The shocking secret of
Portchester having traded dwarves to the Old Ones in return for peace during
the founding of the city caused immense anger to spread far and wide in the
dwarven territories, and nowhere was this anger better personified with than
Murderface Jack.
Murderface Jack personally began
scouring the Badlands, ruthlessly slaughtering anyone wearing a symbol of Bor,
or identifying as being from Portchester.
At least at first. Murderface’s
rage rapidly expanded beyond just hating Bor or Portchester, and quickly
expanded to the nearly genocidal hatred of humans. Villages discovered to have a worshipper of
Bor were put to the sword and entire caravans traveling to or from Portchester
were wiped out to the last soul. The
followers of Woden soon began following suit, and the rest of the Skull Coalition
were forced to take action before any more innocents were slain.
Badaxe Jack, ever a shrewd dwarf,
used every ounce of his religious and secular authority to set Murderface to a
task: war with Portchester. Calling upon diplomatic ties with the forces
of the elf woods, and taking advantage of Murderface’s recent rampages emptying
the northern end of the Badlands of any humans (with the exception of a few
small towns), Badaxe swiftly tripled the territory he directly controlled,
creating a massive increase in the dwarf population of the Badlands.
Meanwhile, Murderface was set to
task expanding both Badaxe Jack’s army, as well as his personal army, The Sons
of Woden. Now based in The Tower Graf,
The Sons of Woden utilized Skull Mountain as a training area. One-Axe Jack and Two-Axe Jack used Murderface’s
ring as a recruitment tool, gaining even more raw recruits to be turned into
berserkers.
Murderface’s rage was occupied,
but now he felt a great emptiness.
Killing weak humans was not the future that Murderface pictured for
himself. One night Murderface received a
dream of Woden himself. In the dream
Woden ordered Murderface to sail out of the Badlands, never staying in one
place for any longer than a month, until Woden orders otherwise.
And so Murderface made ready to
leave. He declared that One-Axe and
Two-Axe Jack would be the new leaders of the Sons of Woden, to operate using
the lessons learned during their time with Murderface, under the direction of Badaxe
Jack and with the divine council of Fancy Jill.
The names of One-Axe and Two-Axe grew to become the titles of the
nominal leaders of the Sons of Woden.
Leaving a vast fortune in
treasure and magic to the Sons of Woden, Murderface made off, stopping only
long enough in Portchester to topple the bell tower at the church of Bor and
scrawl obscenities on the roof of their chapel in the blood of its defenders.
Where Murderface went from there
is the matter of stories to his friends and horror stories to his enemies. But it is believed that he will return to the Badlands for his greatest, and final, battle.
A further addendum:
ReplyDeleteThe valley of the Neanderthals continued to be a hospice, rehabilitation center, and home for crippled, cursed, and grievously injured former adventurers. The Neanderthals, led by the great chief Oonga-Boonga and subsidized by the adventurers former employers or companions, provided an environment where they could be productive members of a society that didn't look down on them for their disfigurements or disabilities. The Neanderthals benefitted greatly by having a wide array of magic and skills that they weren't able to provide for themselves. Over time, the Neanderthals began inter-marrying with their more robust patients, and the community became stronger still.
The Neanderthals, freed of some of their daily survival tasks by their guests, began training their pet apes to a higher and higher degree. Now the Neanderthals have an even greater industry: pack apes. A pack animal capable of amazing feats of strength, moving any place a man can move, and fully capable of defending itself from danger (as long as it's handler is still alive). The dwarves of the north greatly prize their pack apes.