Story:

Chapter 7 – Cherrypit and Yellowspring

Shipwrecked

The next morning, Zadoren woke me shortly before dawn and told me that one of my friends had returned.  He pointed to the waters of Lake Ban.  In the gray light, I could see something splashing in the water, a human inexpertly trying to tread water.  I knew neither Eldan nor Ka'El could swim, so I rushed to pull the human out; it was Eldan.  There were broken spars and other debris, the remnants of a small boat just sunk.  After making sure Eldan was alive, I tried to find Ka'El or at least his body, but failed.

At last, I climbed out of the river and asked Zadoren what he knew of Ka'El's fte.  All he would answer was, "He lives."  Eldan was beginning to revive, so I questioned him.  He told a confused story about a dragon that had carried our boat off with the two humans on board, "a big battle, spells, swordblows."  He claimed to have fought off the dragon, which I put down to a blow to the head, and did not know what had become of Ka'El.  While we talked, Zadoren drifted out of sight. 

I dove again in the waters of the harbour to retrieve our possessions from the wreck.  I looked for our Green Arrow Path badges which Eldan had hidden on the boat; I found all of them – except Ka'El's.

In the morning, Zadoren was still nowhere to be found.  We took a ferry to the Floating City, and Eldan left us to visit the ewaponsmith he had entrusted with the link received from Lochost.  However, when he came back he was unhappy and unresponsive; it appeared the weaponsmith had not been able to do the work as Eldan had wished.

Meanwhile, I looked for the Foolish Venture but it was not in the mooring slip.  I asked about it and learned that the vessel had left two days ago, cancelling the last five performances.  Moreover, it had been carrying a group of members of the Green Arrow Path!  When Tylee and Cairngorm checked on their masters Lindar and Kalvaro Ironhand at the inn, they learned that the two had left two days ago.  Lindar had left a not for Tylee, saying that he had been recalled to Throal but would meet us "kids" back in Erengazor.

During our discussion, we noticed an Ork slouching nearby, across the street from the inn.  He was dressed as a peasant; he kept looking at us, apparently longing to talk to us but not quite willing to approach.  Cairngorm and I went over to talk to him, while Eldan and Tylee discreetly scouted the area to make sure there was no ambush involved.  The ork told us his name was Lorb, and he had a business proposal for us.  However, the inn was too expensive for him (it had, after all, been good enough for Kalvaro), and suggested we have our discussion at a less expensive establishment.  Tylee and Eldan confirmed there was no ambush, so we all followed Lorb to an Ork inn, the Pig's Trough.  The beer was dubious, and the menu included rat on a stick.

Lorb told us he was from the village of Yellowspring, in the lean lands east of the Floating City between the Coil and the Serpent Rivers.  He said the neighbouring village of Cherrypit had been attacking Yellowspring, for no known reason, for about the last ten years.  The headman of Yellowspring had charged Lorb with the mission of finding help.

We considered the request.  The two villages were about five days' walk from V'strimon.  But before we undertook any new task, Cairngorm wanted to go check on the Liferock of Ayodhya, and Eldan and I wanted to find some training so that we could acceed to the Second Circle of our respective Disciplines.  While we trained, Cairngorn journeyed alone back to Ayodhya and learned that the area had returned almost entirely to normal conditions.

Yellowspring

We hesitated a bit on what to do next: try to follow after our masters?  Stay here and wait for them or for Zadoren?  Return to Erengazor? 

A few days later, having still not heard from Zadoren, our masters, or the Foolish Venture, we headed for Yellowspring with Lorb.  The weather was good for travel, but the unchanging scenery of low, rolling, brushy plains was monotonous.  I longed for a view of one of the great rivers. 

Finally, we reached the unimpressive little village of Yellowspring.  A crowd had gathered to meet us; children were peeking at us with curiousity.  A tall Ork, relatively better dressed than the rest and wearing a padded armour and broadsword, advanced to meet us.  Lorb introduced him as Rhamduc, headman of Yellowspring.

We were treated to a village feast, plied with food and drink; children gradually emboldened by our failure to turn into Horrors started sneaking closer, pulling Hantar and Eldan's hair, touching Tylee's wings, poking Cairngorm's thick skin, and yanking on my tail.  During the meal, Rhamduc told us a bit more about the situation.

He told us that the Cherrypitters attacked periodically, burning buildings and killing people.  Rhamduc had arrived about nine years ago from another village; he had first tried a parlay, around seven or eight years ago, but once in Cherrypit under a truce agreement, he and the other two representatives of Yellowspring had been attacked.

To obtain a better picture of the situation at the time, we asked to speak to villagers who had been there at the time.  We were introduced to Norweca, a middle-aged Elf.  She said that the original dispute had been over grazing rights; livestock from both villages had been killed, as early as fifteen years ago.  When Rhamduc had first arrived, he had said he had a plan to deal with Cherrypit; he would go negotiate with them, settle the dispute.  He had been ambushed, then Cherrypit had started attacking the village periodically.  We discussed the information, and decided we had to go talk to the people of Cherrypit for ourselves in the morning.

That night, we were hosted in one of the huts, vacated by the family that normally inhabited it.  It looked like the children would stop their intrusions, so Eldan intimidated them into retreat by convincing them he had powerful magic and had drawn a circle of protection around us.  He went to reconnoitre in the middle of the night, but found nothing amiss; no one was setting up an ambush for us.

Cherrypit

In the morning, however, as we left for Cherrypit, Eldan spotted the recent tracks of half a dozen people leaving from Yellowspring and headed for Cherrypit.  We decided to hurry, to catch up with them.  As we approach Cherrypit, half a day away, we started seeing smoke rising in the distance.  We decided to get off the trail and parallel it; soon, we saw a group returning toward Yellowspring. 

We sneaked up on them and easily intercepted them.  They revealed that they had been sent by Rhamduc right after we had arrived the night before, to set fire to a hut in Cherrypit.  After questioning them, we decided to frog-march back to Cherrypit so they could tell their story.

We finally reached Cherrypit, which turned out to look much like Yellowspring.  We were grudgingly allowed to meet with Nohaa, the headwoman, an older human.  Nohaa was not exactly friendly, but answered our questions.  According to her, the dispute between the two villages was, and had always been, about pasture land and grazing rights.  She told us that her mother had been headwoman before her, at the time of the last parlay with Yellowspring.  She claimed that far from being ambushed by Cherrypit, it was Rhamduc and the Yellowspring delegation who had attacked first; Rhamduc had killed her mother and a fire had devastated the village.

The Yellowspring prisoners protested that this was unlike Rhamduc.  Still unsure of the right and wrong of the matter, we arranged for a meeting between Nohaa and representatives of Yellowspring for three days hence.  Then we took our leave.

Back in Yellowspring, we immediately went to Rhamduc for some explanations.  In a sudden change of tack, he admitted that he had indeed known the reason for Cherrypit's attacks, and furthermore that the entire village of Yellowspring had conspired to present a lopsided story in order to get our help, or rather the help of mercenaries they had tought to hire until Lorb saw a bargain in us.  Indeed, the dispute was all about the limited amount of land available for two villages whose population was growing.  However, Rhamduc maintained that he had only attacked and killed the headwoman, Nohaa's mother, when she had used magic on him. 

We decided to go take a look at the disputed pasture, which indeed turned out to be much better land than the surrounding territories.  Tylee told us it had less background astral pollution as well.  We searched the area and questioned the villagers, but could find nothing more about the pasture or the dispute than this simple conflict between simple folk.

The next day, we decided to force a parlay without waiting any longer.  This tactical blunder antagonized Nohaa, who was unhappy at the unannounced change of plan.  After a bit of wrangling, we finally arranged the meeting.  I used my talents to foster an atmosphere of peaceful cooperation, inasmuch as possible.  After difficult negotiations, the two villages agreed to a truce of one year and one day.  During that time, we would attempt to find a way to improve the productivity of the land or provide a new source of subsistance. 

Although the result seemed meager, we were at our wits' and out patience's end with the stubborn villagers.  Disgusted, we took our leave and headed back toward Lake Ban.

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