of length. I strongly encourage you to lengthen your threads. You've got a solid foundation here and it's awesome to see someone interested in mining and geology. If you have comments, questions or concerns please approach me at your earliest convenience. Don't forget to edit/delete your request in the request thread!
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Down Deep [Coalinga Mines]

Postby Zephari on June 6th, 2015, 1:15 am

Actually extracting the haul was only part of being a miner. The rest involved finding some one willing to buy what you had dug up. This was much easier said than done, as the market outside the mine was highly competitive, and everyone was always trying to get the best possible deal, even if it ended up annoying others. One thing Zephari had noticed, was that some of the reimancers had set deals with certain merchants to fill a quota. It made everything much more efficient, as it removed the haggling entirely, so that the person could simply drop each day's load at that merchant's tent.

Zephari put her pack down next to a red tend at the far end of the market, her back starting to hurt from the weight. She took a rest and observed the scene in front of her. The noise of people bartering over ores and gems was overwhelming, each single conversation blurred with the next, making it impossible to pay attention to any single person. A human man sitting at the front of a table in a green tent caught her eye, as the table was covered in an assortment of both ores, and gems, which was unusual. Most merchants either dealt with one or the other, not both.

Hefting her pack onto her shoulder, Zephari walked over to him, and put out her hand in greeting. "I'm Zephari, are you looking to buy any ores?" she asked, putting on a wide smile. She dropped her pack on the ground next to the table with a loud thump, that was followed by scrapping noises as the chunks of rock rearranged themselves within the backpack.

"I am indeed" he responded, smiling as he heard the heavy thud of the pack. "The name is Kenan. What are you looking to sell?" he inquired, looking down at the backpack. He took out a couple of small picks and hammers, along with a scale from under the table, placing them next to Zephari on a desk.

"Its not anything crazy, just high quality silver and iron ore. Its pretty densely packed, so there isn't a lot of crap rock to split away from it." she explained, pulling out the largest chunk of silver ore, which was about the size of her forearms. She placed it next to Kenan for him to examine.

The man took the chunk of ore, lifting it much easier than Zephari could, and placed it on the scale. He slowly added weight to the other side until it was balanced, using cylindrical metal pieces to add exact amounts of weight each time.

"Fourteen pounds, that is a pretty good chunk." he said, taking it off the scale. he then took the small pick and hammers, breaking a small chunk of it off the main portion. He then rubbed down the small chunk in an oil of sorts, which washed away the dirt around the ore, and helped him to see the purity of the ore it's self. Taking the piece her looked at it under a magnifying glass, and grinned. Turning his attention to Zephari he said; "This is good stuff Zephari. How much you got?"

Picking up her backpack, Zephari dumped the entire contents onto the desk, spreading them out so each piece could be easily examined. Kenan nodded at the pile of ores and offered Zephari a good price for them. She didn't even think to haggle, not being the most experienced saleswoman. As she was slinging her pack onto her should and was walking out of the tent, Kenan spoke up.

"Do you have any quotas set up with anyone for the season yet?" he asked, seeing an opportunity. He reached into one of the desk drawers and pulled out some papers.

"No I haven't. In fact I've only been in Riverfall for a little while now. Why, are you offering?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes I am. This is pretty impressive stuff for someone who hasn't been here long. As you can see I deal in both minerals and gems. While this does make your quota flexible, it does mean I won't be able to pay as high. Sacrificing volume for value you know?" he said, beginning to write up a contract.

"I think that is acceptable. I don't specialize in any particular type of mining, I just take what I can find. How large of a quota are you looking for?" she replied.

"Well I only have one other person working for me at the moment. So a fairly large one. Something like one thousand gold mizas for the season total? You would be making just over six hundred of that as your profit." he said, writing that down on the contract.

Zephari was bewildered by that number. She had never in her life made more than a couple hundred gold mizas in a single season. Kenan had even said that this wasn't particularly high pay. She bit her thumb and thought for a moment on the incredible deal. That is a huge amount of money! Though I guess it makes sense, Riverfall is a rather richy city, and this mine is just as rich. But even saying that one thousand mizas worth of rock is gonna take a lot of work... I've barely made forty with this batch...

"How often do you need continues batches?" she asked, worried about possibly over working herself by needing to work in the mine every day for the entire season.

Kenan tapped his pen on the table, figuring out what a good minimum amount and how often that minimum needs to be met. Taking a minute to do some math on another piece of paper he eventually responded with; "About one hundred mizas worth of product per week from here on. if you bring in larger hauls you can spread each one further apart, but I need to be able to sell about one hundred work per week. That reasonable?"

Zephari nodded, finding that to be an easily achievable target. She could work a few days per week, gathering thirty to forty each day pretty reasonably. "Yes that is totally reasonable. I will get you the other sixty I owe you for this week in a couple of days." she offered, walking over to Kenan to sign the paper. He handed her the pen and she signed it, sealing her contract.

"Don't disappoint me, otherwise Typhus Chivan will get involved." Kenan warned Zephari with a stern look. She knew he was serious, as Typhus Chivan had a great reputation for taking harsh action against those who disobeyed orders or violated contracts, even going so far as to take to violent disciplinary actions.

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Down Deep [Coalinga Mines]

Postby Zephari on June 8th, 2015, 11:34 pm

Hastily finalizing the contract Zephari left, shaking Kenan's hand is she did so. It was getting dark and it was time to head home. Making her way back across the sea of tents to the mine entrance, her pace slowed, her muscled heavily fatigued from the long brutal day. Her shoulders hung low carrying her pack as she reached the gear storage shed. Clumsily she dropped off her backpack and mining lantern on one of the shelves.

Realizing that she would not make it hope without refreshing herself some, Zephari stumbled to the nearby creek. Washing her face in the cold water, she found that one of her knuckles did not flex properly. Worried, Zephari tried to force it to flex with assistance from her other hand, which resulted in sharp pain.

"I must have done this while moving the big pieces away from the wall... I don't think it is broken because I can still move it but man that hurts!" she exclaimed, rubbing the palm of her injured hand. Sighing, pushing the pain to the back of her mind she finished washing her face and started making her way home.

Upon arrival at her small apartment back in Riverfall, she was force by pain to make a haphazardly made wrap for the injury. She had little to no medical knowledge, only knowing that she needed to keep it from moving too much, because that caused it to burn badly. She took a stick from the open yard area in front of her apartment, and her extra skirt, making a terrible made splint of sorts to keep it straight. Taking the stick she placed it uner her finger, along her palm, and she just wrapped her entire hand in the shirt. It wasn't great but it let Zephari relax without any real pain.

Flopping down in her bed, Zephari basically dropped into a small coma, exhausted from the day's ordeals.

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Down Deep [Coalinga Mines]

Postby Dravite on August 2nd, 2015, 10:45 am

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Zephari

XP Award:

  • Logic: 1
  • Endurance: 1
  • Observation: 1
  • Bodybuilding: 1
  • Socialisation: 1
  • Persuasion: 1
  • Organisation: 1
  • Medicine: 1


Lore:

  • Observation: Keeping an eye on the workings of local trade
  • Kenan: A man looking to buy ore
  • Negotiation: Could make you an extra miza or two
  • Typhus Chivan: A man with a reputation
  • Medicine: building a splint


Penalties:
Zephari will experience sore muscles for the next week and a pain in her arm for the next two weeks.

Notes: Good work fleshing this thread out a bit. Job threads need to be at least 2500 words long to qualify for wage (with two threads per season to acquire full wage). Let me know if you think I have missed anything here and be sure to edit your grading request!

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