Been a while since I spun a tale here so lets try something new and not so infested with slayers... slayers are like roaches once they get into your holdings you have to kill them all... so lets check out the first installment in a new tale.
Chapter 1
Far to the south east of the Border Princes in the Black Mountains west of Luccini was the dwarf hold of Black Mines in the Puccini sub-range that ran north to south into the east – west running Black Mountains. Black Mines wasn’t large enough or prestigious enough to be called a Karak, or as we humans would say, a dwarven city. It was however, a well settled mine made up of the outcasts and survivors of clans from the fallen Ekrund, Karak Varn, Karak Azgal and younger sons of Karak Hirn and Karak Izor. Black Mines was several centuries old but its walls weren’t as polished, gemmed or decorated as a full blown dwarven city.
In the halls of Black Mines sat a young grieving widower, Nauglina Quartzstrike. For the second time in two years she was in the burial chambers of her married into Quartzstrike clan, the first time was for her first husband Bvorriq who died in a mine cave in from harvesting too much coal. The second time was from the short marriage to his younger brother Gvohhu who died in a skirmish with the Skaven ratmen that infested the Black Mountains. Her clan Thane Rollu Quartzstrike stood behind her silently as she watched the last of the funeral party depart. Rollu was her father-in-law and she was sure he was here to pitch another marriage proposal now that yet another of his sons had died married to her without producing an heir. She was still very young and in the dawi culture an unmarried lass was something to be bargained away for more trade concessions or political end.
Nauglina turned and looked into her father-in-laws coal grey eyes under his silvered eye brows. She straightened her white funeral robes and fingered her thick wedding rings with the Quartzstrike clan runes on them. “Yes my Thane?”
Rollu breathed deeply and then cleared his throat as he offered her his elbow to walk her back to her clan quarters in the underground residential block. “Nauglina, you know I love you like my own daughter. You need a day or two to mourn your loss but in due time we will need to discuss your future prospects,” said the thane in a matter of fact voice. Nauglina sighed, while her marriage to Gvohhu and Rollu hadn’t been for love, never the less she had grown attached to Gvohhu. His passing was unexpected and then had come the marriage of tradition to his younger brother to take care of his brother’s wife. Gvohhu was too young with barely any whiskers on his feathery beard. In his first trading trip on clan business to Karak Izor with a block of warriors he had been the only dawi male to die in the Skaven ambush. Nauglina didn’t shed a tear for him but still the looks the clan gave her at the funeral told her that she was not being considered for a higher marriage. She was an outsider at the Black Mines coming from a marriage contract between the dawi clans of Black Mines and her home of Karak Hirn. There her family had been highly placed in the Guild of Engineers and the trade agreement for coal and ore for her family sending a team of Guild Engineers to industrialize and modernize the mining operations and foundry at Black Mines had looked like a win win for both clans. Now she was a pariah in her adopted hold and clan, and had few if any options of returning to Karak Hirn without voiding the trade agreements between holds and clans, something she knew she was not in optimal position to do without consulting with her previous clan hierarchy.
I'll try to post another page later this week as I continue to draft, edit and polish the tale.
Edited by Thunderer, 17 November 2013 - 03:10 AM.