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[hider=A Little Harth Side Story - Or, what happened before their arrival at Kari-Mar]
[b]A Little Harth Side Story[/b]:

[b][color=B6A99B]“I feel we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot,”[/color][/b] Harth said. He had spent the first half of the journey keeping his head down and grumbling to himself. As this was Harth’s first time travelling outside of any Dwarven hold, or even outside of the deep, deep mountains that were his home, he felt awkward. More than awkward, actually, as [i]his[/i] getting used to the swaying out at sea did not come with very good nights of rest, or a consistently full belly for that matter.

Still, Harth had his duties to carry out, and that alone was enough to keep a Dwarf sane. Harth saw it fit to help at the pantry with preparing food and drink with the shipmaster’s wife, and keeping track of inventory. Not only to satisfy his own fussiness, but also to keep an eye on that [b][color=ec008c]Lucky[/color][/b] fellow whom Harth suspected in partaking in unsanctioned [i]and[/i] unsanctified midnight snacks - what behavior! Harth kept his religiosity not particularly noticable, save for his purifying rituals during times of food and drink (which did nothing to keep his stomach from being as unruly as the seas, unfortunately). But the crew had found out his honoring of the Stonefather soon enough from his talks with [b][color=a36209]Colt[/color][/b] and [b][color=aba000]Caleb[/color][/b] - Men of Sword and Armor were always the first people he gravitated to, based on his experiences with his brothers in the militia back home: it took real strength and conviction to clad yourself in iron and offer yourself to righteous battle willingly. And before long [b][color=00aeef]Kraseawai[/color][/b] paid him holy courtesy in passing, but he didn’t quite know what to feel about her. She didn’t [i]seem[/i] to be the type to hold to any higher callings per se, considering her dress, but there must have been something to her that made the gods see it fitting to make her endure all the bad luck in her past, much like [b][color=8dc73f]Druuk[/color][/b], actually - he may have stayed in the background for most of their trip, but Harth knew scars when he saw them.

And, in so doing, they arrived at the Vale before long. He had secretly prayed for all of them the night before, so that with their landfall the [b]Great Mantle[/b] may carry their footsteps well, wherever each of them might find themselves after…[/hider]

Harth the Dwarf said his goodbyes to the captain and his wife, thanking them for their voyage and company and wishing them well in a pace that seemed uncharacteristically hasty of him. He saw the two smile as he rushed by, his stone-headed walking stick in hand (or club, if things got rowdy). Then he grunted a hearty [b][color=B6A99B]“Heigh… HO!”[/color][/b], lifted his packed carrier sack onto his back, and stepped off the ship. 

And -ahh, goodness of the Earth- felt solid ground under his feet again. Or rather, that’s what it [i]should[/i] have felt like. It seemed after many weeks at sea that, even after landfall, the swaying of the ship hadn’t quite left his mind. Like the ground underneath his feet was shifting still. [b][color=B6A99B]“Kraseawai, why is the ground still moving?!”[/color][/b] He asked as he followed the other crew members to their -very rudely- assigned customs boxes.

[b]“Name?”[/b] [b][color=B6A99B]“Harth-Kazann, my pl--.”[/color][/b] [b]“Business of pleasure?”[/b] [b][color=B6A99B]“Why, you tell me, I was going to say it was my pleasure, before you so rudely cut me off.”[/color][/b] [b]“Are you here on a business trip, or for sightseeing, luv?”[/b] [b][color=B6A99B]“Ahh, why business then, with the dwarves of--”[/color][/b] [b]Do you have anything to declare?"[/b] [b][color=B6A99B]“Hmmm, my undying devotion to the Stonefather, I suppose.”[/color][/b] [b]"Anything of value, exotic, or illegal?"[/b] [b][color=B6A99B]"Well, I don't thin--"[/color][/b] [b]“Search his bag. And the eye. Next!”[/b]

[b][color=B6A99B]"You know..."[/color][/b] Harth grumbled deeply, turning to his former companions after all was said and done, carefully wiping off and putting the runed, many-sided glass bead that served as his right eye back into its socket. [b][color=B6A99B]“I feel we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot...”[/color][/b]