No sooner have we finished clearing our fields of dead Foxes when another raiding party is spotted. Again our scouts have provided no warning, and we are outnumbered.
Using the same tactics as with the foxes the Vanstali charge into a trap.
Salinarg attempts to shoot down the Vanstali heroquester in midair, but the Vanstali air spirites protect him from harm and he manages to kill two of our weaponthanes and injure three others before we can drive off the raiders. In their hurry to escape they leave some horses behind, but it is little compensation for the clansmen who had died.
It is clear that we must build up better defenses to protect home and hearth from raiding scum. We don’t have enough goods to afford to build a proper palisade yet, so trading is in order. In the meantime we need to train more weaponthanes.
The Grey Foxes, having been turned back by our brave warriors, are now looking for weaker prey. A raid does not make for a feud. Weak clans will not survive in Dragon Pass and it is only right that the stronger clans take what they can from them.
That said, the Stag Hearth clan has been friendly towards us and we have no cause to make them resent us for letting raiders cross our borders freely. The Foxes are turned away.
With that gesture we also hope to secure the friendship of the Stag Hearths, enough for an alliance hopefully. Gifting them with five fine horses we ask them to join us in alliance so that we may overcome our foes together. Janstan, chieftain of the Stag Hearths agrees and we drink to Orlanth in celebration. Sadly good news are tempered with bad.
As the Dark season of winter settles it’s clear that the omened bad harvest came to pass and we won’t have enough food to feed our clan the coming year. We need to call in favours or trade. We have many fine horses that should fetch a good price, it’s best to save favours for emergencies. The ducks, in spite of their defiant barn-burning, did come through and deliver us the food they had pledged. This will ease our burdens a bit and though relations between us are strained it might be best to try to better our relations.
In preparation for next year the carls clear out some of the wildlands and set aside more land for pastures and farmland. We have more than enough Carls to tend our farmlands but we are lacking in oxen to pull our ploughs. A shrine to Uralda the cow mother might be in order. The cost to properly maintain and venerate so many temples and shrines might be too much of a burden for our small clan at the moment though.
Having only lived on our Tula for two years the lands around us are still unknown to a great extent and Voskandora, warrior under Vinga the adventuress, has asked permission of the ring to explore the wildlands around our tula. Taking five weaponthanes and a dozen footmen with her they brave the snows and find a secluded valley filled with old bones and ivory teeth which will sureley benefit our craftsmen.
Sadly they were not the only ones braving the snows.
Grave accusations though spirits, even ones as powerful as the rock spirit of theirs, are not infallible. The clan ring ordered a divination to ask the gods for guidance and they clearly showed that Yanioth was innocent. Our attempts to convince the Tree Brothers of this were not very successful however, though they grudgingly admitted that they needed more evidence before they could press their claim. The last word on this matter is not yet said however, and the rock spirit of theirs make their warriors a fearsome threat.