| “ | We been up and down every speck o’ the Far Country and the Near Country and plenty o’ country don’t got no names. | ” |
— Dab Sweet to Shy South
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Dab Sweet is a famed frontiersman and guide in the Far Country, though the man seems less of a legend in person. Sweet is a skilled fighter and tracker.
Appearance and Personality[]
Sweet is an old man of about fifty years of age, with a shock of grey hair and a deep rough voice. He wears a fur coat so big it near drowns him, and a hat with a couple of greasy feathers in the band. He used to be proud of his fame, but now they have grown to be tall tales of a man he never was, who succeeds at feats he would never dare even attempting.
History[]
Sweet has been wandering the Far Country, since there was nothing there but wild spaces and beasts and Ghosts. He is reputed to be the first civilised person to lay eyes on the Black Mountains. Over time his reputation has grown uncontrollably; one story tells how he killed that great red bear up at the head of the Sokwaya with no more than his hands ... really it was a spear he’d killed it with, and it had been old, slow, and not that big.
He has had a "partnership" with an old Ghost woman named Crying Rock for twenty years, guiding travelling Fellowships and prospectors. In secret, he occasionally uses an astrolabe to help him navigate; he considers that a man needed a trick or two to keep pace with his legend.
Red Country[]
Sweet and Crying Rock are in a tavern in the town of Averstock. After witnessing what the big nine-fingered Northman does to the three kidnappers, he catches up with Lamb, Shy South, and Leef. He offers them a position in Abram Majud’s Fellowship that he is paid to guide to Crease. They figure there’s more safety in numbers across the Ghost-ridden and dangerous plains, so they join forces for the moment.
Along the way, Sweet tells tales of Ghost war-bands that have massacred whole Fellowship of prospectors and taken their ears. In secret, Dab Sweet makes a deal with Sangeed’s tribe to sell out the Fellowship, for half the money. He urges them to show themselves in fighting style, riding round and shouting, and the Fellowship will pay them off. It’s clear that this isn’t the first time Sweet has made such a deal.
The Ghost war-band raid turns violent, and the Fellowship is sorely pressed, before driving away the attackers, despite losses. During truce talks Sweet negotiates with Sangeed through his translator Locway. Sangeed eventually agrees a price less than half his original demand, in money and cattle. Then, Lamb slowly stands, saying “I’ve a better offer”. He kills three of the Ghosts, then chops off Sangeed’s head, leaving only Locway alive to take a message back to the war-band. The next day the Ghosts are gone.
In Crease, Dab Sweet is given credit for killing Sangeed against his will, to add to his legendary reputation. Sweet leads Lamb and Shy to The Mayor of Crease. The Mayor agrees to help Lamb and Shy find the children, if Lamb fights to the death in the ring with Papa Ring's champion, Glama Golden; Sweet realised that Lamb is really the Bloody-Nine when he first saw him in Averstock.
Shy and Lamb prepare to go into the mountains after Pit and Ro, with Nicomo Cosca and his mercenaries. Sweet offers to guide them, and leads them to Ashranc, thanks to Crying Rocks knowledge of the region. Eventually, they rescue the children, and Cosca steals the Dragon People’s treasure; though he refuses to give Sweet his share.
On the way back to Crease, Lamb decides to go back and rescue Savian in Beacon, who Cosca claims is the rebel leader Conthus. Shy and Crying Rock convince Sweet to go back too. Sweet stampedes the horses through Beacon, allowing Shy and Temple to steal the wagon with all the gold in.
In the end, Sweet guides a new Fellowship back to the Near Country, including Shy, Lamb and the children. Spillion Sworbreck makes a deal with him to write the absolutely honest story of the taming and settlement of the Far Country.
| “ | Which makes me wonder … have you heard of the time I killed a great red bear with naught but these two hands. | ” |
— Dab Sweet to Spillion Sworbreck
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A Little Hatred[]
Collem Sibalt owns a battered copy of The Life of Dab Sweet by Marin Glanhorm, the original biography that Sworbreck bemoaned as poor quality and full of fantasies.