Blame it on the Rain

It's raining again. I hate the rain. Especially when I'm out in it. I'd prefer to be inside, but I'm poor. Normally, that wouldn't bother me, but I'm not just poor. I'm in debt. See, the Miller had this investment thing.

I keep telling myself not to get caught up in her little scams. I never end up making any money anyway. A while ago she came up with this ferrous pyreal scam. She has this Lugian mob connection that's been working Linvak Tukal for while. He set her up really well that time. Had people coming from all over to repair these faulty water pumps he'd been selling to through his farming co-op. That would have worked out really well, but people start to notice when you say you need ferrous pyreal to repair their water pump and then you need to buy a new warehouse for storing ferrous pyreal.

I'm sure you heard about it. The town criers wouldn't talk about anything else if you paid them. The Miller though, she just brushed it off. Like water off a Mimbu's back.

So, this month's scam was supposed to make us all filthy rich. We'd all be wearing starstones and eating at that place in Cragstone. At least that's what she told us. Why do I believe anything the woman says?

She's worked with the local drudges forever. Ever since she found out that being a miller is actually a pretty humble way to live. I mean, have you ever been up north of Kehan to her windmill? I don't think she's been up there since I met her. She probably doesn't even know where the old thing is anymore. She just sits around eating marshmallow eeps and getting fat. She's starting to look more like her Lugian 'pals' all the time.

Anyway, she has a deal with the local drudges. She pays them a little bit each month and they sabotage her windmill on a regular basis. Then she waits for some newcomer to pass through Kehan (I'm sure she's still telling the old Arwic Warder that she needs help) and she convinces him or her to help repair her windmill. Like she even has anything to mill! She sends out this hapless adventurer to pick up some stone for her windmill and then she sends him or her off to fix the old thing. One of these days, the whole thing is going to collapse in on one of those adventurers and she's going to be in a heap of legal trouble.

So, most of you know that. It's not a big deal, she keeps some of the stone, and then hires some of the locals to cart it over to Ikeras or Cavendo to sell at outrageous prices. I should never have become one of the locals.

But the point is, that it was a pretty profitable little scam, until the Brotherhood of Shapers showed up and the bottom dropped out of the stone market. Let's just say the Miller was more pleased when her doctor made her give up Grutt truffles. Now everyone and their lasher are in the stone business. You can't hardly go on a picnic without running into some would-be-prospector with an armful of maps and mattocks and a wild 'gonna strike it rich' look in their eye. I frown on the whole business. Which of course makes it all the more ironic that I am standing here in the slush with a pick in one hand and a map in the other. And it's raining.

Did I mention that I hate the rain?