Dwarven Camp in Zospu Smaxa
10th of Malachite, 1051
"Tastes like mud."
There was a round of faint laughter from the crowd that had crammed into the tiny chamber. Urist couldn't recall the last time there had been so many of them packed into so tiny a space. The rough stone walls were warm with the heat of pressing bodies, as much a luxury as the object they all clustered around like an alter. It was a pile of stones and wooden sticks arranged around a hole in the gorund. The rope was frayed and the mechanisms squeaked every time the bucket descended into the dark, but it was still a well and it still drew up water.
"99 to go," she heard Mekboy mutter beside her. The bookkeeper then called out in a louder voice. "Keep complaining, Firelordsky, maybe the mud will get upset and leave!"
That got another laugh and Firelordsky, his face ruddy and embarrassed, took a few good natured slaps to the shoulders and then tipped the bucket for a deliberate swallow of the grimy liquid. A few days ago, they'd nearly been on the verge of death as they struggled for a week after the last remaining droplets of booze had vanished. Full bellies didn't help change the fact that they were all drying up, in more ways than one. There was water so near, yet the crundle swarms had already set upon and torn apart one of their jumping spiders after the unwary creature had chased a cave spider down there. The red beasts would have done the same to any dwarf.
It was strange to think they had Eric to thank for the well. Sort of. His idea had been to put a hole in the floor above the underground pool, then take turns lowering each other down with a rope to get a drink and hopefully get pulled back up before any giant olms or cave crocodiles rose up to kill the thirsty dwarf. Zero had already agreed to the project when Kiratha suggested lowering a bucket instead of a dwarf. Everyone agreed it was a better idea.
Now they had water and, better, most of the wounded were back on their feet. Elfeater and Firelordsky, their two other soldiers, Nonobots, Urist's fellow craftsdwarf, and even melkor, Mekboy's self-proclaimed rival. Only Cheveux was still languishing under a pile of rat skins, his fever showing no signs of ending soon. Despite that, the mood was almost celebratory. For the first time since they had arrived, Urist heard her fellow dwarves truly laugh, saw them smile optimistically. Even Karakzon was looking cheerful.
... well, not frowning...
... as deeply as usual...
Okay, he was still glowering at everyone as if they were something unpleasant he'd just stepped in, but there were some miracles you should just never expect.
---
Dwarven Camp in Zospu Smaxa, Crafts Hall
14th of Limestone, 1051
"I worked in dragon bone once, you know," Nonobots said conversationally. "Amazing stuff. It was like sculpting cloud, but the sword I made cut right through a goblin raider. This crundle bone is more like sculpting soap bubbles. One wrong twist of your hand and POP!"
Urist's tools slipped in their delicate work, the tiny shaping stone she'd been carefully hammering at pierced straight through the lizard skull with a sharp crack and split it in half. Nonobots regarded her ruined work with a mournful nod. "Just like that."
Clenching her jaw not to shout, Urist tossed the ruined skull onto the pile of shattered bones behind her. The fourth skull that day Nonobots had managed to make her ruin. If she thought worse of the other craftsdwarf, she'd think it was on purpose, but Nonobots was always so guileless about the whole thing. It reminded her of a fancy rat who proudly brought you a paid of chewed up boots.
At least the broken bones could still be put to use, it only for decoration. Between supplying Karakzon a steady supply of bolts to snipe at cave creatures with from his little archers nest they'd managed to cut into the cave walls, the two craftsdwarves had been hard at work the last week assembling arms and armor for Firelordsky and Elfeater. A crossbow of crundle bone for Firelordsky, a stone dagger for Elfeater, and suits of bone and leather armor for both. Kiratha had crafted them both shields from their dwindling supply of black-caps and the pair carried them about everywhere proudly.
"Still seems crazy to me," Nonobots began again, changing topic smoothly. "Sending just the two of them down alone. I mean, I know we're going to try to train the fancy rats to help fight and Karakzon is going to be covering them from those fortifications you carved into the wall, but from what you've all been saying there are a LOT of crundles down there."
There was no easy way for Urist to answer that, as she didn't know enough about fighting either way to say what their odds were. Everyone was nervous about the plan, even though they all agreed it was necessary. Firelordsky was confident they could take on the crundle swarms, or at least chase them back far enough for the others to hurry in an wall off a portion of the cavern, but it hadn't been more than a week ago he and Elfeater had both been down with fevers and unknown injuries. They'd only just gotten their protectors back, to risk them now...
The craftsdwarfs train of thought was broken by the sound of feet sliding down the sloping cave tunnel and the sight of Eric, nearly falling ass over teakettle, charging down with his arms flailing wildly out beside him. He skidded to a stop, hopping on one foot for several steps before he ran out of momentum, and whipped his head from side to side so hard his braided mustache slapped his ears.
"ZERO?!" he demanded of the two and a surprised Nonobots points to the next floor down, where the caravan-master-turned-camp-leader had gone to visit the well. Eric was off before either could think to speak, vanishing down the slope and shouting for Zero the whole way. His voice echoed up unintelligibly from below. When he reappeared a few moments later, it was with company. Not only Zero, but melkor and Bob all running up as fast as they could.
Urist finally found her voice, calling out. "Whats going on?"
Eric didn't even stop running as he answered, his voice a breathless shout. "Come up and see!"
Urist traded looks with Nonobots, then both of them dropped their tools and hurried to follow. They were headed to the cave entrance, picking up more dwarves as they went, until it seemed like the whole camp was with them. Elbowing and crowding, they filed out into the open sky. Cold wind slapped Urist in the face for the first time in months, sucking the breath from her lungs and turning her face pain-red. Eric still lead the way, everyone climbing up to the very top of the cave mount. Firelordsky and Kiratha were already there, standing on the edge of flat stone top and peering out over the ice field at a ragged line of figures slowly making their way across the ice towards Zospu Smaxa.
Urist managed to slip closer to the edge. Zero, Mekboy, Kiratha, and melkor were all conversing with quiet intensity, so she approaching Firelordsky instead. The warrior was bouncing energetically on the balls of his feet to keep warm and his attention was so fixed that he jumped at the touch of her hand on his arm, shooting her an accusatory look.
"Is it a caravan?" she asked.
He kept his lips pressed closed and shook his head, then looked back down. The first figure was drawing closer, the wind whipping snow through the leather cloak he struggled to keep pulled tight around his shoulders. A small creature lopped awkwardly through the snow at his heels, it's wide head bobbing up and down like an otter wading through a river.
Everyone seemed to make the same realization at the same instant, a hush falling across the land around the hill that was broken only by the distant crunch of snow under the approaching figures boots and a quiet oath from Nonobots.
"Stars and Sun," she whispered. "They're dwarves."
---
"Lofn Koganilon, doctor, bone carver, and cook," the gray-haired dwarf said as he sat limp and weary on the floor of the cave. He raised a gloved hand to the dwarf pointedly stood beside him. "And this is Dzharius Kilrudibesh, my second and leader of our warriors."
"Well met," Dzharius nodded and even flashed his teeth in a quiet smile. Despite the friendly greeting, the warrior showed no interest in relaxing his hold on the well-worn tower-cap spear in his hand. He even waved off food as Bob and Eric came about, passing out cuts of crundle meat to the eight newly arrived dwarves.
Zero and Mekboy sat around Lofn as the leadership of the camp, Kiratha out of respect for his position as their engineer, Urist, to her own surprise, as the one who had found the cave. Karakzon stood near by as well, giving the new arrivals a particularly suspicious glare and keeping a hand upon his crossbow.
Mekboy started to speak, a smile on her face and her fingers tugging at her ear. "Where did you come from, doctor?"
"How did you find us?" Karakzon rumbled at nearly the same time.
"Melbilmamot," Lofn answered, but seemed to think food was more important than answers at that moment, biting into the still-raw meat voraciously.
"We could really ask you the same questions. Our people have been wandering near by for generations," Dzharius filled in, his polite smile unwavering even in the face of Karakzon's glare. "We'd been using a few secure rooms in the ruins to stash supplies."
"We didn't know the things we took belonged to anyone," Zero said, then reared back on her haunches and glared. "And you can't prove it was us anyway. That stuff was missing when we got there. It was the trees!"
Lofn gave the camp leader a look and glanced inquisitively at Mekboy. The bookkeeper put on a pained smile and very softly tapped a finger to the side of her head. Lofn nodded in comprehension and waved a hand at Zero's worries. "You didn't."
"From the looks of the tracks, you went a lot further into Melbilmamot than we ever go," Dzharius supplied once more. "Amazing you came out again, with all that lives in there. All our legends say the hydra that killed King Atir Hammeranvil is still living in there."
"... you're Losiszas dwarves," Kiratha said suddenly, drawing everyone's gaze. The engineer shifted uncomfortably under the attention, but pressed on. "Or their descendants, at least. You're the Faint Crystal."
Dzharius smiled and Lofn nodded between bites of meat. Urist half expected him to just go on eating, but the doctor rose with a groan, Dzharius giving him a hand up, and wiped a mouthfull of crundle blood off onto the back of his glove, though it didn't help the streaks that ran through his thick beard. The red stains mingled with older, darker stains Urist had not noticed before. "By the accords of hospitality laid down by the caste of kings and in the names of Genlath and Kerlig, last gods of Losiszas, we bid our cousins welcome in our lands. May our time together be a fruitful era of production and trade."
Lofn's booted heels snapped together and he beat a worn fist to his chest, Dzharius mirroring him. Mekboy stood and waited until the other dwarves of Kubuk Ikud realized they were supposed to stand with him, then together they repeated the gesture. Zero and Mekboy eagerly, Kiratha reservedly, and Urist herself with a growing sense of momentum. She knew that despite what they may have thought, the dwarves of Losiszas had not come here of their own violation, but had been ensnared in Shedim's web. So soon on the heels of the unexpected recovery of their own dwarves, now this. The last dwarves of both ancient nations coming together at last? Too much for coincidence.
Only Karakzon failed to respond to the old ceremony or showed any awareness of the gravity of the moment. He remained unmoving behind them and glared.
The speardwarf Dzharius gave a nod of a approval and relaxed his posture again. "Now that we've got that out of the way... where do we unload our bags?"
---
21 dwarves. That's what we've got now and probably the last we'll ever get save through births. More than I expected in two immigration waves and more than we've got enough leather to equip all of. Still, it should give us enough warm bodies to finally make a go at taking those caves. Karakzon has been shooting at crundles from behind some fortifications overlooking one of their nesting grounds for some months yet. He's only killed a couple, but wounded a lot of them. The giant olm has vanished for now as well, which ups the odds of getting through an assault without everyone suffering the indignity of being gnawed to pieces by tiny red lizards.
Everyone has been dwarfed save Cheveux, who unfortunately picked a non-existent profession. If you see this Chev, no metal industry, remember? That includes weaponsmiths, unfortunately. At least for now. A third craftsdwarf for churning out stone, bone, or wood weapons would work, but if you've got another idea lemme know.
Nonobots ended up female, though only because the only dwarf with any of those crafting skills who turned up was female. Talented Bowyer and Adequate Bonecarver.
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Topic: Clan of the Cave Spider - Community Cavern Fortress (Read 9629 times)