((Ok, this started out as a short update.))
Winter 197: Ghosts“Excuse me, Wilberforce, I need to talk to you.”
“Remalle! Come in, my friend. Always a pleasure to speak with you.”
Remalle stepped into Wilberforce’s office, and stopped. There were piles of paper everywhere, so it took him a moment to find the man he was talking to.
Wilberforce was at his desk, looking over a small basalt statue of a yak that stood in front of him. “I’ve been looking over the plans from Peregar for the Peacespray memorial. Tell me, do you think it should be anatomically correct? The old boy was a bull, after all. I just wonder if we have enough basalt to do him justice. We could use that new scepter, I suppose.”
Remalle kept staring, then shook his head. “I don’t know about that. And I wanted to ask you about something that I think is more important than, er... that. It’s about the ghosts, and so on.”
“Ah yes! You’ve done splendid work there, let me say. No one has lost a limb in months, which is a great comfort to all of us. An excellent job of spirit-busting, as I believe they call it.”
“Well, yes. But there’s something else. I’m not really sure if those spirits are really gone, and,” he paused, then went ahead, “It’s Neo and Derm that have me worried.”
Wilberforce stopped smiling. “They do, do they? Tell all, Remalle. Tell me why.”
“Well, Neo I don’t know about. But there was a Derm back in the old days, and he went by the title Soulchopper. Now we’ve got someone with the same name, the same title... What was he like before he came here? And we’re getting rid of the ghosts, but where are they going? Rakust is meant to guide spirits over the veil. It shouldn’t be up to us.” He stopped, sure he was sounding slightly crazy.
Wilberforce nodded “You’re telling me we might have spirits wandering about, possessing folks willy-nilly, turning right thinking dwarfs into... other right thinking dwarfs, but ones who are dead? Something’s gone all wrong in the spirit world?”
“I think it’s possible is all. It’s not something I would have ever thought possible before, but-“
“Hold that thought.” Wilberforce put down the statue, which he’d been toying with. “I hear shouts from the bridge!” He got out of his chair and ran past Remalle to the door. “Come with me, my friend! I sense a good old fashioned disaster!”
Puzzled, as he usually was around Wilberforce, Remalle followed.
.........................
They made to the bridge, joined by Ishar and Kogut on the way. In the distance, they could see two dwarfs on the outer span, as well as a strange, shifting misty shape. Whatever the shape was, it was chasing the dwarfs.
Balnash was on guard by the walls, and called down to them. “It’s G and some other soap maker, or somethin’ like that. They’re bein’ chased by the ghost of a murderer from the old days! Asob is his name!”
Wilberforce nodded. “Right! Remalle and Ishar! Get a slab, and
memorialize that ghost!"
"Balnash, keep both eyes on those poor devils, and see if there’s any way to help them!”
“G!” He turned to shout towards the bridge. “Run! Keep running as long as you can!”
.............................
G didn‘t need any encouragement. He could feel the damn things icy hands, or tendrils or whatever they were on his back. He ran, and hoped the bridge was long enough to get him away.
...............................
Remalle raced to the furniture storeroom, tripping over a discarded bucket on the way. He found a decent basalt slab that hadn’t been carved yet. It would do. He settled down with his chisel, and looked at the name that Balnash had given him.
“Oh my god, not that one...”
..............................
G and Siverix (who had also been on the bridge) reached the end. The sea was far below them, looking forbidding and immense and merciless, as seas do at times like this.
G looked down, and then looked at the ghostly figure, who was closer than ever. The thing was holding a knife, he noticed, which also shimmered oddly. A ghost knife, maybe, which didn’t mean it looked like it would just pass right through them. Or rather it would, but not in a ghostly way. It looked too sharp for that.
He whispered to Siverix “Want to jump? Probably ain’t going to be a worse way to die than what that thing’s gonna do to us.”
“We don’t have to jump! We could...”
“Die horribly at the hands of that ghost, or die in the water. That’s th’ choice we got here.”
“Oh.”
....................
Remalle carved as quickly as he could. Let’s see... Asob had liked the color maroon, and gauntlets, and of course she’d murdered someone and made them into a gauntlet, that probably should be mentioned.
Ishar was waiting at the door. “Have you finished that thing yet?”
“Almost... just got to get the dates down.”
“What are you doing that for?”
“It has to be done
right!”
He worked a few minutes more, as Ishar started tapping her foot.
“Do you really need to smooth it?”
“
Yes!”
He chipped away at the thing, then leaned back and said “There! It’s done. Not my best work, really, but-“
“Just give it to me!” Remalle tried to, and there was a short uncomfortable moment as she tried to carry the heavy slab in one hand. Eventually they got it out of the room together. With as much ceremony as they could manage, (not much, under the circumstances,) they shoved it against a wall. It stayed up.
.............................
G was inching towards the edge, keeping his eye on the vengeful spirit, which wasn’t easy. The thing kept drifting in and out of vision, but when he could see it, it was closer, and still holding that sharp, jagged, and very physical looking knife. This was it.
His boots were edging over the rim when the ghost shimmered and vanished, like mist over a waterfall.
The knife fell with a clatter onto the floor, before it went the same way. G breathed again. Siverix sobbed with relief. They were alive.
.........................
Back in the fort, the carved slab glowed for a second, or at least seemed to. Remalle stared at it, then shrugged.
To Ishar he said, “Yeah, I’m going to go get drunk.”
It was a good idea, so she joined him.
In the general chaos, Remalle's questions about Derm and Neo and the other "renamed" dwarfs were almost forgotten. Almost.
...........................
Next: Goblins, Really
((Out of curiousity, does anyone know how long the longest bridge built on these forums was?))
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Topic: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again) (Read 182721 times)