Session S5-W.10

1629, Fire Season, Fertility Week, Waterday to Windsday

Dramatis Personae

Events

Toras was at Whitewall, in the evening after the day that the Wolf Pirates had left.. He noticed that Jaldis was missing, but chalked it up to the general weirdness of the Sartarites.. He was invited to the ‘chieftain’s wooden yurt’ where language issues were a problem.  Toras was fed while a translator was found. He was, it turned out, being asked to go to Wilmskirk to find out what was happening.  After consideration, he set out to travel overnight.  It went reasonably smoothly. By the time Toras reached Sartar, he started to notice the occasional Wolf Pirate corpse and some possible ambush spots.  Closer to Wilmskirk there were more bodies.

Over the course of the day Xenofos had checked out the Ulerian temple and the Library. Both were fine for certain definitions of fine, though the Ulerian temple needed cleaning and one of the initiates at the Temple of Knowledge was showing off how he had been wounded.. Xenofos accepted an invitation to stay with Silor, and Varanis did too.

Silor’s place was ransacked, but the damage was not too bad, and Silor brushed off missing iterms.  His ex-ex wife, Aelna, was there. There were also various other family members, including Hengrast. Silor’s youngest son Rald was looking unhappy, with both parents fussing around him.  Otherwise, things seemed alright, if not good.  It was late in the evening before Silor could sit. It turned out that Rald had been taken by the pirates for a time.

Varanis and Xenofos offered to help and Silor suggested that one way of helping would be to let him go elsewhere to recover.  He had been considering Boldhome.  Varanis offered her house, but Silor suddenly realised that Yamia was on the way, and that she would probably cause awkward trouble in a damaged Wilmskirk.  Silor and Varanis both jumped to the conclusion that they could use Rald to redirect Yamia, but Xenofos pointed out that the boy was already traumatised.  Silor, who had already been wondering about the ethics of using Rald as Yamia bait, agreed this was the case.

Toras arrived at what used to be the gates of Wilmskirk, just as Yelm began to think about waking. A Praxian speaker at the gate traded dried bison for a painted wooden buckle and had him escorted to the King’s house.  The guard there who spoke Praxian had an Impala accent, all bounciness and fast sentences. He stabled Tiny, and the guard asked if he wanted to meet the foreign khan or the city khan.  Toras worked out that Lord Tennebris was present, and said he would like to meet both.

The guard punched Tiny friendly like and did not get stomped. After checking what Toras could eat, and discussing milk, hidden Air, and trumpet calls, the guard showed the rhino rider to where he could sleep.  It was, oddly enough, inside the main cordon, allowing him to be close to the soft centre.  Toras volunteered for guard duty and was told that he was not needed  The enemy had fled.. Toras wondered why the cav was not slaughtering fleeing pirates, which was a question that was answered by the guard trying to explain that there were two armies, Wilmskirk and Boldhome, and finally giving up.

Toras met with Farinst after a couple of hours of sleep.. The king explained what had happened, picking his words very carefully, and noted that he and Lord Tennebris were in the process of making the area safe. Then he offloaded Toras onto Silor.

Over breakfast, Silor asked the three of them to collect Thenaya, who might well be on her way already, and then intercept Yamia (and maybe Venlar), stopping them from coming to ‘help’.. Silor and Toras plot how to raid Sartar over a map. Varanis studies the map too, though periodically staring askance at Silor. Silor mentioned in Heortling that he was checking the understanding that Toras already had.¹He did not give any information that Toras did not already have, but got nothing useful out of the rhino rider.

The three headed towards the Cinder Fox tula and were attacked by 4 huge Scorpion men. Two chased after Xenofos, two targeted Varanis, who dismounted. Toras chucked a javelin at one. Xenofos manages to damage one’s tail with his javelin, and then was chased away and did not quite manage to out-ride them to get back. However, just as he was about to be overwhelmed, Toras arrived on the scene, on Tiny, and a few moments later, Varanis got there, after they had killed the two she had been facing.  Varanis’ weapon seemed to be doing very little, which puzzled her²They were in fact Scorpion Men And A Half, and thus took very little damage from fire, and she was using Fireblade..

On determining that there was no further danger in the immediate area, they continued towards the Cinder Foxes. On the road, they encountered Jengharl, Silor’s eldest son, accompanied by wagons and a lot of warriors. They spoke briefly, learning that Jengharl was headed for Wilmskirk and Thenaya was likely still back at the tula. Varanis, Xenofos, and Toras rode on.

At Cinder Fox, they were met by a middle-aged Ernaldan priestess who introduced herself as Yorna. Xenofos realised that though she was Silor’s current wife, she was probably also his first wife. He was confused by the notion of a man having multiple marriages to women. Varanis stayed to exchange niceties with Yorna while Xenofos and Toras collected Thenaya from her lands nearby. The next morning, they headed back to Wilmskirk at their best speed.

• 1
  He did not give any information that Toras did not already have, but got nothing useful out of the rhino rider.
• 2
  They were in fact Scorpion Men And A Half, and thus took very little damage from fire, and she was using Fireblade.