Lord Reudh

Lord Reudh is a middle-aged dwarf with a predilection for romance. He was the overseer of Spearbreakers in 208, during which many strange things happened. During 209, Tomio's reign, Reudh fled Spearbreakers to find his crush, Vanya Carena. His current whereabouts are unknown to those still in Spearbreakers.
==Arrival at Spearbreakers==
Reudh first arrived sometime in Splint's second reign in 207, as a beekeeper by trade, seconded into the fort's Civil Defense Squad, where he trained haphazardly and awkwardly, and made little headway.
==Ninth Overseer of Spearbreakers==
At the end of 208, noting Reudh's eagerness to learn despite his poor skills, Splint selected Reudh to be the Ninth Overseer of Spearbreakers. Reudh gladly accepted, as it meant he was able to do more paperwork and less physical work. At the beginning of his reign, Reudh was an overly cautious leader, something Spearbreakers did not need. His first act was to look through the fort's cold cases to solve them; he found a soldier of the First Squad, Dicer, had murdered a mechanic called Rolf in a fit of rage some years previous. It was explained to Reudh that it was accidental, and that Dicer was pardoned because she was the one attacked by Rolf, but he misunderstood and leapt to conclusions that there was a vampire in the fortress.
Thus, after following many of the inhabitants of Spearbreakers, driving them batty, he decided that he had found the true culprit. He accused Aira, a young dwarven woman with allegiance to several different groups on her papers (many vampires having carried proof of allegiance to as many as twenty different government groups) of the murder of Rolf, and so Aira was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. Aira later died in prison as a result of malnourishment and dehydration brought on by neglect, which sent him in a bit of a downward spiral.
Nothing happened for quite a while, until he spotted a young dwarven maiden by the name of 'Rose' Dustswords. He immediately fell deeply in love with her, and proclaimed his love to her. Little did he know, that she thought little of him, so little indeed that she hit him with her gauntlet. The poor dwarf simply thought this was Rose's way of displaying affection, and became only more infatuated.
Just after this time, Splint sent a private note informing Reudh that the death of the elven diplomat Ilu Lalalavera must be ordered and written in ink, and Reudh does so. Reudh, like many dwarves, dislike elves as a general rule, so he authorised the kill order. He had a moment where for a second he couldn't bear the thought of Splint killing Iru, who was a female; so he ordered Fischer's First Squad to engage Iru to shorten her suffering. This resulted in the first of many times Reudh butted heads with the Baron Splint; Splint accusing Reudh of being a 'filthy elf lover' and Reudh terribly intimidated by the slightly maddened Baron.
The first trial in Reudh's rule came when a few days after Iru's murder, a scout reported that a goblin siege had come to Spearbreakers. Reudh was worried; with his severe slip of the mind sending Fischer's squad, the main bulk of Spearbreakers' army to deal with a single elf could endanger the fort.
Luckily, Fischer and her squadmates were fast enough to get topside to the entrance. Reudh also worriedly sent the Second and Third squads to aid them. Following a previous overseer's instructions, Reudh pulled a lever to seal the doors shut, leaving the squads outside.
This again marked another clash between Splint and Reudh; the overseer found his words and defied Splint's 'suggestion' to stand the Second and Third squads down lest he anger the First Squad by depriving them of the joy of slaughter. Baron Splint responded by striking him in the face; sending the overseer tumbling against the wall. It was then that Splint revealed that there the two Spawn held in the Holding Cells were actually former squad members and friends of Splint who had been warped by the Spawn's bite. Their names were Ashsaber and Softa. Thus, Reudh learned from Splint that caution is not needed except against the Spawn; through baptism of fire most of the army were strong enough to deal with entire sieges alone.
Resolving to be a more level-headed ruler, and to not let his infatuation with Rose colour his decisions, Reudh and Splint entered an uneasy truce with each other.
==The Undead Siege of 208==
Less than a day after the goblin siege had finished, scouts reported seeing a shambling horde of zombie dwarves, humans, elves and goblins stumbling to the gates of Spearbreakers. Splint regretted telling Reudh off for leaving the other two squads out; it was a good thing he had, for undead are very tough enemies. It was a lucky day, given that the grand majority of local necromancers were wiped out in previous assaults, the zombies were directionless and shambling. Nearly everyone got a kill that day.
==Growing Infatuation==
Reudh's adoration of Rose only grew stronger; he came up with a cunning plan that he thought would 'make her love him' - a rose quartz necklace hand crafted. He ordered more gems dug out with the bonus of an extra drink ration; Solpyr found the gem and Reudh sent it off to a basement-class jeweler to get it cut (for that authentic home made look). He presented it to her, and oddly enough, rather than dismiss it; she loved it. Her more-than-neutral response put him in as good a mood as Reudh had ever been.
==Abduction of Musher==
After Reudh's gift to Rose, a snatcher was spotted on the outskirts of Spearbreakers, carrying a newborn dwarf baby, the child of two army dwarves; Mincer and Uvash. The snatcher became irritated with baby Musher's crying and silenced it with its dagger, horrifying the poor dwarves watching. Reudh quickly ordered the blazingly quick Colonel Fischer to take the snatcher apart piece by piece; a move that saw Reudh regain some standing in the fort's eyes as a strong overseer. At Fischer's suggestion, Reudh held a 'desecration ceremony'; handing the decapitated head of the snatcher to Reudh. Reudh gathered the dwarves of Spearbreakers and ceremonially presented Mincer and Uvash with the snatcher's head to do as they saw fit with it; a move which impressed Splint and Rose both, and raised their view of him. Reudh mandated the day become a day of mourning, and the funeral of baby Musher to be held early afternoon in the Clover.
==Second Goblin Siege of 208==
Hot on the tails of the human merchants of Gugiromon came a massive goblin siege. Knowing now that First Squad even on their own were enough to deal with the green tide, Reudh ordered the ten First Squad members, led by Fischer to take them out. Reudh and Simon Tam bought out the entire caravan with Spearbreakers Brand Mugs while battle raged outside; it was over quickly and the humans left in high spirits indeed.
Sadly, during this time, due to an accident involving a misunderstanding of orders, two of Spearbreaker's dwarves were killed in the Spikewalk: Tahujdt, a new migrant swordsdwarf, and Anri. Sus II, the long lost son of former overseer Sus Bibandeler was critically injured before Reudh got the order to turn the spikes off.
This just about reversed the political standing he had gained by announcing the day of mourning; it very nearly caused a mutiny. Sus was a former overseer's son, and Tahujdt and Anri were well loved. Dwarves began calling for Reudh's head on a pike or to make a mug from his skull, and things became tense.
==Reudh's Drugging==
Reudh became more and more unhinged as the months went by; after confronting Rose and seeing her with Splint he flew into a rage, calling Rose a 'foul hoyden' and Splint 'Countula'. He shoved Rose hard, but halted as her spirit-imp Halen enveloped Reudh in his muffling, asphyxiating embrace. Rose saw Reudh fainting as he ran out of oxygen, and so she called Halen off. Reudh began raving and ranting, and stopped only when Splint kicked him in the testicles. It turned out that Reudh had been drugged by Mr Frog's concoctions; the gnome saw Reudh (as did most others) as an unfit overseer and attempted to get him thrown out of office by virtue of 'going mad'. Thankfully, the Baron's Hammers broke into Reudh's room and found the tainted personal stash of wine and poured it down the drain where it could harm no one anymore.
==Withdrawal==
With the drugs being removed from his system, Reudh suffered major withdrawal symptoms and fell into a deep depression. He (rightly) believed everyone in the fort hated him, though Rose and Jack Magnus both provided him with some good friendship; Rose by simply being a good friend and Jack playing a little joke involving a statue of a spawn draped in cloth; a 'sexy spawn' as Reudh mentioned while he was raving.
During this time, he just about threatened to go back to his old creepy self when a miner called Rochia went fey and kissed him full on the lips. He wished to court her, mistaking her fey mood for actual adoration; and as she finished her artifact the fey mood wore off and she returned to her usual, Reudh-hating self. This sent him even further into depression.
A human who had been lost in the basements of Spearbreakers during the visit from Gugiromon made himself known; Iki Atrasina, a crossbowman terrified of the Spawn. He worships Fischer like a god, but quailed upon seeing her and fled back to the crafting levels to become a bowyer. Reudh simply had to grant him asylum; for what else could he do?
==The First Spawn Siege of 208 - The Siege of Cuts==
The Spawn of Holistic came to Spearbreakers in force in Timber, 208. Just ahead of them, just barely keeping ahead, was the merchant caravan from Stemelzarustuth, the parent country. Reudh manned the spikewalk controls personally to avoid any deaths from miscalculation, and set up the squads according to Baron Splint's orders. Two dwarven guards met their deaths at the hand of the elite spawn Tulon Robekvath just as the last of the caravan made it inside Spearbreakers. First squad remain fine until a second wave of Spawn show up in a staggered formation. Just as fast as the spawn are beaten back, some of the more junior army members are injured too. Mincer gets his hand torn to bits, his wife Uvash loses her foot, Hakah is throttled to death, Fervus is killed, Krypta bleeds to death, Draignean gets a punch to the throat, bruising it, Soulslicerjames is defeated and torn to pieces. Adil, one of the marksdwarves gets both arms ripped off and bleeds to death. Sus III, distant relative of Sus Bibandeler is also killed. Pokonic, a senior dwarf of Fischer's squad loses a hand and a foot, and then bleeds to death. Two more, Litar and Ezum are also found dead some kilometres from the fort, having fought all the way.
Thus, it is a pyrrhic victory. The army numbered about twenty-five, and lost nine that day.
==The Aftermath of the Siege of Cuts==
There was a great unhappiness in the fort for weeks afterward. Especially so with Dicer's young child Lokum, who lost her father and her friend 'Mr Pokonic' in the siege. Reudh, Skitara, Fischer and Dicer comforted the poor young child, a sight which moved Fischer and Reudh greatly, with Fischer even stating 'it made her wish she'd had children'.
Not long after this, an alarm was sounded. Human mercenaries bearing weapons unknown to Spearbreakers, perhaps under the employ of Ballpoint attacked. It was at this time that Reudh met Vanya Carena, the elf Skulker. He was immediately enamoured with her for her graceful movement and appearance, even more so when she gave him a kiss on the cheek for his help getting her to safety.
Reudh also oversaw the construction of the 'Spawn Containment Chamber'; a room where captured spawn may be shot at by marksdwarves in complete safety. It was a rousing success, with one flaw: peasants who came in the room saw the spawn and nearly soiled themselves in terror, dropping whatever item they carried.
Fischer began to tutor Reudh in some martial arts and pike-fighting at his request at this time. Reudh also began to miss Vanya, who had disappeared from the fort. Perhaps rightfully, the memory of the others being mutinous came back to Reudh, and he began fearing assassination. Rose urged him to stay; she now loved him as a friend, for he was a gentle and kind dwarf now the drugs had worn off.
==The Second Spawn Siege of 208==
In Obsidian of 208, toward the end of Reudh's reign, the Spawn attacked again.
Reudh was better prepared and managed to trick approximately half the Spawn force by opening the old Wagon Path to Spearbreakers, then when a good amount had come most of the way down the Wagon Path, closing the bridge so they had to turn back. This drew off approximately twenty Spawn, very luckily for the weakened army.
He also sent the two Civil Defense squads to the sky-towers to act as marksdwarf support with Squad Three, Second Company backing them up. The battle went much better this time, with armed civilans providing fire support, and the full remainder of the melee squads brought to bear, the Spawn went down much faster.
That being said, Domas was killed easily and Jack Magnus was critically injured; his spine was snapped by a lucky claw through his armor; dropping his prized sword Tenshedstagshil he attempted to escape the battle while his entire lower body lay useless. Jack managed to drag himself back to the entrance of Spearbreakers before suffocating to death, depriving Reudh of one of his two friends.
A baby minotaur also popped out of hiding and attacked; Fischer proclaimed it was 'beneath her' so she let Dauros take care of it.
Mad-Dok, who fought in the previous siege came down with a severe fever during the battle. This was greatly worrying to everyone, who having known Softa, Ashsaber and Stova having a fever before transforming were worried Mad-Dok would do the same in a major trafficway of the fort. Mad-Dok barely made it into the holding cells; he REALLY didn't want to transform, so he dawdled. It was with sadness that Mad-Dok was locked away, never to be seen as a dwarf again.
==The End of the Ninth Overseer==
Reudh could not take the burden of overseering anymore, having lost a friend, lost his love, and the ever present threat of assassination or drugging, he handed the reins to Tomio, a recent migrant with a strange past. As a result, Reudh said his goodbyes and fled Spearbreakers with a pike and some food, alone.
Category:Overseers
Category:Characters