Grettir was now the King of Telemark. That was the easy bit. Now he had to rule.
Telemark
Telemark Town had an impregnable castle, a large sheltered deep water harbour and a sprawl of dwellings spread out along a rocky peninsular. There was a substantial hinterland of farms and small villages sprawling inland until pasturage merged with wilderness. The farms mostly produced cereal crops and livestock to feed the town. Some also bred decent horses.
The legion had not reached the town, but it had cut a swathe of destruction through the farm lands. Grettir had initiated some emergency defences for the town in the immediate wake of the battle. The main part of this was to get Paradoxides to sink a line of chasms across the isthmus. A turf wall and palisade was being thrown up along this but Grettir had plans to replace it in stone. This would necessarily limit the size of the town but its population was somewhat depleted by war and many had chosen to leave, either fleeing the legion or because they did not could not bear the thought of bending the knee to him.
Connections to the Outside World
The main trade road between Chittagong and the Sand Lands. It passed through Sequarl and some two or three hundred miles after through Telemark. It was not an old Imperial road, but it was a well established route that many caravans travelled in both directions every year and had done for many centuries. The initial stretch as it left Chittagong ran through Sequarl and there Grettir had improved it with a dwarf-made surface and regular mile-forts and fortified inns and caravanserai. Grettir wanted to do the same here. Indeed he would dearly love to do the same all along the trade route. However, that was for the future. It would take much gold and many men to make three hundred miles of road safe from orcs and bandits and keep it so.
Telemark town was an excellent deep water harbour close to the easiest route from Chittagong to Kos and the Southern Seas. However, it was seldom used by traders who viewed it with some justification as a nest of pirates. Grettir intended to change this. The process had begun with the Chittagong ships sent by the King that had supplied the town during the war with the legion. Slowly but surely trade was improving with the outside world.
For his own personal use, it took him about half a day to fly to Sequarl on Sadat. If there was need for faster connection he could break a rune stick to summon his house magician, Kojar, who could teleport and he could beg occasional favours from friends such as Paradoxides and Ubaron. Kolgrim was now based in Lydius.
Governance
Grettir ruled with the close support of Ella and with the counsel. Since its first creation Grettir had added a fellow called Smuda to its
August 695 – dissatisfied people leave – return of Smuda
Secret passages under Telemark castle
Yu-Chi – Taras
October 695 harvest good
November
December
Sets up protection racket Trade geld
Yule feasting
From memory, there’s a recon trip to see what the Empire is up to in the West;
696
February Sadat Thvithi
22 licences
April vikings go
Black Bjorn May
Eurylaea arrives May – 2 masted schooner – 8 arbaest points, reinforced bow and boarding ramps
June-July 696 Grettir’s punitive raid on Merion; 43 longships; sacked – over-exuberance – sorted out 25 dead (Hearne heavily defended)
Jan 2017
Grettir’s contact with the Southern Rangers and a trip to Hobbiton with Odo Bracegirdle; Halfling’s Fair
an exploration of an ancient hidden temple of Anubis.
All this culminates with Grettir being warned off his campaign against the Legion by Osiris and an assurance that Anubis has been brought into line. Apart from the first episode, which may have involved Paradoxides, these are mostly solo trips run in Anglesey, but I think they are important to the overall narrative. July 696
G-27a
OE Date: July 695
Characters: Grettir NPCs: Deygulf, Cirgan and a Cast of Thousands
Real World: June 2012; Where: Maisemore