THE PALISADE BY NIGHT A stout wooden palisade protects the main lodges and byrnes of Lagerwater. Towering three times the height of a warrior, rough-hewn of elm and oak and sacred yew, its stalwart beams are deep etched with protective wards and runes, and the jagged knife carvings of many a bored watcher. By Elmal's light the palisades are overseen by the Gatekeeper; and under Rigsdal's gaze by the stalwart men and women of the star watch.
The men and women of the star watch are a patient, hardy breed. Through each five season span they tramp the palisade by night, and in close darkness patrol the boundary stones of the meadow fields. Through the creeping mists of Dark and beneath the diamond gaze of the star captains of the Fire sky, huddled about their braziers or trampsing the lonely circuits of their sentry walk, they watch, they wait, they listen.
For the darkness is pregnant with menace, and many enemies course the gors by night. Elmali are first to stand guard in darkness, but they cannot be too long without their beloved sun, and so stand guard week and week about with the Yelmalians, whose god also stands defiant as a light against darkness. The stead's Rigsdali are more constant, happy to keep duty beneath the unblinking and watchful eye of their god. And now, as in times before, they are sometimes joined by a solitary Vingan. She stands alone: her spear-sisters of the Tresdarnii now feast in other halls.
Some nights these steadfast watchers are joined by Animal Twins initiates enacting their own star-rite, or restless Yinkini, or godar tracing the path of some wayward star javelin as it courses above the gors.
Few others of the clan are prepared to sleep by day and keep watch by night: each man and woman of the star walk is here for a reason. Some follow the ways of their cult; others are driven to this solitude by some secret or lonely burden. Perhaps the silence and darkness brings healing, or at least forgetfulness. They come and they go, their reasons and their wyrd are their own.
Night makes us all kin, and fast be the friendships forged by the burning brazier coals. Here in the chill silence is founded the true friendship of Vinga and Elmal, for all their rivalry and tongue-thunder in the moot. And here too, the Yelmalians and Elmali stand true together, and wonder in the enemy darkness if their gods are really so different after all.
Sometimes Climbtree the trollkin braves the palisade in company of the Vingan, though the Yelmalians and Elmali despise him, and will chase him from the sacred walls. His enlo range the tula by night, unseen and unheard, watching and listening, wreaking mischief, and stealing what they will. Yet more than once it has been they who have first roused the stead as raiders crept upon the cattle or the lodges. For this reason the Vingan has set them walks and duties, and taught them to fight with sticks and knotted clubs. Yet the Elmali and the Yelmalians know a higher truth, and they too watch the enlo, and wait.
BHORGHIL ONE-EYE, Gatekeeper and Second Reeve
(Heldarnii bloodline, Male, 23 years, Devotee of Elmal the Reeve)
Unfaltering Defence 8w, Eye for Detail 3w, Make Demand 1w, Fiery Temper 19, Rile Vingan 16.
COLD KERANAS, Star Watcher and Tower Thane
(Validor bloodline, Female, 21, Devotee of Rigsdal)
Never Sleep 7w, Vigilant 8w, Summon Star Javelin 1w, Night-Long Story 17.
BROKAL THE SILENT
(Validor bloodline, Male, 34, Initiate of Barntar)
Terrifying Nightmare 3w, Visions of Past Horror 19, See Spirits of Dead 18, Sense Touch of Humakt 15.
CALFBANE, a typical Enlo of the Watch
(Stead Enlo, Female, 9, follower of Climbtree 'Raksbane)
Squeal 16, Darksense 12, Hunger 3w, Fear Alynx 14, Knotted Club 8.
http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/lagerwater.html#palisade
John
nysalor_at_... John HughesQuestlines: http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/
Two strong Impulses: One
to drink long and deep,
the other,
not to sober up too soon.
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