Green Snake Tribe In Danger

From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki

Green Snake Tribe In Danger

The lone warrior trudged his way through the forests to the south of Skara Brae. In the sack he has slung over his shoulder, he carried a massive pile of gold, numerous bottles of ale, and all manner of food. A simple wooden shield was strapped to his back, while a sturdy hammer pick, made of stone and wood, hung from the leather belt on his waist.

“De tribe get luts uf fuud and drinkie tuday!” Ughdar proudly proclaimed, shifting the sack from one shoulder to another. As the chieftain of the Green Snake Tribe, Ughdar ventured out every day to collect food and ale from the orcs that called the area around Yew their home.

He often ventured alone. The other tribesmen were too untrained for the dangerous work. They mostly stayed at home in the swamps south of the dungeon called Destard by other humans. There they worked to keep the children safe from the alligators and rare lizard or rat man attack party or keep down the population of corpsers.

As Ughdar closed in on the swamps which he had called home for many years, he noticed an odd column of smoke rising above the mangrove trees and swamp vines. At first, he thought it might have been a cooking fire, but it was much too large. It could have been a bonfire, but the tribesmen rarely had enough wood to spare for one of those...

Ughdar dropped his sack and hefted his shield and hammer pick. The pick began to shiver in his grasp. It had been enchanted hundreds of years ago by a mighty Green Snake Shaman to protect the tribe. Ughdar wielded it with deadly skill. He knew that today would require his to be in top shape.

He raced into the swamp at top speed. He ran so fast, it felt as if his feet didn’t even sink into the muck. As he got closer to the tribe’s home, the acrid smoke hung heavier in the air. The smell of burning wood and thatch filled his nose and nearly caused him to gag, but he was too intent on reaching the camp.

There was a loud splash of water as a lizard man jumped from hiding to assault him. Ughdar brought the hammer pick down hard, shattering the lizard man’s skull in one swing. Ughdar would have been impressed with the mighty kill, but he knew that a single lizard man couldn’t have caused the smoke.

The smoke was so dense, that it seemed like night in the swamp. Had he not known the swamp like the back of his hand, he would have never made it to the clearing that housed the tribe’s dwellings. He entered the clearing and came to a dead stop. The smoke had quickly thinned, freer to rise and disperse in the clear area. What Ughdar saw shocked him.

Nearly hundreds of lizard and rat men swarmed the camp. The shaman’s hut was in flames. Other fires, some resembling the vague forms of humans littered the area. The stench of burning bodies was too much to bear. Ughdar grabbed his mask and flung it from his face, his hair and beard, dirty green with swamp water and orc blood, blew in the wind. Tears streamed from his eyes as he fell to his knees.

“NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!” he screamed, long and hard. The invading force didn’t seem to hear or notice him. They were either too busy slaughtering other tribesmen to notice, he guessed.

Then he noticed the eerie quiet of the area. There were no Tribesman battle cries. There weren’t screams of pain and death. That meant one thing to Ughdar. His people had all been slaughtered. Sudden rage over came him. He grabbed his mask and put it back on his face and rose to his feet. He knew he would perish, but he would send as many lizard and rat men to the afterlife as possible.

He charged forward in bloodlust. He burst into the village in a fury. He surprised a group of five lizard men armed with spears. Before they could react, he had crushed one’s ribs with the blunt end of his hammer pick and split the stomach of another open with the pointed end. The remaining three turned to face him, but the jaw of one was shattered in a spray of blood by the maddened Ughdar. The other two, faced with the horrible assault by the maddened warrior turned and fled. Ughdar gave chase, determined to let none escape.

In his rage, he failed to notice the several figures off to the side. One ran and intercepted him before he could get by. Ughdar swung out with his shield and knocked it to the ground. He turned and raised his hammer pick to finish it off, when a voice cried out.

“Chieftain! Nu!” it shouted. Ughdar’s blood rage cleared at the sound of the voice. He looked down to see Gurfak lying at his feet, blood dripping from a broken nose inflicted by the shield punch.

“Gur! Gur, what yuu duing here?!” Ughdar looked up at the other figures. There were ten... twenty... thirty of his tribesmates lined up, docilely standing there. “All uf yuu! What yuu duing?”

Gurgak, the tribe’s shaman, stepped forward. “Ughdar...” he said in quiet tones. “Dere tuu many. Dey cume right after yuu leave. We have nu chance.”

“What... What yuu mean?” Ughdar asked, confused.

“We surrender,” Gurgak said, using a word Ughdar had heard from out-worlders, but didn’t exist in Green Snake vocabulary.

“Sir-ren-der? What dat?” Ughdar asked, shaking his head.

“We give up!” Gurgak shouted angrily. Then he regained his somber tone. “We nu want tu die. We surry chieftain. Me try tu get tribe to fight, but dey kill de best warriurs, den dey tell us give up ur die. Rest uf tribe give up, me give up tuu.”

“What... What dey duing tu yuu?” Ughdar asked.

“Me nut knuw. Dey prumise nut tu kill. Say we being ‘slaves’ ur sumeding like dat. Me nut knuw what it mean.”

While Gurgak and the general populace of the Green Snake tribe didn’t know what a slave was, Ughdar did. He had picked up the word from his excursions deep into orcish territory. He knew all to well what it did and did not mean.

“Yuu be all right. We nut be killed...” Ughdar spat out in disgust.

“Chieftain,” Gurgak said. “Dey nu gut yuu yet. Dey nut knuw yuu here. Gu. Get help.” The shaman pushed Ughdar away. Ughdar was reluctant to go at first, but then he looked behind the shaman’s crimson mask, deep into his eyes. Without a word, Ughdar turned from his tribe and fled back into the swamp.