The Royal Archaeologist's SocietyYou let out a small, quiet sigh. Contentment, for the moment.
Sunlight's cutting down through the high windows, illuminating the dust motes agitated by the twenty or so first-years presently shuffling out of the classroom, relief thinly veiled as they head for their mid-day meal. Once the last of the students is through the portal, you step down from your tall rostrum and proceed to the aisle on one side of the room, where you make a cursory check for odds & ends amongst the curved bench-tables. Climbing the short platforms and casting your eyes down the aisles for forgotten notebooks or missing quills doesn't take long in this stuffy, narrow little room.
Satisfied that nothing's been left behind, you head to the secondary Scholar's Lobby down the hall for your own bit of sustenance.
Packed lunch. Scholarly gazette. Lobby's empty as usual so you take a seat and, there's a small leather-bound book there on the table.
Just a moment's hesitation before your natural curiosity kicks in- no one's around, perhaps they forgot it. Maybe you'll be able to return it to them, whoever 'them' is, much faster than they'd think to look here.
Seeing no harm in merely opening it, you set down your lunch and take it in hand. The leather is smooth, still taught, but is besmirched with oil stains & corners are soon to be ragged. It's not new, but it probably isn't very old either.
Opens without sticking, first page reads;
Hehanhuthra...rings a bell.
Skipping over a page, first entry is dated 7 years ago. Hmm..that was..yeah. When old Larfbeight was ousted as a nightcreature. Poor sod lost his pension, 'tenure be damned' they said.
Hehanhuthra was in your Premo-Sem, as you recall, and unless you're mistaken,
Yeah, bright lad. Haven't seen him since first semester though. Huh, must've graduated by now, or been assigned his mandatory fieldwork.
Hm. You unpack your lunch and the thought passes your mind that this would certainly be more interesting than a dry old Scholarly Gazette. And besides, it's not like you know where ol' Ejel is at the moment, so what's the harm in availing yourself to some old scribblings of his? Maybe not so old of course, hehhe
You pick up the journal again and flip it onto its side in your lap, thumbs together on the pages, but stop and give your surroundings another 30 seconds of listening.
All quiet.
You open up to 23 Moonstone, 250
This town will be the death of me. Not because of some curse, or vicious, angry creatures, or a marauding army of darkness. But because of the sheer disrespect and laziness of these country bumpkins.
Today my first orders came in from the RAA- it seems they haven't had much contact with the dwarves of Lekerush for quite some time. About a season- but that's all it takes if one of the Alumni is interested I guess.
That's why I was sent out to this little backwater- they want me to go to the fortress and see what's befallen them. Probably just got sloshed, knowing my old bunkmates.
Now, hear me out, I'm not complaining about the orders. When they got here I was ecstatic. I'd finally be able to put some of what I'd learned into practice. Real Anthropology. Hopefully.
Nothing against the dwarves of course, but I'd rather not just play the glorified messenger, so this better be more than just some mix-up with the pigeons.
So anyway, I packed my things as quickly as I could- light but prepared. That clunky old bronze breastplate might not be the prettiest thing, but I'm kind of glad to have it! Ha! Same goes for the rudimentary combat training they gave me, and the implements of war I suppose.
Anyway, throw on my backpack, notepad & writing utensils, grab enough supplies for a couple days and realize I'm horribly out of breath. Journal, this is the first time I've tried jogging up & down stairs for more than ten minutes in my life. It took a lot out of me, a lot more than I would have expected, and that cooled my jets a little.
I was being a fool.
It may be a quick sojourn, but I am out on the fringe of the fringe. I may run into trouble in the 60 hours I'd be away, and if that were to happen I'd likely end up dead.
Simple enough remedy I thought.
I'll just ask to borrow a few of the lord's men. I've met a few, they knew my mission was important. So I approached the first I spotted, the old ranger hag.
She all but laughed in my face. Remarked 'how enthusiastic for one such as you'. Whatever that means, the tart. I politely excused myself and went to find someone more amenable to reason, but every single guardsman I came across showed just as much disrespect, scoffing and mocking.
Just my luck that the lord and his family just went to visit a neighbor too. The hag was left in charge.
Fine then, I have my orders. They don't want to help me personally, I'll help myself.
I merely borrowed a few pieces of equipment from the armories I mentioned- nothing pricey of course. Just bronze equipment they hadn't deigned me worthy of. And a bronze scimitar of middling quality- better than this rickety silver spear they shoved into my hands, I figure.
After surreptitiously hiding/donning the equipment, I easily snuck back out of the castle, and....then remembered my fatigue.
I don't think I can do much to get in shape and still complete my task in a timely manner, but I think I've come up with a compromise.
The weather is good, the climate fair, and there's a nice river down the road.
I think if I took a couple days to stretch out the kinks down by the river, well, let's just say that, the equipment, and a little luck should see me through where the local rubes didn't. I always did like swimming.
Anyway, I'm taking a breather beneath one of the willows, figure I'll go ask one of the friendlier peasants if I could spend the night in a few more hours.
I can already tell it'll be a long day.Hm, self-portrait eh? We do teach them to keep their sketching up-to-snuff.
Mm, apples are pretty good.
You take another bite, slicing it away with a clean POP.
Sorry took so long, today & tomorrow on-duty till 5, then running around taking care of business. I restarted the expedition, this is all the progress I made.
I claim no dibs, feel free to beat me to it & post your own reports.
Author
Topic: Dwarven Archeology (we want your saves!) (Read 14181 times)