Graf Silth's Mission -
Lady Ceiling's Journal - Part 1
Lady Ceiling daughter of Conrad’s Journal
When my illustrious
mistress Princess Griselda confided in me that she was to take Lady Shalaka to
Aroar to be married, I was very excited. It meant that after years of being
confined to Naug Fortress and its environs we would be venturing out into the
wilds beyond! I had in my youth nearly a century ago wandered in the forests
near my home. Wandered is not the right word as we always had some specific task
to carry out. Picking fruits or nuts, collecting mushrooms and such! However for
most of my time in the Naug Dvaunana I have only been able to imagine travelling
experiences through the tales of the human troubadours. A marriage had been
arranged between Graf Silth of Khazdan’s daughter Lady Shalaka and Sir Slepe son
of Silo. Sir Slepe has been promoted to Commander of the Castle of Aroar in
Hamora and for two years has made no move to be married. Graf Silth asked for
Princess Griselda’s help in the matter which has led to what I hope will be a
most exciting adventure. The plotting was most cautious, lasting over three
moons as we did not want our enemies, Bishop Bhorin and Graf Lukin to realise
what we were up to. Bishop Bhorin comes from Varadh where we dvaus are treated
like slaves. He is appalled that the tapestries we weave now represent exciting
scenes from the tales of the human troubadours. King Granbold will not let him
ban them as they fetch very good prices from the Ladies of Foix. Actually these
days it is not Foix but the separate states of Thentis, Perigord and Bara. I
actually heard a rumour that one of our tapestries had been sold to someone in
Chaotic Narchad but everyone is supposed to keep quiet about it! Anyway Princess
Griselda hopes we may encounter adventures or at least views worth sketching as
designs for the tapestries. Lady Shalaka the intended bride, has been trained in
producing cloth dyes from various clays and plants. She has a printed library
book showing these and their processes. She
hopes that when established at Aroar, she may make some of them there for export
back to Neradh. My own talent is for speaking many languages and King Granbold
has often relied on me for them. Otherwise Bishop Bhorin would have exiled me to
Aroar with the other ‘pert ladies’. Princess Griselda picked me to assist her,
as I can speak Jedonese and read the Katakana alphabet used by the Huns of
Hunara. The normal route to Aroar is through Delvon but we hope to disguise our
intention from Bishop Bhorin and the King. The Princess is to tell him that we
are after finding the Bossil Lily, whose yellow dye is almost as good as that
from Saffron. We had to be very cautious as Lady Laia the sister of Count Lukin,
spied on us and reported anything she thought Bishop Bhorin would not like. So
we made arrangements with the owner of the Lamphern lodge and mule depot, to
stock up supplies for a ‘long journey’ destination unspecified. Princess
Griselda arranged for the cook Melda to drug the soup for the Leyn’s Day feast.
This would put the King and most of his male courtiers to sleep and allow us to
leave the fortress. She also forged a pass saying that we were authorised to go
on a journey to the Bossil Fall.
Startday15th
Fourth Moon 707ATN
Late in the evening of
Leyn’s Day, Melda the cook came to the Dvaunana and reported that she had
successfully put the feasters to sleep. So a little past midnight Princess
Griselda and I went to the Bell Ringers chamber. We offered a goblet of mead to
celebrate the Leyn’s victory. Sir Klapper the aged knight on Bell duty. He
refused as he was barred from alcohol when on duty. So I threw the
mead into his eyes and the Princess slugged him with her cosh on his ear below
his kettle helmet. We then tied him up and gagged him and headed back to the
Dvaunana. There Graf Silth, his daughter, four soldiers and two abigails Shapa
and Bonny, awaited us ready to leave. We had already drugged Lady Laia so the
Princess left a letter for the King with her!
Beloved
Brother,
I am sorry if my little subterfuge has made you angry but I fear stuffy
Bhorin will make a pointless fuss. Anyway I am sure that a sound sleep will be
of benefit to you and your warriors. The Fango tapestry made on the basis of
sketches from the actual scene convince me that realism is of great benefit. My
next work is to depict the tale of Coerl and Yanwen. Pursued by Yanwen’s father
they threw themselves over over the Borril fall in oneanothers arms. This is a
highly roamntic tale likely to be beloved of the Foixian ladies. So my ladies
and I are going to the Borril fall. I have ordered the Commander of the Fortress
Guards to escort us with some of his men. His duty was finishing on Workday
anyway. So you do not have to worry about our safety. I have heard that the
Borril Lily that grows near the fall has roots from which a yellow dye almost as
good as saffron can be made. If we can find some we could try to grow it here!
Your dutiful sister Griselda
The gate guards were Graf
Silth’s own men so they let us out without argument.
But a little further on the track out we encountered a patrol led by Sir
Presin son of Pagan. He challenged us and Graf Silth went forward with two of
his mace dwarves. “Why are you leaving the fortress with dvaus in your party at
this time of night Sir?”
“I am checking up on the patrols and the
Princess wished to come and check with me since it is a feasting night. She
feared that some might be slack in their duty.”
“Very well sir. Let them pass.”
So we went on and halted at
the track junction and waited until they had disappeared before turning right
instead of left. The expectation was that we would join the rest of our party at
the Lamphern Lodge but we met them on the road. Lamphern himself explained, “We
have heard that there are packs of wolves come from Limura, so I thought that
the sooner we all came together the better. Jaun the Warden of the Cragkries
preserve has gone to awake the Iggi monster to deal with them. If you wish we
could wait at my lodge until they have cleared up the problem?”
None of us in the know
liked this idea! “No I think better not. We are all prepared for the long
journey and we should be strong enough to deal with a few wolves!” answered Graf
Silth. I must confess I was trying to remember what wolves and the Iggi monster
were.
Anyway we marched on till we
reached a clearing to the left of the track, when we heard what I thought was a
dog howling. It came from the trees beyond the clearing.
“That sounds like a wolf!” declared the
Druid Barbver. “I shall try to understand it.” And he muttered some foreign
words of power.
“Everyone form up against this crag,
ready for defence!” snapped Graf Silth.
“It is calling ‘Food, three fat mules!’”
said Barbver and then a line of grey shapes came fleetly running towards us.
Barbver howled out something which he told me later was in canine trying to
divert the wolves elsewhere. But they ignored him and kept on towards us. We
ladies drew our daggers and brought out our pepper sachets but they were not
needed. Our soldier’s slew four, one ran and two crawled away bleeding. We were
all unscathed but before we could start to march again, another pack came racing
towards us from ahead! These were tougher and one bigger one downed poor
Lamphern and the soldier Kith also fell. Melda the cook split one’s head with
her cleaver. After a fierce fight six lay dead and the remaining two fled. Shapa
bandaged up Kith and Bonny the crossbowdwarf Cond who was also wounded. Lady
Shalaka looked at the muleteer Lamphern, whose front was amass of blood, and
declared him dead alas. Princess Griselda started making a quick sketch of the
scene, whilst a couple of soldiers started to skin the wolves. But Graf Silth
told them to stop. “We must press on to stay clear of any pursuers! Bishop
Bhorin does not favour our mission and he might talk the king into trying to
stop us!” So we started off again only to be halted at a pass between two crags
by Sir Darkhen and three soldiers. Sir Darkhen is a follower of Graf Silth’s
enemy Graf Lukin.
“Halt! Go back the way you came, Graf
Silth!”
“I escort the Princess Griselda on a
mission, get out of our way!”
“You go over my dead body first! I
challenge you to a duel and Bikon
favour the one in the right!”
“I accept!” and Graf Silth drew his
sword, whilst everyone drew back to give them space to fight. Sir Darkhen put
down his bow and quiver and advanced levelling his broad bladed spear. It was a
short fight. When Sir Darkhen made a thrust Graf Silth deflected it, passing on
to stab through the knight’s beard. It was so sudden everyone stood still with
shock. Graf Silth prodded the body with his foot but there was no response. One
of Darkhen’s soldiers knelt beside him but declared. “He is gone!”
Graf Silth asked “Well you three, do you
join us or get you hence?”
“We will care for our Master Sir.”
Then Melda called out
“Look! More wolves!” and seven were coming from the forest to our left rear.
“Back to where we fought them last time!” ordered Graf Silth.
“It may be that they will stay to eat
their fallen brethren?” suggested Druid Barbver.
“More like determined to avenge them!”
growled Sir Shure and he seemed right. These wolves seemed larger than the rest
but fortunately their efforts were unavailing. Soon only a big black one was
left and he turned to flee. However his opponent, mace dwarf Kinder caught him
before he could break free and smashed his head in.
“Come let us go before any more come!”
said Graf Silth and so we proceeded onwards. We started to pass Sir Darkhen’s
dwarves who stared at us sullenly when Melda called out “Look at that!” There, a
good way behind us was an immense skeletal creature.
“It is Warden Jaun with Iggi.” declared
Pouth the muleteeress.
“Let us leave them to deal with
the bodies! I do not want to waste any more time!” growled Graf Silth.
He was probably right, as I was not
wanting to go anywhere near such an awe inspiring creature! I expect that our
mules felt the same! So we plodded onwards and further onwards. In time we came
to a junction and turned right to head towards Khazdan.
Onwards and onwards and the trees changed from conifers to deciduous
ones. A grey cloudy dawn arrived and still we marched on. Half an hour later
We saw a squad four
armoured dwarves ahead of us. They halted when within voice range. The lead one
spoke “You must go to tell King Granbold that we are at war with Limura! They
have driven hordes of wolves over the border into Neradh! These have killed some
of our people and ruined many of our traps!”
Graf Silth’s jaw dropped open with shock
as the speaker was his wife Grafin Zilch daughter of Zendo! He had not
recognised her in her helmet and mail! “Sir Zenith is out with the men repairing
and resetting the traps!” continued the Grafin. Sir Shure whispered to us “Sir
Zenith son of Zendo is Grafin Zilch’s brother!”
“Beloved wife it will be for King
Granbold to decide whether we are at war or not. Those behind us know about the
wolves of whom we have slain seventeen. We are escorting Princess Griselda to
the Bossil Fall seeking a plant to make yellow dye. We fear that Graf Lukin and
Bishop Bhorin will try to stop us so we will not be stopping!”
“I see. You are sure that they know of
the wolves at Naug?”
“The Warden Jaun has activated the Iggi
monster to deal with the wolves. I expect the King will send a force to
investigate how they are here. Then he can make his decision!”
“I think my brother had better hear
this. I was expecting to travel all the way to Naug if necessary. If we go
quickly we will catch Zenith before he leaves the village.”
So we went on and found
Khazdan very shortly. There we had breakfast and I was hoping we might be given
a rest. After our relaxed life in the Dvaunana we ladies were not used to
walking such long distances! But it was not to be. Graf Silth said that we must
get beyond the border and camp hidden in the forest to escape from any pursuit.
Our two wounded, the soldiers Kith and Cond would be staying behind. However
Grafin Zilch and her three halberdiers would be accompanying us with her abigail
Meen and a mule. It seems that in private, her husband had told her that the
mission was really to achieve their daughter’s marriage to Sir Slepe. Naturally
she wished to be present at that! In fact I strongly suspect that it was on her
urging that Graf Silth asked for the Princess’ support!
So we marched along narrow
paths in single file to pass through the belt of briars and traps that protected
the border in this area. Large dead tree trunks marked the border and the trees
had been cleared away for a goodly space before the forest took over again. It
was not until mid-morning that we set up a camp and were allowed to rest. As I
dropped off to sleep I heard a drum beating which seemed fairly close. But I was
too tired to care and fell asleep.
= = =