Your group reconvened at Shaven Manor and called the peasants to hear the Baronet's judgement. Lord Shaven convinced them, with little trouble but clearly not irrevocably, that it was time to try a more peaceful approach to the local Giranois and that an accord had been made with them. Details were not given or requested, but some of the serfs (led by the farmer Nafiyotte) queried what they should do if Giranois caused problems in the meantime- they wanted permission to at least capture them for justice to be meted out. This permission was granted, but with the caution to eschew violence in such capture.
Cyroosta was left in charge while the Baronet led his men back into the wilderness to look for more solutions. She had been discussing some “womens' secrets” with Inyana- the new Lady Shaven had confessed some concerns to the Lord, but was too shy and uncertain to describe their nature.
You returned to Vowka with the bloodprice: three shortswords and three longswords from the Baronet's meagre armoury. Vowka's men took them away with childish excitement while she talked with you more- a lot of talk for a Giranois! She explained that the man that the Baronet sought for Big Ron, “AA,” was surely the one she'd heard of at the Cjed (“ched”) family to the northeast, in the Big Gunge swamps possibly between New Arvonesse and Fort Mudlark, in an area where no other Giranois frequented and well south of the fearsome Sharde clan's lands. She said the Cjed family was unconventional for Giranois, and so was this strange outsider. The Cjed was known to live in a cave or sea grotto near the shores and did not heed (if you understood Vowka right) the Giranois proscription against dealing with that which comes from the sea. That was all she knew of them.
In regards to the Unsighted One she'd spoken of, she said she knew even less but that you could look for it in a dark place and would know it when you saw it.
She introduced you to Verker (a son? Distant relative? Or just a troublemaker brought in from the wilds? It was not stated), who was the roughly teenage, creepy, loping, somewhat animalistic or brain-damaged, still-bruised Giranois that had caused the trouble with the farmers. He was an odd one even for a Giranois. It was not clear what his problems were, but he spoke little [and cryptically when he did], had little regard for personal space [getting uncomfortably close and touchy-feely with the Baronet], was said to be “touched by [Saint] Granno”, and seemed out of touch with the [physical?] world around him. He muttered of “Bones!” and would not answer if he would come along with you into the wilderness, but cried out as you left “Look at the end of time!” What a nutcase…
Before you left, Vowka remembered to host a proper Giranois tea ritual for you in her filthy, beetle-shell-strewn hut. It was not the watery slug-filled concoction of the Sottogh, but a more congealed brew with unspeakable hints of lumpy contents hidden in the greyish gruel. She promised to speak with the Captain of his dreams and the nature of things that weakened him in the night sometimes, after she had investigated it while you searched for “AA.”
You knew this trip would take you to the ragged edge of the frontier between Big Ron's lands and the deep wilderness of the northern half of the island, from whicch some said the Giranois were still fading away despite their isolation, and where others said they gathered their strength in secret. Whatever the truth held, you expected to learn more about the nature of the settler-Giranois conflict– from both sides. So off you went, after a stocking-up trip back to the Manor, back into the wilderness of Giraine, to follow the overland route on drier ground until near New Arvonesse, then delve into the Big Gunge to find this Cjed family and who knows what else…
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