Dwarf Darrow: Gems and Metals

[Nenya Evenstar]

Kilease Ironfoot looked around her in satisfaction at the piles of gems and precious metals. She only barely succeeded in stopping herself from walking up to one of the piles, scooping her arms full, and burying her beard into their glitter. Ah how it sparkled! She glanced up towards a shaft above that let in the glorious sunlight and grinned. And oh how the students of this quant little organization would jump at seeing a female dwarf teaching their class! But would they even know she was female? She might be able to get some fun out of this one! Kilease put both hands on her rather large belly and resituated it over her rather tight belt with a grunt.

The door creaked behind her and Falim came in.

"Ah, welcome! I was just admiring this hoard you have here!" Kilease greeted him.

"Like it?"

"Yes! It's amazing!" Kilease' replied, her eyes bulging. "And now we just need students before I can set my hands on it!" Greed peered out through her dwarvish eyes.

[Angoreth]

Fair haven walked into the class," is this gems and metal class?,am I to late to join?" she asked a she greated Kilease iron foot with a bow.

[Nenya Evenstar]

Kilease jumped. "Why hello there!" she greeted back with a rather elaborate bow. "Nice to see you here!" She walked towards the girl with a straight back and straight strides. "You aren't too late . . . just a little bit too early, eh Falim?"

"Aye, that's right!" Falim replied stoutly.

"It's only Wednesday today . . . we're just admiring the stores of gems . . ." here Kilease's face broke out into a greedy smile as she stared at the heaped piles of preciously gleeming stones, "and I was just pouting about how we needed students. Looks like we've got one!" Kilease bounced up and down for a second, waving her hands in the air. "I'll put you down for tomorrow . . . the class starts at errr . . . Falim?"

"7:15, to be precise," Falim grinned.

"Yes, 7:15 tomorrow! But thanks for stopping by today! I can't wait to see you tomorrow!"

Falim put out a hand to stop the over-excited Kilease. "Let the poor girl get a word in edgewise, my dear!"

[Nenya Evenstar]

Kilease Ironfoot entered the little gem room in an almost bouncing stride. After a moment, Falim followed her. He had been unable to keep up with her excited pace while in the halls and had lagged behind.

"Falim!" Kilease cried out with joy, "We can at last teach any lucky students that come our way about these stones! I do not understand why all the academy doesn't come running our way! It's so beautiful, is it not?"

Falim nodded and grinned.

"I'm glad that raging headache I had after yesterday went away . . . ." Kilease commented and then dwindled off into silence. She let out a roaring laugh and, after a teasing glance at Falim, ran her fingers through the hoard of gems that lay in piles upon the floor.


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OOC: Come and join this class if you'd like! It should be more comical than the classes you're used to because Falim and Kilease aren't exactly the most serious people (especially Kilease). :D

[Aulë]

Chokang came running into the room, and started loading all the gems that he could see into a large sack.
Once it was completely full, he hauled it over his back and headed towards the door, until he saw Kilease.
"Err, Hi Kilease..." he stuttered, "I'm just passing through, I'll talk to you later."

[Nenya Evenstar]

Kilease ran towards Chokang and jumped like a mad dog upon his back and bore him to the ground, her full weight nearly suffocating him. "Falim! Falim!" she screamed, "He has taken some of the stones!" She beat his back with her fists and tried to wrest the bag of stones out of his hands. Falim came to the rescue and helped Kilease take the bag from Chokang, but only after a struggling fight during which Chokang was impared because of the enormous weight upon his frame. Kilease was in a rage, and Falim had to drag her away from the Chokang after throwing the stolen bag and its contents back onto the piles of gems.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Falim demanded, holding a struggling Kilease.

[Aulë]

"Well, I suggest you get your angry little friend to calm down," he grinned, "She looks like she may damage something."
Chokang laughed at the grumpy looking instructors, and started throwing a few rough stones at them playfully.
"You two should calm down a bit, this is Heren Istarion- a place for people to forget about the troubles of the outside world."

[The_Swordmaster]

Grandlyon walked into the class when chokang started throwing the rough stones and says to him "Let's see if they can take both of us." So Grandlyon and Chokang teamed up against Falim and Kilease in a stone throwing war.

[YayGollum]

*Tolir stomps in a little later, looking superly confused about why people are tossing things at each other, but quietly takes a seat somewhere and looks expectantly at the teachers*

[Angoreth]

Fair haven returned to the glass"OW!!" a gem hit her in the head, she walked over and took a seat while she rubbed her head. She turned to Tolir with confusion" what started this fude?" she asked him as she dodged a rather large rubey.

[YayGollum]

Tolir, superly grateful for being able to talk to at least one other sane person ---> "sorry, but I wouldn't know. I showed up in the middle of it. You'd think that the teachers would be a little more strict! I know that back home, this would have never been allowed."

[Angoreth]

" same here, the would never let such nonsence happen where I lived" she said as she dodged a dimond the flew by," WEll any way hello I am Fair haven who might you be?" she said as she dodged another gem.

[YayGollum]

"Oh, sorry. My name is Tolir. These Dwarves are letting me stay in their darrow for a time. I was expecting more teaching and less play when I arrived, but oh well. Maybe later." *Tolir gets tired of the craziness and starts crawling around and picking up gems to toss back on the pile*

[Nenya Evenstar]

Kilease was in a fury. A raging fury. These two dwarves needed to learn their manners! Neither her or Falim had taken any part in the stone throwing, and Kilease had grown more furious by the moment. "STOP THROWING MY GEMS THIS INSTANT!" Kilease shouted, not at all amused. "These are expensive stones, not haphazard rocks that were picked up by the road side! As for you two, you are suspended from this class for the day and will go to visit Ingolemo as soon as you can tomorrow. He will decide your punishment! Now leave this classroom this instant or risk being suspended from Heren Istarion!" Both her hands were on her hips, and all trace of good humor gone from her eyes.

[YayGollum]

*Tolir stands back up and nods superly approvingly at the lady after setting the last of the gems back in one of the piles, he heads back to his seat and wonders who somebody named Ingolemo is, but looks up at his teachers with all kinds of hopefulness*

[The_Swordmaster]

Grandlyon got on his knees with the most sorrowfull face he could show. He felt extremly sorry for his behiavor. " Please Kilease please reconsider. I do not have any home save Heren Istarion. Please do not make me homeless. I will..." Grandlyon's eyes started to swell up with tears. He was truly sorry for what he done. His tears were mostly because he had no other home. He was very scared because he could not go back from wence he came but that is another tale.

[Dáin Ironfoot I]

Kilease's face turned from a great angry and hairy tomato to a compassionate cheery ruby stone. This Dwarf reminded her of her son, Kuri, who disappeared into the wilderness, long ago...

"Alright, excuse me! You can stay!" she shouted, trying to remain indignant. Falim smiled and pointed to the fallen stones.

"Chokang and Grandlyon, pick these up and arrange these in the piles from whence they came. We shall begin the lesson once you finish, so please hurry."

[The_Swordmaster]

Chokang and Grandlyon quickly followed Falim's order and got working right away. It took them not a long time to finish there orders because luckly Grandlyon remembered the order the stones were in. After they finished the two of them sat down at their desks.

[Nenya Evenstar]

Kilease's mood had taken a swing for the better, although it still wasn't in the best sorts. She grimaced all the while the two dwarves worked but was unable to hold onto a sour disposition for long. Very soon a sunny smile was beaming on her countenance.

"Ahem!" She began eloquently. "Welcome to the Dwarf Darrow class of gems and metals! Here you will learn all I have to teach about all types of gems: gold, silver, rubies, sapphires, feldspars, moonstones . . . the list goes on! I will also teach you about the different metals that exist. Who knows, maybe we'll even mine a few!" She grinned and glanced eagerly towards an axe that lay resting against one of the rock walls. "But regardless of all that, I welcome you Fair Haven, Grandlyon, Chokang, and Tolir! It is indeed good to have you!"

Falim made a quick movement with his hands as though prodding Kilease to move on and stop being so formal.

Kilease jumped slightly. "Erm . . . anyway! We are going to start by identifying metals. Come everyone, gather around!" Kilease led the small group to a small pile of stones that lay on the floor. Knealing down and beckoning everyone else to do the same, Kilease picked up a small gleaming stone that was shaped and cut with precision. She held it up and the light from the shafts above glanced off its surface in a dull reflection. "This, my good friends," Kilease introduced, "is a copper crystal. Copper crystals are rare and generally very hard to find." Kilease hopped up onto both feet and scurried over to a different pile of rocks for a moment. She bent over the pile as though searching for something and the returned to the assembled group, a gleam of triumph in her eye. She held up a stone of the same copper color as the copper crystal but, unlike the crystal, rough and rugged on its edges. "And this," Kilease said energetically, "is pure, native copper. As you can see, native copper and copper crystals are two different things. Their formation is different and their molecular structure is different; hence one looking beautiful and spotless, the other old and rough. Native copper is hard to mine, but we dwarves do it anyway!" Kilease grinned. Working with the metals had lessened her anger, and now she was thinking happily of the gems and stones that she loved so much. "Any questions?" She asked suddenly, remembering that, after all, she was a teacher.

[Nenya Evenstar]

No one answered. Kilease stood looking for a moment at her students, a little surprised of course, but then continued on. "Since native copper is so hard to mine, it is a lot easier to mine different kinds of copper -- sulfides and carbonates. Sulfides are black, purple, and yellow; while carbonates are blue and green. Cuprite, copper oxide, and native copper are dull red. Crystals are rare for all types."

Kilease searched through the pile of crystals in front of her feet and pulled out a tarnished purple-colored crystal that shone in the sunlight of the high shafts. "See?" she said excitedly, "this is a Covellite crystal. Covellite is a kind of copper -- one of the sulfides."

The bouncy dwarf jumped up on both feet and directed her students to the pile of rough copper she had searched through earlier. Following their energetic teacher's example, the students squatted down on the cold stone floor. Kilease dug through the pile and showed her students many copper stones, both sulfides and carbonates, and named each one as she presented it. Finally, Kilease asked the eventful question. "Any questions?"

[The_Swordmaster]

Grandlyon looked mesmorized at the samples Kilease showed at him. He thought to him self. "Just to think I was just playing with them like toys." That snapped him back out of his trance. He raised his hand and said. "Why is native copper so much harder to mine then any other type of copper? Also is native copper a better metal then all other copper types?

[Nenya Evenstar]

"Well," Kilease began quickly, "native copper is so hard to mine because it is in shorter supply than the other coppers and because it's not very economical. " She cleared her throat and began again, fingering the copper pieces in her hands. "No, native copper is not necessarily better than the other coppers. It just has a different mineral and chemical makeup than the other copper minerals do. They all have different makeups, which is why each copper is unique. I hope that helped?" Kilease looked up hopefully.

[Angoreth]

"Well, I understand copper a bit better" she said as she took notes.

[Nenya Evenstar]

"Good!" Kilease exclaimed. For a moment she searched through the pile of metals on the floor and then held up a gray stone. "Now let us discuss a new metal: galena!" Kilease waved the stone triumphantly before her students. "Galena is a mineral and is a type of lead (lead sulfide, to be exact). It is found in carbonate rocks and occurs with zinc, copper, and silver. Native lead, or pure lead without any other minerals, is rare. Therefore, in order to get pure lead, one must smelt the pure lead out of the mineral galena."

Kilease stopped for a moment and took a breath before continuing. "In addition to galena, over a dozen other lead minerals exist. Only two of these, however, have much importance as ores (metals for mining): cerussite and anglesite. These two minerals are derived from galena by the slow action of air and water."

Suddenly, Kilease stooped low over the metal pile and dug with both hands. Finally, she emerged with a stone. "And this!" she announced, a greedy gleam in her eye, "is gold!"


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OOC:

I want all of you to make a post that describes the gold piece Kilease is holding up. Use your character's thoughts and be imaginative!

Angoreth: I want you to edit your post. Make sure you capitalize, punctuate, and spell everything correctly. :)

[Angoreth]

Fair haven looked at the golden stone." Well it is look's heavy , and is round." she said as she thoughtfuly analyzed the gold." May I hold it,please" She asked as she looked at her teacher.

[Nenya Evenstar]

Kilease nodded solemnly and handed the stone to Fair Haven. The girl seemed to look at it in a silent awe, as though it had captivated her mind.


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OOC: Good post, Angoreth! I really like how you asked to hold the gold. However, I want you to actually describe the stone. So tell how the sun reflects off of it, if it even does; how the gold glimmers in a light of its own, if it even does; etc. You don't have to post it as dialog that your character speaks, but can just have thoughts pass through your character's mind.

Make sure you get all the spaces in your post and that you don't forget your commas before the last quotation mark. :)

[Nenya Evenstar]

Suddenly Kilease jumped. It was time for her to close the class! "Well, the time has come for me to end our first session," she began formally. "I hope you enjoyed your first class! I'll see you all next week . . . so off you go!" Kilease made a kicking motion with her leg as a friendly goodbye.

The students, who seemed to enjoy the class, left the room rather quietly.


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OOC: I still want you all to write me a description of the piece of gold. Just PM it to me sometime soon. :) I'll be watching you . . . if I don't get a PM I'll be PMing you. :D