SIR DAVIN KELL
Lord of Hannsport
?? Half-Elf Fighter
As a young knight newly charged with the defense of a minor fortification, Sir Davin Kell marshalled the small force under his command and hunted down a local marauding bandit troop to their their forest lair. They refused to surrender, and when they were defeated, the surviving remnant were impaled to a man and left to rot in the sun.
When questioned later by his superiors concerning his conduct, the half-elven knight correctly replied that in refusing to surrender, his charge required no quarter be shown to his foes- he therefore executed the bandits. When questioned further as to his particular methods, as opposed to a summary execution, Sir Davin also correctly replied that his charge did not specify how the bandits should be dispatched. He further declared that his method ensured few others would be so foolish enough to take up the path of the lawless if they knew what fate awaited them.
All in all, it proved to be the beginning of a rather notorious career.
Some few years later, when he had risen through the ranks, Sir Davin was made lord of the most remote territory in the realm his superiors could find. Regularly subject to sea raids from savage northmen, the isolated coastal fishing village in the center of his new holding could no longer afford the tribute that kept the raiders at bay. Despite his well-earned reputation, Lord Davin's only charge was to secure the village from any further attacks. If he succeeded, they assured him, he would be well rewarded as befit a landed lord. If he instead failed, as his superiors assumed would be the case, then they would have rid themselves of an ambitious knight of dubious character. Lord Davin and his men-at-arms arrived shortly before winter and immediately set his new subjects to forced work in preparation.
When the raiders arrived in their longships the following spring to collect their tribute, they were met by the new lord and his retainers at the dock. The northmen demanded their due, and Lord Davin in turn demanded they remove their helmets, as protocol required. When they refused, he had their helmets nailed to their heads, and cast their bodies back into the sea from whence they came. Except for the group's leader— whose severed head, and its brutally fastened helm, were sent back to the viking chief as a warning to never return to the village.
The northmen did not heed the warning.
They stormed into the small settlement, burning as they went. Never noticing the eerily empty streets, they surged toward the wooden fort that had been hastily erected at the edge of the village, and poured into its confines. Before they realized their peril, they were sealed in from behind, and the heavily oiled timbers were set ablaze, burning the entire force alive. Those few that had not been entrapped were quickly captured and met the same fate as the forest bandits had years ago. Except for the chief—whom the knight flayed alive before drowning in the nearby sea.
The northmen did not return.
Upon securing his great victory over his foes, Lord Davin sent word enquiring as to his promised reward. Within the month she arrived. Genevieve of Graystone was a fair maid, wan and gentle of demeanor. As the youngest daughter of an inconsequential house, she was considered no great loss to her family. To Lord Davin, however, she became everything.
For despite his reputation as a harsh lord and merciless warrior, none questioned his devotion to his frail wife. Most believed it was her graceful touch that softened what would otherwise have been a very difficult lordship, and as the years passed, the people of the region came to love their lady. In her honor, several villagers planted a grove of hawthorn trees in the center of the community, and the lady visited the place often, planting flowers there each spring with the help of all the maids of the village. Lord Kell devoted himself to both his wife, and his endless campaigns against the encroaching goblinoids that began descending from the mountains once the barrier of the northmen had been removed. Lady Genevieve ruled Hannsport and the holding with fairness and grace in her lord’s absence, which was often enough for the villagers and surrounding farms to be quietly grateful.
Some years later, when Lady Genevieve was heavy with their first child and Lord Davin was in the field, commanding his men against an incursion of desperate bugbears, the nearly forgotten northmen at last took their revenge. Their worst killers stole into the stone keep under cover of darkness and murdered the household staff as they slept. When they finally came upon the defiant lady of the keep in her great hall, she cursed them in the ancient way.
Trembling before her rage and the fell and dire oaths she swore against them, they could barely bring themselves to slit her throat and leave her dying on the floor before fleeing in fear, taking nothing of value and leaving the lady Genevieve otherwise untouched and unviolated.
Retribution was terrible, and swift.
To this very day, few will speak of the days and months that followed, and even then only in hushed tones, for many atrocities were committed by the vengeful lord and his forces. When the slaughter had at last ceased, the northmen had been all but exterminated.
Now, more than twenty-five years have passed since that fateful time, and the elf-blooded knight is rarely seen. In the many years since, Hannsport has been governed by a charter granted by Lord Kell to the petitioning villagers, leaving the day-to-day drudgery of governance to a small village council and an appointed constable.
