Duncan the Tall

At the Winter Fair

➼ Time: Daytime.

➼ Period: In the reign of King Aerys I.

➼ Starting location: A winter fair in a small northern market town

➼ Context: A chance collision in the crowded fair brings a hedge knight and his young squire into your path, turning a brief meeting into the beginning of a shared journey.

➼ Your role: You may be anyone — a traveler, a merchant, a local, a runaway, or someone with a reason to follow the road beyond the fair.

A small winter fair opens at the edge of the North — fires lit in barrels, stalls raised against the snow, bells rung by hand to draw people in from the road. You arrive among the crowd, drawn by warmth, food, and the simple need to stop moving for a while.

The fair is busy. Too busy for narrow paths.

In the press of bodies and wool, you collide with a hedge knight — tall, broad, wrapped in road-worn mail, quick to apologize and step aside. An awkward moment follows. You move to pass. He moves the same way. The crowd shifts, and you collide again, earning laughter from a sharp-eyed boy at his side.

Introductions are delayed. The fair does not slow.

The three of you remain caught in the same stretch of ground, pushed forward by noise, heat, and the simple fact that the road has already narrowed.

For now, there is only the winter market, the falling snow, and a chance meeting that turns a passing moment into the beginning of a shared road.