Role

Chapter 5

Iaro and Norhm made a decent living together at the camp for several
years. It was an optimistic time; the lumber company had settled most
of its disputes with the indigenous peoples of the Weald and was
enjoying a relative, albeit uneasy period of peace. Norhm grew fast
and hearty, and before he was very old began taking his turn with the
night watch.

The night watch was a fairly casual militia. Weapons were available,
but most of the lumberjacks had their own. Often, hatchets and axes
served as well as weapons at night as they did as tools during the
day. Training was minimal, consisting primarily of sparring in the
evening. Still, Norhm was proud and eager to do his part, and found
himself sitting around a campfire on the river's edge three nights a
week, listening to Veteran's tales, whittling, snacking on deer
jerky, and drinking.

The night watch was comprised of a variety of characters. Some were
hired on as full-time security, while others were simply splitting
their time between the night watch and their day duties. Not a man
among them had ever been known as a hero, and none of them had any
formal training in the arts of combat. And although most of them could
easily hold their own against most things the Weald had to offer, none
of them were prepared for any real evil, a fact that would become most
apparent for Norhm not three weeks after he joined the watch.

Among the night watchmen there was an older man, a dark-skinned and
frail human who, in a former life, had been a witch doctor of sorts in
parts of Thera unknown. His name was Alorhamael. One of the skills
associated with his former profession was the art of making marks in
one's skin. He had been with the company for quite some time,
probably long past his true usefulness, but was kept around almost
exclusively for this task. He would only work by firelight, which
meant that night watchmen in specific were particularly well
decorated. Norhm himself had become fascinated with the process and
had already acquired a fairly large collection of these decorations.
It might even be said that these tattoos were an important part of
coming of age for Norhm, as within them he experimented with world
views and ideas of good and evil likely picked up from tales told
around the camp of the great battles of Thera.

In fact, around the campfire, Alorhamael often accompanied his tattoo
work with tales, working on as many as three pieces a night, with a
different tale for each. It was an informal night watch ritual, and
combined with beer made for an intense atmosphere of camaraderie. In
fact, this is exactly how the watch was occupied on the night the camp
burned down.