Gast and Chin Kua at Sithagor

I started running or judging games back in late 1984, early 1985.  RuneQuest was our system of choice, with a few modifications thrown in.  That is a lot of years ago.

In 1986, I planned out my first major campaign, a series of adventures involving Owayn and Gwendolyn, twins who carried the blood of dwarves and humans and elves in their vanes.  The twins gathered a group of minor heroes about them and they took on a daunting task . . . they were to kill Dolgar, a powerful being, a patron of giants and trolls and orcs.  Dargoth BloodAxe was a member of this group.  His adventures did not end in 1987 when the campaign finished up, as he was played right up until 2003.  I still use the character as major personae in certain adventures, one of which is presently being played out.  Gast is an alcoholic cleric of Clangedin used by another player.  Chin Kua was a Tibetan dwarf and an non-player character.  He was a friend of Dargoth's from his pre-Owayn and Gwen days, one of the first non-player characters ever created for one of my games.

I had a dream one night, and it involved the three main characters in this story.  I awoke afterwards and in a groggy half-asleep state this story came out of my head.  I finally got up and wrote it out in one sitting.

Gast and Chin Kua at Sithagor

The Gate of Sith was and still is a dwarven city built into the southern side of a ridge projecting out from the DragonKrag mountains and into the eastern plains.  It is a small settlement in comparison to the neighboring dwarven realm Galdor’s Gate, but its mines were deep and rich in silver and iron.  A small portion of the city was located outside of the mountain in a walled enclosure.  These walls are tall and strong, built by dwarves to keep the foe out.  This trading quarter was all that most traders saw of the city, as the dwarves protect their secrets, and this includes the layout of their underground cities.

   In the years before the Winter War, Dolgar’s fervent follower Leodonis spent his days attempting to destroy the peoples of the lands around the DragonKrags.  In the Year of Uncounted Tears, as the Dwarves reckon years, Leodonis brought forth his armies from the north and east, attacking Galdor’s Gate and The Gate of Sith and sundering their connection with their allies to the west.  The heroes of both realms held out until support arrived from the west, but this particular story tells of the arrival of one particular dwarf to the Gate of Sith, the poor reception he received from one of it’s defenders and the lesson that was taught because of this.

   On the third day of the siege, Dargoth Bloodaxe had been elected War Leader by the dwarves of who inhabited the Gate of Sith.  Among his friends who stood at his side were a number of humans, an elf named Kensei and a dwarf named Gast, a cleric of Clangedin.  As they surveyed the forces of the enemy before the walls, a nearby sentry reported the sound of scrambling on the wall below him.  Dargoth strode forward and listened and he heard what sounded like someone scrambling to the top of the wall and dropping lightly to the stone before him.  Dargoth grabbed his axe and called forth for the intruder to show himself . . . and out of thin air he heard the reply, “No intruder, but instead a friend.”  Suddenly, a small dwarf appeared before them, but a strange dwarf indeed.  He wore the robes of a cleric, but unlike any robes every seen.  He carried a staff and only that, no other weapon and armor could be seen.  On his head was a fur hat.

   Dargoth smiled, slung his axe and then grasped the strange cleric in a bear hug.  “This is no foe, I say, but he is my friend Chin Kua, a dwarf from the east and a companion of my youth.  He is a monk and a cleric of Dumathion, and a fine comrade in a fight.  Why are you here, my friend, and so far from your home?”

   “I heard that you beset by the foe, and never shall I let it be said that a friend of mine was left to fight without my support.  I have traversed the camp of the foe, avoiding those who would detect me, and I have for you the location of many of their counsels and siege weapons.”

   “You would have better served us by wading into the foe, strange one,” said Gast to the newcomer.  “Eliminating those who face us would have been more helpful rather then skulking through them fearfully like a serpent.”

   Many of the dwarves surround the group murmured in agreement while a few were outraged that a friend of Dargoth had been so shamed in front of all, despite his appearance and outlandish behavior.  Dargoth, however, simply smiled and turned to Gast, saying, “Chin Kua is a powerful enemy of the foe and he will soon show all of his usefulness to our cause.”

   “I see nothing but a lamb who hides from battle,” Gast replied, bringing forth another chorus of gasps from those is earshot.  

   “Oh, Gast,” Dargoth said quietly but forcefully, “you have now belittled him twice.  Chin Kua is a friend and a guest and a brother to our people.  You have insulted him and he may now call upon you to regret those words.”  Dargoth looked over at Chin Kua and eyed him steadily, nodding slightly.

   “Yes,” Chin Kua replied, eyeing Gast and sighing audibly.  “That my courage is disputed at all is presumptuous to say the least, but to have it done by a fellow cleric, someone who should have better sense than most, leads me to believe that you are in need of instruction.  You and I will have to settle this, and the sooner the better.”  Chin Kua returned his eyes to Dargoth.

   “Presupta . . . prewhatuous,” Gast sputtered.  “Did he just insult me?”

   “Enough, Gast,” Dargoth said in a voice that brokered no argument.  “I will not have dissention amongst my comrades.  You will settle this here and now.  You may both cast defensive magiks and those magiks only.  You may use whatever weapons you choose.”  He turned his head towards Chin Kua and asked, “What do you say, my friend.  How do we call this?  I’d prefer you not kill Gast.”

   “He is one you consider useful, Dargoth,” Chin Kua asked.  Dargoth nodded.  “Whoever is forced from their feet by their opponent three times,” Chin Kua replied, “this will show who is in the right.”

   “What, I knock him on his ass three times and I win?  Done and Done,” Gast replied, walking over to a barrel of ale.  Filling a tankard, he quickly downed the contents of the container in six quick gulps and he then turned to Chin Kua, who was standing thirty feet away with his hands clasped behind his back.  His staff he had evidently handed to Dargoth.  Dargoth thumped the ground three times with the staff and said, “Are you both ready?”

   “What, no weapon,” Gast called in derision.  “He is already almost a head short than I am.  Do I have to give up my axe?”

   Dargoth walked over to Gast and whispered softly so that no one else could hear, “I would hang onto your axe, Gast.  It may give you a fighting chance . . . and it may not.”

   Gast harrumph in reply and asked, “When do we start?”

   Dargoth walked off to the side and said, “Now.”

   Gast turned and charged the monk with his axe raised high.  He leapt at the last second and brought down a crushing blow onto Chin Kua . . . who sidestepped out of the way of the blow and struck Gast hard on the back as he went by.  Gast hit the ground and rolled twenty feet onward, settling with his back on the stone and his eyes to the sky.

   “That’s one, Gast,” Dargoth called sternly.

   Gast climbed to his feet and eyed Chin Kua carefully.  Chin Kua was standing twenty-five feet away with his hands again clasped behind his back.  Gast set his axe and circle his foe, deciding upon a feint and chop attack to counter his opponent’s quickness . . . his feint was good, but his chop again cut nothing but air.  Instead, Chin Kua had sidestepped the other way, grasping Gast’s axe and hurling it and Gast thirty feet back in the direction he had started.  Gast rolled to a stop in a heap and looked over at Chin Kua, who had not moved more than a foot or two from the place he had started the contest.

   “What is this, won’t fight me like a warrior,” Gast grumbled as he climbed to his feet.

   Chin Kua called to Dargoth and asked for his staff.  Dargoth promptly tossed it to him.

   “So, I hear you grumbling, Gast, about a foe who won’t fight like a warrior.  Warriors fight to win, to protect their homes and their folk.  I know many ways to fight, but if it pleases you, let’s finish this your way.”

   Gast smiled and charged and the battle was on.  Chin Kua no longer moved from the fight, but stood toe to toe with Gast.  For every blow, the small monk replied and knocked Gast a step back.  Gast was soon being pushed towards the edge of the rampart and would be pushed from it and down into the courtyard below if he didn’t do something soon.  Gast went into a furious attack, launching blows that would have felled most other foes.  The monk parried and dodged each attack and Gast soon began to ware down.  Finally, Chin Kua went from the defensive to the attack.  He struck Gast once, twice and with the third blow launched him backwards and off of the rampart . . . he landed in a heap below, his axe a few yards away.

    “Didn’t I ask that you NOT kill him,” Dargoth said as he and his comrades hurried down the stairs to the courtyard and Gast’s side.  By the time they arrived, Gast was sitting upright holding his ribs.  Chin Kua knelt beside him and began a healing spell.

   “We are not here to fight amongst ourselves,” Dargoth called to all within earshot.  “As Chin Kua said, we are here to protect our home and our folk . . . we will win or we will die.  I have the luck of having many allies not of our folk here to fight beside me, and many others outside these walls who work to come and assist us.  Each of us fights the foe in a different way.  No way is best, but a particular way may be best for you.  And when you all, each fighting as best you can, come together and use your skills to fight the foe, well then, we shall give them such a fight that those amongst them that survive will not ever forget!”

   As the cheers filled the air and Chin Kua helped a healed Gast to his feet, Dargoth walked over to Gast and, grabbing his mail and pulling him close, said, “You say you never want to fight me bare handed because of my brawling skills, and now you know where I learned some of them.  Chin Kua taught me much, and knows much more than he taught me.  He is a powerful friend and a defiant and deadly enemy.  I suggest you make a friend of him.”  Dargoth released his hold on Gast and returned to the walls to observe the enemy gathering his forces outside the walls.

   Gast looked down at Chin Kua and put out his arm.  “For me the best way to win is to take the foe head on.  But maybe you can help us win this fight in other ways.  I will watch and try to learn from you.”

   Chin Kua grasped Gast’s arm in returned and smiled.  “And I will knock a few over your way to keep you busy so that we both may share in the defeat of the foe.”

   Gast and Chin Kua turned and followed Dargoth towards the wall.  “We should sit down and drink away a keg of ale.  We can tell each other stories of our prowess in battle”.

   “I do not drink spirits”, Chin Kua replied.  “It is not the way of my folk.”

   “You don’t drink ale,” Gast said incredulously, almost in a shout.  “What kind of outlandish, unnatural . . . “

   “Shut up, Gast,” Dargoth called over his shoulder he climbed the stairs to the top of the wall.

© 2017 Thomas D Taylor All Rights Reserved