Copyright J.B. Norman
Kat, Niamh, and Skadi hide in the gloom just outside the ring of light cast by the bandits’ campfire. The three adventurers watch, wait, and ponder their next move.
Working as Baron Westfordnorthwestshire’s special Trouble Consultant, Kat expected, well… trouble. What she expected less of bandits stealing his entire collection of little faience chickens and kidding his good personal friend Dude Manguy.
She can understand why they’d kidnap the Baron’s friend. Why everyone up to and including bandits is so obsessed with those weird little chickens, though. That just does not make sense to her.
Kat looks left towards Skadi. The tall Hrimfaxi warrior his restlessly flexing her fingers on the hilts of her two swords. Kat pre-emptively reaches out to put a restraining hand on her shoulder.
The last time they had a job together for Baron Westfordnorthwestshire, Skadi went charging off straight at the bad guys. Kat is not quick to relive that particular experience.
Kat looks right towards Niamh. The Half-Carogian, Half-Goblin thief is intently surveying the bandit camp.
Kat and Skadi both jump in surprise as Niamhgasps with sudden realisation. “Do you know what day it is?”
“M-Monday?” Kat asks.
“The, um…” Skadi offers. “… twenty-third?”
“It’s Trabled Day!” Niamh says. “That gives me the perfect idea.”
Kat remembers this from last year. Trabled Day is went the people of Carog commemorate their major victory a few hundred years ago over the Hrimfaxi Vikings who’d conquered most of the island. There are bunch of details about the whole thing Kat doesn’t remember, but Niamh is more than happy to explain them every year.
“You’re not about to try to beat me up are you?” Skadi asks, the Hrimfaxi warrior cautiously backing away.
Niamh scoffs. “Just because there was a battle between Carog and Hrimfax once, six hundred years ago, doesn’t mean that we need to fight
“Good,” Skadi notes. “Because I’d totally win.”
“Oh, like the Hrimfaxi won at Trabled?” Niamh replies. “Oh…” She indignantly narrows her eyes. “…wait. They didn’t.”
“That was a fluke. You guys got lucky. If Sigurd Splendid-Mane hadn’t been too busy fighting back in Hrimfax to avenge his uncle, we never would have lost!”
Niamh scoffs. “You keep telling yourself that, lass.”
Kat groans and slaps her hand over her face.
“What happened to we don’t need to fight?” she wonders. “I swear, if something happens to Dude Manguy, we’ll never hear the end of it. Sure, he’s a little weird, but everybody always talks about what a good person he is.”
“Okay, okay,” Niamh says. “We can argue about this later, maybe over celebratory drinks.”
“Deal,” Skadi says.
“What I’m trying to say is that the Carogian battle plan at Trabled gives me an idea,” Niamh says. “Skadi, I need you to charge straight up the middle so they’ll —”
“Deal,” Skadi says.
Niamh blinks, clears her throat and continues. “Meanwhile, me and Kat will move around the sides to hit them in the flanks. See? Just like at Trabled. And we’ll win just as hard as the Carogians did at Trabled.”
“Wait,” Skadi mutters. “Didn’t your king die at Trabled?”
We’ve met most of the individual elements of this scene before: Niamh has been in several of these before (off the top of my head: here, here, here and, of course, yesterday).
I’ve explained what Trabled Day is as recently as earlier today, so I won’t go back into detail about it, but I will not that the fact that the real Battle of Clontarf was fought on the 23rd of April, is why the date in this scene is the 23rd — at this point, my way to handle the Realmgard calendar is that the months will have different names but be functionally the same, and the days themselves will be the same as the real English names, because fictional day names are hard to do well.
Kat being hired as Baron Westfordnorthwestshire’s Trouble Consultant (a name, incidentally, I got from the anime Dirty Pair and will probably try to make better for a real story), knowing who Dude Manguy is, and working with Skadi have all been aspects of previous other scenes.
Also, Skadi offhandedly mentions Siguard Splendid-Mane, whom I’ve established as the first king of a unified Hrimfax.
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