[ERF] Hale No-Name

On February 9th, of the 1288th year (following the OSC system, for anyone who bothered to document such an irrelevant event), an infant was found among the wreckage of a caravan near a settlement in a forested area of western(-ish) Ventannen. The damage was consistent of both a bandit raid, and a crab infestation. Fortunately, there were no signs of either in the immediate area of discovery. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly clear what actually caused the destruction.

But that is all frivolous detail. There was a baby making a racket for the scouts to find- so keep following that path.

The settlement, although officially unnamed, is often referred to as ‘Hump,’ ‘The Hole,’ and ‘Home.’ Most of the affectionate names made an attempt at referring to the fact that it was located in an isolated cavern system within a large hill. Ironic, considering that the place was founded by Set-bound spacers several generations before. Maybe it felt like some homey ol’ space rock.

The town, unknown as it may be, still carried a population of just under 200 total bodies. Roughly twenty of them being non-human (and most of those being redworlders and easily lost in the crowd), including a handful of sorassan living alongside them subsisting almost purely off of well-practiced charades and invented sign-language.

Luckily, this also lends towards a more polite and social demeanor (if obviously cautious) upbringing regarding other intelligent life (assuming the lack of crustaceous limbs and appetite). With only two other orphans in town growing up, both of similar age, the found child was raised in a small community with an even closer-knit group of friends and siblings. It was all about cooperation to survive the hell that is moderately-tolerable-tempered-Set that was hammered into their heads from essentially birth. While one of his “brothers” went on to become a smith for the community- apprenticing under the nut that created the Hunny Gun 9- the now named Hale and foster sibling became hunters for their home and ‘family.’ Anywhere else, that’s a respectable and decently important role in society.

In the Middle of Nowhere, Set- that’s bordering heroic in terms of skill and bravery (read: stupidity) needed to leave the relative safety of the caverns.

This, together with his friendly personality, led to being one of the more liked young men in the homestead- and even to several wandering merchants. He was not afraid to take on the Big Game, although he never went out looking for it. The fifteen foot Septacine Carnivorous Boar is not a beast to be taken lightly- especially not when you only have a hunting set of bow and arrows. While the literal ton of bacon it results in is a decent haul, no pig has the right to have that many teeth. Or eyes.

At some point during his youth, there came to them an artificial lifeform- okay, it was some sort of bot. It was kind of hard to call it self-aware, really, but it learned well enough, and both Hale and it seemed to take a liking to one another. As such, he became the defacto caretaker of its needs and responsibility. While he couldn’t visit the sorassan section deeper in the caverns any more, he now had a borderline constant companion to help him in his tasks, allowing for bigger game to be hunted and dragged home. It also gave him an excuse to trade and learn more from travellers about subjects that may help care for his mechanical friend.

It was, in fact, during one of these hunting trips (to test out a leg repair and make sure it was working properly), that Set decided “Alright, your turn.”