Ral Umardeduk was one of the seven founders of Oiledprisons. Serving as the young fort's ax murderer, she spent her days felling trees and fending off wild beasts if necessary. The job was difficult but rewarding, and the small outpost never lacked wood.
Years went by. Oiledprisons grew from an isolated commune to a buzzing hub of commerce. Dozens of immigrants forced growth, and growth needed wood. Beds, bins, barrels, training bolts and charcoal slowly streamed out of the workshops, slowed to the pace at which Ral managed to fell trees.
To remedy this situation, Ral grabbed a group of fresh immigrants and gave them axes. The ax squad, as it was informally called, wandered the land as a stout cloud of steel, leaving behind piles of logs in their wake and fueling the furnaces below. Actual combat was scarce but satisfying, as the squad, despite the lack of formal combat training, applied log splitting methods to kobold skulls.
As the ax squad grew more experienced, their pattern of activity changed from constant back-breaking labor to occasional trips to the wilderness. The squad grew restless as the amount of activity dropped, but it had to be so, or else they would decimate the entire forest and be left with nothing. Something had to be done with all that free time, and Ral had just the idea- A part-time ax squad that would help fend off even the most serious threats.
The squad was officially registered and formed. Weapons were already available, as they were the squads tools of the trade, but the overworked armorer could not keep up the pace, and armor was months away. Nevertheless, the first day of training started as planned. The squad was a tight-knit bunch, so Ral jokingly assumed the instructor's position and urged the dwarves to take a shot at her. One did, and sent her to the floor.
An indeterminate amount of time later, Ral woke up, but couldn't see anything. Pain radiated from her head and neck. Bandages covered her entire head and the induced blindness made her feel uncomfortable. She started tearing them off, but a haf-familiar voice, a peasant from one of the recent waves, stopped her. "The bandages must stay as they are." "But I want to see!" "There's no use, you-" Ral grabbed him with one hand as the other felt the moist scar tissue that loomed where her eye sockets and nasal bridge used to be. She sighed, let go and started rambling about her finished career.
Months passed, and it was determined that her wounds were as healed as they would ever be. Ral left her room and carefully walked around the fortress. She noticed some new passages heard new voices and then fainted. From that point on, her entire conscious experience a series of awakenings, short walks and fainting. Her life story moved the dwarves of Oiledprisons, and she soon made it into the mayor's office. Despite her condition, Ral fulfilled her mandate slapping duties for a few years before finally losing the elections to some wrestler.
The new mayor received the old office, and Ral was thrown to the curb. She made her home in a vacant room, and started waking up there whenever she fainted. The loss of her job and office ruined her, and what little joy she could express in her short conscious stints was all but extinguished. The new mayor felt guilty, and tried to think of a proper job for her. One of Ral's old memos gave him the answer- Captain of the Guard.
Captains of the Guard were usually among the leaders of the military, and the strongest warriors. In small forts, however, the lack of a need for a long chain of command and the lack of manpower to serve as a proper police force, captains of the guard were mostly ceremonial figures, and spent their free time beating up perceived mandate breakers. Ral was blind, forgetful and prone to fainting, so the mayor hoped that she wouldn't manage to create as much havoc as a healthy, fit veteran usually chosen for the job.
Ral accepted the mayor's offer, and now wakes up every day intending to deliver blind justice, collapsing on her way and forgetting all about it.
Ral Umardeduk, Ax Murderer cancels Beat Criminal: Unconscious.
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Topic: Blind Justice (Read 1045 times)