Rigoth Tristber liked what she heard. She had been petitioning the king for months for a chance to lead an expedition, but her requests were always denied, as she only had five dwarves in her party, including herself (she was known as Tristber to her party members, as their smith was also named Rigoth). This merchant (Urist was it?) having heard of her plight, had offered her information he guaranteed would be helpful... for a modest price. Tristber bit.
And now she lead her band of five "immigrants" to the "established fortress" of... what was it? Tholoddom the name on the books... Deep Cloistered... Well, it seems that the Mad Dwarf, who had been cloistered deeply by herself, had died after killing everyone who tried to settle, though the merchants were the only ones who knew... They also knew that there were plenty of supplies waiting for them (or so the merchant said), and so there was no need for royal support... The merchants guaranteed that they'd return in a years time. There was some dissent in the party about departing in the fall, but Tristber explained that the region was so warm that the seasonal difference didn't matter, overriding the advice of her farmer, Asteth.
There was one issue though, the mountain was supposed to be full of Gems, or so the rumor went. Tristber was walking down the streets of Liruksibrek, looking... She reflected on one of the reasons she wanted to leave the capitol, the economy was terrible... The tunnel was filled with beggars, mostly the unskilled under-classes who couldn't make their own way, but there were also quite a few... She'd found what she was looking for- a sad looking dwarf holding a sign- "will haul for food." What caught her eye was the lime green guild uniform- a Jeweler.
"What's your name?" Tristber asked.
"Melbil... do you have work?" This dwarf was desperate... Good.
"You won't ask questions or talk too much?
"... Yeah."
"Come with me then."
---
The Twelfth Day
It promised to be an uneventful day... Urist felt relaxed, having had no dealings with the outside world since the humans... Perhaps they'd forgotten about her. That would be nice, she could create her glorious monument in solitude, and then present it in completion to the world- surely then she'd receive her recognition!
Let's see... what more was there to do? She did seem to be set for the necessities, though, as she brewed up a new batch of Dwarven rum she reflected... She could use a more reliable source of alcohol... the plants weren't the issue, she had piles of pig-tails, it was just that she only had the one barrel... And no more wood... Well she had a little bit (the other day, she'd mad a point of dragging the remnants of the wagon inside... Along with the first metal smith’s anvil). She decided that she needed another barrel... That meant making an axe, and chopping down wood... To make an axe she'd need a metal forge going... She supposed if only she had something like coal she could make an axe... To find that she would need to bridge the chasm and mine deeper into the mountain...
And so, she built a bridge so that she could dig, so that she'd have coal, so that she could make an axe, so that she'd have wood, so that she could make barrels, so that she could drink... Such was today's project.
---
Tristber's party was in high spirits.
Rigoth Rigothudos the smith, or Rigothudos as he was called to minimize confusion, was joking with Rakust the miner. "And so the elf stood between him and the 'tree' raised his bow and said, 'I'd sooner see a dwarf die than this tree.' And the axedwarf was all like, 'That's no tree you fool! It's an elephant's leg!' The elf turned around, and was crushed by the bloodthirsty beast!"
Rakust laughed heartily, but Tun the craftsdwarf was less amused.
"That didn't even make sense," she said as Rigothudos rolled his eyes, "For one thing, elves are so tall the elephant's body, not their leg, would be at eye level- and elephants are by nature peaceful creatures! Why would it just up and kill that elf without any provocation? Not to mention the fact that elves have that thing where they're all friends-to-nature and such..."
"Aw, c'mon Tun," Rakust, who had enjoyed the joke, said, "It was just a joke! And it had a dead elf in it and everything!"
"Humph," was the only reply Tun gave.
"Um... excuse me?" It was the new recruit, Melbil, who was looking about timidly at the dark forests, "Are we far enough out that you can tell me where we're going?"
"Oh, right," Tristber had forgotten about him, "We're heading for the Mad Dwarf's lair."
"What!?" Melbil had clearly heard the stories, "But, but we'll surely all die! I... we can't go there."
"Nah," Tristber was relaxed, "It's okay because- and this is why we didn't tell you sooner, by the way- the Mad Dwarf is dead. We didn't want you blabbing about it back in the capitol, as it's not common knowledge yet, and we paid good money to those merchants for it."
"Okay... but... How much can we trust these merchants?"
"... Don't worry about it, it'll be fine..." Tristber was reassuring herself too... "And don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have."
"... Uh, in that case... did anyone bring an axe?"
"What?"
"For wood... don't we need an axe to cut wood?"
"Uh..."
"Don't worry about it!" the other Rigoth, Rigothudos, replied, "I'll make one! I'm a metal smith after all!"
"Besides," Tristber went on, "There should be all sorts of supplies laying about that the Mad Dwarf made... She probably had an axe..."
---
Yep, making an axe was no easy task...
The bridge was made, and Urist had started digging...
---
The mountain was finally in sight. The dwarves were generally enthusiastic, except for Melbil who was still wary of the situation, but they had arrived.
The first thing to do was establish what was up... There was a locked door, and a gory tunnel with an adjacent switch room, just as the merchants had said...
"Let's just bust down the door," Rigothudos suggested.
Tun was quick to shoot down that idea, "Fool, you think the Mad Dwarf lived this long if you could just walk down the main entrance? It's gotta be trapped."
"Tun's right," Tristber said, "We should dig a new outpost... there." She pointed north, a ways up the cliff face. "Rakust, you get busy digging, Tun, I know your specialty is crafts, but try to make us a couple of doors, Asteth you go out and try to gather plants."
"Uh, I'm a farmer... not an herbalist..." Asteth pointed out.
"Yeah, well until we get some fields up and running, you'll have to make yourself useful in other ways..."
"Speaking of useful, what about me?" Rigothudos asked.
"Right, you and Melbil go down to the trade depot, the merchants said it was loaded with supplies."
"Err... what about you, if you don't mind my asking?" Melbil said.
"... I'll fish."
---
Rigothudos wasn't bothered by the ominous jungle, or so he told himself, but he was forced to admit he was more than a bit crept out by the gory corpse filled tunnel to the trade depot...
"Ain't what you were expecting when we offered you a job, eh Melbil!"
"... Well, I was expecting a few less corpses..."
Rigothudos laughed heartily. He had been wondering if this timid jeweler had an ounce of humor in him!
There was the trade depot...
"Okay, let's see what goodies the Mad Dwarf left us!"
"Are you sure you'd be interested in what a homicidal maniac would consider a 'goodie'?"
Riguthudos laughed again... but he wasn't sure he liked this fellow's humor after all...
"Is this all?" Melbil sounded resigned, as if he'd expected this.
Rigothudos was just confused... Hadn't those nice merchants said there were tons of supplies? All that was here was... a bag of sugar...
"Well, at least we have that delicious barrel of Swamp Whiskey we found outside!" Rigothudos was inclined to look on the bright side, no point in moping.
"But how long with that last six dwarves..."
There were few people that Rigothudos didn't get along well with... Melbil was definitely one of them...
They returned with the sugar and whiskey, and Tristber put them to work- Melbil would rig up a coupled of boulders to drop from the ceiling on intruders, and Rigothudos would... clean turtles... Pah! He was a metal smith, not some... turtle cleaner...
Nevertheless, things progressed smoothly, and a young fortress was soon established.
Dead turtles smell... pretty bad Rigothudos thought...
"Hey Tun," he called, the dwarf in question making tables and chairs nearby for the newly mined dining room, "Wanna go look for the dead dwarves in the woods? It'll be cool- we might even get some spiffy boots or something."
"... Uh, no. In case you haven't noticed, we have a new outpost to establish, and we don't have nearly as many supplies as we thought we did."
"Aww, but this pile of turtles I've been mucking around with will feed us for a year, and that Swamp Whiskey will last... What more do we need?"
"How about a place to eat those turtles, unless you want to sit on the ground."
"Phst, you're no fun... Hey Rakust!"
Rakust, who had been mining, just came out for a quick drink. Rigothudos made the same proposal to him, as Tun pretended not to listen.
"Hey, that sounds like fun! You've always got these great ideas." Rakust proved more cooperative...
As they left Rigothudos turned back and stuck his tongue out at Tun, who responded in kind. That dwarf was okay. Even though she picked on him, Rigothudos was inclined to forgive her.
As they neared the river, the two dwarves noticed something odd...
---
Urist continued to mine, as the cat played with a crippled bat nearby. Things felt... peaceful.
---
Tristber was used to fishing in the cave river... These swamps had nothing but turtles in them, and to catch them she had to get down in the mud... it wasn't pleasant... She decided to try fishing in the river instead...
"Elephants! I tell you they were Elephants!"
"But Elephants... don't they have skin and flesh and stuff?!"
"Whatever they are they're big, and they are bloodthirsty, and they saw us!"
Tristber was surprised to see Rakust and Rigothudos charge out of the woods and run right past her, "Run!" was all Rigothudos said...
Run from what? Then she heard it, a terrible thundering gallop, crushing the underbrush and knocking trees out of the way- She still didn't know what she was running from, but decided she had better run anyway.
The sound was getting louder- whatever it was gaining on her. She just about ran into Asteth, who was gathering plants. She gave the same one word of warning that Rigothudos had given her, "Run!"
"What, why?"
Asteth didn't argue for much longer.
They ran back to the encampment, which was in a state of confusion.
"I tell you! Bloodthirsty elephants! They're coming!" Rigothudos was desperately trying to get Tun to believe him.
"I already explained, elephants are peaceful creatures."
"But... are they still peaceful when they don't have any skin or flesh or stuff!" Rakust was still terrified.
"He's right," Tristber shouted, "we have to be quick, they're right behind us!"
"Wha- AAHH!" Asteth suddenly shouted.
He was down, and there was, just as Rigothudos and Rakust claimed, an Elephant, somehow bereft of flesh and skin and stuff...
It stuck a tusk through Asteth's skull as all the other dwarves looked on helplessly...
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Topic: One Dwarf Against the World (Read 245652 times)