Thob’s encounter with the so-called “king” had been disappointing, to say the least. But he wasn’t going to let it stop him: someone else here would know where the drink stockpile was. He decided to take a look around the fort.
An old temple stood in the corner of the big chamber, a crumbling piece of architecture that had dropped some of its floor stones into a storeroom below. It clearly hadn’t been used in ages. Thob looked at some of the carvings and statues. Most seemed to be images of the temple’s priests, devotees of Doren, goddess of wealth. Maybe that’s why it stood over the hoard?
In the other corner were the remains of a tavern. Thob looked in each of the big stone casks lining the wall, but alas—all empty.
The upper chambers seemed very rudely carved: the walls were stone but the floor was covered in red sand. Maybe these used to be farms.
There were several dwarves in these chambers, all dressed in fine garments. They all seemed to be moving around sort of aimlessly, as if they had nothing to do, chit-chatting with each other about nothing in particular. None of them looked like brewers, either.
There were two reptile women in the fort as well. They spoke in strange hisses and were generally friendly, but seemed not to know much about the fort’s goings-on.
In the lower story was the old great hall, lined on one side with display cases and loaded at the end with treasures of ancient dwarven craft. Thob reasoned it would be imprudent to take from the king’s own treasury without asking, but there was one item that caught his attention: a little roll of paper with writing on it. The symbols were old, and Thob had to try hard to figure out what they meant:
Wasted effort, that. But it did make Thob wonder: what’s an elf?
Thob looked all around but found no drinks. Finally he called to one of the dwarves.
“H’lo there. My name’s Thob.”
“Ah, hello,” she replied. “I am Osmod Reasonchurch.”
“So, what do you do around here?”
“But what does an abbot do?”
“Well… the king says I run a monastery nearby. Of course I’ve never been there. No one has. Been abandoned for centuries.”
“The king made you an abbot?”
“Who else?” said the dwarf. “He made us all something: abbots, barons, generals, diplomats…‘nobles’ he calls us.”
“And nobles just… walk around and hobnob?”
“Well… so far, yes. There’s not much else to do. We’re still getting everything set up.”
“Set up?” asked Thob. “I thought this was the dwarven capital.”
“Oh, it was,” said Osmod. “Hundreds of years ago. And it will be again, that’s what King Urvad says!”
“Uh-huh. How’s he plan to do that with a dozen dwarves?” A dozen useless dwarves, he thought.
“Well, I don’t know the details, but he says we’ve got to ‘reclaim our heritage.’ He’s found some of our ancient artifacts and wants someone to go reclaim them.”
“Stoneclapsed? Is that another fortress?”
“Yes. About a day and a half to the northeast, across the desert. But it’s a dangerous trip—none of us are suited for it.”
Thob spoke with some of the other “nobles” of Dawngloves. All of them wanted this or that artifact returned; not one knew where brew or brewer could be found. Still, they were polite enough. Thob was chatting with one so-called baroness, Rîsen, when he let slip some of his more controversial opinions:
The baroness was getting visibly distressed as Thob continued arguing. Hoping to save the conversation Thob tried to lighten the mood a little. He thought for a second, then made the best joke he could think of:
It turned out Rîsen really liked jokes:
Either that, or Thob was a gifted comedian. Soon the baroness was cheerful again, and Thob felt he had learned a thing or two about getting along with nobility.
But he couldn’t stand around talking all day. He had a mission: if there was no booze in Dawngloves, he needed to look somewhere else. Another fortress might have a few casks left. He would set out for Stoneclasped.
There'll be more adventure and a lot less plot-buildup (if you can call it plot) in the following episodes: I just needed a rationale for Thob to start his quest. I also hope to get these out a little quicker, now that I'm officially done with school. I'll try to do more illustrations.
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Topic: Thob Goes to the Surface (Read 62243 times)