7. Into the Mansion & Mine

At the request of the Archmage Ramkin, we entered into the Eastern Sylvanik Forest with the goal of investigating why the Demense of the Ferrumary of Pavis had ceased paying its tithes, taxes and gifts to the City of Pavis, as well as there being a complete drop of iron and gem production in the area. My father had stated that part of my return to honor in the Clan would be based on returning at least one enterprise of value to the Kharazad Kingdom back into production. This may be my chance.
 
We left the City seeking to confront the local lord of the Demesne only to find Apollonian Werewolves in the midst of doing the same. Apparently they were the same Werewolves we had encountered in the City Guard - they had not been evil at all but rather had been seeking to locate the source of a new rogues guild or assassins guild that was seeking to undermine the city watch. We teamed up and proceeded to enter the Meregone Mansion - a beautiful home. Every inhabitant had been turned into a lycanthrope - every single nobleman and noblewoman was a snarling beast with the moon in such disarray of late.
 
We slew them all - all were from noble families and had long given up on their own humanity. We found some had been trying to cure themselves using rays of light and lens of light adjustment - trying in vain to use the light of Apollo to heal themselves.These lens are fascinating, and I wonder if any of them would have some application beyond scouting - perhaps as a sighting device on crossbows or some-such who knows.
 
We cleared the mansion, finding tapestries, rugs, chandeliers, dinner sets, foods, clothing and bedding, let alone furnishings worth thousands upon thousands of gold in value. All to be used in the new Demesne. The fortifications that had been started were doomed from the start - even a dwarven child of 9 would be able to construct better.
 
The mine entrance was derelict, but covered in silver - as if made of solid silver - but a strong mist was shimmering from the entrance. It was a pump of silver impregnated holy water being sprayed continuously through nozzles - the bandits who had taken over the mine had found a way to stay werewolf free - a shower of silver and holy water as a curtain and deluge of protection. But my poison sense told me there was something else in the water, something slightly toxic - but not anything that would affect us over a short period of time. These guys had mixed trjega zilvren (mercury) into the zilvern (silver)
 
Entering the Mine we were assaulted by Bandits who had taken over the mining operations, only to find the Bandits fighting in teams, distracting and splitting us up - almost as if trying to move us towards certain parts of the mine - when the first part was blown up - I realized that they had rigged the whole area with explosive traps. The madness in some of their eyes showed me they had succumbed to both the fear of imminent lycanthrope attack and the mercury poisoning. End result - suicidal bandits in an enclosed space.
 
We worked our way through the mine, avoiding explosions where possible and luckily no cave-ins. But on the last section, something didn;t feel right. Marconian had has hang back and secure whomsoever came out - only to find someone had remained behind with barrels of explosive material. The whole place came down around us and we luckily got out - but only through not having kicked in the door to that last area and running in. Marconian's choice had been the right one. But now - I have a mine to fix and favors to pull in - just to get it all up and running again.