Winterfell (Part 1)
When night o’erstrips the day,
the mantle of the Gods does fray,
Now wights seek blood where men do dwell
Now comes the month of Winterfell
A Visit from Groar the Shopman
One foggy night at the beginning of Winterfell there is a hail at the gate of Gefnhame and a weary group of travellers come out of the night. Some are wounded and they report attacks by Pukels in the Eastern Woods, who laughed at the tokens they showed from the Witch of Gefndene.
Groar, their leader, is a shopman who travels these lands bringing goods and news to his customers. He leads a small caravan comprising himself, four guards and a number of slaves. He and two of his guards are mounted and they have pack mules with them. The slaves are mostly of the Eowan folk, but one is an outlander of some sort – heavily scarred and tattooed and unable to speak any language Groar knows. Lytelman greets his visitors and bids them enter his hall as guests. He summons his priests to tend their wounds and gives them food, ale and mead from his stores.
In return Groar tells his hosts of the news he has garnered news. He has lately been in Stokeney and it seems there has been a mighty sea battle off the northern point of the Isle of the Eowan between the Geats and Swedes on the one hand and the Eowan on the other. The Geats and Swedes took the day and began to raid the island itself. However, it is said that King Eadgils accepted a huge tribute from the Queen of the Eowan to disengage, forcing the Geats to do likewise before they had wreaked their full revenge for the sacking of Stokeney in the summer. For all that the Geats are dissatisfied with their treatment by Eadgils there were many Eowan slaves taken, and many ex-slaves of the Eowan changed hands. Many of these were to be had in Stockney when he passed there. Wihtgils, Ealdorman of Stockney had been slain in the sea-battle and his sons, Wihtred and Wihtgar have gone to seek out King Wiglaf to have him decided which of them should become Ealdorman in his stead.
Wiglaf it seems continues to campaign in the Small-lands, winning many victories but not ending the war he has started. He trapped and slew the Godasons in their hall but Frethi the Fox and Leodmar One-Eye are still at large amongst their Small-lands allies and Wiglaf still seeks their heads.
Groar had intended to pass on to the West from Gefndene but can see problems with that – the Pukels of the Western valley are stronger than those of the East and the way longer. They always demand greater tribute and without the protection of the Witch it seems a risky prospect. He is interested in Lytelman’s talk of a southern route through the Pukel caves and down the gorge to the Malanmere. For all that it is a route for men on foot, from the description he thinks it will be possible to lead the hardy, sure-footed mules through the caves and down the gorge.
A Shieldburgh Around Gefnhame
That night there came a large warband of Pukelfolk out of the Eastern woods. Lytelman invites the Shopman to step out with him and form a shieldwall in front of Gefnhame to receive these unwelcome visitors. A sharp fight ensues, for though the Geats and their allies are the more skilled in arms and better accoutred than their opponents, the Pukels are more numerous and fierce in their attacks. However, the wights neglect to commit their full strength, keeping back their biggest and strongest and so the Geats hold the field. Of their number only Tohrwulf sustains serious wounds and he is like to recover in time.
The following day Lytelman surveys his lands and finds all the Pukels that yet lived fled to whence they came. They had managed to reive perhaps a tithe of his kine but otherwise Gefnhame was unscathed and its folk safe for now.
Groar agrees a price for the three horses and as a friendship gift he gives Lytelman the tattooed slave, Talorc, who had acquitted himself well in the night though had shown little enthusiasm for the shield-wall, preferring instead to skirmish on the flank with spear and saex. Lytelman immediately frees him reckoning hima poor slave but a useful fighting man. Lacking the words, Talorc grins his gratitude, exposing his savage sharp-filed teeth. Groar also has several large packets of herbs that he had bought in the South on commission from the witch. Nothgyth seizes on these and pays him his asking price.
Return to the Pukel Caves
As part of his agreement with Groar, Lytelman leads a warband comprising Wistan, Herewulf, Svipdag and the strange outlander, Talorc, to ensure that the Pukel Caves were still unoccupied. They were not. Herewulf listening at the cave entrance hears the sound of loud snoring with his sharp huntsman’s ears, echoing through the tunnels. The party led by Lytelman, creeps forward thinking to surprise whatever lay within while it was still in its slumber.
When they came to the main chamber Lytelman could see that there lay a Thurse with its head nodding upon its chest. Unfortunately, as he crept forward, thinking to deal it its death-blow as it slept, his foot scuffed on the uneven floor of the cave and the Thurse leapt up with a cry and smote at him with its great mell. Then as Wistan followed the Thegn up, another Thurse rushed into the cavern wielding a mighty spear. There ensued a vicious fight in which Lytelman and Wistan together slew the first Thurse, though both were wounded; the second tried to escape through the narrow passage out to the North by using its sheer bulk to barge over and trample Lytelman’s three other companions in the confined space. The great wight achieved its aim but as it bounded down the southern slopes of Gefndene, Herewulf’s arrow took it in the back and ended its miserable life.