A report from the Orlmarthings who were there.
About eje
Still Day, Clayday, Disorder Week, Earth Season
On this day, all women and men worship Brastalos the Goddess of Still Air in separate groups, led by the priests of Orlanth and Ernalda, respectively. The men offer her sacrifices of boars and roosters, asking that she not come when they need the powers of violence. The women offer her sacrifices of sows and chickens, asking that she come when they need peace.
Kje
Wildday, Disorder Week, Earth Season 1618
While taking our two young cousins (nicknamed Klik and Klak, 5 and 6 years old, respectively) up on the ridge to introduce them to the rigors of shepherding, a storm rolled in from the north. Unseasonably cold winds and rain pelted down us. We sought shelter in Helmet Cave, which had enough room for us and a few sheep. When the storm had calmed and night fell, we heard faint voices crying for help. We followed the sounds and found a starving little girl who begged us for help, but ran away as we approached her. We followed her towards Watchpost Ridge, a part of the Starfires that all the herders and hunters traditionally avoid.
Below the ridge, we saw lights where no lights should be and homes where no homes should be. The mists enclosed us and the pleas for help became louder. Then we found ourselves surrounded by mad, starving ghosts who pointed at us and said, “Betrayers! You failed us. The Soul Shadows took us and you did nothing. Now the Soul Shadows shall take you and your kin.”
The mad ghosts closed upon us, but the young girl screamed, “You must save my parents! You must promise to help us!” The ghosts stopped to listen to her and seemed to await our answer. Orsten promised to help them and the mad ghosts said, “The Mad Kolating murdered us and fed us to the Keeper of the Cart. The warrior kings of Clearwine failed to avenge us. We demand that you extract the wergild due us from the kin of the Mad Kolating! Fail us and your ancestors will not protect your clan from our wrath.” The ghosts vanished back into the night, until only the little girl remained. She said, “Avenge us!” before fading into the mists herself.
We returned to the tula and spoke with the elders. We learned many things:
The Vostangi
The ghosts were the Vostangi, a clan which lived upon the Starfires long ago. They died out and vanished from the world.
By pledging to avenge the Vostangi, we accepted their claims against the kin of the Mad Kolating. We have the right to take some portion of that claim if successful; if we fail, the Vostangi no doubt will take vengeance upon us and our kin.
Fortunately, the clan supported our promise.
The Mad Kolating
Stands Aside was relunctant to speak of the Mad Kolating, but he knew the story. Mad Ovad the Kolating, a fearsome shaman from the Hillhaven clan, trafficked in demons and evil spirits. He terrorized the clans around the Starfire Ridges until he was finally killed by Chief Hodir Greydog circa 1410 (about 210 years ago). Hodir died mysteriously three years later.
Our Kolating told us that Ovad still lives, in festering maggot piles and disease-ridden corpses throughout Dragon Pass, cursed by the very demons he summoned to continue to plague the living as a powerful demon of rot and disease.
The Warrior Kings of Clearwine
Many kings of the Colymar were warriors: Kings Varsmar, Venharl, Robasart, Intagarn, Jostharl, Dangmet, Korlmar, Orlgandi, Umathkar, Penterest, Kenstrel, and Orlkarth were all famed warrior kings. The events described by the Vostangi ghosts likely occurred during the reigns of Kings Venharl or Robasart.
Venharl was the sixth king. He was of the Karandoli clan. He ruled during the Taral War, and welcomed the Runegate clans to the tribe. He opened the Zarran War, and died (c.1418) in glorious defeat, and was burned at Venharl’s Mound.
Robasart was seventh. He was of the Arnoring clan. He continued the Zarran War, destroyed the Karandoli clan, then forced the Malani to give up the whole of the Arfritha Vale. He guided the founding of the Antorling Clan, and he welcomed the Varmandi clan to the tribe. (1418-1440) He was the son of Broyan, the son of Maniski Firebreath, the son of Kagradus, the son of Dorasor Durulz-lover, son of Robasart, son of Anamorl who stood beside Colymar the Founder in battle.
The Hillhaven Clan
The Hillhaven clan is the smallest clan of the Lismelder Tribe with only 500 members (of which only about 250 are adults). They predate the arrival of the Greydog and Goodsword clans on the western slopes of the Starfire Ridges. More than a third of the clan live in Hillhaven village, the rest in steads scattered about the Big Elm Valley. The clan’s agricultural specialty is hunting and Hillhaven hunters can be found throughout the woods west of the Starfire Ridges. However, members of the clan never step foot on Voriof’s Sheep Pen, a taboo going back “since the time of our ancestors”.
The Keeper of the Cart
One of the titles of Mallia is the Keeper of the Cart, which carries souls to the Underworld. The Vostangi ghosts accuse the “Mad Kolating” of having summoned Mallia (or at least her disease spirits) to murder the Vostangi clan. Such an evil deed constitutes one of the few capital crimes recognized by the Orlanthi demanding that the perpetrator be killed without compensation and sometimes even by his kin.
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Mallia the Soul Shadow
Mallia grew from the Darkness, in the waste and destruction of the Gods War. She found nourishment and life amid the fallen foes, the wreckage and carnage, and the blood of everything that died in that age. She became a corruption of death itself, tainted and degraded from the swift brightness which Humakt and Orlanth used, becoming a lingering and festering darkness. As beings fell before her, she became fearful that her food would completely fail, and she changed the way she ate, from lightning plagues that depopulated entire nations to the spread of slow death by disease, so that the misery she caused would last forever.
A host of soulless demons serve the Mother of Disease. Called disease spirits, soul shadows, lingering wasters, curse-bringers, and by a thousand other names, these demons bring pain, suffering and slow death to the living. These hostile demons collect around Mallia and waft as ill winds, searing fevers, and poisonous streams. They seep into the Middle World and collect in hosts such as corpses, broo, harpies, swamps, and insects. Born of Chaos, they have swept across the entire world, touching every corner of existence.
ohe
Freezeday, Harmony Week, Earth Season 1618
With a retinue of thanes and fyrdmen, we crossed the ridge to Hillhaven village. We found it a ramshackle affair, physically poor but magically powerful. The Hillhaven clansmen were polite enough and escorted us to their long hall to wait for their chief and elders, who took some time getting to us. No doubt they were concerned about violence and making plans, just in case.
The Hillhaven thanes carried their chieftain, Bofrost, in on a simple wooden platform (which he never left). Bofrost sat cross-legged, with a huge bull skull on his lap. He appeared to be only 50 years old, but, like our own Kolating, we had heard that he had been alive when our grandfathers were children.
Sarlanth repeated the Legal Oath before Bofrost and laid forth the claims of the Vostangi. The Hillhaven elders erupted in denial and anger at the “outrageous” claim. Bofrost waited for his clansmen to calm down, then he said, “You are thralls in a feud between demons and spirits. If I have anything to say about it, you shall pay a high price for your dangerous words. And all for nothing, for your tribe has no authority over me and I will not consent to anyone less than these three: the Prince of Sartar, my king, or the Law Staff itself. Who now do you propose shall judge your case?”
We knew we could receive no fair judgement from the Prince of Sartar. Likewise, we felt King Harvald the Hairy, Chieftain of the Poss Clan and King of the Lismelder would not look upon our claim favorably (nor would we, as Colymar, accept him, a Lisemelder judge, anyway). This left us with two options: pursue violence against the Hillhaven, defying the Governor-General’s Edict of Peace and likely reigniting our war with the Lismelder (and giving weight to the Greydog clan’s proclamations that the Orlmarthings are mad for war, out of control, and cannot be trusted); or, seek the Law Staff. We chose to seek the Law Staff.
After we selected an acceptable judge, Bofrost recited the Legal Oath and repeated the claim, and we said his words were true. Having performed all that was necessary, Bofrost ordered us off their tula and said that should we return we would be killed. We left to begin our quest for the Law Staff.
exe
Clayday, Fertility Week, Earth Season 1618
To Greenstone and Jonstown, Again
We knew very few individuals in Dragon Pass possessed a Law Staff, but we had heard a rumor that our friend, Minaryth Purple, was one of those few. We decided to visit him to find out. But, before that, we needed to escort Sarlanth to Greenstone Temple for the festivals surrounding Great Goddess Day so he could meet with his wife, his children, and their family and participate in the sacred rituals as his position demanded. Sarlanth brought his best bull with him to sacrifice to the Goddess.
We were greeted warmly by our step-kin at Greenstone. Ernalsulva looked less like the vivacious young woman and more like her mother Entarios the Supporter had looked when we first saw her so long ago in Clearwine: beautiful, terrible, and regal. Sarlanth’s children were healthy. Ernalsulva also revealed that she would accept Sarlanth as husband for another year.
Also in attendance for Great Goddess Day was the famous Ulerian Priestess from Esrolia, Elmorasa, who the people called “Mother Love”. She was attended by six acolytes, one from each direction of the world, and they had travelled to Greenstone in the Rolling Temple, a great cart drawn by 12 giant kine.
The Rolling Temple
The Rolling Temple travels all over Dragon Pass, Esrolia, and the Holy Country, bringing Uleria’s Love to any who would worship at her altar. The Rolling Temple is magical and its appearance always at brings peace and harmony to whatever it community it visits. Elmorasa Mother Love, the temple’s priestess, oversees the Rolling Temple with the assistance of six young acolytes from cultures from all over Genertela and Pamaltela. Elmorasa also has a fox companion who never leaves her side even during worship. Rumors claim the fox is actually man in disguise – her long-time companion and bodyguard. The Rolling Temple is pulled by 12 giant long-haired kine, black furred with silver horns. The driver, a muscle-bound satyr named Longspear, cares for the kine and is the only male employee of the Rolling Temple. Worshippers who have climbed into the Rolling Temple describe it as lavish, with dozens of large rooms inside, despite looking like nothing more than a somewhat large, brightly decorated wagon from the outside.
Ovad Appears!
On the day of the festival, we all feasted and worshipped. During the Dance of the Circle Against Evil, however, the Circle was disrupted by the arrival of a foul and diseased demon, the Spittle Crone. Sarlanth struck the demon with his spear, but it was Orsten’s ice and wind spirits that stripped the Spittle Crone to her bones and revealed the spectre of Ovad the Mad Kolating, a diseased and ram-headed monster. Ovad cursed us – for he would never forgive the Vostangi (and us, now, as their living representatives) – then dissolved into a mass of bottleflies and foul fluids. It was a dark and terrible omen, and Ernalsulva and her mother demanded that the temple be thoroughly cleansed before the impending Maran celebrations.
.xe
Fireday, Fertility Week, Earth Season 1618
Dinestan, in an effort to find Arroyans who could help cleanse the temple and heal those celebrants befouled by Ovad, was given use of the Rolling Temple to make his way quickly to Jonstown by the King’s Road. Once there, he gained the services of two White Ladies and sent them back to Greenstone in the Rolling Temple. Then he sought out Minaryth Purple at the Great Library. After Dinestan explained the Vostangi claim and asked Minaryth to preside over the judgement, Minaryth regretfully declined, “I have no interest in getting involved in the quarrels of the dead. Go to sacred Ezel in Esrolia perhaps to find a Ty Kora Tek priestess that can silence these ghosts. But this does not interest Lhankor Mhy and I do not see how this affects what must be done here in Sartar.”
Minaryth was not entirely unhelpful. He told Dinestan the story of how the Law Staff was found, and he found several fragments in the Compendium related to the quest. He also pointed out that Sartar, himself, had found his own Law Staff when he founded the kingdom.
Where the Hell is Ezel?
As Minaryth proposed, we could travel to sacred Ezel, the Great Temple of Ernalda in Esrolia to find a Ty Kora Tek holy woman powerful enough to dismiss the Vostangi ghosts. Ezel is a long trek. We would take a river boat from Quackford to Nochet, a distance of over 300 miles. It would take us three to four weeks to get there. From Nochet (the largest city in the world) we would travel another 50 miles
by land to sacred Ezel.
At Ezel we could finnd a priestess of Ty Kora Tek at the Temple of the Dead, the Temple of Thirteen, or the Temple of Light and Dark. We would then have to persuade a powerful – and likely elderly – priestess to travel back into the wilds of Sartar to dismiss the ghosts.
wce
Freezeday, Stasis Week, Earth Season 1618
Dinestan returned to Greenstone from Jonstown with the “bad news” from Minaryth. We began our journey back to the tula for the upcoming harvests.
Upon our return to the tula, we found things had gone badly. Spirits had attacked the tula and driven many of our woodpeckers off. Although no strangers had stepped foot on the tula, several sheep had gone missing and the herds were skittish. And worst of all, we found He-Who-Stands-Besides-the-Circle in a deep spirit trance, his body guarded by his powerful fetch.
We decided to begin our quest for the Law Staff on One Day in Storm Season.