The farm is a cold and silent place for the moment, but still there is a sense of tranquility here promising better days to come. The pantry is filled to the rim with grain, salted meat and several barrels of my own dark mead. More than enough to take me through the rest of the winter and some of my neighbours, if needed. Returning back home to Bancross, after months of hardship within the Dunland borders is a blessing. I have met my old friends again and even managed to get a few new ones as well. Gwennwyn who runs the storage at the marketplace, has been kind enough to watch over my farm in my absence and kept it in order.
My long dream about opening up a carpentry has also been realized, but the stream of customers I had hoped for, is not there. I guess the hardship of the winter has kept them busy with other things than the need of a carpenter. And that is why I and several others have met at the marketplace, to share news and discuss the different troubles haunting Bancross. This is an endeavour I usually stay away from, listening to gossip and dark lies about others, but the cases we are to address are of a more serious matter this time.
The last few weeks I have heard tales about strangers, armed men visiting our village and some have even been seen roaming on the plains around Bancross. And while the villagers gossip about such, there is no information about this from our absent Thane or from the Garrison or its commander Denholm. It seems the people of charge in Bancross have vanished and left the rest of us, to fend for ourselves. And that is what we do at the marketplace, where a huge number of our neighbours and friends have gathered to discuss not only the strangers roaming our village and lands, but also the dwindling food supply.
The villagers visiting the Bancross market.I had hardly arrived at the market before a familiar voice called out behind me “Oi! A busy day at the market today eh?” I turn around and see Waelden and Ethel by his side walking towards me. “Westu hal Waelden, you run out of mead again?” I jest in greetings. “Oh aye and food is running low too.” he smiles and shoots a glance at Ethel. “We have a food monster at home, you know.” I laugh at the comment, but Ethel will have none of it. “Hey! I heard that! You eat alot too you know!” she parries, before she returns playing with the dog they have brought along, throwing it a stick.
“Well I still have some smoked meat to spare if you need it” I tell Waelden. He shakes his head. “Heh! It’s far from critical yet, but I don’t want to run out completely.” He pauses. “What about you? Got your shop up yet?” Before I can reply we are greeted by Northgyth and she becomes a part of our conversation, telling us she is running out of root vegetables, before she continues telling the same tale about other folk of the village and their complaints of shortages. Waelden nods to her words. “'We also got very little left now. It's this blasted winter. There's not been enough crops to go around, with all the farms burning and pillaged.” While he speaks Yllfa joins us as well and we greet each other warmly. The conversation turns somewhat when Ethel tells about a dreadful man who had been sneaking around in their yard and I look to Waelden, who explains that the man is known to the guards in Bancross. We are interrupted again by another familiar voice. “Hail friends.” We turn around and greet Gamferth. “Aha! Gamferth! Another out on a shopping spree?” Waelden jest. Gamferth shakes his head. ”Nay, only out for a little stroll with Sigefaest.” He is greeted by Northgyth. “Greetings Gamferth. A pleasant day to be out for a walk.” Gamferth chuckles, “I told you last time we met, that I’d try to get our more.”
And the conversation gets interrupted again. Hildfrith is walking to our group smiling broadly. “Hello there all. Chatting without me, eh?” The biggest gossip and owner of the Bancross tavern, the Roaring dragon, had joined us. I wanted to flee, that woman eyes me as a priced bull sometimes and she always asks for favours, like last time I carried that dreadful mead up from her storage. What did she call it again? The Old Saddle. It tasted like that and then some.
The conversation continues around the troublesome lurker and the dwindling food supply and how to preserve the livestock as well, when Hildfrith points out her opinion. “And the Thane has let us down.” We all look at her. “What? What? He has. Everyone says it.” We ignore the outburst and continue discussing how to share what is left in the market, only to learn that the store is more or less empty and its owner Gwennwyn has left for Edoras. Hildfrith then informs us. “'Well I am low on several things, but what I think is we need that annual Boar Hunt!” She continues. “The Thane holds one every year...well you newer folk may not know about that.'” And she waves her arms about a bit, doing an imitation of spearing a boar. “If we have more meat we will eat less food that our animals can use.” It seemed we had a solution which Waelden seemed to agree upon. “Annual boar hunt... aye that's always a good idea. In Floodwend we made a similar but for fish, when everyone gathered to draw up as much as possible to salt and preserve for the winter.” Gamferth also favoured the plan. “'Heh... well, the girl has a point. Hunting game would give the villagers another source for food and would allow more grains for the animals.” Hildfrith looks at Gamferth as an ally in her cause. “Aye. It always was. Not that I know much about it. But Averel planned it as an occasion.” referring to the Thane of Bancross.
“'What about Thane then? Why hasn't he done so this year?” Waelden ask. “I think this year out Thane has other business on his mind.” Northgyth replies with a stern expression. Waelden is clearly not pleased learning that “Hmpf. More important than feeding his village?” Northgyth seems to hesitate, before she replies. “I fear… to him it may be. Every year I have known him to be in Bancross for the hunt only… or to add some items to his odd collection… But the time for hunt is now and no word from him.” I shake my head in amazement over the neglect of duty as a Thane. Waelden, always the wise one, pushes for a solution.”What can we do, that our Thane will not? What if we just take matters in our own hands before we starve?” Gamferth on the other side seems to have given up on understanding the Thane. “The minds of thanes and reeves and kings are unfathomable to us common folk at times, I fear.” We all just nod and agree on Gamferth words and Ylllfa voices her concern. “'It seems almost disloyal to plan without his knowing…but Gamferth speaks the truth here. He will not put us before himself.”
And our discussion walks around the issue of what we can hunt on our own and what is considered as poaching. Even if we are discussing a serious problem and how to solve it, I cannot stop smiling at Ethel’s outburst, when we discuss boar hunting. “I want to go boar hunting!” And when Waelden asks if she should try her hands on fishing instead, clearly concerned about his daughter, she replies. “Nah! I’m the boar slayer! My bow needs exercise.” While I laughed at her bravado, Gamferth sided with Waelden and tried to explain the danger to Ethel. “Ethel, boars are very dangerous. I'd rather face an Orc than a boar, myself.” I cannot hide it fast enough, but I know my expression darkens when Gamferth mentions orcs and I see that Hildfrith noticed it. She does not say anything, but I she her mind pounder on something.
My thoughts are interrupted by Waelden. “If we are to organise a boar hunt, we need a good force with spears and bows, and carts to drag home the prey with. Duncadda here is likely the best hunter we have in this company. What do you say of this prospect? Where would be the best hunting grounds?” He looks at me and I notice I have the attention of all presence. I tell them all that I'm not familiar with these lands and look for Gamferth in support, knowing that he has been around longer in Bancross than me. “Anybody who knows these lands well?” I ask, but not directed at anybody. While Hildfirth shakes her head and says she could ask her husband Paega. Waelden offers some information that he has seen some game on the south side of the river, between Edoras and Aldburg, but he is as unfamiliar with the area as I am. “Well, perhaps we must do a little scouting of the surroundings. Hopefully we won't have to stray far from Bancross before we see a few fleeing rabbits or hear the snort of boars.” Gamferth inject and his idea is supported by us all. So our debate continues with who should do the scouting and if we should try our hands on fishing as well, before the conversation turns into things we all prefer to eat and we all laugh at that as well. Our merriment sprouts more ideas and we decide that we are going to use the feasthall of Bancross after the hunt and celebrate, with or without our Thane’s blessing.
Then I darken the mood with my question that needs to be addressed. “Im curious though.. how is the garrison doing, concerning enough food? Can they help themself to our stores, if needed?” I ask. Waelden, who is familiar with the garrison commander, replies. “Aye... I'll try to talk with Denholm, and see what he's up to. He's a selfish arse at times, so it wouldn't surprise me if he'd go around to demand supplies for his men if they are running low.” So we all agree that Waelden will try to deal with the garrison commander and to see if some of the riders there can help with both scouting for game and hunting with us.
“So we do this, with or without the Thane's blessing, aye?” Northgyth asks the rest of us, who all give her our acknowledgement on that, before she continues. “And we can bring him back a boar, as a gesture...but no more than that.” To that Yllfa replies .”He doesn't seem to deserve even that. But it may soothe any ill mood he finds himself in.” To which Gamferth seems to agree on. “Aye, it must be done. The Thane will understand. He strikes me as quite absent... but not a bad person.” A light chuckle is heard from Waelden. “What about that fat pig that roams around in his meadhall, and sleeping in his chair? Would that not be a grand prize to eat?” And we all burst out in laughter. It is a well known fact in the village, that within the mead hall of Bancross, a huge fat pig which has the love of our thane, is rummaging around on his own. Ethel with her typical manner, breaks into our conversation. “Noo! Don’t touch the pig! He’s cute!” And we all smile and laugh and agree that it's best to leave the pig alone, unless we really want the wrath of our thane upon us.
The rest of conversation turns around the oddity of our Thane, his collection of relics and his house, which seems to be the object of nightly visiting by Ethel and the other teenagers in the village. In the end, the conversation turns into concern about these men that have been spotted within Bancross. Where we agree that is another issue Waelden will take with the garrison commander, while I will do a sweep of the outskirts around the village to see if I can learn something. And with that we parted to each our way for that day, all of us heading to different assignments regarding the upcoming hunt and dealing with the strangers in Bancross.
Copyrights
This story is based on a kinship event and most of it is somewhat rewritten from the ingame chatlog, with the blessing of all MotM members to do so. It might not be easy to follow who is who, but please visit our kinship site, for more detailed information about the villagers of Bancross.
The graphic added to the story is ingame screenshots taken and modified by me.
