This is a short simple story about a dwarf-woman reclaiming her ancestry in the most fun way possible. All characters are 18+, or well over 40 and possibly 'immortal spirits' if we're getting technical. Enjoy!
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The band of adventurers had drunk and talked long through the night. The barmaids were tired and waiting to go home, but this group would not leave and kept ordering more food, more booze, and even a few oddities like pipe weed, candy, and in one case a rather specific request for mare's milk for some unknowable reason. Still, the owner of the bar kept reminding his staff that this group was paying extremely well. Their tab would have been eye-watering, but they were paying as they go, and paying gold for silver: If they owed a handful of silver coins for a round of drinks or even a dusty bottle front the wine cellar , they'd pay a like number of coins, but gold coins that weighed heavily in everyone's aprons. The barmaids would be wealthy indeed after this evening, and the strange stories they heard, mostly dirty, would be something to laugh about for years.
Well after the moon had reached it's peak and begun its slow descent, Umthar noticed his companion, Red the Dwarf, had said little but merely drank flagon after flagon of beer. Umthar was a massive giant of a man, at least seven feet tall and dressed in a furry vest that made him look bear-like to those that couldn't see his human face with it's nose flattened from countless fights. Umthar was known for his good heart and dislike of slavers and pirates, but also known for his aggressiveness with the fairer sex.
He laughed, then bellowed at the diminutive woman across the table from him. "Red! So quiet! I've told the tale of rescuing the slave girls from the Warlord of Gardheim and their bountiful thanks; The Princess of Bo-Ran and how I found her; and my exploits in the Harems of Queen Asifya. Do you have any stories from your time as an adventurer to top those tales of bravery and daring-do?"
"Tales of sleeping around, methinks." Red drained her latest flagon, tossing the wooden mug over her shoulder and holding up one finger, a signal for another. "Oh yes, Umthar. I've got a few tales you might enjoy. A stable boy in Far found himself unconscious after an attempt to satisfy me..."
"That was from the smell." whispered Galdron the Wizard, although he was known for low opinions of all who practiced their trade with sword and armor.
"Or perhaps the tale of rescuing the twin sorcerers of Glaz?"
"Twins!" burbled a drunken gnome, Rarredy Groomhandle, who had passed out multiple times throughout the night.
"But, no, I think this is the time for the tale of the Stone-spirit of Mount Direfall..."
A barmaid, a pretty young woman with a waterfall of golden hair framing her face, placed another flagon in front of the dwarf warrior. Red gestured and the woman leaned in. A bit of sleight of hand, and not a gold coin but a small sapphire appeared in the dwarf's stubby fingers and was dropped into the barmaid's notable cleavage, eliciting a cheer from all the adventurers. Red smiled and waved the woman away, then began her story after a long pull from her flagon.
"My proper name is Redagonia Finewater of the Thunderforge clan. The Finewater family is well-respected, but even the greatest cities of the dwarves need not that many dwarves to safeguard water supplies, so some such as myself take up other paths, such as adventuring. So, at the age of 40, I took my axe and chain armor and went into the world of Men seeking my fortune. This was a tale that happened several years later, when I found myself in an ancient dwarven city underneath Mount Direfall with the Heroes of the Silver Band."
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Red was angry. Situated from the rest of her adventuring party when a bridge collapsed, she needed to cross a chasm that divided the underground city into three large districts. She'd fought and killed three of the blasted demon-elves that had conquered this place. Her goal was to find a crossing to allow her to make her way back to the old commercial district where her companions were no doubt hiding in some ruined building, licking their wounds and debating their next move.
Instead she found herself captured by demon-elves and dragged to an old chamber in the forge district where once countless dwarves had worked. She was bound to a sturdy wooden pole and dragged before a high priestess of the demon-elves who held her round face and strong chin with long-fingered nails. The dwarves and demon-elves had long waged war for sacred places deep within the mountains of the world.
The priestess, dressed in robes of enchanted cloth as strong as steel and adorned with countless rubies and diamonds, spoke in the harsh demonic tongue of her kind, then spoke in dwarven, "You will feed the earth-spirit here, the spirit that grants us ownership of this domain. Your sacrifice will empower its bonds to us."
Red spit in the priestesses' face, and received a slap in return. The shape nails left red marks on her pale cheek. Two demon-elf guards closed in and, grabbing the trussed-up dwarf, dragged her up a ramp to a nearby pit once used for a smelting process centuries ago. They tossed her in with grunts of exertion.
She landed with a loud thump on the floor of the pit. Red looked up and saw two glowing red eyes: A shape came forward and she struggled to her feet. At least the fall had shattered the pole she'd been bound to and allowed her to free her arms. She was disarmed, however: Some demon-elf unworthy to even look upon her family axe now possessed the relic weapon!
Still, there were more immediate concerns. She knew what the red-eyed thing was, although she had never seen a spirit corrupted by the demon-elves. An earth-spirit manifested, it was an avatar of the very spirit of the mountain they were under. Most dwarven cities had such a thing, usually in a place of honor where it would give its blessing to the great works within. This spirit seemed uncertain at times, unformed: a thing of mud, stone, and the countless precious metals that had been worked in this place in aeons past. This spirit was corrupted, forced into servitude to the demon-elves, and would likely kill her if their control was absolute.
It was not, she saw. It's shape was not always a thin elven silhouette but at times resembled a stockier dwarf as it moved. She must awaken its nature, and Red could think of only one way open to her..
She began unbuckling her armor as the spirit approached, it's blazing red eyes upon her. Defeating such a thing in battle was possible, and the route many brave dwarves warriors would take, but her mother had once told her of another way, more common when the world was young.