Evenings on the Transdarian: Holiday Spirit

Outside the city of Drache lies a number of cities, towns and provinces of varying size and populace. Most of the people living outside Drache are natives who speak Arangothian and observe the native customs and rituals. Click here for a list Arangoth's locales, and here to view a map.
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Pigasus
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Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:59 pm
Preferred Title: Setting Whisperer

Evenings on the Transdarian: Holiday Spirit

Post by Pigasus »

In which the price of pork rises, then falls

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After he finished laughing at the dune elf’s story, Gordy stepped outside and heard commotion. It wasn’t a localized commotion like a fight surrounded by spectators bloodthirstier than the actual combatants. It was more of a gradual fiscal panic that seemed to envelop the place like winter come early.

The core of the panic seemed to be numeric. Gordy deduced this from people yelling ‘All of them?’ and some replying ‘Yes, all of them!’ A dissenting party only thought that ‘most of them’ but was still pretty agitated.

Gordy, whose biggest hate in the world was to not know things, ditched his uncle Brexil and aunt Meli entirely and went exploring to find out all of what. And were there all of them or just most? He soon ran into Ness, a neighbor’s girl he sometimes played with. She was dusty and breathless.

“All of what?” he demanded.

“All the pigs,” she said.

“What pigs?”

“The Torrothresh pig farm, someone poisoned all of the pigs. Seven farmhands are dead too, all piled on top of one.”

“Who?”

“They say the eigth farmhand but he’s dead now. I think it was monsters. I’m running away from home.”

“I want to come with you,” he said.

“You’ll just slow me down.” She looked away, saw something and without another word, sped off. He lost track of her and contemplated. Losing seven men to an unidentified attacker was scary, yes, certainly cause for concern. But the dearth of pork right before the Sendepentahest feast was unthinkable. The unenvenomed pork increased in premium by a factor of murder.

“It’s mine! I was here first!” roared a man as he tried to shove two women out of the way. Some other man shoved him and it got worse from there.

Gordy dove under the flying bodies and slinked around a tree where he saw a gathering group of people near a man outside the swinery, saying something.

“Everyone, please calm down. I know we have a meat shortage on our hands and also some of the Torrothresh farmers are dead. I have some news: the Aslari pigs in the private enclosure have not been poisoned,” the Vassal was saying. The farm owner next to him looked nervous.

“That’s still only a quarter of our usual supply so we’ll have to share and make a lean feast this year. I need everyone to please remain civil.”

“But my family’s coming over!” A man yelled. “I have been gathering ingredients for weeks. I’ll pay you double.”

“Triple!” A woman yelled.

“Don’t listen to this villain!” someone else chimed in. “They did this on purpose to jack up the price! Look at them!”

This changed everything. Screams enveloped the square and a stormcloud of people began moving on the remaining on the farm again. The farmer watched with a sort of stoic calm like a captain on a sinking ship with no liferaft. The vassal tried to call the crowd to calm with no effect. But someone’s loud whistle overtopped them. Brexil, looking like he pre-gamed for the marketplace, looked down at the crowd from the a butcher shop’s roof.

“I’m around sixty degrees on the merrygrade and even I don’t yell so loud,” he said. “You’re all wrong. The lads just questioned the neighbor. I know what really happened.”

“There was an old vampire tormenting to the north. You remember that vampire? Almost toothless but for his fangs. Not strong enough to feed on travelers, had to subsist on pigs. He used to steal them and steal them and enough was enough. So the hands looked for someone to sort him out and sent Garrith.

Garrith used to work as an apothecary’s assistant and he claimed to whip up a concoction that would slay the vampire for good as soon as he drank it. On the road to the vampire’s, he realized that if tales of the old man’s immobility were overplayed, he’d be in trouble. So he did the only logical thing: he drank some of the solution intended to poison the vampire, since it was intended to work on vampires, not human beings.

Whether or not he made it to the vampire’s is unknown because the following morning, the farmhands found him having a prolonged sex orgy with the Aslari pigs in the private enclosure. One of them was midway through writing a ditty about it to unveil at the village fair when Garrith realized what was about to transpire, poisoned them all. He would have got away if they didn’t strangle him while they still drew breath. All the pigs except the ones in the private enclosure then feasted on the bodies, receiving the poison.

In the general murmuring, a voice came through:

“So you’re saying he had his… inside all the living pigs?”

Dead silence greeted his words. Slowly, without another comment, the crowd began to disperse, deciding perhaps that the holiday’s traditions could be amended for one year.

Gordy caught up with Aunt Melinxa on the way out of the marketplace. She grabbed him by the ear and yelled at him before going home to bake some mouthwatering treats for him. Gordy had a complicated relationship with Aunt Meli.
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