Date / Time: March 19, noon<br/>Tagging: Gregor<br/><hr/>As Gregor and his small retinue made their way through the village, his trained eye picked up details of the buildings more than the people. The southern side of Kirborg they passed through consisted mostly of sturdy buildings, erected without all that much skill, but certainly built to last. Thick walls of rough-hewn stone dominated this part of the settlement, thick doors and small windows giving a hint that these houses might pre-date the palisade, where from a time when each house had to be its own small fortification.<br/><br/>The houses just beyond the east gate spoke a different language, half-timbered walls and thatched roofs that had perhaps only been re-thatched once or twice, instead of the thicker, more often renewed roofs of the older houses. What one tale those houses shared was one of people feeling secure: Even beyond the palisade, small garden plots and chicken coops  sat next to the houses and farms, with no sign anyone expected to be rushed by marauders and bandits any second. People kept their tools close at hand, looked up at the first sound of hoofbeats, but it appeared as if they felt secure.<br/><br/>The temple of Ehlonna did not look much different from the typical farm, and if not for the road forking off to the left, it might have been easy to miss, except for the hand-woven banner of a unicorn, white on green, that hung next to the door of a large building.<br/><br/>There were several people going about their business in the gardens and fields at the Ehlonna temple, and while they all offered at least a polite (if not quite friendly) "good day", they did congregate close to the crossroads as Gregor road by, paying him an even closer scrutiny than the villagers and guards around the main settlement.<br/><br/>Turning left at the temple, Gregor's party passed between forests on the left and right for maybe half a mile. The road was muddier here, the narrow cut through the woods mostly in shadow that had helped the moisture cling to the ground. On both sides the trees were still very much barren, but to the left, the west, the small patch of forest was filled with underbrush and mossy fallen logs and trees, very much a small jungle. To the right, the east, the underbrush was lighter, but the ground slightly rose away from the road, allowing small rivulets and trickles of water to run down to the path and muddy the dark, heavy earth that clung to the hooves of the horses and the booted feet of the groom.<br/><br/>Leaving the forest after half a mile, Gregor beheld a small wood-built farm to his left, while on his right hand the forest continued. The farm had to be part of his holdings – as had to be at least some of the forest.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/3e/KirborgKaalSurroundings01.jpg)<br/><br/>But the guardswoman had been right. He could see the actual manor from there. It was a little to the left of the road and up ahead. A large, two-story building, the roofs of some smaller buildings, something that looked like a large barn, all surrounded by a stockade. At first glance it struck him as pretty sturdy, but distinctly rustic. Rough-hewn stone, ivy creeping into crevasses, green moss clinging to gray stone.<br/><br/>Between Gregor and his new home now stood only a short stretch of road, a small grove of apple trees, still bare of more than tiny sprouts of green, and a field covered with weeds.<br/><br/>On that field a boy of maybe 12 or 13, clothed in drab, brown garments tended a small flock of goats and gave a shrill whistle the moment Gregor and his party emerged from the woods. Almost immediately there was some activity at the gate to the mansion compound, a gray-haired man and a larger, heavier-set man of black hair and beard taking position at the gate to receive the party of their new lord.