Vlarn was the only one of his kind in the city but he knew that if any bigots tried him, he would knock them off their feet within seconds, for the fist of the dwarf was a fist of a steel hammer. He gathered the miners and soldiers for the expedition and mounted a horse to give a short speech. "Humans, I am a dwarf. We are miners and warriors of first rate. The mine that we are going to is a two day ride from here and borders the domain from which I had come from. If we reopen this mine, all men get 10% of the spoils and 100 Geulders per man. What do you say?" asked Vlarn. The men cheered, seeing that this venture was not just a fools errand from the King. The soldiers began to chant his name, and Vlarn blushed, having no idea that he was such a solid speaker. "We ride!" he cried out and turned his horse and the army followed him.
Every time the small army set up a night camp, they were beset by wild Orcs and trolls, giant spiders and goblins. Both the miners and soldiers acquitted themselves bravely in wild battle after battle, losing very few men in the process. The humans were from the Fennivir tribe, an ancient race of proud warriors who never quit the battlefield. Vlarn was already familiar with the language of the Fennivir and tried to act as much as one of them as possible. The King, who had commissioned him, was from an ancient bloodline of Fennivir Battle-Kings and very few Kingdoms picked a fight with them as a result, because the Fennivir almost always won. After each battle, the soldiers sang the ancient battle-songs and recited the ancient sagas of their ancestors around the campfires. Vlarn began to admire these hardy people and wondered why their Kingdom seemed so advanced and at first appearance the society seemed almost unwarlike. Definitely not barbarians, they marched in ranks and conducted war in a professional manner, and yet their spirit was one of lifetime warriors and not peasants and shopkeepers. He asked Loars, the Commander of the Guard about this. He turned to the men and spoke; "Men, what are we?" "WE ARE WARRIORS! ORAH!" cried the group. "You see dwarf, everything else is secondary. We train for war daily and the fools that dared to attack us lost their Kingdoms as a result." smiled the Captain grimly.
The army came to the mine on the third day of the trek and saw it was being camped by trolls, a huge army of them. Vlarn turned to Loars. "We'll draw their warriors out a bit, fight them. Then we'll burn the camp and kill the rest of them." said Vlarn. "I have a better plan. MEN! TURTLE!" and the soldiers went into the turtle formation and awaited the order. "WADE INTO THEM! KILL AND DO NOT SPARE!" cried the Captain. The trolls had noticed their arrival and began their wild, disorganized attacks. The Fennivir sliced through the trolls like a hot knife through butter. The troll warriors died all within five minutes and then the soldiers hacked to pieces the rest of the trolls. The men began to clean up the fight scene and tossed the troll bodies into a burn pit while the "loot detail" went into action, looking for gold and silver and stolen items, which they found tons of. "Captains! We found three chests of gold and silver! These trolls were the raiders that had been giving Gwennus problems for so long!" said a soldier. "The warriors of Gwennus have grown soft and fat. We'll keep the loot." said Vlarn. The soldiers laughed out loud and cried, "May you live forever in song and glory!" "Not so fast men, we still have to deal with the black dragon in this mine. I am going in alone. I know of an enchantment that will cause this black dragon to flee this place forever." said Vlarn to Loars. "We'll wait here. We are coming in after a day has passed." said Loars.
Vlarn entered the cave and saw that is was empty short of the piles of skeletons he saw coming in. He felt the heat of the dragon's breath as he drew closer to the dragon. "MaWaug!" he cried in his own language, unpleasantly surprised. The dragon was undead. Undead dragons were almost impossible to kill or enchant.
He quickly exited the mine and explained the situation to Loars. "We need to cave in this mine and seal that thing in here!" said Vlarn. "Undead you say? I suppose we'll need a wizard that specializes in killing undead dragons or a Death Priest but they don't exactly do errands." said Loars. "I know a Wizard, perhaps he will help us." said Vlarn. Vlarn quickly wrote a message and gave it to the keeper of the messenger pigeons. The keeper sent it flying to the Red Tower. The response was swift. A Red and Black clad wizard manifested himself in the camp and marched into the mine. A terrible scream was heard and the Wizard marched out of the mine. "Did you kill it?" asked the dwarf. "I opened a portal and sent it into the twisting nether. It will join legions of other undeads that we have exiled." said the Wizard. "What should we pay you?" asked the dwarf. "Nothing, we don't use coin. We consider it a great privilege to send evil out of the world." said the Wizard. "I did notice that his lair was filled with gold and silver, so your men might want to scoop that up." said the Wizard. The Wizard winked and vanished into the night. "Men, there is gold and silver in the now-empty lair, go and loot to your heart's content!" said Loars to the men. The soldiers rushed into the mine and after they didn't return, the miners became concerned and began to whisper. "Dammnation! The gold and silver was accursed! I should have thought of that!" said the dwarf, kicking himself. Vlarn and Loars ventured down to the treasure chamber and saw that all the warriors had died and were just now rising as undeads. "Get out of here!" said Vlarn to the Commander. Vlarn cast "detect enchantment" and saw an ancient and unholy relic buried in the mountain of gold. He cursed under his breath and left the cave. "We are sealing the mine and heading back." said Vlarn to the miners. The miners nodded and did what they were told. They used some blasting powder to seal the mine. The march back was sorrowful and the dwarf knew that he lost his commission. The party returned and Vlarn explained what happened and explained his decision to seal the mine. "An unholy artifact? You did the right thing although I lost a good portion of my men to undeath. I will give you 1,000 geulders but we shall never speak of this again." said the King. The dwarf took the gold and left the Kingdom and traveled to the mountain-peak city-state of Arranius. The city was ruled by an Elven King and was inhabited by humans, dwarves, elves, lizard-people, Kajhat, and Orcs. There he hoped to make a better impression.
End of Part II
Every time the small army set up a night camp, they were beset by wild Orcs and trolls, giant spiders and goblins. Both the miners and soldiers acquitted themselves bravely in wild battle after battle, losing very few men in the process. The humans were from the Fennivir tribe, an ancient race of proud warriors who never quit the battlefield. Vlarn was already familiar with the language of the Fennivir and tried to act as much as one of them as possible. The King, who had commissioned him, was from an ancient bloodline of Fennivir Battle-Kings and very few Kingdoms picked a fight with them as a result, because the Fennivir almost always won. After each battle, the soldiers sang the ancient battle-songs and recited the ancient sagas of their ancestors around the campfires. Vlarn began to admire these hardy people and wondered why their Kingdom seemed so advanced and at first appearance the society seemed almost unwarlike. Definitely not barbarians, they marched in ranks and conducted war in a professional manner, and yet their spirit was one of lifetime warriors and not peasants and shopkeepers. He asked Loars, the Commander of the Guard about this. He turned to the men and spoke; "Men, what are we?" "WE ARE WARRIORS! ORAH!" cried the group. "You see dwarf, everything else is secondary. We train for war daily and the fools that dared to attack us lost their Kingdoms as a result." smiled the Captain grimly.
The army came to the mine on the third day of the trek and saw it was being camped by trolls, a huge army of them. Vlarn turned to Loars. "We'll draw their warriors out a bit, fight them. Then we'll burn the camp and kill the rest of them." said Vlarn. "I have a better plan. MEN! TURTLE!" and the soldiers went into the turtle formation and awaited the order. "WADE INTO THEM! KILL AND DO NOT SPARE!" cried the Captain. The trolls had noticed their arrival and began their wild, disorganized attacks. The Fennivir sliced through the trolls like a hot knife through butter. The troll warriors died all within five minutes and then the soldiers hacked to pieces the rest of the trolls. The men began to clean up the fight scene and tossed the troll bodies into a burn pit while the "loot detail" went into action, looking for gold and silver and stolen items, which they found tons of. "Captains! We found three chests of gold and silver! These trolls were the raiders that had been giving Gwennus problems for so long!" said a soldier. "The warriors of Gwennus have grown soft and fat. We'll keep the loot." said Vlarn. The soldiers laughed out loud and cried, "May you live forever in song and glory!" "Not so fast men, we still have to deal with the black dragon in this mine. I am going in alone. I know of an enchantment that will cause this black dragon to flee this place forever." said Vlarn to Loars. "We'll wait here. We are coming in after a day has passed." said Loars.
Vlarn entered the cave and saw that is was empty short of the piles of skeletons he saw coming in. He felt the heat of the dragon's breath as he drew closer to the dragon. "MaWaug!" he cried in his own language, unpleasantly surprised. The dragon was undead. Undead dragons were almost impossible to kill or enchant.
He quickly exited the mine and explained the situation to Loars. "We need to cave in this mine and seal that thing in here!" said Vlarn. "Undead you say? I suppose we'll need a wizard that specializes in killing undead dragons or a Death Priest but they don't exactly do errands." said Loars. "I know a Wizard, perhaps he will help us." said Vlarn. Vlarn quickly wrote a message and gave it to the keeper of the messenger pigeons. The keeper sent it flying to the Red Tower. The response was swift. A Red and Black clad wizard manifested himself in the camp and marched into the mine. A terrible scream was heard and the Wizard marched out of the mine. "Did you kill it?" asked the dwarf. "I opened a portal and sent it into the twisting nether. It will join legions of other undeads that we have exiled." said the Wizard. "What should we pay you?" asked the dwarf. "Nothing, we don't use coin. We consider it a great privilege to send evil out of the world." said the Wizard. "I did notice that his lair was filled with gold and silver, so your men might want to scoop that up." said the Wizard. The Wizard winked and vanished into the night. "Men, there is gold and silver in the now-empty lair, go and loot to your heart's content!" said Loars to the men. The soldiers rushed into the mine and after they didn't return, the miners became concerned and began to whisper. "Dammnation! The gold and silver was accursed! I should have thought of that!" said the dwarf, kicking himself. Vlarn and Loars ventured down to the treasure chamber and saw that all the warriors had died and were just now rising as undeads. "Get out of here!" said Vlarn to the Commander. Vlarn cast "detect enchantment" and saw an ancient and unholy relic buried in the mountain of gold. He cursed under his breath and left the cave. "We are sealing the mine and heading back." said Vlarn to the miners. The miners nodded and did what they were told. They used some blasting powder to seal the mine. The march back was sorrowful and the dwarf knew that he lost his commission. The party returned and Vlarn explained what happened and explained his decision to seal the mine. "An unholy artifact? You did the right thing although I lost a good portion of my men to undeath. I will give you 1,000 geulders but we shall never speak of this again." said the King. The dwarf took the gold and left the Kingdom and traveled to the mountain-peak city-state of Arranius. The city was ruled by an Elven King and was inhabited by humans, dwarves, elves, lizard-people, Kajhat, and Orcs. There he hoped to make a better impression.
End of Part II
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