In Search of Gemclod: Part One of Three
Where did it all start? I ask myself three times a day, before my morning drink, my afternoon drink, and my evening drink before bed. I don't ask because I wish to know the answer, I already KNOW the answer.
I ask, because it puts me in the mood for drinking.
I woke up at my usual time to find my bed hard and unyielding to the touch. When I had removed the sleep powder from my eyes I was shocked to find my bed and my fellow dwarves gone! Everyone I had grown to know all my life had disappeared in the night!
In a panic I got up and ran to the upper reaches of the mountainside.
My fears were confirmed. My brethren had abandoned me on some forgotten slope while they emigrated... where? Where had they gone and not told dear old Sirocco? My eyes narrowed as the truth became beholden to me. Those sons of bitches! They hadn't just abandoned me, they'd dismantled the entire fortress and filled it with rock!
Disheartened, I sat on a nearby boulder with my head in my hands and my beard curled upon my lap like a faithful dog.
'Faithful to the last, old girl,' I said patting her tenderly. It was then I noticed the note.
DEAR SIROCCO
WE HAVE LEFT FOR THE NEW FORTRESS GEMCLOD. WE HEAR IT HAS GREAT RICHES AND BEAUTIFUL WOMEN AND NO SIROCCO. WE HAVE THEREFORE DECIDED TO LEAVE YOU BEHIND AS A JEST. FEAR NOT, BROTHER! WE HAVE LEFT YOU - the writing became somewhat illegible here, as if the pendwarf had been laughing at the time - A FINE WEAPON TO FEND OFF WILD CREATURES OR GOBLINS AND STUFF.
I looked behind the rock to find a copper poker from the wood furnaces. It was bent in half.
IF YOU DECIDE TO JOIN US, GEMCLOD IS - again, the writing became little more than a spidery scrawl - DUE SOUTH. GOODBYE SIROCCO AND SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR CREEPY BEARD TOO.
YOURS SINCERELY, EVERYONE ELSE
P.S. SOUTH
Wiping a tear from my eye I grabbed the poker and made my way down a dirt path off the mountain.
I'm going north.