NPC: Elevy

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Due to multiple options when speaking, text below may not be in comprehensive order.

You see a gnome pacing around and taking some measurements. Sometimes he looEL-DB.comks at the ceiling as if the key to all the mysteries in the world is there.

Who are you?

Well, hello! My name is Elevy.

Job

Why, I am an engineer! King Gondric hired me to study the feasibility of a mass transit system that would help connect this area to Nordcarn. But if everything goes well, soon I will be the chief engineer and oversee a huge group of workers.

Engineer

It runs in our blood. I was born in Arius, in the Kyriban village. My father is an engineer, and at that time his current project was to drain the Kyriban Marsh so that the land can be used for agriculture. He did a pretty good job, I'd say, the swamp used to be much bigger than it is now. My mother didn't want the whole swamp drained, she said it is an important habitat to the local fauna.

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To make a long story short, I was always fascinated by the intricate machinery my father built to drain that swamp. Long pipes, valves, pumps.. engines to power those pumps, you name it. He taught me a lot about engineering. When I got older, I joined the local temple dedicated to LaForge, our god. I learned a lot from Diesel, LaForge's priest and after graduating I moved here and got this job.

Mass transit

As you probably know, the dwarves living in Nordcarn are miners. And while there are some minerals in the Nordcarn caves, such as iron and rubies, most of the dwarves work here, in this cave. Well, the problem is that in order to get here they must go all the way to VotD, and through the gold cave. A lot of time is lost this way, and time means money and ore. It is ironic that people must travel so far to get

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in here, when this cave is just under Nordcarn. The dwarves realized this long ago, and they tried to build a tunnel from Nordcarn, but the rock seems to be too hard, and drilling at an angle would be very, very time consuming. The right way to do it is to search for a place where the hard rock is relatively thin, less than a few meters, and then dig straight down. Sure, that's not very easy, and we will need

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some wolfram drill bits, but it is doable. At least that's what Kohtag says. But anyway, drilling a hole from the surface to this location is the easy part. The complicaEL-DB.comted part will be building an elevator that can carry people and ore up and down. This is why the king hired an engineer for this project, and not just a team of miners.

Kohtag

He is the grave digger in Nordcarn. When he was young a mining accident left him somewhat crippled, he can't use one of his arms. Being crippled is seen as a bad thing among the dwarves here, so he is almost an outcast now. Poor guy, I feel very bad for him. But he does know a lot about rocks, and he helped me assess the situation here. Maybe, when the project is completed, his help will redeem him a bit.

Elevator

An elevator is a moving platform that goes up and down. It sounds simple, but there are not many around Draia, and that for a good reason. They are hard to build and maintain, and as far as I know, no one knows how to build a good one. This project will be new research, so it is very important to get it right. I could talk about it for days, but most people I talk to do not seem to be very interested in

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how they work. They just want the damn thing built. The only person that shown some interest in the techincal details, besides for my father, is Megera. Not because she is an aspiring engineer, but because she has to pay for the development. She is trying to cut costs here and there, but I think that safety and reliability is more important than the cost. Who would use a device that could kill them?

Megera

Megera is the king's cousin and also the treasury overseer. Meaning that she is the one that allocates the money for different projects. Right now she is under a lot of pressure, because the king wants to offer everyone here free health care. The money is limited, and everyone wants some chunk of money for their pet projects. I wouldn't like to walk in her boots...

Health care

I am an engineer, not a politician, so I am not going to comment on the merits of universal free health care. All I am going to say is that I personally believe there are better uses for the money. The mining industry could use more automatization. The less manual labour, the fewer the accidents, and fewer money spent on health care.

Huge group

It will take a big team to make this happen. People have to digg, carry away debris, build the cables, the platform, the engine.. make the explosives that we will use for blasting away the rock.. We will need at least one geologist to examine the rocks and tell us the best way to drill. Then we need a blacksmith to build and repair the drills.. All in all, probably more than 20 people will work for this project.

Automatization

I am not the only engineer here. Aelric is the 'resident engineer', and he has some very good ideas. Among other things, he wants to build safety equipment for the miners, a power loEL-DB.comom, and an automated mining machine to speed up the harvesting process. Of course, not everyone is happy with that idea, some people are afraid the machines will make them obsolete.

Goodbye

Thanks for stopping by, I enjoy telling people about my projects.