In outline, the Sambari have big-ish 4 clans living in the valleys, all of which are doing quite well under the Lunar occupation. And the Fire Bull clan live in a high pass through the StormWalk Mountains, south of Sambari Pass. The Fire Bull are a war clan with little arable land at the best of times and no grazing during Dark-
The PCs had been operating at the clan level see (see http://www.indigost.demon.co.uk/FireBull/community/Fire_Bull/History.h tml and http://www.indigost.demon.co.uk/glorantha/karath.html for some detail of the adventures that they had). In one of these they got involved in a legal case between a member of their clan and a member of the Icy Wind clan. The PCs won the case and in the process ensured that the Lunar sympathiser in the other clan gained a reputation as a coward.
Later, after the Dundealos rebellion, some refugees came to live with the clan. One of these was a great Elmali horse master. This provoked some jealousy from a member of the Icy Wind, who had previously been recognised as the best horse trainer in the tribe. They held a horse fight to see who was better.
The horse of the Dundealos refugee was winning and the Icy Wind clansman struck the horse down to avoid the ignominy of losing. This provoked a fight, which ended up with one Icy Wind clansman killed, apparently by accident. One of the PCs, a merchant, successfully convinced many other members of the tribe that, for a change, the Fire Bull clan had not started the fight and that the Icy Wind had acted like Vadrudi.
The Icy Wind raided the Fire Bull and killed a man. The PCs raided the Icy Wind clan (in particular the stead of the "coward" from the earlier legal case) and took most of his cows (all your cows are belong to us) and killed two of his relatives.
The feud rumbled on and the PCs went to the Tribal Moot to have it settled. They had done their preparation and gained support from all of the other clans against the Icy Wind. And then a Lunar announcement was read out. In addition to the standard prohibitions/outlawry on priests of Orlanth and any worshipper of Urox, the announcement targeted practically everything that the PCs had ever been involved in. Obviously the Lunar sympathiser and "coward" had found a way to get support. All of the support from the other clans melted away and the Fire Bull clan lost its case and those involved in the last raid were heavily fined (an impossible fine, 50 cows each) with one season's grace to pay otherwise they should face outlawry.
The PCs returned to the clan and called for an emergency moot. The clan were outraged and demanded vengeance. The clan recognised that the real issue was the Lunar "advisors". On the other hand the clan recognised that, with about 500 members, it could not go it alone without the tribe. So it was agreed that the PCs and several others, including the chief, would be "outlawed" but welcomed back once the troubles died down. The Humakti PC performed a severing.
With the unofficial blessing of the clan, PCs went looking for the Lunar advisors and ambushed them as they travelled from one clan to another. This turned into a complete fiasco. A Humakti PC died and the rest of the PCs barely escaped. However, this was the excuse that the Lunars were looking for. An army unit marched through the valley clans leaving atrocities in their wake – about 1000 to 1500 people killed. The Lunar army did not go up into the mountains as they felt it would be troublesome. On the other hand, the Fire Bull clan had just outlawed almost 10% of its members, specifically so it could avoid such retribution.
The PCs have now formed a hero band, headed by the ex-clan chief. We think that they will head up towards the Kero Fin area and possibly hook up with the Tarsh exiles.
regards,
Charles
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