A delegation of diplomats from Naskorion has, in a move to appease Aruzban after the war, presented him with a gift of complete Iron plate armour in the latest Western fashion. He wears this armour as often as possible.
To increase his standing among the chieftains of Delela, Aruzban has during the last five years led as many expeditions into Corolaland and on occasion even Halikiv, defeating minor Troll clans. He is known for burning trolls to death by wrestling them while wearing his Iron armour.
Some of the thanes in his own tribe take a dim view of Aruzban's weakness for western culture and lifestyles. So do many of the Delelan chieftains, but they have their own power bases and can express their dislike openly. The opposition among Aruzban's subjects instead takes the form of a secret society called the Silver Torque, which is rumoured to have connections in high places.
To keep his title, prestige and power intact, Aruzban likes to emphasize his unbroken bloodline all the way back to the legendary King Retter, and also his firm treatment of the trolls (another way to stress his kinship with the great troll fighter). Aruzban's goal is to acheive total control over Delela to begin with, and Saug later on. Keanos does not exist on his map of the East Wilds, or "Dangan Kingdom" as he privately thinks of it.
Cults: Associated-Orlanth, Mastakos, Friendly-Orlanth pantheon
Knowledge: Famous, One of a kind
History: Broblarad was a first age hero before the reign of Nysalor. He and his brother Ganganar slew a horned, flying beast (maybe a sky bull), which was ravaging the lowlands of the Doskior river. They cut off the horns of the beast and made one blowing horn and one drinking horn from them. Broblarad enchanted his blowing horn to a specific ability and Ganganar enchanted his to another. Ganganars horn and the knowledge of its magic was lost during the Dark Empire. Broblarads horn still exists and was last known to belong to Parkan, the Orlanth High priest of Cliffrange.
Powers: By blowing in the horn the user is instantly carried away by a strong wind at about 200 km/h and transported to his place of birth. If imprisoned or by other means hindered in the transport, the user is flung against the obstacle with a tremendous speed, usually with death as a result.
Value: As a famous semisacred object, an Orlanth temple will pay as much as 20000 silver for the possesion of it.
Cults: Associated-Aldrya, Odayla and other huntercults.
Knowledge: Cult secret, Few
History: A few masterhunters of Keanos know how to make a Masterhunter bow from the sacred tree, Bloodbirch. The specific enchantment was originally a gift from the elves of Karbaring forest to Saunak the Silent Killer, masterhunter and thane of the Karbaring clan. Later the secret was lost to two other clans, Tussla and Stabaring. A Masterhunter bow has a lifespan of about 200 years, and is only made once by each masterhunter, which gives an approximate amount of 30 bows in existance.
Procedure: The use of Bloodbirch and the enchantments is only known by the specified Masterhunters. The only commonly known enchantment is that Food song is used.
Powers: The bow provides each arrow shot from it with a sureshot.
Value: No Masterhunter would sell his bow and they are inherited by prominent hunters or given to special friends and allies of the clan. A Keanoshunter would probably not want to buy one, but an outlander would give 6000 silvers.
Cults: Associated-Orlanth, Enemy-Troll cults and Chaos
Knowledge: Cult secret, Famous, Few
History: The making of a thane's powerstaff is an Orlanth cult secret known to the master crafter of each major or larger temple. The procedure of making is only taught to the successor crafter. The first known user of a powerstaff was Karp-Ane the Sad, a chieftain of Ajim during the end of the second age, he was killed in an ambush by some trolls and his staff was lost. Since then a fair amount of staffs have been made with various exotic abilities.
Procedure: Convince a master crafter of wood that you deserve a powerstaff and he will make you one.
Powers: Each staff has a unique magic potential, fixed from the start of the making. The exact nature of the enchantments varies, but all have the ability of a foci for Orlanth Rex worship in common. Some more common abilities are Direct natural lightning, Protection from storm and other weather-connected abilities. Some of the more reputed staffs had strong anti-darkness powers.
Value: Since only thanes can use the staffs, their exact values are hard to fix, but a thane who does not posses a staff may pay as much as 3000 silvers or more, depending on the nature of the staff.
Cults: Associated-Eurmal, Hostile-everybody else
Knowledge: Cult secret, Common
History: The Eurmal shrine of Spot teaches the runespell Enchant Nut. The founder of the shrine was the infamous scoundrel Backar, a court jester to Retter's grandson.
Procedure: Only followers of a Trickster god can learn the runespell of Enchant nut.
Powers: The enchantments depend on what kind of nut that was enchanted.
Hazelnut: If eaten, the nut will expand to 100 times its original size, causing heavy pains in the abdomen, but also provide the eater with nourishment for two days.
Acorn: The wearer or eater of it will attract rodents as long as it is worn or digested. The nuisance depends on the local population of rodents.
Ralia Acorn: An enchanted nut will explode if not treated with care, causing 1D4 damage within 1 meter.
Walnut: A rare kind of nut but the effects could be disastrous as the digester of the nut is covered with the illusion of being transformed into a broo.
Rakulnut: The eater of an enchanted nut will be immune to all magic during the digestion, whether it's malign or benign.
Lots of other nuts are enchanted and each of them have their unique effect.
Value: A trickster may pay as much as 50 silvers for a nut.
Cults: Associated- Humakt, Enemy-Zorak-Zoran, Vivamort and other cults with undead relationship.
Knowledge: Cult secret, Few
History: Some of the blood from the battle-wounded Humakt fossilized into particular stones, now known as whetstones of Humakt.
Powers: Swords sharpened with a Humakt whetstone acts as if it was activated by a Bladesharp spell until it needs a new sharpening. The strength of the Bladesharp depends on the power of the stone (1D4) and it is compatible with ordinary Bladesharp spells. An additional effect is that an undead struck by an activated sword is wounded more severely (x2 Damage). The stone does not need attuning. Since the sharpening only takes one day it is not uncommon that a whole group of humakt mercenaries have their swords sharpened if one in the group possesses a whetstone.
Value: 1000-4000 plus an additional value of 2000 silvers.
The lean man with the pointed chin stirred the campfire with a stick before answering.
"Not really all that flat." He glanced around the circle of of hunters with a bored expression, determined to make the most of his advantage in experience. "It's just that the hills are kind of softer, and there's fewer trees."
"Huh."
There was a pause, then the youngest of the group spoke up: "My dad says they spend all their time poking in the dirt."
"Some do, yeah. See, there's two different kinds of flatlander: farmers and city folk. Now the farmers are just too lazy to hunt, but the city folk are really crazy. I spent most of my time in the city, 'cause that's where the traders are, so I got to see plenty of them." He grunted and scratched his beard reflectively. "How so many people can stay at one place is beyond me. I mean, the rest of Saug is bad enough, with all those farms and villages and stuff. You can't walk a single day without meeting someone. But the city! You see as many people in Doorlick, as they call it, as you see trees up here."
This caused some startled muttering. The youngster frowned deeply for a while, then asked "But don't they get on each other's nerves?"
"They sure do. Shouting and swearing and fighting all the time. It's so bad they have to have a special cult that goes around knocking heads wherever there's too much noise. Youmack, it's called. Mean buggers, with the coldest eyes I ever saw - they could probably stare down even the fish folk."
"The what folk?"
"Fish. Well, more like lizards really, seeing as they got four legs and a tail, but they act like fish, splashing around in the river all the time."
"Aren't there any normal people?"
"Hard to say. None of 'em look normal, anyway. They don't wear proper leathers, for a start, but some flimsy stuff that wears out and has to be replaced all the time. And some cut off their beards so they look like little boys." Varn started to scratch behind the ears of the shadow cat stretched out beside him. It purred deeply. "Their cats are real strange too. Tiny little things. Some guy in a dress came up to me and started blabbering about putting a collar on Blackie." The cat seemed to chuckle. "I punched him out."
All the hunters chuckled.
"Are they religious?" one of them wondered.
"Sure, but not like us. I mean, everyone has something to worship, but there's damn few normal gods. Orlanth is about the only one I can think of. Some worship the water, some worship coins and those Youmack I was telling you about worship their swords."
There was an oppressed silence. It seemed that city people were far too strange to comprehend. Finally a hunter cleared his throat and spoke: "Well, what do they do for fun?"
"Hmm? Oh, they get drunk, of course."
Relieved laughter swept the group. Flatlanders had turned out to be human after all.