[RP Blitz] Canaries in an Amber Mine

Far to the Northwest of Blitzia, on Eider Isle, there was a mine and in that mine, there was an alcove. It was positioned somewhat in the middle of the mineshaft, far enough in that the miners' picks could be heard tapping away at frozen stone as water dripped from the ceiling where torches were lit but not so far as the light from the entrance could not stretch to meet the doorway.

Despite this though, the roomy alcove itself was rather dim and so an oil lamp was lit and set upon the corner of the spacious field desk to counter this, a pool of warm light cast onto the surface and about the room. There were papers neatly stacked on the desk, ledgers, logbooks, maps, and more, and set nicely beside the oil lamp was a pot of ink.

Montgomery Sterling carefully dipped his pheasant quill into the pot of ink, a pair of dainty magnifying spectacles perched on the bridge of nose as he sketched a rough copy of one of the maps to mark down where the miners were working today. There were a few small crews working under his supervision down shafts that forked off of the main one he was in now so he liked to know where each one was in case he needed to find them for any reason.

After finishing his sketch and marking with small Xs where the crews were working, he scooted the paper to the edge of the desk and began the day’s accounting. Really, it was yesterday’s data, however, it was today’s work as the finished weight of what was mined could only be tallied at the end of the day. As for the amber found within the masses of earth mined, that was tallied after the rubble had been sifted through and in some cases, melted. It was quite a bit of work handling so much data at once but luckily organization was like a second nature to Monte. In fact, he found it quite relaxing as he created clean tables with his quill and bone ruler, listening to the flame guttering in the corner and the rhythmic tapping of pickaxes from elsewhere in the mine.

Once the tables were made, he wrote each employee's name that was working under him down from the logbook and took a moment to make sure he wasn't forgetting anyone. Looking over the signatures from that morning, he smiled a bit. He was grateful and very lucky to have such good crews under his supervision. They were always very hard working and knew how to get a job done. In addition to that, he hardly ever heard any complaints or had to solve too big of problems. He liked to think it was because he was a good supervisor and did his best to understand the miners but in all reality, he knew it was just because he had good crews.

Out in the main shaft, there was a small, yet noticeable, ting as the a small nail from a candle used to keep time fell into the tray of the candle holder. It was time to do another round to check on the crews. Monte set his quill aside before getting up, ensuring his hat was attached to the clip over his shoulder. A hat wasn't exactly useful inside the mines but it very much was when someone left them. The sun had a tendency to appear much brighter then it actually was when leaving the mines, even in the evening.

Monte stretched a bit, shoulders stiff from sitting so long, before calmly making his way down the main mineshaft with the sketched map in one hand and the time keeping candle in the other. Hopefully he wouldn't catch any of them slacking although after all, he thought they could all use a break anyway. A long weekend vacation would be wonderful.