Henk's Departure

[Noa]

Norr of FV
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(4/6/02 12:53 am)
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Please allow me to introduce meself.

Norr Stonegrinder, Sergeant in the King's guard - retired. At yer service.

No, ye dinnae know me. Ye may have known me cousin Henk though. No, he wouldnae have mentioned me. We dinnae talk much. Honestly, after his wife an daughter died, 'round about twenty years back, he more-or-less cut himself off from the family.

What's that?

Aye, I'm wearing his armor. Yes, it's his hammer too. I was going to get to that. Well if ye'll shut yer elven cake-hole, I'll tell ye!

Brell's grimy armpits, yer all bit uptight, ain't ye?

Well fine. He shows up out O nowhere the other day. Ain't talked to no one in a quarter century, and there he is spouting off about 'pacts' and 'redemption' and getting his eye back.

Eh? Yeah, lost my eye too. No, not the same way Henk did, he ne'er told anyone how that happened. Me, I took a Tier'Dal crossbow bolt right through the eye and into the brain about seventy years back. Killed me pretty good, too.

What? Ye've got clerics here too – figure it out.

Yeah, yeah, back to Henk. Ye have any beer? Getting a bit thirsty here....

Bah! Elves...

So anyways, he dumps his entire pile O stuff on his mother's floor. Aye, I go there every few months fer dinner. Yeah, well if Henk ain't gonna support her, someone has to, aye? He left a verra profitable mining concern when he went off to the Temple. Left his mother with practically nothing! An who said it was any O yer business? That's family business, that's what it is.

So he dumps the stuff, an he's just wearin' that old tunic that the Temple done gave him when he first disappeared into there. Bit ripe too. Smelled like he had worn it through a mess O sewers, what with the stains and that kinda greenish patch on the –

Oh, calm down. If ye had beer, I'd be tellin' the story better, so just pipe down.

So he's just wearing that old rag and he looks at his mother and says that he's gonna go see Brell and get his eye back, since he's been 'redemed'. Says that his wife'll have forgiven him, an' Brell will have to hold up his side O the bargain. Er, I reckon he called it a 'pact'.

No, I dinnae know what that means! The old goat was mad as a gnome if ye ask me.

Well, yeah I believe he talked to Brell, he was a priest, wasnae he? Cast spells, aye? Ye cannae do that unless ye get to contact the Big B somehow, eh?

Aye, aye, the armor, I'm getting' to that part. So there's his mother, getting as close as a solid dwarf woman can get to tears, and Henk is standing in that smelly robe with a look on his face like a sand giant has whacked him with a big rock.

So I say, 'Well where are ye goin' without yer stuff? Sit an' have a beer.'

Well, then he looks at me like he dinnae even know I was there before. 'Norr,' he say, and gets this big silly smile on his face like he just found a big pile O platinum under his bed. 'Norr, you must take my gear. Seek out Saga.'

I dinnae have any idea what the old loon was talkin' about. All dwarves seek to get their names in the sagas. I put in over a century an' a half in the Guard lookin' fer my chance at glory.

So I just says, 'Well where are ye goin'?' Not really expecting an answer or nothin', I just wanted to keep him talkin', ye know? Mayhap get him to sit down or somethin'.

But he just says, 'Paineel. Then the Hole. Then Brell's Hold.'

Then he just start waving his harms and makin' the gate-bubbles all around him. I leap up an' try and tackle him and his mother starts yellin' 'No Henk! No!'

'Course I missed him. Ended up tacklin' empty air and spilling my beer.

What's that? Aye, O' course I checked out Paineel. I know the Deepwater Knight's quartermaster fairly well, an' he knows some folks in their observation unit. No one seen him go there. No one seen him anywhere else either.

Took me less time to figure out that 'Saga' was one O yer so-called 'guilds.' Did some checkin' on ye with the Stormguard an' some O the human militias. Ye check out fine, as far as that goes. Cannae say I much care for the whole inter-species weirdness goin' on here, but at least ye've got the sense to refuse entry to the Teir'Dal. Ye could use some Ogres fer heavy support, though. Nasty bastards, but if ye feed 'em, ye can get an honest battles work out of 'em, and really put a solid bit 'O whoop –

Well fer Brell sake! Dinnae look at me like that, I'm a soldier – ye do what he have to to win, aye? Oh, sit down. I ain't done with the story yet.

So I took Henk's gear like he asked me to. Can't say it feels too bad to get all armored up again. This moon-bug armor that he has is surprisingly light, actually. Good freedom O motion in the arms too. His weapons leave something to be desired, but I've got some old swords stashed away.

Eh? Aye, I reckon I'll be getting' back into the business. In the Guard we call this 'consulting.' I've used up most of what I was able to keep from my stint anyway, an' the King's pension ain't what it used to be. I reckon that deprivin' some Hill Giants O' their cash and heads wouldnae feel too bad. Keep my aunt in mushrooms, too.

Plus I told her that I'd try to find the old god-lad. Now she just said that I'd never be able to do it, an' that 'He's with Brell now,' but honestly, she's getting close to her sixth century now, an' her mind ain't as sharp as it once were.

I'll find him someday. Got to - family is family, after all.

So.

Here I be. Henk told me to find ye folks. Any idea why?