[RuneQuest] Brylaneth's Journey Continues, part 8: Farewell to the Vale

Though we knew we would soon have to flee our home, in winter the Lunars would not come to our valley. We lived our lives as we always had. Collan and Wurk both fathered children. My mother's sister Esina gave birth to a child also. Grandmother White Bark sponsored Wurk's initiation into the Issaries cult. Everyone learned new magic. The one called Red Crow taught me more of the way of Daka Fal. 

Daka Fal

But the harvest was poor that year and there were many unfavorable omens. Then one day we heard many voices singing a marching song as they approached the village. It was a song of our Sartarite people, which made us feel good at first. We saw them carrying banners with the colors of our Colymar tribe. But they were not our friends. They came with King Kangharl the Usurper, who had taken the Lunar Red Goddess over our good gods and given away our lands and our people to the Lunars. With him came the Red Priestess who had turned him away from our ways. Some said she was also his lover.

King Kangharl

Red Priestess

The Ring came out to meet Kangharl at the south gates. Kangharl and the Red Priestess came in to parley. Kangharl was not a good man to look at. His lips always looked wet. His fingers were short and thick. He could not stand still and shifted always from one foot to the other, looking around instead of at Gordangar and the other elders, wetting his lips often with his tongue like a snake smelling for prey. The Red Priestess looked at everyone as though she sought a new lover.

My friends and I stood by, but we only listened and did not speak. It was not our place. Kangharl told the Ring that they must surrender all the clan's lands to him and that our wyter would be destroyed, but our lives would be spared and we would be sold as slaves like the Sambari we had seen with the tax collector. The Haraborn clan would be no more. Many people who heard this grew red in the face with anger. 

Then Gordanger said to Kangharl that he had made no oaths to Kangharl as king. Kangharl said that men would die, and then the Red Priestess wanted to know why I was there with Wurk, Jaryan, and Collan. Gordanger didn't look at her when he told her we were there because he wished us to be there. She stared at us and we knew somehow she knew we had been with Starbrow. 

Kangharl and the Red Priestess left to give the Ring time to decide. When they were gone, Gorvara and Koralmath of the Third Wind came. Gordangar said that we must leave the Vale just as our ancestors had done long ago. People muttered and gasps and I heard sobs. Then Gordangar drew his sword and began to chant, and the crowd chanted with him. We chanted with him. Our voices together made a loud roar like a rushing river or a great windstorm.

Gordangar told us the next day we should go to the Red Rock. That night the women and children prepared to flee. Shah'vashak hid the Riddle and the urnfields so that it was as if they had never been. Only one of the Haraborn would ever be able to see them again. 

The four of us were called to speak with Gordangar and his brother Savan the priest. They told us we would not fight the King's soldiers. Jaryan was disappointed. Gordangar said he had made a bargain with the Starbrow. The Deer Folk would help if we would stay out of any fighting and keep Shah'vashak safe. We must climb up the west slope of the valley to the Royal's Grove. Our clan could only survive if our wyter survived. We must destroy the Wytering Oak to free the spirit, then the Black Stag would take the wyter into himself and escape the Vale. 

Gordangar

Savan

We went to the grove as we had been told, and we cut down the great old oak. The gods and spirits were with us. It was surprisingly easy to cut the tree. Then a great spirit as big as a barn that could be seen through like a mist rose upout of the remains of the oak. The sky darkened. Heavy stormclouds formed. Blue and purple lightning flashed through the spirit. It became a vapor and flowed into the mouth of the Black Stag.

Wytering Tree

Wyter

The stag seemed confused after absorbing the wyter spirit. Then the Red Priestess appeared. A tiny bat flew around her. Her weapon thanes came with her. A thunderbolt hit what was left of the tree. The Royal rose to his feet and let a bellow like a thunderclap. All sorts of animals came at that call - boar, bear, other stags charged out of the woods. Wurk made the Black Stag run faster and we all trailed behind, running a hard as we could to keep up.

The Red Priestess chased us. A red aura of magic surrounded her. She called an elemental. Some green energy touched Collan and he slowed as though he no longer wanted to run. The animals the Royal summoned wounded or slew all of the soldiers who had come with the priestess. A spell hit me and I was befuddled. I could only stand and follow my own thoughts in circles. Collan grabbed me and pulled me along after him. Jaryan fought the priestess's elemental, then Wurk made it go away. 

Wolves came, and Telmori with them, to fight alongside our warriors. The king had brought no Lunar mages and his magic wasn't as strong as the magic of our clan. We saw none of the battle. We followed the Royal to the west, in the direction of Clearwine.