Stjordvik Traders » Dhoesone » Storm's plots in Dhoesone

The Stjordvik Traders has extensive interests in Dhoesone and battles for control of the forests and moors against the Northcrown Coster of Mheallie Bireon and several lesser guilds.
Storm Holtson has several plots brewing and issues to resolve at any one time. Here is a sample:


[top]The Sons of Hjalsone

Storm is hated more than any other guildsman by the Sons of Hjalsone. In their eyes a Rjurik should know better, the other guildsmen are just fools who have never opened their eyes to the beauty of the world about them, Storm by contrast saw and looked away. Their hate is matched by Storm's total disdain for them, Storm knows full well that the Sons are unskilled at their cherished nomadic ways and considers that all that Father Pais has achieved with his teachings is impoverish his people.

Storm has been hiring goblin mercenaries in the Giant Downs and encouraging them to attack the leaders of the Sons of Hjalsone, Storm hopes that if Father Pais is killed the Sons will disperse back to their old villages, and if the goblins prove unable to handle matters the guilder is more than willing to use even more direct methods against the father.

Storm pushes the Counts of the northernprovinces to act against the Sons of Hjalsone and ensures that every incident he hears of between the Sons and settled folk is also heard in Sonnelind so that the Baroness comes under pressure to act.

Storm is trying to identify the leaders amongst the Sons of Hjalsone beyond the vocal Pais so he can arrange their elimination as well, but he is coming to believe that there is far more to the cult than meets the eye.

Storm sponsors the militias in the villages that remain loyal to the Crown to reduce the likelihood that Father Pais's movement spreads. He is pushing for Anuirean land-rights and laws to be enforced as he knows that such action will cripple the nomadic way of life that the Sons of Hjalsone are trying to pursue.

Storm is encouraging settlement along the Northbyrn River, well aware that the Sons of Hjalsone need access to the river he seeks to deny them that access as well as to permit trading with his holdings over the river in Stjordvik.

[top]The empty town

Storm curses the Shivering Plague for it wiped out his markets in Todpier and has prevented re-settlement. Storm wants to prove that the town is safe so that it can be resettled and his markets rebuilt. Storm has two means for doing this, one is simply to import settlers who haven't heard of the plague to dwell in the town, by the time they were found they would surely have made a sufficient home to be allowed to stay, the alternative tactic is to encourage some beast or bandit gang to live in the town and thus prove that the town cannot simply be ignored and left empty by the Baroness.

[top]The new forest

When Storm first started planting trees in Riveside, the druids of the Oaken Grove of Aeric celebrated the arrival of 'a true Rjurik aaolfer' who would both bring wealth to the people and protect the land from exploitation. When the druids saw that the tended forests were planted as regularly as soldiers on parade they began to worry, when they found that Storm harvested the woods by annual rotation and 'weeded' them to ensure no foreign plants harmed his 'crop' their hope turned to despair.

To outsiders that druids could hate a forest seems unnatural, these folk have never walked in Storm's eerie wood. Though the wood is several miles across it is said that a keen eyed elf can see from one end of the wood to the other so regularly are the trees planted. Storm commonly hires hunters to kill beasts that take up residence in his forest but the latest danger to his crop is beyond his ken, something is twisting the trees into bizarre tangles ruining their value as quality lumber, it must be the druids of course, and Storm has planned several traps and an intricate vengeance against those who would damage his crop.

Although the province is heavily wooded, the mebhaighl of the land does not benefit from the growth, the rigid planting of the trees, lack of undergrowth and the like means that the additional plant life has no impact on the strength of the magic of the land.

[top]The Miller's due

Many farmers take exception to the practice of a miller in keeping a tenth to a twelfth of any flour milled as payment for their services, rarely does it seem to a farmer who has spent a year sowing, tending and harvesting the corn that the few hours of the miller's time justifies such a tithe.

Mheallie knows that the farmers of Nolien follow Storm, and several are particularly angered by one miller of openly grasping bent. Mheallie plans to frame one of Storm's key supporters for the murder of the miller to weaken his hold on the farmers. Unfortunately for Mheallie Storm has learned of the plot and plans to foil it - after the troublesome miller is taken care of, after all, why merely neutralise a threat when you can profit from it?

[top]Harper's Point

When the giants smashed through Dhoesone, they wiped out much of Bannier Andien's influence in Romiene. Storm aims to claim that influence as his own. How better than to arrange for the elimination of the giants? Both Storm and Bannier want the giants dead, and each guilder wishes the credit, and is willing to go to great lengths to get it.

[top]Storm vs Mheallie

Storm is trying to weaken Mheallie by weakening her hold over Cariele, although he has little faith in the count 'growing a backbone'. Storm is sponsoring resistance to the guild amongst the remaining nobles, subverting some of her disaffected guild-members, and assassinating key guilders, the enforcers rather than the guild leaders themselves (most of whom rode Mheallie's coat-tails up and are of a similar age).

Storms aim is to leave the guild without any clear or capable leaders after the current leaders retire.

[top]Storm's army

Storm is reputed to have mustered a small army of troops in Riveside, he insists that they are simply foresters that 'defend their own' and that he has simply provided them with arms and some training to assist them in defending themselves against the goblins and elves. His competitors meanwhile argue that these 'foresters' frequently lapse into banditry on goods caravans of rival guilds and independents.

[top]Autumn jam

Every autumn Storm floats logs down the Northbyrn from his harvested woods. Every year these in turn cause minor jams and inhibit fishing for two weeks or so. Fishermen affiliated with the traders are warned of the logging, independents are not so fortunate and complain to the baroness about their damaged nets and enforced rest annually.

[top]My enemy's heir is their downfall

For decades Mheallie crushed all rivals in her organizations, however recently she has begun to see the more gifted of her subordinates as potential heirs rather than rivals, for increasingly she feels old age approaching and seeks to leave a legacy in the shape of a powerful coaster. Her first step has been to officially retire - without of course relinquishing a jot of power - to allow her to groom a replacement in peace.

One of the youths she is cultivating is Amrie the Red. Storm is aware of Amrie and has realized that she is one of the scions Mheallie is grooming to take over the guild. As a result he has arranged for an unfortunate mishap to befall Amrie. Firstly he has arranged for a wagon of Bannier's silver ore from the mines of Sidhuire to be raided by 'lucky' brigands. Secondly Storm has arranged for Amrie to find clues leading to the raiders and thirdly he has made sure that she will gain a very warm reception.
The bandits do not know the name of their benefactor, or that Storm was the one to give them away to Amrie, but they intend to keep the booty they won, and they have their own deadly secret weapon in the shape of an allied Red Fist animal tamer who found and hatched a pair of drake eggs.

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