“Hmm?” Oh, it’s the sortition who’s good at giving speeches. “Yes, I do. I run a spellsilver mine.”

"Excellent. The rights committee is considering a right not to be made undead, and is hesitating because we don't know whether all the other feasible ways to get enough metal are in fact even worse than skeletons. I don't think any of us actually know enough about mining to have a very good sense of what the effects would be."

"The way it worked under the old regime was that the mines were mostly staffed by convicts and slaves, and then any wizards or clerics could sell an animate dead to the mine for a fraction of the proceeds of the undead—mostly clerics, they get it one circle lower than wizards.

"Since the four day war, our efficacy and numbers of undead have gone down. There's been almost a ten-fold drop in the number of animate dead spells available, and the lack of negative channels means they wear out faster. I'm not quite sure how much it would cost us to get a cleric who can channel negative, that definitely would be a factor. But yes, the right for convicts to not be made undead in mines would make metal more expensive—just as the abolition of slavery will make metal more expensive too."

Ahh, so not being Asmodean is itself making things harder here. Fun.

"We thought so. I think we'd appreciate some expert advice on the rights committee, though probably not today. It matters exactly how expensive different things are, and what would end up replacing them - there were concerns that the workforce might end up being largely indentured orphans. But I actually suspect that there are quite a lot of questions that turn on Cheliax's resources, and that the people considering those questions in committees are not always aware that they do."

"I think it might be worth it to have a committee devoted specifically to natural resources - including metal, but also any other major resources I'm not thinking of. Forests covers some of them, but is obviously irrelevant to mining. I don't know how much legislation you'd realistically want to pass, but having a group that other committees can submit questions to would be enormously useful in itself. I'm considering suggesting one to the floor, but I'd need a chair, and I don't have any business being on the committee at all."

“The old government was constantly interfering in our operations, it seems reasonable to put limits on that somehow. Most of the other issues that I can imagine bringing up are issues of property ownership in general rather than in particular but perhaps no other committee has thought about that yet…. To your implied question, I’d speak in support on the floor if you desire, and won’t say no to being nominated for chair, although I expect one of the nobility will contest it.”

"Probably, but I expect most people with interest will do better than we'll do by completely failing to consider the whole slate of issues in the first place. I can ask one of the nobles on the rights committee if he knows offhand of anyone particularly suited, but I don't expect to do better on the expertise front than a dwarf who runs a mine. And - you're Torag's, right?"

How to answer this question. Humans don’t know that much about the dwarven pantheon, right?

“I am here as a representative of Torag’s church, and am filling a seat assigned to his church. But Torag isn’t quite as forgiving as… Iomedae, apparently, is. I’m guessing there won’t be any native Chelish clerics of Torag until some new dwarves move or are born here. I’m a cleric of Dranngvit, Lawful Neutral goddess of, mmm, paying debts. She’s Torag’s half-sister.”

There, that’s all true, and nothing very misleading in case someone goes and looks Dranngvit up.

"I see. I haven't heard of her. But - I'd expect that if you're here on behalf of Torag's organized church, you'll be a better representative than most people, on the morality front, and I doubt anyone can outdo you on expertise. And if someone else ends up chair, it's no great loss; I don't think it's likely to be a committee that everyone rushes to get onto, unless they're doing that with everything now."

She doesn't, like, strongly expect that Brighthelm is morally the best option. If Dranngvit is Lawful Neutral, Brighthelm could be evil, which she was hoping a cleric of Torag would dodge. But it's not like she has any conveniently certified non-evil mining experts, or like they're likely to be easy to come by.

"I'll run it by the other person I know is thinking about this, and confirm with you before floor session tomorrow?"

Yeah, she’s totally evil.

“That works for me; I can prepare a speech before tomorrow. Who’s the other person you know who is thinking about this?”

Is that secret? She doesn't think so. "Archduke Requena was looking for expert advice on the matter; I don't know how much progress he's made."

“Good to know. Thank you for the heads up; it seems like many of the committees have had less planning than this. Is there anything else?”

"Don't think so. Good luck."

“Good luck to you too.”