Frozen Frontier Prequel: Village People

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==Recap==
Exiles from Mahtava, Jaromir and is Victoria fled, connected by their distaste for Mathavan society. They call each other husband and wife, but are not married under Marthas authority. Knowing that his tattoos were magically embroiled, Jaromir hoped to find information about it near the magically inclined elves of Sylvas. 
===Year 1503===
Unfortunately the elves are not a welcoming people, so instead they settled down in a cottage by a village at the border between Mistrya and Sylvas near Halfhill called Stumptown, Jaromir practicing as a local witch doctor man. Their daughter Cat, short for Cathlin, is 7 or 8, precocious and independent. At this time, Jaromir started to be able to call upon his arcane talents, he hadn't mastered it yet though, despite him being a quick learner. At this point, some 6 months after their arrival to Stumptown, the episode sets in, Jaromir being a 'level 0 wizard'.
One day a girl of 15 years knocks on the cottage shakenly. She is afraid she might be pregnant, so Jaromir casts his bones, but the reading is absolute gibberish. Nevertheless, he tells her she is indeed pregnant and that she should talk about it with her parents, as he could create an abortion potion for her. He refuses to take payment for his council and instead asks to get a pie next time he comes into town.
A few weeks later, Jaromir is disturbed by the outcry of his daughter from outside their hut. His wife is fending of some Brownies, Jaromir knows they are harmless and greets them instead with a little happy jig. A woodcutter comes up to the house and the brownies scurry off, the woodcutter commenting on them and asking about his brother, who didn't come back from the woods last night. Jaromir casts his bones, receives a very bad omen and tells the woodcutter about the bad outlook on his brother's fate. After dropping some wood as payment, the woodcutter grimly says he won't be needing Jaromirs help for searching and he will ask regular people for help instead, which Jaromir only responds to with a bow.
A few days later, while in town Jaromir hears the brother was indeed found dead in a river with some elven arrows embedded in his chest. Jaromir heads to the woodcutter's hut to give his condolences and stumbles on the wake. He gets some evil eyes for his improper dressing and the woodcutter asks whether the brownies killed his brother.
===1504===
Another few months later Jaromir is approaching his first anniversary of living in Stumptown and it is a hot early summer evening, when Cat cries out excitedly and runs out the door to catch some lightning bugs. Jaromir fetches some jars to help her with the catching. They take the jar, ask Victoria to join them and walk to a tree in the forest on which many lightning bugs are sitting and create a wondrous sight and have a family bonding moment.
Maybe a week later Jaromir is disturbed by an angry knocking on his door, and he finds the parents of the pregnant girl from half a year earlier. They ask, what he did to her, to which Jaromir responds that he only did a free-of-charge omen reading for her. The husband is very angry despite his wife trying to calm him down, claiming his daughter misscarried and bore a twisted, scaly creature. Jaromir asks if he can see the deadborn child, which the man angrily declines before threatening him with a "One day..." and storming off.
Jaromir is disturbed by the news of the weird creature, sets down some wards near his hut and meditates on the issue into the night. After some time, while checking on his wards outside, Jaromir realizes there seems to be a dawn, despite actual dawn being still hours away amd the horizon being dark as it is supposed to be. Heading back inside Jaromir finds it to be very dark and the fireflies his daughter collected into Jars to all be dead. His bone dice return an omen promising no immediate danger, and the artificial dawn ends after some hours before actual dawn comes. Jaromir sleeps through half the day. He decides to head into the village, which he finds to be very quiet, the people huddling around in huddles talking among each other, turning and staring at him when they see him approach. Uncomfortably, Jaromir goes to one of the groups and asks them about the strange dawn of last night, but they turn away to whisper among themselves, shutting him out.
Disturbed, Jaromir heads to the house of a couple he helped out with the pox some time ago, who tell him the light was only around his house and ask if it wasn't him who caused it, which he denies. Upon returning to his hut he warns his wife about the ill will the village seems to bear. For a few days after, noone comes to visit him.
One day though, the demonically miscarrying girl comes up to the house, claiming her parents are coughing up blood. Jaromir follows her to the village, his wife coming along and finds it to be barren as previously and coffins lined up in front of some houses and in the streets. The girl's parents are feverish and delirious. Jaromir starts treating them when the village drunk stumbles in, falling to the ground and crying out for help. He also suffers from a bad fever. People gather in front of the house to watch and soon bring their own sick relatives over for treatment, despite Jaromir telling them he can only help so many. He makes a little speech that he will tend to them when he finds the time. All 5 people under Jaromirs care manage to pull through, but it took 4 daysat which point the 'plague' seems to be gone from the village. He walks though the village trying to help the ones who survived, though the ones who lost relatives to his inability to help give him a cold reception, whispering things like "he only cherry picked the ones he wanted to survive, he could have helped more people if he wanted to."
Coming home Jaromir finds a window of his hut shattered due to someone throwing a rock through it and takes Cat for some fishing.
Back home while gutting the fish, his wife tells him with a concerned voice about approaching torch light, which turns out to be shed by a big group of villagers. They tell them it cannot be a coincidence the house shone before the plague hit, Jaromir met the brownies before the woodcutter was found dead and that he saw the girl that bore a demon child. There are shouts of "traitor", "witch" and the kind and people throw torches in the direction of the house, upon which Jaromir says he will leave them alone with his family an there is no need for violence. They understand that he will move away from the village though, which Jaromir doesn't understand. In the morning he finds animal blood on his door.
Jaromir thinks where he can move with his family, as the omen promised savety but not absence of terror. In the afternoon a rider comes up from the south saying he hails from Halfhill, which has also been hit by the plague now. The ruler is sick and is in need of medical attention, and Jaromir heads out to help, leaving his family behind and taking the riders horse. Arriving at Halfhill, Jaromir attempts to teach the medical people of Halfhill how to treat the plague, which he fails miserably, but over the course of three days is able to heal the lord, who then hands him a sack containing 100 GP for his services and offers him a house in Halfhill. 
Jaromir buys a donkey for the journey back home, but only finds a burned ruin instead of his cottage. He sprints to the remains of his house to search for his family and finds their dead remains. Jaromir collapses and stares in silence, and only after a long time starts crying. He takes out his black twisted dagger and heads toward the village, covered in ash. Arriving at the village he realizes the folly of him trying to kill a whole village openly, so instead crouches at the edge of the forrest. He observes the woodcutter, who was leading the torch march onto his house, coming home from the forest with his sons in tow. Jaromir waits til the dark settles goes to the door of the house and slides it open. Inside he finds the family asleep and proceeds to tie up the woodcutter, who awakes to the knife at his throat and the thread "If you scream your kids will die slowly". Jaromir gags him and slit the first child's throat in front of the eyes of the disabled father. The other kid wakes of from the muffled screams of the father and runs out the door. Jaromir is going for his dagger, but in his murderous rage his hands form some weird gestures and a pulse of light appears from his chest, streaking the running child through the door, making it topple down in the dirt. He turns to the woodcutter, says "this is what you wrought" and plunges the twisted dagger into his chest. Without taking the dagger, he disappears into the woods.
Category:Frozen Frontier Episodes