12 Ambyrmont - To Mantru

 Broneslav awoke early. It was too cold not to now that his fire had died down to ash. Pulling his warmest clothes around him, he looked down into the crater of the volcano. The first obvious feature was a massive lake at its centre. Near its shore, smoke rose into the sky. This would be the settlement he had guessed was here. Then his eyes took in the island at the centre of the lake. Even from this high up, he could make out some details of the ruins carved into the cliff on the west side of the island. There, then, was his objective. Broneslav grunted with satisfaction. If he could avoid falling over his own feet on the way down, then he would be within an ace of achieving his goal.

Clambering down the mountainside kept him warm and occupied his whole attention, so it was only when he reach the bottom that he had time to look around more. Ahead of him there was a small village with a palisade around it.

The Village of Mantru (from X1 The Isle of Dread. (c) TSR, Inc.)

As Broneslav approached the stockade around the village heads popped up looking over it. Excited children ran out of the main gate, goggled in wonder at his shining armour and shouted questions at him, none of which made sense to Broneslav because they all shouted over the top of each other. The villagers clearly felt safe from him and were not hostile, so he waved to the children and smiled at them. A small delegation of adults awaited him at the gate. They were armed with spears and were more wary than the children.

Broneslav raised his empty hands to show his peaceful intent and stopped short of the gates.

"May I approach? I mean no harm?"

The adults in the gateway conferred briefly and gestured to him to come forward. The mandatory questioning then occurred in stilted Common. Broneslav found their accents hard to understand, but they too found his difficult. In the end, he was invited in and taken to the chief's hut, where he was introduced to Fano, the "talking chief", and Umlat, the village's priest. Both men were extremely old and infirm. Fano was badly scarred from a fight or accident and his left arm hung limply at his side. Umlat was simply ancient, having lived far beyond the normal lifespan of others in his tribe. Between the two was a stone statue of an old man, which was introduced to Broneslav as "the chief".

Fano interpreted "the chief's" wishes and questions while Umlat supplemented with questions of his own. In short order, Broneslav had been interrogated and found welcome. He was soon seated on the sandy beach by the lake edge with about fifty villagers enjoying a meal of baked fish and yam paste, and fruits, together with a yam beer, which Broneslav considered to be an acquired taste.

On top of this, he had been told that he would stay the night with one of the extended families that lived in the large huts, and had been given the opportunity to put his belongings in there. These huts were long and open inside with sleeping benches lining each side. The whole family lived in this single room with no walls or divisions for privacy. This felt weird to the young warrior, who was used to having his own sleeping cabinet.

Feeling very full and relaxed for the first time in a while, Broneslav conversed with those near him and found out more about the village and his surroundings. He repaid this information with tales of his adventures, which some of the adults looked sceptical about, but the children loved. After the meal, Fano and Umlat joined Broneslav once more.

"We have a problem and your stories tell us that you might be able to help solve it," began Fano, "There is a tribe of headhunters living on the island you can see in the lake. They have recently moved in and are creating trouble for us. They are more warlike than we are, but more importantly, we cannot set foot on that island because it is taboo to us. Our gods require that we stay away from it. Will you help us by driving them off?"

"Of course!" Broneslav's response was instant. "Tell me all you can about them, and I shall travel there in the morning to see what I can do."

The "talking chief" and the priest told Broneslav everything they could and promised to let him use a canoe to get to and from the island. They said that they would offer whatever other help they could, but that no one from the village could actually join him on the island.

"Not a problem," the youth replied with a confident grin, "I work better alone anyway."

He was satisfied with this. With the villagers' help, he could reach his objective and the information about the headhunters there was a useful warning. As he lay down to sleep in the hut, he wondered what else he might find there. Well, tomorrow he would know for certain.