Calamity struck the village of Gorshire in early Niuran, setting in motion a chain of events that even the most wizened of soothsayers could not have foreseen.

It began with a simple accident, a Gnomish surveyor by the name of Ranald falling from a ladder. Though hardly remarkable in and of itself, the tragic incident nevertheless attracted the attention of adventurers across Sapience, who flooded into the tiny miners' hut in order to investigate.

There they encountered Dorven, the overweight and underworked foreman of the Gnomish mines. Barring the entrance to the tunnels, the Human man announced that they were closed for safety inspections, refusing to speak further despite the increasingly interrogative questions of the growing crowd.

Yet after a prolonged period of insistence by Saidenn Tetzauh Ash'aji Arcan, the Chair of Spinesreach's Secretariat, the foreman's resolve finally broke. Bowing to the demands for a full safety audit, Dorven found himself jostled by the crowd and fell to his untimely death.

More accidents soon followed as Beck, long time head of the Gorshire constabulary, attempted to mount an investigation. After explosions, minecart collisions, and an inexplicable cave-in that gave a reclusive mystic the unexpected opportunity to verify his theories on the mirror, the tension wracking Gorshire at last reached a head. The Gnomes had had enough.

An emergency meeting was convened with the Mayor in attendance. Fending off repeated pleas by the adventurers to enter the mines themselves to conduct a rescue and remaining calm in the face of threats made by Mileta Tae'Daenir involving grenades, the Mayor withered under the reproachful glares of countless Gnomes as tales of sabotage and excessively dangerous competition among the miners began to surface.

The combined efforts of Dilys and Hammut, the two loudest voices in the group, forced Mayor Gorbert to see reason. He immediately declared the formation of an official Mining Syndicate, announcing an imminent snap election to determine who would oversee the operation. Five Gnomes stepped forward: Gilbert, Inge, Philbert, Sigrid, and Malram.

But as the tension began to break and an organised din settled over the tranquil Lodi valley, catastrophe reared its ugly head once more. Church of the Sentinel Pride and Duiran Council waited for the Gnomes to busy themselves about their election preparations and entered Fountain Square seeking blood. In a callous display of gratuitous violence, Church cut down every Gnome in sight, sending them to the mirror where one would be lost forever.

While the City of Enorian and the Duiran Council erupted into a heated clash over the heinous act, the Gnomes grieved the loss of Malram and steeled themselves for the election to come. The campaign had begun...

Penned by my hand on Gosday, the 21st of Niuran, in the year 497 MA.
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