The Northern Mountains

You work together and are able to find a few samples of semiprecious stone that could be pollished and possibly shaped to figurines or the like and sold for a few copper or silver. More importanly you are able to trace them to a section of the hill that collapsed into a rock slide some time in the past The rock slide looks to be where the stream picked up to minerals and you turn from it and head up the mountain.

The lower mountains are moderatly wooded but the higher you go the sparser the treee cover becomes. Squirls, birds, and the odd lizard are the only signs os activity in the area though you dobt the area is free of larger beast that simply stay out of sight. The coll fresh air is noticably thinner than down in the lowlands of the mannor and you are quickly breathing hard to make up for the difference.

The hike up the mountain following the stream, then rock slide, takes you several hours and as the sun gets close to the horizon you keep an eye out for a decent camp sight. You find a small copse of treed in a highland vale and make you way into it and find the best shelter possible as you make a small file for a nice warm meal before settling down for the night.

Elyse has grown excited and disheartened at the same time with the increased signs of a good stone vein but the remoteness would make creating a large opperation hard in this location. However Blornvid points ot that it should not be too hard to cinvince a dwarven family or small clan to set up operations here as they tend to not mind the lack of a thick social callender and are often only all to glade to have a mountain to themselves. You make arrangement for a watch as you chat and settle down for the night.

Waking in the morning you continue tracking the mineral traces and around mid day come to a ragged cliff face with large heaps of rough stone tiummbles around it that looks to be the souce of the deposits. As you look around Gutelos spots some interesting marking and informs the others that the stone has bee worked. Though not a common practice he has heard of a process used in high mountains where entire sections of cliff are sheered off for mining. This allows large ammounts of rock to be easily broken down to smaller chunks for processing. The clif is mostly granite so perhaps it was used to quarry that for use elsewhere? By his best guess the stone has been cut here repeatedly and finds some marks that don't look to be too old . . .

Roll to ain more information and/or let me know any path of investigation

You scan the area and found traces of a rough path that winds around the mountain. Once this is located you easilly determine that the "road", which is barely wide enough to support small carts, is at least several years old but does not seem to see much traffic. The ocasional wheel rut suggests that the quary is mined for its stone which is taken elseshere.

Elyse is unforunatly unable to locate any signs of valuable mineral deposits in the cliff face quary. The traces of mineral you followed may have been from earlier excavations of the cliff and she is aware that this means there may be other veins of rare minnerals nearby but simnply not at the currant surface. During the search you find multipe took marks with varying level of weathering indicating this site has likely been used for multiple years.

Between Blornvid, Elyse, and Gutelos you piece together a rough history. At yoru best guess the are was mined for minnerals many years ago till the easilly accessable ones were all removed. Since that time the site has been used to quary stone for building materials. The periodic use of the site indicates a nearby setlement that and guaging by the size of the quary and road it is likely not too large.

The group follows the rough track, mostly downhill, and after about an hour the road joins up with a few other tracks and is now a well beaten and obviously frequently used path through the rough mountanous terrain. You follow the road to you find your way into a relatively small sheltered valley. As you look out over the miile long valley you see several small buildings and traces of smoke that quickly vanish in the hish mountain winds. Several tracks can be seen criss crossing the valley as well as several fields and a couple orchards.

Off to one side is a stone citadel built into a cliff near the mouth of the valley. There are guards atop it's outer walls and you see a squad of figures heading towards you from the fortified gatehouse set in the midle of the wall. The squad has about 6 figures and will reach your position in a couple minutes.

Listening to your explanations the leader seems intrigued. He begins to chat with you more amiably No we do not mind visitors. But we must ensure our safety you understand.

We have been mostly isolated since the shattering and would welcome initiating relations. If you can handle the transportation then we would be most interested in trading with the lowlands once again. But we will have to go see the clan chief to talk much about that. As you can guess at this altitude we do not have much of a warm season so right now most of our efforts are focused on our crops but in the winters we mostly work on our mines and crafts.

He then proceeds to ask several questions about your travels and knowledge of the area You were flown? Will you be returning soon? Have you mapped the region? Are there any other settlements you have talked with in the area? What creatures have you encountered in your travels?

As you chat he leads you towards the defensive structure. A pair of the guards run ahead while the others move to guard their captain and flank your group. They seem friendly enough and more relaxed but still vigilant and alert of any actions you take

You are allowed inside the outer walls and asked to rest a moment in a small courtyard while the chief.

An elderly but still strong gnome, accompanied by the captain and a couple guards joins you before inviting you into the main hall to talk. Introducing himself to your group he comments on your arrival So I hear you are exploring and looking for trade routes. Seems to be a bit of an effort to get up here if you have to use flying. I can see the appeal for adventuring but trade, might be hard.