3. Grim Business

Grim Business


  • Yngdír Mel'fein takes a wheelbarrow on the Northern road, at least until the north gate - the wheelbarrow is seen to be bearing a female body. He had wheeled her past the north gate when it began to rain heavily. Yngdír gave up his long coat for a time at least, for his own reasons - to keep the woman's body dry. As he pushed her along on her final journey in our plane, he began to express his sorrow to her in Elven words and prayers. Among those sentiments, he said things like;

    _I wonder what your name was…

    I feel like I've failed you somehow, they knew - we all knew they were Banite. We saved your life so that they could murder you? It's not right. But that's what happened, I am sorry._

    He went on to pray a little…

    I hope that the Kelemvorite clergy can send you to the rest you deserve. I hope you find peace, lasting peace with your Oak Father.

    Yngdír arrived at the shrine at this point - alone - and asked, as he passed the Paladin guards, if they would please look after the woman - now covered with Yngdír's long green coat. It was a solemn walk, from the entrance of the shrine to Thander - Yngdír thanked him for the arrows that he'd bought earlier, and assured him that they'd been well used –- he then apologised for what he had borne to the shrine, telling of the woman outside who needed a buryal. He made what donation he could, leaving himself with a meagre purse. He asked forgiveness one last time and left.

    As he returned to the laden wheelbarrow to retrieve his coat. He said his final farewells to the woman;

    "Rest in peace Druidess, you deserved better." in Elven. He put his coat on and walked back to Norwick in silent reverence.

    To Yngdír, it will always be a sad thing. In his heart, he felt it likely that no-one would ever ask why he done what was done - so it's likely he will never speak of it again.


  • The events following a mild argument in the middle of Norwick saw Yngdír once taking on the role of ferryman to the dead. After transferring all the bodies into one wagon he lashed it to his horse, and once again took a rare trip north. These trips always seem to be lonely affairs, glancing back over his shoulder he sees only the closed gates of the town he'd just left, and the rattling dance of bones from beneath the sheets in his wagon.

    The view ahead is just as bleak. Miles upon miles of road, the trees on either side threatening to close in and swallow all trace that Men once dwelt there. His thoughts turn to other things. And occasionally nothing at all save for the beating of the hooves of his horse, and the trundle of the wagon's wheels. The thoughts always crept back… the 'good deeds' of Men, or Dwarves, or his allies and friends -- borne of ignorance. Pointless gestures. Meaningless moves that have no ultimate end, even if the reason comes across as sound. When finally he spoke to the bones, as he commonly would along this rare journey, the words came with the sound of an Elven dirge.

    "None of us knew why you were down there. My comrades, I fear they have taken what once was yours; greed gives way to courtesy for the dead. Even their own dead. I have spoken the words of Sehanine; what comfort they bring your bones of Man and Dwarf I'll never know. Worry not your spirits either, for the gates of Lord Kelemvor's house draw near."

    The wagon wheeled around slowly, a final bend in the road as Yngdír finished his words to the cart full of bones; and as promised, there stood the Shrine to Kelemvor upon the plain. The gates were alerady open when he arrived, and he drove the wagon in with ceremonial dignity.

    The cart was left outside, and Yngdír asked a hand to feed and water horse for he intended to enter the shrine and speak with Thander. To the priest he explained what had occurred, and asked humbly for the proper rites to be performed on all three of the bodies. He apologized to the clergymen with all sincerity for the bones probably being mixed up along the journey and directed them to the wagon outside.

    A night and a day Yngdír spent at the shrine after that, his time was mostly spent in the recovery cots in the upstairs of the shrine - commonly open to the public. Though in the evening, just a few minutes before he left, he made a point to visit one grave among the many. There were no words for the woman this time, too many years had passed. Evidence was littered around the grave of autumns that had passed, winters and springs. A few browned leaves he wove into an ornament not unlike, but much smaller than a wreathe. Perhaps the only evidence of a visitor to the Druid's grave since she'd been laid there. Without a goodbye or word besides he mounted his horse.

    The evening had gone by and a pale moon illuminated sky of thin cloud above. Yngdír glances back over his shoulder and saw the closed gates of the shrine he'd just left, and the dimming way-torches as his unburdened horse trotted quickly away from the place he in sorrow, seldom went. Back to Norwick – where ignorance exists in the guise of good deeds.


  • He had never done something like it before, and such a long time had passed it seemed that no-one would even remember. Yngdír remembered though. It was small comfort that only a few others remembered too. Instead of plotting revenge and letting his hatred of the Banite burn inside him he chose a spiritual path - and returned for the first time to the Druidess' grave.

    It was by her headstone that he sat in silence and stillness, half the day went by and even his thoughts were scarce, until the silence was broken by his long and one-sided conversation. Maybe it would have been a strange thing for someone to see, especially someone who knew him as a quiet person. But he spoke to the grave like they were best friends, some stranger he had known for all of five minutes - someone with a name that he didn't care to ask, he opened to her. Too late.

    Until dusk he sat there, speaking of the woes of the forest - and of the few joys that are frequently missed by the more busy people, or the ones who are too busy talking to hear anything over their own voices. He spoke to silent grave of life in general, and for that he would apologise. He apologised for a lot of things throughout the day.

    In the few moments before he left, he stood before the grave telling his stranger that he took her presence as a sign, that she will have justice - and that she will find the rest that he'd prayed for her to have a long time ago. And as dusk turned to the last moments before twilight he believed it would give comfort to the Druidess, if he said one more prayer for her spirit, to Sehanine.