The Stonebreaker Dwarf lifts his Mug from the table and takes a few swallows of Ale, wiping the froth from his beard he looks around at the assembled mixture of races.
\"so, for those interested, here is my story ........
I was born and raised in a small town many days walk from here. My childhood was a happy one, my younger Brother and I would play in the forests around our home, and help out in our family run mine when things got busy. We worshipped daily, and always had the main meal of the day as a family. They were happy times, and I never once thought of life away from there, until....
As I said earlier, my family ran a small mining business, just enough to serve the local community really, but one day my Father found gold, and my world fell apart soon after. Some suspicious looking characters came into the village, asking questions, of course the locals said nothing, but a few days later, as the sun was coming up, it happened. I\'m not even sure of the details because my Mother took my Brother and I and hid in the forest, it turned out that word had spread, and a group of bandits had taken a liking to my Fathers mine. Of course, he tried to protect his livlihood, but alas died trying. These things I found out later, but at the time I distinctly remember my Mother saying we could never go back home, and that my Father had \"gone to a better place\".
Ekusile pauses for a moment, staring into space, lifts his mug and takes another swig of his Ale. This seemingly brings him back to the present, and he continues .......
I remember walking for a very long time, and my younger Brother crying alot from sore feet and hunger. Then my Mother became ill, those were the worst days. My Brother and I fashioned a sled out of branches and twine, we had made such a sled while playing in the forests together.\" Ekusiles voice cracks on those last few words, he takes another swig of Ale. \" It was slow going, and Mother got worse as the days passed, maybe even weeks. At some point, we came upon a small town, Ojveda as we know it, it has grown over the years and was much smaller back then. It had a small Tavern and we enquired there for anyone who had the power to heal Mother. The bartender was a miserable old bugger in those days, not the Toda we have now. He sent us on our way, without help, but he did point out the way to Hydlaa. That was a long road I can tell you, all hills with creatures we had never seen before. After a time, we came to a forest and felt a little more at ease, and the going was a lot easier. On one particular junction, we came across what we thought was a guard. I remember he was very friendly, he gave us bread and talked of another, busier town up ahead. We told him of our plight, and how we had travelled far. He needed payment to let us pass, but we had nothing. He kept looking at Mothers necklace, a gift my Father had made for her, she was most insistant that he could not have that at any price. It was at this point he showed his true colours, he reached down and tried to tug the necklace from around her neck. Even in her weakened state, she put up a struggle. It all happened so fast my Brother and I were rooted to the spot, and then he was gone, running off through the woods. We attended to our Mother, but she didn?t answer, we cried, we shouted, we screamed ?. but still we could not rouse her. To this day, I believe the shock of what that rogue did actually killed her. The next few days were a blurr, but eventually we came to some large wooden gates, and had to sneak past the two guards.
A faint smile appears on Ekusiles face as he remembers
It?s odd what unimportant things you remember, but I remember thinking they were not very good guards, one of them kept asking everyone if they had a spare sword, and the other kept asking for a sack to put her lunch in, but at least they were too busy to see us as we crept by. We kept out of sight for a while, and got to know our way round pretty well. When I became bolder, I started meeting people, and they helped, a few trias here and there, where to kill for food, what to kill to loot and sell, when we had spare trias, we spent it on training, to be less conspicuos. When I was stronger, I went back to that road and found him, the rogue who had killed my mother so close to safety. He died that day, and I took his precious items as he had taken hers.
So that is my story my friends, of how I came to be here. You need to live for the day, be happy and help anyone who needs it, for you never know what Rogue may be hiding around the next corner.
