Two events of note occur in 1337. Despite our frequent expeditionary forays, we don’t have many magical treasures. Thus far we have the recently acquired Raven Banner, Blacktail the Prize Bull and the recently born White Calf. So we are quite pleased when Sora Goodseller, a famous trader-priestess of Issaries, shows up in our tula. She offers us Ernalda’s Oven, which can bake bread with one twentieth less grain than usual. Since we will likely never use the Raven Banner, we trade it for the magical oven.
Later that year, the Eagle clan, seemingly tired of our constant raids against them, sends emissaries to call for an end to our raiding. They offer a one-time gift of 26 cows. We asked instead for an annual tribute of 10 cows so long as we refrained from raiding them. But they claimed that we wanted their entire clan to be hungry and left in a huff. Other than that, the year is mostly uneventful. We sacrifice to Urox to learn the Beserker blessing and build a shrine to Chalana Arroy to maintain our clan members in good health. We also send out a team of explorers but they run into Tusk Raiders and we lose one of our weaponthanes.
The year 1338 proves more eventful. First, our new clan leader dies of old age. Once again we are faced with an uncomfortable decision. We could either elevate one of the existing clan ring advisers with excellent leadership skills to the position despite the fact that none of them are Orlanth worshippers. Or we could insist on an Orlanth worshipper but settle on someone with only decent leadership skills. After consideration, we choose the latter option and choose a man in his 40s. Hopefully he will grow into the role and become a good leader.
Then to our surprise, the Eagle clan sends their representatives again. We repeat our offer of 10 cows of annual tribute a year and this time they agree. Note that all this time we’ve been raiding each other and they have had their shares of successes. But we generally prevail more often. Near the end of the year, our prized bull Blacktail dies of old age. He was responsible for siring many of our cows and this loss will be felt by the entire clan.
In 1339, we take stock of our situation. Most of the clans surrounding us are now our allies. The only exceptions are the Black Rock clan, who have repeatedly turned down our overtures, and the Eagle clan. We would like to form a tribe to grow stronger but we are still forced to wait for an omen from the gods. Sora Goodseller returns to our tula and this time offers us the Whirlwind Jar. It is a magical object that must be broken to be used and releases a killing wind against our enemies. We buy it for 40 cows. It may only be used once but we are rich and it is always good to have a special advantage in an emergency.
Later, we build a shrine to Maran Gor, one of the lesser goddesses in the Orlanthi pantheon. Her blessing is Earthblood, which increases the fertility of our soil in accordance to the amount of blood spilt on it in battle. This is actually the last religious building we can build until we can significantly increase our population or form a tribe as we do not have the worshippers to support larger places of worship.
Near the end of the year an unusual event occurs. The weaponthane we had earlier lost to the Tusk Raiders and believed to be dead seemingly returns to our tula. He tells a fantastic story about being captured and cursed so that he looks like a Tusk Raider himself. But he claims that he managed to escape and now hopes to rejoin the clan. The advisers on the clan ring are convinced that this is indeed the same man but some are concerned that he may be tainted by chaos. Nevertheless, we had our best negotiator, Lismelder, talk to the clan members and she convinced them to accept him.
Leave a Reply