One dwarf's view of the Upworld

Introspection is a necessity for improvement. Improvement is a necessity for survival.

The Upworld is so unlike my homeland. What the Upworlders call “quiet” is an almost overwhelming cacophony of insects, birds, small animals, ... And because there are so many other noises none of these creatures have a need to be silent, making the combination all the louder, yet my companions are blissfully unaware of all this noise. I think they would go insane from the silence of the caves.

It’s also never dark here. Even in the middle of the night there is moon and starlight. The clouds do not completely block it out, and then there are torches, lamps and campfires. Sure, there is a need for fire to cook the food and provide some relief from the cold, but I think the Upworlders also crave the light, even though it dulls their ability to see what goes on beyond the fire’s illumination.

Is that the point? All the noise and light provides a sort of cocoon within which the Upworlders can pretend that there is nothing dangerous nearby.

Which probably explains why they’re so easy to evade, so easy to take unawares—they want to believe there’s nothing threatening them.

The Upworlders are the same as their environment and they probably don’t realise it—they're always moving, always making noise. They’re so used to motion and noise I sometimes think I could vanish from their sight just by standing still. No obstacles, no shadows, just... stop moving. That could come in quite handy up here.

Their obsession with motion can be utilised in other ways as well. It didn’t take much to talk one of them into walking into a fire just because it gave them something to do when there was no other obvious course of action.

We rescued Barin, the kidnapped dwarf. He had been tortured and even Borka, the cruel woman that led the mercenaries, seemed upset by torturing him. What did she really think would happen to him when they handed him over to a Northrog? Apparently casual violence is okay with her, but breaking a captive to obtain needed information is not.

We also stopped the Northrog shaman from stealing the artifact hidden in the temple. Barin had knowledge of the defenses placed on the hiding place by Sjonegaard, and we were able to use the same information and catch the shaman with the artifact in hand.

The defences have been breached once, and we gave the artifact to Barin so he could arrange a new hiding place. Of course Barin will know that hiding place, and he has already been kidnapped once because he had knowledge regarding the hiding place of the artifact. I suspect it will be in danger as long as he knows where it is. Perhaps I will need to arrange a little accident for him.