Spelderba was furious. She threw her Silver Aspis badge into a corner of her room and sat down at her desk. The information she just hat received from her informants had been bad, very bad indeed. The whole plan of the Apis Consortium to secretly dominate the new areas that Rhyn the Mad was opening around Thornkeep had taken a major blow.
And worst of all - Spelderba hadn't seen it coming. She was activly observing the Hellknights of Golgotha - a well oiled evil warmachine and a serious contender to the Aspis Consortium. And then there where the holier than holy Knights from Phaeros with the Paladin Nihimon as their leader. Never underestimate religious zealots. They were predictable but their steadfast convictions made them a serious power to overcome.
No - it hadn't been them who had thwarted the plans of the Apis Consortium. This she could take. No - it was this bumbling fool of wizard called Theodum from the Emerald Lodge. With a few pen strokes he had undone month of careful planning.
Month ago she had traded a few fake ingredients to the goblin shamans working for Rhyn the Mad who where responsible for the rituals to keep iron appearing in the mountains and pine and yew to grow in the woods. It didn't stop the rituals - that would be too obvious and not the Aspis way. Instead it slowly inversed the growth rates of common and uncommon resources. Iron in mountains would dry up, slowly but surely.
Spelderba had hired a horde of prospectors - ready to strip mine the mountains around Golgotha, Phaeros and Brighthaven of iron. They would decend in the early morning hours and fade away before the Hellknigths and Paladins would wake. Not that the Hellknigths hadn't done already most of the work for her.
This would give the Apsis a big stock of iron. A stock to hoard. At the same time she had taken care that the Aspis Consortium was careful in gathering only little of the iron in the trash heaps left around her settlement.
And then all she needed was too wait. The iron in the mountains would slowly but surly dry up. Her own woods would still yield a decent amount of iron. Not much - but more as the mountains ever would regenerate again.
And then - together with he stockpile - she would corner the market and domination of the River Kingdom was hers.
But this fool of Wizard from the Emerald Lodge. Complaining about a gold/iron imbalance in the mountains around Phaeros and Golgotha. Chatting to the goblin shamans and have them realize they were using the wrong ingredients for the ritual of growth.
Surely Theodum didn't knew what he was doing. She had observed him and declared him out of his depth in the hostile environment of the River Kingdoms. He was better placed behind a desk in the library of the Grand Lodge in Absalom instead of leading a lodge of the Pathfinder Society and a settlement here which needed field experience.
Still - he had single handedly caused more harm to her plans of world domination as Hellknights and paladins together in several month. She was looking forward to the day someone would take out a contract of assasination on him. She might even do it herself.
Surely Theodum couldn't have many friends here in the River Kingdoms. He was out of his depths and in the wrong place. Still - from now on she would also have to watch this fool more carefully. Not that he would cause more mayhem to other plans she had made.
Fools were just so unpredictable.
