The Harvest Festival

The Harvest Festival was a great success

The Festivities began at ten with a mass of thanksgiving in the village temple with all three of the clerics residing in the village and castle officiating, led by Mario Plumon the cleric of Synno Goddess of Agriculture of course. The villager had decorated the main area of the temple with baskets full of all the crops harvested in the past weeks.

During that time the villagers had all worked from dawn to dusk to gather in the crops. Mainly wheat but also farmed fruits and vegetables, wild berries, and other such things. The weather had held off this year, the cold and the rain had not come early as it sometimes did. With all the crops harvested in time the chance of the villagers facing starvation this year had hopefully been averted.

During and after the religious ceremony the older children of the village got up to sing hymns in praise of the Gods and this year's bountiful harvest

After the mass, the villagers gathered outside where Amondo and Rachana handed out some copper coins to the less fortunate families in the villager such as the Jurrans and the Wyms plus old widow Magellan Smyth who had no living children to look after her in old age. Others presented Amondo and his ward with garlands of wildflowers and other smaller offerings in thanks for his family's wise rule of them.

Later in the day, there was a parade through the streets of the village from the west gate beyond which the best farmland lay to the mill which was blessed by Mario in Synno's name.

Afterwards Old man Cebul the village storyteller set up shop in front of the inn and told fanciful stories to the village children and anyone else who would listen. At the same time, a game of football was played by all the young men in the village in the last field that had been harvested that year. They were split into two teams and they had to get a ball from the middle of the field to the middle of one of the pairs of two small post that had been quickly hammered into the ground on both sides of the field while the other team tried to stop them. The winning team had to buy the losing one a round of drinks at the inn afterwards.

The feast that had been prepared for all the villagers in the evening was well received and everyone went home with a full belly. Hardly a scrap of the plentiful food that had been prepared for the feast went uneaten and everyone was entertained throughout.

If you've never heard two professional minstrel's battling it out for over an hour trying to outdo each other then you have not lived. I think Deloer Dnich managed to win in the end, slightly outperforming Daegan Gockle even if his original work wasn't anywhere as good. Some of the villagers who knew how to play a musical instrument got together to play simple tunes that everyone could dance to.

When the next day dawned there was hardly anyone over twelve without a hangover to brighten their day.

The day after that Gru Meten the soon to be ex-Seneschal of Membe arrived for his meeting with Amondo

"I am sure you didn't have to wonder for a minute why I have summoned you here today?"

"I was surprised to hear that my cousin Nazma give birth to a girl, I was sure she would have done everything in her power not to let that happen. I am equally sure that my cousin Primoz found some way to embezzle money from your brother and that not expecting to be killed when he was, he didn't I imagine make much effort to hide his ill-gotten gains. With those two facts in mind, I did not need to wonder why you called me here, I am only surprised that you took so long to do so."

"Bearing that in mind I will get straight to the point, I do not trust your cousins and by extension any member of your family. I cannot afford to trust you even if you prove to be the most honest man in my employee, I just cannot. What this means, of course, is that your services are no longer required by the Barony of Membe and that is that."

"In that case sir I shall return my seal of office to you, take my leave and look for other employment. Do you require me to show the ropes to whomever you appoint in my stead or should I be on my way as soon as possible?"

"If you are wondering I have not had the servants remove everything off your from your rooms here and expect you to take the next two days to go over your duties with your successor. Tagas Onus will be taking over from you and the current constable from him. Then I just have to talk a friend of mine into taking over from him and that's that."

"A good choice sir he is surely capable of the role if that is all I will retire to my rooms and begin packing."

"That is not quite all, I have been advised of a possible employment opportunity for you and with nothing other than perhaps unwarranted distrust I feel obligated to inform you of it."

"How kind sir what exactly is the post and who is it with, not a Tanner or some other thing like that I hope."

"That is up to you to figure out, apparently the uncle of the Baron of Brugan has left him a plantation in the Outer Isles and he is looking for someone to manage it for him."

"What part of the Outer Isles?"

"That I do not know but probably not the good half I am afraid. Though not I imagine one of the worst parts either. I presume that no savages are living on the island, not any more at least but nearby is another question entirely.

As you know during the calamity when the portals to the homeworld closed earlier than expected those that had already moved to the Outer Islands suffered a far worse fate than those elsewhere. According to the legends told by the savage native inhabitants of those islands, all the adults died of some sickness and civilisation fell further there than elsewhere. They worship gods that no one else even remembers and most attempts at conversion to ours have so far failed. For the most part they now at least make a pretence of following our laws and other than on the more remote have stopped headhunting and other such uncivilised activities. How bad it is where the Baron's new plantation is, I cannot say however it's worth a look I suppose but I imagine you could do better looking elsewhere."