A Reply

Hall of Fire -- Creatrach Keep(#28083Rnt)

      The Hall of Fire is the main eating and entertaining hall in the keep. It is not only a place to exchange stories of travels and battles, but also where the clansfolk living in the keep eat their meals. Two hearths lay on the long walls, one for the cooking of the meals and containing large cauldrons, the other is for relaxation by and is surronded by various wooden furnishings. The table in the middle of the rooms almost runs the entire length of this room. It is quite plain but has a strip of red Bear cloth running its length. At the far end of the table is a larger chair than the rest for the Chieftain of the clan. Above that chair on the far wall is another rampant bear tapestry not unlike the one in the main foyer. Under that on the wall a door leading to perhaps the Chieftain's chambers. Next to the cooking hearth is another larger door that leads to various clansfolk chambers and the Guest Quarter.

Contents:

Itterik

Carac

Obvious exits:

 Red Door leads to Chieftain's Chambers -- Creatrach Keep.

 Archway leads to Main Foyer -- Creatrach Keep.

[Carac] Kedhern mhic Kedhern, sits at head of the large middle table looking over the various Fianni and family heads who've heeded his call to arms. Or perhaps it is the empty spaces amongst them he looks over. Kedhern remembers seeing the table filled back when he was a boy and then Chieftain Racollum issued a call to arms.

Nearly a week has passed since he issued his call and still the table sits only a little over half full. Those most notable in their absences are the families of northern Caerdh, former Hawk who've only come to grudgingly accept Bear's rule in recent years.

Still it has only been a fortnight since he claimed the title of Ceann, the others still may come. They must come.

"The men given over to Fian Ungstad have entered Redvyrne," he says finally. "The Wulf militia have headed north to deal with these rebels, and their land will soon be ours."

[Itterik] It's perhaps an inconvenient time to come into this situation, to come into the Hall of Fire under the moment spoken with such words, yet it is the moment Itterik Ymesden does enter. A young servant girl is at his side, though it's uncertain who is leading who, or if that bond between them even exists.

Itterik slows first, and the servant girls halts, looking back at him uncertainly. Itterik surveys the long table laden with the red cloth. His eyes wander up it to the end. He looks cold, his dark skin of a nature that suggests he's been out of doors.

[Saffron]

"If you doublecross us, Kedhern, a fate worse than death awaits you." A tall man stands with a bit of a slouch, with rage that is barely contained behind muddy eyes ringed with red.

He turns to spit a stream of brownish phlegm when he notices Itterik come in with a servant girl. His lips curl, showing his teeth in a nasty snarl but he turns his attention back to Kedhern, as if deciding Itterik and the girl is of no threat.

[Carac] Kedhern is immediately on his feet as this other stands, his meaty fingers curling around the heavy mug before him. "YOU THREATEN ME IN MY OWN HALL!" he roars as he rises. Words booming of the stone walls and seeming shake the very timbers of the keep.

"YOU HAVE COME BENT THE KNEE AND DECLARED ME YOUR CEANN AND FOLLOW BY THREATENING ME IN MY OWN HALL!" He swings the mug with great force towards the snarl upon the man's face. "I SHOULD TAKE YOUR HEAD!"

[Itterik] Itterik has eyes that tend to meet those that turn his way, and he returns the tall man's gaze unremarkably, a moment beyond Brodie's breaking of the connection and Kedhern's taking of it. He might look to flinch at the onslaught of the voice, but if he does his eyes merely remain narrowed. The servant girl takes his hand at first, as if to move him toward his family's empty chair, but the outburst, though not altogether surprising to her, does take the sprightly girl offguard and cause her to withdraw her hand and cower back a step with an angst look. It may be typical, but she doesn't like it.

The empty seat Itterik's father once sat in years ago is briefly ignored, as the mug has Itterik's attention.

[Saffron]

The thrown mug glances off Brodie's forehead, splitting the skin open but the way the blood runs down his face only adds to his already menacing demeanor. But to catch the rivulet with his tongue would be too obvious, so he lets it drip off his stubbly chin.

"It wasn't long ago you were scraping dung marks off cobblestones, Kedhern. You promised us wealth and that's why you sit where you are." His nostrils flare.

But it is a jollier Bear who lets out a loud belch that breaks the tension. "Oop, why, pardon me!" He puts his hand over his mouth daintily, then lets out an even louder laugh. "I forgot! I did not have to do that anymore!" He then lets out a series of belches that would curl even the stoutest beards.

"AHHH!!!! It feels good to do that, after all these years!" He laughs. "Come, come. Brothers. Let us sit. We can fight over who gets what later /after/ we take down the game. Now Kedhern. Tell us more. And young one. Who are you, and why are you here?" He asks Itterik.

[Carac] "And you were scraping up the dung!" Kedhern fires right back at Brodie. The site of his foe's blood causing his lip to quiver in hunger.

It is only after the elder Bear speaks to Itterik that he finally turns his attention away from Brodie, even then he backs towards the high seat at the table's head. "Another mug of ale!" he bellows towards the servants, and jerks his gaze towards Itterik. He says nothing, awaiting the man's answer.

[Itterik] Itterik moves for his family's seat without the servant girl, who follows a step quickly in tow but then halts uncertainly in his wake as Itterik continues down one side of the table like he knows the way and his seat.

Itterik gestures in a manner at the belching Bear as if to aside his comment, but then as more attention turns his way answers cryptically, "Rumors of this kind, and food," he interjects a quirky grin and adds more soundly, "warmth and food really."

"What's this about taking land?" Itterik speaks up suddenly, hand going to the back of his seat and eyes on Kedhern.

[Saffron]

Brodie gives Kedhern that familiar I'll-see-you-in-hell glare before grabbing an ale from the hand of another member, and drinking it. He watches Itterik sit.

"Ymesden boy," Brodie says over the rim of the mug, as if remembering. "How's your father?" He asks with a nasty grin. "Oh yea. That's right. He ran off with some half orc whore." The red eyed man takes out his anger on tormenting newcomer, and laughs, and slaps others on the back of their heads to join him in ridiculing him.

[Draur] From the foyer, a guard arrives, his head down, as if not wishing to interrupt anyone. He clears his throat, attempting to get the "Ceann's" attention. "My Lord," he starts, keeping his head down, obviously bullied, "There is a messanger outside. He, he claims to be an emissary from Tet'Nak. He says something ... something of a reply?"

[Carac] Kedhern grimaces at Itterik's answer. "Then you are not here in answer to my call of arms?" he demands more than asks. His frown deepens as Brodie speaks. "Ymesden?" he asks and his heavy brow furrows in thought. "Northern family," he says after a moment.

"Bring him meat and ale," he barks out to the servants. When the messanger enters he turns his attention there momentarily, and motions for the emissary to be sent in. "You'll get answers when I get a few from you," he says to Itterik then. "Now eat, drink." He watches the man a moment longer and then turns towards the door.

[Itterik] Itterik, not having given Brodie the opportunity to watch him sit just yet, standing yet behind his chair, continues to stand there he nods stoically to Kedhern and delays a response to Brodie until he turns his gaze back to him for a second time. It's obvious Brodie hits a raw nerve with his words, as Itterik's eyes are brash.

"Half orc whore," he repeats, giving a nod while yanking his chair back, "your daughter if I remember right." There's an angry glint in his eye for a moment as he takes his seat and leans back into his chair. His countenance does not show the anger that his eyes clearly still do.

[Draur] The guard bows his head, turning immediately, but as he does so there is some sort of commotion. The man himself does not wait, he simply 'gits'. The young man takes awhile, but eventually leads in a small man, looking hardly Dunlending. He is very 'weasely' if to be described as such. Such a thing is not so unexpected as a messanger of the infamous Tet'Nak. The man wears a sword at his side, but does not look interested in using it. He bows his head, "I am Draur. Which of you is the supposid Ceann of Bear, Kedhern?"

[Saffron]

It is Itterik's cool demeanor that sets Brodie off even more than the uncouth remark about his daughter.

"I'll show you who's a son of a whore you .."

The red-eyed man lunges forward in an attempt to grapple the Ymesden boy, but two nearby men intercept him and hold him back, laughing hysterically, obviously approving the way Itterik handled himself. "You had that comin' Bro!" They laugh as they wrestle Brodie to the ground. Furniture fly, pots are shattered.

And it is amidst this fray that the emissary enters. He will have to shout over the din to be heard.

[Carac] "I am Kedhern mhic Kedhern," Kedhern answers and rises from the high chair. "And I AM Ceann de Bear."

He turns towards those wrestling about. "ENOUGH!" he roars and flings his own mug into the fray.

"What reply do you bring from Tet'Nak?" he then demands of Draur, placing his beefy hands upon the table and leaning forward towards the messanger.

[Itterik] Itterik may not as decidedly cool as he has come across to Brodie, for the instant Brodie lunges for him, Itterik is up out of his seat. His seat falters and almost topples over backward and the servant girl brinking him an ale jumps back from his side in startle, spilling a little.

In the wake of having nothing come up against him and require his immediate retaliation, Itterik gestures to the girl with a nod, moving aside to let her set down the ale. As soon as she turns and moves away in haste, he sends his own glob of saliva this time for the floor, but it just happens to be aimed for Brodie, as he again takes his seat. A curse word is muttered quietly amidst the fray, and he turns confidently away from it to take up his mug.

[Draur] Draur's eyes shift to Kedhern immediately. He man nods, not bows, accepting Kedhern's reply that he is indeed the Ceann of the Bear.

The guard, a young, very young, man looks terribly strange. His face is slowly turning a shade of green. His right hand clutches a pouch at his side, grabbing it as tightly as humanly possible for his veins just from the tops of his hands and body strains ... perhaps most of this is ignored or missed in the commotion.

"Here is the message from my Master," he says. Suddenly, surprisingly, the man rears his right hand back, behind his head, and a small dagger becomes visible in his hand. Likely hidden the entire time. Draur's arm rushes forward, releasing the small dagger, end over end, headed straight for Kedhern's chest. Before the blow has found its final home, wherever it may be, Draur turns and begins to rush for the exit. The guard, mean while, screams in fright, dropping the pouch to the floor and letting about ten copper piecies splash against the floor ..

[Saffron]

One black eye, two split lips and three bloodied noses later, the three men untangle themselves from the brawl and rise unsteadily to their feet. Again, Brodie gives that familiar I'll-see-you-in-hell glare to Itterik before returning to his slouchy posture.

But when he sees the runty messenger throw a dagger at the Ceann, he launches himself from the wall in an attempt to fly over the table to take the would-be assassin down. Whether the blade finds its mark, Brodie seems not to care.

"You dare try and kill a Bear in our own hall??" His anger explodes.

[Carac] His attention straying from the messanger to the guard, Kedhern, watches curiously and turns back towards Draur only to see a flash of steel for the less then a second, before the dagger takes him full in the throat.

Kedhern mhic Kedhern, Ceann de Bear for a fortnight, dies as his life's blood arcs to and fro across the table in the spasms of his last fight.

[Itterik] Itterik is busy with his mug when the dagger is thrown up the long table. It's one of those moments as nearly ever Bear in the hall has the moment to catch what's happening just moments before the results are felt. Men are up in moments, yells and cries go out of their mouths. There is anger, uncertainty, confusion, and rage. And Itterik's eyes may very well be the last to turn on the last throws of Kedhern mhic Kedhern's death. His mug leaves his lips, and having been attempting to 'rise above' the chaos, is not caught up in the confusion of it. His eyes dart around and he stands up hurriedly.

[Draur] Draur is close enough to the door, and light enough on his feet, that the confusion gives him a way out. However, something happens he does not expect. The exit to the foyer is suddenly filled with two Bear of little import. Draur stops suddenly and leaps backward. "WHAT IS THIS!?!" one of them yells, hefting a mighty axe. But before the man can attack, or even decide what is going on, and what he will do, Draur acts himself. "Death comes to all that defy Dunland!" he yells, drawing another dagger from somewhere, seemingly out of thin air, and runs it across his own throat without hesitation.

With a thud, the assassin's body drops to the floor, bleeding out in seconds into a large puddle that will stain these halls for years to come.

[Saffron]

Brodie misses his tackle and makes a spectacular face plant, earning him a broken tooth. With blood oozing every place on his face, he goes over to Draur, and finding him dead, loses interest. He then walks over to Kedhern and finds him dead as well. He grunts, and eyes the empty Cheiftain chair.

[Carac] Domerac Guyger, also eyes the empty Ceann's seat. From the seat to Brodie his eyes move and then back again. Quickly he makes a dart towards the chair.

[Itterik] There's Bear moving everywhere, but Itterik among them is still standing by the table, or has moved back to it after the cry that the assassin's death went up. Itterik takes a long swig of his ale, his meal not yet having got out to him and doubtful that it now will. He clunks his mug down and looks up the long table. Perhaps it says something for his interest in Bear clan politics, for he just watches Domerac Guyger and Brodie before turning. He slips among shoulders, twisting his way out.

[Saffron]

Their eyes meet, sparks fly. Almost at the same time Domerac does, Brodie makes his move. Flinging wenches and elbowing brothers out of his way, the red eyed Dunlending also makes a desperate dash to the empty chair.

[Carac] The seat is not empty when they get there however, as Mance Kerdaight, has dropped into the chair ahead of them. He actually manages to remain in it for a moment before Racaleon Rugarie knocks him from it with a meaty fist. He is then kept from the seat by Davos Mathain and so it continues....