Hex Crawl 23 #153: Big Zi'iri

 Seven hexes north, five northeast of Alakran.

The irony is that the human inhabitants of Big Zi'iri are shorter than the general folk of the plains, thanks to the meager diet of millet and cultivated mushrooms that sustains them. But they loom large in their own esteem over the dwarves of their "small" namesake up the valley. They even fancy themselves great hagglers and everyone has a story of how their grandfather or great-aunt got one over on a Dwarf.

Unbeknownst to them, the Alimazi clan has a tradition of playing mighty pranks once in a Dwarven generation upon their human neighbors. The folk of Big Zi'iri in turn treat the matter with embarrassment and the matter fades from collective memory by the time the Alimazi are ready for the next round. For the sake of these pranks there is a tunnel dug under the village (and filled in again after the prank is done).The latest jest has been to dig access tunnels just under the soil and subtly push up foll's gold and copper nuggets in hopes that the foolish humans will dig up half their houses pursuing the mineral rush.

Hex Crawl 23 #152: Small Zi'iri

 Seven hexes north, four northeast of Alakran.

Twenty-four generations of dwarves have dwelt in this underground town since the first clans arrived, cast out of the Yagan Mountains far to the west by civil strife. The mineral deposits they scented here have long since been dug out, but their skills endure as peerless crafters in metal and devious builders in stone. 

The dwarven folk of Zi'iri have the dark skin and wiry, elaborately braided hair of their Yagan forebears. There are four main clans in the town: the Alimazi, specialized in building tricks, traps and secrets in stone; the Anit-Irenya, ironworkers and miners; the Iniku, workers of precious metal and stones as well as moneylenders; and the Menifesi, priests and lorekeepers.

The place is known to its inhabitants as Rejimi Guzo Talak’i Shilimati, and to others (never dwarves) as Small Zi'iri, though its population is easily four times that of the human village down the valley. The clans are hospitable to those who have specific business with them, but have little time for those who want to trifle, ask favors without giving, or foment war.

The Band of Bronze was sent here by the ghost of Alimayehu, a dwarven engineer who died in the caverns of Nathrak. She was hired to design the plethora of secret doors and traps in that place, then coldly murdered by its ruler to keep the secrets. The ghost's wish was to return the money owed from the job to clan Alimazi, and she made the Band swear on the River of the Dead to carry this mission out, using the treasure looted in their adventure. 

The long-bearded elder of the Alimazi clan, one Medosh, who uses two hefty hammers as crutches, invited them to a meal in the communal hall with the clan council. But their impression of the architect, handed down through a few long dwarven generations, was not favorable. Alimayehu had been afflicted with giantism, standing taller than even the tallest human, and had been a genius and troublemaker, with whispers of parentage by an ogre or demon. Moreover, the interest on her project payment from nine hundred years ago, properly calculated, would make the required amount many times more than all the gold in Mittellus was worth.

But when the elders flung back the 1300 gp in gold and gems as an insult, they released the Band of Bronze from their oath, and brought on themselves the destructive haunting spirit of Alimayehu, who wrought havoc among all the clans. This situation, perhaps, can remain for other adventurers to unravel. But it will take great diplomacy for the clans to unravel their silence and tell the true story of the Alimazi's greed and stubbornness.