Amber - Musings of a Tunnel Rat

[Highlander]

The name's Amber. Odd sort of name in a way, but then I look around and see that how I grew up was odd, compared to most of Impiltur. Would I swap it? No way. You can blame my old Pa for the name. Most folk don't come across the likes of my Pa, Cliffhanger Joe he was called, and he was a Tapper. A what? You know the new silver mines north of Lyrabar, right? It's the Tappers that found them, and them that did have got it sorted now, all nice and rich. The others, they still look in the mountains, like my Pa. I reckon he'll look until the day he drops - like old Throin would say "It's nay the gold he wants lass, it's the finding of it". Always the next gorge, the next tunnel, would be the big one, the one that would make him settle down, but the dwarf was right, he never would. He always went back to my Ma though, back down in Millford on the road down to Lyrabar, and the Laughing Duck. She still works there, still cleans the rooms including the one I was born in, nine months after Pa was flush from finding a pile of amber up by Eagle Crag. He said the mountain folk say that amber is made by the light of the setting sun shining on the ground on Midsummer. Mountain folk are like the Tappers, they like their stories, but there's most always a nugget of the truth hidden away in those stories, right? Anyway, that's where the name came from, see? Suppose it could have been worse, he could have dug up some coal.

The Duck's not much of a place really, but it was most of my world for twelve summers. It's the sort of roadside tavern with lodgings you find all over, folk travelling to and from the mountains. Tappers, hunters, miners, soldiers. My Ma worked hard there, cleaning, cooking, making beds, and more or less from when I could walk I did the same. Wasn't all work, there was the stream and woods and the other village brats to run with, trees to climb, travellers to annoy. Pa always came by too - whatever else his faults, he stuck by us, me and Ma, even if we never saw him for moons on end. I would climb the tree on the hill out the back of the Duck and look out north to the mountains, wonder where he was, what he was doing. He always came back with stories, I mentioned them before, but I loved those stories. Giant eagles, great peaks, gorges, and the caves - the endless, deep darkness filled with all dreams and nightmares. It was those stories that put the lure of the underground in me. They meant a lot, meant that there was a big world away from the Duck that one day I would see. Don't be daft, I hear you say. It's dangerous, the underground, filled with gobbers and worse, and you got a good place to stay at the Duck, make your life there. I know, right? You got a point, and it's a fair one, but my Pa's tales and wanderings were in my blood. I knew I wouldn't be staying at the Duck forever, I wouldn't even end up in the city, I would go north with him one day to those mountains I used to look at from the tree. I knew I'd had enough of the Duck when Ma got me to clean up old granpa Mard's shit from the latrine floor again. Got to be more to life than that, right?

[Highlander]

Caused a bit of a stink really, when I told Ma I was heading off with Pa. She didn't want me heading off to that sort of danger, that's all she could see. We came to a deal eventually, just to keep everyone sweet. I'd go off with Pa for a bit, but she wanted me to stay at the Duck in the winter and make myself useful there. Fair enough really, it wasn't like Pa went far into the mountains in winter anyway, and the Duck taught me a few things too. Not just how to smile at pissed up idiots, but how if you want to know about a place or its folk, ask the barkeep. Or better still, work the place yourself and keeps your eyes and ears open. So that's how come I'm clearing tables for Ames at Outentown, see? Learned some stuff already, met some folk and used the downtime to explore and practice what I really want to do.

What do I want to do? Well...that's be telling, right? I'll tell you though, of some of the times I was with Pa in the mountains. He had a good friend, a dwarf called Throin. He'd known Throin for best part of twenty years, which for a dwarf was just about long enough to count as a friend of sorts. Pa always said if you want to get something done, ask a dwarf. Throin taught me a lot too, he taught me a bit of their tongue, and the gobbers one too. Thought it was daft at first, but Throin reckoned you need to know your enemies tongue as well as your own. Don't ever see me wanting to share an ale with a gobber, but suppose might be useful to fool them, or to know what they're up to. Throin was from the mountains, but for some reason he didn't live with the other dwarves. He never really let on why to me, but Pa told me that he'd turned away from the dwarf gods when he was deep underground. Pa said he had travelled really deep, down below to a place he called the Deep Wastes, to help folk out of trouble. Throin did tell me a bit about that, and about how it's best to offer prayers to the gods of the caves and darkness. He said too, that while that made sense underground, folk could get the wrong idea about you if you talked too much about darkness. Guess he was right, I saw that with that tall weird woman who wouldn't take her share. Right, it was only a single sardil, but still you got to take what's due you, accept what others do to help you as well as help them back. Can't go round spurning folk with good intents, or they'll stop offering, and one day you'll need that help, especially in the darkness.

Seeing as the tavern was a bit quiet, old Ames let me go wandering for a few days. I'm right knackered now, hope I can get up in the morning to do the breakfast work, got some fresh picked blueberries to add to the porridge to make it a bit nicer, reckon folk'll go for that. Still, was good to get up into the mountains, and beneath them for a bit too. Reminded me of those first trips with Pa and Throin, good to see a new part of the mountains. Spotted a few interesting places to go back with more blades than mine, some things moving in the dark that just as well didn't notice me. It was Throin that first got me to learn how to stay hidden, and more important in the dark, quiet. He would put out the lantern in a cave and have me sat there for ages, just listening, touching, smelling..everything that the things down there that want to eat you are better at. I got comfortable with that though after a while. Scared me at first, but found there was something almost comforting about the quiet of a dark tunnel. Anyway, the weather in the mountains was shite, so it was good to get into shelter for a bit too. Found some signs of folk working in some big cave that a river ran into, trees cut down not so long ago, and signs of recent work. Good to see folk still making a go of things in a place like that, though I was a bit worried to see nobody around. Bad memories see? I'll tell you about Riley's Hope one day, when it's daylight. Came down by the big library, place called Songhall, up in the mountains. I'm not the biggest bookworm, but reckon the place is worth another visit, a library that big must have some maps and stuff about the mountains and its caves. Good place to start looking for what Throin was looking for too, place he told me about that he'd heard tales of. Yeah, I know, tales, but like I said they usually have some truth clinging to them. He never found it, and he won't go back down that far now. Lost his nerve a bit, but I owe him so much, maybe I'll find it for him. Drowned city deep underground... easy, right?

[Highlander]

30 years previously, somewhere in the Deep Wastes.

Throin was dying. He lay on the rough dark tunnel floor in a slowly increasing pool of his own blood, and as he could feel his eyes close, his ears echoed with the sounds of the battle raging around him. He could still see the others, fighting desperately for their lives, and he could still make out the beaked chitinous monstrosity that had dropped from the cavern roof onto them. He felt no pain, not yet, but only a desperate failure as with his fading sight he saw the creature fell first one, then another of his erstwhile companions. He had failed to spot it, failed to lead them a safe path, failed...and then all was silence. Total silence, and he dimly made out the creature pause in its attacks. He struggled to open his eyes, even as he felt himself slip into oblivion, and was sure he could see the very walls of the cavern move and relentlessly pound the blood drenched aberration. The delirium of near death...and amid the unearthly silence, his eyes closed and awareness left him.

He did not know how long it was until he opened them again, but it was in reality not long, and as a feeling of warmth flowed through him he felt the wound on his belly tighten and seal back up in response to an urgently muttered incantation from the figure that now stood above him. Clad in dark metal chainmail, the man tending him was pale, almost gaunt, and as Throin began to recover, the man went to tend to the others. Throin slowly looked over the carnage in the tunnel. The creature was a broken mess of its insectoid plates, but his companions were scattered and likewise broken over the tunnel floor. The dark clad stranger could seem to do nothing for them, other than arrange them with some respect and he finally spoke to Throin. "Master dwarf, come...there is nothing that can be done for your comrades, they are one with the darkness now. These creatures seldom hunt alone, we cannot linger here...there is a place of safety you can recover. I ask you to trust me...you would also lie dead without my intervention, I mean no harm to you." Throin could barely argue in his weakened state, even with the healed wound, and there was little he could do other than to stumble along with the man. "Who are ye..?" he spluttered eventually. A calm reply as they made their way through the tunnels "Arten Tirin, Darkwalker of Ibrandul...come, save your energy, there will be time for talk soon enough."

[Highlander]

Took me near on two hours to get the rapier clean. I couldn't sleep until I got every little spot of blood off it - I don't blame the archaeologist for feeling crap, it's a hard thing to see folk die in front of you, can be even harder if you've had a good hand in killing them. Good job I'd seen a bit of dead people before, down in the tunnels, but I can't say I liked it. Not like the half orc, she seemed almost upset when there weren't any left. Won't be turning my back on her too much, which may be hard if I'm up front scouting. Just have to hope I stay more use alive than dead. I'm getting a bit faster, a bit lighter on my feet, but still got a long way to go. Trailed along watching Rith do some scouting, she's way better than me but I learned a bit from watching her, and just staying out of the way of the big lads with the swords who did for most of the gobbers. Felt a bit more use in that house, but felt bad that I gave an all clear for traps when it wasn't. Not that I could have got close enough to see it as it was under the noses of the last of the buggers holding out, but if I wasn't sure, should have said so. Lesson learned, and we all made it out alive, if hurting a bit. Nathaniel didn't seem to mind, seems he has a nose for sniffing out trouble, I should tell him about the graveyard and go take another look there to see if the high nobs at the Temple have got off their arses to do anything about it.

[Highlander]

Been hurting all over these last few days, done a lot of scouting for folk, and ended up in a lot of fights and taken a few hits. I'm getting quicker with the blade, which is good, without the big armour and shield that the likes of Udhana carry, I know I'm vulnerable. Keep wits about you, which is easier said than done sometimes, but I'm getting there. Interesting sights too, including a dead Hook Horror, which reminded me lots of old Throin and how he lost his nerve. Didn't know they wandered up from the Wastes that far, another thing to keep a look out for, as if the tunnels weren't dangerous enough. Ah well...if I wanted safe, I'd have stayed doing dishes. Bit worried about Nathaniel after that fuss with that ring, not seen him since and that thing definitely got to his mind. I didn't tell Gavin about it, not sure what he would think about destroying an artefact like that, I need to watch him a bit more to see where his boundaries are, even if it looks like our interests are at least a bit aligned. Going to take a few days to rest up though, and at least I have the coin and some contacts now to not need to work at the tavern, I'm sure old Ames will find another pair of hands if he needs them.