Kethira-720TR-Harn-Kaldor-Tashal-Timberwrights

Timberwrightts’ Guildhall

The bottom floor is a cross between a meeting hall and a tavern. There are several good-sized fires and clusters of partially-filled benches, but nobody is actually serving ale. Ale must be fetched from across the street at The Tower Inn. Most of the people look like lumberjacks; bits of conversation suggest they were trying to get hired somewhere.

People

Taran of Feldon (guildmaster)

About 5'6, brown hair going gray, clubbed. Weathered face, short gray beard, heavyset, often wearing a reddish-brown tunic. He gets occasional migraine headaches.

Sandar (master timberwright)

Sandar is of average height and heavy-set, with wide shoulders and a midsection going fat. He typically wears nondescript clothes and doesn’t show any weapons.

Mountain (bodyguard)

The Mountain is huge, nearly seven feet tall and muscled like a Hru. He usually wears little above the waist and carris a lumberman’s axe, though he carries it oddly; such an axe has a long handle topped by a double-sided blade. Although woodsman’s axes are stored with a leather sheath over the blade for safety, they are typically carried in the hand or over the shoulder. This man carries it the way some people would carry a small hatchet; the handle ended in a loop tucked into his belt, leaving the sheathed blade dangling near the floor. It would be easy to grab and swing but it looks as though all that weight would tend to trip him up. He works for, and is very protective of, Sandar.

Adventure Hooks

Forged Papers

As told by Taran:

“A group came in a few months ago and showed writs giving them a contract to harvest trees outside Lemsfyrd in the King’s woods. I was a bit surprised at the location, but the papers seemed to be in order. Operations like that need support from our Guild, so seeing the writs was pretty normal. Guy named Sandar is in charge; he’s known as a master timberwright, and an operation like that would call for one. We helped him hire a crew of apprentices and a couple journeymen timberwrights, and off they went, all legit and routine. It was a few weeks later that I saw something that bothered me.

“Exactly the same signature and seal on some other documents. Not the same seal, but the same marks. The signature was exactly the same. You try putting a stamp on two writs with precisely the same marks. The picture might be about the same, but the little details are different; a little more ink here, a difference in the way it ran there. But these two were identical. The signatures were the same way. I think someone made a stamp with the Chancellor’s mark and forged both documents.

“If the Chancellor’s involved, that’s misuse of office and he’s in a huge amount of trouble. But it ain’t his style, he’s always been an upright kinda guy, loyal to th’ King an’ all that. ‘Sides, he wouldn’t need a stamp, he could just sign ’em both. So I’m bettin’ he’s in th’ clear and someone’s forging his mark. That’s a capital offense.

“So I been trying to convince others, from the Guild right up through the Chancery. Slow goin’. I think somebody been paid off, an’ others just don’t understand what I’m showin’ ’em.

“An’ alla time, trees are getting’ cut down outside Lemsfyrd. Coupla my guys looked around the operation, late at night; nothing funny about it. The’ locals know about it, happy to have coin comin’ ta th’ inn. I know most o’ th’ crew, they’s honest guild members, I helped get ’em th’ job. If Sandar’s th’ one planned all this, he got no reason to be secret; his tracks ‘re covered with all them writs. Smart bastard; I had a run-in ‘r two wi’ him before. Thinks trees are there ta git cut fer profit. Well, others feel th’ same way, but ya gotta look ahead a ways. If we keep cuttin’ down trees, whatcha get is cleared land, and then we’re outta business. Sandar don’t care.”