A ghost from the past

Forthunn -- Dunland <>

Enclosed by stone walls twice the height of men is the fortified town of Forthunn -- home to the largest number of Stag Clansmen in Dunland. A broad marketplace stands in the middle of the town, just inside the gates, and nearly every day dozens of farmers arrive to sell their produce and exchange the latest news. Surrounding the market are the more permanent buildings -- most of them made of wooden planking, some with mortared cobblestones, all with roofs of thatch -- that house various shops, taverns, homes, and storage sheds.

During the day, the market is full of Stag men and women going about their business sounds of livestock can be heard and the occasional cart, drawn by ox or pony, rumbles across the cobblestone paving. At night, sounds of merriment can often be heard from the local tavern, though much of the town lies in silence and is lit only by furtive candlelight or the brighter flame of torches near the town and keep gates.

Obvious exits:

Wooden Door leads to Staggering Hunter Alehouse <>.

Northwest leads to Dunland <>.

East leads to Northlands - Dunland <>.

Town Gate leads to Rickety Bridge to Forthunn - Dunland <>.

Keep Gate leads to Entrance Hall -- Stag Keep <>.

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Dunland Time and Weather Forecast

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Real Time is: Sun Dec 07 00:40:51 2008

IC weather is: Wind: calm - Clouds: clear

IC Moon is: Not visible

IC time is: Late Morning

IC date is: Hevensday, Day 16 of August in the year 3045.

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[Carac(#32384)] A cool breeze stirs the air on this clear morning, blowing away some of the smell of the unwashed masses who\'ve descended upon Laeg. Yes, the refugees of Kierkgard have arrived in droves, the once bare hillsides outside the fortified town are now covered with the tents and shelters of the displaced.

The Stag have allowed only a few through the gates, but always hungry for a profit the merchants of Forthunn have set up their stalls outside the walls hoping to do business with the refugees. Only to find to their own chagrin that these refugees have nothing to trade for their wares.

[Cecilia(#23897)] Finnian Tavish has tried to keep close to those working with Tet\'nak. The man has been going out of his way to help out with the resistance group, maintaining that he wants his chance at revenge when they strike against the Bear. He only eats one meal a day, usually breakfast.

At some point over the last few days Finn found someone to sharpen his blade, and only has a shadow of growth on his chin instead of scruffy beard that he was sporting previously. It makes the man look marginally more respectable.

[Halen(#9388)]

Few, but more now. These have money and goods, and their number is thirty or so. At their head stands a young figure, a Hawk around his neck. He stands, legs apart, with his hands balled into his hips in the center of the market.

\"I come for the leader of this rebellion!\" he announces with a shout.

On the journey northward Brev has been morose, speaking to few, his secondhand studded leather jerkin his constant companion. Several roadside trees bear witness to his practise with the dagger, though human sparring partners have proven sparser.

Now he comes up behind Finnian and shakes his head. \"Kiern, what a mess.\" He squints at the tent city, then north and east. \"There\'s plenty of good land left in Dunland - so why don\'t folk go there, eh?\"

The words die at the young man\'s shout, and he surveys the stranger thoughtfully.

[Saffron(#15443)]

These displaced people have established a regular routine, no matter how insignificant, in an attempt to make certain aspects of their lives familiar in the face of the transient nature of their existence.

Saffron is one of such people, longing for stability, permanence, and yes, dullness.

At the cry of the new arrival, the Mistress of the Chickens who is now bent over to feed her hens, exhales without looking up or turning around.

\"Now what?\" she asks no one in particular.

[Cecilia(#23897)] Finn glances over at Brev, his brows drawing together as he looks the man up and down. Soon enough his expression grows bland again and he offers a small shrug. \"They be not knowing how to start over, I think. How do you be working the land with no tools and no food? No shelter from the likes of the Bear?\" His own gaze strays to the man that\'s loudly calling for attention. \"Who do you be thinking that is?\" He asks in a softer, rhetorical fashion.

[Carac(#32384)] Near the gates Carac sits upon a large rock as he speaks with Gariag. He holds a stick in his hand and scratches out something in the sand. The older Hawk shakes his head at the drawing and the scribbles it all out with his foot. He then takes the stick and begins to sketch something himself, stopping suddenly at the shout from the newcomer.

Carac looks in the direction of the speaker for a moment. \"Not sure he\'s about at the moment, friend,\" he calls back. \"Want us to take a message for him?\"

\"By taking them?\" is Brev\'s response to Finnian. \"As to no food, we\'ll all go hungry this year. No tillers means no harvest.\" He shrugs in dismissal of that subject, then looks again to the stranger. \"No idea - someone seems to think he matters, though.\" He jerks his head toward the train of followers.

Saffron chases the chickens into the makeshift coop, then closes the rickety gate. In her basket are eggs collected for this breakfast to feed the refugees. She walks over towards the open fire where a large pot bubbles with this morning\'s mash, though her neck cranes to watch the goings on at the gate.

[Halen(#9388)]

There are no women amongst these recent arrivals, this caravan of men, and their faces are hard, dour and dirty. They stand silently and their eyes are cast unwaveringly forward.

\"Is this but a mob?\" cries out their leader again. \"A mob has razed the city of Kierkgard?\" He laughs loudly, deeply.

[Cecilia(#23897)] Finnian glances over at Brev again for a moment, then his eyes study this newcomer with the loud demands. He seems to have careful consideration on his face before he calls out to the leader of the group. \"Who do you be that speaks so boldly?\" Perhaps having the armed man next to him has given Tavish some extra courage.

[Carac(#32384)] Carac raises from his seated position now and pushes the hair from his eyes. \"No friend,\" he replies. \"The people of Dunland razed Kierkgard. United together for the purpose of their own freedom, no one here is bound to anyone. We\'ve thrown away all the old shackles of Ceanni and Fianni.\"

His eyes move towards the hawk about the newcomers neck. \"You wear the mark of ghosts and dead men, friend. The Hawk were sent to flight.\"

Brev takes no part in the inquisition of the stranger, merely rests his hand on his knife as he watches. The laughter does not seem to perturb him in the least.

Saffron watches and listens to the conversation while cracking the eggs one by one, not watching what she\'s doing, until one of the women watching her yelps, \"Saffron! You\'re tossin\' the shells into the mash!\"

[Halen(#9388)]

\"Ghost and dead man! Yes!\" shouts the leader. \"And Hawk, too!\"

\"And amongst the people of Dunland do these men count themselves, not in shame or silence any longer! For they too are Hawk, and they have come to aid in this struggle,\" he continues, crossing the distance between himself and Carac.

[Cecilia(#23897)] Finnian looks surprised when the man openly proclaims himself, but it\'s quickly followed with a guarded expression of doubt. He slowly walks towards where Carac has stood, his eyes narrowed. The man says nothing, though he clearly has a great many things on his mind.

[Carac(#32384)] Carac glances back towards the men behind the newcomer and gives a nod. \"We need all the aid we can get, but have little to offer in return. There is already little enough food so you\'ll need to hunt and forage like the rest.\"

He eyes the Hawk around the newcomers neck once more and frowns only slightly. \"What name are you known by?\" he asks.

[Saffron(#15443)]

\"Well there are those who are ready to go back to the Chieftain and the Fians in exchange for a bed that is more than a thin blanket over rocks, rooms where we can close doors and meals we can cook over our own hearth. OW OW!\" Saffron announce while fishing out the shells from the boiling hot mash. \"Most people are tired. Especially the old and the sick.\"

She flings the hot, soggy shells from her hand.

[Halen(#9388)]

\"I am known by many names,\" says the leader, simply now. \"You have spoken three already: Ghost, Dead Man, Hawk.\" His eyes are unmoving.

\"But I have not come to waste your time, friend. I am Halen Arathide.\"

[Cecilia(#23897)] \"The struggle be against the very type of force you bring.\" Finnian states in a flat tone. \"How can you claim freedom on one hand and have an allegiance of a clan serving you on the other? It be hypocritical. I say they ought cast aside their hawk and show they be no different than the rest of us. United as one free group.\" His words are calmly spoken, but not without some conviction behind them.

Carac turns towards Saffron and motions towards the Old South Road. \"If they wish to return to their Cheiftains and Fianni they are free to go,\" he says. \"I have not forced them to follow, nor will I force them to stay.

He turns then towards Halen for a moment and then chuckles softly. \"Halen Arathide was beheaded after the battle of Mathain.\"

Saffron\'s yelp draws Brev\'s attention, and he snorts at her. \"Try it. All you\'ll get is a spear in your empty gut, unless you fancy the Chieftain\'s brothel.\"

Then the stranger speaks, and his head jerks up. His hand lifts to rub at his cheek. \"Unusual name, that,\" he comments in a voice clear enough to carry as he strolls toward the little group round the stranger. Finnian\'s words bring a sharp glance at the man, but no comment.

[Saffron(#15443)]

\"I did not say /I/ was going back,\" Saffron licks her burned fingertips. \"I was just saying what I\'ve been hearing.\"

[Halen(#9388)]

\"I have given you my name,\" says Halen. \"Now, yours.\" He reaches out to finger the medallion around Carac\'s neck.

[Cecilia(#23897)] Finnian finds his words ignored and settles for matching Brev\'s sharp look with one of his own. He speaks quietly, but with heat, \"You think I be wrong?\" He asks.

[Carac(#32384)] \"This struggle,\" Gariag interjects as he points his stick towards Finnian, \"be so that a man can call himself whatever he Kiern damned pleases! Not what a Fian or Ceann tell them they be. If the boy says he\'s a Hawk then he\'s a Hawk, we\'ve lost all but the name I\'ll be damned if someoe is gonna tell us to \'put that aside.\"

Carac glances down at his own medallion. \"You give the name of a dead man,\" he says. \"Mine is no secret, however, I am Carac. Carac Bryntadd.\"

Given the stranger\'s lack of response to all but Carac, Brev doesn\'t bother wasting further words on him, but watches proceedings in silence.

[Carac(#32384)] Carac glances towards Saffron and brushes the hair from his eyes. \"We would be lost without your chickens,\" he says with a grin. \"Still, if ther are those who wish to leave let them know that I will not keep them. They are free to do with their lives what they will.\"

[Saffron(#15443)]

\"People are tired. Being tired makes people cross,\" Saffron mutters. \"When tempers flare, people will say and do things they don\'t mean.\" She looks over at Carac. \"Like now. You say that, but you can\'t possibly mean it. The people, they have nowhere else to go except to a pile of ashes.\"

[Halen(#9388)]

\"I give my name,\" repeats Halen evenly.

\"I speak only to these men and they, only to each other but they I have convinced. To you, who wears the medallion of Hawk, I can speak of spirit-talkers and Mathain and the men I\'racil and Barseg with such words that only one man would know and that man was beheaded years ago, but now stands before you again,\" he concludes.

[Cecilia(#23897)] Finnian crosses his arms over his chest, another doubting expression crossing his face when Carac speaks so strongly of the vanquished clan. He has his lips pressed together and watches the Ghost closely, as if weighing him on appearance alone.

Brev snorts. \"Kiern save us from ghosts,\" he mutters, regarding Halen skeptically, then turns to Finnian. \"Not saying you\'re wrong. Just .. some find it easier to do than others. Pride can be a great deceiver.\" His lip curls.\"

[Carac(#32384)] Carac gives a speculative look and then a small nod. \"Sons are not the fathers,\" he says with a glance towards Brev. \"Best you keep that in mind, if you are to be joining us.\"

He then turns towards Saffron once more. \"I am trying to get them more than ashes,\" he says. \"Harthunn lies to the north, I hope to settle some of you there, others here in Forthunn. You will have homes again.\"

[Cecilia(#23897)] Finnian seems to lose some of his ire finally and gives Brev a nod. \"Aye. It just be difficult to see pride in others when you be having little left of your own.\" He murmurs, then turns to walk away, seeking out a way to contribute his time.

[Halen(#9388)]

\"I am to be joining you,\" nods Halen. \"And under whatever authority is imposed by the leaders of this rebellion, I shall follow.\" He turns to leave.

\"But my men are Hawk and that will never be taken from them,\" he adds in parting.

Brev turns to watch Finnian leave, and hence misses Carac\'s glance toward him. At Halen\'s words he cocks his head and murmurs, half to himself, \"Like I said ...\" Then he too is on his way.

Saffron scratches her head at the newcomer\'s words, then returns to stirring the pot. \"So we are under the protection of Stag, with a group of men who joins the rebellion against the clans but who refuses to cast aside his own clan,\" she mutters softly. \"This is why I leave the politics to the men.\"