Ereworn Under The Shadow

Smilch and Garfax are momentarily stunned but they are also keenly aware that Barn was an irregular in Darians forces and are more than passingly familiar with what a large number of those men are capable of and this situation is a little more imposing than threatening old crofters for their tithe and they happily take Reg up on his invitation.

Gond holds his hands up and backs away unsure exactly what has happened to his daughter and whether or not she has been rescued, he retreats towards the kitchen door looking flustered.

Eldron on the other hand is deep in his cups and reacts by staggering to his feet and thrusting a finger towards Barn, " Bah, Truth? What has truth ever done for us? Wait? Where are you two off to? "

" Eh, don't need em. Say yer piece, boy.  Though I doubt you'll say it well."

Smiling Jack seeing the two leaving, takes a 1/2 step and turns towards them to guard Barn's flank if those two decide to do some sort of surprise attack.

Jack aware of the other 2 old men, still keeps in a position that Barn can protect Jacks flank/rear 

Galaren emerges from the corner of the room, where he has been quietly sitting. "We can all be friendly, now. Nobody needs to do no harm to anyone. Let's all just sit down and talk peacefully." 

Persuasion: 6

Insight into Gond / Eldron: 17

As everyone else stands up from the table, Barn sits down.  He ignores Smilch and Garfax utterly as they scramble away with Reg.

To the innkeeper, he merely suggests, voice still quiet:  "You'll want to stay, Gond.  This involves you.  Clotha's safe.  As safe as any of us can be, anyway."

Anger burns in the big man's voice, and his habitual stutter is nowhere to be found, but he makes no aggressive move, studying the town leader for a time.

"Ned's dead, Eldron, Ned's dead."

Barn pauses a long moment.  "Aye, Ned's dead.  We slew him in his strange cavern after a perilous and harrowing journey through a deadly woodland, able to finish the deed only because he let us in the end.  Sitting here now, seeing our town leader kept drunk and under the paws of two sniveling rats, I almost wish we had not.  Our forsaken land is the worse for it.  Look around you.  Ned's dead, but the curse remains.  He was not the cause."

"We found strange clues as to what does darken this land, through the dangers we faced, the people we met, good..." (Elen the Kind, Barn thnks) "... the bad ... " (Thomas the Wayfarer) "... and the afflicted... " (the leper who knew Fabian, and Macha/Nuada).  "We found an ancient relic that may do us good, yet we lost forever one of our companions, Oengus the bard, slain while trying to heal me by dead things that attacked us, hungry for our flesh."

He pauses again.  "All this we did.  For what?  For Clotha.  And yet, when we found her with Ned, we found a girl who wanted to be taken from this town.  We found that Ned was closer to being her savior than her abductor, seeing himself, her and us as part of a heroic story in some Good Folk way that I do not fully understand.  So what truly was the reason for our quest?  What made us toil and suffer and die?"

"The reason," Barn looks Eldron directly in the eyes, "is that Clotha wished to be saved, and the Good Folk listened to her hopeless, desperate plea.  She wished to be taken from a town where fathers sell their young daughters like livestock to town leaders over twice their age without asking them.  So for us to return Clotha here, we must know she will be safe.  There is a price, and it is not gold.  In fact, we have gold to 'make you whole' if you wish.  But no longer will there be bride prices for unwilling brides here in Ereworn."  Barn states this quietly as a simple fact, not a request.

"Instead, you will BE THE TOWN LEADER, Eldron.  Or someone else will.  But the town leader works to better the town.  Not be kept in his cups all day by grasping counselors and spend gold on their own selfish desires.  Only then will we know that Clotha, and others like her, are safe and the town is in good hands.  Then we shall venture back into the Wood to follow the clues we found to cure what truly ails this land, for it was not Ned."

The big man leans back in his seat.  "You are free to sit back down, Eldron.  Or remain standing.  It is up to you."

Reg escorted the two ‘advisors’ out of the establishment and engages them with talk. Inquiring about what they advise on, their area of expertise, etc. he lets the rest handle the delivery of the news about what has happened over the last couple of days. 

Jack squats by the door watching Reg. Nobody should handle trash by themselves.

Gond seemed to settle down a little at the statement of Clothas safety though he didn't move from where he was and mostly stared at the doorway as if willing her to walk through it.

Eldron absorbed the brunt of Barns tirade his expression ranging from satisfied, insulted, angry and finally........impressed?

" Well, I apologise. That WAS rather well said.....and you've done the task you were hired for....so that's no small deed.  And from your own words you've more tasks to do......got a lot on your plate by the sounds of things."

" You say you rescued....or perhaps kidnapped again.....Clotha. Yet I see no sign of the lass.  Surely Gond deserves to see his girl?  He's been fretting himself away."

" Haven't you, you great big softie?"

Gond looked to Eldron and gave a small embarrassed nod despite outmassing the Headman by quite a bit.

" Now.....you made an offer to me? For me Bride if I'm taking your meaning?"

" I'll have a look first at the lass, could be she was sorely used by the filthy beast and is no longer fit to be anyone's wife..."

Gond looked immediately stricken and began fumbling toward the door, running directly into Galaren as he came forward.

" Oh...sorry.", Gond muttered as he looked to the door desperately.

Eldron continued, " As for your other....novel....suggestions, how do you think that's going to work?  What family is going to take on an extra mouth without some form of compensation?   You might not approve of the way I run things.....but I daresay you've got little sense as to how your notion is to be put into practice."

" And yeah, I drink too much.....that's a fair cop.  Wife's dead, kids are dead, grandkids dead, flocks dead or as good as......whole feckin' town is as good as dead. Of course Ned wasn't the cause, the whole Kingdoms buggered."

" But he gave focus to folks fears and anger and nastier things.......without him to blame their gonna find someone else.....some neighbour, or recluse or someone different enough to be made a scapegoat."

" So, make your offers......and we'll see where we stand.", he thumped his first on the table and collapsed down into his chair.

" As Headman and Reeve.....I call a council of Ereworn Village....bring your complaints to me and we'll see what can be done of them."

Barn noted Eldron was rapidly sobering up by this point as he sat observing Barn and the others that had entered as well as Galaren and Gond.

..................................

Outside Reg and Caelan kept the two men busy with their enquires noting that whilst rather crude and indolent the men appeared to have no airs or misgivings about their roles as enforcers and flunkeys.

Clotha edged behind Ardwynn just outside the door unsure what to do, her scarf pulled tight obscuring her features....

................................

Galarens utterance is lost in the maelstrom but he is able to make observations:-