Hold Under-Myre

 

As with many Holds the story of having to find a new home is not an isolated incident. For Hold Under-Myre their story starts with mass-destruction and the loss of many a Gnome.

The Under-Myre Hold was once situated under a pond in the back of a house that belonged to an old lady. The garden didn’t get looked after much and as such was overgrown for many many years. This meant that the Gnomes could venture out without any concern of Biggun intervention. They spent most of their time foraging in the local area for the essentials, and then their Scavengers would venture into her house and bring whatever else they needed back.

As with any story of an idyllic existence, there is always the chance that something could come along that would turn the world upside down. This was the case for the Gnomes of Under-Myre Hold.

It was very early Spring, but the air was still bitter, and alas for poor Mrs Brady she didn’t manage to make it through to the warmer weather. She had been coughing for a long time, as noted by some of the Scavengers on their forays into her kitchen. Mrs Brady didn’t have any next of kin and the house sat there for a few years slowly falling into disrepair.

Eventually Mrs Brady’s house was bought up by a developer who had also bought up a lot of the surrounding land, and a sign went up with colourful pictures of suburbia that would soon be coming to where the house currently stood. For the Gnomes they didn’t think that this would impact them. In fact, they went about their day oblivious to the impending doom that was steadily speeding their way with every piece of red tape that was being cut by the developers legal team.

One day there was a lot of rumbling and the earth started to shake. The Scouts were sent to find out more, but by the time they realised what was happening the digger was already upon the pond above the Gnomes heads.

The digger tore through the soil and bought the pond down into the heart of the Hold and everything was either dug up or washed away. For those that escaped the devastation they found refuge in the underside of a porta-cabin that had been placed on what was now the new site for Gamlin Gardens; The soon to be copy and paste home of more bigguns.

Hold Under-Myre soon settled into living within the building site, and they adapted to raiding the snacks and sandwiches of the workmen, or the cupboards of the site offices.

The Hold had been reduced to a small group, but over the time they began to grow again. By the time the houses were finished and the bigguns started to move in they had already found their new home for their hold and by the time the porta-cabin was removed they had already moved everyone and everything across and left no trace that they had ever been there.

Hold Wyrmscrew

It is unconventional for a Hold to be led by their Lore-master instead of by a Chief. Their reasons for this stems from when they lost their previous hold. Their Chief , Gabin Ironfoot, stood as the last line of defence against fearsome foe that had been plaguing their Hold for generations. Under the leadership of Chief Ironfoot a daring attack to try and stop the menace for good was made. The plan was thought to be flawless, but the true numbers of the enemy was underestimated.

Though a massive blow had been made Chief Ironfoot and the remaining Scavengers fled when they realised that they couldn’t win. They returned to their Hold and mere minutes after they had returned the retaliation from the fur covered monsters commenced. It was decided that the hold would flee through their escape tunnel and that the Chieftain and half of the remaining Scavengers would remain to bring the Hold down on top of the both of them and their would-be killers.

It was decided by Chief Ironfoot that their Lore-Master, Dalish Wyrmscrew, would lead the Hold away to a new safer home. With this the rest of the Hold left their Chieftain and the brave Scavengers to cover their escape.

In the aftermath of the exodus, it was decided by the remining Gnomes that Lore Master Wyrmscrew had done such a good job of finding them a new hold and keeping them out of harms way that he should be their new Chief. Dalish didn’t like the new title and said that he would continue to lead, but would remain the Lore Master, and it was with this that the Hold changed its name from Ironfoot to Wyrmscrew.

The Scavengers that were sent off with the Hold to protect their kin earned their title as protectors. Every year, at the festival of the fallen Chief, they are honoured by the Hold and the story of Ironfoots bad decision making and poor planning is retold to remind everyone how monumentally silly his idea was.