text: After a few weeks of hard labor your not sure whether your regret your choice or not but your certainly keeping very strong and fit from wielding a pick and shovel all day. The mine has been progressing well, the main shaft has been tunneled deep into the hills bedrock and side tunnels are being opened to chase the smaller silver seams your crew uncover in the rock.
  
  You're just taking you latest load of rock out in a cart when the foreman approaches you. "Theres a small job available for you if you want to earn some higher pay than you are at the moment, dangerous though."
  
  "What's the job?"
  
  "One of the main side tunnels has found a rich looking vein we want to open, but the rock around it is cracked and weak. The weak stone should only extend a few feet but we need some volunteers to risk mining through it. The pay is more than double what your getting now."
  
  > Its not worth it, keep mining the main tunnel
  You don't want to risk a tunnel collapse so you turn down the foreman's offer.
  
  You work solidly for the next few weeks. You occasionally see the Officials from the miners guild and some officers from the army visit and watch them being greeted by the overseer and his daughter in their newly built house. From speaking to the other miners you find out that the overseer is also the owner of the new mine and a few others in the area, he moved from another country then made his way up from miner, to foreman, then staked his own claim after a few years. Now he travels to all his new mines and oversees their construction with his daughter doing his books and his cooking for him. You never hear about his wife.
  
  You think its odd that he gets so many visits, especially from the army but you put them out of your mind as soon as the officials leave- the guild is nothing to do with the hired hands after all, only the owners.
  
  > Months of mining
  You've been at the mine nearly three months now, the tunnels are going deep and several promising seams have been opened up, even the weak stoned tunnel is producing well now after a minor cave-in caused by logging right above it.
  
  You know its nearly time for the hired hands to be laid off so you approached the foreman to see what the prospects are. He told you that most of the manual labor would be laid off within the week and sadly that included you, you'd been a good worker but with all the better positions filled he had no choice.
  
  > finish the week and head South
  You get your things in order and even if you didn't make as much as you'd hoped for, you still added a few good weeks living expenses to your purse.
  
  There have been rumors lately of bandit activity on the road south so you talk to the other workers there to see what their plans are. One group is planning to leave on the day they are laid off and make good time down to the city because they want to get back to family there. The other south bound group plans to stay until all the small jobs are finished around the camp for a few extra coins then have a much more leisurely trip with stops off at way houses and farms along the way. The second group will turn up to the city nearly two full weeks after the first but your in no rush yourself.
  
  > rush back to the city with the first group, you may as well get back there.
  You all gathered on the Friday morning by the foreman.
  
  "As you men all know, this mine is now officially up and running so the owner has employed one of the mining guilds to keep her running and turn a profit for him, they bring their own unskilled work as well as the their own guards so you'll all be paid up until today then free to go. You can collect you pay off me this evening or tomorrow morning." as he turns to leave he pauses and says "Hmm for about 10 of you there could be some small coin in clearing the old shacks and tidying the place up, a few days light work for light pay." then he heads off to oversee the cutting of some wooden struts.
  
  You and your group finish your days work as quickly as possible then a few hours before dark you file up to the foreman and collect your pay, the owner is a generous man and since the build went well he provides you all with some dried meats and provisions for the trip out.
  
  You all head off South into the evening leaving the camp far behind you before stopping. Your days are pretty uneventful with a large group of men around you no bandits make an appearance and you all make very good time to the city, marching most of the days and taking few breaks along the way.
  
  > Rushed arrival
  Your group makes it back to the city in what must be only a little short of record time and say your farewells at the gates, most of them running off to see wives or families. You take stock of the area then get yourself through the now alien feeling streets to your old area of the city and are relived to find it almost completely unchanged. You go to an old way house you knew in the hopes that the same owner was still running the place.
  
  As you walk in the door a man behind a bar looks up and stares right at you for a full minute before saying "Well this is some triumphant return, look at the state of.."
  
  Your coin purse drops on the table
  
  "your huge full coin purse" he slowly finishes.
  
  You grin and tell him you'll take his best room for the night and some hot food followed by whatever his best bottle of alcohol is then head upstairs to wash the road off your face. Your Old friend meets you as you come back down and tosses you a key as he lays a large bowl of thick stew on the table alongside a large bottle of mead with two glasses.
  
  "two?" you point out.
  
  "Well its not everyday an old friend comes back into town after years away, so since your now paying for an entire bottle of finest mead reserve I thought I'd close for the evening and join you".
  
  You laugh and join him at the table sharing stories of the years since you grew up in the city together and went separate ways.
  
  Very late the next morning you wander down nursing your head and see your friend behind the bar equally worse for wear. You wander over and take the mug of water he hands you. Over breakfast and a lot more water you tell him your plans now that your back in the city. Your goal had always been to get enough to settle comfortably in or near the Iron district, then as the months went by, maybe get into one of the guilds as a skilled worker or arrange with a company to be a free-lance worker on their books. Your years of experience with all good references would stand you in good stead.
  
  > decide that even though the rooms and food are basic at best that you'll stay renting from your friend for a few weeks while you check out the city and find a place of your own
  After an enjoyable two weeks at the inn you've found yourself a nice place up in the Iron district, Its just a single bedroom with kitchen and small lounge off it but compared to the last few years it seems like a palace. Even better its only a few minutes walk from several of the guild buildings and mining corporation offices so sorting out a job shouldn't be too taxing, after several months rest of course.You let your friend know that you'll be leaving the next day and he just tells you to come down for drinks as often as you like.
  
  That evening you both sit down to share a drink and talk about how to make easy money (your favorite topic since you were 10 and he was 15 working for his dad in this very bar). You glance out the window and comment that its awfully bright out for the time of day when you hear the first screams.
  
  You both rush out to see a massive inferno sweeping through the wooden buildings of the old quarter. You both turn to run but there is a wind coming off the sea pushing the fire on and the old wooden buildings are going up like kindling. In your blind sprint you both almost make it to the walls dividing the city's districts when the flames overtake you and the smoke makes you choke and fall, its not long before you are engulfed entirely in flames.