Role

Chapter 2

And so it went. The Giant and the dwarf, becoming fast companions. During the long
days of work and the hard nights that followed, Kruuank and Bargrammen developed a
strong bond of fellowship that only war and slavery can bring men into. Little by
the dwarf built up the Giant's vernacular to a point where he could speak angry
dwarvish common with the best of stout people. With Kruuank's language lessons
progressing well, the dwarf also tried to teach the Giant of the history of his kind.
And so the Giant learned of the forge fires, the respect for opponents yet brazeness
that exemplified the dwarven race, and the various Gods of the dwarven people
(mostly Shokai, for, after all, Bargrammen was a former priest).

Thus, the relationship between these two began to change. Kruuank's growing language
skills had made him a wanted commodity with the overseers of the slave mines, along
with the various masons and construction overseers of the city. His massive frame and
ability to withstand pain served him well in those months of agony, working as much as
eighteen hours a day. Around that time, as the dwarf progressed with his teachings of
the Skyborn, his health began to fade. The grains of time had finally began to catch
up to Bargrammen, and his loss of vision and feebleness made him an easy target on the
work sites. Eventually, after Kruuank battered a thug hired to oversee a simple
construction site into unconsciousness because of an attack on Bargrammen, his captors
merely stopped working him altogether. He was placed into a cell no larger than the
shoe closet of a noblewoman, and only allowed visitors (in this case, Kruuank) twice
a day.

The eerie similarities between the state of Bargrammen now and the former state of
Kruuank were not lost on the Giant. His mind became a fog of hate, yearning to
destroy those who had brought his only 'friend' to this pitiful state. Incidents of
violence in the mines decreased exponentially after Kruuank slew a braggart slave
with a chunk of adamantite after the bully beat up one of the weaker slaves. Slowly
the Giant stopped coming by to see the dwarf, for he would not understand the emotions
that would grow inside him when he quietly listened to the dwarf (unaware of Kruuank's
presence) beseech Shokai to save him from this pain. And so the Giant began to hate
hate the Skyborn, much like his hatred for his mother.