The Slave Knight Part 1: The Dagon

Chapter Eleven: Durug

Durug son of Celleog had ferried the warbands into his small shelter, that he had apparently fashioned himself. The merz-steak was ready and he had brought the flame downs just a tinge. He made a makeshift ceiling with a long wooden rod and the furry plets and tarps he had in his possession. It was a blessing for the warbands to have some respite from their more recent travels through the marsh, and they were ever grateful and thankful to Durug. Durug paid them in kind for the good fight with Sir Jonus with orcish ale, the little he had, the merz-steak and his story, which they were happy to imbibe all of.

Naturally, orcs only responded to strength and since hardly any of the slave knights had shown their prowess against him or in battle, much of what was said and done was filtered in and through Sir Jonus, who he became quite close with in their short time together. Questions would be filtered through Sir Jonus, conversation pieces, answers to questions, and anything in between. Sir Jonus did not mind, giving the whole hammer and nail speech he gave and was given back to Sir Wallace, to relent at his duties, but it stretched Sir Jonus further than he would have liked.

"Durug, Sir Wallace would like to know what you are doing here in the marshes." Durug gave Sir Wallace a contemptible look at the corner of his eye. A look of horror, sadness, and seriousness. A look of sorrow and regret.

"Durug, on quest." Before Sir Wallace could interject and prod Sir Jonus to ask, Sir Jonus took it upon himself to ask.

"What kind of quest Durug?"

"My warband, my warriors were on a quest to find...find..." Durug tried to find the words, but could not. The words escaped him and he looked to each slave knight and Meister Kevin for help, none of which they could give. "Weltschlange."

"What is that?" Sir Jonus asked quickly.

"Language not so good, big snake fish in Specific sea, you know?"

"The Dagon!" Sir Jonus responded happily, glad that he could show he was not as thick as many believed.

"Ayeeeeee," Durug said in his creepy tone he had become accustomed to. The warbands had begun to finish eating their fill. The orcish ale had been passed around twice over and their own stores of wine and ale began to be sipped on, naturally after offerings were made to Durug. The guest privilege had been sufficiently invoked and no harm would come to anyone, except those who willfully abandoned the sanctity of the guest privilege. It was time for stories to be brought out, it was time for Durug to speak of his life and times. It was time for Durug to enlist the help of the slave knights to avenge his fallen family.

* * *

Durug son of Celleog was not a normal orc by any means. Orcs do not have sons or daughters or kin, usually. Orcs, initially were bastardizations and corruption of elves and were born of the earth through the desecration of the various elven burial grounds. They have no part and parcel of any of the elves they came from, but in their creation, they in fact needed elves to continue to propagate, at first. However, orcs are a stubborn race and were loathed to be pigeonholed by such means of propagation. Orcs did not care for such a limitation, so in order to propagate to their heart's content they would go on expeditions. Expeditions of kidnapping, of rape, and of harvesting, to insure the procreation and continuance of their species. These were among the first orcs who had done this. A great and strong race of orcs who went about to make sure their seed would continue through and through the generations.

The first orcs, those who came from the ground, or Bodenwohner, bred. And they were quite good at it. By bred, this narrator wants to be clear, he means they raped. They raped a whole lot of different species creating more orcs in a generation than had ever been created since the arrival of the Bodenwohner. Yet these were not pure orcs. Far from the strong and virile Bodenwohner that had been devised by the dark magics from the pit. These were orcs who were half blood orcs, who had been with humans, and elves, and merz, and dwarves, and lycanthropes, and chimeras, and all types of beings.