Steel Pickaxe

Metal is difficult to mine with inferior tools. A lesson that one dwarf tried very hard not to learn. Baralas, a dwarf from Keldagrim, once refused to trade up his bronze pickaxe for anything else. He was convinced, that any metal could mine any other metal, because what he was targeting was the stone, not the ore itself. An interesting plan, and one with tragic results.

While mining a rare metal with a particularly solid structure, his pick struck a single piece of the ore, no bigger than a pebble, and his bronze pick shattered into countless pieces as a result. Like an explosion made from tiny little metallic shards, Baralas was shredded into nothing but the lingering stench of regret.