You cross back west to the Old Manirian Road south of Drom, and soon meet a Trader Prince Caravan of a couple dozen people including two Trader Prince families; and heavy guard from five Wenelian horse-riders. They call out for you to come join them and be strangers no longer. The group is remarkably extroverted and generous, as you come into their circle of wagons and beasts and take seats. Indeed, they turn out to be very forthcoming, both with good food and drink and with open-talking. They offer up useful information without asking much about you; letting you say what (little) you wish to them.

Some things they tell you of:

1. Give directions to the nearest road (and which turns to take) from Helby County to Tolin; that’s helpful, so now you don’t need to go offroad.
2. Duke Kimiv and his retinue from Naskorion have passed westwards through this region lately, travelling at night, returning from their travels with the Argan Argar Chain and the Swarm into Dragon Pass. Darkness folk (Uz, etc.) are not very welcome in Helby or Estali counties, but tend to be tolerated if they don’t cause trouble.
3. “If you go through the Estali League seeking commerce, you will hear more of an important citizen, Artukan Goldminder. His trade brings much wealth along the roads and river, from city to city, and his knowledge and influence are broad and deep, extending well beyond Ralios. He can be a useful benefactor, but always has an agenda, and not always just money.”
4. Dark Season is coming in several weeks and travel will get difficult on roads, and nigh impossible overland. The Galanini will take to their walled settlements and there will be few patrols. It won’t just be trolls out hunting; there will be worse things (ice demons, whatever). Storm Season, too, in Ralios, is a troublesome time for travel.
5. FELSTER LAKE:
   1. It had grown since the Dawn Age with the demise of Lake Nralar. It is very deep.
   2. Carved out of the earth by a war by the storm gods against the “Serpent-Beasts of Hykim” (surely beast-gods), echo of Orlanth vs Aroka further east.
   3. It is associated with the Seven Shots of Felster. Some mythical thing.
   4. In the winter it can freeze; even for all of Dark-Storm Seasons.
   5. Murthdryami; fully aquatic lakeweed-elves; are known in the Lake.
   6. Food taken from the lake: abundant carp, catfish, eels, and river crabs.

Of the city of Tolin:

1. Led by Efrix Lorionschild; unusual as a sky-river worshipper. She is a fierce leader, and her boats help keep the waterways safe.
2. Otherwise a typical Estali (port) city. Outshined by Estali city.

Of the city of Estali:

1. Ruled by Archon Nikias Waldrada (a Malkioni), but really by Alangellia, the Ernalda/Earth priestess, famed across the lands for her beauty and sensuality.
2. The politics are dizzyingly complex. It is one of the grandest, most powerful cities in all of Ralios; and even weighs up well against many Seshnelan cities.

You part ways, with Bog tired of all the talk but sated with the decent fare.

After midday, passing westwards through hills, very light forest and fields, and plenty of civilised areas in western Helby County, you hear a woman’s scream in Safelstran, “Watch out, a lion!”, which you place to have come from the south side of road, in ca raggy forested area. Then more screams, first of terror and then of pain, as you approach. Bog gets there first; to a place where the rocky ground and ferns are dappled with dried blood. A few belongings that look like those of travellers are scattered, some also with patches of blood on them. He looks around and spots, in the shadowed murk around this location, at least two fantastical beasts, which have badger-like heads bearing long blade-like rows of bone for teeth; and strong bestial bodies with leonine tails and cloven hooves. They are watching the area, including him. He shouts out a warning that this is a trap, and charges! Some bolt, and the one he charges to turns to trot away but looks to him and screams in a different human voice. Boamund hears it as a girlish scream that reminds him of a girl he killed in St Thosos when in Penjang form; receiving a terrible glimpse of that event. The monsters disappear into the woods and rocks, spreading out and making their eerie human-mimicking voices as they go. Shrett reaches high ground and sees one leaving without seeming to circle back, so you soon leave, watchfully, assuming that they have fled entirely, but wary of their return. They do not return.

You camp and it is quiet for the night. You continue down the road the next day and then, at midday, there are grunts and sounds of movement and yells in a copse of trees on the north side of the road. A boy of maybe 12 years age, holding a sword too big for him, and a woman who might be his mother, holding a walking stick defensively, her left arm bloody and hanging limp from a wound, run out of the wood. And shortly behind them, converging and gaining on them, is a group of six large boars led by a very large boar, whose hide has lighter grey patches (around each shoulder) looking like Earth runes. The two people hurry toward you as fast as they can, their eyes full of fear and pleading. You form a line and brace yourselves for the charging boars, which now look perfectly happy to run you down on their way to get the two people. Boamund hits the big sow-boar a couple of times with Disrupt, hurting and angering her. Shrett trips one and then expertly cuts its head off. The boars fail to harm you; you’re way too skilled for them; but one goes around you and is closing on the two people. Bog (who was behind Boamund) turns and runs after them, closing in as the boar tries to gore the woman with a toss of its head but misses. The big sow-boar squeals loudly and the boars break away, turning back to the wood, and you let them go. You call to the woman and boy to stop, and Bog comes to them but the woman speaks in Safelstran, then Tradetalk, and he can’t understand her, but soon the rest of you are there. Fraud heals her arm back to functionality and Shrett finishes the work; she is full of thanks.

Like the Safelstran people you’ve already met, these two are, while “barbarian” in religion (Lightbringer/Sun pantheons traditional for the Galanini horse-riders who rule these lands), very civilised in culture. They have little at all in common culturally with “typical” Orlanthi such as Wenelians, or odd ones like Aulorings. Much more like Western city people such as in Handra or Seshnela/Pithdaros/Giraine. But with other elements that are more exotic and intangible. Safelstran faith is syncretic, merging in elements of Arkati and Hykimi with Theism and other practices, and their culture likewise is a blend of many. There are no castes around here, although bloodlines matter and there is royalty.

You have a conversation, while still watching to ensure that the boars don’t return. They don’t, but it becomes evident that something else is not right. The woman introduces herself as Renuvela, a trader (Issaries merchant) from Drom city, and her son is Nemiast. She says, after some prompting, that they were gathering mushrooms and plants for food in the wood and then the boars confronted and attacked them. Renuvela insists (as Fraud asks her again and again) that this is all she can guess why this happened. But gradually it is clear she is withholding information. She clearly is very protective and caring of her son. She explains that they are headed for Tolin, from Drom. And, with more urging for explanation, that her son was deemed Sun-blessed (Fire-rune-linked) and that this is now frowned on in her clan, which is turning toward more Orlanthi ways. He’s a smart boy so she wants to take him to meet the Ehilm priests of the Sun Temple in Tolin, where maybe he can be trained as a philosopher and/or priest. She stubbornly sticks to this story but you’re sure there’s more to it. As you grow frustrated with this, Nemiast (who has shown his worn old broadsword and said it was his father’s, who died fighting the Orlanthi of East Ralios) blurts out that maybe you could escort them to Tolin. Renuvela pulls him aside to whisper with him briefly, then you talk to her and she offers money, which you decline, saying that you’ll escort them for free. Fraud pushes for Renuvela to be more forthcoming in return for your help, but she doesn’t say much. She gushes forth about her love for Nemiast and her duty as a mother; all of which are very earnest emotions. She says she must do this, and that Fraud wouldn’t understand as he’s not been a mother who loves her only living son. (it comes out later that she had an elder son who also was killed with his father)

You depart. The two are poorly equipped for travel so it makes sense why they were scrounging, but that also doesn’t make sense as they’re only about two days from Drom. They seem ill-prepared; maybe having left in haste. As you journey, Renuvela says very little, keeping to herself and Nemiast. But Nemiast happily talks to Fraud when Fraud (thinking maybe the boy will be more divulging) comes over to him several times. Indeed, Nemiast gives some rather new information. It becomes evident that he’s an oddly curious boy or even disturbed, depending on your views. He looks older than the 12 years that Renuvela said he was. Some things he just says his mother knows best about, but he asks Fraud about his adulthood initiation and Fraud says that it involved a Trickster, which bemuses the boy and Fraud turns the discussion away from more sordid details. Nemiast says he saw that Fraud treated Renuvela’s wounds very well and asks, “Have you ever wondered how blood comes and goes to your head?”, explaining after asked that he wonders how his body works, and that he’s interested in human anatomy and non-magical ways of healing. It gets weirder when he asks, unprompted, if Fraud has ever placed his hand inside a man’s open wound. Clearly the boy has been through some dark trauma, but it is evident, as Renuvela said, that he has a sharp and inquisitive mind. Nemiast keeps staring at things in your belongings—first of all, Fraud’s mask. When Fraud takes it off and tells of his resurrection, Nemiast is awed and at a loss for words. Except that he asks how it felt to die by burning. Nemiast, throughout your journey, shows clear fascination with things he must not have seen much: your foreign languages, your magics, and so on. But Renuvela soon calls him back from Fraud to her.

Later that day, while taking a short break, some of you notice Nemiast crouched off the road, inspecting something that moves by his feet. Fraud investigates and sees it’s a snake that Nemiast has cut open with a sharp rock. It still lives; writhing on the ground. Asked, Nemiast says that he just wanted to see what’s inside. The snake dies and you leave. You ask Renuvela for more explanations, but you don’t get far. She mostly repeats what she’s said, saying she doesn’t understand what Fraud or others mean when pushing. Yet you feel sure she’s lying and not divulging. You continue on the road. Soon a patrol of six people on horseback rides your way. They have the gleam of burnished bronze on their polished armour, with decorations of the Galanini (Fire, Man, other runes). A woman rides forward, says that you’ve crossed the border into Estali County of the Estali League, and they are questioning travellers. At first this seems routine. She tells you that in Estali, only the Galanini may ride horses. And it’s good that you’re not, and it’s fine that you have mules. This leader introduces herself as Damaia Evershine; a Galanini soldier. Next she says that, also seeming like it’s rote practice, they seek those with the beast-blood. She holds up her right palm bearing a Truth rune and it glows and she asks Fraud if any such people have been seen or are with you, and at first he says no, confused by her accent and not being used to speaking Safelstran so much (under pressure), but she doesn’t like what he’s saying. Then she says that they’re also looking for a woman and teenage boy from Drom who are travelling alone, as she looks over Renuvela and Nemiast. She asks if you’ve seen them and Fraud says yes, and that they are those two. But he asks why, and Damaia says that officials in Helby County have asked Estali County to watch for these two and bring them back to Drom if they’re found. Things tense up, with the patrol spreading out and acting more ready for trouble (and Bog hefts his maul). Fraud tries to get more explanation from Damaia but she just says that she has her orders to do this. She is pushing to take Renuvela and Nemiast away, and they look desperate, when you propose that instead maybe they could take the two with you to Tolin and then, once the two have visited the Sun Temple, they could be escorted back to Drom. Renuvela interjects that they are refugees from Drom and Helby, seeking asylum in Tolin to begin a new life there. Damaia weighs up your arguments, first sticking to her duty but then coming around to the notion that maybe it is OK to do what you propose. They then agree to escort you to Tolin, with her leading you along with two others, and the other three in the rear, and that there must be no trouble.

But trouble finds you as it so often does. At first it is an innocent, normal stop at a tiny hamlet called Birchcross, around mid-afternoon. The patrol stops here for a quick watering of their beasts. There’s a crossroads of bare soil with a well in the centre, some small market-type stalls (really just little mats or barrels or tents, some attended but some not) of local produce, and surrounding the crossroads are farms and farmhouses, of no more than two dozen people. There are low hills and scattered trees to the south; just fields and farms to the north. A man is selling honey-glazed apples served on a stick, on one side of the crossroads. And so forth. You’re the only obvious visitors, and the few locals present descend on you offering their wares. Yet the local children are more interested in a bald, robed man who is telling them tales by the well, where there is a sign with a Communication/Trade rune and pictographs of the produce available and prices etc. Shrett tends to the mules; Bog sulks as he’s tired that he’s not welcome in these parts; Boamund watches Nemiast and Renuvela; and Fraud comes closer to Nemiast to see what he’s up to. He overhears the bald man’s family-friendly myth-tellings, of Lightbringer tales, entertaining the handful of children with his jovial tone to the stories. Nemiast pays close heed to these, and Fraud doesn’t like it when a final tale involves Lhankor Mhy getting made a fool of by his Chaotic enemy, the headless god Thanatar (but still emerges with some victory). Fraud then comes to the two of them as the children accept some coins from the man and run off to the produce stands – rather than to their families like he told them too. The bald man is making small talk with Nemiast and Fraud enters the discussion, asking about that last tale. The man introduces himself as Rolthor, a travelling entertainer and scholar; not a trickster as Fraud wonders; and says that he knows plenty of other tales, including those in which Lhankor Mhy defeats Thanatar. And he can sing these too, so Fraud offers to play his lute along with the tale, and they do a fine job of it together, with Rolthor’s sonorous bass voice singing the tale of Lhankor Mhy and the Darklit Cave, where the Grey Sage and the Headless Man faced off in the latter’s lair (and the former won). They finish, having entertained some onlookers, and Fraud turns to orate to the crowd with a grandiose telling of your Boat Planet adventures. He nails the delivery and even some of the edults have gathered in rapt attention. Meanwhile Nemiast and Rolthor have had a little private conversation. After this, Nemiast goes to Renuvela and she tells you that Nemiast has asked to depart with this sage, to be tutored, as he can attend to the boy’s peculiar needs. Renuvela doesn’t know what to think, confused by all the twists and turns of events, wondering if this is a good solution or not, but you remind her that you must proceed to Tolin first, and this Rolthor could come along but the two of them cannot leave just yet.

Then there are shouts to the north: “Fire!” and you look and see plumes of smoke rising from a farm some distance away. Damaia curses and says that she must go help, and she gets her patrol together and rushes off, promising to be back soon. You have a bad feeling about this. And then as there’s a little more discussion between you, Rolthor, Nemiast and Renuvela, the bald man shouts a warning, pointing to the southern hills, “Scorpion man!” And you indeed see that a well-armoured Bagogi is rushing down the trail there, with a sinister man in leathers, brandishing a bow; and from out of the fields to the north emerge three foul-looking broo! Shadows swirl around the central well. Events have indeed taken a dangerous dark turn!

© Copyright - 2000-2024 - John Hutchinson, Tim Evans, Pete Nash, Colin Driver and Gordon Alford