[color=red][h2][b]=-=Year 833, Fall=-=[/b]
[i]The Deep Forests[/i][/h2][/color]

While business in the south was concluding, more fresh events were brewing in Upper Jolfa. The Dujal of Upper Jolfa, [color=red]Jarosław Barna[/color], was hosting a tourney for his vassals outside the city of Banzrech. The Banzrech Tournament was a large gathering of knights, lords, and their peasantry to watch mounted champions face off in skillful practice much to the amusement of crowds, and for the knights to face each other in grounded combat and smaller contests to prove their skill across all of Upper Jolfa and before it's Dujal. Yet, much to their disappointment, the Dujal was nowhere to be seen during the festivities, his Admis however was mostly holding sway over the entire tournament. The Knights were being festive as ever, but the Dujal was close by, dealing with another matter entirely.

The Dujal was hosting the games for several reasons, firstly being trying to forcefully marry off his ever increasingly rebellious daughter, [color=red]Wera Barna[/color]. In the weeks before the tournament was even announced, Wera had tried to confront her father over his missing son, demanding a place at the court of Upper Jolfa, which he had refused. When he instead insisted on forcing her to marry via the grand tourney as a prize to a winning knight, Wera had argued for over a day trying to get him to relent, making a scene as much as she could. She had only stopped when her ever fearful mother was abused by Jarosław in front of Wera did she relent. Wera was present at the games, and again showed her rebellious intentions, being of poor manners and worse language. Yet for the rowdy knights of Upper Jolfa, this wasn't exactly seen as in poor taste, but some even outright encouraged it, much to Wera's disdain.

Secondly, the tournament had masked a more secretive meeting between Jarosław and one his more hated rivals, the Valk of Bulgodia. Bulgodia was a minor, but important, southern province which was ruled originally by the Wicinski family. Mysteriously, almost overnight, the family's vineyards and storage were set ablaze, ruining their already shaken finances and were then hit with a number of family tragedies after many botched offers to sell their land. In the end, a weak willed younster had sold both land and title to a little known group without the Dujal's permission known as the [color=red]Purplefeet Band[/color], under the control of [color=red]Witold Jonak[/color]. Witold was name which Jarosław had personally known, being a failed Spion who used unsavory tactics to gather information and launch espionage campaigns from Loskadia, serving many lords. Jarosław had known him from his days trying to gather information in Upper Jolfa, but was captured and tortured by his father for spying, only let go when he revealed who he was spying for. He had no doubt in his mind that Witold had personally tried to weasel land out of the Wicinskis.

Jarosław however was a little worried, the Wicinskis were a powerful family, and of the 3 'great southern families', they were perhaps the most well known and most loyal. These rich families ran their territories like guilds, with the Wicinskis have had a successful winery, the other two had equally successful trades. These Valks provided 'gifts' to the state of Upper Jolfa, which effectively were bribes, which kept the Barna family afloat, rich, and happy. In return, Jarosław would grant them both political and economic immunity. If one of the families wanted to extort a spiteful neighbor for example, the Dujal would always side with the rich families. Thankfully, the southern Valks were the only ones ever effected by this corruption, as their interests were never laid beyond the northern forests and hills. Yet, with the Wicinskis gone, so were the 'gifts' provided by the families, and it was very likely Witold's doing.

Jarosław and Witold met in Jarosław's countryside tent, a huge yurt which held much of the luxeries of a small castle room. With him was his favored slave, the Bolam [color=red]'Big Iron'[/color], otherwise known as Irons. Irons was a large Wildar covered head to toe in a expensive gladiator armor which protected him, and he wielded a fairly large claymore which he sometimes used to lean on. Despite having been born broken by slavery and his loyalty to the Dujal was without question, Irons still wore unchained shackles and it added a certain level of intimidation whenever someone was in his presence. Irons was always present in meeting such as this, perhaps acting as deterant against anything stupid. When Witold and his own entourage entered the room, it was perhaps Jarosław who was a bit more concerned.

Jarosław himself was a older man, with a very flat face and had a permanently ill look about him, but the person who stepped into his tent even made the Bolam beside him cringe. Witold was a fat man, who walked on a cane and smelled reeking of all sorts of foul things, clearly having not bathed in the time he came to the tent. What was worse yet, his dress was flamboyant and ugly, resembling a blackish and purple dress with silver lining, which was considered unpleasing to see. Witold came with a entourage who even common bandits would mock, city thugs who had clubs rather then swords, since Witold thought swords were far to expensive. The Thugs were not very much informed on the Bolam who knelt in the tent, kneeling on a large sword, and it clearly terrified them deeply to see the armored creature so close. Witold did not look terrified, which did concern the Dujal deeply, especially as the fat man made a mocking bow and greeted him with humor.

Witold made it clear to Jarosław he had no intention of 'continuing a failed system' of granting gifts for paltry returns, when Jarosław made it equally clear that as Witold would be admitting to usurping the land from a Valk family and disobeying Upper Jolfan laws, Witold proclaimed he would be going shortly to offer himself as vassal directly of the king. Jarosław and Witold insulted each other back and forth a few hours, which was ended with Jarosław threatening the upstart to revoke his claim anyway and have his soldier arrest him. Witold made a counter offer instead to Jarosław, saying that in return of restoring the natural order, he would need 'further guarantees' from the Dujal. Jarosław did not really like his money situation one bit, nor did he want to disrupt the balance in Upper Jolfa over a personal rivalry, and with certain reluctance, accepted Witold as his vassal. Witold demanded that he be given some permission to fund a forestry encampment in Upper Jolfa as his first major request, and in return, the king could be given 40% of the profits. Jarosław was suspicious, but agreed non the less. Witold left with a smile, much to both Jarosław and Irons's cringe.

The tournament went smoothly, but there was a clear noticable cultural difference between the northern and southern Jolfan peoples. While those in the poorer northern settlements were rowdy, cheering with open arms and smelling like piss, the southern Jolfans were less excited, cheering more for the brave stunts and acting done by the knights to court Wera Barna. Wera grew bored of these knights quickly, but one figure attracted her attention greatly. A knight in rustic armor had rode into the camp later in the day at exactly the time the sun touched the land in the distance. He had a green shield depicting a tree, his helm had 'horns' of sticks, and he didn't use neither saddle or bridle. The knights called him the Green Knight, and when he rode, he rode very hard and spooked the other horses. No one really paid attention until he dismounted a popular young southern knight. However, when Jarosław made his seat and had his Admis inform him on the completing knights, he was surprised to find a knight who was from Bulgodia. Jarosław soon knew what was up, and tried to find means to dishonor the would be knight, a older but oddly not very skilled man who won his bouts through mysterious means.

His vassals called him out on it, and succumbing to public pressure sat down in his booth above the crowds. The Green Knight was late for his bout, but when he showed up, the Bulgodian knight looked very shocked to see him. The Green Knight, his helm still covering his face, made a silent but humble bow to the Dujal and his rival, and the two took their places. The two did their rounds, with a clear winner being the Green Knight. The Bulgodian knight lost, much to Jarosław's delight. Jarosław demanded the knight reveal himself and his lord, but much to his shock and horror, as the knight dropped his helm, he revealed himself to be a young looking Leshari, twigs and leaves appearing on his face. He gave a wide smile, talking like a old man, he seemed genuinly happy that he had 'joined' the 'festivities' near by. Jarosław and Wera were silent, but as the 'Green Knight' turned to face the crowd, the Bulgodian knight took his chance and tried to stab the Leshari, making a rather stupid mistake. The crowd went silent, wind blew, and wolves howled in the distance. In but a moment, the Leshari was back on his horse and riding away, but not before a small swarm of rats and moles bursted from the ground, overran the knight, and ate him alive infront of the Dujal. The Dujaless screamed in a panic, and Irons held both Wera and her mother close. Jarosław said nothing, looking down at the rapidly being destroyed body of the knight. Wera looked at her father, terrified that he was smiling delightfully.
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Jarosław decided not to pursue Witold or his attempts to steal away his daughter, discovering that many knights had been threatened, bribed, or were sabotaged before meeting the Bulgodian knight. The Leshari disguised as a knight had killed attackers who tried to beat his legs and the legs of his horse in a very similar manner, a horde of bound rats and moles had devoured the corpses of two thugs and dragged their bodies into the dirt. The Green Knight was gone, but when Witold sent ambassaddors to sooth things over with Jarosław, he didn't even mention the incident. Wera for her part was entirely forgotten, but some 'possible winners' tried to claim her regardless. Wera again was locked out of court life much to her dismay, and was left doing 'womanly things' till her father would try to marry her off again, but such attempts would be considerably less when paired with the final moments of the tournament.

Witold, as promised, sent a small legion of lumberjacks north along with many guards, into a land called Cosmodia, a northern most province. It's very poor Valk was forced to allow the lumberjacks to given camps, and provide additional laborers, with Witold being granted a 'order of emergency' to refill the country's lumber warehouses. Witold's men started chopping down trees and hunting wildlife, but were warned by the local Valk not to venture too deep into the deep woods, or they would face the wrath of the druids and gods who lived there. Naturally, the thugish guards cared little for this and mocked any attempts to moderate them. When some Cosmodian villagers returned from their camps injured or dead from beatings, the Valk demanded answers, and only got back injured or dead courtiers. When one of the courtiers who ended up dead was one of his own brothers, he relented and sent complaints to the Dujal, but was mostly ignored.

The lumberyards got more and more workers, more and more supplies, but those supplies and those workers were not acting in good faith and began unloading a sum of cages, shackles, and branding irons into the lumber camps. Witold had been harvesting lumber, but he had a secondary business, planning to hunt slaves amongst the distant northern Bolam clans which prowled the north forests. Hunters went into the forests, but few returned and often empty handed. The foreman of this operation became more and more convinced that he was digging deep into Fae territory, and sent warnings to Witold demanding Huntsmen assistance. He instead got a order back with a more thuggish foreman who fired him and took over his job, ordering his laborers to dig even deeper into the forests and to begin hunting Bolam more actively.

The slave hunters eventually caught up with two rivaling Bolam tribes, capturing their young and dragging them back to the forest camps. Noticing that they were being hunted, the two clans moved westward to find safety amongst other clans, and eventually brought their attention to the good Valk of Mutherma, [color=red]Aleksy Sobiech[/color]. Much of Mutherma's territory was the deep forests which housed the nomadic Bolam clans, and Aleksy was deeply troubled by them being hunted. He laid traps for the slave hunters, but his own ambush party was ambushed on their way from capturing some hunters by a angered Leshari which attacked them. The group dissipated and the Hunters got away and back to their camps. The Slave Hunters this time went out with a fully band of over 200 into the deep woods as a army, and devestated a smaller Bolam tribe living in the woodlands, but also greatly angering many of the Fae spirits in those lands.

The Bolam gathered warriors, and drove off the slave traders from their deep forest camps, and angrily protested the local Valk for assistance. Aleksy responded by gathering a small host of 500 men and marching them alongside 50 Bolam warriors into the deep forests with the assistance of a local druid. The Druid made offerings to the Fae, even communicating to a Lady which lived at the borders of the woods, blessing the troops with grander speed in return for stopping the loggers on her eastern bounds. Aleksy became more disturbed as they passed through many fae 'kingdoms', especially as they came upon a entire secret Bolam grove and settlement called Bollok, where Bolam druids communed with a council of Leshari, Umbras, and guarded by armored Faen. The Fae informed Aleksy and his generalings of what disturbed their forests, and the Bolam warriors who had been with the Valk, were making offerings to their 'forest gods'. Aleksy was offered the services of a Leshari, but he was so disturbed by the Fae's appearance, he preferred to just drive off these interlopers rather then accept the Fae's help any further.

As Aleksy was journeying into the deeper woods, and encamped at a clearing. In the middle of the night, the Valk's scouts heard commotion and found a small army of slave hunters were camped near by as well, perhaps by the Fae's own magic moved nearby. The Valk's men were informed and began slowly and silently putting out their camp fires and arming themselves. Aleksy and his men began to surround the encampment in groups of 25 covering the north, south, east, and west sides of the camp while the rest were put into the reinforcement positions. The slave hunters were tormenting and prodding at a young Bolam with a hot poker, tied and panicked, and were far to busy with themselves to notice that their camp surroundings were far different from their original camp. Aleksy and several Bolam warriors led a charge into the camp, surrounding the slave hunters and butchered them, but his east flank which he was leading fell and many escaped back into the forests. Many fell further to Fae horrors which lurked in the deep woods, especially when Aleksy pursued a larger group of slavers who fled into a Wendigo's lair, and were utterly slaughtered.

Of those 200 men, only 75 ever made it back to the lumberyards, and Witold Jonak was now there personally to oversee the operation. Witold listened with great annoyance that a northwest Valk had defied him, and more angry that his very illegal operation had failed so miserably. Witold decided to round up some men from the local villages, much to the protest of the Valk of Cosmodia. He forced them to work harder on the forests in order to make up for his 'loss of profits' and then marched a small band of mercenaries to the court of Mutherma. Witold and Alesky argued for hours, with Witold complaining about the loss of his men, and Alesky complaining about the bullying of the Bolam. Alesky agreed not to press the liege lord in return for Witold never to bother them again. Yet, as Witold went to leave, several thugs under his command had secretly hidden in barrels of mead which were brought in by a well bribed merchant, and beat the Alesky to death while he slept, and left disguised as guards. Witold was far off by the time anyone could send out riders for him, and had left the county is a more undesirable situation.

Witold set a more permanent outpost near the lumber camps and returned back home to deal in further business, ordering another group of unsavory mercenaries to round up Bolam tribes. Another group of 150 slavers entered the land and began kidnapping Bolam, sending them back to slave markets in Kolum much to the dismay of the Beastfolk there. Yet, their Fae overlords grew ever more aggressive and ever more spiteful, and began lashing out more violently. Yet, the cutting down of trees began to send many Fae from Jollas into northern borders and beyond, causing a cascading effect of Fae entering the Mother Woods, aggressively expanding their dominion over southern end of the forests there. The cruelty of Witold's men grew tiresome for many, especially when a number of Bolam game forward to the Dujal. When the Dujal became informed about the actions of the loggers, Jarosław allowed the complaining warriors to go home with some of Irons's old armors as a 'gift', and promised to take care of the issue. The Dujal sent a strict warning to Witold, by interrupting slave merchants and 'freeing' the Bolam, bringing them to Banzrech instead, where they could be sold to more local folk in the city for a more direct profit.
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The ships landing on the shores of Jollas had very little impact outside of some general amazement, with some going into the hauls of the ships to loot and pillage them. Those that landed on more distant shores became infested with monstrous creatures, especially becoming lairs to dragons, causing some to fear the wrecks. Merchants from Jollas who were more brave enough looted the ships and bodies landing on their shores for trinkets to sell. The only real foremost interest in the wrecks were the Otum who could recognize the ruined vessels as actual ships. Some Otum merchants made more pernament outposts in the Loskadian wreck to study the wreck, with often unuseful claims about its origins. The northern wreck was less fortunate, becoming the lair of several monsters, including a decent amount of Haunts, a large number of territorial dragons, and in the deeper bowls of the wreck was a Host swimming menacingly about, collecting bodies.