Karath Sweetvoice

Karath Sweetvoice of the Fire Bull is a merchant and devotee of Issaries the Guide . He knows many songs and stories from his travels . He knows Tarsh and Heortland . He knows traders in Tarsh and Heortland. Karath is fit and tough from his travels. He leads a mule and an apprentice . Kothor and Barnthir are his bodyguards. Terenil and Methlam are his servants. Karath obtained the Holding Sack on the path of Issaries' First Trading Trip . He has evaded many attempts to intimidate and influence him. He wants the Lunars out of Sartar as Etyries merchants hurt his trading. Karath supports his parents .

Karath is of the Astings bloodline and used to live with his parents in Southeim.

During a Sacred Time, Karath helped rescue Hefta the Mouse from a Lunar vampire hero-quester, and so enabled completion of the Odaylan Ritual of Rebirth.

Karath met Varalda and started wooing her during the tribal moot. Also, during the moot he acted as a juror in arguing a legal case before The Sambari Tribe where Heler Odmastsson of the Icy Wind was shown to have committed a cowardly attack on Tadlith Mastakestsson of the Fire Bull.

Karath participated in a successful cattle raid, against Bornholm of the Enstalos tribe, with Leff Jorlik's-son and Brin Ring-gold. Karath ensured that the Fire Bull chief, Harstal Fire bull, and the Sambari King, Vamastal Grey Skin each received a cow from the raid.

Karath led the rescue of Olaf Sixfinger (now Olaf Fourfinger) by convincing him that he was not wooing the beautiful Inora but the Troll Hag, Norag. Karlina provoked a fight with trolls but was stunningly effective in fighting them - running on the snow walls of an ice-cave to appear where she was not expected. While searching for Olaf, Karath was frozen by troll spirits and survived with the help of Brin Ring-gold and by calling upon all of his inner reserves. He was notably insulting towards Norag.

Varalda's father, Harmast Whitebeard of the Heafodings bloodline of the Greyfox clan, and mother, Jenas, invited Karath to a feast to celebrate the birth of Varalda's sister Cena's fourth child, a girl. Harmast Whitebeard asked Karath to aid him enforce the results of a legal case against the Wulfings bloodline. Karath asked Harmast Ortossison and Jonrik the Foreigner to accompany him. Along with Varalda's brothers, they managed to scare off the Wulfings from the disputed high pasture in the Sambari Pass without resorting to the sword.

Some refugees from the massacre of the Dundealos tribe fled into the mountains near the Fire Bull tula. Karath unsuccessfully petitioned on their behalf to let them join the clan.

During Sacred Time, Karath convinced the clan of his worth as a Herald of their strength then, with Jonrik but against Harmast Ortossison, convinced the clan to accept refugees from the massacre of the Dundealos into the clan and finally took part in the successful defense against an invasion by the Fire Tribe.

Karath, Harmast and Jonrik convinced the clan to allow a census of the Fire Bull clan and wait to take vengeance at a better time. Karath, suggested that the sheep be hidden from, but the cattle declared to, the Lunar party, which was led by a Dara Happan.

Tonalang, one of the Dundealos refugees that joined the Fire Bull, is a Elmali and master horse trainer. Branbrig, of the Icy Wind, with his horse Prince of Sartar, challenged Tonalang and his best horse, Wind Rider to a horse fight at Roundstone. At Roundstone, Karath met with Varalda and bought an Esrolian broach that she liked. When the horse fight started, Windrider was winning when Branbrig struck him, which led to a riot between the Icy Wind and Fire Bull while the other clans watched. Karlina beat an Icy Wind weponthane with a sausage, Jonrik took a sword from Venharl, weaponthane of the Icy Wind, and Karath loudly accused the Icy Wind clan of behaving like Vadrus and shamed many of them into stopping fighting. However, one of the Icy Wind clansmen was killed by a thrown stone. Some weeks later, Icy Wind raiders killed Saronil, a Fire Bull herder and the Fire Bull Ancestors demanded blood vengeance. Also, Jonrik asked that Karath, in the case of Jonrik's death, return some items to Fionna Bransdottir on his behalf.

Karlina led a raid against the Icy Wind and took Karath, Harmast, some relatives of Saronil and other some other young men who wanted to prove themselves. Karlina led the relatives of Saronil to Heler the Coward's stead where she fought impressively. Two relatives of Heler were killed and his entire cattle herd, including his magical cow were taken back to Fire Bull lands. After the raid, Karath successfully petioned Harstal Fire-bull to be made TradeThane of the Fire Bull, a position that had been vacant for some time.

Karath married Varalda - her bloodline and clan had required that her husband be a Thane. At the marriage feast, there was Esrolian pottery and wine, Caladraland spices and perfumes, glass goblets from God Forgot and fine linen shirts from Heortland, all obtained through Karath's Contacts in Heortland. Shortly afterwards, the Dundealos refugees approached Karath to tell him that they did not have enough food for winter and asked for his help. After some debate, it was agreed that Karath, Harmast and Jonrik would attempt 'Mahome Warms the Herd', a secret of the Fire Bull. The group gained support from the Astings bloodline (which is cut off from the rest of the clan during winter), managed to cross the barrier and (barely) convince Uralda to join the clan and build some (barely) adequate cow-byres. The group very successfully fought the representatives of Himile (Jonrick killed two of the four Hollri) and then convinced Mahome to join the clan too. When the group returned, there was enough food to feed the Bury of Southeim, including the Dundealos, through to Sea Season.

After the Fire Bull lost the legal case against the Icy Wind clan, Karath chose exile to avoid bringing further trouble on the Fire Bull clan. Varalda chose to follow him, as did Herenath, Kothor, Barnthir, Terenil and Methlam. With Harstal (formerly chief of the Fire Bull) and Varalda, Karath made the arrangements to travel, while Karlina, Harmast and Jonrick planned to kill the Lunars that had caused the trouble in the Sambari. Jonrick was killed when the ambush failed.

The exiles formed a band called Jonrick's Avengers. Word came to the band that other Lunar haters would like to meet them and they set off. On the way they came across a group of cottars attempting to lynch a trickster. Harstal took Oranda's oath and she joined the band. The band came across a troop of Tarshite soldiers at the scene of a battle. The soldiers attacked immediately. Karlina made an amazing leap and managed to disable their captain while the rest of the band killed several other soldiers. There was one Heortling survivor of the previous battle, the contact that the band was meant to meet. He was healed of his wounds and passed on his message. The band went to the Clearwine (Colymar clan) where they found that the man they were due to meet was dead.

(Karath missed several sessions).

After leaving Clearwine with the sacred klanth in care, Jonricks Avengers set off north to meet the Tarsh Exiles. In Rungate, Nevanda took pity on Winneth (the child that follows Oranda) and joined the group. Oranda was growing increasingly nervous as the band approached the Dragonnewt wilds, She stole much of the food and sold it for alcohol. As the band passed along the southern edge of the wilds, she drunk herself into a stupor until she was discovered to have stolen from the band. That night, she swallowed the klanth and ran off into the dark. The band tracked her and passed through a Dragonnewt road. A band of Dragonnewts appeared and Karath negotiated with them. They gave Karath a gift with some strange words. It turned out to be a tongue and the band guessed that it might be Oranda's. In return the Dragonnewts were gifted with a stone picked from the road.

The band entered a forest where Karlina attempted to kill a large stag. The stag put up a great fight and Karlina fell. The party let the stag go and the spirit of the forest chose that moment to reveal herself. She told us of the fear and pain she felt from the eastern edge of her forest. Harmast gave a ritual offer of aid to the 'Green Woman'. The band found that some charcoal burners had started to cut the trees and burn them. Karath convinced their leader that the charcoal burners should make some accommodation with the spirit of the forest and helped them come to an agreement. The spirit gifted the party and then revealed the 'wounded warrior' she had mentioned earlier. This turned out to be Oranda hiding within a glamour. The party beat and threatened Oranda and finally poisoned her to make her regurgitate the klanth.

The band continued north and, as they ran out of food, came across a poor stead. The Utmanni had occupied a ruined stead two years beforehand and were feuding with some Mallardings (of the strange race the Durulz, also known as ducks). As the Utmanni had offered hospitality 'as good as kin', the band felt bound to aid them when one of the men was found dead.

(Karath missed several sessions).

Karath and his entourage (plus Harstal and his entourage) were captured and enslaved while travelling through the Bush Range. Initially Karath thought it was bandits but then was told by other captives that it was actually the local tribal king, Tarkil, who was under the influence of Salevra the Alluring, a foreigner. The captives were put to work on building an open air temple surrounding a ploughed field. It became obvious to Karath that a human sacrifice ritual was being prepared and he started looking for support from the other captives in subverting it. Karath was beaten for obstructing one of the tasks he was given. After a few days of hard labour, the captives were taken to a feast where the women were forced to prepare the food and serve it. The men sat down at the feast and were ritually addressed as Sinodal. Tarkil sat at the head of the table, was also addressed as Sinodal and was ritually seduced by Salevra. Another scantily-clad foreign woman attempted to seduce Karath and but he resisted and continued his attempts to subvert the ritual.

The next morning Salevra announced the Hon-Eel ritual of human sacrifice to grow maize. To his surprise, Tarkil was the first to be sent into the arena to die. 9 men had entered the arena when Karath was pulled from his cage. As he entered the arena, Karath Shouted that he would show them the clean Heortling death and its triumph over their foul foreign rituals and succeeded in Opening a Doorway to Havan Vor. One of the warriors in the arena attempted to kill him but Karath drove him off with an axe (possibly the warrior was already unmanned by the terrible magics unleashed by Salevra and Karath). Karath, with the help of Jonrick's Avengers and some Maran priestesses (who unleashed an earthquake), managed to defeat Salevra. She escaped before Karath could rip her power from her.

A band of entertainers arrived in Iristhold and gave a show and it seemed that Oranda left with them. Word arrived that a village north of Iristhold had been destroyed and Jonrik's avengers were asked to investigate. The village was found to have been flattened by large footed monsters. Large tracks led away and, at the point where the tracks disappeared, Karath found a discarded magical statue of what might have been a dinosaur. Karath performed a ritual to track where the previous owner had gone and the party travelled north towards the Falling Ruins. The party met with a band of Yarandros Chargers led by Dastrandros Markalorson but under the orders of a minor Lunar noble (and major idiot). Karlina challenged the Lunar to a dinosaur hunt. The Avengers decided to divert from the ritual path to aid Karlina. Not only did the band kill several Velociraptors, they also invited a live young brontosaurus to go back with them to the challenge site. After completing the successful challenge, the Avengers continued north. At the Falling Ruins, they found several groups of entertainers and the Avengers quickly narrowed down the potential wrong-doers to a pair of young twin girls. It was agreed to separate the twins and Nevanda took oneof them with her. The twins were discovered to have a new unused magical statue of the dinosaur and Nevanda managed to swap this for the used one Karath found earlier. On the night before the entertainers split up, each band of entertainers gave a rendition of their own favourite show and took part in a passion play of the Lightbringer's Quest. Karath volunteered to take the role of Issaries and used his darkness spirit to increase the gloom in the illusion of the Age of Darkness. Karath asked Enstalos, who acted as master of ceremonies, to follow Karath.

Keyword: Heortling
Keyword: Merchant
Keyword: Issaries
Keyword: Godi