Registered Member #267
Joined: 5:31:12 am GMT 09/21/04
Posts: 1253
Chaos, pure chaos.
A couple of passengers started to feel ill after a few days on the sea.
In the beginning the crew laughed at us landlubbers. But a few days more noone was laughing...
Chaos erupted when the illness overcame even the crew, whispers of a curse started to circulate and that one of the passangers were to blame for it.
With arms in hand they started to aggressively question us passengers, went through our luggage and belongings, searching for anything they deemed magical and dangerous, with their limited commoner knowledge regarding such things.
People got annoyed to have been accused of bringing a curse aboard.
After the first execution, people got afraid. Tom seemed a nice young lad. Friendly enough and we had shared a few ales, we were two of five who seemed to be unaffected.
The second one to be thrown to the deep were an elven las, sure she were a bit odd, but what did you expect, all elves are talking about the weather and elements like they are alive and sentient.
Now people got angry... mad, crazy even.
Can't say I am proud of what I did but even as I weren't sick, the sea wasn't really something I enjoyed. And I had to protect my crate. The last thing that had survived my family.
Blood soaked the wooden deck on the ship as commoners, merchants, swashbucklers and the ship crew fought each other in a mad bloodthirsty frenzy.
I don't know how many days I hid in the cargo hold, but the sound of fighting started to calm down.
With a loud crack the door was cut open, the crew was a resilient bunch, as they seemed to be the last men standing.
I raised my crossbow and aimed at them as they approached, bloodied and madness in their eyes. There were six of them, no matter how fast I reloaded I knew my time had come. I may have hid down here but when I go I will go out fighting, by Moradin's beard, dwarves aren't cowards.
*Thud!* "Bloody hells!*
First bolt missed and the crewmen laughed as they launched their attack.
"Reload and aim, deep calm breaths."
The next bolt was fired with more presissionnd took one down but they were already too close to reload a second time.
Bloody and almost beaten a small whisper escapes his mouth as he swings the crossbow to bludgeon his attackers as much as possible.
"Welcome me moradin to ye halls, deem me worthy."
*Whirm* *Crack!* *Splat*
A mettalic arm extends from the crate having cracked the skull of one of the crewmen.
*Crack and Crash*
A a dwarf-sized construct steps through the wall of the wooden crate. Wide-eyed the crewmen goes from mad frenzy to fearful in a less time then you can snap your fingers.
Being dwarf-sized, the construct is at the optimal height to force its hands through the stomachs of two assailanta before it runs after and over the remaining few.
The legend says it used to be our protector, in ancient times it was alive and fought side by side with the clan in the wars back home, but for as long as anyone can remember it has just been an ornate statue silently watching over us.
With no crew or passengers left alive and only a construct and a dwarf who know nothing about sailing all they can do is to drift where the wind and the sea takes them...
Registered Member #267
Joined: 5:31:12 am GMT 09/21/04
Posts: 1253
The ship was full of blood and dead bodies. He could still not understand what had happened. Why they had all become so aggressive. He had felt fine all the time, he still did. But looking around the ship he quickly realized that wherever they would drift, he'd be hanged for the massacre on the ship. Having a golem by his side and being the only survivor, who'd believe him? No, it would be seen as a tall tale in an attempt to save his own skin. Maybe someone would perhaps believe some of it but they'd no doubt demand the destruction of the golem. And no way he'd allow that. For it to come to life is something only the legends tell about. No, he need to study it, understand it. He owe it to his clan.
The food stock was still plenty, so didn't have to starve or even ration, well, he didn't know ho long it would take to get to land... any land, but no dwarf limit the intake of ale and food willingly.
The next couple of days were spent scrubbing and cleaning the decks. Not knowing what had come over them, he didn't take any chances, the bodies were thrown into the sea. He wasn't sure he'd be able to survive an undead outbreak in the limited space a ship is.
[ The Island of Thain ]
A new era for clan Flintheart