Difference between revisions of "Jessie Sweetwater"
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I had to teach myself everything that was beyond Lurch's grasp, like reading and talking in complete sentences. Eventually I found the lab notes of Solamni the Demon Binder and I learned the secret of my conception. | I had to teach myself everything that was beyond Lurch's grasp, like reading and talking in complete sentences. Eventually I found the lab notes of Solamni the Demon Binder and I learned the secret of my conception. | ||
| − | Solamni wrote of sending his faithful Lurch to purchase an Orc Sow and make certain that she had her blood up. | + | Solamni wrote of sending his faithful Lurch to purchase an Orc Sow and make certain that she had her blood up. He spoke of his experiments, of "controlling variables", of doing the most frightening things in the most detached and cruel manner. He was literally gloating at his own cunning, how this particular sacrifice demanded a woman and child at the moment of birth. How smart was he to buy an orc and father a runt for the purpose of shorting a technicality? No heros would come to rescue a nameless orc bitch. |
Revision as of 17:02, 31 May 2018
I was raised by a toady. People hear toady, they think a repellent, unscrupulous, broken thing that snivels and licks the boots of more powerful monsters. Yeah, that. That's my role model.
His name is probably not Lurch, but he has forgotten any other so that is the only way to get his attention now. His spine is bent, his shoulder a mass of shattered bone fused solid like a heavy mushroom cap trophy to whatever horrid trauma he survived to win it. He won't look you in the eye but if he did you would see one a clear grey and the other a swollen mass engorged with blood and perpetually weeping pus. That is the only face of love I have ever known.
Lurch brought me to this village as an infant, and to their credit the people did not immediately drive him out with torches and pitchforks. It probably helped that he was protecting a foundling babe, and also that my skin was the color of dirty chalk and not the expected green of orc-kin.
They gave him a little hut outside the palisade and some occasional charity. Perhaps that was as close as the decent folk could come to leaving us for the wolves. If that was the case, they underestimated Lurch. As unsightly and broken as he appeared, he was so strong and for anyone but me quite ruthless. The stories go that when I was hungry I would shriek like a wounded beast, but rather than comfort me he would open the front door and wait. Some curious beast would come in looking for an easy meal and Lurch would snap them in half with his bare hands. I was raised on meat and swaddled in fresh skins. I can still make a convincing mimicry of a crying baby to this day.
I had to teach myself everything that was beyond Lurch's grasp, like reading and talking in complete sentences. Eventually I found the lab notes of Solamni the Demon Binder and I learned the secret of my conception.
Solamni wrote of sending his faithful Lurch to purchase an Orc Sow and make certain that she had her blood up. He spoke of his experiments, of "controlling variables", of doing the most frightening things in the most detached and cruel manner. He was literally gloating at his own cunning, how this particular sacrifice demanded a woman and child at the moment of birth. How smart was he to buy an orc and father a runt for the purpose of shorting a technicality? No heros would come to rescue a nameless orc bitch.
