Rugo's Tales and Songs (TSM & BG - mature)

[johnlewismcleod]

He blinked and looked about the chamber. The sentry had said the dungeon was below this tower, but he saw only stairs leading up. A man sat at a desk sorting shards, but didn’t even notice Rugo as he entered. A female was rummaging through an expansive wall of shelved texts, but seemed equally oblivious to Rugo.

He heard the rasp of steel on steel and turned to see a muscular tow headed woman staring at him. The rasping sound came from the twinned axes she held before her. She was drawing flat on flat in a circular caress. She smiled wickedly as she saw she had caught Rugo’s attention, “Whatcha want, little one?”

“I were told that there be a one eared ‘uman in the dungern. I needs be wordin’ wif ‘im, if it please ye.” Rugo stepped a bit closer, trying not to look at the axes.

“Aye, true enough, but ye’ll nay be spaking with him, methinks”. She kept the axes moving against one another, issuing forth a hungry hiss.

“It be a matter o’ pressin’ import, me lady. Sir Hylarn ‘imself gave me leave...” Rugo offered.

“Here that, Shardis?” she called over her shoulder at the green robed woman sorting text. “He says Sir Hylan gave him leave. We don’t work for Hylan, do we?”

Shardis looked up with a smirk, “Indeed we do not, Ulisan”. She walked across to stand at Ulisan’s side. “He will have to do better than that, I think”. Both looked down at Rugo with smug expressions.

Rugo fumbled with his purse and pulled a handful of coins out. He held them forth open palmed to Shardis, “If it please ye, me lady…the matter be o’ pressin’ import”.

Shardis mimed an exaggerated expression of shock, “I think he’s trying to bribe us, Ulisan! Does he think we’re common whores to be bought, do you think?”

Ulisan nodded slowly, her eyes taking on the pleased gleam of a cat that had a mouse trapped between her paws.

“Nay, me ladies…” he protested weakly as he felt the air suddenly sucked out of his lungs. “I jus’ imagine ye migh’ favour the warmth o’ some sweet brandies t’ ease yer long labours, I could be fetchin' ye some”.

“We don’t drink”, the mirth faded from Shardis expression and her eyes grew flint hard. “Guards!” she called toward the door.

“I guess ye will be seeing your man after all, little one” Ulisan smiled down at him.

[johnlewismcleod]

He stumbled on the rough flagstone floor as the guard shoved him into the cell. To weary to muster the effort to catch himself, he fell sprawled on the floor as the cell door slammed to behind him. He rolled onto his back and lay blinking up in the dim light, waiting for his eyes to adjust.

“Fresh meat for ye, Gynkira” he heard the guard chuckle as his steps faded up the stairs. “Ye’ll have him for a day, unless ye wish to keep him longer”.

Rugo heard the heavy fall of booted feet approach the cell, and the dim outline of a massive female orcblood blotted out the dim light within the cell. She leaned close to the bars, her muzzle poking in slightly, snuffling the air. She drew her head back, “A guard will bring some grub later if you want eat. Don’t make no trouble or me fix you good”. With that she moved away, back toward a shrine of some sort on the far wall Rugo had seen briefly as he was being brought in.

He looked back toward the ceiling. The faint outline of stone work was beginning to reveal itself, but from his prone position the weight of an ocean seemed to press upon him and his eyes drooped, then began to close.
A sputtering, gurgling plea drew close in the cacophonous din. “No more…Let me go…help me”, the voice degenerated into a wracking, painful fit of coughing and wheezing as Borg’s shredded body emerged from beneath the keel. How he yet clung to life, Rugo could nay fathom. Great chunks of flesh were missing from his thighs, probably from impatient weresharks, and his chest was shredded to the bone.

“Once more o’er the bow, me hearties” Captain Red’s voice boomed with authority as Borg was drawn over the stern railing and flopped helplessly onto the deck. “If ‘e comes up alive, we’ll give ‘im o’er t’ the sharks. Ha!”

He seemed dead as he slid across the deck, dragged by ropes tied at all four extremities. “Don’t soil the Lass ’ead wif tha’ mutinerous dog’s blood, ye swabs!” The Captain continued to bellow, livid with the excitement of a natural born sadist. “Drop ‘im o’er jus’ starb’rd there! Keep those lines taut!”

“Rugo...free tha’ fouled line!” he barked into young Rugo’s ear as if he were not standing just alongside, the words struck his eardrums like a blow. One wrist line had taken a loop around the figurehead, and Rugo leapt up to free it.

As he leveraged Borg’s wrist to pull out enough slack to let out the turn, a snarl quickly followed by some bloody spittle struck Rugo’s cheek. He looked down to see Borg’s eyes staring back at him, “Ye be next, maggot!” Borg spoke shockingly clearly for one so close to death.

Rugo blinked at him, stunned for a moment, then heaved on the line and let go. The loop came free and Borg slipped down below the forepeak toward the barnacle crusted keel. His eyes never left Rugo’s, “I’ll be waiting, maggot!” he managed to roar up just as he was sucked under.

Suddenly a sharp pain struck him in the ribs, and his eyes came open just in time to hear the thud of a body striking stone next to him. A human was thrashing and wheezing and the floor next to him. He climbed unsteadily to his feet and peered down at him. The human was a wasted shell of a man, coughing and gurgling as if downing in phlegm.

“No more….no more!” it gasped. “Let me go!” It had both hands clasped tightly over its ears, and Rugo could see the whites of its eyes as it thrashed about on the flagstones.

Rugo stepped back a pace involuntarily, but stopped and looked closer as one hand came away revealing a reddened scar where an ear should have been. “’Oo assails ye, matey?”

“I must go! They call!” it wailed, then began gurgling again as it clawed its way to the cell door. It grasped the bars with both boney hands, “Release me….Release me….Release me!”

Rugo could see Gynkira turn from her candled shrine and look toward the cell with a scowl. He put his hand on the humans shoulder, “Easy, me hearty…”he said quietly, “…easy”

Rugo pulled a bottle from his pack, uncorked it, and held it to the human’s lips. “Drink, matey...”

The human drank a bit, and then asked, “Can ye hear ‘em?”. His eyes were glazed and rolled about at random. “Do ye ‘ear their call?”.

“Daemons...?” Rugo asked quietly, knowing the answer already.

“I must go to them. I must…”, then he began to wheeze and retch again.

Rugo poured some more rum into his mouth when the fit had subsided. “Where be they, me heartie?”

“In the cave….from whence flows the waters.” His eyes revealed no sign that he could see Rugo as they rolled about. “They sing within….jus’ beyond Fourth Peak…they dance…within…they guard…the stones…the pretty blue stones…”

Rugo poured some more rum into his mouth, but his head sagged and the rum poured out the side of his mouth onto the flagstones. Rugo shook him, knowing death was close, but stopped as his eyes rolled back in his head, and the eyelids fluttered closed.

Rugo rolled back on his haunches and stared at him. He felt the world peel away, leaving himself and this mad creature exposed and alone. His lungs seemingly lost the need for air as the vacuum of profound resignation settled about him. He knew that soon he would be just like this broken creature before him. There was no hope of success for mortals pitted against a god. Every effort was folly achieving nothing beyond an entertaining dance for their tormentors. Eventually his mind and body would collapse in failure, just as this pitiful creature’s had, and he would lie broken and prone: Alone, unloved, abandoned to his fate.

He no longer felt terror at his fate, but simply emptiness, like a ship becalmed in a vast, dark, empty sea. Even the shrieks and pleas of those he had wronged receded to silence as a black shroud of resignation descended about him. Strife was quelled. Pain was numbed. Folly was a distant memory; only time remained.

He looked about, but only blackness could he see. He looked up, but even the memory of Selune’s shroud was distant to him. “Take them, Shar”, he thought, “Take the lights for they lead me nay but to folly.”
And then he saw it. A tiny speck of golden light so faint and distant he stared at it unknowing for long moments before he realized it was there. It was so small it seemed but a distant pinpoint, but it was there, and it was steady, and as he focused on it, though it remained tiny and distant, it seemed immensely beautiful.

He found his hand involuntarily reaching for it.

“Are you alright, mate?” a deep voice broke the silence. “What are you doing in here?”

Rugo blinked as the dim light diffused into a human face peering down at him through the cell bars. “’Oo be ye?” Rugo heard himself ask.

“I’m Davin. Who are you” he asked.

“’Oo be me?” Rugo recognized it as a question, but no answer came to mind. He stared blankly up at Davin.

“You seem in a bad way…” Davin spoke again after a long pause, “Is there anything I can do for you?”
Rugo stared up at him for long moments. “Be ye knowin’ Lady Dawn Shinin’eye?” Rugo finally managed to ask.

“I know her.” He nodded, “A blonde haired priestess of Lathander”.

“A boon I would ask o’ ye then, Davin.” Rugo focused on the memory of the light, mustering the will to find words. “Thank ‘er fer me….tell ‘er I thank ‘er fer the precious gift she gave me”.

“What gift?” Davin asked.

“She will know.” Rugo said, “Tell ‘er I will treasure it always”.

“Why don’t I bring her here and you can thank her yourself” Davin offered.

“Nay, matey”, said Rugo. “I will be gone afore she could come, an’ t’ bring such a jewel into this filth would be folly. I beg ye jus’ offer me thanks an’ nay more”.

[johnlewismcleod]

Darkness closed about him once more after Davin left the dungeon. He leaned against the damp stone wall of his cell, his head resting on the cool iron bars. He watched the human retch lying prone on the floor where he had collapsed earlier, his swoon occasionally interrupted by jerky thrashing movements, but otherwise inert save the gurgling drawing of breath into soggy lungs. Rugo knew he was drawing no respite from his apparent rest, but rather slowly dying in the grasp of daemons. If the retch woke, he would be merely a few steps closer to his end, rather than his deliverance.

His eyelids grew heavy as he drifted once again in the chill vacuum of dispassionate despair, but as his eyes once again found the golden speck, he found he could draw just enough strength from it to stay awake, and just enough warmth to stave off the convulsive shivering that gripped the wretch lying on the floor before him.

He began to hear singing floating across some immeasurable distance, it tickled faintly at his eardrums. With reluctance he released his eye’s clasp of the golden spark, and turned his head slowly toward what seemed the direction from which it emanated. He blinked, trying to bring his eyes into focus as the faint outline of a ghostly, yet somehow familiar figure moved about before his eyes.

As the figure slowly came into focus he realized it was the retched human. He had somehow regained his feet and was slowly stepping out arcs about the close cell floor. Though his wasted appearance seemed more that of walking dead than of the living, with his face turned up and hand held forth in poetic supplication, he mimed the elegant steps of an accomplished dancer somehow.

As Rugo marveled at the grace of the hideously wasted creature, the melodic sound of the verse impelled recognition as well:

Ages past .... streams fast....
flowed ‘neath the earth.....
Nether realms gave them birth......
Cold clear waters....cisterns daughters.....
Dance we merrily, dance.
Dance we merrily, splash.
Dance we merrily pour out your power ...
‘neath the earth......
Came the dark, doused the spark....
fled from the home, seas to roam ….
like the foam ne'er to rest.....
Dance we merrily, dance.
Dance we merrily, splash.
Dance we merrily, pour out your power....
gone from earth.....
Still these days, come what may….
calls the pool …
Splashing down, underground….
again to rule….
Some day, soon day, so say we.....
Dance we merrily, dance…
Dance we merrily, splash…
Dance we merrily, pour out your power…
Once again rebirth....
in our home.....

It was clear the sweet sung verse and elegant movement came from some source other than the near dead human. Rugo strained to see the magical threads he knew must be controlling the creature, but he could see nothing. With a final turn, the creature once again collapsed onto the cot where he had been when Rugo first entered the cell, and soon it was once again wheezing and shaking in unconscious misery.

Rugo stared at him for a few moments, but as the chill darkness descended once again, he searched about until his eyes once again found the golden kernel of light. As he fixed on it with the despairation of a drowning sailor to a lifeline, it suddenly swelled into a flood of lustrous radiance as the stunning beauty of Dawn Shiningeye's face breeched the darkness, leaned in close, and said, "Rugo...can you hear me? I've come to help you."

[johnlewismcleod]

Ashan Faewind, Minos, Rugo, and Vaster Steel were at the center of a wake held in the Helm and Cloak Inn in Baldur's Gate for the fallen adventurers Tessele Amplecrown and Vonlyr. Stories were drunkenly told of the two for many hours until, as the liquor got the better of Minos and Vaster, Rugo offered up this dirge:

*takes a long pull on bottle, clears throat*

Two broken vessels lie afore us...Both once mighty and fine lined...
Now we must mend the shredded canvas...Clear the rudders, sort the lines...
Though they were beloved to us...We must send each on voyage proud...
One back to verdant Evermeet...One beyond celestial shroud...

Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home beyond the seas...
Rolling home beyond the skies...
To heroic destinies...

We must courageous work the capstans...See the cables run down clear...
Heave away and wif a will mates...Free the wheels that they may steer...
And we'll sing in joyous chorus...As proud ships slip out of sight...
Thus embarks two fallen heroes...Each toward blessed shores of light...

Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home beyond the seas...
Rolling home beyond the skies...
To heroic destinies...

Up aloft amid the riggings...Blows a fierce exulting gale...
Laird Vonlyr and Tess Amperlcrown...Waft upon high swelling sails...
And the wild waves cleft behind them...Clap and murmur as they flow...
Of the bliss that doth await each...As they depart this land of woe...

Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home beyond the seas...
Rolling home beyond the skies...
To heroic destinies...

Many thousand leagues behind them...Many thousand lie yet afore...
Ancient oceans honoured bear them...Unto blessed, peaceful shores...
Though we weep for noble Vonlyr...And Tessele fairest of the fair...
Now Selune doth faultless guide them...To homes beyond death and dispair...

Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home beyond the seas...
Rolling home beyond the skies...
To heroic destinies...

Rugo's voice was often choked with emotion and rum as he attempted to sing, so his rendering was poor, though heartfelt: <color=cyan>DMFI Dice Roll for: Perform Mod: 6 TOTAL: 8</color>

[Wynna]

Immortality in a song means that old PCs never die. They remain with us in the history of ALFA. Thank you, John.

[johnlewismcleod]

Rugo sang this song in the Jovial Jester pub in Beregost for the gathered crowd which included Ashan Faewind and Venrill Letharian:

*sings* When I were a lad on the Sea of Stars...An old jack spake to me: ...
*sings* "If ye spend yer life charting Selune's lights...and sailing on the seas...
*sings* Ye can search the ports fer comely girls...Till yer eyes grow weak and dim,...
*sings* But dinna go fishing fer a mermaid, lad...If ye dinna know how to swim"...
*sings* 'Cause her hair were green as seaweed...And her skin were blue and pale...
*sings* And I loved that lass wif all me heart...'though I only liked the the upper parts...I dinna like the tail...

Venrill Letharian: [Talk] *chuckles dryly*

*sings* By and anon it come to pass...whilst plying the cold Moonsea...
*sings* I spied a lass upon the waves...she were beckoning to me...
*sings* "Come live wif me in the deep blue sea...Down on the ocean floor...
*sings* I will show ye many a wondrous thing...That ye've never seen afore" ...
*sings* 'Cause her hair were green as seaweeds...And her skin were blue and pale...
*sings* I did love that lass wif all me heart...But I only liked the upper parts...I dinna like her tail...

*sings* So o'er I jumped and she pulled me down...Down to her seaweed bed...
*sings* A pillow made of turtle shell...She placed beneath me head...
*sings* She fed me shrimps and caviars...upon a silvered dish...
*sings* From head to waist were just to me taste...But the rest of her were fish...
*sings* 'Cause her hair were green as seaweed...And her skin were blue and pale...
*sings* And I loved that lass wif all me heart...But I only liked the upper part...I dinna like the tail...

*sings* Then one sad day, she swam away...So I sang and mournful wailed...
*sings* "Oh, how I miss her sea green hair...And the shimmering of her scales"...
*sings* But then her sister did swim by...And she set me heart awhirl...
*sings* Fer from head to waist were scaly fish...But the rest of her were GIRL! ...
*sings* 'Cause her hair were green as seaweeds...And her skin were blue and pale...
*sings*And I loved that lass wif all me heart...'Though I dinna like the upper parts...I finally got some tail! ... Ha!

Venrill Letharian: [Talk] *chuckles and claps politely* Well done, master Rugo.

Ashan Faewind: [Talk] *calmly* Impressive, master Rugo.

[johnlewismcleod] Rugo: [Talk] <color=cyan>DMFI Dice Roll for: Perform Mod: 6 TOTAL: 17</color>

* adapted from traditional*

[Faeryl]

LOL. This was great!

Thanks!