Galena - 676Ukrzum began to avoid society like the plague, refusing to be seen by anyone. At night, he could be secretly observed at a make-shift workshop, working on something, whenever he grew aware of eyes upon him, however, he would immediately flee with whatever he was making. Ibruk had suggested a vision inspired by Iklist Tunnelveil the Perplexing Mirror, the cunning and secretive trickster god of twilight. Seeing as this was now the eighth time such 'divine inspiration' had occurred, the citizens of Nomekast were more than happy to let Ukrzum get on with it, whatever strange thing he made would no doubt prove useful in one way or another, if only as a decoration. By the end of the month, he could only sometimes be seen taking food from the storehouse, vanishing away for the rest of the day and night.
Meanwhile, Fori and Torvold had reinforced the defences around the community. The surface had received an extra drawbridge, complete with fortifications from which marksdwarves could shoot at the Nothing. This meant the outer drawbridge could be lowered, and any Nothing that tried to enter could be trapped and shot. Another drawbridge had also been added in case the passage to the lighthouse needed to be sealed.
Down in the caves, two bridges had been built, one to block off the underground from the surface if needed,
and another to close off the rest of the community from the 'fort' and courtyard where the military trained and most people hung out inbetween work.
As part of their plan, Torvold had placed several orders for metal corkscrews. He had originally hoped that they would be iron, but was informed they had nothing but some lead, some tin, and alot of gold and silver. The corkscrews were thus cast of silver. Exactly what he and Fori were going to do with them was unknown, but it was generally rumoured to involve pumping magma from the spare magma pool named the Molten Crater.
Down on the Fiery Cistern, Spartan and Delta had expanded the enclosed area, taking advantage of the lull between storms, and effectively doubling the safe area of the Fiery Cistern. This gave the community an large extra area to work with, and already the animals; three horse foals and a donkey had been put there to keep them out of the way, Brosso had insisted they be kept somewhere safe as he had the intent of using them in his upcoming circus.
1st Limestone 676"No, I'm telling you, he's vanished." Muenster told Tarran. The two were wandering back up from the forges after having spent the first day of Autumn forging the great silver corkscrews Torvold and Fori wanted. Muenster was just telling the swordsdwarf about Ukrzum, who had now completely vanished for the past week; no one had seen him at all.
Just as they arrived at the ramp leading up to the home level, Tarran stopped, peering at the malachite wall,
"That crack," he murmured, "that's new." Dwarves, spending most of their lives underground, and usually born and dying beneath the earth, so they soon learnt to recognize where familiar features had been changed, and new passages dug. Tarran inspected it, it was indeed a thin crack, large enough for a Dwarf to pass through. He squeezed in, followed by Muenster.
A strange sight fell on their eyes. Ukrzum lay sprawled against the wall of the small dug chamber, tools around him. On a table-like rock stood a perfect, beautiful aquamarine gem, shining slightly in what light there was. And on the walls were the same two words, carved again and again, all over the rough rock walls.
Tarran's hand instinctively went to his sword, while Muenster uttered a prayer to Id, the Stonefather, and Armok, the bloody Allfather. Tarran, one hand still on his sword, moved to Ukrzum, shaking him,
"He's asleep." he told Muenster. Soon Ukrzum stirred, and pushed himself up, rubbing his eyes sorely, apparently tired, hungry, and suffering from alcohol-deprivation, but none the worse for wear.
It soon emerged that he remembered nothing outside of being approached by Brosso about picks, and then finding himself in this chamber. He could remember a few snaps and glimpses of an empty hall of gold filled with nothing but noise, and a husky voice, but apart from that his mind was completely blank as to what had happened to him, just a few fuzzy memories, and the name of the gem he had created;
It was clear that whatever had possessed him was different to that which had possessed the others before him.
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Ukrzum's possessed scrawlings ignited an argument when they were revealed. On one side, Ibruk, Kadzar, Hammer of the Gods and the rest of the priesthood and faithful; on the other, Tarran, Fori, Derm, Reg, Rovod, and the rest of the more 'mundane' and rational group.
"This is no inspiration from the gods!" Ibruk declared, his voice perhaps the angriest it had ever been, despite still keeping to its calm tones, "An exorcism is needed! Nomekast must be purified, lest the gods turn their favours away from us. Are we no better than the Grizzly Vessel? Will we succumb to simple vanity and materialism?"
Kadzar spoke up at this point, echoing Ibruk's statements,
"Nimemnokzam must be cleansed of evil; a sacrifice to the gods must be conducted."
"We will
not be sacrificing any poor creature!" Fori cried angrily.
"Pah," Brosso interrupted, taking a long drag on a pig-tail cigar, "the public sacrifice is an ancient Dwarven custom, dating back to the earliest years of Dwarvenkind." while not on Ibruk's side, he would not let an Elf demean time-honoured Dwarven traditions.
"Maybe in the north," Derm said, leaping to Fori's defence, "but I'm sure we can rise above such things here."
"It does not have to be an animal sacrifice." Kadzar suggested. Ibruk nodded,
"It is well known that in the Kingdom of the Severe Knives, the clergy call upon the favours of the gods by offering them fresh crops. My own teacher, a Borlonzasite by birth, called upon Nekut Glowedguises to cleanse the capital of Cattentishis from the influence of the false-god, the bronze colossus Asas Sculptureblazed the Reigns of Eviscerating, offering nothing more than a recent plump helmet harvest.
"We are not wasting food either." Reg said firmly, "We need those plump helmets for brewing. Or would you have us drink water like Elves?"
"Master Ibruk," Kadzar suddenly said, turning to face the prophet, "If we can sacrifice neither animal nor crops, then can we not simply build a shrine to Id by the cursed place, so that his influence will cleanse it by itself?"
Ibruk thought for a second, then nodded,
"Aye, but for so large a corruption, it will need to be a shrine worthy of the Stonefather. And...that," he pointed at the aquamarine Nimemnokzam, "will need to be taken to the temple, and placed in safety there."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The idea of building another shrine to the gods roused more argument, until eventually both sides simply left, not wanting to argue anymore. Lacking a centralized leadership and any real form of authority outside of Ibruk or some of the better known and respected people of the fort such as Tarran or Derm, the matter was not solved. Ibruk and his followers commandeered several gold and silver bars, building a small shrine by the hollow Ukrzum was found by, complete with silver walls and a golden statue of Id, in his traditional pose, one hand holding a lump of clay that he would create Dwarves from, the other holding his famed smith-hammer that he would bless them with.
Furthermore, two statues of silver were forged, one of Os the Hardy Gleams, god of thunder, holding high his axe with which he smote evil, the other of Mosus Pagedshield the Rough Hame, goddess of wealth, crafts, metals and minerals, her hands holding out treasures of the earth. And as a finish they took some of the malachite the Ukrzum had mined out when carving his possessed hollow, smelting it into copper, also taking some limonite, smelted into iron which they then combined with gold and silver to create orichalcum, the famous holy metal, the 'red-gold' of gods, which was made by means of a process very closely-guarded by the venerable priests of the Temple of the Broken Rock, where Ibruk had been raised.
From this metal they cast a great statue of Armok, the fabled Allfather who had created the gods themselves from his blood. The statue stood taller than an Elf or Human, his face a blank mask as the traditional depictions of Armok went, his arms outstretched, his hands cupped together. This was then placed in a special chamber beneath the temple, a room of silver walls and floors, with a great orichalc door. At its threshold were the silver statues of Mosus Pagedshield the Rough Hame and Os the Hardy Gleams, while Armok's orichalc statue stood alone inside, with the gem Nimemnokzam held up in its outstretched hands. This room was then blessed with holy ale, a quick cleansing fire, and then the orichalc door closed and locked, the cursed gem closed away.
Needless to say, the discovery that a large amount of silver and gold had simply been taken by Ibruk, Kadzar, and the faithful without the approval of the community as a whole caused a huge uproar, and again arguments thundered in the caves. Volrath - still not fully healed - and Hammer of the Gods almost came to blows once more, and it was only Johann pulling them apart that prevented Reg and Steve from receiving Volrath back to the hospital, along with an extra patient.
Eventually all of Nomekast was assembled in the courtyard of the 'fort', having once again split into three sides, Ibruk and his followers, those against Ibruk, and those who really didn't care much either way.
"The fact are this," began, Derm, taking charge of the meeting, "so far we have had: one attempted assassination, several thefts, several brawls, and constant commandeering of useful materials from the stockpiles at any whim. All this while we're trying to survive attacks from the Nothing."
"Oh but the thefts were linked to the assassin, so that's not quite a valid complaint." Stas remarked, his face straight as a die, not revealing the truth; that he and Bax, aided and abetted by Atis, had been the real thieves.
"Nonetheless." Delta growled, breaking his usual sullen silence. Derm nodded,
"It's clear that Nomekast has grown too large to simply leave as-is. What we need is a sheriff to keep things running."
OK, any volunteers for sheriff? If you want to be sheriff, say so, if we get more than one, we can have a vote on it.
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Topic: [Community] Nomekast - At War with Nothing (Read 180263 times)