Sigwold

Sigwold was a dwarven tinker working as a mechanic for the Black Powder Rebels in the years before the revolution. He won the acclaim of his fellow dwarven smiths and fabricators for his inventions. His contributions helped them create a whole new order of intricate but powerful nonmagical implements of war, weapons to make the Atlantean Empire pay for a host of crimes.

## Characteristic

Sigwold was slender for a dwarf, his chest as burly as Snow's. He was also short, his height barely coming up to the human breastbone. Although Sigwold might bee considered slim by dwarven standarts, he had deft hands and ab equally adroit brain. The Dwarf’s clever hands were as adept at medicine as they were with the strange new art of technology.

Sigwold was Eginhard's brother and Rikka's foster-uncle by extension. Both brothers shared a secret code that they used while sending letters to each other.  Sigwold's weapon of choice was a crossbow, though he was dissmissive of it, thinking it paled in comparison to his inventions despite the crossbow's complexity.

## History

### Early Life

Sigwold's great-grandsire was enslaved by the Atlantis Empire to work in the mines because of the dwarves' natural immunity to the debilitating effects of the Magestone, and since then Sigwold's family knew only slavery. When Rikka's mother, a fellow slave, died of Magestone poisoning, Eginhard, Sigwold's brother took her daughter in - his folk have been in the mine for generations already, but he was determined to get his family out.  During their years in the Magestone mines, Sigwold taught Rikka how to fix battle injuries. The dwarves and Rikka almost got away from the mine when she was twelve, but they got caught and had to bide for years.

Sigwold got work as a jeweler when he and Eginhard arrived in Khamsin. He was always amazingly good with his hands - it wasn’t long before he had his own workshop. Rikka was apprenticed to him.

### Road to Caero

In 419 Tz, Snow and Sigwold were out in the north, in Varsfield, where Snow was to help the black powder cargo from Nepharus Mons get to Atlantis and, while waiting for the pack train to get ready, practiced shooting with a black powder pistol - in one minute Snow got 5 shots, 5 fits and all of that from 50 paces - Sigwold used a hourglass to measure it.  While there, Sarah Ythlim paid them a visit. Bringing with herself a near-perfect fuser rifle - The Lady's Hand-cannon, she gifted it to Snow since waiting for Sigwold to perfect the brass cartridges would be too long and the Revolution needed to act now.

Sigwold was the one to perfect the new brass cartridges for the fuser rifles, bringing consistency to their shots.

The Rebel pack train of animals loaded with black powder went on the path from Varsfield, through the mountains to Enos Joppa and then to The Fist. Snow, Sigwold, and their team of packhorse drivers had made their way across more than a hundred miles, much of it rugged country, in slightly more than a week. The Orcs, traveling across flat grasslands, had yet to turn up. Since Enos Joppa, they’d at least had a trail of sorts to follow. From this stand of hills onward, however, they would cut cross-country to Khamsin. The question that worried the Rebels was whether the full cargo would be heading south, or would it only be his half? Sarah may have been wise to split up the shipment as it went through the wild lands.

Snow, who before this way scouting ahead of the pack train, arrived at the camp and warned of Orcs coming their way. The Rebels armed themselves and took defensive positions. Sigwold mounted up and joined Snow to meet the visitors - the Raider band that came their way totaled about a score of Orcs and Goblins—light cavalry, ten Cave Butchers and five Cave Archers. They spread out, Goblin archers standing with arrows nocked, searching for targets among the rocks surrounding the campsite. The Cave Butchers rode with bare blades. Now they began clashing them against their rough Ankhar-bone armor, starting a war-chant. A lone rider rode forth - Grugh, the orc leader. His Cave Lizard had an odd, capering gait as he came forward to confront Snow and Sigwold. Grugh, Snow and Sigwold had a short talk after which it was revealed that Grugh's warhost was the escort kzar Kraksha provided, per Sarah's request. The three of them, now joined, rode to Khamsin.

The travelers were enduring yet another night of camping without a fire, which meant uncooked food and a freezing night out on the plains. On the other hand, it made it harder for any passing patrols to spot them. The messenger from Khamsin had blundered onto the pack train just as the long shadows were turning into true evening. Snow found himself feeling sorry for the kid after his brush with the Orc guards. Standing in camp, the young rider was a sturdy enough Khamsin youth. Sigwold, meanwhile, knelt with a bull’s-eye lantern, deciphering the message Eginhard had sent. The brothers had their own private code, and Sigwold spent some time going from the scrap of paper that the rider had delivered to the map he’d been using to chart their course. Finally he shuttered the lantern and arose, saying that the spot Eginhard has chosen is a crossroads near an extensive stand of brush, they’ll have concealment but also will be able to keep a watch. They sent the young messenger back after feeding him and giving him a good horse and set camp for the night.

Snow and Sigwold's forces ambushed the Imperial Scorpem patrol and lended a hand to Eginhard's squad through this, winning the skirmish. After Sigwold introduced Snow to Eginhard and told him about Sarah's plans Eginhard introduced the two to Rikka, his adopted daughter and Blaize, who led the initial charge towards the Imperials. The rest of the loose horses would be divided among the northern drovers and the Khamsins. The tall animals were prized in the North—cross-bred with ponies, their hybrid offspring would fetch much silver. With their Imperial army brands, however, they couldn’t be brought to the city itself. Eginhard’s wounded men and the hurt Varsfielder would take the mounts for sale to the free outposts beyond Enos Joppa, sharing the silver from the booty. That still left seventeen dead bodies, two Scorpems, and all traces of any combat in the area to be cleared away—preferably before any more Imperial patrols came riding along. The Rebels had work to do.

Snow, called everyone around and then ordered everyone to start covering up the evidence of the ambush, digging up graves for the Atlantean corpses. Others had already begun the job of digging a pit, but with so much earth to move, they had to improvise, using horse blankets from the captured mounts. Even working in shifts, the men started complaining when they got about eight feet down. First, they dumped the Scorpems into the pit, they ended with two layers of stiffening bodies covering the mechanical beasts. Snow vanished over to the pack train and returned with a metal container - ыomewhere in the Land, an Incendiary Golem was missing a fuel tank. Snow and Sigwold then broke the tank open, poured it's contents into the pit and set it on fire. Brief, intensely burning flames licked out of the pit, causing some of the watchers to make a quick retreat. The funeral pyre subsided quickly, throwing up little smoke. The top layer of dead had been incinerated to the bone.

The men then set to digging, shoveling, dumping blanketfuls of earth, even kicking the stuff into the pit. Sigwold called a halt when they’d created a small mound. Snow and a few of the northern drovers appeared, leading the pack animals and the men’s mounts. As soon as all the horses were reloaded, they set off along the other leg of the crossroad — the way at right angles to the path taken by the ill-fated patrol. And although Sigwold strove for speed, it was the progress of the laden horses that set the pace. Sigwold directed the caravan off the road and onto a cross country run—probably to avoid the next town and any possible inquiries.

Their route hugged the edge of the hills, until Snow rode back, declaring a halt. Upon seeing the Roa Vizorr nearby, he men cheered, turning their final advance into an impromptu charge. They rode their horses right into the water, the hooves stirring up the bottom silt. The thirsty horses didn’t care, leaning their heads down to drink. When the riders started to join them, Sigwold’s voice cut across the scene, telling the Rebels that they'd have enough time to rest once they set up a camp.

After turning onto the road, the pack train had encountered several deserted townlets. Sigwold and the others had stopped at some of them, using the wells to water their beasts, sleeping in some of the less tumbledown adobes. Debt and failure had emptied the villages of peasants as their farms had been swallowed up by the growth of estates. This set of half-ruinous buildings, however, turned out to be near a gleaming new manor house. The steward had come out to berate them, waving his staff of office. Besides his dubiously useful sword, the steward had a gaggle of agricultural workers standing well behind him, armed with the usual farm-implement miscellany: sickles, pitchforks, and flails. They didn’t look very confident in their chances of success against the riders. He and the rest of the warriors could go through these farmers like wind scattering wheat chaff.

However, their job was to shepherd a perilous cargo to Caero and beyond, not to pick fights with local landowners while heading in the direction of the Imperial garrison those landowners would call upon. The head steward was unfortunate enough to insult Rikka, Eginhard's daughter and a fight between the servants of Master Ramosi's estate and the Rebels almost broke out. Sigwold defused the situation, however, and the pack train lurched into movement. While on the road, Snow, Sigwold, Eginhard, Rikka and Blaize discussed how empty estates like these are made, with Sigwold telling them of Sarah's theory on the Empire's taxation politics that seep all the life off of these estates.

### Karrudan's Assassination

During the burning of Caero by Atlanteans, Sigwold and Snow were stationed at the abandoned quarry south of the city, at the Rebel's rendezvous point. He was also the one who took care of the wounded Sarah Ythlim after she was rescued from the burning city by Rikka, applying salves to ease the pain of the Revolution's leader. Sigwold was present during the talk that decided how to go about Karrudan's assassination, supporting the idea of Snow delivering the killing shot to the Prophet-Magus.

Once the deed was done, an uprising began in Down Town, with the Rebel sympathizers armed with black powder pistols and the rare fuser rifles rallying against Lord Scarbro's forces trying to squash the Rebellion's leaders.

Sigwold, along with the rest of Sarah's personal guard made a last stand at the Mills of Circumstance, the inn that they were staying prior to the uprising. One end of the open space was packed with Imperials. Scarbro must have committed the bulk of his force to this spearhead, hoping to decapitate the beast of rebellion before it could rear up in full strength. Bereft of leadership from Sarah, Valerian, Eginhard, and Perrin, the uprising would undoubtedly degenerate into a simple riot.

The little knot of Rebel commanders stood behind a horn-shaped earthen breastwork piled up before them. They also had a flag of sorts—a bedsheet painted with a crude symbol. It looked like a shield intersecting a larger, darker circle. The person holding the pole for this improvised banner was Rikka. Attempting to shield her and the others from the gathering Imperial might was a thin line of defenders sheltering behind yet another street barricade. They hadn’t gotten their materials from five minutes of hasty pillaging - large barrels and crates had been moved from nearby warehouses. Heavy wagons had been overturned. Maybe some of the big tuns had come from the inn’s cellars. They’d even dug up the paving stones and heaped earth on their rampart, creating a sort of ditch or moat before the wall.

Blaize then joined the fight, having found an empty place on the wall. The battle array before them comprised a spear wall in the middle with clouds of crossbowmen at the flanks. Heavy bolts flew through the air as the flank parties tried to provide cover fire. The return volley from the Rebels was more ragged—but also more deadly. The bowmen had to stand to restring their weapons. The pistol-armed Rebels could remain crouched under cover, barely exposing themselves to fire. They hurt the guardsmen, all but wiping out those with ranged weapons. Their galling fire slowed the spear line. The Rebels bloodied the advancing Imperials, creating gaps in the line, but those gaps were always filled by men from the rear ranks. Occasional blasts of rifle fire kept the mages too far back to make themselves

People were running now. A great noise came from the Imperials as they surmounted the wall - part victory cry, part animal snarl. And then Sigwold, armed with an axe and a torch, hurled the axe, not at the enemy, but into the middle of the defenses. The blazing brand followed, landing on a pile of black powder barrels. One had been stove open, leaking a trail of black powder...

There was a sudden hiss, and the world vanished in a sudden, brilliant glare. Before them was a crater, blown deep into the surface of the earth. Around it staggered burned, blind, bleeding, and dismembered Imperials.

The Empire’s war machine had abruptly run out of momentum, and then a storm of lead sleeted into the face of the stunned warriors. Sarah and the others had indeed been holding themselves out—not as a sacrifice, but as bait to tempt Scarbro into committing his forces. The Rebel leaders had also been regathering all the gunslingers they’d sent out to spearhead the uprising. Young men with pistols were massing and moving forward, firing as they went.

The Imperial guardsmen, victory literally blasted out of their hands, tried to stand. They were the best-trained, steadiest human warriors in the Land, but human flesh can only take so much. As the withering fire continued, the Imperial ranks wavered, then disintegrated. Still firing into the running fugitives, the Rebels cheered a sight few had ever seen—an Imperial warhost in full retreat. The gunfire slackened, but voices rose in harsh argument. Some of the more hotheaded Rebels screamed for pursuit, eager to settle some more scores with the fleeing guardsmen, but Valerian stopped them before they ran to their death.

Sarah then made a big speech, congratulating the Rebel forces in Down Town and proclaiming the start of Black Powder Rebellion. Then Blaize crashed into Eginhard, who was inspecting the dead bodies and looking for his brother. The Dwarf looked singed and bloody and his eyes were full of tears. Eginhard incquired about his brother, with Blaize telling that Sigwold sacrificed himself by torching the black powder barrels and winning the day.

***Black Powder Rebels***
 Major characters

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Prologue
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 7
3. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 5
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 10
5. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 11
6. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 3
7. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 3
8. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 6
9. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 9
10. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 12