Finally after two weeks of dragging ass I begin work on my new home tomorrow. So expect a drop in activity from me.
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[I'll leave it up to you guys where this takes place in Reudh's summer.]
"Now or never Splint... Now or never." Splint mumbled to himself as he grabbed a nondescript little lead box with a grizzley bear etched into it. "Just come out and say it after you give it to her... Simple as that." He said to himself again. He walked out and figured since they were on down time from training, he'd find Rose either hiding in one of the unused rooms down in the general craft and mug manufactury or in her quarters. Since she wasn't in the latter, he figured she'd be in the former. "Goin' somewhere sir?" Thumper said, hefting his hammer to accompany the count. "Yes, but don't worry, I don't need any escort for this. Just running an errand." Splint replied in an abnormally polite tone. "... Alright, if you say so sir." Thumper said after a moment. Crusher was snoozing against the wall, oblivious to the conversation. "I see he takes his job seriously." Splint said, tapping Crusher's foot with his boot. "We had a late night last night. Managed to catch a couple crundles and a racoon and decided to have some fun with'em. Racoons are actually pretty vicious little buggers." Thumper said with a chuckle. "Poor crusher lost a week's pay cause of the little rat." Splint smiled. At least this was a sign that things must be going good for this place overall, if people were trying to figure out ways to spend thier free time instead of worrying about the undead breaking down the doors. Splint even saw one dwarf out fishing by the ponds, though he was positive the dwarf was just snoozing in his chair, not really 'working.' "Well make sure you two get enough sleep tonight alright? We'll be training again tomorrow now that the human diplomat has left." "Can do bossman." Thump said, giving a trather sloppy saulute and sitting back on his chair.
Splint wandered down the central hall on the first floor, finally taking things in he hadn't really looked at before. He then noticed the statue that he'd had placed years ago. It was him eating lunch. "WHY WOULD ANYONE SCULPT THAT!?"He blurted out. A few workers stopped and stared at him, but then just shrugged and went on thier way. Splint shook his head. How had he missed this after nearly a decade!? And why the hell would sombody make a satue of him eating lunch!? "FOCUS." Something seemed to roar at him from his mind. He shook his head thinking somebody had yelled at him. He brushed it off and continued on his way, though he still thought the statue was rather... Strange. It took nearly an hour for him to reach the manufactory floor, where dwarves were working diligently, weaving cloth and sutures, making mugs and carving bolts. Splint went down on of the largly unused hallways bypassing the shops and came to three empty rooms. Whatever they were originally for had been long forgotten. He knocked on the first two and recieved no response, so he assumed third times the charm and opened the door, finding Rose with.... Reudh? "But the amulet!" He seemed to be a little shakey in his words. "I got a haircut so I could see with my helmet on. I figured I may as well use the clippings for something constructive." Rose said rather matter-of-factly. "But if you didn't... They why did you accept the gift?" Reudh said weakly. "That was nice of you, and it made me think slightly better of you to be honest, but... You still had black marks for the whole... following me around for no reason thing. it seriously creeped me out sir." "No, No not sir, It's Reudh. At least to you." The overseer replied, though his tone seemed... off, to say the least.
"Am I interrupting something?" Splint said. Both of them jumped, Rose taking a few steps towards Splint. "No, you're timeing was pretty good actually." She said. Then she grabbed Splint, spun him around and pulled him over slightly, whispering "He seems to be getting a little unhinged. Any ideas to knock some sense into him?" "What are you doing!?" Reudh yelled at the pair. They looked back quickly, Reudh looking like he was really starting to loose his grip on sanity. "You two are plotting something against me like the soldiers aren't you! ADMIT IT!" His fists closed, one of his eyes twitching rather violently. "ADMIT IT! You've all been plotting against me! WHat's worse, is I LOVED ONE OF MY BETRAYERS!" Reudh looked like he was about to grab an object to either cry on or attack them with. "What the hell is wrong with you!? GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF MAN!" Rose shouted at him, grabbing hima dn trying to shake his reason back into him. He didn't take well to this and grabbed her by her body armor and shoved her into some boxes in the corner, shouting "BEGONE TRAITOR!" Halen was obviously quite displeased by this and wrapped a part of himself around the seemingly insane overseer in an attempt to suffocate Reudh for attacking his host. "Let go Halen!" Rose managed to cough as she got up from the mass of ruined crates and spilled mugs. As he complied, Reudh was greeted by a gauntleted fist slamming into his face. "Glarfunkbla?" He babbled as he steadied himself on a table. Reudh searched about for his attacker, only to see Splint bringing his leg up. "AND ONE TO THE ROCK NUTS FOR GOOD MEASURE!" Splint shouted as he planted his boot in Reudh's testicles. The overseer let out a shrill cry with his voice raising a couple octaves as he dropped to his knees, managing to mutter "Oh gods why..." as he flopped on his side.
"What just happened?" Rose asked, righting her helmet so she could see. She couldn't help but laugh at Reudh on the ground clutching his groin in agony. Splint was standing there using his hammer as a crutch. "I knocked some sense into him, what's it look like?" Splint said bluntly. "Heh, well, what happened to your foot?" She asked, motioning for Halen to return into her shadow. "I think I broke it..." He responded as he tried to walk on it, only to fall on his face. Suddenly a dwarf appeared in the door, who looked liek he'd been sprinting. "What's going on! I heard yelling! Who's pitching a fit!?" It was Mitch. "Hello Mitch. Reudh was just going a little loopy over some silly slight, we took care of it." Splint said. "... He's been kicked in the nuts hasn't he." Mitch said as he peered past Rose and Splint at the groaning overseer on the floor. "Well punching him didn't work so I had to get drastic."
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The group of four entered the hospital, Mitch dragging Reudh and Rose assiting Splint. A bell rang as they entered, something Mr Frog has advised Mitch to install during his reign to get any on-duty staff's attention when wounded or visitors arrived. "Hello, what do we have wrong with this lot?" A doctor said while he was riffling through a box for some sutures and dressing. "Hello. The Overseer needs some tiem to recovery from a rather nasty injury to his pride, and I seem to have broken my foot." Splint said as Rose helped him onto a bed. Mitch just sort of dumped Reudh on a bed, saying his goodbyes and good lucks before taking his leave. "Ok, let's see here... Yeah, you definetly messed yourself up there Count. Your foot shouldn't be facing the direction at rest." The doctor said as he bent down, a splint and crutch at the ready. "Yep, this is gonna need a cast." he said as if it were nothing, managing to toss the splint into the box he retrived it from. "Nice shot doc!" Rose said, clapping at the doctor's aim. "Thank you. Well, You presence is no longer needed. i can handle these two." "Alright. Hey, Splint, no dying alright?" She said as she bagan to walk away. "Oh! Rose! I almost forgot with that mess." Splint said, motioning for the doctor to wait a moment. He pulled out the box and handed it to Rose. "I figured I'd get you something nice. As a thank you." She took the box with suprise. "Oh! Well, thank you sir, I'll have to have a look see at what's inside when I get back upstairs." She said as she stuffed the box in her pack. Rose departed with a wave, and left Splint to the doctor. "Okay," the doc said tenativly while he prepared to right Splint's foot. "This is going to hurt. Alot."
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"Hey, on your feet boys. We're going to Reudh's room." Rose said as she approached the two other guards near Splint's room. "What for?" Thumper said as he shook Crusher awake. "I wanna see if there's anything in there that might explain him acting so funny in the head." She said. After a bit of a walk, they found his quarters. Fairly standard for the fortress. "Door locked." Crusher said as he tried to turn the knob. "What now?" Rose responded by smashing the door open with her hammer. "He can bill me for a new lock later." She stepped in and scanned the room when she noticed something in the corner. "There!" She pointed to several barrels stacked in the corner. "Check those barrels. Maybe he's been drinking some of the booze that mechanic fiddled with." Thumper hefted the top barrel off the stack and set it on the floor, then pried off the top revealing what looked like dwarven wine, with strangle little green and white specks in it. "Half drained. Overseer must've drank quite a bit in on go." He said as he peered in. "These two are almost empty too.... Moron must've drunk too much of that drugged stuff." Rose said absently. "Explains alot." Thumper said, placing the lid back on. "Alright, Crusher get these two, Thumper get that one. We're confiscating these and waiting to see if Reudh improves if he doesn't drink it." Rose ordered. The two did as they were told, and hauled the barrels out, dragging them into the disposal closet in the mess hall. When they were questioned, they siimply said it was some useless blood and ichor that had been bought by mistake. "Thanks for the help boys. If anyone needs me tell'em I'm in my room." Rose said, pulling the box from her pack. "I wanna see what's in this thing."
[Ok, a bit rushed and bumpy, mechanics sort of half assed and probably a mess of typos, but here is yet another literary abortion from my keyboard. Basically resolves a few issues and add some comic relief. Enjoy your sense of proper grammar and story telling being horribly mutilated because of my jacked up way of writing.]