The tale in brief
Before the isles there was the Moor, one high country of heather and barrows, kept by the Wardens. Beneath it lay a salt that shone, and the market town of Glimwich grew rich selling it, though the Wardens had sworn it never would be sold. In the old tongue, osken means “the one who sleeps beneath”, and the salt was the sleeper’s sleep.
Seven lifetimes ago the Barrow Warden went down alone and laid himself across the sleeper as a seal. The seal held, and in one night the Long Tide drowned the Moor. Only its high places stood above the water: Kestrel Isle, Gannet Head, the crag of Warhorn, the reed banks of Brackwater and the ford of Thornmouth. Glimwich lies at the bottom of the Strait, and its bells still ring at low water.
Now the fog has not lifted, and the newcomers have begun going down to the barrows, where the Barrow Warden’s blade still lies in his tomb.
Read it all
The whole Chronicle, in five chapters with the sayings of the isles, opens on the home page: Read the whole Chronicle.
Where the tale meets the game
- The Barrow Warden’s tomb lies at the far end of the Wormwarren, under the middle barrow of the north-east graveyard of Kestrelby. Its quest opens at level 6.
- The orcs’ staked camp stands north-west of Kestrelby, and their fort is Warhorn, across the Strait.
- The Hooded Orc trades only with those who know the right words.
- Warden Hale gives the hunting orders in the Wardens’ Hall, and the Seer waits upstairs.