The heat of early summer beats down upon the crowds as they streamed into the stone fortress that lay atop the cliffs at the edge of the Palan river. It is said that Summer was once a season of passions, where the hard labors of man were forged into the fruits of their endeavors, whether those be the crops of the farmer, or the campaigns of the warlord. However most of those gathering into the stronghold are unaware of such things. For them, Summer is but 30 years old, few of them are scarcely old enough to have known Summers other than these, and even for those elders among them, it is still considered a gift compared to the unending cold they suffered under Mulcarn's reign. However the True Bannor know better than most that these Summers are not the Summers of their youth. For just as Winter was Mulcarn's season, Summer was Bhall's, and it has changed since their return to Erebus. In the brief few decades since their escape from Hell, the heat of Summer still stirs the blood, but with frustration and aggression, rather than the passion felt during the Age of Magic. All too often the harvests have been stymied by drought. But worst of all are the Orcs. Perhaps it is the priesthood of Bhall that drives them to raid during her sacred season, or perhaps the fallen Goddess herself boils their corrupted blood to go forth and shed blood in her name, but regardless of the reasons, the Bannor have come to expect the aggression of the Orcs during the Summers.

Perhaps this is the reason behind the interest they display for what should all rights be a local celebration, the Festival of Grudges Ended, or as most refer to it, the Tournament of Torpala. For the past 20 years, the Hound Kin of the Southern hills and the Boar Kin of the Northern Forest have gathered with their finest warriors to compete against one another, primarily for glory, as well as the gifts given to the winners by the leaders of the two kins. This year, the High Chieftain of the Boar Kin has offered two beautifully carved ivory statuettes depicting Einherjar warriors, the honored dead of Junil, which he claims were made from the tusks of the final Woolly Mammoth living in Erebus since the end of the Age of Ice. Meanwhile, the Duke of the Hound Kin has presented two interlocking chains of many fine silver and gold links, brought together by a deep sapphire gemstone. All agree that the value of such gifts is beyond measurement, though privately most appraisers would place their combined value at at least 200 Gold Pieces.

However even aside from the value of the prizes themselves, the other incentive for competition in the Tournament has arrived at the Gates of Torpala. The Bannor have traditionally sent a small military delegation to oversee the tournament and recruit promising young warriors into their ranks. While recruitment has rarely been a major area of concern for the Bannor against the scourge of the Orcs, many Hound and Boar kin soldiers consider it a mark of prestige to be personally scouted by the Bannor at the competition. This year, the delegation is led by Captain Revius, an old dog of a commander among the True Bannor, his brutal looking battle-axe strapped behind him as he approaches the gate mounted atop a destrier. Flanking him are two other figures. The first, a Confessor of the church of Junil by his vestments, rides with a fiery expression on his youthful aquiline features. The second, dressed in the armor of a Paladin of Junil, a heraldic shield marking him as a member of the Kin of the Fox, and a face that shows him to be nearly as young as the Confessor, yet with a decidedly more easy-going expression. The rest of the delegation follows close behind them on foot, primarily made up of Bannor soldiers and officers, as well as several more Acolytes of the Order.

The rest of those entering into the gates have stepped aside for the procession, mostly being made up of locals from the nearby fishing, herding and hunting villages come for the festivities and the market, as well as a few merchants from further afield, most notably several Peddlers from Tentario-Onis, the largest city of the Bannor apart from the capital, a port city of the Hare Kin, as well as an elf carrying with him a small Lyre, a sister of Sirona in her pure white habit wheeling a small cart of herbs and regents, and finally a bespectacled man in a brown robe apparently arguing with the gate-keeper about his pack, oblivious to the oncoming procession.


((Go ahead and place your characters within the scene.))