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Chapter 1

The captain of the Sea Witch, Roric the Illustrated, was grinning. He was quite satisfied with his crew’s efficiency they worked like a great muscled machine as they hauled in their prize.  The Sea Witch is an orc dreadnaught, a huge ship of imposing proportions more like a floating citadel. Upon its lower decks were trolls carrying huge gaffs; each pole was 20 feet long and had a great barbed hook on its business end. They were working in unison swinging their poles over the sides of the great ship and hooking the mighty ropes of the drag net. Once hooked by the gaffs and pulled up the trolls grabbed the net with their great hands and started hauling in their catch.

          Roric looked down from the command deck and breathed in the cold air. The decks ran red with the blood, his shamans added potent chemicals to the wash of red that oozed off the decks and back out to sea. He felt a tingle of cruel pleasure at the site of the ship’s decks bathed in crimson, and the favors that will soon flow towards him that he will receive from this mission.

          Drums were beating a rhythm for the trolls to pace themselves and soon the leader of the trolls started in with a song.

“We hook’em n’ haul em, n’pull em up the plank!

On deck the blood is splashing and the smells is really rank!

So we yank, yank, yank, the net, n’pull in the catch!

 And then we throw it back again to get another batch!”

It was a silly song but it occupied the enormous troll’s tiny brains allowing them to work together without fighting. Well, without fighting too much.

          In the nets were bunches of mermaids and mermen tangled and flopping frantically while others lay boneless on the blood-soaked decks. Great black doors opened for storage and the Trolls would lift their catch up by the gaffs and throw them into the ships hold. In the holds the orc crewmen would throw shovels full of salt upon the dead merfolk; and wait for the next batch to fall into the pits, layering the prized meat for preservation in blood and salt. This gruesome process will go on nonstop for a few days, until the holds were full. The merfolk are good eating for the crew and the rest of the great hordes of Darklings, fighting in the wars against the humans of Northfalls. Feeding an army is quite a big deal and the merfolk were as numerous as schools of silvery fish in this strange part of the sea.

          A few lucky merfolk who were not affected by the narcotic drugs the orc shaman used to knock them out escape. And some even find their way back to their treasured reefs and the safety of their kingdom. It mattered naught to the crew of the Sea Witch they always get their fill.

          Roric the Illustrated was named that by the many tattoos covering his body that marked the history of his glorious life on his pale flesh. He was well muscled like all orcs, but he was also gifted with equal measures of cruelty and intelligence. He grinned evilly and spoke to his first, “After this we’ll raid up the coast a bit and take some merchant vessels with their holds filled with the glories and treasures of Northfalls! A few elven caravels would be nice too, eh?”

“Sure as all Captain,” His first replied another cruel orc equally scarred and tattooed.

Roric paused for a second. “What I’d really like to get my hands on is one of those dwarven merchants, with their two fat hulls filled what surprises I can’t even imagine!” He grinned again.

“Do not think about them, Roric!” hissed the creature standing in the shadows of the command deck for the sun was too bright. “You are not to mingle with them! Do you understand? The time will come! But not now! Roric, great pain will come if you do not accept this command! You’re path to admiralty does not lie this way! Do you understand?”

“Yes...I will not go out of my way to capture one, but what if they falls into our nets?” Roric asked a bit subdued, not wanting to provoke the wrath of the shrouded creature, but still trying to assert his leadership.

“If opportunity allows no chance of escape, then you may have one. Not more! Do you understand?” The shadow commanded.

“Yes, I understand.” Roric was shaken by the anger in the master’s voice. He looked around to see if his crew was watching. His officers just looked to the deck and tried not to interfere with the dark one’s gaze; each knowing how little their lives were worth to the dark masters.

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The mermaid was frantic. She kept whistling and clicking to her dolphin companion and looking around for something. Captain Grimbor Grimtonge just starred at the terrified creature and shouted up to his crewman in the crow's nest.

"Kimbri, do see anything unusual?” The Captain Grimbor was getting very angry, he wasn’t the most patient dwarf to begin with.

"Off port side about 200 maybe 300 yards, a large ripple in the water sir; looks big!" Kimbri replied to his captain, “Coming this way too!”

Grimbor pulled out his eyeglass and followed to where Kimbri had indicated and the mermaid was also looking in that direction and frantically pointing. "I don't see it yet. Wait, oh my...All hands to the decks!" He shouted. "Battle stations, prepare for a fight!"

"What's all the ruckus Grimbor?" Demanded Simor the ships mage-smith, who was now standing next him, a bit of smoked casawarii still stuck in his beard. "Oh my, haven't seen one of those for many years. They usually hate water this warm. She must be hungry, or something drove her this direction."

"She?" Asked Grimbor now noticeably more relaxed with Simor Grimtongue next to him. Grimbor knew that if the mage-smith was next to him things would probably end up favorably.

"Of course, it's a she the males are much smaller, or larger I can never seem to remember that bit." Simor replied pulling from his saddlebag which is always at his side, a huge leather-bound tome his book of grudges. Every dwarven mage-smith carries this book of all their knowledge of curses, tricks, and spells. All sorts of information collected by ancient mage-smiths for ages is recorded in each ancient tome; and passed down only through death to another worthy trustee who has apprenticed to the master for years. It is treasured above all other possessions and kept secret from other mage-smiths for the very fact that one might need it in case a conflict with another clan and their mage-smith arises.  He read a brief passage from the ancient tome in a strange and ancient tongue and then closed the great book and quickly put it away.

In that instance the great ripple that was coming towards the Sea Turtle and the little mermaid vanished into the deep blue depths of the Northern Sea. The sea was calm and beautiful again. The mermaid smiled at Simor and whistled to her dolphin companion who also seemed to smile at Simor; then they both leaped out of the water, twisted and dove back under the waves and swam off towards the Puzzle Reefs.

"What did you do to get whatever it was to leave?" asked Captain Grimbor.

"Now Captain, if I told you that what would you need me for?" Simor chuckled to himself, chewed at his pipe for a moment, and went back through the portal into the galley to return to his smoked casawarii and dark ale. "Call me if you need me."

The Sea Turtle came to a rest near a shallow water bay protected by the remains of an atoll that made up the Puzzle Reefs, in the middle of the eastern coast of the great North Sea. The coast was the Weir Lands, home to the Weir tribes. There were no ports here and no lighthouses and no settlements of ordinary folks for hundreds of miles. Vast distances of water and rocky islets were the only landforms here always with a few scattered trees or tiny forests on them, each like little isolated islands who knows what creatures lived there? The water was crystal clear, then blue on the surface fading to blue black towards the depths. Massive kelp mats floated like islands all around the DSF Sea Turtle. The reefs were too many to count and chart. Each exposed reef seemed to be angled and bent in such a manner to give it the appearance of a maze. This was the Puzzle Reef, part of the kelp forest kingdom of the Mer folk one of the many nation Weir tribes.

Kimbri, the ship's pilot and chart master sat high up in one of the crow's nest mounted on the huge smokestacks which also served as masts for the twin wing sails the Sea Turtle used to conserve fuel. He was diligently tracing the surrounding reefs and making a copy of them to be added to his charts. It might be important someday for him to have a few routes through mazelike kingdom of the mer folk. He was thankful that the smoke was no longer bellowing out of the great stacks his seat was attached to, it sometimes made his job slightly unbearable.

At rest the sails were unlocked and allowed to move with the wind. When the captain wanted to set the Turtle a-sail he would lock the wings with screw clamps and the wings would catch wind. The Turtle’s sails were an innovative design by Shilo, the chief engineer, which used tight rigid wings instead of large flimsy and floppy canvas sails that humans and elves use. Cloth is an expensive commodity for dwarves so Shilo’s design was efficient both for sailing and cost. Luckily for Kimbri Shilo had the valves switched off so no exhaust went out the smokestack, covering him in black smoke.

 Now with his eyeglass of true sight, his journal, and his navigator’s easel he drew the present shape of the reefs. His leather case was filled with various styluses and colors of ink. He sketched the shapes of the great kelp mats and each piece of the reef that he could make out above and below the water. Clarity was at least fifty feet with a little bit of chop. He would later sit at his desk in his small yet comfortable quarters and compare the newly written notes to his logbook studying the changes that have occurred since his last visit here a few years hence or so. Any other things he could remember he would add with new details when needed. Kimbri also thought that if he could get the captain’s permission he could try out his new contraption that he, Shilo, and Simor designed which was a helmet that allowed a dwarf to go underwater and breath like normal for a bit attached to an air line and a series of bellows. He was excited about trying that here especially, thinking he might catch a glimpse of the mer folk in their own element since they were very beautiful and gracefully proportioned. He could map the underwater pathways with the mer folk’s help, quite useful for navigating, he thought.

Later that night or the next captain Grimbor Grimtongue would ask him to join the other officers for a few drinks and he would discuss the additions to his journal with them before he would finalize them in his log. The captain maintained his own log as every officer was requested to do by the high council of commerce, but it contained different information more important to a captain. Kimbri’s maps were solely for navigation.

The air was fresh and crisp, the skies clear, with a slight breeze. The blue grey water splashed against the dark wet stones of the reef and made crashing sounds followed by sizzling as the water found its way back to the sea from the many irregularities of the exposed reefs polished gravel beaches. Sea gulls and other sea birds flew around the odd dwarven ship looking for scraps and tidbits of food tossed over the side by the cook or crew. He even saw a few harpies off in the distance, beautiful and quite dangerous like most of the folk of the Weir nations.

The Sea Turtle is a wide stable catamaran as big as two caravels side by side; yet she floated higher on the water than other ships and could sail over obstacles other ships would crash upon, due to her shallow draft. She had between her hardened iron wood hulls a great steam powered paddle wheel and above it a twostory deck. Deep in one of her hulls was the constant chugging and hissing of the steam engine and boiler the fiery heart of the Sea Turtle, the other hull contained hundreds of crates, trunks, barrels, and bales. But the boiler and steam engine is what made the Turtle truly special. The Sea Turtle had two smokestacks one on each main hull which also held the rigid wing sails and the crow’s nests or view platforms. At her very top above her command deck between the two hulls, was the twin barreled steam cannon, another devise by Shilo and her craftiness.

Shilo Silvermoon and her staff are in charge of keeping the beast ready and hot. It was warm and smoky in the engine hold and boiler room of the Sea Turtle and Shilo loved it. She was a master engineer and craftsman of unparalleled accomplishment. She has been building, crafting, and refining every piece of the Sea Turtle's steam engine and crank mechanism for nearly fourteen years.  Lucas her second was nearly as good as Shilo and had been her apprentice before his joining the Sea Turtle's crew formally. Finally engineer apprentice Marrin Greenhammer who was Shilo’s new trainee, and the coal feeder and powder monkey, Timble Firestone who one day will become an apprentice after his guild internship. Together they ran the whole ship at least that is what Shilo would say. And Captain Grimbor might agree, because if anything happened to them the Sea Turtle would be lost.

Upon the deck the rest of the crew was going about their business preparing the trade goods. Most of the items for trade were held in barrels sealed with wax huge things that were heavy even for an average dwarf, and the Sea Turtle had no average dwarves, each of her crew was exceptional. Each crew member not working directly with the running of the ship carried parcels and tied nets and transported barrels. The mer folk were starting to gather and the crew loved watching the mer folk swim up to the Turtle leap high and some came straight out of the water trying to get a closer look at the odd looking ship with her salty dwarven crew. One beautiful mermaid caught Kimbri's and Simor's attention. Even Captain Grimbor was taken aback by her beauty, and few things were considered more beautiful than the Sea Turtle to its captain.

She had shimmering emerald green scales down her dorsal fin and her tail was like a fanned veil of gossamer pink silk that bellowed behind her in the clear water. Her skin was pale white porcelain which could be seen beneath her shiny scaled armor. Her breasts were hidden behind the hardened mother of pearl chest plate shaped to the very curvature of body. Her hair was deep coral red and her eyes looked like split opals. Her name was unpronounceable to land folk, so the dwarves just referred to her as Lillo the first few syllables of her name. She was the emissary of the mer folk who lived up in the northern parts of the vast northern sea; daughter of the mer king Philos.

They traded pearls, ivory, ambergris, and mother of pearl from the giant oysters that grew around these waters for weapons of dwarven silver steel and jewelry of gold, platinum, and gemstones.  They stayed for awhile and dined on raw thin slivers of fish, accented with a salty black sauce. They chatted about the current state of affairs and various craft secrets. The mer folk like most tribes of the Weir Land loved dwarven crafted items because dwarven crafted tools could survive the harshness of the oceanic environment, never rusting, and seldom dulling. And they were beautiful to behold for the dwarves put great care into making their items works of art. A dwarven crafter would never put their family name upon an item that wasn't beautiful to look at, a pleasure to use, and should last a lifetime.  After awhile a strange uneasiness seemed to come from the mer folk, like they wanted to leave.

In the distance Kimbri could see a fog building unnaturally. He knew for the time of year and the day this was not a natural fog. It was black and collected around a center mass. It also traveled against the wind. He pulled the eyeglass of True-Sight out and looked to the gathering darkness. The Eyeglass of True-Sight is a peculiar device that Shilo Silvermoon constructed from a strange mineral found in the head of a giant cave serpent. When she smelted it together with a lens crafted from ruby dust and a few other crystals she produced a rose-colored lens that she polished keenly and wrote certain powerful runes around it; the eye can see heat beyond what a normal dwarven eye can sense. All dwarves can see a range of heat but not over long distances or after a bit of time has passed, but the Eyeglass of True-Sight has perfected their innate abilities with spell smith powers. In the thick fog Kimbri could see figures.

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"Captain we have company, in the fog! It is a ship obscured by an unnatural fog." Kimbri called to Grimbor.

He looked up from the beautiful sight of the mer folk emissary and watched the flowing fog creeping across the waves towards the Sea Turtle. The mer folk seemed surprised as well. No one would dare attack the mer folk in their own waters without their permission. The reef themselves were deadly without a guide and really good charts.

"Piter call all hands; and ask Shilo to crank up the pressure. Prepare the guns! All hands on deck for a potential assault!" Grimbor issued commands confidently because he trusted his crew. But Grimbor was worried about the mer folk and a fight on their beloved kingdom.

Shilo heard the alarm bell even before Piter's voice came through tube in the engine room. She had started cranking the levers that controlled the steam pressure, and told Lucas, her second engineer to keep the boiler running hot. Her crew filled the furnace with coal, forced more water into the many tubes to keep the steam pressure up. They followed her commands but also cleared the salt from the filters to speed up the whole process. That is what a trained crew does. She unhinged the turret from its resting gears so it could turn freely. She looked through her periscope and saw the approaching fog. Her periscope was even more remarkable than Kimbri's eyeglass. She shouted through the voice tube to the captain. "Orc battle dreadnaught." She ordered Lucas to climb up the engineer shaft and get into the turret firing seat.

"Orc battle dreadnaught? How could you be so sure?" The captain replied unconvinced with his chief engineer's guess. What would it be doing out here in the middle of the North Sea this far out and near the mer folk. It didn't make any sense at all. They usually hug the coastal waters for protection from the weather and high seas.

"Captain Grimbor we have seen this ship before." The emissary told the captain. "They are green land folk with big fangs, long blackish hair; they are savagely adorned in strange jewelry and religious fetishes. They have tattoos of crescent moons, and they eat...With great barbed nets they catch us in the shallows…" She couldn't finish her sentence for it seemed to hurt her deeply just the thought of what she was saying."We have lost many of our kind to these ravishers and pirates! They wield a strange and powerful magic which affects the very water we breathe, so much blood. I must direct my people to go deep and stay there not to return for many nights. We are sorry, we give favor to you and your kind, and may you live free. Goodbye!" She called in her strange tongue and all the merfolk slowly disappeared into the cool protective depths of the sea. It seemed to Grimbor that all the creatures followed the merfolk and vanished fearful of being intoxicated and captured. A blackish cloud formed around the great ship approaching them.  

Grimbor watched the horizon and called to Shilo, “So what do you think?" 

"Our guns can hit them from here. But we will get maybe three volleys before the steam pressure needs to be revitalized." Shilo told the captain unemotionally. “She’s too big for our canons to do any real harm.”

“Shilo let me have it straight.” He commanded of her shouting down the hollering tube, while never taking his glass off the dreadnaught.

"They out number us with ballista and crew by ten to one or more, she answered professionally. “We won't last! They have poor sails mostly for looks since they rely on oars, they are not strong sailors and they maneuver terribly. Their few ships are mostly floating fortresses; rowed by slaves so they do not have the ability to have a long drawn out fight. With the Turtle's wings and the wind and currents in our favor we could run the paddlewheel full steam all night and leave them behind in the dark stuck in the reef." She answered.

"So? We run is that what you are suggesting, Shilo?" Grimbor asked he trusted her implicitly.

"Sir, I am not a hero I am an engineer. This is not in our favor." She replied into her voice tube deep in the hull of Sea Turtle’s engineering section which would hide the emotion in her voice. She wished she could see his face now to deduce what the captain's course of action would be. She was no coward and if the captain chose to fight, she would, and she would die gloriously, but she loved this ship and it seemed a waste to lose her in her prime with her hulls stocked full of wonders of the world.

Grimbor looked to the fog and then back to the stern. He was thinking. He looked again to the sea at all the peculiar islands of floating seaweed and grinned.

"Hey Kimbri!” Grimbor shouted up to the crow’s nest near the top of the telescoping sail wing.

“Aye Capt’n!” Kimbri yelled back down, still not taking his eyes off the enemy ship.

“Are they on a path to us? A straight path?" Grimbor added.

"I can trace out a most probable course,” Kimbri answered, running the calculations in his head. “By the way their ship floats low in the water, I would guess her to be very deep keeled, they will most probably take the center path, and it is deeper and uncluttered. Got a plan?" Kimbri smiled he knew it was not going to be good for the orcs.

"Piter you have the deck." Grimbor said excitedly I need to talk to Shilo and Simor, and he hopped down the steep steps leading into the heart of the DSF Sea Turtle positively giddy! He actually slide past the last three steps with his hands on the brass handrails.

Awhile later just after dusk with the water the color of mercury, the Sea Turtle released seven strange bristling brown barrels. Each barrel was tarred and waxed to protect it from the water. They looked like giant brown eggs floating very low and heavy in the water with just a few iron bristles breaking the surface of the waves. Simor had calculated the density perfectly. The kegs bristling with hard iron spikes and harpoon heads would stick deep into the hull of the dreadnaught. Each egg was filled with a mixture that Simor put together from his lab below deck. Shilo had her crew fasten each explosive with hundreds of iron spikes and any other thing that would cause harm. Each egg was also filled with an explosive jelly that would actually burn on the surface of the water. The fuse was an alchemical mixture of acid and metal that would eventually ignite deep in the belly of each keg. The barrels were floated into the channel that Kimbri guessed was the most likely course available to the orcs.

The Sea Turtle chugged full speed ahead into the falling night. The black fog surrounding the orc dreadnaught was dissipating as the orc shaman’s spell wore off. Grimbor and Kimbri were both looking back towards the black ship knowing the frustration their captain was now feeling.

Roric, The Illustrated, had lost the prize of capturing the Sea Turtle, and their food source had vanished. And now they were stuck following the only course through the reef that was negotiable by such a giant ship. Seaweed seemed to block their path and the night was coming making the reef even more deadly. The dreadnaught bumped something, but it had such a strong hull the object just seemed to stick to it not actually penetrating the thick wooden hull. Then there was another thump and still no damage to the hull. 

The orc captain thought their dreadnaught had just ran into some floating seed pods of the kelp mats or something as innocuous. He ordered the crew to keep rowing, the heavy pounding of the war drum kept time. He increased the speed of the rhythm to quicken their passage through the narrow channel.

Grimbor ordered the crew to douse all lights and run the Sea Turtle black. At that moment Simor, who had been mumbling a spell readied for this purpose finished his incantations, four lights similar in shape and location to the Sea Turtle’s appeared over the starboard bow and drifted off matching the speed of the Turtle but headed in a different direction. The Sea Turtle seemed to disappear over the horizon as night fell, and she quietly slipped away. While the spelled lights kept a steady pace, moving at an angle away from the Sea Turtle’s course. Sometimes the classics, a simple yet subtle traveling light spell does the trick, Simor thought to himself chuckling, drawing a huge draft form his favorite pipe.

The dreadnaught kept following the doppelganger lights Simor had created and fell further behind. Slowed now by four of Grimbor’s special kegs the Dreadnaught would never be able to catch them.

There was a bright flash in the night. Then the sound of a tremendous crack and a thundering series of explosions, and the orc ship flared brightly like the sun for a brief moment as the white-hot magnesium charges burned the oiled hull of the dreadnaught to cinders. Three more of the lightening bright bursts followed by the rumble of explosives and the night grew quiter.

“Did you hear something Kimbri?” asked Marrin while Shilo seemed to be scanning the horizon.  Both engineers and Kimbri were up on the deck watching the moonlight scatter across the water trying to see the war dreadnaught which was far away, just dipping over the horizon on an easterly course away from them. Bioluminescent wakes were spiraling off the bows of the Sea Turtles twin hulls as the water splashed vigorously by. “Shilo did you hear it?” Marrin asked again.

“No,” Shilo replied. “But you know me hearing is not as good as it used to be with all the banging and clacking in the engine room. My guess is our friends received the captain’s favors.”

“I think I may have seen the flashes,” replied Marrin pointing easterly.

“So, are they done?” Kimbri asked hopefully to Shilo trying to spot where Marrin was looking.

“No, probably not done permanent like the packages were not enough to sink her. But they won’t be no trouble to us I’ll wager.” Shilo replied matter of fact. “She’ll be fixed up maybe two to three weeks if the locals don’t harass them too much. But the orcs have done terrible things to these mer folk; I’m thinking the dreadnought is not the biggest fish in these parts. And the mer folk are friends with them all.”

“Two to three weeks and we’ll be well on way to Westport, and home.” Kimbri added more to himself then to Shilo, but she understood his longing to get back home to the caverns of Darkshore and the hearth fires of the Clan’s home tunnels.

“Yunno, Kimbri with most of this part of our journey over our main work is done and we could have a bit of fun, maybe in Westport?” Marrin paused slightly embarrassed by her boldness. “I can’t wait to get back to Darkshore. Shilo and I are doing work on some of her new designs, would you be interested in joining us after a bit of break at the Hearth? We’d both love the company.” Marrin asked Kimbri hoping he would since she was working real close with Shilo, and the three of them got along so well together. The other crew and mates were fun, but Marrin felt much closer to Kimbri and Shilo, where they often found each other up on the Sea Turtle’s deck gazing out at the vastness of the sea.

“Yeah I am knowing what you both mean, Darkshore calls us all,” Shilo smiled thinking she might leave Kimbri and Marrin together on the deck for a bit and winked at Marrin.

Kimbri gazed at Shilo and Marrin both; though they were fresh from the engine room and had smudges of oil and engine grease on their hands and face; he thought they were both beautiful. Shilo as the elder was out of his proper reach still stunning, but Marrin was like a young Shilo and would become more beautiful as she aged. As the night became darker his keen dwarven eyes started to pick up the many textures of the clan weave of each of their outer garments. Shilo’s hair was worn tightly braided in an intricate and yet artsy pattern accented subtly with bright colored dyes that only dwarven eyes could detect. Any dwarf looking at her could tell she was a master by the incredible details of her garments, the rich bright colors, and tightly braided hair that was interwoven with tiny mithril strands that accentuated her sapphire blue eyes. To human eyes which do not perceive the depths and variations in the wavelengths of light as a dwarf, she would appear to be wearing somewhat drab heavy clothing that highlighted her healthy bosom and strong legs. But to Kimbri and any other dwarf Shilo would appear to flash radiant colors and patterns, like a rare tropical bird.

Now Marrin was not as skilled as Shilo being an apprentice and being much younger, so she could not wear her hair as heavily braided as Shilo, it would be frowned upon a bit. But she wore her curly red hair slightly braided and wrapped with pretty wires allowing the loose strands to fall upon her shoulder. Her clothes were also of a lower order but still they accentuated her ample bosom and graceful hips well. Kimbri felt ashamed for thinking these thoughts. But he really did find each dwarf maiden enchanting.

Shilo Silvermoon acted as if she did not seem to notice Kimbri’s expression and in a somewhat motherly tone suggested they get some food to eat and join the crew in the galley and mess hall. “I’ll save a spot for you two in the Galley, Marrin you should get your fiddle; I’m in a mood for a bit of fun and some song.” She said to them, winking again at Marrin. And Shilo withdrew from the younger dwarves leaving them alone in the closing darkness.

Kimbri reached for Marrin’s hand but she had turned slightly momentarily their hands touched, tingling like a spark of magic, but then they separated and the cool ocean breeze blew passed them.

“Oh well, I guess I should get my instrument, um…see ya soon Kimbri?” She smiled at him breathed in deeply and left awkwardly, thinking to herself about why she always sounded so stupid talking to him, he was actually sort of an average dwarf, muscular but not too much, he dressed mostly for work, but the sparkle in his eyes is what she loved most.

Oh well Kimbri thought to himself for a moment they were all talking together again and shared the beautiful ocean scenery. Like a breath of fresh air, he smiled to Marrin and followed her down the steps, through the narrow portals to the crew’s mess hall. She smelled of freesia, one of the perfumes she had bought earlier on their trip in an elven market at North Weald.

Next stop Westport and home he grinned to himself and followed the cute engineer apprentice to the galley. He tried to hide the fact that he was watching her and felt a little ashamed that his eyes followed down her beautifully woven hair that hung loosely over her shoulders, past the small of her back and resting on her hips.

Everyone smiled at Shilo and Marrin, whose mere presence comforted the crew. Since Shilo was the chief engineer the crew felt that if she was relaxed, then the Sea Turtle was running according to her expectations.

They nodded to Kimbri and cleared a space for the three of them. The meal was served dwarvish family style as usual; which meant large ceramic serving bowls and platters heaped with food. The cook of the Sea Turtle was Brodi Hammerhand and like most Hammerhands he enjoyed eating and fighting. He had prepared for them three giant steamed rock fishes, each seasoned with a delicate ginger scallion sauce he had learned from the elves of North Weald. The time the Sea Turtle needed to make some hasty repairs after a meeting with a huge dragon turtle that lived in the cold northern waters far up the coast. Brodi being a gifted cook spent his time meandering around the beautiful streets of North Weald and eating at a local favorite each day. He would share his recipes with the elven cooks when he found a suitable practitioner of the culinary arts. That usually meant a lot of drinking, boasting, and storytelling.

Kimbri tasted the fish, savory, flaky and delicate. He hungrily spooned over his crock of rice and beans more of the fish and the succulent sauce. He enjoyed it because it was elvish and it brought to his thoughts those few days spent working with Shilo and Marrin on the repairs for the hull, and wandering the marvelous streets of the elven port city. Warmed by the company of the crew in good humors, full tankards of dark ale, and tasty food Kimbri felt content and a bit sleepy. One of the dwarven rangers had brought his travel lute shaped like a teardrop and played some elvish tunes he had picked up and soon everyone was singing and enjoying the evening. Another brought out a whistle, and another of the crew a recorder, and Marrin played her dwarven five stringed fiddle. She was skilled and soon everyone was in a jovial mood. A crew favorite was the, Dwarven Clans. This sea shanty tells the story of the clans through the eyes of an old Grimtongue sailor man. Since the Dwarves had no nautical history of their own so they borrowed from the strong tradition of human sea fairing culture, often just changing a few of the words to fit their ways.

“Dwarven Clans” Grimtonge Sea Shanty Sung to Haul away Joe

The Grimtonges took to coal and iron

That damn near drove them batty, mate-y

Way, chip away, and haul away coal.

 Them Silvermoon’s liked jewels and treasures

Gemstones bright as sun light, laddy.

Way chip away and haul away coal.

  Bloodforge’s pressed and dug too deeply

Afraid to get their booted feet wet

Way chip away and haul away coal

Blackwaters are for hiking madly

Rangers march and climbing gladly

Way chip away and haul away coal

We Grimtonges like to chip away ore

Turning rock and iron into steel

We chip away and haul away coal

We make strong tools and ships to haul em

So the other clans can quit their balling

We ship away and haul away coal.

Greenhammers looked all nice and pretty

Armor sparkling likes a kiddy

Way chip away and haul away coal

 Fellweather’s mines are rich it’s told

They’re only filled with silver and gold

Way chip away and haul away coal

Goldmoon’s sing and dance like children

Laughing as they craft and build em

Way chip away and haul away coal.

Those Hammerhands are mighty fighters

Only building shields and pointy daggers

Way chip away and haul away coal

 Firestone’s drink too strong elixirs

Drowned in whiskey, rum, and other mixtures

Way chip away and haul away coal

There are no tales told of the others

War, disease, and famine, have em

We chip away and haul away coal

The singing would go long into the night. The shift on watch would be extra vigilant this evening but the rest of the crew relaxed as they saw Shilo and the more seasoned crew mates loosened up. Even Stanard Blackwater, the grim leader of the marine ranger squad brought out his pipe and sat in his seat by the fireplace, another comfort Captain Grimbor insisted that the Sea Turtle had knowing the crew would appreciate it. And the crew did enjoy their galley, hearth, and mess hall.

The next few weeks found the DSF Sea Turtle and her crew unburdened with troubles. Clear sailing and rich trading allowed everyone to ease up a bit. Captain Grimbor gave some extra watches below and a few days were spent in a safe harbor with a long beach of soft reddish sands and a few hot springs bubbled from the high cliffs and collected into some natural pools.  Dwarves like the other civilized folk liked to soak in hot waters and let the layers of hard work wash away. Most folk don’t know much about the dwarves and their desire for cleanliness thinking dwarves are into drinking and getting their food everywhere but in their mouths. But most of those stories come from the other folk meeting clan-less dwarves, brigands mostly, greedy and foul tempered lots.

The elves have a saying, “You could smell a dwarf.” Now what they meant was that dwarves are very hard to hear because of all the concern they must take to survive in an underground world where many creatures live by sonar and powerful hearing. So, dwarves have survived by stealthy use of applied textiles and runes to hide the natural noises of armor. But an elf can usually smell the fragrant and perfume oiled dwarf from the dank musty background smells often encountered in caves. Of course, this was misinterpreted by everyone as an insult and the elves knowing they are always misunderstood did not care to correct this now universal joke.

So though a dwarf might smell like freesia, patuli, sandal wood, and other fine scented oils, the saying sticks, “You can smell a dwarf.” Since most folks of the sunlit world only encounter clan-less brigands who do smell like blood, sweat, and dirt. The saying is especially aggravating to dwarves.

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