#+SETUPFILE: ../../../template/level-2.org
#+TITLE: The Lay of Swinger
#+DATE: <2020-01-01 Wed 00:00>
#+AUTHOR: vaeringjar
#+EMAIL: vaeringjar@land
#+DESCRIPTION: 
#+KEYWORDS: 

* Introduction

This describes the transcribed account of Izaz's travels to Mountain
Settlement.

/See also [[file:index.org][The Org Ambassador Sagas]]./

* Dramatis Personae

** Izaz ibn Fadlan

Royal historian and messenger from Baghdad.

** Afsar the Green

Ambassador from Baghdad, mentor of Izaz, and rumoured to also have
half-troll ancestry.

** Yarl Duff

A leader from the far north, former vaeringi, and friend of Izaz.

** Folk of the Mountain Settlement

*** Yarl Erni the Black

A just and powerful leader of the far north, former vaeringi, and
friend of Duff.

*** Swinger

Erni's second. A former merchant who now owns a farm, but imfamously
not a farmer.

*** Biter

Swinger's son. A skald working for Erni.

*** Franco the Seawalker

A raider from the west who joined Erni. He prefers riding horses to
sailing.

*** Jan the Hill

A nearby rival of Erni.

*** Rel the Norse

Farmer, particularly of goats. Loves to drink and play music.

*** Magne the Brit

Rel's older companion on the farm. Also loves to play music.

*** Fell the Fast Skiis

A sailor working for Swinger who used to work in the north.

*** Jan the Scot

A rich sailor working for Swinger who owns many longskips.

** The Bondfolk

*** Yarl Frey of the Bondfolk

*** Couk the Smith

A thrall working for the Bondfolk to make weapons.

** The Skipfolk

*** Yarl Klaus of the Skipfolk

* The Story

** 1010-08-20

The crops died in the drought. The folks lacked both hay and
food. Izaz went farther north to deliver a message from Yarl Duff to
Yarl Erni at Mountain Settlement.

** 1011-08-03

Izaz worked hard. Swinger and Erni the Black called Izaz. They cheered
for Izaz. They gave em a gold ring for eir performance. Erni told Izaz
E should become a raider. Izaz said E would wait until the time was
right. Again Erni insisted, but Izaz refused. Still happy, Erni and
Izaz continued to repair the land.

** 1011-05-31

Jan the Hill grew jealous of Erni's riches. One day E asked Swinger if
they could get rid of Yarl Erni together. Swinger said this would
benefit both of them. Swinger would become the new yarl and Jan could
have all disputed lands. That night they visited Erni and all drank
much mead. When Erni had eir fill, they tied em up and sent em down
the river in a barrel.

** 1012-12-01

Erni had disappeared. It happened that Swinger and Franco split the
territory, each becoming new yarls.

** 1012-12-13

It happened once that Swinger asked Izaz to work more of the land and
teach longhouse construction. Swinger said the knowledge of the south
about steel might help with quality over the existing iron work. Izaz
went to a thing to talk to Franco and eir farmers. They had older
buildings in poor shape.

Izaz explained eir ideas, "We can reuse this same tool if we stand
this way when we cut. We can build better tools. Some of these tools
might also serve as weapons, if needed."

But Franco said Izaz was stupid. And E told all eir farmers not to
listen to Izaz. Franco threatened to tell Swinger. But Izaz showed
Franco that these ideas were already the case on eir own wive's
farms. Humiliated, Franco left. The Steel Conversion Project
continued.

** 1012-12-21 

Before Joulu, Swinger called Izaz to eir hall and demanded to know of
the new longhouse construction since during the winter most of the
farming had stopped. Izaz set down eir noon time bread. Usually,
Swinger would not call on Izaz for days if not weeks. There were also
times when no one would know where to find Swinger.

But today something special had happened. A longship had returned from
the west. Swinger wanted Izaz to inspect the condition of the
cargo. The cargo included steel weapons from neighbouring yarls, Frey
and Klaus.

"Make sure the weapons make it to the arms hall."

Izaz quickly finished eir meal and proceeded to inspect the
weapons. He found Rel the Norse and Magne the Brit herding the goats
to the barn to escape the snow. Rel said E had not seen Swinger. He
had also sent a message with one of eir thralls, but without answer.

Rel and Izaz walked back to Swinger's hall. They found Fell the Fast,
but no Swinger. By the time, the sun left the sky and the air became
colder and colder. Rel and Magne wanted to attend Joulu and Izaz felt
tired from work. Izaz inspected the weapons and separated those of
lower quality to another pile. Next to the lesser pile, Izaz left a
log with some of the defects. Included with the log, Izaz remkared
that some of these weapons look too much like the tools that Franco
might dislike or feel dissatisfied with.

"I fear Frey and Klaus might take advantage of us if we do not demand
better weapon smithing. We should send them a ledger and they should
produce our order from that. We do not need some of these extra
weapons." Izaz also though some of these weapons could barely function
as farm tools.

"The shaft of this spear would snap if bent into and used as a hoe. We
should not replace existing weapons with these false improvements."

Izaz left for home while the others continued to their Joulu festival.

** 1012-12-27 

On this day, that morning, Swinger asked Izaz to speak privately
together with Franco about a new ship mounted weapon. The three
gathered and all sat around a fire in the center of the longhouse. But
Franco picked up the log with the message from Izaz and stuttered
angrily about the dishonour in these cursed words by a foreigner.

"Franco, none of this means anything about you or any of us. I only
expressed my disgust in the quality of these weapons."

Jan the Scot arrived. As usual, everyone their seax, but Jan sat next
to the fire also with sword, spear, axe, and shield. Jan dropped the
shield and leaned on the spear. Izaz worried what this could mean and
gripped eir seax from under eir cloak. Jan should not have come.

Franco threw the log into the fire. "You do not give me tongue about
the weapon quality. Else, I will cut it out, foreigner."

Flustered, Swinger added, "The foreigner did have some important
knowledge about these weapons. I asked for this task. But I agree, we
should keep to among ourselves."

"Never speak to Rel again about any of this! That southern convert has
no say in this!" And Franco spat into the fire and kicked the log as
it started to burn. Jan dropped eir spear and picked up a bowl to spit
a larger spit into the fire.

Izaz took a deep breath. "I beg your forgiveness, Franco. I stand
together with everyone here."

Franco continued, "I already knew everything the foreigner said." But
Izaz thought this unlikely. No one would willing go into battle with
new, worse weapons. "Now we have a new problem. We will need to deal
with Rel. Swinger, you need to check your thralls and foreigners."

Again Izaz spoke, "I work for the yarls to please ye both. I do not
always understand the local ways."

Swinger grinned and replied, "We intentionally keep this understanding
from you, foreigner, so we can better prepare raids, a knowledge you
do not have."

Jan spat into the fire again. "You cannot understand this,
foreigner. We know weapons and raiding." He continued to drink from
the bowl and spit into the fire. Izaz apologized again, but Jan spoke
louder. "Stop talking, foreigner. I deserve respect! Maybe we really
should cut out your tongue."

Izaz felt eir hands sweating and shaking. Bad odds, three northern
raiders all with bloodlust in their eyes. Their actions would only
hurt themselves. Izaz in fact had forgotten more about weapons and war
from traveling the north lands than these beasts had ever known
together. But E kept quiet.

Swinger spoke to Jan, "We should make the foreigner fix these
weapons. Surely we can fix these new acquisitions."

For hours (TIME_RULE 3:20) the three belittled and mocked Izaz. E
prepared for execution, but it never came.

To the surprise of Izaz, at the end, Jan looked back at em and said,
"Foreigner, I should probably treat you more fairly. I apologize as
well."

** 1013-01-09 

Franco invited Izaz to a small lookout outpost with a practice archery
range at the top of one of the hills for mead. "Come and we will
discuss how to fix our weapons.” But upon reaching outpost, Izaz found
no one there. Franco had decided to go drink somewhere else and one of
the farmers to pass on this news to Izaz. However, the farmer told
Izaz that Franco had invited others to drink the mead and to not share
it with Izaz.

** 1013-01-10

Then one of the Skipfolk, Couk the Smith arrived at the mountain
settlement. Izaz had sent a message to the Skipfolk to send one of
their finest workers to help fix the weapons. In exchange, Izaz
offered to contribute some of eir own wealth.

But no one would allow Couk to speak. Instead, Franco, Rel, Swinger,
and Couk's master spat at each other about the quality of the weapons.

The Skipfolk master said E could do no better work as long as the
payments remained so meager. "Ye must pay us more if ye want another
sample of weapons before we build them. Otherwise, we must provide
them all and all at once. Ye get what ye got!"

The conversation degraded into the meaning of the word "sample". But
no lawyers or sages nearby could come to an agreement. They would need
to discuss this soon at the next thing. Izaz had never heard such
bickering from speakers of the same language about the meaning of
their own words.

Couk and Izaz never had the chance to discuss fixing the weapons.
