Hall Description

There is a new hall for the RedTarn. It is large and three stories tall. It is constructed of wood with stone covering it. There is a wide, shallowly sloping stairway of stone leading from the ground to the second floor on the southern end of the Hall. All three levels are stone floored with stone brought down from the mountains. The roof of the third floor is slate laid over wood.

The first floor houses the crews residing at RedTarn's Landfall. It is broken up into large barracks-style rooms that house the crewmen. Each of the rooms sleeps twenty crewmen in furs along the walls. There is a small walkway down the center of each room. There are two long hallways that run the length of the floor to doorways on the north and south side of the building. The barracks rooms open onto these hallways. Twin sets of stairs lead from the south end of the building up to the second floor.

There are two smaller 'wings' to the first floor that angle off alongside the stairs leading to the second floor, one to the southwest, the other to the southeast. The 'wing' to the southwest contains a large steam bath/bathing room for the crews use. The one angled to the southeast contains the privy for the crews use. Several times a day water is brought into this chamber from the lake and 'flushed' with the waste being carried down to the far side of the inlet through a system of pipes. An extravagance to be sure, but one well worth it.

The second floor has a railed balcony leading all the way around it. Torches set in sconces built into the stairway light the way up the stairs. More torches light the balcony. At the top of the stairs is a pair of double doors. These doors open directly onto the new hall. The actual hall itself is 30 feet wide and around 150 feet long. On each side of the hall are doorways. These doorways open onto the quarters for the high officers of the Jarl and the Free Women living and guests staying at the Landfall. All told there are twenty-four chambers, twelve on each side of the hall.

Each of these chambers has room for furs or a small bed/couch, as well as a small table and space to put chests or a wardrobe to hold clothes and other belongings. Each room has at least one window made in the northern fashion from the dried afterbirth of a bosk fetus. The four corner rooms have two windows each. There are furs on the floor of these rooms to insulate from the cold of the stone and tapestries hanging on the walls of the guest rooms. These tapestries show scenes of hunting in Torvaldsland as well as scenes of Serpents sailing and marauding. The rooms of those living at the Landfall are decorated as they want.

At the southernmost end of the hall are two rooms used for bathing. Each contains three baths and the means to heat the water. The water is brought up by the bondmaids or thralls and taken away again when finished. The floors in this room are not covered with furs as the heat from the fires used to heat the water keeps the stones warm.

The actual hall is oriented in much the same as the old longhouse was. An inverted U shape of tables greets those entering the hall through the southern doorway. At the southern, open, end of the U are several rows of tables. These are the tables for the Serpent's crews to sit at and eat. Benches are used at these tables since they are just for the 'lower ranked' crewmen. The other tables, which form the 'legs' of the U, are set with a mixture of benches and chairs for the seating of the RedTarn's crew and visitors. On each of the tables are bowls of salt. These are used to differentiate rank. Scattered at the various tables are sheathed swords and spears of the crewmen. Thick pillars run the sides of the hall and certain areas in the center to provide support for the third floor.

The High Table is set at the northern end of the hall and forms the 'base' of the U. The High Seat is set between two pillars of carved kalana wood. The pillars are carved with the RedTarn and assorted other runes for luck. On the table in front of the High Seat is a carved tarn painted red. There are no benches at the High Table, only chairs along both sides of the table. Anyone who is seated at the High Table are automatically considered "Above the Salts" due to the distinction of being seated with the Jarl.

Behind the High Seat on the wall is a 3' iron-bound Northern shield, painted half-black, half-white with the RedTarn rampant across the center. Under the shield hangs a short bow, the short bow of the infamous "Demoness of the Tahari". It was sent to Perrin by his Salt Sister, Tasya, and hangs in the place of honor in his Hall. Beside the shield, upright, hangs a Kurii axe, the handle carved with the likeness of a sleen. Also on the wall, on sturdy hooks, hangs a 6' tall, blubber hammer with an 80 pound head. This weapon used to belong to Snorri, but has been added to Perrin's collection of weapons. A 34" longsword, a gift from Nantan Lupan, engraved with the runes for 'RedTarn' on the blade with a handle made of a snow larl's fang carved with Serpentships at sail hangs below Tasya's bow.

In the center of the Hall is a large raised stone 'platform' with a ring of stones outlining the top edge of it. This is used for the fire to heat the hall and for cooking large amounts of food over. Above the fire platform is a metal 'chimney' that diverts the smoke from the fire to several small metal pipes that lead to air holes set in the top of the walls just below the roof beams. Around the base of the platform are the spits and hooks and things for cooking on the large fire. This is generally where the crew's meals are prepared. Lamps on chains are used for lighting the hall.

At the back of the hall is a large doorway that leads to the kitchen area. In the kitchen area is a small cool room that must be restocked with meat, cheese and drinks every couple of days. There is also a dry storage room that likewise must be refilled frequently. Like the old hall there is a doorway out the western side of the kitchen leading to the 'balcony' and to a narrow stairway up the back of the hall to make stocking and chores easier. There are also several large windows within the kitchen area. There are ovens in the kitchen area for bread baking and other cooking as well as stoned in fire pits for cooking over. Cabinets for the plates and bowls and other vessels as well as for food and things of that nature are scattered around the kitchen.

Behind a tapestry in the main hall is a narrow stairway that leads up to the Jarl's chambers. At the stop of the stairs is a thick doorway that bolts from the inside. There are windows in the northern fashion in every wall except the southern, as well as a narrow doorway (that also bolts from the inside) in the eastern wall leading to a narrow walkway around the third floor. Tapestries decorate the walls of this room and rugs insulate the floor instead of the usual furs. At the southern end of the chamber is another doorway, this one leading to a bathing chamber complete with tub and a set up for heating stones for a steam bath. This room is lit with lamps and contains a pair of small tables and assorted chests and closets as well as the sleeping furnishings. A large raised hearth in the western wall provides extra heat when the braziers aren't enough and has a zig zag chimney leading to a small hole in the western wall to exit the smoke.

Holding Description

Out on Thassa the entrance to the inlet leading into RedTarns Landfall is small and easily missed. The inlet is just wide enough for a ship to negotiate it with a few ah-ils on each side of the oars, between 33 and 35 feet wide total. On each side of the inlet are tall cliffs that leave the inlet in shade in all but the ahns around midday. There is always a lookout at the top of the cliffs with a signal horn to watch for, and warn of, approaching ships. The lookouts are sheltered with small camoflaged dugouts and cannot be seen from Thassa. The inlet leads a curving path through the cliffs to the 'lake'.

This lake is narrow and faced to the south with cliffs that slope sharply down as they circle around to the east and north. The lake has barely enough room for two ships to be afloat in it at the same time and the docks are in the center of the northern side of the 'lake' to take advantage of this. The docks are made of thick logs sunk upright into the mud of the lake giving support to the ramp of stones built painstakingly with rough hewn timbers overlaid across the top fastened to the logs. The dock is approximately 10' wide and extends about 25' out into the lake

From the dock there is a stretch of sloping land about 2 ah-rals/20 ah-ils (10 yards) long with a trail leading to a double-door gate in a 7' tall fence made of sharpened logs. From there the trail leads around 8 ah-rals/80 ah-ils (40 yards) through the holding to the Longhouse. Trails worn down over time lead to the various gardens for suls and onions and the like that are grown to be eaten at the Holding. There are always two Guards on duty outside of the gate and two inside. Two or three pairs of guards are always wandering the fenceline on patrol. One guard is usually on duty just inside of the two doorways into the longhouse, standing between the door and the hanging fur. All of the guards near the gate and patrolling the wall have signal horns to warn of guests and danger.

Alongside the trail up to the longhouse stands a black marble monolith. This Monument is six feet tall and three feet wide at the base, narrowing gradually to two feet wide at the top. Carved into each of the four sides of the Monument is the Rune Hagalaz, two upright lines joined by a line sloping downward from the left line to the right line at about the midway point, almost like a cross between an H and an N. Set into the top of this Monument is a golden lamp, or rather the remains of a golden lamp, cut in half. Engraved into the lamp, is the Rune Gebo, which looks like a large X. Half of this Rune remains on each half of the lamp which appears to have been cloven with a longsword.

To the west of the old longhouse built by Perrin's Father is the new hall for the RedTarn. {Description above}

Beside the longhouse, on the west side of the kitchen, is the ice shed, stone walls and roofed with flat stones, used for storing food and drinks and ice from the mountains. To the northwest of the kitchen is the building used for storage of items not needing to be kept cold, Sa-Tarna, furs and wool, dried or salted meats, things of that nature. This building is also constructed of stone outside with a roof of flat stones. To the north of the longhouse is the shed that houses the holding's smithy. On a trail to the east of the holding is the area where the bees are kept and the honey fermented into mead. Little if any of the Landfall's mead is sold.

To the east of the longhouse is the shed for the cattle. Here they are put during the long cold winter months. In an adjoining building is where the fodder for the bosk and verr are kept. They are rarely kept here during the spring, summer or fall, only during the dangerous cold of winter are they gathered together and put into this shed. Sleen are penned in a smaller building attached to the cattle shed and are used for herding the bosk and verr as well as the bondmaids and for defense of the Landfall.

Beyond the Hall, on almost all sides in the heights, are the Sa-Tarna fields used to feed the Landfall. There are five fields in total. These are of various sizes and shapes as the fields are placed where they can be due to the stony soil of Torvaldsland.

Some distance from the Landfall proper there are three more Sa Tarna fields. Because of the distance from the Landfall, there is a small shieling, or shed, in the center of the three fields to house the workers for the field. Also at a distance from the Landfall are the fields that the bosk and verr from the Landfall graze in. Near these fields are shielings that house the people watching the herds as well as serve as a dairy for milking the bosk and verr and a shed for shearing the verr.

Beside the docks are the Boatsheds. Here the Serpents are stored for the winter. The boatshed is also where the ship is pulled for repairs. The shed to the left of the gates holds the RedTarn. This is a stone shed that opens on the east side. The Boatshed is oriented east-west and is within the palisade of the Holding. The eastern side of the Boatshed is where the two large doors that close the shed are and this area is accessible from the gate which is wide enough for the serpent to be moved through. Here the spare sails and tools for building and repairing the ship are kept. Wood, when it is available, is kept in a shed near this one. To the right of the gates are three more sheds, two smaller and one larger than the one that holds the RedTarn. These sheds are made of wood, shored up with stone. One of the two smaller ones holds Waverider (a 20 bench Serpent gifted to Perrin by StormRaider of Jah) and the other holds supplies and trade goods. The larger holds the Reaper (a 60 bench Serpent captained by Marius). Stigandi (High Stepper), a knarr (Northern version of a round ship with a 7 man crew) captained by Thorgeir of Skjern is also based here and ties up at the dock when it's here.

The crews of the Black Axe (a 20 bench Serpent captained by Gellir) and the NightSong (a 20 bench Serpent captained by Hrut) have gone a bit south to settle farms in the district. Gellir has bought the farm Anabrekka and Hrut is settling the farm Urdir. Both settled the farms with their crews as Perrin's Thing-men

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