Yulassetar Crade

Overview

Yulassetar Crade, often called "Yul", is an extramuros wilderness guide and cousin of Ganelial Crade. Based around the city of Norslof, he is experienced at leading trips into mountains and deep-cold country. After assisting Fraa Orolo with winter gear in town, he encounters the traveling company and decides to accompany them north, quickly becoming a key fixer and field cook alongside Cord, Sammann, and Fraa Erasmas. Later in Old Mahsht he helps the group navigate a violent street incident and subsequent departure.

Appearance and Traits

• A big, bearded man who arrives in a mud-splattered fetch with a wooden cabin on its back; he can deploy a fold-out counter and stove to serve hot drinks and meals.
• Calm, sociable storyteller with a guide's habit of making new companions feel at ease; shifts readily from anecdotes to practical problem-solving.
• Prefers robust, understandable praxis: builds and tunes his own burners from scavenged parts and favors gear that can be repaired in the field.
• Curious about geology and deep time; keeps fossils and books at home and describes deducing the great age of the world from years spent as a river guide watching canyon walls.

Roles and Actions

• Outfits travelers for the far north: sources affordable suitsacks and shows how to modify or replace gear with inexpensive items from non-specialty shops; offers to supply gaps from his own stock.
• Solves camp logistics: cooks large meals from a portable kitchen, advises on fuel and melting snow for water, and teaches practical driving and winter-travel habits.
• Vehicle preparation: helps fit studded winter tires and swap lubricants and coolants to low-temperature formulations; consolidates supplies into his cabin-fetch for the push toward the sledge port.
• Prior contact with Orolo: according to his cousin's account, hosted Orolo overnight in the back of his fetch, advised him on clothing, obtained a used suitsack, and helped him catch a northbound drummon.
• Makes last-minute substitutions on the sledge train near the border: digs out his fetch during a snowstorm and supplies an old, inconspicuous military backpack for Erasmas, topping it up with food, spare clothes, and strapping on snowshoes as contingency gear.
• Old Mahsht incident: when a mob corners Erasmas in the streets of Mahsht, Yul and Ganelial arrive with a three-wheeler and fetches to extract him. Yul uses a long firearm to disable a would-be sniper and deter further attack, then discards the weapon into the river at Sammann's urging. He invites avout from the Ringing Vale to evacuate with the group and helps pack them onto vehicles for a rapid exit.
• Field medicine: at a riverside picnic ground after the escape, Yul leads improvised first aid using a homebuilt kit: mixing sterile saline, flushing and dressing lacerations, and coordinating gluing, taping, and stitching with available materials until Erasmas is stabilized.
• De-escalation and logistics: helps calm the situation when constables arrive and, after Erasmas declines to press charges, works with the police captain to clear the group to leave. Yul also coordinates with Magister Sark to arrange a coach for the Valers to travel south.

Relationships

• Ganelial Crade: first cousin; the two share similar tastes in vehicles and weapons despite religious differences. Ganelial calls Yul an apostate from their ark.
• Cord: the two quickly fall into an easy partnership marked by sharp, playful banter and close collaboration on mechanical tasks; they become a couple during preparations to head north.
• Fraa Erasmas and Sammann: traveling companions who rely on Yul's practical knowledge; Yul ferries Erasmas on errands through city traffic and adapts to Sammann's route research.
• Fraa Orolo: previously assisted Orolo with cold-weather outfitting and onward transport from Norslof.

Current Status

After the street violence in Old Mahsht and the group's extraction, Yul departs by fetch heading south with Cord and Sammann while the Ringing Vale avout board a Kelx coach. He remains with the company, handling vehicles, first aid, and pragmatic problem-solving during their onward travel.