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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4456269" data-attributes="member: 3285">Belly of the Beast: Part 6a – The HulksKham was manacled hand and foot and marched out to a dock, along with four of his fellow prisoners.  “Shouldn’t Lucius be here?” asked Kham, looking around.“Aye, but ‘e was in The Tombs,” said Price.  “They’ve got ter go get 'im. Don’t matter mate, you’re gon'a get a boat load ov new friends.”  He looked almost sad. At the end of the dock, Kham felt a tingling, probably some kind of magical defense.  Six dwarves, their faces covered in ash and soot, stood sullenly at the end of the docks.  “Get in,” said the guard captain gruffly.“See yew in a 'undred years.” Price waved at Kham and then marched away.Kham was practically thrown into a rowboat, dragged along with the four other prisoners.  The guards piled in after him.“Now row,” said the captain. The rowing was long and hard, but it gave Kham plenty of time to take in his new home. The two hulks, the Defense and the Unite, were moored head to head. The bulky hammock-houses were reared upon their decks, their barred portholes and their rows of prisoners' linen swinging from between the stunted poles that served them as masts. Nearly a mile farther down the heavy form of another hulk, the Warrior, moored close alongside the Dockyard, with the little, ugly Sulfur, a washing-ship, lay in the offing.The Warrior’s appearance was particularly striking.  Her square-cut stern and quarter-galleries stamped her at once with the hallmark of antiquity, and her bluff bow showed that she, at any rate, could never have distinguished herself for a high rate of speed. The prisoners rowed past a cordon of buoys moored around the yellow-painted hulk at a distance of about seventy yards.   Kham took note of it.Kham was to be elevated to the deck of the Warrior by a rough lift.  All five of them were pushed onto it.  Other prisoners slowly winched them up.  When the prisoners were finally hauled up onto the deck, bristling dwarves and something large and metallic loomed over them. It strode with thundering steps; one arm was a gigantic crossbow with two large bolts the size of a man’s arm.  The other had three stubby fingers.    “Get a good look,” said the guard captain, pointing at the sky.  “That’s the last breath of fresh air you’ll take as a free man.”He turned away and was replaced by a twitchy dwarf who paced the deck in front of the new prisoners.“My name is Warden Darunthar,” said the dwarf. “Welcome to your home for the next two years.  If you’re good, you might get your sentence reduced.  If you’re bad; well, I won’t lie to you, this will be the last place you ever see. Here’s how it works: you’re divided into three classes, First, Second, and Third.  The class you’re in depends on your character.  The good news is every man in my eyes is a blank slate.  That can be a good thing or a bad thing. If you’re a murderer; well that doesn’t mean anything to me.  You’re just as liable for good conduct badges as you are for bad ones.  If you were somebody important, in a gang or something, you can forget special treatment.  We’ll beat you bloody just like the rest.”Kham laughed.Darunthar leaned close to Kham. “You going to give me trouble, val?”“Yep,” said Kham.  His entire body pulsed with psychic energy as Kham smashed his forehead into Darunthar’s head.  The dwarf stumbled backwards, clutching his face.  Blood dripped from it.“Split my lip, will you?”  Darunthar spat blood onto the wood of the deck.  “Clank, show the val what we do to guests who give us trouble.”There was a blinding light as Kham’s face connected with the deck.  Something cold and hard was wrapped around his head.  Kham didn’t have to look up to know it was the golem.“You’ll make a good example,” said Darunthar.  “I mentioned classes.  Every day, a mark goes down on this book.” He pointed at another dwarf holding a large logbook. “You can be ranked Very Good, Good, Nil, Bad, Very Bad, or Punishment. Be good and you’ll make it to First Class. Be bad and you’ll go down to the decks. First Class prisoners stay in the top deck. Second Class prisoners stay in the second deck.  Third Class prisoners get the bottom of the ship.  Mr. val here is going down to Third Class with a mark of Very Bad.”“Kiss my ass,” snarled Kham.“Just for that,” said Darunthar, “you’re getting a mark of Punishment instead.  You’re going to share a cell with another troublemaker.  You and Scarbelly will make a nice couple.  I’ve heard of how fond you are of orcs.”  Darunthar smiled through bloodstained teeth.  “I’m sure they’ll give you a warm reception.”Kham struggled to rise to his feet once the iron golem released his head, but he found himself overcome with shakes.  “Oh that’s right,” said Darunthar.  “You’re a juicer.  Well, you’ll find no juice here.  If the withdrawal doesn’t kill you, the orcs certainly will.”The guards began making bets about Kham’s odds on survival when he blacked out.</blockquote>

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