After the most recent orders from the top of the mountain, dwarves were becoming restless. The mining draft was a constant fear for most families as nobody wanted to lose a son or husband to go work in the adamantine mines only to be lost to the fell inhabitants of the glowing pits that guarded the mines.
The King, kindly put, was mad. Not so kindly, he was a nutcase who wished nothing more than to expand his wealth, no matter the cost, the lives of his miners or the lives of his strongest warriors. No dwarf had any idea why someone would be willing to sacrifice so many lives to such evil creatures as those in the glowing pits, but many rumors began to circulate. The King was in cahoots with the demons, setting them free and taking their treasure as payment. The King was a shape shifting demon bent on destroying dwarf-kind. Whatever the Mad King's cause was, 7 dwarves decided they had had enough of this.
"I don't understand at all. Why would any dwarf, king or not, send hundreds of his own kin to their deaths. He's mined out so many mountains, you would have to think the King's throne room would be completely made of adamantine. Dumat was a lowly farmer who had lost most of his brothers to the draft. He had only come to the meeting because he wanted to avoid the demon pits he knew would be in his future. He was considered a very cautious dwarf, though he was outspoken against many of the traditions his dwarven forefathers had put down, stone loving, metal loving, magma loving, those sorts of things. He had very little preference for stone, and wasn't opposed to leaving his small room under the Mountainhome.
"Aye, 'tis true. The king is mad, and we all wish rid of him. Little we can do though, his guards patrol his quarters like worms on a corpse." Endok was a, how shall I put this... dull woman. She wasn't renowned for her intelligence, though her instincts often saved her life while she fished the dark rivers under the mountain home. She had a strong figure and could easily kill both of the men in the room, even without the help of the other three women. She had little reason for being here other than she wanted some change in her scenery. And maybe she was sick of fending off olmmen.
"Oh, rubbish Endok. We can do all sorts of things. We could gather ourselves some kobold hides, sneak into the kings lair and hold him ransom. That'd certainly make him change his mind about the draft." Zuglar. Her imagination had almost gotten her killed many times as a child, as pretending to have wine with crocodiles and such didn't end well most of the time.
"Oh, rubbish yourself Zuglar. You always come up with silly plans. We just need to get out of this hole. Find someplace else. Away from the rest of the dwarves, to make our own mountainhome." Atir was the dwarf who saved Zuglar most of the time after her silly forays into bar tending for river creatures. He loved helping others and many people thought he would be the most willing to lead an expedition away from the mountain home of the Umbral Ring. They were right. Fate though had different plans.
The iron door that the dwarves had hoped would keep them concealed or at least keep their discussion away from the eavesdropping rirestriths creaked open and spooked every dwarf in the room from his seat. The door creaked open and an eye peeked in.
Captain Uristtost knew he had come to the right place. Six dwarves sitting around a marble table. This was where he needed to be. Time to make an appearance.
Wish a rush of dank air, the door flew open, nearly off it's hinges, and revealed an armor clad dwarf. On his back was his spear and his shield. He was a veteran of many mine 'reclaim' groups, even though all that was reclaimed was demon bones, ash, and adamantine. Captain Uristtost had grown weary of the fighting though, and decided he would be better suited defending merchants, and so for a decade his name became associated with safe travel instead of bloodshed and death. Still not enough of a repentance for him, he decided that, using knowledge he had gathered from many of his rirestrith friends, he would attend this meeting and lead these dwarves to a new home, and if everything went well, maybe settle there himself.
Uristtost's was a face that every dwarf in the mountain knew. His long black beard and bald scalp were his defining features. Even still, Uristtost was taken aback by the odd looks he was accosted with.
“Who invited a military officer?” exclaimed Tun, much to the surprise of the rest of the dwarves at the table. Tun was quiet, reserved and quiet. So quiet, no dwarf could really say much of her, except of her beauty.
“Well, my deary, I invited myself. I wish you all no harm. I would like to join you,” announced Uristtost.
All six sitting dwarves' mouths dropped. A captain, no, a legendary stalwart of the dwarven military, was willing to join the group. Every dwarf's allegiance in the room, except Atir's, suddenly shifted to their new found leader.
“Then it must be agreed. We set off for northern forests in three days.” The last of the six at the table, Dodok, a humble pick maker, announced the final decision of the group. Before the sudden arrival of Uristtost, much of the matter about where the dwarves would be going to settle had already been decided. So few of the dwarves liked their culture's customs it was decided they would fore go much underground construction in lieu of much less permanent, above ground homes. To get a good enough start on the wood cutting, they had decided they would need to arrive by early spring, a mere two months into the future.
Alrighty, this will be set up similarly to Ulogeshud, only new dwarves are descendants of the original seven. I'll be using companion a lot, so if some events seem unreasonable, that's why, though there will be very little save-scumming. You die, I fit it into the story, and we move on. Kids that will be up for grabs should be appearing in the next few posts.
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Topic: Irbom, To Start Anew (Community Fortress) {WARNING:HIDDEN FUN STUFF} (Read 1600 times)