A bit of narrative, which I’ll continue when I get some time.
Old Thjorr peered thoughtfully at the contents of his pipe for a moment before answering.
“Nope.”
His six companions sighed despondently. Bagroff flung the reins down and let the oxen plod to a halt. “Earlier there weren’t any sand, before that there were too many trees, yesterday that valley had no stream! What’s wrong with THIS place?!”
Old Thjorr looked him squarely in the eye and shrugged.
“Nothin’,” he replied, pulling his cap down over his brows. “If you don’t mind aquifers.”
Bagroff gritted his teeth and returned to the reins. The wheels creaked as the cart moved on.
“Hold fast!”
Bagroff felt a shudder of anger at the old dwarf’s command, but pulled up the oxen again.
“What now? If you dropped your pipe back there we ain’t going back for it!”
He had asked Old Thjorr to join the group because of his experience in prospecting, but he had done nothing but annoy Bagroff every step of the way.
“Here’ll do.” Thjorr said with a quick grin. He jumped off the back of the wagon and stood lighting his pipe.
The others looked up in surprise and began to stare around or pull at boxes and bags.
“Porrig! Wake up! We’re here!”
Elga shook the shoulder of a fat dwarf, sleeping in a pile of coiled rope. Porrig sniffed the air and smiled.
“Sandalwood and orange groves. That’ll make a good brew.” He opened his eyes and gave Elga a wink. “Reckon we’ve got work to do!”
Bagroff ticked off some runes on his slate as he went through his list, then tucked the silver stylus behind his ear.
“Right” he announced. “Now we’re here we need to get dug in afore the wolves get hungry. Thjorr and Orlf will put an adit in that bank there.” He nodded at the hillock rising through the tree line.
“Elga, Porrig, you two grub round for some forage; berries and that. We’ve got supplies for two weeks if we go easy but the sooner we get a still running’ the better we’ll be. Drenna and Grikk, whack a few of these trees down so we can put up a door and get a fire going. Once the tunnel’s dug the first twenty yards we’ll get the stuff in and knock apart the wagon.”
The dwarfs all nodded their assent and grabbed up picks and axes. Bagroff put a hand on Thjorr’s shoulder and smiled.
“Strike the earth!”
Author
Topic: Tales from the Thunderforge: Embark (Read 974 times)