A 19 year old Dunlendling Scout named Claybeg Macdahoul and here is his story...

"the curse, the curse...having grown up with the curse I was never wary of it, I put no faith in it, but others did, and that was probably worse for me than having all the warts and boils a hag could conjure up." "eitlinn, the clanns medicine woman (a hag if not a witch I reckon) never liked my mother, Dahoul. Their conflict goes beyond the recollection of the men of my clann, but it started out as the normal kind of jealousy that women, especially unattractive ones like eitlinn feel for their better looking clannswomen. But theher dislike turned into hatred for my mother, when my mother married my father Slieve, or so I'm told" "my father was at Meehel's side (he was Eitlinn's husband) when Meehel fell to the Canockcan clann in battle, that was two years before my birth, a year and a year and a half before my parents marriage, and Eitlinn grew to hate both of them." "she finally snapped the day her son died. Her son Criostach died after suffering 6 weeks of the fever and for all her herbs and medicines Eitlinn could not save her only son. When she came from her tatched cottage and saw my mother holding me, born that day in her arms, with my mother looking on, she screamed and screamed. My father drew his sword to her, when he realised she was screaming a curse. She shouted "may your son lead many men to hell and die far from home", then with all her energy spent she collapsed."

"That curse it followed me all my life. As soon as I was old enough I was sent to the mountain tops to herd goats and to hunt, spending half my year away from my clann. I would leave my home in the early spring returning every week with my quarry only to be sent back to the peaks, I would be allowed to return in the autumn but only at that time after the orc raids, for they would attack once a year as regular as the seasons, take our livestock and furs and leave. It was only when they were sure that the orcs had made their summer raids that they would trusted the cursed son to stay for the winter."

"During those winter nights I would memorise the ancient tales of my clann, stories of brave deeds and terrifying monsters to keep me company in the summer months. I was not trained as a warrior like my cousins were but I could hunt and track better than any in the village...and I could climb. I would amaze those of my clann scaling sheer cliffs and they would but it down to some unexplained side effect of my curse."

"Then the year that I turned 18 the orcs attacked early in the summer, I returned to the village glad that i could savour some of the summer with my family but saddened for seeing the aftermath of a ferocious orc attack, worse than I had seen or the clann elders had remebered. Then diaster struck, as the nights became colder and autumn turned to winter, the orcs attacked again, in force. Dozens of men died, I had a lucky encounter and managed to scewer one large orc with my hunting spear, while he had his back turned. Afterwards what was left of my clann acknowledged a warriors skill that I did not possess. But the clann was weak and was facing in to a hard winter with low supplies."

"In my heart of hearts I believed the clann could survive the winter, but i knew that an orc raid as vicious again in the summer would wipe us out. And so I gathered some young men of my village, with the voice of a story teller I inspired them of tales of a great crusade,and I sent them out. I sent them out under the guise of hunting parties searching for winter supplies, but really they were on a secret mission meet with our sometime enemies, the neighbouring clanns. They called them to a feast in our village while I hunted the finest game for our guests."

"when the elders and the warriors of the neighbouring clanns arrived, my clannsmen were shocked but curious. I brought them to our prepared feast, and sitting together the clanns of the highlands for the first time in memory, i told them of my vision. I told them that we must unite and crusade against the orc tribes that raveged our villages every year. i told them we must strike in the dead of winter while they were fat on our goats and preparing for months of hibernation like sleep. I worked up such a speech I thought the men would set out with their swords that night...and the women too.

"Then my clannsmen spoke against me, they talked of the folly of youth, of the starvation of the winter and the recklessness of my actions. But this did not sway the other clanns. We were for the first time in decades a united warband with a united cause and not a defeated people, and thenI heard the whispers. The whispering still haunts my dreams, my clannsmen and clannswomen, the old and the superstitious talking of curses, of leading many men to hell and of dying far from home, and at that my guests left one by one they all left the feast until there was me and six others.... and in frustration I got my six followers and left"

"I couldn't go back to them, its not just the frustration anymore, its embaressment. When I left I was full of big words, talk of my battles and my victories, my cunning and my guile, but that was all said in anger, anger and frustration but after only two weeks on the trail of the Orc tribe I realised I was no warrior, the years spent in the mountain tops had made be a tracker and a hunter but not a fighter.

I said if the clans of the hilltops would not fight against the orcs, I'd find someone who would. And even though we followed the nomadic orc tribe on their path, I always knew it was the dwarves that I sought as allies. We followed them orcs all through the winter months, myself and the others. Six young men came with me, in spite of the curse, three from my own clan and three from others. And they were warriors, not as hardy as the older clannsmen, but unlike me they had faced orcs in battle before, they had trained for battle.

We camped high in the mountains always just behind the line of sight of the orc camps wherever it moved...it slowed us, having to search in four different direction every time the tribe went on the move but it kept us safe.

One of my companions from the Clann Awhane knew the area and knew where the orcs where headed when January came around. It is where his clansmen went every autumn to trade food for weopons and equipment, in the region was a valley with a small Dwarf settlement. I figured out the orcs pattern, they'd attack our clans in the summer and take food supplies from us and in the Spring they'd attack the dwarves for weaponary and gold.

While the orcs where preparing for a seige, we circled their camp and treked as far as the dwarf mines, me and my green companions where excited, our great battle was at hand. The dwarves met us with curiousity and a little suspision in general my people and the dwarves kept our distance apart from when trading. I told them of the imminent orc attack and said that we had come to joint them in battle. Some of them sniggered, but their leader said to me that skinny Dunlendlings were of no use to him and told us to go back to our homes. I was crushed, I thought the redness of our faces where going to make the dwarves squint.

The dwarf chief did thank us, telling that the attack was much earlier than expected and that they must hurry to prepare for it. He gave us three strong short swords and a fine vest of leather armour, they were made to be traded to some of the humans down stream for meat and wool but he appreciated our visit and our warning.

My companions then decided to return to their clanns, I was in no mood to try to inspire them or disuade them. The bade me farewell and good luck, I told them to take the short swords for they would need them come summer time, I took the leather vest and after a fine supper of mountain elk in their company I set out to the North West and left the hills of my people behind me."

"After parting with my fellow Dunlendlings following our encounter with the dwarves, I set out North West. In the villages I visited I was an audience to some remarkable tales in taverns. I heard of strange men slender and elegant that live even longer than dwarves, I heard of creatures more terrifying than those of the oldest legends of my clann. And so I travelled further, further from my homeland hoping to see some of these wonders of the world unknown to me with my own eyes.

I travelled for almost a year. I traded pelts and meats from my hunts for passage on merchants carts, and when I came to villages I would swop the stories of my clann and those that I picked up on my journey for fresh ones around hearth fires of inns.

Then I made the mistake of travelling into to wilderness lands unknown without company. I slleping one night in a thick forest, when I was woken by the howls of wolves. I spent that night clenching on to the high branches of a tree when a arge pack prowled around the trunk. Exhausted from my sleepless night I hurried to find shelter or company before night would fall again. I picked up the trail of a party between 8 and 12 men I guessed and followed it until I came to a large partially ruined castle.

I crept up spear in hand towards the walls, passing some large scavenger birds devouring several corpses of both man and orc. I doubled my caution. Seeing movement past a ruined window I realised that the castle was not abandoned. And still in darkness whether orc or man was victorious, I steadied my shaking hands and advanced slowing......."

Played by Myk