I found myself thinking of my old friend Oghren as I was boiling a new mash this morning. It's a good thing he's not here, you know - he'd already have drunk every drop of alcohol we've managed to make as fast as we could brew it. Even for a dwarf, he was prodigiously good at drinking. Dwarves in general seem to have a high tolerance for liquor, but Oghren was special. Heart of a stout oak and a stomach of steel. A third or so of the people who take the Grey Wardens' Joining die in the process, and the ones who survive it usually pass out cold. Oghren, on the other hand, quaffed the whole chalice of darkspawn blood, belched so loud they probably heard it in Antiva City, and declared it "not bad."
He was a vulgar fellow, Oghren was. I don't think he ever met a female person without making at least one horrendous sexual comment. I tried not to take him in public any more than necessary. He told stories that could keep you laughing for hours, though, and sometimes his utter lack of politeness could be just delightful. Rudeness isn't nearly so bad when it's directed at people who deserve it. Oh, and you never saw anyone wield a battleaxe like that dwarf! I once saw him take it and just
spin and take out a half dozen darkspawn in one huge swing. He wasn't charming, but Maker was he effective.
I can't say I
miss Oghren, exactly. He was a massive pain in my arse a great deal of the time we spent together. I find, though, that I like to think of him now.
Things turned out badly for so many of my old friends. Thinking of Oghren never makes me sad. See, this is what happens when there's nothing to do with the whiskey but wait and it's morning in the tavern. Nobody around to blather at in person means I'm going to blather at all of you instead.
Oh yes! That's the news! We're working on whiskey, and I was thinking...do any of you magical or mutant types have skills that could speed up time in one very small area? Say, the inside of a barrel? The blacksmiths have managed to double as coopers for us (thank you!), and we've got the whiskey sitting, but if we could make the time go along faster we'd potentially have good whiskey much sooner.
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