A Mother's Duty: Session 0
Beginnings
Setara lived with her parents in a hamlet on the Ragged Coast, called Stiltsfield. Her mother died, when Setara was still a young girl. Together with her father, Setara carried on maintaining and creating new nets for the fishermen.
As a young woman, Setara met with Kaivan, a traveling warrior, passing through the hamlet. Before she knew, that she got pregnant, the stranger had already left to continue his journey.
It was her father, that helped her raise Jaggar.
Kaivan returned on the evening of Jaggar's 5th birthday, taking the boy with him, against his family's will. Setara wanted to get her child back, but without an idea, where Kaivan took the boy, she soon had to return to her home, mourning the loss of her son.
She promised to herself, one day, she would find her son.
Release
The years passed.
Endless lengths of nets passed through Setara's hands.
Her father became older, until she had to care for him and the "family business" was now seen as hers.
Setara never got over the loss of her child and so never married. The only thing left of value for her, was her father. But as his time came and Setara sat besides her father's deathbed, she found new purpose.
The old man told her about an old family heirloom, hidden beneath a floorboard.
🗣
Quinn: "I release you from your ties to this place...from any responsibilities...this house should not be where you live the rest of your life alone...Take what you find beneath the floor under my bed...take it to the Isle of Pines...find Morgan...she will teach you, what you need...to find...Jaggar..."
After she had cared for her father's funeral rites, Setara left the hamlet by night. Packed with supplies and Zakaria's Vengeance, an old sword that belongs to her family for generations, she travelled to Razorbill Harbour.
As dawn broke, Setara arrived in Razorbill Harbour and her eyes wandered the horizon. Even though the island itself is barely visible from Razorbill Harbour, the towering smoke of the coke kilns was a clear indicator of the island's location. The sun crept slowly higher until Setara could find a boat willing to provide her passage to Greywatch, the only settlement on the Isle of Pines.
The Swordmaster
"Quinn's daughter?" the woman asked with a raspy voice. Squinting, her eyes inspected Setara's face. "You look like your mother..." she murmured before emptying her mug and putting it down on the table.
The two women left the tavern, where Setara had found Morgan. The swordmaster explained Greywatch was a quiet place and she trusted most of the villagers, but if her gut was right about what Setara carried around on her back, they should better talk at Morgan's home.
At Morgan's home, a small hut at the top of a cliffside, Setara unpacked the sword from the old rug it was wrapped in. The old woman's eyes widened at the sight of the dark red leather scabbard. After getting permission from Setara, she unsheathed the black blade and inspected the sword.
"So we actually meet up again, Zakaria..." Morgan said calmly to the blade and swung it carefully and skilled around her. As her father didn't share much more information about who Morgan was and how he met her, Setara asks the old woman about her past.
🗣 Morgan's ties
Morgan: "I met your father many years ago, when you were still a baby, feeding from your mother's breast. It was this very sword," she points at Zakaria's Vengeance, "that guided me to Stiltsfield."
The asking expression on Setara's face causes Morgan to elaborate more.
Morgan: "Not only is your sword forged from black iron, which in itself makes it already an exceptional blade, it's also a kinblade. A blade imbued with the spirit of an ancestor, handed down from generation to generation. In Zakaria's case, one of your ancestors."
Setara: "My father never mentioned we had more family. Are you my...great grand aunt or something?" she asks.
Morgan: "Am I looking that old?" she asks chuckling. "No, I'm not. Although I'm not related to her, Zakaria temporarily bonded with me."Zakaria's Vengeance was stolen from Setara's family before even her father was born. Somehow, the kinblade ended up in the posession of a priest, whose life Morgan saved. To show his gratitude, he gave Morgan the black iron blade.
Morgan: "Zakaria came to my dreams. Later, I started to hear her whispers...She never explained, why she choose to reveal to me, but she did. I swore an Iron Vow to bring her back in the hands of her descendants."
Setara: "An...Iron Vow? You're an Ironsworn?" Setara asks amazed.
Morgan: tilting her head from side to side "I was Ironsworn. I fulfilled all my Vows in the meantime and settled down."
Morgan agreed to teach Setara how to wield a blade and Zakaria's Vengeance in particular.
Training
🗣 The years pass and finally, Setara is able to defeat Morgan
Setara parries Morgan's strike, followed by a kick to her ankle. Morgan looses her balance and is sent to the ground by a good aimed shove. As she looks up satisfied, the tip of Setara's blade pushes slightly against her throat.
Setara: "You forfeit?" she asks, pushing the steel a bit firmer against Morgan's flesh, still expecting a counter of her mentor.
Morgan: "I forfeit." Morgan answers calmly.
Setara: "You never forfeit!"
Morgan: "Not against an apprentice." Morgan answers with an approving nod.
Setara blinks and slowly the understanding shows in her face.
Setara: "Thank you...for everything..."
Swearing on Iron
Setara had knewn, Morgan would train her until she was ready to embark on the journey to find her son. As she was ready in the eyes of her mentor, that meant, she soon had to leave.
On this night, the two women, as equals, raised their cups of mead in celebration. But it also meant, Morgan finally had to tell her former apprentice that she knew about Jaggar's whereabouts.
🗣 By the fire
Morgan: "Setara...As you have completed your training...there is something Inhave to tell you. I asked around the merchants and people I know in Razorbill Harbour about Jaggar. It seems he grew up, trained by Kaivan, to become a mighty warlord. He united several raider clans under his banner and accumulated a never before seen amount of influence and power. Settlements and Circles all over the Ironlands ultimately pay tribute to Jaggar." she tells with a firm voice, the former joy totally gone. "I knew you wouldn't waste any time to go and find him, as soon as I told you. But you weren't ready. Even now im not sure, if you are ready to face him. At least I know, I have done everything possible to prepare you as good as I can."
Setara looks thoughtful into her reflection on the shiny, black blade in her hands.
Morgan: "You don't have to do this. I teached you the weight of an Iron Vow...it will change your life forever. Don't think you're obliged to also walk the path of the Ironsworn, because I did."
Setara: "It's not a matter of obligation of any kind. But you're still wrong. I have to walk this path. Before coming here, I left my home and my life behind me. In the end, I started this path in the night I strapped Zakaria's Vengeance on my back."
Setara's face shows a determined expression as she kneels down on the ground and carefully places the tip of the Black Iron blade in front of her. With one hand on the handle and one on the blade, she speaks her Vow.
🩶 Vow
"I swear to find Jaggar and stop him from tormenting the Ironlanders anymore."
🩶 Background Vow
(Extreme)