A Toast to the Steelwater

On this trip to the Steelwater, we meet Carrion-Master Gro'Ahl McHrek and his favorite drinking buddy, Mzshek, the head of a fallen golem. They never tell the story, but they come in together once a fortnight and Gro'Ahl drinks a toast to an incredibly long list of fallen comrades from the battle where the two of them met. Lots of speculation surrounds their joint appearances: Gro'Ahl created the golem. Gro'Ahl destroyed the golem. Mzshek slaughtered every one in Gro'Ahl's army and then the Carrion-Master stole the golem's head.

Whatever the story is, once every couple weeks, Gro'Ahl stumbles in, already drunk,
goes to the cave room in the back of the pub and makes toast after toast until everyone else goes home. Mzshek doesn't drink, or even have the capacity to speak, but he mouths the names of fallen comrades, long forgotten and a talented lip-reader can make out a grocery list of epic heroes.

The original sketch took me about ten minutes. The finished piece took about three, maybe four hours in photoshop, largely.

The characters and images are © 2011 to me.