I shrugged away the whispered words of the skeleton as nothing more than something imagined. I glanced down at the tablet and looked over the words hastily chiselled into the surface. They have breached the gate. They came suddenly and out of now where, while most of the fort was outside building the walls to the magma reservoir. I and several others including Stronghammer were inside when they struck. We called our friends to run inside when we saw the enemy on the horizon. Yet are kin was too slow in trying to get to the door, and were caught out in the open and were brutally slaughtered. Stronghammer held the door with hammer in one hand and shield in the other, desperately trying to give are kin the time they needed. Yet he would too have been over whelmed if not for Hugo slamming the gate shut. We sat in silence listening to the dying screams of our friends outside. Suddenly Hugo snapped and began killing all around him with his lumber axe. Stronghammer was forced to put him down, but sadly not before he killed several more dwarves. We are now walled off from each other in case another person snaps. I however have run out of food, and write this with the last of my energy. Whoever discovers this place, flee for your life for it is......
The words suddenly stopped, and I assumed that the dwarf Ross had finally succumbed to the effects of starvation. I go now to return to the small cavern village to find the records of past dwarves. I only hope that whatever had killed these dwarves didn’t still walk these halls.
I hurried once again down the earthen tunnel, down the trapped stairway and then through the engraved tunnel. I once again emerged out into the dwarven village deep underground and stood staring around to figure out where best to locate the ancient document that I was searching for. My eyes passed over several low dwarven homes before it came to rest on the on a small building labelled as the record keepers office. I figured that if anywhere was to have that ancient ledger it would be there. I hurried over past the various dwellings across the albino grass and then finally up to the door. The door frame was engraved with various swirling and looping patterns that ran the length from top to bottom. The walls to either side of the door was also engraved with a short history, recording the various record keepers that the village was host to. After looking at the engravings for some time, I finally pushed open the heavy stone door with my shoulder. As the door ground open dust burst into the air, followed by a sudden wail. I fell back from the door as an arm reached through the opening and attempted to claw at my face. I quickly fumbled for the steel sword I had found and quickly swung it at the arm. It whistled through the air and neatly severed the arm from the creature. I was quickly shocked when the arm began to crawl towards me.
To my horror I quickly discovered the arm could not be cut apart and would not stop moving. The idea suddenly came to me to try and burn the wretched thing. I quickly acted on my idea and put the torch to the thing. It quickly caught fire and began to smoke and wriggle around on the ground as it burned. The smile of satisfaction however was quickly wiped from my face when I noticed that the creature had squeezed out from the doorway and was shuffling towards me. I began to panic and closed my eyes as I swung at the creature, praying that I would hit the creature. To my joy and sudden surprise my sword connected with the things neck and removed the head from its body. The creature crumpled to the ground as its head rolled away in the grass.
I leaned on the office wall for support trying to catch my breath when to my horror I heard several more wails in the distance. I quickly cast my eyes about looking desperately for a place to hide in that village. I suddenly decided to hide in the office, and try to wait out the creatures. I quickly squeezed inside and shouldered the heavy stone door closed. I then through the locking bar across, and went and hid behind the desk of the room. I soon heard shuffling outside the door accompanied by muffled banging on the door and wailing. I sat for quite some time wondering what in the wide world was I going to do now?
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Topic: The Lost Histories of a Dwarven Village (Read 2236 times)