To the rescue in Wilmskirk

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Clayday

Characters partaking:
Drayin from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dani 
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Indra Karanendottir, a Hiording noble from the Karanen Bloodline, played by Florence

The baboons attack our adventurers

ndra Karanendottir of the Hiording and her aides, Kemal and Drayin, have been traveling for some time now.  Their travels took them to Quackford, where they got in conflict with the local thieves gang, so rather than risk any harm they decide to leave town and head for Boldhome.  They travel via the Stone Road and pass Wilmskirk the day after.  About one hour down the road from Wilmskirk, the party enters a small hamlet, three of four Steads, with lots of grazing land.  However, no cattle is visible, apart from an old shepherd and some sheep, and one mangy cow.  No farmers, no warriors, it sure is a most distressing sight.  As our adventurers approach the shepherd is wary at first, but seeing the clan attire of the hiording and the torq of a clan noble, he loosens up and tells the party about the incessant raids this small hamlet has been enduring since several weeks now.  A gang of raiders has been stealing cows almost daily, and although the few warriors that guard the steads have been constantly pursuing the robbers, they have been unable to stop the looting.  As a final measure, a F?yrd Women blessing ritual has been performed at the small Vinga shrine, and all the woman have left as well, a second party trying to trap the looters or discover their hideout.

his morning the raiding party attacked once more, and the warriors took to their horses straight away, in an attempt to stop the thieves and return the stolen cattle.  However, since the raiders and the warriors have left, another problem has arisen.  A gang of baboon has discovered just how vulnerable this stead has become with all the warriors gone, and they have been trying to steal the last few pieces of cattle.  Already, they ran off with a plow, and Melche the shepherd expects them to return to try and steal more valuable items.  The shepherd has locked himself into the horse pen with the cow and his sheep, and is guarding the stead as well as possible, but if the baboons return, he will not be able to hold them off and prevent them from entering the buildings and looting them.  Indra and her companions decide they must help the Shepherd in his mission, and they keep the man company.  Surely, before one hour has passed, they hear noises, and a gang of baboon appears on the hill near the cattle pen.  The three adventurers charge forward, and quickly dispatch a small baboon, but have a hard time killing of the leader, when suddenly a baboon shaman appears.  The shaman starts summoning disease spirits, and although the warriors resist the spirit's attack, the fight starts to turn ugly.  It is not until they manage to subdue thye leader that the tables change.  The shaman makes one final effort to heal the leader using a healing spirit, but Indra reaches the leader just in time and finishes him off.
The shaman has no intention to follow his commander, and runs.  Kemal and Indra fire several arrows, but are unable to prevent the shaman's escape.  For hours, the shaman keeps following them, staying just out of reach, until the party succeeds in throwing the baboon off their scent.

A particularly bad omen

1618. Sea Season. Movement. Clayday

Characters partaking:
Brian Boru, a drifter without tribe, played by David
Ragnar from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Maximus
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Hund, a Colymar Humakti, played by Ben

Tusk Riders on a raid!

ith Ranath paying back his debts to the Sage of the Grey Dog temple, our adventurers undertake their adventure without spiritual guidance.  This turns out rather poorly.  The party first decides to return to Old Man Village to recuperate the sets of armor that are being made for them.  Kemal already made the trip with a trader the week before, and was able to lay his hands on the first set made.  The party returns taking the wilderness route, in order to avoid Lunar patrols, even more so because they have learned during their dinner at the inn the night before that the Lunars take captive any stranger without ties to the Colymar, or, to a lesser extent, to the Lismelder.  Soon after leaving Grey Dog Village, they notice they are being followed.  They wait for the group on their tail and learn it is a small band of Lismelder, with the obvious intention to not abide by the King's rule that Lismelder and Colymar should keep the peace.  Some quick maneuvring by our adventurers causes the already nervous Lismelder to attack, and a fight ensues.  The four attackers are no match for the party though, and they are dispatched relatively easy.

 discussion ensues, will the party leave the attackers to die, or will they make an effort to save their lives and show the Lismelder their good intention?  In the end, after much mudslinging, they decide to escort the Lismelder back to Grey Dog Village, and their mercy is well received by the villagers.  After having lost a day, the party leaves for Old Man Village once again.  This time their voyage is rather uneventful. Upon arrival in Old Man Village, Brian insists he should get the armor that is finished, and his fellow party members back down.  When after this Brian shows up with a brand new and expensive Kite shield, although he had been claiming to have no money, and has been unable to repay debts owed to his fellow party members, dissatisfaction starts to spread.  After collecting the armor the party returns to Grey Dog Village, and from there they decide to head north to the Humakti Stead in order to allow Hund to recuperate his divine spells.  They spend a day on the Stead, and on the way back they run into a pair of Dragonsnails, those vile chaos creatures that emanate out of Chaos spawns all across the lands of Sartar and way beyond.  Against expectation, they dispatch the ferocious beast without casualties, but after the fight Brian insists that Hund should have his Bison carry one of the dead horrors' shell on its back.  Hund refuses to have his beasts of burden sullied by anything chaosspawned, and Brian challenges Hund to a duel.

umakti never refuse a duel, and a short fight follows, in which Hund puts down Brian easily.  After the fight, Hund uses his divine healing to save Brian from bleeding to death, and requests the new kite shield as compensation.   This rekindles the enmity, and the two barbarians start to fight again.  This time Hund decapitates Brian by chopping of his hand at the wrist.  They have to return to Old Man Village once again, and the clan members request a ridiculous price for regrowing the clan-less Brian's arm.  He insists no further, and asks the local smith to manufacture a contraption that he can fasten to his stump, in order to have some way of doing combat.  The party members decide they need to find more money, and fast, and come up with a daring plan, to travel to Snake Pipe Hollow, the imprint of chaos on Dragon Pass, in order to get some of the riches accumulated there.  They travel north to Runegate, than follow the road to Jonstown, avoiding Lunar patrols as good as possible, and bribing them if everything else fails.  After spending the night in Jonstown, they leave the tribal ring grounds, and spend the night in Dangerford, the last beacon of civilization before the long and dangerous road that leads to Alda Chur.
They travel north for most of the day, until the light fades, and then make camp in a clearing near the road.  Brian is not paying attention when a small gang of the violent tusk riders charge without warning, and the fight turns ugly quickly.


Will the party be able to overcome this enemy?  Will Xaldin be able to follow the trail and find his party members?

Visit Amazing Quackford!

1618. Sea Season.Stasis. Clayday

Characters partaking:
Drayin from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dani 
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Indra Karanendottir, a Hiording noble from the Karanen Bloodline, played by Florence

fter his trip to Clearwine, Old Man Village and Grey Dog Village, Hiording Cottar Kemal has an uneventful trip back to Swan Town, where he meets with fellow clan members Drayin and Indra.  He tells them about the encounter with the cave troll, and the bronze plate armor they exchanged for four sets of bronze on cuirbuilli lamellar.  The clansmen agree to travel to Old Man Village again, in order to collect the first set of armor.  The armorer agreed to make one set of armor every week, inbetween his other duties.  In order to avoid having to spend the night in the wilds, the party agress to leave at first light, and the next day the journey commences at the break of dawn of what looks like it's going to be a sunny day.  The first hours of the trip are uneventful, not counting a Lunar patrol that quickly leaves the party alone once they realise there's a noble traveling with them.  They reach the edge of the Colymar wilds before noon.

s the companions walk alongside the Starfire Ridge, just after entering the Wilds, they are under attack from a gang of undead skeletons.  The mindless beings are easily dispatched, and the party advances unscathed.  Within the hour, they pass the Asborn Stead, and start following the edge of the Colymar Wilds, all the way to the source of the Nymie River.  They arrive at the spring lake in the early evening, and follow the course od the Nymie River in the direction of Old Man Village.  The last leg of the trip takes them almost 4 hours, and they arrive at the fork in the River at dusk.  In the dark, as they get ready to cross the creek that leads into the Ridges, they find themselves under attack from a gang of robbers.  Rather than trying to fight them off, they decide to make a run for it and get across safely.  They arrive late at night, but are luacky enough to get some rooms at the Inn.  

he next morning, the companions head to the local shoppe annex armorer and sell the old weaponry taken of the skeletons the previous day.  Kemal gets his lamellar armor.  The party then decides to head for Boldhome.  They agree to travel to Quackford, the duck town lying near the Royal Road. They leave the 32nd in the morning, and arrive in Quackford around noon.  Instead of immediately taking the Road though, they enter the local Pub and spend several hours gambling and drinking, much to the frustration of Indra, who realises her status of Noble becomes less and less valuable as they leave the tribal grounds, and with it her authority over the cottars fades.  During the afternoon they start talking with a fellow in the pub, and when he learns of their intention to travel to Boldhome, he convinces them to take the boat instead.  Without much thinking, both cottars pay the entire fare in advance.  Indra decides to return to familiar territory.  The still have to find room for the night though.  They only accomodation they can find, is a communal sleeping dorm in the poor part of town, much to Indra's disgust.  Our heroes make the best of it, and what with the drinking, they quickly lie fast asleep, when the other patrons, intrigued by the impression of relative wealth, decide to try and steal some stuff of the rich barbarian princess.  Drayin awakes and calls the alarm, and a fight ensues.  Half a dozen duck try to subdue the party, but they fail miserably, and once again the Hiording band prevails.  They decide to call the guard, rather than finish off the thievish Ducks, and although the thieves deny any wrongdoing, they turn out to carry some of Indra's valuables on them.  The guard has no choice but to believe the party, and escort the culprits to jail.

n the 33rd, the weather has turned completely.  It's a downpour.  The trio awakens with a headache.  The Ducks refuse to leave in the rain, claiming that their boat will sink in this kind of weather, and the two cottar have little choice but wait.  It's not until noon that the weather improves and the Ducks agree to depart.  Ironically enough, the first stop turns out to be Clearwine, and since the Ducks refuse to let them pass the night on the boat, they have to fork out for lodging in Clearwine.  During dinner, they start a conversation with an older fellow, carrying expensive-looking black armor.  The man has a request: he is looking for some brave warriors to run an errand for him.  A scroll has been stolen from his master, and for reasons to do with the people in charge, they need someone from outside town to try and recover said scroll.  Our heroes agree, and they let their Alynxes try and track the thieves, with success.  The trail leads to a house in the gutter part of town, but before they can try and enter, they notice they are being followed by three hirsute henchmen.  The situtation turns into a fight quickly.  Two attackers charge, the third performing protective magic, and things look very bad, when a sudden stroke of luck changes the scene: now it is two against two, and although the robbers are good fighters, they are no match for the barbarians.  Upon looting the robbers, it turns out one of them carries quite some valuable items, including a power storage crystal and various gems...

The road to Greydog Village

1618. Sea Season.Fertility. Fireday

Characters partaking:
Brian Boru, a drifter without tribe, played by David
Xaldin from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Anthonius
Ragnar from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Maximus
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Ranath, a Lhankor Mhy student, played by Ben

Grey Dog Village

his rather improbable group of companions met in Clearwine and they decided to travel north to Old Man Village and beyond, each for their own reasons.  The one thing most of them have in common is their desire to live a life of adventures, to get rich and powerful or die trying.  The exception to this is Ranath, a wanderer from the Sages, always looking out for more knowledge, a commodity more valuable than gold when offered to the right person.  They prepare to leave Clearwine under a spring sun, after several days of trying to find a job that pays well there.  The plan is to travel to Old Man Village first, and try their luck there.  Maybe a trader is looking for an escort, those types always have good coin.  Maybe they can trick an old acquaintance into some Orlanth hospitality.  Or maybe Eurmal the trickster will look unto them favourably and let some riches come their way.  The future is unknown, but violence is always an option, and life is short, so, on Fireday, the party head for Old Man Village, following the road alongside the Nymie river.  Past the Black Spear clan grounds and the Colymar Wilds, where ancient spirits roam and elves reign supreme, and no man who has not made a pact with Tarndisi may enter the Wilds on punishment of death.

fter only a few hours of travel, the party run into a Lunar 4 horse cart guarded by Lunar Guards and a Lunar dignitary, which is under attack from a gang of Trollkin lead by a Cave Troll.  The Lunars are getting a beating, and things are looking grim.  Already some of the nasty Trollkin are picking up loot from the cart and running of with it, but the party decides to side up with the Lunars and they manage to attack the Trollkin gang by surprise.  The ferocious attack leaves two Trollkin dead, the others scared and ready to run, so the Cave Troll has to make a statement.  Instead of using his sling, he grabs his huge mace and charges forward.  The young Orlmarth called Ragnar facing him stands his ground, and at first manages to parry the furious Uz warrior.  The damage dealt by the Troll is way beyond what the unarmed adventurers can expect to withstand, but before things get out of hand, Ragnar manages to masterfully dismember the huge Troll with a sublime blow.  This totally discourages the remaining trollkin, and they attempt to scatter off.  The party finishes off a few more trollkin, and Brian the homeless takes one of the trollkin into captivity, intending to use him as a slave.  A thing bound to not go down well with the Uz, should they ever find out: only Uz are allowed to have trollkin slaves.  The dead cave troll is carrying a valuable bronze set of armor, a great prize indeed, and the party decides to take it along in order to sell or exchange it in Old Man village.  Some of the companions recognize one of the Lunar guards, standing behind the cart and out of harms way: it is the Lunar Tax Collector detached to the court of King Kangharl of the Colymar.  

Reaching Moon temple

The dignitary is not grateful for the rescue at all, and refuses to pay a good compensation, as Orlanth customs prescribe.  To add insult to injury, the party members understood they were hired as protectors, but the Lunar laughs them off.  Instead of a reward he gifts the party a trinket, a woodcut depicting a Temple of the Reaching Moon.  Only Ranarth is mildly interested by the object, and starts drawing the outlines of the temple into his drawing book.  The others are disgusted by the Lunar's avarice and decide to separate ways and take the ferry to Old Man village, in the hope that old feuds there might have been forgotten or at least that hospitality takes precedence.  But no such luck.  They manage to make a good deal with the local armorer and leatherworker, who agree to make them 4 sets of lammelar bronze on cuirboilli armor, one set per week.  After that it's back to everyday life, only a few coins left in pocket, only odd jobs that pay next to nothing, it seems the only option is to accompany the young Lhankor Mhy, he has good coin, he is generous enough, and everyone knows these Sages have a way with money.  Ranarth intends to travel to Grey Dog Village, where a small temple led by several Sages will allow him to make an informed decision on what way to travel next.  His fellow party members agree, and they start travelling west towards the Starfire Ridges.  Their trip is uneventful, until they reach the source of the creek they were following.  They disturb a deer drinking, and soon find out there was a predator looking to make that deer his lunch.  The party can see the hunter's shape moving swiftly through the high grass across the creek, but are unable to make out exactly what they are up against, until the sabertooth cat bounces onto the bank and leaps across towards the non-suspecting Lhankor Mhy cultist.  Xaldin attempts to shield the sage but looses his footing when jumping into the shallow creek, and Ranath gets some first hand experience on Sabertooth hunting methodology.  It takes tremendous trouble to drive the powerful beast away, and it is Kemal's trained lynx that finishes the predator off.  Ranath is in a bad state, bleeding to death, and so far healing magic to staunch the bleeding has proven ineffective.  Only just before he passes away into the Realm of Ty Kora Tek, does Brian succeed in stopping the bleeding.

The party have little choice but to make a stretcher and carry Ranath, on the brink of death, all the way to Grey Dog village to the Lhankor Mhy temple there.  The attending priest performs some powerful healing magic on Ranath, and after a long night he wakes up in the morning, feeling much better.  He discovers the loss of all his money, a considerable amount of silver, but finds the temple priests very cooperative.  He and his companions spend almost two weeks training and practicing, mostly paid for by money leant to them by Kemal of the Hiording.

Payback time!

The trollkin gang on the move with their spoils.

1605, Earth Season, Movement Week, Clayday

After returning to the Stead, our heroes aid in repairing the damage done by the magical snow storms, before the Karanen Thane gives them a new mission: to locate the whereabouts of the trollkin troupe that is suspected to have killed the lumberjacks in the northern forest.

After taking in supplies, our party heads north into the woods.  After about half an hour of hiking, they are attacked by two giant ticks.  The party stands to fight, and one of the ticks is killed quite easily, but the other one manages to attach itself to Kemal's leg and inject its debilitating poison before it too is dispatched.  Kemal collapses onto the ground babbling nonsense and unable to move any further.  His two clansmen decide to build a primitive stretcher, and return to the stead to ask for the shaman's help.
Once Kemal is good to go again, we set off again into the northern woods.  Upon arriving at the old lumberjack camp, they manage to find some tracks that point in the direction they followed the last time around, and start following them, avoiding some gorps near the creek while heading in eastern direction.  They notice the Hound Knob in the distance.  Suddenly they are under attack from a gang of trollkin.  After some exchange of arrow fire, they prepare for the clash, when they notice the dark troll leading the trollkin.  It is to late to retreat, and our brave Hiording have no choice but to stand and fight.  The trollkin group up and try to press home the attack by superior coordination, but fail to break the adventurers, who slowly retreat while fighting in order to spread the enemy out as much as possible, as strategy that turns out favourable: when the dark troll charges into them, all three of them focus on the ferocious dark creature, and after a bloody fight they manage to put the fiend down.

A weird occurence

1605, Earth Season, Stasis Week, Windsday

The week begins under good auspices, when Indra learns she receives a hide of land upon becoming an adult in the Hiording tribe.  She asks her cottar friends Kemal and Drayin to accompany her to the hide, in order to inspect it, but before they have the opportunity to do so, a snowstorm erupts out of nothing, highly unusual for the time of year.
The tribe members gather in the village square in order to discuss this freak occurrence, when one of the wardens arrives and reports that the Karanen cemetary has been disturbed, and several graves have been disturbed.  This is alarming news indeed, and it is to be suspected that evil forces are at work.  The shaman decides to perform a telling and the signs are clear.  Chaos is at work, dark plans are unfolding, danger lurks in the woods.  The Karanen Thane sends out patrols in all directions.  Our heroes are sent south, towards the lumber encampment in the forest.  As they approach the camp, they notice it is abandoned.  Upon close inspection they find there has been fighting.  Two unknown trails head out of the camp, but the snow makes it hard to track.  They find tracks of a troll party, heading east, and other tracks heading south.  Since they have been noticing how the snow got heavier and heavier as they went south, but not when they headed east, they decide the cause of the snow must be magical, and to the south, so they decide to head that way in order to stop the snow, that risks to damage crops just weeks before harvest.


After some difficult searching in the snow, they approach a snow-free area, and notice a pair of Broos in the middle of an incantation.  It is clear one of them is performing powerful weather magic.  The other Broo spots them and attacks by summoning a ghost.  The second Broo stops the incantation and summons a chaos beast, that also attacks the party.  They decide to press on.  Drayin is attacked by the spirit but succeeds in beating it.  The party suffers some wounds, and both Kemal and Indra are infected with the Chills, but succeed in killing the surprised Broos.


Upon returning to the village, the Shaman performs a healing ritual, and our heroes learn that a raiding party was reported in the North, and a big patrol was sent north to investigate.  However, the news of the death of the thee lumberjacks is equally alarming.  The family head sends our three adventurers after the suspected murderers: the Troll party whose tracks led east.  Before doing so, however, they head to Apple Lane in order to trade the stuff they found on the Broos to Gringle.


On the way to Apple Lane, they are ambushed by a Dragon Snail, another indication of the increased Chaos presence.  They dispatch the horror without too much trouble, and are in luck as it does not explode upon perishing.  After getting a good price for their loot, they head back to the lumber jack camp.  The snow has gone, the weather has returned to normal, and following the tracks will now prove a lot easier.



They follow the tracks of the troll party all the way to the river, only to run into a party of Broo that seems to be following the same group of Trolls.  The Broo try to ambush our party, but fail.  Once again, our brave Hiording save the day.

Rites of Passage

1605, Earth Season, Fertility Week, Windsday

It is the week of the Alda Chur Fertility Flame Festival, and traditionally, the Karanen bloodline have the rites of passage for their young warriors during this week.
Kemal and Drayin befriend young Indra, the daughter of the Karanen Head Thane.  This strong willed girl is also performing her rite of passage, and she is put into the same group as our two cottars.  They must head south into the wilds, to Pig Hollow, on the frontier of Black Spear territory.  Their mission is to bring back a decently processed wolf skin each, so our party must find a wolf pack. 
The trio sets out from the Karanen stead.  The Colymar wilds are normally off limit for non-adults, so it is for the first time that our three Hiording venture into the dark forests south of Apple Lane.  The weather is cloudy but dry, and not too cold.  For over an hour they advance, and when they arrive in a clearing amidst several mounds covered with underbrush and shrubs.  They are alarmed by a sound up ahead, but cannot make out any threat.  Once they advance into the small clearing, a group of trollkin tries to ambush them.  Kemal is hit by a rock from a sling.
Indra Karanensdottir is young, but well trained with the bow, and her first shot pierces the head of the apparent leader.  Drayin and Kemal charge towards two other trollkin that appear, while Indra tries to get into position to take out the slinger.  The trollkin turn out to be no match for the party, after the leader is killed.  The party salvages a nice set of brigandine armor and some other goods.
They continue towards Pig Hollow, and around noon they decide to try and hunt some game for lunch, but without success.  They end up eating some wild carrots that Kemal finds.
Once into the Hollow Indra starts tracking wolf trails, and they quickly pick up a pack. All of a sudden they find themselves under attack by a group of 8 wolves, that are closing in fast.  Good ranged fire thins out the pack somewhat, but the party still are faced with 5 hungry wolves.  It takes a determined defense and some serious healing to best the hungry canines, but in the end the party prevails.  It takes a lot of effort, and some help from the gods, but the three manage to produce three decent wolf skins, and they head back home.  It gets dark early in Earth Season, so the group decides to spend the night in the field.  During the night a goblin notices the skins, and manages to steal them without Drayin noticing, so that morning they are in for an unpleasant surprise.  Luckily, the tracks of a goblin draggin about 3 heavy wolf skins are easy to recognise, and the culprit is quickly found and justice is swiftly and brutally dealt.

Broo Invasion

1605, Fire Season, Movement Week, Windsday

 Kemal and Drayin are allowed to participate on the trip to the Runegate market.  Because of one of the traders getting sick on the way, Kemal and Drayin end up having to man their own stand.  They are given precise instructions on what price they can sell their sheep.  However, most of the customers intend to trade rather than pay with silver, making it an awkward experience for the two young cottars.
  

Things turn bad the moment a delegation of Black Spear arrive on the plot where our adventurers are trying to run their business.  They request aid from the Hiording, their allz clan, and Kemal and Drayin let themselves be talked into giving the Black Spear 20 sheep.  They neglect to make propoer introductions, they have no name of the recipient, and of course they get in a lot of trouble with the clan and teh Issaries Runelord.  They are called before the council in Swantown, but the Karanen Thane takes up their defense and because of their lack of experience they are not punished.  The council, however, makes a remark about the boys' age, and insist that they make an effort to pass their adulthood rites as soon as possible.

After the meeting the group returns to the Karanen stead via Apple Lane.  They notice a campfire in the hills south of Apple Lane, in the middle of Karanen territory.  However, the Thane knows of no parties so far outside at this late hour.  Upon arriving in the Karanen stead, a patrol is sent to investigate.  The next day the party has not returned, so a large patrol including Kemal and Drayin is sent to investigate.  They discover the campfire, as well as the 3 fyrd from last night's patrol, all dead.  The intruders are nowhere to be seen, but the place has clearly been tainted by chaos.

The clan sends a delegation to the nearest Storm Bull temple, and the next day Storm Kahn Buxor arrives.  He insists on solving the problem alone, and snickers when the Karanen thane tries to convince him to take a patrol by telling him three have died.  He does, however, accept the two protagonists as a guide.

The two lead Buxor into the hills, where he begins his divinations.  He soon discovers a party of broo in hiding, but fails to locate a broo shaman and his assistant hiding behind him.  As he charges towards the party of Broo, the Shaman jumps out of hiding, and attacks Kemal and Drayin, who were ordered to stay back by Buxor.  This fight turns ugly very quickly, the boys are no match for the shaman and his helper, and Drayin nearly dies, until Buxor spots the danger, returns and rescues the day.

The Storm Kahn starts the rites of purification, and Kemal and Drayin empty the pockets of the shaman and find a POW 7 storage crystal.

Ducks, Ducks and More Ducks

1605, Sea Season, Fire Week, Clayday

After several weeks of working in the fields of the Tula, repairing the buildings and studying with the wise woman, our friends have some spare time and decide to make another run to the wilds looking for herbs and wood for bows.  The Shaman provides them with some healing salve, and sends them on their way.
While making their way through the woods, they spot a wounded Duck, collapsed against a tree.  As they approach, they notice a second Duck, lying face down in the underbrush.  This one is grievously wounded, and on the brink of death.  As the young Hiording start bandaging the wounded ducks, they hear the noise of fighting coming through the trees.  It sounds like the fight is taking place just behind a small mound.
Since the wounded Ducks were unable to clarify what was going on, the party is not sure what to do next, when they see two more ducks under attack from a small gang of trollkin.  Still, after some consideration they decide to save the two remaining Ducks from what looks like certain death and a subsequent appearance as first course.  They charge forward, and take the trollkin by surprise.  These turn out to be no match for Kemal and Drayin.
They construct a small litter for the wounded Ducks, and take them along to the Tula of the Karanen, where the Shaman takes care of them all evening.  The next morning, the Duck are ready to leave, albeit with one still very weak Duck.  The trollkin did not yield much loot, but the party finds a crude skeleton key in the pockets on one of them.
The next day our friends head to Apple Lane in order to sell the new bows.  Gringle has a proposition for them, they have to stand guard during Gringle's absence.  Our two heroes accept, not knowing what they are getting themselves into.  That evening Gringle and Quackjohn are ready to leave for Swantown, when the Pawnshop is attacked by a gang of Baboons.  Just as the one night guards think they are going to come out ahead, a second group of thugs breaks into the pawnshop through the backdoor.  As the party sees the centaur leading the newcomers, they become quite scared.  However, at that exact moment, Gringle bursts out of the backroom and downs the centaur with one mighty stroke.  The fight now quickly turns in the party's favor.  When Xarban is downed, the fight is over.  The party repairs the damage to the roof, and the next morning they assemble their loot and collect their pay.  They fail, however, to fully understand the exchange in tradetalk between Gringle and Xarban, and Gringle will collect the ransom without sharing.

Theft at Stead Jaarsten

1605, Sea Season, Truth Week, Clayday

Kemal and Drayin have made a bit of money selling their bows to Gringle, and decide to try the same recipe once more.  The Shaman needs more herbs as well, and they manage to convince their father that the errand needs to be run, and they can't help on the field.
Contrary to their last walk to the wilds, they get lucky and find a lot of herbs, as well as a splendid elderberry tree full of long, straight branches.  However, while sawing those off, they fail to notice a boar family walking into them, and Kemal only notices the charging boar just before he gets run of his feet, seriously wounded.  It is an alert Drayin that saves him, taking out the boar with a good javelin throw.  They notice a second boar, guarding the piglets, just as it decides to charge, and Kemal goes down a second time.  Again, Drayin has to save the day.
They return to the Stead in rather bad shape, and the Thane notices.  He orders them to pull their weight on the Stead, and the next weeks they assist in the cattle count, sheep shearing, and inspection of the fruit stores before an opportunity to get away from stead life presents itself again:  It is time to go into the hills and find new grazing grounds for the sheep, and they are sent to the west hills with a herding dog, Blackleg. After an uneventful trip they run into a small trollkin gang pulling a fancy looking horse and some loot.  Drayin is wounded by a thrown rock, but Kemal finishes off the three weak trollkin on his own, with a bit of help from Blackleg.  When they are relieved the next morning, they realize the horse is marked as Jaarsten property.  The Jaarsten are clansmen, guarding the western border.  Kemal and Drayin know where the Jaarsten Stead is, and bring the horse back.  It turns out to be the Godi's horse, and it threw him off the day before, possibly because of a trap set by the trollkin.  The Godi is grateful, and offers both young men a mastiff pup.  They eagerly accept: mastiffs are big and strong dogs, and a valuable partner for any young Hiording.

Looking for Elderberry

1605, Sea Season, Illusion Week, Freezeday

Kemal and Drayin head out to look for Elderberry trees in order to make simple bows which they hope to sell to Gringle or at the Swan Market.  They are also on the lookout for herbs for the shaman: Cattail and Sorghum to make a healing salve. While scouring the edge of the Wilds they run into a bunch of clan youngsters that are setting up traps to catch hares.  After spending a lot of time looking for their wood, they notice an unknown traveler fighting a small gang of ducks.  One of the ducks is lying on the ground, and the boys are uncertain which side they have to take, but as they approach the unknown traveler flees.  They soon learn that the trespassing traveler intended to kill the ducks in order to get the Lunar reward, something that is frowned upon in the Hiording clan.  They take care of the wounded duck and report what happened to Dar Swan, who sends out a patrol to look for the stranger.  Our young adventurers deliver the herbs to the shaman and Drayin starts manufacturing the crude bows.