Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Of the Eldritch Goblins


Mette dwelt with her husband in the distant lands beyond the great forest. In those days few of her people had come that way and the land was wild and dangerous. Giants alone wandered those empty spaces. Mette was a comely dwarf, her hair was long and her eyes wide and deep blue. But she ran afoul of Orn the giant and he called to her. Orn was tall and straight for his kind, but he was hard and cruel. But she did not see these latter qualities, she only saw the strength of him and she loved him and for this she followed him into the marshlands. They dwelt there as people will, alone and wild.

A time came that she returned to their camp and saw Orn picking flesh from his teeth with a long, slender bone. “What have you eaten Orn and why did you not save some for me.” 


He smiled at her, but said nothing.
She saw then the crime of his meal for their in the bowl of his lap lay her husband’s clawed hammer and his long blue knitted cap. “That cap kept his ears warm Orn. For his ears were sensitive to the cold, and it worried him when the wind blew.” And the giant laughed quietly, “Mayhap a helmet instead of a cap next time, eh Mette?”
 

A rage took her and she rose, lifting the clawed hammer. “You should not have slain my husband for he was a goodly soul and meant no harm to any and sundry that walked the earth. And you should know that there is no kindness in me.” And before the giant could answer, she slept upon him and with the hammer plucked out his eyes. His howls of pain brought the trees low and as he leapt on high she crushed his left leg and he fell to the ground. There she pounded his right hand and arm and left him to lie in his own ruin. “Suffer now Orn for all time. Or die. I care not.”

Thus the Red God found her, and he saw in her the rage of vengeance and the sorrow of hate and he promised her immortality and she had no thought but for the blood-stained, blue hat and she acquiesced.


~ Of Gods and Monsters of Aihrde (the Black Box)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I am so digging Aihrde right now. I picked the After Winter's Dark folio last week and have been devouring it. Also been picking up the PDFs of the A series. A0-4 so far.

Troll Lord said...

Vincent, thank you for the kind words!

The good news is that there is just about to be a flood of Aihrde material released. I think we are just weeks out now for the Codex of Aihrde.

Unknown said...

Looking forward to it. Trollzah!

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