As Lohmen journeyed north along the coast, he continued to sketch the banners of each town he passed through. The further north he travelled, the more exotic the banners became. In the realm of (REALM), he encountered banners featuring strange and fantastical creatures, such as a werewolf and a unicorn. In Tuiuzhizh, the banners were adorned with intricate geometric patterns and symbols that seemed to hold hidden meanings.
One particularly chilly day, as he was passing through the northernmost reaches of the continent, Lohmen spotted something that he had never seen before: a group of small, humanoid creatures with icy blue skin and sharp, pointed teeth. They were huddled together in a clearing, and before Lohmen could get out of sight, they turned to face him.
At first, Lohmen thought they were simply curious, but as he got closer, one of the creatures, a particularly large and menacing one, stepped forward and growled at Lohmen.
He held up a hand in surrender and backed his horse away slowly. The goblins started to circle him, moving closer and closer with each pass. Lohmen tried to kick his horse into a gallop, but the snow was too deep and the animal, as mighty as it was, struggled to move at anything but a deliberate trot. He braced himself for a fight, but to his surprise, the goblins hesitated.
The larger goblin sniffed the air through the icicles that hung from their noses and beards and let out a high-pitched yelp. It was intonated and had varying pitches, and whatever language it was, Lohmen couldn’t discern it. The closing horde stopped closing in but continued to snap and growl at Lohmen and his horse. With the goblins seemingly set in their place, Lohmen began to put some distance between himself and the horde making his way west and constantly checking over his shoulder. The goblins followed, staying well back, for quite some time but eventually peeled off and left Lohmen be. Though he had no idea why they had backed off, was grateful for the reprieve.
Probably this standard travel gear.
Pushing his horse as hard as she’d go, he quickly made his way to the town inn and set up shop for the night. As he settled down to sleep, he couldn't shake the feeling that the ice goblins had sensed something about him.
A few nights later, as Lohmen journeyed north along the coast, he suddenly found himself in the midst of a blizzard. The snow was coming down so thickly that he could barely see a few feet in front of him. He pulled his cloak tighter around his body and hunched down in his saddle, trying to keep warm.
He continued on his journey, painting the banners of the towns he passed through and gathering information for the Commissioners. As he travelled, he encountered more dangers from inclement weather to impassable lands. He managed to find ways around these obstacles, and took greater care in his nightly shelters. This was one of the most northern stretches of land in the entire world, and towns and inns were few and far between. But the painter persisted.
On a particularly cold night, Lohmen came across a tribe of kind nomadic travellers who offered him shelter and food for the night. They flew no Banner, but took great interest in his book. They didn’t speak the same tongue, but they found ways to communicate by pointing at various items and each taking a turn saying what it was in their language. In the morning, he thanked them for the hospitality and left them with a sketch of the intrepid travellers braving the elements of the north shore.
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After a month of hard slogging west, Lohmen finally beared south and after a week, the landscape and the weather changed for the better. He made it to the realm of Nelngas on the western seaboard which flew a blue and red Banner adorned with a Mammoth, a Whale and Gauntlets. In the small, but larger than he’d seen in months, town he found the Blubber & Tusk tavern and ordered a bowl of hearty Great Soup. It was considerably fishier tasting than he might have preferred but he finished it promptly and then settled in for the first warm night he’d had in a long time.
***
Lohmen flipped open his cartography book and checked his notes. He was in the realm of Susret which was the second to last realm he’d pass through before bearing back east toward Kinney. A man at the Red Helm Keep in Op-at-Rop had said the ranch would be about five miles outside of town. He was to take the third right down a narrower path, past a small blood-fir forest heading up-country. He noted the directions and thanked the man as he left the tavern.
The path was as described and Lohmen put his book away, knowing he’d happen upon the crumbling stone gates of Rowan Caratous’ house in a mile or so. He crested a small ridge and saw the ranch-house perched on a hill of it’s own in the distance with a long meandering lane running from the crumbling gates to the house.
Even from here, Lohmen could tell the place had fallen into disrepair. There was a hole in the room on the eastern side of the building, and blocks had fallen from its facade into the over-growth surrounding his home. The stone gates were, at one time, decorative marking the entrance to an esteemed place. Esteemed as far as horsetraders could achieve anyway, they weren’t revered, or feared, like mages or royalty. Where the stone entrance walls ended, they turned into cedar rail fencing that ran for miles in oppisite directions. Lohmen assumed the turned at some point and encircled the property. Outside the fence, the forest was thick, inside was a ragged mess of weeds small trees and shrubs.
Closer to the house though, the terrain was better maintained. Lohmen could only see the front of the place as he trotted, but for a couple hundred yards on either side of the lane, the turf was closer cut. Maybe he had sheep in another pasture. But the ground was…lumpy. Not rugged and rolling like much of the ground on this continent, but uniform bumps all in rows and grasses that were in various stages of regrowth.
.
Lohmen pondered the strange grounds as he approached the house and dismounted, walking his horse the final fifty feet. At about thirty feet, he heard a door slam open at the house and a man, wearing only his trousers and boots step out. He had grey hair, a black beard streaked broadly with grey too and his nose bent slightly to the left. He’d have looked old to Lohmen, if not for the impeccable physique he had on display. A good head shorter than Lohemn, but he was lean, just a little on the too lean side, but chiselled as if sculpted from marble. His arms and shoulders were cascading ripples of lean muscle. The man squinted a bit and took Lohmen, his horse and his belongings into consideration.
“Lohmen Dreisler. I figured you’d come. Didn’t think it would take you this long, but…better late than never.” He turned from Lohmen and started back inside the house. Lohmen stood dumbfounded at the base of his porch. The horseman looked back at him and sighed.
“Come on in. If you want to kill me, you can do so after we talk.. I’d imagine you have some questions first.”