Campaign Log: A Doe Among Wolves
Hello everyone! I have done my duties as GM (hopefully to my players' satisfacion) and now the time has come for me to be a full-time player again. I'm looking forward to that.
The previous campaign was set in the world of Feidvang (mainly my creation, but players from both my groups have contributed). This is a TL 3-4 fantasy setting where the main culture bears strong resemblances to norse/viking culture, although Feidvang is more feudal than what was actually the case during Scandinavia's viking age. Strange phenomena were observed, and the seven goddesses tasked the PCs with investigating them. (Actually, each player chose one goddess to align with, and the chosen goddesses were naturally more central to the campaign.) The PCs discovered that the phenomena were caused by an alien race using dimension portals to research Feidvang and prepare to launch a full-scale invasion. By befriending powerful people from one of the dwarven kingdoms, the PCs got access to the military might and technology required to launch a counter-attack against the aliens. An explosion was set off, destroying the alien portal machine; one of the PCs bravely sacrificed himself so the rest of the PCs and the dwarven commandos could return to Feidvang before the portals vanished. The new campaign is set in the same world, at approximately the same time. We had our session 0.5 yesterday, where we put the last finishing touches on our characters as well as playing through the introduction of how we met. This campaign began in the city of Rødvik, which the PCs from the last campaign had visited, so naturally, a question was raised of whether our new characters had heard of the old party's exploits there. After consulting the calendar, we discovered that unfortunately, the old party hadn't arrived in Rødvik yet, so there were no exploits to be heard of. We'll have to see if we run into references from the old campaign later. That could be fun, but I expect we'll have a great time playing through the new campaign even without encountering people or stories from the old one. I intend to log the unfolding campaign here on the forum in my usual fashion, i.e. by describing people and places, events and encounters from my character's point of view. I'll also post a character sheet for my character, as well as short descriptions of the most important NPCs, although I may not update these after each session. I may also make short writeups of some core topics from the Feidvang world; this will often be things my character won't have much knowledge about, so I can't discuss them naturally in the narration, but which may help the reader immerse themselves in the story. Many names of people and places are in Norwegian. That's the language we speak at our gaming table, and it's close enough to the language spoken by the vikings a thousand years ago that it suits the campaign world (or at least the region where our campaign begins). I'll leave it for the foreign-speaking reader to hit up Google Translate or similar tools if they are curious about a name's meaning, although I may discuss some names if I can weave it into the story. The character creation requirements given by the GM were that we had to end our backstories in Rødvik as prisoners about to debark on a sea voyage to a penal colony and give reason for why we had been arrested and convicted, i.e. we had to come up with a sufficiently serious crime that our characters had been found guilty of committing. I'll tell you about mine when I present my backstory, and I'll hopefully learn about the others' during the course of our adventures. Warning: All members of our group are adults, and our games feature topics that some readers may find inappropriate or disturbing. I will use the literary technique called "fading to black" where necessary. Please be respectful in your comments. Explicit descriptions of sex/nudity are not allowed on this forum, and will be deleted. |
Dramatis Personae
The Party:
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Character Sheet
Personal Info
Name: Edelkint Missandra Lorelei Glintburg Race: Human Gender: Female Age: 15 Occupation: Street kid Point value Total points: 51 Unspent: 16 Primary Stats ST: 8 DX: 12 IQ: 10 HT: 10 SM: 0 Secondary Stats HP: 8 Will: 10 Per: 11 FP: 10 BS: 5.5 BM: 5 BL: 13 Advantages Ambidexterity Attractive Fit Signature Gear (medallion) Perks Fast Undraw Disadvantages Charitable (12) Enemies (Unknown, same power level, Hunter) Light Sleeper Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) Social Stigma (Minor) Quirks Doesn't like to break the law, at least not personally Low Alcohol Tolerance Timid Very possessive of medallion Wants to find Mom's killer and get payback Culture/Languages Familiarity with Viking culture Ardisk (Native/None) Vulontsisk (Broken/None) Skills Acrobatics 12 Area Knowledge (Rødvik) 10 Climbing 11 Gesture 10 Holdout 10 Observation 11 Savoir-Faire (High Society) 10 Scrounging 11 Shadowing 9 Sleight of Hand 10 Soldier 9 Stealth 12 Streetwise 10 Survival (Woodlands) 10 Swimming 10 Throwing Stuff! 12 Tracking 11 Urban Survival 10 Techniques Juggling Performance 15 |
Backstory
Backstory
My name is Edelkint Missandra Lorelei, but only my mother called me that, and only when I’d misbehaved. Everyone else knows me simply as Edel. My surname sounds a little like Blinkborg, but my mother has instructed me that a curse lies upon our name and danger would befall me if I ever spoke that name out loud. Nobody I know has more than two names, so I would feel pretentious if I were to claim four, and I’m not the kind of person that wants too much attention. I’m fifteen years old, and until recently, I lived in Rødvik, the capital of Ardaland and seat of the empress. Some say that Rødvik is the largest city in the whole world, with over two hundred thousand inhabitants. I’ve known no other place, and I can’t imagine what a forest looks like, or mountains, although I have heard stories. I have spent countless hours standing on the docks, looking out over the huge bay after which the city apparently was named. The water is blue, and sometimes green when the weather is right, but never red as the name would suggest. My friends have called me odd for pondering such things; to them, this is how it is, and why it is so is not important. Despite having had a bed to sleep in, at least most nights, I consider myself a street urchin. During the daylight hours, I used to run with the Grey Cat Crew, providing distractions for their shoplifters and pickpockets. At nightfall, I returned to the Perfumed Halls, waiting to see if my mother had an overnight client or if she was too strung-up on her drugs to be around. If my luck was in, I had a safe night in my mother’s embrace. If not, I went back out to find some Grey Cats to hole up with. When my mother wasn’t busy or high, she was the best mom in the world. All her attention was on me, then, to make sure I had clothes on my back and food in my belly. And she told the most wonderful stories, usually about our homeland, where we came from. My mother was an excellent storyteller, but as I grew older, I figured out that most of her tales were made out of whole cloth, and I believed several to be inspired by drug-induced visions. My mother might not always be dependable, but there was nothing wrong with her imagination. With my mother spending most of her earnings on drugs, we didn’t have much, but her stories allowed me to dream myself away to a better place. I never could decide if any of the fantastic places she described was actually where we came from, but if I were to bet, I would put my money on Vulontz. There was a kind of sadness that sometimes came over my mother when she mentioned that land. However, I have never heard anyone else mention the place, so either it is far away from Ardaland, or it existed only in my mother’s stories. Often, my mother’s stories were spurred on by me asking why something was the way it was. When I asked why our family name was cursed, she could have said simply, “We fled our homeland Vulontz because an evil wizard wants to kill us. If we say our true name, he will find us and call down lightning upon us.” When I asked why our eyes are purple unlike every other human I’ve seen, the short answer would be, “We have ice elf blood running through our veins,” but my mother always dreamed up elaborate answers that took minutes, if not hours, to narrate. Once, my mother gave me a gift, an intricately carved medallion depicting a stag rearing over a wolf. She threaded a leather cord through the medallion and made a necklace, telling me this medallion was a family heirloom. I doubted the veracity of that statement, for I had never seen it before. More likely, it was a gift from one of her customers, and she wanted me to have it before she sold it for drugs. I thought it looked very fine, but it couldn’t be worth much, or my mother would have taken it back the next time she got the cravings. I think I was about five or six when my mother decided I was too big to stuff into our closet when she couldn’t find a babysitter among the other working girls. She put me on the street and told me to come back when the sun went down. It was a scary experience, but I quickly found friends among the street kids. A boy named Arn took me under his wing. He was only a few years older than me, but he seemed to know everything about living on the streets. The Grey Cat Crew stole to survive, which I understood very well. I regularly went to sleep on an empty stomach. My mother had taught me that stealing was wrong, though, so I wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. The crew found a workaround for me, in that I could make a distraction while the others did the actual stealing. I decided that this had to be acceptable. I felt so bad for my friends! I would have preferred if we didn’t have to steal at all, but when the alternative was starvation, I convinced myself I could go along. At first, my distractions consisted of me running around, screaming and bumping into people, but Arn commented on my habit of tossing a pebble from hand to hand when I was bored and said that I should try to learn to juggle. If I got good at it, I could make a few coins by performing, and whether I got good or not, he thought it should make an excellent distraction. Over the years, I got pretty good, if I say so myself. Perhaps I have a talent for it, or maybe it was just all those hours of persistent practice. I was twelve when my mother died. I returned one evening to our room, only to find a black-clad man standing over her lifeless body. He must have heard me come in, for the man turned and clobbered me over the head with a heavy fist, knocking me out. When I woke, he was gone. My head hurt, and I couldn’t wake my mother, so I wept silently. The owner of the brothel didn’t take kindly to the disturbance of children crying. While I had been out cold, my mother’s killer had ransacked the room. I wasn’t sure I was still alive, when I woke up, with the blinding pain radiating from the side of my head. The strike had cracked my head open, but the bleeding had stopped by the time I woke up. The killer hadn’t thought that was enough, for he had stabbed me in the gut too. That wound had also stopped bleeding. How long had I been unconscious? And why hadn’t anyone come by and found me? I had enough street smarts to figure out that this had not been a business deal gone wrong. That man had come with evil intent. When I thought about it, I concluded that he must have come to kill my mother. Why, I did not know, but there could be no other explanation. We owned nothing of value, so the ransacking of the room had to be for show. He had done a thorough job of it, even turning out my pockets. My medallion was safely tucked away under my shirt, and the killer would probably have taken it, had he found it, for it looks like it could fetch a good price, particularly if the buyer could be convinced the brass was actually gold. I went out to find the Grey Cat Crew again, and Arn. I dared not stay, not even to see my mother buried. If she had been killed for something she had known, the killer could easily conclude that I knew it too. Some of the ladies at the Perfumed Halls might have taken me in, but they were liabilities now. I couldn’t let them know where I went, let alone ask them for help. |
Backstory
Arn convinced me it would be safest for me to stay with the crew. I had considered leaving town, but he pointed out that I knew nothing of the outside world, and since I wouldn’t stoop to stealing, I wouldn’t get far.
For most, membership in the Crew was for life, as short as that may be, but some retired when they found jobs, usually at the docks, where the boys became laborers or sailors, while the girls became prostitutes. Most who survived to adulthood continued a life of crime, though. Some left Rødvik altogether to seek fortune on their own, but most were accepted into the Honorables, who controlled the crime around the harbor district. I know the leaders of the Grey Cat Crew sometimes had dealings with the Honorables, but I’ve not been involved in that. If someone died, be it from hunger or cold, sickness or drowning, we all found out soon enough, and those who left voluntarily always said their goodbyes before leaving. Thus, it caused much talk and speculation when Arn disappeared without a trace. I was distraught with the sudden loss of my best friend, but life had to go on. I looked for Arn whenever I could, but my other friends needed me, and I couldn’t let them down. It was only a few months later that my life suddenly took another turn for the worse. A heist went wrong and we had to flee from the city watch. Turhild stubbed her toe against a cartwheel and would be caught if the coppers didn’t slow down, so I turned around and barreled into the pursuers, screaming madly at them. It didn’t take them long to subdue me, but those few precious seconds allowed Turhild to get away and hide. One of the coppers took me by the scruff of the neck and marched me back to the guardhouse, where I was thrown into a cell with three others. The sleeping man reeked of cheep booze and the other man nursed a broken arm. While they looked big and strong, I wasn’t afraid of them, or at least not too afraid. The drunkard would probably be released when he woke up and if the brawler tried anything, I’d hit him in the arm. It was the third person who terrified me. I recognized the woman from the Perfumed Halls, and I was scared out of my wit that she would recognize me as well. My worry was unnecessary, for the woman just stared blankly at me. Three years must have altered my features more than I had believed. If there was any emotion behind those glassy eyes, it was pity. A guard came and dragged me away almost before my racing heart had quieted down. The prostitute opened her mouth as if to protest, but she remained quiet. The guard deposited me in the captain’s office and left us alone. I heard a click behind me as the lock was turned in the door, and while the captain sat behind his desk, it suddenly felt like he was looming over me. “Well, well, what have we here? A thief?” The captain had a slight accent, a seemingly familiar tinge to his voice, but one I couldn’t place. Who was he? Had we met before? “What’s your name, little girl?” I may look younger than I actually am, and if I wasn’t so intimidated I would have taken offense at that moniker. As a street kid I saw this man as one of our sworn enemies, so I wanted to be as uncooperative as possible, but somehow, my mouth opened on its own and the words “Edel Blinkborg” escaped my lips. The captain sat there, calmly cleaning his nails with a dagger, but my brain was frozen with fear, my eyes fixed on the cold steel. “You’re quite the pretty one, aren’t you,” the captain said, now twirling the dagger absentmindedly while he scrutinized my face. “Are you just as pretty under your clothes? Take them off and show me.” I hesitated, but I knew there was no way I could escape, so when the dagger stopped twirling and the captain sat up straight, I peeled off my shirt and dropped my pants. “Underwear too, little girl,” the captain said, standing up and crossing the room. I closed my eyes prayed to Jevne for protection. I’ve never been very devout, but if there ever was a time to pray, it was now. “What’s this, then?” the captain asked, hooking his dagger under the cord around my neck. As he fished out the medallion from my breast band, Jevne answered my prayer. The captain’s dagger slipped, and his thumb was sliced open. The swearwords that poured from the captain’s mouth rivaled some of the best I’d heard on the streets. He hurled the dagger away and rushed back to his desk to find a handkerchief to wrap his wound. The goddess of justice had truly spooked the captain, and he stared me right in the eyes for a full minute while clutching his thumb. “What did you say your name was again?” he asked. “Edel Blinkborg,” I repeated, this time with a little confidence. “Are you sure about that, girl?” he pressed on. “Um, not entirely,” I replied, my confidence gone once again. The captain swore again, looking down. At his thumb, I imagined. I had once cut my own finger, and I still remembered the pain. Still staring at his thumb, the captain told me to put my clothes back on, and I happily obliged. I tucked my medallion back into its hiding place. When the captain’s pain faded, he looked up at me and declared, “You have been convicted of theft, and you are sentenced to penal transportation. A ship lies at the docks at this very moment. It will take you to a place where you will work off your debt to society, punishment for your crimes.” The captain made me stand in the corner while he handed out orders to his men. Then I was taken back to the cell. My former cellmates had been moved elsewhere while I was away. Basking in the luxury of having my own room, I didn’t wonder very much what had happened to them. In the privacy of my cell, I removed the leather cord from my medallion. Despite being a late bloomer, since receiving the medallion from my mother I have developed a small storage space under by breast band. Unless I am totally reckless, the medallion shouldn’t fall down even without the cord. And as I had just learned, the cord would only indicate that something was hidden. I couldn’t think why the captain hadn’t confiscated my medallion; he clearly thought it was stolen. I could just hope he forgot to mention it to anyone, and if the goddesses smiled on me, I might hold on to this one thing, my only memento of my mother. I wrapped the leather cord around my ankle and tied it off; it could come in handy. |
Session 1 (2024-06-16)
1. An Old Galleon
2nd of Høylys After spending a couple of days mostly undisturbed in my own private cell, something finally happened. Two guards came and told me to go with them. I put on my shoes – the only objects available suitable for juggling – and approached the bars. I was handcuffed and then they opened the door. We made a brief stop before exiting the building so the guards could sign some papers and talk quietly to the colleague who produced the paperwork. The sky was gray, but the light drizzle that fell from the clouds was hardly enough to get me wet as we walked across town. We arrived at the Hand of Jevne after a brisk walk. I had never been inside the large complex of buildings, but I knew several who had, and this was not a place I would have sought out on my own volition. This was the central hub for the city guards, but there was also a prison and a court of law where magistrates handed down justice. I was brought through to a central courtyard. A line of prisoners was chained together, and my handcuffs were attached at the end, right next to a bald dwarf. He exuded a peculiar mix of perfume and old sweat. I decided that what time he didn’t spend on bathing, he spent on his beard instead. The beard was cropped shorter than any other dwarf’s I’d seen – not that there are that many non-humans in Rødvik – and it varied in color from gray to almost white. He scowled at me for staring, so I pretended to focus my attention elsewhere. An officer wearing another type of uniform than the city guards ordered everyone to shut up, but not many had been talking in the first place, so I thought he just wanted to assert his authority. The officer announced that we were going to march off. Nobody was to open their traps or try any funny business, or there would be punishments. People stopped to watch while the long snake wound its way through the city and down to the docks. It wasn’t a common sight, but I had witnessed it a few times myself. The bald dwarf tried to hide his face from the crowd as best he could. I assumed he was ashamed for having been caught at whatever crime he had committed. The largest ship I’d ever seen waited for us. It was a three-masted galleon that definitely had seen better days. The hull was covered with barnacles and the big red letters announcing the ship’s name, Southern Wind, had faded. I couldn’t read it myself, but someone nearby must have had good eyes and the training to discern words from what to me looked like random squiggles. It might be useful to be able to read, but I had never seen the need to learn, nor had I had the opportunity. We marched up the gangplank. Unlike us prisoners, the crew looked to be all human. The officers stood on the bridge watching as we lined up in front of them, and I noticed that several had rapiers, not at all a common weapon, and what the Southern Wind lacked in its appearance, the officers’ uniforms more than made up for. The ships armaments were nothing to scoff at either. Two large ballistae pointed right over our heads. If I had ever had any ideas about making trouble, those vanished at the thought of having a large spear shot through my frail body, pinning it to the deck while I bled out. “Silence! The Captain is going to speak!” The Captain was a big, round woman. She didn’t have much to say, only that there were rules aboard the Southern Wind; the rules would be posted, but someone would read them to us now, since most of us low-class scum probably couldn’t. Another officer produced a sheet of paper and read from it. Food would be served in the evening. If we wanted breakfast too, we had to pay for it with coupons. We would be confined to our cells most of the time, except for a period of four hours each day when we were to work. Doing the job well would earn us coupons that we could use to get breakfast or luxury items like tobacco, beer or spices to season our food. Equipment we used in our work was to be returned before we went back to our cells, and we were never to possess weapons. The first hour after returning to our cells was to be used to clean ourselves, our cells and our eating utensils. Every fourth day, we should hand in our clothes for washing, and new clothes would be dealt out. We were to always wear our prisoner’s uniform. In case of an alarm, we should lay down on our stomachs, hands behind our head. In addition, a number of rules were listed concerning common courtesy and abstaining from using violence. Those were rules that I would have followed anyway, but I guess there might be barbarians among us that needed to hear. After the rules were read out, we were assigned to cells and taken below. I was to share a cell with four others: Sindre Sild, a human whose name I’d heard mentioned but never met personally; Karya, a tall, pale elf with white hair and purple eyes like me, so I assumed she was an ice elf since wood elves typically display a more earthy color palette; Grimleif, the smelly dwarf; and Koldan Antonov, another dwarf, who had red beard and hair that no comb in Feidvang could untangle. It isn’t uncommon not to have a last name, but I found it odd that mine was omitted. Maybe the guard captain had figured out that the name I told him wasn’t my actual name. Our cell had four two-tiered bunk beds. Grimleif picked the top bunk on the right, closest to the door. I waited to see if the others had any preferences, but when nobody took action, I sat down in the bottom bed, as far from Grimleif as possible. I curled up in the corner, with my chin resting on my arms on my knees where I could watch the others. Karya and Koldan took the bunks across from me, with Karya above and Koldan below. Sindre took the bottom bunk of the last bed. Sindre and Karya struck me as the most extroverted among us. Grimleif scowled at everyone, and Koldan looked like he’d employ violence against anyone who messed with Karya. Sindre suggested we all made our introductions, which he thought should include something about why we were there. |
Session 1 (2024-06-16)
Sindre had been taken for theft. Grimleif said he had done something stupid, but he assured us nobody was killed. Koldan and Karya had been in a bar fight. Karya went on about how she and Koldan had come to Ardaland together on a smuggler’s ship and she recounted the bar fight in gory detail.
I was content sitting still in my corner, having the others forgetting my presence, until Grimleif suddenly pointed at me and asked what my deal was. “My name is Edel, and I killed someone,” I piped unconvincingly. I don’t know why I said that last bit. Maybe I wanted to appear more intimidating? I was pretty sure Koldan had killed someone in that fight, and when Grimleif asked me for details, his emphasis suggested that he too had lives on his conscience. I steeled myself, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill out, and told him it was none of his business. Blessedly, Sindre drew attention away from me. He wanted to play a game, and Grimleif offered to guess names of herbs. Koldan and Karya were foreigners who only recently had begun learning our language, so Sindre allowed them to give their replies in their own language, which sounded like nothing I’d ever heard before. Karya opted out of the game, claiming not to know much about herbs, but Koldan participated for a while. Sindre won in the end, when Grimleif couldn’t think of more herbs. Sindre explained that he borrowed a book about herbs from a prison guard, and he and Grimleif exchanged stories about kind guards. I listened with disbelief, but both of them sounded sincere. The discussions seemed friendly enough, but I watched cautiously from my bunk. Koldan wasn’t much of a talker, and eventually, he suggested a contest of arm-wrestling. Grimleif took him up on it, and they lay down on the floor between the bunks, facing each other. Koldan, being younger and stronger, won easily, and he beat Sindre too, in the second bout. I didn’t like them showing off their strength this way even in a companionable contest; it was too much of a reminder of how easily they could manhandle me if they wanted to. From Karya’s description of the bar fight, she could hold her own, but I held no such misconceptions. A fighter, I am not. When I was challenged to join in the arm-wrestling competition, I shook my head. Sindre told the others that I just was a little shy. He thought I would warm up to them soon enough if I was allowed some space. The others weren’t able to resume their talks, for guards appeared at the door. We had to gather at the back of the cell, standing with our hands behind our heads while the guards opened the door to deliver five mugs, five bowls and five spoons and to take the blankets from the unused bunks. Sindre marked his things with a nail, saying he didn’t want to risk mixing his things with ours. Koldan removed the pillow case from his pillow and used that as a bag to hold his things. I just put mine in the corner of my bed. After the guards had gone, Sindre asked if anyone knew where we were going and whether anyone had been there before. Koldan said he didn’t know, and nobody else said anything. Filling in the silence, Koldan said he liked our cell. Grimleif finally volunteered that there had been secrecy concerning our destination. I thought his guards must have said something, unlike mine, who had remained silent. My cellmates launched into another word game, and when they had forgotten that I was there, I picked up my spoon and tossed it up and down absentmindedly while keeping my eyes on the others. Koldan noticed the movement after a while, so I put the spoon away again. When it was time for supper, we had to approach the hatch in the cell door, one at a time, with our mug and bowl so we could be served. It was water and stew. I guessed that there wouldn’t be many variations because of the offer to use our coupons to buy beer or spices to make the meal more interesting. Koldan asked the guards when we were supposed to work, but he only got the reply that we would learn soon enough. After the meal, I waited for the others to go to sleep before I used the chamber pot and lay down myself. The sounds from the other bunks reinforced the feeling that I wasn’t safe. Grimleif might feel the same way; he didn’t appear to be able to sleep either. 3rd of Høylys Being in the same room as a bunch of hardened criminals had my nerves on edge, and I didn’t sleep well. When the guards knocked on our door to wake us, I didn’t feel like I had slept very much. I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. There was a sour smell in the room, like turned milk, and it didn’t take me long to identify that Grimleif was the source of the stench. Karya looked a bit green; I couldn’t tell if it was because of the smell or because of the rolling of the ship. The guards escorted us up on deck where we lined up with the rest of the prisoners in front of a tent set up near the bow. If the other cells we had passed had the same capacity as ours, the Southern Wind had room for far more than the fifty prisoners that I could see. Likely, the other prisoners were let out at other times. An officer stood up inside the tent and addressed us. Her name was Molle Måse, and she was in charge of assigning jobs to us. She said if we did well, we’d get a coupon and we’d have the chance to continue with our jobs. I supposed they would starve us if we couldn’t do anything useful. Molle had a large wax tablet where she would write up the assignments. Six different jobs had been mentioned yesterday, and they were repeated for us today. I got the impression that we could suggest other work, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Grimleif told Molle that he was skilled at brewing beer and spirits. The way he scowled at her, I thought he was going to receive a lashing, but Molle only told him to go to the kitchen and peel potatoes. If he did well, he could get more responsibility and more interesting tasks later. Koldan said that he and Karya would work up in the mast. That wasn’t on the list either, and they too were told that if they did well at cleaning the decks, they might get more interesting work later. Sindre offered to tell stories to the guards and crew, to entertain them, and he managed to charm Molle into letting him try, but she warned him that he might be demoted if he ran out of entertaining tales. I thought all the given options sounded boring, too physically demanding, or both, but then an idea struck me. If I volunteered to peel potatoes, I would have an infinite supply of things to juggle, if I couldn’t stand the drudgery anymore. A guard brought me to the kitchen, where Grimleif and another prisoner had already started. The cook told me to be careful to cut away only the outer skin of the potatoes so food wouldn’t be wasted. Three more prisoners were escorted into the kitchen after me, one at a time, presumably for security reasons, but I could tell the cook wasn’t too pleased with having to repeat his instructions so many times. I had never peeled a potato in my life, so I took extra care when I carved into them. For all their precautions, the single guard watching over us had to divide his attention, and I pondered the wisdom of handing out knives to us. The guards clearly didn’t think these counted as weapons, being small and not too sharp, but in an inattentive moment, the guard could find a knife or two blossoming from his throat. Not that I would ever do any such thing, but if it crossed my mind, it surely occurred to the others. I just hoped they didn’t make trouble. |
Session 1 (2024-06-16)
When the cook came to inspect our work, he told both Grimleif and me that we ought to do better. Grimleif if he aspired to more – he must have told the cook he wanted to brew – and me if I wanted to keep the job. When the cook had passed us, Grimleif muttered that the only thing potatoes were good for was to make brew. I mumbled that that wasn’t the only thing they were good for, thinking that potatoes were easier to juggle than what I had available in the cell, a mug, a bowl and a spoon.
After four hours, our shift was over, and we were gathered on deck, in front of Molle’s tent. She had received reports of how everyone had done, and coupons were handed out. They were small, oblong pieces of wood with some inscription burned into them, just too large for me to conceal in my hand. I got one coupon while Grimleif got two, but I was allowed to try again tomorrow. I didn’t see how many my other roommates received. Molle said we could use coupons now to buy tobacco or spices, or in the morning when breakfast was offered. Nobody from my cell wanted to buy anything now, so we were taken to our cell. Now was the time to clean our eating utensils, our cell and ourselves. The guards provided rags and a bucket of water. Sindre suggested hanging up a blanket in the middle of the room so we could wash in private. Koldan volunteered to clean the floor, and I offered to do the dishes while I waited for my turn behind the blanket. Koldan and Karya launched into a song, but I didn’t think they were very good at it, nor did I understand what they were singing about. The guards retrieved the rags and the bucket after an hour. I sat down on my bunk so I could watch the others while tossing my spoon. Sindre continued where he left off at work and told us stories about Rødvik. After a couple of hours, I thought I would try to get some sleep, but just then, the guards announced that we were going to have another cellmate, Torkil. Torkil looked like a mutant hybrid of an orc and a human, and possibly something else. A tower of muscles, he was as tall as the two dwarves if Grimleif stood on Koldan’s head, and his head looked all lopsided, larger on one side than the other. His skin was a patchwork of green and blue, the first from his orcish heritage, the second from bruises. Torkil sat down on my bed, his beady eyes staring into nothing. The guards said he was a man of few words, and that he needed a calm environment. Koldan sensed my discomfort and tried telling Torkil that the bed he had occupied was taken already. Torkil just stared at him, and Sindre whispered that I should move my things to another bed. We all had two blankets, so he was sure someone would share one with me if Torkil never moved. I brought my bowl, mug and spoon and climbed up into the bunk above Sindre’s. After a few minutes, I realized that I couldn’t easily keep my eyes on Torkil, so I moved to the bunk under Grimleif. I could endure the stench, but Torkil was so scary, even while just sitting there and paying no attention to me, I wanted to cry, but I knew from living on the streets that tears attracted predators. Koldan tried to engage Torkil in conversation, but he got no response. Eventually, Sindre told him to leave Torkil alone. Koldan apparently had tried to ascertain whether Torkil was dangerous; he couldn’t be very bright. When the guards knocked and the rest of us lined up at the back of the cell, hands behind our heads, Torkil just sat where he’d first taken root, but the guards didn’t comment on that. They delivered a mug, a bowl, a spoon and two blankets for Torkil, all larger than what the rest of us had received. First when the guards announced supper, did Torkil move. He grabbed his bowl and mug with an eager smile and rushed to be served through the hatch in the door. I noticed that his portion was twice the size of mine. Torkil sat down on the closest bed, which was Sindre’s, and Grimleif suggested I took the opportunity to retrieve my blankets. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and instead took back my own bunk. I took one of my blankets and hung it up so Torkil couldn’t see me, but I quickly realized that this way, I couldn’t see him either, so I reached out a foot and pushed the blanket a little to the side, so I could watch what the giant did. After his meal, he resumed his staring match with the void. Recalling that Torkil had made an enormous ruckus as he got up to get his food, I figured that the creaking bed would warn me if he got up in the night. I didn’t feel safe at all, but I couldn’t get through the voyage without sleep. I had to try to get some shut-eye. Karya and Koldan must have agreed to keep watch during the night, for their guard change woke me. I woke again when Torkil sat up a little later. “What the hell is wrong with you,” came Grimleif’s voice. Torkil kicked out and broke the bottom bunk. “Shut up!” the brute bellowed. Nobody said anything. I stayed as still as the dead, terrified out of my wits that any sound might antagonize Torkil. Torkil didn’t move for the next couple of hours; he just sat there grumbling. My heart wouldn’t stop racing until he lay down to sleep again, but eventually, I dozed off too. |
A Note About Religion and the Calendar
The Goddesses
Feidvang has seven goddesses, who are said to be the daughters of a now absent creator. The seven sisters rule over different aspects of the world, and like any family, they have their friendships and squabbles. In the following list, which should be considered a cycle, the goddesses have most in common with their neighbors and are most antagonistic against those further away. Clerics often mimic the goddesses's rivalries, but they too remember that in the end, the goddesses are sisters, so it seldom goes as far as open conflict.
Mana flows from the goddesses and through Feidvang, where mages and clerics alike can utilize it. Priestly organizations only teach spells that their goddesses approve of. The Calendar This campaign began in the summer of year 1089. The years are counted from the fall of Allmark, a powerful empire that ruled over most of Heimsmark for centuries. The year is divided into 13 months of 4 weeks or 28 days, plus one day that isn't part of any month.
The week has 7 days, each of which is named after a goddess. To maximize harmony in the calendar, each goddess's day is placed between the days of her most favored sisters:
Since each moth has exactly four weeks (4x7=28) and Høymørke isn't considered a week day, each day of each month falls on the same weekday every year, so for example, the 1st of any month will always be on a Soledag, while the last day of the month will always be on a Jevnedag. |
Session 2 (2024-06-30)
2. Trembling into a Routine
4th of Høylys The guards knocked so softly on the door this morning that it was the stirring of my cellmates that woke me. Grimleif had a new odor today. I didn’t think I’d ever smelled anything quite like it before; it was a sour tang that made me think of metals. It made my nostrils itch most unpleasantly. Torkil bounced up when breakfast was served, and I noted that he didn’t have to pay for it. The rest of us had to dish out a coupon if we wanted to eat. The guards came back with a second serving fifteen minutes later, but only Grimleif still had a coupon and he was full. I wouldn’t have minded a little more stew, but I could wait until evening. I had gone longer than that without food before. After the guards were gone again, Karya told us she owned two knives that had been confiscated, and she wanted them back. She described the knives, which sounded unlike any knives I’d ever seen, and the female guard who had taken them. Karya wanted our help to retrieve her knives before we reached our destination. Koldan said we would make it happen, but I thought it would be difficult. It would also be against the rules for Karya to possess weapons. I could help by keeping my eyes peeled for the guard, but I wasn’t going to break the rules. The guards who came to escort us up for work left Torkil behind. When we got up on deck, the coastline that we had followed on the left side of the ship was nowhere to be seen anymore, but something poked up over the horizon. Mountains? Islands? I didn’t know. Our group was the last to get in line before Molle’s tent, giving me ample time to look around for the guard Karya had described, but I didn’t see her. When it was our turn to choose jobs, several were filled up already, peeling potatoes among them. Grimleif offered to brew beer again, but he was refused, so he joined me in peeling hemp. Sindre was allowed to keep telling stories, while Koldan would wash the deck and Karya was set to wash clothes. It was a fine day, so we all were directed towards stations on the main deck. This hemp was some kind of straw that had valuable fibers under a hard, outer shell. We were told to peel away the outer layer to get to the core. The work was boring, but I didn’t notice because of the big, scary woman that sat beside me. She had a scar over her eye that contorted her face. At first, I didn’t think she paid much attention to me, but after a while, I started noticing her throwing glances my way. I was trembling by the time the guards took us back to Molle for payment and then down to our cell. I earned two coupons despite practically doing no work during the latest half of the shift. The guards had allowed some of the prisoners to loiter on deck without doing any work, and this didn’t make me any more comfortable. I hid in my corner until the guards came with the things we needed for washing, and I had calmed down a little by then. I helped hang up a blanket for privacy, and I offered to do the dishes again. After the guards had fetched the bucket and rags, Sindre took off his shirt and tied it into a ball. He tossed it to Grimleif, who hurled it at me, probably as hard as he could. I caught the ball without thinking. What had I done to him? I was so distraught I threw the ball back at him without considering the consequences. Grimleif completely fumbled the catch, and subsequently forgot about tormenting me. He threw the shirt ball carefully towards Torkil, who joined in the game, passing the ball to Koldan. We played for a while, and then I retreated to my corner again, carefully watching the others for threatening moves. After a couple of hours, it appeared that we stopped, having probably reached a harbor. If this was where we were to debark, we weren’t told. Instead, I thought I could hear someone bellowing the same tirade that we were served when we first came on board the Southern Wind. I hoped we wouldn’t have more cellmates. The guards came with supper only, and I was relieved. I quickly finished my meal and stacked up my bowl, cup and spoon in the corner of my bed, and then I waited for Torkil to go to sleep. It took a while. 5th of Høylys I was surprised to find that I had slept well. I usually have trouble sleeping in unfamiliar places, and especially when there are scary people around. I ventured a tiny smile at Grimleif before the rank scent of old sweat punched me in the nose. I spent both my coupons at breakfast, buying an extra portion, but nobody else did, and that made me feel self-conscious. Nobody tried to take my food; maybe the fact that nobody had bullied me out of my coupons should have been a sign. I don’t trust easily, but I reckoned I could have been put in a cell with far worse people than those I saw before me. Today, we were first in line for work, and Molle wasn’t even ready to begin handing out jobs when we got there. Someone further back in the line began to scuffle, but the guards were on them before punches were thrown. I recognized one of the ruffians from Rødvik. He was with the Honorables, and he had acted as bodyguard to one of his superiors when they came to talk to the leaders of the Gray Cat Crew. I only saw him the once, and I didn’t know his name. After the guards were satisfied that everyone would behave themselves, Molle asked for our preferences. Sindre wanted to tell stories again, but he must have run out of good ones yesterday, for Molle set him to scrub the decks. The rest of us volunteered for kitchen duty. Four other prisoners drifted in to the kitchen after our group. I knew one to be a cellmate of the Honorable, and he clearly was a member himself. An older man with thinning hair and no longer a full set of teeth, he cozied up to Koldan and tried to recruit him. Koldan indicated that he might be interested if the Honorables would help him get rid of “Rabota.” Like me, the old-timer had no idea who that was, but Koldan went on to describe Torkil. I found it odd that Koldan would give another name to our huge cellmate, and also that Koldan was threatened by him. To my recollection, Torkil hadn’t done anything to Koldan except staring through him. I know I would find that disconcerting, but Koldan looked like a tough guy. Maybe he found Torkil’s immense size threatening. The old guy wanted Koldan to swear allegiance to the Honorables, and he wanted him to convince the rest of us too. Our initiation task would be to come up with a plan for getting rid of Torkil and then to execute the plan, which I found ridiculous considering that Koldan’s reason for joining would be to get someone else to deal with Torkil, although the old man intimated that he might contribute with useful resources. The cook berated Grimleif for his smell and for cutting up all his potatoes into thin slices. Grimleif said he wanted to brew spirits with the potatoes, but that didn’t please the cook one bit. Grimleif was banned from the kitchen. He further antagonized the cook when he tried to take potatoes with him to brew in our cell. Obviously, Molle didn’t present him with any coupons, which Grimleif loudly protested was a scandal. When we returned to our cell, I gave him one, for I had received two. Grimleif thanked me and said it was kind of me to share. Those words seemed quite out of character for the surly dwarf, but I could only hope he was being sincere. I couldn’t see myself becoming friends with any of my cellmates, but this could be the beginning of something. Maybe I could survive my punishment unmaimed and unmolested. |
Session 2 (2024-06-30)
We had gotten a good look at the harbor of the city where we had stopped, and the question arose of what city that might be. I thought I recognized a landmark from a sailor’s tale and guessed Kar-Hara. If I was right, that meant we had sailed north and out of Ardaland’s waters and into Vinthar.
When the guards came with bucket and rags, they also had fresh clothes for us. Our old clothes would be taken away and washed. None of my new clothes had any pockets, I noticed sadly. I didn’t have many belongings here, but it would be nice to have somewhere to stuff my coupons. Grimleif asked Torkil what he had done to be put on this ship, but Torkil didn’t reply. Grimleif confessed that killing some people was what got him here, but he failed to elicit a response from Torkil. I don’t think the orc mutant likes the smelly dwarf very much. I can understand that. Grimleif doesn’t appear to like anyone, except perhaps Koldan. Koldan asked if anyone was a gang member. Sindre waved his hand, displaying a small tattoo between his thumb and first finger. It identified him as a member of the Claw, he explained. Grimleif asked if the Claw had anything to do with the Brothers of the Warg. Not much, Sindre said. The two gangs were rivals, but their territories didn’t border each other, so they weren’t in direct conflict. Grimleif went on to assure us he was not a member of the Brothers of the Warg. His tone said he didn’t like them, but that was hardly surprising. I didn’t say anything about my connection to the Gray Cat Crew. Compared to the other gangs mentioned, the Gray Cats were insignificant. If it became necessary, I could always spill later, but if I spoke now, I couldn’t unsay anything if I came to regret it. Sindre admitted that the Claw had asked him to recruit us, and that he only had a few days to convince us. I couldn’t think why anyone would want to recruit me to their gang, but now I had two offers in one day. Koldan and Karya had a lengthy conversation in their own language while Sindre waited patiently. Finally, Koldan said they were accepting his offer. Sindre looked down at me expectantly from the top bunk. I didn’t want to get involved. These gangs were clearly up to no good, and the little display in the queue this morning told me I should stay as far away from them as possible. I promised solemnly not to interfere with the Claw’s business, but Sindre warned me that I needed to join a gang or be preyed upon by all. He wouldn’t force me to anything, though, and he turned to Grimleif to hear what he had to say. Grimleif said he thought the Claw sounded like a nice bunch. Sindre told my cell-mates that the Claw required one coupon every other day, starting tomorrow, from prospective members. He also warned them that the Claw was in conflict with the Honorables, prompting Koldan to tell him about the Honorable’s recruitment attempt earlier today, and Sindre asked them to pass it on if anyone else made a try. Grimleif mentioned that he had heard about another group represented among the prisoners, the Shadows; they were beggars and thieves, and not quite in the same league as the Claw and the Honorables. The idea of being everyone’s prey didn’t sit well with me, so I asked Sindre what was required of members. Paying taxes and supporting the Claw’s initiatives, Sindre said. The latter would require breaking the law, I was sure. Membership was not for me, then. I needed to find another safe path through my stay with all these convicts. 6th of Høylys I woke up in a panic. Something was burning! It took a few seconds before relief washed over me. It was just Grimleif and his new smell. How did he do it? I don’t think the smells came by design; who would want to smell so horribly? Koldan handed over a coupon to Sindre, who said he expected payment after work, but he was happy to take it now. Nobody else gave him a coupon. We needed to pay for breakfast, and I didn’t think anyone was flush with coupons. We were still lying at anchor when we came up on deck. It was raining today, but that didn’t dampen the burgeoning brawlers in the queue. Our cell was among the first to get in line, and those behind us suddenly began battle. I barely got out of the way of a fellow prisoner who was pushed violently towards me. I hurriedly hid behind Koldan and Karya, and Koldan prepared himself to strike back at anyone who came too close to his girlfriend. It didn’t take long before the alarm bells began to toll, and I threw myself down on deck with my hands on my head. I remembered that rule. Most of the other prisoners did the same, even a few of the fighters. Koldan stayed on his feet, despite Grimleif urging him to comply with the rule. First when the guards approached did he lie down. The guards quickly quelled the combatants. They tied them up and arranged them in a line a towards the middle of the ship. Koldan was grabbed and put with two others, even further back. I guess they too were slow to follow orders. Then an officer told the rest of us we could stand up. We should line up with our backs against the railing, he said, looming threateningly over us with his hair standing up in a ridge over his head like a cockerel’s comb, a menacing stare and a huge sword on his back that I didn’t doubt he could use to lethal effect. I expected punishments to be dealt out swiftly, but the officers stood around talking. Some, including Molle Måse, went to a guarded door at the rear of the ship to fetch some rich guy with fancy clothes and his nose in the air. He conferred briefly with the captain before retreating to his room. The captain announced the punishments. Koldan and the two with him would receive three lashes and would not be allowed to work today. Eleven others, ten lashes and a fine of three coupons; they too couldn’t work today. If they couldn’t pay, they would get ten more lashes for each coupon they lacked, although they would have three workdays to come up with the coupons. The last two insurgents were sentenced to something called the poor man’s duel. A plank was pushed out over the water, and the two had to duel with knives until one fell into the water. The guards attached cords to the knives so they could be retrieved if they were dropped. I hid behind Karya so I wouldn’t have to watch. The sounds were bad enough. First, grunts and yells and the occasional tap of metal as one knife parried the other, then a splash. I thought it was over, but several crossbows snapped, followed by another splash as the winner followed the loser into the water. More crossbow shots ensured that the two men in the water didn’t survive to swim ashore. After a pause of a couple of minutes, the sharp crack of a whip slicing bare skin assaulted my ears. Two more cracks followed, then after a pause three more, and then another three. I took a calming breath and took my place in the line again, only to realize that eleven more sets of ten lashes waited, so I hid behind Karya again. Sindre muttered about soldiers and guards not even following their own rules. When it was finally time to work, I chose potato peeling again. Grimleif offered to brew healing potions for the injured guards, claiming to be an alchemist. Molle said he had to work his way up to interesting jobs, and to do something about his body odor. Although, she wasn’t about to supply convicts with expensive and dangerous herbs. Grimleif chose to peel hemp again, but Karya joined me in the kitchen. There were only five of us peeling potatoes today. I thought one of the others looked particularly scary, so I tried to focus on my work and not draw attention to myself. After the first half of the shift, the scary guy introduced himself. His name was Rune Rønne, and he was young to have developed dragon’s breath, maybe in his early twenties. The horrible smell of dragon’s breath comes after years of chewing narcotic leaves. I’ve seen inside the mouth of an addict before, and it’s not a pleasant sight. It looks as bad as it smells, black and rotting. Rune assumed that I was unaligned and tried to convince me to join the Claw. I looked at Karya, eyes pleading, and she came over. She glared at Rune and told him not to mess with her roommate. She crossed her arms and glared until Rune retreated. I thanked Karya for her intervention. |
Session 2 (2024-06-30)
A little later, one of the others took a seat beside me. He was very large, but I could tell he made an effort not to intimidate me. Bjorke was his name, and he had overheard that I wasn’t affiliated with any gang. I squeaked Karya’s name, and again she hurried over to loom menacingly, but Bjorke wasn’t threatened. He told me he was unaffiliated too, and that we should stick together for mutual protection. He also was in the business of gathering information, and if there was anything I needed to know, I could pay him a coupon to find out. Voice shaking, I thanked him for the offer. Bjorke told me we should watch out for what job the other took, so we could meet again if we needed to talk.
The encounters with Rune and Bjorke had me on edge, but I still managed to earn two coupons for the day’s labor. Karya did so poorly, she wouldn’t be allowed back into the kitchen. After meeting up with Grimleif and Sindre and receiving our payments, we were escorted back to our cell. Koldan lay on his bunk resting, and Torkil was sitting on the floor playing like a two-year-old. He had taken every blanket and all the eating utensils and stacked them up around him. Torkil also had the large, worn tooth of an animal, as long as my hand. I wondered where that came from, but not for long. Grimleif sat on the broken bottom bunk of his bed and glared at Torkil. When Torkil’s head was turned away, Grimleif seized the tooth possessively. He lashed out verbally with racial slurs at the big brute. “Mine!” Torkil yelled, ripping the tooth out of Grimleif’s grip. “Mine, ugly stinky man! I don’t want to play with you!” More slurs poured out of Grimleif and Torkil hurled a fist at the dwarf. Bones would have broken if Grimleif hadn’t been able to dodge the blow. Sindre intervened and made Grimleif hide in his bunk, out of sight from Torkil as long as he didn’t stand up. Torkil kept muttering angrily, but he returned to his play. The guards arrived shortly after with our washing stuff, and they offered us a coupon each if we could get Torkil to comply with the rules, which I understood to mean not to make a mess and to join the rest of us at the back of the cell when the guards announced that they would open the door. When the guards were gone, Koldan whispered something to Grimleif. “What?” Grimleif asked; I thought he was hard of hearing. “If you want your thing back, do as I say tonight,” Koldan instructed. I thought they might try to kill Torkil, and I wanted no part in that. If I survived, the guards would assume I was in on it, though. I steeled myself and approached Torkil. “Can I play with these?” I asked, indicating some of the spoons. Torkil allowed me to pick up three. I could maybe have taken more, but my bravery ran out, and I retreated hurriedly to the rear of the cell. After a deep breath, I began to juggle. My performance delighted Torkil, who took a seat on his bunk, tooth in hand. Koldan tidied up Torkil’s mess; only one blanket remained on the floor, but Torkil’s foot pinned it in place. Torkil sighed sadly when I wrapped up the act, but Sindre clapped appreciatively and Grimleif urged me to go on, so I did. I did this trick where I raised a leg and tossed up the spoons from under it, and when Torkil began to clap excitedly, Grimleif’s tooth went flying. Grimleif threw himself out from the top bunk to catch it, but he crashed into the floor without even coming near the tooth, which continued its arc in Karya’s direction. Grimleif’s painful landing made me flinch with sympathy, so when I reached out to snag the tooth, I dropped one of the spoons. Like any good performer, I pretended like it was part of the routine, so after a few low throws where the tooth took the spoon’s place, I launched the two spoons all the way up to the ceiling and the tooth in a graceful arc towards Grimleif’s bunk, then I picked up the dropped spoon and rose just in time to catch the other two, after which I resumed the routine seamlessly. Three spoons in a simple cascade. When I wrapped up for the second time, Sindre said it was time to pay taxes to the Claw. Koldan had already paid, and Grimleif paid for himself and Karya since she hadn’t earned any coupons during today’s shift. I asked Sindre if I could pay for protection, but without trying to become a member. Sindre was fine with it, but he warned me I would have to pay throughout the entire duration of my sentence. I happily handed over a coupon. We had to hurry to get the washing done before the guards returned. When they were gone again, Karya asked if anyone had learned anything about her knives, but nobody had. She asked Sindre for his assistance as a full-fledged member of the Claw, seeing as she was a trial member. He said he would try. 7th of Høylys Despite getting to juggle properly again for the first time in over a week, yesterday’s events had me so unhinged I couldn’t find sleep at all. It had to be almost morning when I heard Koldan mumbling to himself. I didn’t understand one word of that foreign language. “Shut up! I want to sleep!” Torkil’s angry words only made Koldan get up. Standing in front of me, Koldan raised his arms while the words kept pouring out of his mouth. When Torkil reared up, Sindre jumped down from his bunk and pled with Koldan to stop. Koldan didn’t react, but Sindre convinced Torkil to sit down while he dealt with Koldan. Then Karya intervened. She didn’t want anyone to disturb Koldan, and she ignored Sindre’s warnings that Torkil was on the verge of going berserk. I briefly considered throwing my bowl at Koldan, but when Sindre’s slap failed to rattle him, I was glad I hadn’t made that display of animosity. Karya had saved my life yesterday, and I didn’t want to antagonize her. Torkil’s patience was running out, and he stood up again, fists clenched. I covered my face with my hands, but peeked out between my fingers. Sindre tried to calm Torkil, but Torkil punched him right in the chest. I heard Sindre’s ribs crack, or was it just my imagination? Sindre managed to stay upright, but he had to take a couple of steps backwards to keep his balance. Then the door burst up and three guards yelled to ask what was going on. Torkil complained about Koldan being noisy, and Koldan asked what was going on. The guards warned us that if anything like this happened again, we wouldn’t like the consequences. When the guards knocked on the door again, I realized I had dozed off for a few minutes, but it was soon time for breakfast, so I yawned and dragged myself out of bed. Koldan was out of coupons and couldn’t pay for breakfast, so I shared my meal with him despite protests that he didn’t need to eat. After the meal, the guards escorted us up on deck. We now had ocean in all directions; only behind us could I see peaks sticking up from behind the horizon. We were last in the line, so we had plenty of time for chatting. Sindre asked Koldan what he had been up to this morning, and Koldan admitted he sleep walked on occasion. Apparently, he sleep talked too. I wondered what he had been dreaming. Was he a mage casting a spell? Sindre told Karya, Koldan and Grimleif that they should find a way to get Torkil to attack the Honorables. He had talked to a few people and learned that before he came to our cell, Torkil had worked like everyone else, but after he got into a fight, the guards deemed him unpredictable. Sindre reckoned that if we could get Torkil to behave like the rest of us, the guards could be convinced to let him out again, and then there might be opportunities to orchestrate a run-in with the Honorables. Molle only had two jobs available when it was our turn to choose, repairing clothes, and something she called “plank wrestling.” I asked what that was, and Molle explained it was like yesterday’s duel, but with padded poles instead of knives. Its purpose was to entertain the guards. The prospect of being knocked into the cold water, let alone the danger of getting seriously hurt, made it unappealing to everyone, so we went off to repair clothes. Molle hinted that we could try to come up with jobs ourselves, and I recalled that Sindre had been allowed to tell tales, at least for a couple of days. Only one other prisoner worked at the repair station, an old woman, hunched up like a withered ghost. Her long years had obviously given her lots of practice with the needle, for she was allowed one of metal where we were dealt bone needles, and she worked on a fancy officer’s uniform while the rest of us was tasked with mending blankets and rags. Koldan whispered that we were going to need many needles. Clearly, he didn’t mean for today’s work, so whatever he had planned was something I wouldn’t take part in. I stepped away from the others and asked the old woman politely if she could show me how to do this. Gerd took me under her wing and showed me the ropes, or threads, I should say, and I noticed that she exaggerated her frailty, probably to escape attention. I didn’t think that strategy would work for me. If I appeared weak, that would only attract predators. Grimleif also wanted instructions from Gerd, but after one whiff of his fabulous fragrance, she turned him away. Sindre, on the other hand, was allowed to sit with us, but he didn’t quite get the hang of it, despite Gerd’s thorough explanations. |
Session 2 (2024-06-30)
After the halfway mark of our shift, when we received feedback on our work, Sindre wanted to get the group together to plot and plan. I stayed by Gerd’s side and focused on the sewing. Grimleif also wanted to concentrate on the work, but Sindre told him he was required to sit with the others and help make plans. Occasionally, Sindre, Karya or Koldan had to raise their voice to penetrate Grimleif’s ears, but I couldn’t make out what they were planning, so I assumed nobody else did either.
We were the last in the line for receiving coupons. I relished the additional minutes of fresh air before I was to be locked up with Grimleif, but Sindre was displeased. He had planned to put on a show for the other prisoners, I reckoned, but our place in the queue was ill suited for it. Sindre also told Koldan to get in touch with someone he only referred to as “him,” but Koldan said he would do it tomorrow. Torkil was behaving himself when we were stuffed back into our cell; he sat on the side of his bunk trying to twiddle his thumbs. The task was apparently beyond him, but that only inspired him to keep trying. After we washed, I asked Karya if she could watch over me while I tried to get some sleep. With only one hour of shut-eye last night, and maybe not even that, I was practically falling over. Karya was happy to oblige. She and Koldan were sleeping on shift, and Koldan was going to bed now too, before keeping watch at night. Despite my tiredness, Sindre and Grimleif kept me awake for at least an hour before I fell asleep. I got up for supper in the evening, then I went back to bed. 8th of Høylys I felt well refreshed when the guards woke us this morning. The ship heaved under clearly strong winds, but that didn’t bother me at all. Koldan and Grimleif shifted with the ship’s movements and hardly seemed aware that it tried to throw us all in a jumble. Grimleif was out of coupons, so I offered to share my portion with him, but after paying for their food, both Karya and Sindre decided their stomachs were too upset to get any food down, so Grimleif could have their food instead. We got up on deck in a short respite in the deluge, and we could see a coastline to our left again. I assumed we had crossed a bay earlier and now continued our voyage along the coast of Vinthar, but I could easily be mistaken. I have no knowledge of geography or navigation. We got a place in the middle of the line today. One of the guards scowled at me, and I kept an eye on him watching me, but blessedly, he never came closer. When it was our turn to pick jobs, only one spot was still available in the kitchen, and Sindre claimed that. Then he pulled up his shirt and showed Molle how one of his cellmates had attacked him. Koldan raised a threatening fist and said something angrily in his own language. I thought it was Torkil who had given Sindre that bruise. Had something happened between Sindre and Koldan while I slept? Despite the markings that Sindre displayed, Molle didn’t take it seriously. She chivvied the rest of us to pick jobs. Grimleif opted for deck scrubbing, while Karya, Koldan and I chose to mend clothes again. Gerd was there, as I expected, but also the Honorable who had tried to recruit Koldan earlier. He grabbed Koldan and Karya and sat down with them out of earshot from Gerd and me. I guess they were plotting something, but I made clear I had no interest in paying attention to them by focusing on my work. That paid off, for when we lined up to receive coupons, I got three. I gave one of my coupons to Sindre, and Karya, Koldan and Grimleif did the same. Sindre produced a bundle of herbs, a root of some kind with small, round growths that reminded me eerily of eyeballs. I was pretty sure he wasn’t allowed to have that, even before he gave it to Grimleif and said he owed him a favor if this wasn’t used to further their agenda. Grimleif said he planned to use the herbs just for that purpose. Since I didn’t want to hear about this, I retreated to my corner and hummed quietly to myself. After the washing, Sindre made a ball again, which we tossed around, and Grimleif told stories about monsters that we might encounter on our voyage. Koldan went to bed early so he could stay up tonight for his watch. I needed some time after Grimleif’s grisly tales before I was calm enough to sleep. 9th of Høylys I was surprised to find I had slept well for the second night in a row. After paying yesterday’s tax, Karya and Koldan didn’t have coupons for breakfast, so Grimleif and I paid for their food in addition to our own. I didn’t mind at all, despite thinking yesterday that maybe I should save one coupon for later; I didn’t think it very likely that I would earn three again any time soon. If anyone asked why I was so willing to dish out for other people’s food, I would say it was to gain goodwill and a reputation for kindness, but the truth was I couldn’t stand seeing anyone in need when I could help. Karya spoke about seeking out Bjorke to buy information about how long this voyage would be and whether any of the guards could be bribed, and she suggested we all looked for him today. She really wanted her knives back, I believed. How wise that would be, I didn’t know. If the guards found the contraband herbs Grimleif had hidden away somewhere, they wouldn’t like it very much, but if they found we had weapons stored away in our cell… I didn’t want to contemplate what would happen then. Instead, I wondered why those knives meant so much to her. Maybe they had been a gift from her mother? My hand moved towards my medallion before I could stop it, but I don’t think anyone noticed. Grimleif’s scent of the day was sour metal again. I looked at him and began to ask about it, but only “Why” slipped out before I caught myself. Grimleif asked what I wondered about, but I told him it wasn’t important. I supposed he must have had an accident with some kind of alchemical concoction for him to give off this terrible smell, but it was strange how the smell changed every so often. Maybe magic was involved? I didn’t know what alchemy entailed. Maybe you had to be a mage to do alchemy? If he offered information freely, I would strain my ears to hear the explanation, but I wasn’t comfortable asking. Why do these people all have to be so scary? Sindre suggested that I offered to juggle for work today, but I told him I didn’t like performing in front of people. That wasn’t really the problem. Once I stood in front of an audience, balls whirling in complex patterns, I could be quite at ease. I was just afraid of how people would react if I volunteered. I had seen how Molle shut down Grimleif’s suggestion of making beer. Sindre had been allowed to tell stories, but he had been shut down too, after a couple of days. Grimleif and Sindre sat down in a corner to whisper until the guards came to fetch us. When we came up on deck, we lay at anchor again. I had no idea what city it was I was seeing, but I didn’t have time to ponder it. I didn’t like the mood of the queue; someone just ahead of us were warning others away from deck scrubbing and potato peeling, and I felt that those were places I didn’t want to be. Something was going to happen there, I was sure. Nobody gave us any warnings, though, and Sindre said we were lucky to be affiliated with the Claw; we could freely pick what jobs we wanted. Molle said only the job of washing clothes was filled up. Grimleif and Koldan picked scrubbing decks, and Karya chose something to do with sandpaper. I hesitated. I would have liked to peel potatoes, but not today. Grimleif told Molle that I could juggle, but she waved him off without really listening. I offered that I really did know how to juggle, if anyone cared to watch. Uncertainty made my voice taper off, but Molle sent for a few potatoes, then gave me five with an expectant look. “Um, should I just begin? Should I do it here?” Molle replied that it was here on the main deck that the guards and crew would take their breaks now that the weather had turned sunny again. I took the potatoes a little away, so I wouldn’t stand in anyone’s way. I put two on the ground and began cautiously with a few simple routines. As I built up courage, the number of potatoes flying above me grew, and so did the crowd of onlookers. When the time came to line up for coupons, I was completely exhausted, but I felt I had done well. Even the nobleman who only had come out so far to discuss punishments for the big brawl with the captain came out to watch my show. When I started to juggle, I had to compete for attention with those arranging the plank wrestling, but by the time I finished, they had given up completely. Some of them weren’t too pleased with me for stealing all the spotlight, but they begrudgingly acknowledged my skill with applause and some of them even offered smiles. |
Session 2 (2024-06-30)
Molle handed over six coupons and strongly recommended I kept at it for the rest of the voyage. And when we arrived at our destination, she would put in a good word for me so I could continue to entertain and delight everyone with my wonderful juggling. I asked how much further we had to travel, and she said that if Fare was with us, not much more than a week.
I had noticed that we were following another vessel now, and Grimleif said it was a warship escorting us. They could easily sink this hulk, was his opinion. Karya had bad news. They had botched the planned action, and Sindre had to talk really fast to explain away why the two of them were where they weren’t supposed to be. I informed everyone what Molle had said about the duration of the journey. Grimleif told us he had done so well with the washing today that he was going to get a promotion. That meant he would be allowed to wash more exclusive locations than the common areas, so he might be able to look around for Karya’s knives. Koldan, Karya and Sindre joined in to discuss the layout of the ship and where the knives were likely to be found. With four days since last we changed clothes, new garb came along with the water for washing. I was happy to find pockets in my clothes. They weren’t very large, but I might be able to put potatoes in them and pull those out for my juggling routine. Koldan went to bed early as usual, but Grimleif woke him. Apparently, dwarves can sense the presence of precious metals, and Grimleif thought he could sense something. He thought Koldan might have a sharper sense than him, but Koldan said he found nothing. I didn’t see him do anything to detect gold or whatever, he just sat up on his bed and suggested that Grimleif might be mistaken. I proposed that if there were valuables on board, it could most likely be found in the pouches and purses of rich people, like the officers or the reclusive nobleman. Grimleif grunted and marched up and down between the bunks. Grimleif seemed in a fouler mood than usual, and I was afraid that could pass over to Torkil, who up until now had behaved himself well. I picked up my spoon, cup and bowl and began to juggle, hoping to lighten the mood in the room. Sindre encouraged Karya and Grimleif to spend some time thinking on how to execute the plan, and the two of them sat down in a corner to whisper. Suddenly, Koldan burst out of his bed and began to draw patterns on the floor with his spoon; he probably dreamed he was holding a charcoal stick. Karya confirmed that he was sleep-walking again. When Koldan finished drawing, he knelt down and banged his forehead against the floor, leaving a red smear in the middle of his pattern. “Who hit me?” he asked angrily before realizing that he had done it all on his own. After supper, I lay down in my bed, thinking I would likely lie awake for a while or wake up during the night. Hopefully, I would get the equivalent of a full night’s sleep before the guards came to announce breakfast in the morning. |
Session 3 (2024-07-07)
3. Vomit
10th of Høylys I woke when the guards knocked and announced that breakfast would be served shortly. Koldan dished out for Karya, who had run out of coupons. I bought two portions; I still felt a little hungry after the first, and due to my recent performance, I was rich enough that I didn’t have to worry. Grimleif also felt rich, for he paid for beer to go with his meal. He was quite smug where he sat enjoying the luxurious beverage. Up on deck, the guard who had stared at me earlier was there again. He had two scars crisscrossing over his face and had cut off all his hair, looking like nobody I would like to hang out with. There were no more kitchen spots today, Molle said when we reached the front of the line, and all the hemp had been peeled already. Grimleif wanted to scrub the decks again, since he had been promised a promotion yesterday, and Molle told him that he was to wash officers’ cabins. He grunted that he would do his best. Koldan also volunteered to scrub decks, but Karya had to wash clothes, having been banned from nearly all the jobs on offer. I suggested mending clothes, thinking that I’d done decently well at that, and I expected Gerd to be there, the nice old woman. Molle would rather that I juggled again, and she offered I could work during the next shift, so that people who hadn’t seen me could get the chance. The prospect of returning to my cell and being alone with Torkil wasn’t attractive, so I asked if I pretty please could hang around on deck while I waited. Molle said that was fine; I could sit over by the plank wrestlers. Sindre was allowed to tell stories again, and he and I went over to the plank wrestlers together. I sat down near a cargo hatch to watch and wait. I frowned when I realized that Sindre wasn’t doing any storytelling. Instead, he walked around looking for Claw members he could scheme and plot with, and there were enough to choose from. I didn’t think Sindre was going to earn any coupons today, not if he shirked work like this, but hopefully he wouldn’t get me in trouble. After maybe an hour, the alarm bell began to ring. I afforded myself a quick glance at Sindre before throwing myself down on the deck, but I didn’t think he was the reason the alarm was raised. The two prisoners currently wrestling on the plank dropped their staffs into the water and lay down right where they were. Like the knives, the staffs were attached to cords, so the guards were able to retrieve them easily enough. The bell rang for a few minutes, then one of the guards told us we could get up. I took my seat again, looking around cautiously for any signs that more trouble would arise. Sindre continued his scheming, and I spotted a few prisoners asking the guards if they could be escorted below, claiming to be sick. I thought maybe this was part of Sindre’s plan, and I was terrified this was the beginning of another uprising, but nothing apparently came of it. I joined the others from my cell in the line for coupons, but Koldan didn’t appear. Grimleif and Karya earned two coupons each, but as expected, Sindre got none. Molle asked me to remain when the others were escorted below. When I was the only prisoner left, I asked Molle if I could bring some potatoes with me down to the cell, so I could practice new tricks, but that was against the rules, so she told me no. For my juggling routine, Molle provided tent pegs. They were well balanced, and their identical forms made them easier to grip than potatoes. Yesterday, I had attempted a few tricks that I didn’t really master, but I got lucky and pulled them off; today, I played it safe and stuck to what I knew better. The spectators enjoyed the show nevertheless. I earned five coupons, and I was content. The guard that brought me down to the cell gave me water and a rag for washing. The others had already cleaned themselves and the cell, but Koldan was not there. I asked Karya, who replied in her own language, seemingly upset. Grimleif shrugged and said Koldan was involved in whatever it was that got the alarm going. There wasn’t anything we could do about that, so Karya and I put up a blanket so I could wash in private. When I was done, Grimleif said he’d overheard someone say that Koldan had been locked up somewhere else. I gave a coupon to Sindre, to buy protection. Torkil wasn’t in a good mood, so I juggled for him, but he didn’t even look at me. He just sat there scowling and muttering to himself. Grimleif asked if I thought Koldan would be keelhauled. I didn’t know. It hadn’t been mentioned when they read out the rules for us, but I didn’t think that would stop them, should the guards decide that was the right punishment for Koldan’s crimes. Grimleif speculated that Koldan may unsuccessfully have tried to enact a plan. I didn’t know if he was referring to a specific plan that they had made together, or if Grimleif thought Koldan had gone off script. 11th of Høylys I fell asleep early, but I wasn’t allowed to sleep long. The sound of retching tore me away from my dreams, and in the dim light of the cell I saw Karya crouched over the chamber pot. I sat up and hurried to help. There wasn’t much I could do, but I could at least stroke her back and pull back her hair so it didn’t fall into the filth. Days spent enduring Grimleif’s odors hadn’t prepared me for this. The sharp smell of sick had my stomach twisting itself in agony, but I told myself I wasn’t sick. Grimleif, on the other hand, climbed down from his bunk and joined Karya, taking turns hogging the pot. I did what I could for him too, but it wasn’t much. Luckily, his beard was so short that he might keep it out of the pot while he was throwing up. Torkil sat up, covering his ears. The chorus of the sick was not pleasant listening. From time to time, he asked Karya and Grimleif to be quiet, but their sickness refused to be muted. Eventually, Torkil wrapped his head in a blanket and lay back down, and it looked like that did the trick, for he fell asleep. In their reduced state, Karya and Grimleif sometimes lost control of their aim. I allowed myself to take one of Koldan’s blankets, and I wiped away the worst mess on the outside of the pot and on the floor around it. After an hour, the door opened, and a guard delivered a bucket of water and three rags after a quick peek inside. I used the new equipment to wipe my cellmates’ faces, but it didn’t take long before they dirtied themselves again. When my stomach decided it couldn’t take it anymore, I fell to the floor and barely had the strength to get my mouth over the chamber pot before emptying myself. By that time, Karya and Grimleif didn’t have much more to throw up, but they kept going through the motions every ten minutes or so. Sindre got up and took over the washing, but he wasn’t very diligent about it, not that anyone had the energy to complain. The guards came in the morning to see if there was anyone who wasn’t sick yet, and I pointed towards Sindre and Torkil. The guards delivered breakfast and water for drinking, but the way I was feeling, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to eat or drink again. I watched Sindre and Torkil dig in with a mix of envy and disgust, and then Sindre was fetched for work. Torkil got sick not long after that, and he didn’t bother getting out of bed for doing his business, making a veritable mess in his bed, with his blankets soaking up most of what didn’t spill onto the floor. In one of his better moments, Grimleif explained that this was just a stomach bug. Nobody had poisoned our food or anything like that. While it was certainly unpleasant to endure the sickness, Grimleif was confident that it would pass in a day or two. The only danger would be if someone couldn’t keep down any water, so we should try to drink a few drops every so often. Putting anything into my mouth sounded like a terrible idea to me, but I decided I would try, at least. Sindre returned earlier than I expected, but he only came to take away our dirty things and to replace our chamber pot. Behind him stood a guard, and Grimleif tried to instruct him how to make medicine, but not even hours of retching had purged the offensive language that Grimleif was wont to use. The guard clearly didn’t want to listen. Supper came earlier than usual, but only Grimleif tried to eat. He soon threw it all up again, so I didn’t think he got much out of it. Maybe the taste of the broth made him forget for a moment the foulness that otherwise infested our mouths. Karya tried to drink a little water, but she started throwing up again almost before she had time to swallow. I decided I would rather keep dry retching for a while. Sindre came with more supplies for washing after the meal. With the sounds drifting in from the neighboring cells, I reckoned he was one of just a few people on board who wasn’t sick. He had to leave again to keep working, but he came back another couple of hours later to sleep. Despite his being driven to exhaustion by having to work all day, I envied that he somehow seemed to have evaded the sickness. |
Session 3 (2024-07-07)
12th of Høylys
Despite having worked so long yesterday, I didn’t think Sindre was able to sleep any more than the rest of us. He sighed exasperatedly every time someone hurled. I managed to get some food down when the guards brought breakfast, but it was only a matter of minutes before the food came back up. Miraculously, I started to feel a little better today. I was aching all over, like someone had pulled me through a clothes press, but my stomach didn’t heave as it had for what seemed like an eternity. I managed to drag my carcass into bed before passing out. I woke up when I needed to throw up again. I worried I had only had a temporary reprieve, but I crawled back into bed when I was done. Karya and Grimleif still lay sprawled on the floor near the chamber pot. I was able to sleep for an hour or two between retching, unlike the others who still had to empty themselves every ten minutes or so. In the evening, I ate and drank carefully, and I didn’t even have to throw up before I passed out again. 13th of Høylys This morning, the guards told us we were going back to the usual routine where we had to pay for our food. However, those who didn’t feel up to working were allowed to recuperate in their cells. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that I bought two portions, but it wasn’t that long ago that I felt like I could never eat again. Karya paid for breakfast too, despite not feeling all that well. Only Sindre raised his hand when the guards asked who were going to work. I went back to bed after the meal. When I woke up in the afternoon, Karya, Grimleif and Torkil all looked to be on the mend. 14th of Høylys Over breakfast, Grimleif told Sindre he could help get people back on their feet quicker, if Sindre could convince the guards to let him try. Sindre said Grimleif wasn’t their favorite prisoner, but he promised to try anyway. In a fit of magnanimity, Sindre told us nobody had to pay the tax for the day before yesterday, although in the same sentence, he reminded us that we had to pay today. For the rest of the meal, Sindre told us what he had observed while working during our sickness. We arrived at a city yesterday, and when we left, the escort ship stayed behind. Sindre didn’t know which city that had been. Karya wasn’t fit to work today either, and the guards didn’t force her, but she didn’t have any coupons. I told her not to worry; I’d pay her taxes, just like I had paid for her breakfast. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep paying for two, but as long as I had coupons, I would share with those in need. Sindre, Grimleif and I went up on deck to line up for work, and we were among the first to arrive. I hoped that meant we could get our first choices for work, but Molle told us we had to use the first half of our shift to clean ourselves and our cell, and to put on clean clothes. For the second half, we had to line up again and would probably be set to peeling potatoes or washing clothes. I thought Molle and the guards looked tired. They had likely just got out of their own sick beds. On the way back down to our cell, Grimleif asked me to distract Torkil while he threw water at him. That sounded like a recipe for disaster. Despite Koldan’s apparent eagerness to get rid of Torkil, if I were to pick the two of my cellmates with the worst blood between them, it would be Torkil and Grimleif. Grimleif just has this way of antagonizing everyone. I said it would be better if Sindre washed Torkil, for I wasn’t about to volunteer for that task. Sindre asked Grimleif what they were going to do about their plan, and the two of them lowered their voices to confer. Then Sindre addressed the guards escorting us, telling them he didn’t think we’d be able to clean up Torkil. The guards just said to do our best. In our cell, Torkil had removed all his clothes and thrown them on the floor, along with a sick-soaked blanket. I piled it all up near the door. Grimleif and Sindre began washing the cell, but their minds were elsewhere, I think. Most uncharacteristically, I began telling them what to do, and surprisingly, they actually followed my instructions. Karya was helpful, at least insofar as to getting herself cleaned up, and I managed to convince Torkil to allow Sindre to scrub him. We had been promised one coupon each for the cell-cleaning job, but the guards must have been so impressed with how we even got Torkil all squeaky clean, they gave me six. I gave one to each of Sindre, Grimleif and Karya for the cleaning job, and two more to Sindre as tax for Karya and me. Grimleif had enough to pay for himself. Sindre asked if anyone wanted to hand over additional coupons so he could bribe people to find out where Koldan was. Nobody took him up on it. I thought Karya might have, or maybe Grimleif to help out a fellow dwarf, but I don’t think they felt they could afford to throw away coupons like that. I suspected they reckoned like me that he would come back without our interference. Or he might be dead, in which case dishing out coupons to locate his corpse would be a waste. I could tell Karya still held on to hope, so I didn’t say anything. Returning to Molle, I offered to peel potatoes, but all the spots were taken. Grimleif was sent to an officer’s cabin to scrub it down. I opted for clothes mending, hoping to see Gerd again, but she wasn’t there. I recalled her instructions from last week, and I earned another coupon for my efforts. I wasn’t fully recovered after the sickness, so I crashed onto my bunk when the guards escorted me back to the cell. I didn’t get any sleep. Even after nearly two weeks with these people, I still had the feeling that someone would try something. The only mean thing to happen was Grimleif using unpleasant language towards me, but he did that with everyone but Koldan, and I was beginning to believe that his bark was worse than his bite. His offers to make healing potions for people he didn’t even know made me think he had a soft heart under that gruff façade. I lined up as usual with the rest (except Torkil) at the back of the cell when the guards came with supper. The guards came back with a second serving for those who could pay for it, and Grimleif continued his trend of charitability and paid not only for an extra portion for himself, but also for Karya. I lay down to sleep after the meal thinking about Grimleif’s kindness, and it didn’t take long before I dozed off. |
Session 4 (2024-07-13)
4. Storm
15th of Høylys At breakfast, Karya said she would like to contact Bjorke to have him find out about Koldan and her knives. Sindre said he could help. He knew guards who could be bribed, but he needed at least two coupons so he could buy tobacco he could use to bribe them. Karya looked at Grimleif and me with begging eyes, but I didn’t want to facilitate rules breaking, so I shook my head. Grimleif only had one coupon, so he said he would have to see if he could better afford the bribe after today’s work, but Sindre said he could lend him one. Karya said she was good to work today, but I thought she still looked sick. I guess she felt she had to work to earn coupons for the bribe. We were last in line today, right behind a one-eyed woman covered in tattoos. She accused us of living in the same cell as Koldan and asked why he wasn’t with us today. I slipped behind Sindre so the scary lady wouldn’t pin me down with her eye, but Grimleif told her Koldan was in solitary confinement. The woman asked how he knew and how long Koldan had been away. Sindre jumped in and told her to mind her own business, which she seemed to respect. At least, she turned her back to us again. Two of her cellmates got her to calm down. Sindre said they were Claw members, but the woman was a high-ranking Honorable. I searched my memories, but I was certain I’d never seen her before my capture. Sindre pointed out some other Claw members and he described the top dogs. Viggo Vekt, the leader, at least here, was a fat man around forty years of age. According to Sindre, Viggo liked to wear lots of jewelry, but he wouldn’t have that on the ship. Viggo’s two lieutenants were Jon Blund and Nolle. Jon was young, in his twenties, and we could recognize him by his crooked left eye and some missing teeth. Nolle was a baby-faced woman of thirty or so years, blond but partially bald. I remembered having seen Viggo and Jon the day I juggled on another shift. Neither of them worked; they just relaxed on deck. Taxes and protection payments kept them with all the luxuries that could be acquired on board, like the smokes I had seen Viggo enjoy. Sindre confirmed that climbing in ranks led to a good life, and he promised he wouldn’t forget if we gave him a boost up the ladder. I overheard two of the ship’s crew talking, and one remarked that the weather was unexpectedly warm. I found that odd as it was the height of summer, with yesterday being the longest day of the year, but when the continuation of his sentence was “for being so far to the north,” it made more sense. Even a city dweller like me knew that it gets colder when you travel north and warmer when you go south. I looked around, and all I could see was open sea in all directions. There were no landmarks to be seen, but I wouldn’t have known any to recognize them anyway. It was just instinct that made me cast about for clues as to how far north we were. I felt foolish. When it finally was our turn to choose jobs, only scrubbing the decks was still available. Grimleif muttered contentedly to himself, but Karya was banned from that job. She flat out told Molle that she could offer sexual favors to the guards, which prompted the officer to have Karya escorted back to the cell. Molle offered me the opportunity to juggle during the third shift, and until then, I was allowed to stay outside and watch the plank wrestlers. Sindre declared that he was going to tell stories again. Molle just rolled her eyes at him and instructed him to remain on deck where she could keep an eye on him. I wasn’t keen to watch the plank wrestling, so I sat down on the outskirts of the crowd and studied the ship’s crew instead. That wasn’t very interesting either. Sindre went around talking to people, but he did no storytelling that I could see. A dwarf woman with brown hair flowing freely in the wind came over and took a seat next to me. “Hi,” she said. “Hi,” I replied warily. The woman believed we had a mutual acquaintance, someone skilled at sewing. She had to be talking about Gerd, one of the few people on board that I thought was nice. We went a little to the side so we could talk privately. The dwarf woman, Gyda, then tried to recruit me to her crew, the Shadows. She said it was important to be affiliated with a gang. I’d heard that before, and it didn’t resonate well with me this time either. So as not to offend her with a refusal, I told her I had to think about it. She warned me I had to decide before we arrived at our destination in two to four days. I asked what being a Shadow entailed. Gyda explained that they sought to control the flow of information and to balance the bigger actors. The Shadows tried to deal with everyone without stepping on anyone’s toes, all the while avoiding notice. This sounded more tempting than trying to join the Claw or the Honorables, and I said as much. Gyda left me to think about it after saying I could discuss the issue with our mutual friend. However, from what I knew of the Shadows from before, they were no more law-abiding than the other gangs except perhaps when it came to violent crimes, so I couldn’t really see myself joining them either. Besides, joining the Shadows might put me at odds with my cellmates, and if I was going to live with them for Vite knew how many years, I couldn’t afford to antagonize them. I’d much rather keep up my current arrangement of paying the Claw for my protection. A little while later, I noticed some guards dumping a roll of something over board. I only got a quick look at the jetsam, but I thought it looked vaguely shaped like a body. Perhaps someone hadn’t survived the sickness. It had to be a prisoner, the way they threw away the roll like it was trash. Someone from the crew or the guards would at least get sent off with a prayer to Veide. Or perhaps to Fare, seeing as it was into her sea the corpse was deposited. I idly pondered whether this issue might be a source of contention between the goddess of death and the goddess of the sea. According to the calendar, Veide and Fare aren’t the best of friends, but they shouldn’t be the worst of enemies either. I spotted the creepy guard again, the one with the crisscrossing scar on the cheek. He seemed to be talking about me with other guards and with several crewmen. I couldn’t think what I’d done to offend him. Maybe an ice elf had slighted him in the past, and my violet eyes reminded him of that. If that was the case, assurances that I was human would fall on deaf ears. The next thing to catch my attention was Sindre being grabbed by a guard and pulled below deck. They stayed below for ten minutes, and it looked like Sindre had received a talking-to, but when I approached him, a wide grin blossomed on his face. He must have bribed the guard and got the information he was after. That might best be shared in our cell, so instead of querying about his talk with the guard, I offered to bring any message he might have to his superiors. I was allowed on deck for the rest of the day, so it would be easy for me to talk to prisoners on the other shifts. Sindre had nothing that needed to be said to Viggo or anyone else, though. At the end of the shift, a guard came with Grimleif in tow, and he told Molle that Grimleif had stolen brandy from one of the cabins he was supposed to clean. Molle declared that Grimleif was demoted and would never receive an important job again. On the second shift, a small woman with short, dark hair came up to me. She folded her arms under her massive chest and glared, asking who I was, and accusing me of encroaching on her turf. I promised I wasn’t going to poach her customers. I was stunned. I might be fifteen, but I hardly looked it, and I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to approach me when someone like her made herself available. I kept an eye on her for the rest of the shift, and it was clear she had succeeded where Karya had failed, doing that particular brand of one-on-one entertainment; she vanished below with several guards during the four hours she was supposed to work. |
Session 4 (2024-07-13)
I didn’t see Viggo today, but Jon was hanging around the plank wrestlers. The creepy, scarfaced guard watched from his post nearby, so I moved over to where Molle sat. She did some writing work, and occasionally people came to make reports, but for the most part she played some board game with one of her guards. The two of them took turns placing stones on a square board, and it was a lot of thinking that went into choosing where to put the stones. Even without interruptions, it could take several minutes between moves.
Finally, the third shift came and it was time to juggle! Molle provided tent pegs and I threw them all up in the air. As they came back down, my hands darted for the lowest ones first, and I launched into my routine. When I handed the tent pegs back to Molle, she complimented me again and gave me five coupons. The creepy guard and another approached me as if to escort me down to my cell, but the way the former looked at me, I was sure I wouldn’t enjoy what they intended. I pleaded with Molle to assign another guard to escort me down, and she did what I asked but said this was the only time she was helping me with such inappropriate requests. Scarface couldn’t hide his annoyance that I’d slipped away, and I decided I wasn’t going to do anything alone anymore. Grimleif, Koldan, Karya and Sindre might not have much authority compared to the guards, but their presence might discourage the guards from breaking the rules. I was pretty sure that the creepy guard had in mind something that wasn’t allowed. Koldan was back when I entered our cell, and Torkil had once again seized every loose item and was playing on the floor. I ignored everyone and hid in my corner. Dinner was served almost before I had time to sit down, and I took the opportunity while Torkil ate to grab my things. I lay down to sleep afterwards, but I was so rattled I didn’t dare close my eyes for several hours. 16th of Høylys It felt like I had just fallen asleep when Koldan woke me again. He was lying in his bed, sleep-talking in his own language. He kept it going for maybe a quarter of an hour, after which I lay awake waiting for the next thing to upset me. Hours later, when the guards announced breakfast was coming soon, my eyes were still open. I didn’t notice yesterday, but Koldan looked like he’d been severely beaten, and Grimleif offered his medical expertise, hoping to help Koldan recover faster. Neither Koldan nor Karya had any coupons, so I paid for their breakfast, in addition to my own. When the guards came to fetch us for work, they announced that Koldan wasn’t allowed to work anymore. I hoped he’d get the Torkil treatment; Torkil couldn’t work either, and he didn’t have to pay for his food. We were first in line, and I suggested to Karya that we mended clothes. Karya asked why I wouldn’t want to juggle, and I told her I drew unwanted attention yesterday. Sindre said he would tell stories again, which made Molle roll her eyes, but she allowed it. Grimleif wanted to wash the decks, the very job he’d messed up yesterday. I expected Molle had barred him from that job, but she agreed that he could scrub the main deck. Gerd and two others followed Karya and me into the clothes mending room. One, Sindre had pointed out as a Claw member, but I didn’t know the other. After yesterday’s scare, I had trouble focusing on my work, and halfway through the shift I was told I had to get it together if I wanted to earn coupons or even be allowed back tomorrow. I managed to get some work done eventually, and I earned one coupon. Karya and Grimleif got two each, as did Sindre, so he must have told some decent stories in between all his plotting and planning. When we got back to the cell, Sindre reminded us that it was pay day. Karya paid for Koldan, but she wouldn’t have to pay for him again, as Sindre declared that he was now a full-fledged member of the Claw. I supposed whatever got him in trouble with the guards had earned him his membership. Karya said we had to get her knives tomorrow, because the voyage was soon over. Koldan said he might get through to the neighboring cell; perhaps we could get further from there. The walls between the cells weren’t as sturdy as the door or the wall to the hallway. Sindre said that one direction was preferred over the other, since it would be better if we emerged into a cell of Claw members rather than Honorables. On the outer wall was a boarded-up window from before the Southern Wind was refitted as a prisoner transport, and Koldan began to kick at it. Sindre and I stopped him. Even if the guards didn’t hear him, they certainly would see the next time they opened the hatch in the door, for the window was straight ahead. Koldan concluded that he wouldn’t be able to find Karya’s knives, but she might be able to get them herself. She knew where they were now. She just would have to sneak off from work tomorrow. The temperature dropped in the afternoon, and the ship began to rock under heavy winds. Everyone in our cell had grown accustomed to the movements of the ship by now, and only Torkil looked slightly uncomfortable. Not all the prisoners had found their sea legs, for we could hear vomiting from down the hall. It didn’t take long before the prisoners at work were sent down to their cells; they couldn’t work in such bad weather. I also picked up a shouted order of taking down the main sail. I sat on my bed cross-legged, trying to sway along with the ship, but I had to grab the bedframe during the worst heaves so I wouldn’t be thrown to the floor. When the evening meal came, it was hard biscuits and a strip of dried meat, and we didn’t have to stand with our hands behind our heads while waiting to be served, as that would quickly have us in a jumble on the floor. When the guards closed the hatch, I overheard one say to the other that he hoped the storm passed before we ran out of dry food. 17th of Høylys I was thrown out of bed several times during the night, and I got little sleep. When the guards came to wake us, they only had water. Torkil complained loudly at the lack of food, and Koldan told him the guards had food, but they didn’t want to share. Torkil pointed at Koldan and called him an ugly liar. When nobody came to get us for work, I lay down in my bed to get some sleep, but it wasn’t easy. After a while, Karya came and sat on the side of my bed. With one hand on the bedframe and one on my shoulder, she steadied us both, and I managed to get some rest. In the evening, we only got water again, and this time it was Grimleif who complained, but he wisely waited until the guards had left. Karya, bless her, continued to support me when I returned to bed. |
Session 4 (2024-07-13)
18th of Høylys
I woke in the middle of the night to shouting up on deck, but I couldn’t discern what was said. Then I heard a rope snap, and the Southern Wind shook for a moment before I was floating above the bunk. The weightlessness only lasted a moment, and then I was slammed back into the bunk at the same time a loud crack of splintering wood resounded through the night. We must have dived under water for a moment, for a little spray of sea water burst through the cracks in the boarded-up window. Someone was running in the hallway outside our cell, and Sindre stated the obvious, that this didn’t bode well. Grimleif said not to worry, though, for Nidhoggir watched over us. I have no idea who that is. Maybe it was another name for Fare, goddess of the sea? I prayed to her fervently for salvation. Koldan declared he wasn’t letting any of us drown, and he began to hammer on the door. Grimleif told him to use the bed as a makeshift battering ram. Usually coolheaded, Sindre lost his mind to fear. Torkil just sat up in his bed, staring into nothing. Koldan demolished Grimleif’s bottom bunk that Torkil already had broken. Wielding an improvised club, Koldan continued his attack on the door, but it seemed too sturdy against his wooden weapon. Grimleif suggested Koldan went after the light hatch above the door, but that was out of his reach. I recalled Koldan saying something earlier about breaking through to the neighboring cells, and I reminded him that this could be our way out. The sounds reaching us from outside indicated that the guards and crew were gone and that the ship was taken over by prisoners. Sindre wailed that they were coming to get us, and he wasn’t wrong. A young, redheaded boy peeked in the hatch and asked for a crossbow. I rushed past Torkil to hug the wall and I tried to pull him with me out of the line of fire, but he just sat there, far too large for me to budge. Koldan hurriedly held up a piece of plank to cover the hatch so the boy couldn’t take aim, but that didn’t stop him from shooting. The crossbow bolt tore through the plank and would have struck Torkil, but miraculously, he ducked aside and the bolt instead hit the wall behind him. Koldan called for the kid to open the door and fight like a man, but the boy laughed and ran away. Grimleif started to assist Koldan in making weapons from the broken bed, and he asked if Karya could use her magic to help us. She said she could make a hole somewhere, and Grimleif pointed at the door. Karya’s hands moved in a strange pattern, and she uttered an incantation, but nothing happened. After a few seconds, she staggered from exhaustion and said she couldn’t do it after all. Getting out of our cell took time. I didn’t know what to do to help, and my attempts at enlisting Torkil’s assistance were futile; he was adamant that the guards were going to punish us for this, and he wasn’t going to take part. We were shot at again, but that bolt also missed. Whoever was shooting, someone opposed to the Claw from their comments, didn’t think we were important enough to finish the job properly. Or maybe they were focused on escaping the sinking ship. For sinking it did. Every time a wave crashed against the side of the ship, I imagined it hit just a little higher than the last wave. There was enough panic in the room, so I kept that conclusion to myself and prayed. Once Koldan had a wide enough hole in the wall to the next cell, we left. Torkil refused to come, and he was too big for any of us to force. Sindre, in his panic, almost seemed to struggle against our efforts to get him through the wall, but the rest of us got through fairly easily. Grimleif made a last attempt to taunt Torkil into following, but he replied, “Ugly stinkyman, go away!” I poked my head back inside and informed Torkil that the ship was sinking and that he was going to drown if he didn’t move. His response was, “Drown, blubb-blubb! The ship goes up and down. Good bye!” The door to the hallway was open and the cell abandoned. Outside lay a dead guard, stripped of his belongings, but otherwise the hall was empty. We hurried towards the stairs, but with both Koldan and Karya staggering from exhaustion, it didn’t go so fast. The ship swayed heavily under the wind and the waves, and we had to hold on to the rope railing that went along the hall so we wouldn’t be thrown off our feet. The stairs leading down were submerged in water. Grimleif stated the obvious, that the ship was sinking. From the way Karya’s eyes went wild, she couldn’t have realized that before, which I found odd. Weren’t she and Koldan experienced sailors? We went upstairs to the next level. Karya’s knives should be in a room nearby, a room where guards slept. We passed more stripped corpses on the way there, but saw nobody alive. Sounds seeped through the ceiling, announcing the presence of people on deck. I assumed they were abandoning the ship, as we would do soon. The dormitory was cleared of most valuables, but we searched for Karya’s knives anyway. Everybody helped with the search, but it was Karya who found the knives. Grimleif discovered a roll of silk string. He cut off a length and used it to secure that big animal tooth of his around his neck. I got a bit of string too, and I hid in a corner with my back turned so the others wouldn’t see my medallion while I threaded the string through it. I stuck the medallion back between my breasts. I was pretty sure we were going to have to swim ashore, and while the medallion had stayed put so far, I would do anything to ensure I didn’t lose it to Fare’s dark depths. Grimleif peered out a hatch and reported that there was no land in sight. There had to be land in the other direction. Otherwise, we were doomed. Koldan led the way back to the stairs. Two dwarves holding broadswords came running the other way, and they had almost passed us when they stopped. “Wait a minute! I know that smell,” one said to the other. Koldan turned around and bellowed “Run!” And I ran. Behind me, one of the dwarves yelled, “Die, assassin!” A short fight broke loose on the stairs behind me, but my companions were quickly victorious. When everyone joined me up on deck, Grimleif was carrying one of the broadswords. Several corpses were strewn about the deck, and the living were clearly prisoners. Grimleif whispered that they were killing Claw members, so we had to get away quickly and unseen. Thankfully, the darkness of the night concealed who we were, at least as long as nobody came close. We needed something to help us float. There was land where I had hoped, but it was several hundred meters away. Sindre was still completely mindless and wouldn’t reply when we asked if he could swim. Grimleif and I were the only ones with even a sliver of a chance of getting to shore unaided. Koldan could swim, but not that far, not without regaining his strength first. Even if people weren’t out to kill us, the Southern Wind was going down soon. Koldan began to pry loose the wooden hatch covering the stairs. Grimleif, Karya and I dove inside the nobleman’s cabin. Sindre remained by Koldan’s side, staring vacantly into the night. The cabin was already plundered. Only three large chairs lay strewn on the floor, but Grimleif said we could use the curtains to tie them together to make a raft. Karya and I began tearing down the curtains and she set about making Grimleif’s raft. One other thing still hung on the wall, a rapier covered with gems. I picked it down, wondering why nobody had taken it. This rapier was probably the most valuable item on board, and I thought it might very well be the thing Grimleif had detected with his dwarven sense. But it wouldn’t float, so perhaps it wasn’t so valuable right now. I still tucked it behind my rope belt. It wasn’t so heavy that it would pull me under. I’m a decent swimmer, and it would be easy enough to lose it if I started to grow tired. Grimleif came back inside with an armful of ballista spears; I had been so taken with the rapier I hadn’t noticed he left. He asked if there were any curtains left to tie the spears together. They were large enough that they could make up another raft. I got Karya the rest of the curtains, and she tied them expertly around the spears. |
Session 4 (2024-07-13)
Grimleif warned us that we had to be quiet, for there were dangerous people in the neighboring cabin. Karya was afraid that they’d spot Sindre and Koldan, and I offered to fetch them. Between the two rafts we had made, we might be able to get all five of us to shore, and I pointed out that the windows in this cabin were large enough that we should be able to get even the chairs out that way. Grimleif put a hand on my arm and went in my stead, muttering something about worthless humans having crappy night vision. He brought our friends as fast as I could have, and I hadn’t been too keen on going back outside where I could be seen, although I was sure my companions were higher priority targets than myself.
Koldan tried snapping Sindre out of his daze, but it did no good. Grimleif approached the windows and was about to break them when I showed him how to open the windows. Maneuvering the chair raft through proved harder than I had first thought, and as we struggled, Grimleif began calling me names like half-elf bastard, and worse. Suddenly, five men burst into the cabin. Three of them wielded long knives. I recognized some of them from the third shift, when they were plank wrestling. “Who are you and what are you doing?” the leader asked in a low but fierce voice. Koldan brandished the sword Grimleif had taken from the other dwarves and roared at the strangers. “Shut up!!” the leader roared back. I scooted slowly and carefully towards the window not blocked by the chair raft. If a fight broke loose, I wouldn’t be any help. I had no misconceptions of being able to use the rapier in my belt, and while it would pain me to abandon my companions, I would rather live than follow them to their deaths. “Give us a reason not to kill you all,” the leader threatened. Nobody said anything, perhaps wisely. Sindre was the only one who had a way with words, and he was still catatonic. I continued my slow escape, but then Grimleif turned towards me. “Edel! Say something!” I froze. Everyone looked at me. “Um… If we all work together, we’ll all make it to shore alive?” I squeaked. “Can you swim?” the leader asked. “Yes,” replied Grimleif and nudged me in the side with his elbow. “Some of us can swim, but not all,” I clarified. “You’re not members of the damn Claw?” the leader continued, and Koldan, Grimleif and I all replied with a resounding “No!” The strangers wondered why we were inside this cabin when we could as well be outside, and I jumped in to say before anyone could put their feet in their mouths that this was where the chairs were. Grimleif said there were scary people outside, and I groaned inwardly. The strangers had two doors with them, torn off their hinges from wherever they had been hanging. I estimated that each of them could carry two people, and that our two rafts could as well. None of the strangers could swim, so Grimleif and I would need to get ashore unaided. I explained how we would do it. We would eject the four rafts through the windows, and then Grimleif and I would help everyone cling to a raft. I lay down on my stomach to show how everyone should move their legs to propel the rafts towards land. “Land is that way,” I said, pointing. Now, the ship was sinking so fast I could practically feel the floor lowering under us. The people outside felt it too, and a mass exodus began. Somewhere out there, crossbows snapped. Men shouted and screamed, and there were splashes when bodies hit the water, alive or dead. In the cabin, we quickly got the rafts out the windows. Grimleif and I climbed out after them. The distance down to the water, neckbreakingly high during the plank wrestling, was now considerably shorter. I jumped, with one hand on the rapier so I wouldn’t cut myself and one hand on my chest to secure the medallion. Ice cold water enveloped me, but I wasn’t under for long. The waves had dispersed our rafts, so Grimleif and I had to swim to retrieve them. As soon as I laid my hand on the bundle of ballista spears, Karya’s knot unraveled, but I was able to retie it. Hanging out the window, Koldan bellowed in his own language. Since he clearly wasn’t trying to tell me anything, I ignored the yell. I needed to preserve my strength for the long swim. When I was back at the ship, chair raft and spear raft pushed ahead of me, the Southern Wind lay markedly lower in the water. I repeated to the strangers how four of them should climb out and that two of them should grab each of my two rafts. Koldan, Sindre and Karya already clung to one of the door rafts, and Koldan began to swim, pushing the raft slowly towards shore. Grimleif brought the last door raft, and the last of the strangers came out and latched on to it. I swam over to them to see how Grimleif fared. He looked tired, but I thought he should be able to get ashore with help from the other man. Koldan struggled more. When I glanced over at them, Karya had fallen unconscious, and Koldan had to use all his strength to hold her head out of the water. I hurried over, and Grimleif and the stranger followed with their raft. Grimleif said we should move someone over to his raft; Koldan said that should be Sindre. Grimleif tried his best to move Sindre, but he clung to Koldan’s door, unresponsive to verbal urging. I slapped him across the cheek to snap him out of his catatonia, but that was a big mistake. Sindre screamed, pushed off the raft and began to pull Karya under. “Sindre!” I screamed desperately, only to watch him, Karya and Koldan sink below the surface. I glanced at Grimleif, pleading, but he shook his head. Clinging to the abandoned raft with my arms, I reached out with my legs, but I found only water. A few seconds later, Koldan reemerged, despair and sorrow in his eyes. There was no sign of Karya or Sindre. Resignedly, Koldan grabbed the raft, looking like he was on the verge of following his lover to the bottom. What little strength he had left, he needed to hold on to the raft, and I realized it was up to me to get us ashore. I needed to exert myself more than I had planned. When Koldan fell unconscious, which wouldn’t take long, I would have to split my efforts to keep his head above water. I soon lost track of Grimleif’s raft. After a while, I could make out where land was. I could vaguely see squarish shapes among the trees, an overgrown ruin city. Koldan muttered something in his own language. He sounded so resigned, I understood that he wanted me to let him die. I gritted my teeth and pushed on. We were nearly ashore when Koldan’s eyes closed and he slumped down over the raft, his face under water. I reached out and grabbed the hair on the back of his head, pulling to bend his head backwards so he could breathe. I blew a sigh of relief when my legs touched the bottom. I stood up, holding Koldan under his shoulders, and took a few moments to catch my breath. Then I pulled him up on the beach and into the shelter of some bushes. Turning around, I caught sight of Grimleif and his swimming partner. I waded out to them and helped them ashore. Grimleif sank down on the beach, thoroughly exhausted. His partner’s companions came sauntering down the beach, and they thanked us sincerely for the help. “Now what, Edel?” their leader asked, looking around for my other cellmates. I said we needed to find shelter. We might be out of the water, but we were all soaked through, and we might all freeze to death tonight if we couldn’t get a fire started. Along the beach, about half a kilometer away, stood a building that looked relatively intact, at least in the darkness and from this distance. “Let’s go there,” I suggested. Two of the strangers carried Koldan, and I had to support Grimleif if he were to walk. The others took a moment to pull our rafts out of the water. They stored them where Koldan had lain. We might find a use for them. |
Session 5 (2024-08-11)
5. Landfall
18th of Høylys (continued) This house was once a boathouse, but the roof was now partially collapsed, allowing rainwater to wet most of the floor. As shelters went, this was far from good, but it was the best we had; nobody was keen to haul the dwarves all the way to the ruined city in the rainy darkness. I asked if anyone knew how to make fire. I was surprised to hear a woman’s voice. In the dark, I had assumed all the strangers were men, for they all wore their hair short. The woman said we had to fix the roof as well as lighting a fire, and she asked one of the others, Snobben, to take two more with him and find wood for the fire. She would take care of the roof herself. I offered to assist her, and she asked the last of her friends, a one-armed man named Bjørn, to gather up needle-covered branches from the conifers around here while the two of us climbed up to inspect the roof. Bjørn nodded and walked after Snobben and the other two. Before we went up on the roof, the woman and I introduced ourselves. Her name was Lulla. Up close, I could see that her nose was crooked, as if it had been broken one time too many. I had no idea what to look for, but Lulla identified where we should put the branches to stop the leaks. We should be able to make an area of about three by three meters habitable, she said. Lulla warned me not to step onto the roof except directly above the walls, or I might fall through. She judged me to be nimbler than her, so she climbed back down with a promise that she would start sending up branches as soon as Bjørn returned. While I waited for the branches to arrive, I heard Koldan wake up and ask where we were and how long he’d been out. Grimleif told him we were on an island, and assured him he had been unconscious for less than an hour. Koldan also asked what tools we possessed, and I reminded him of the rapier I had taken from the ship and informed him that the strangers had three knives between them. One hour later, a fire was roaring inside the boathouse, and I had placed the last of Bjørn’s branches. Lulla came up to inspect my work. There were still a couple of leaks, so I supported her while she reached out to shift the branches slightly. When we came in from the rain, the leader of the strangers said we should all introduce ourselves. His name was Rune Mørk and the last of the men was called Karl Egil. Snobben said his name was Snurre, so Snobben must be a nickname. Rune explained that the five of them used to belong to Chieftain Jaggurd’s guard, but they were taken as war prisoners after losing a skirmish against the neighboring chieftain. I had never heard of their chieftain, but they all spoke Ardisk, so I guessed they came from Ardaland. On the ship, they were called the Jaggard, a pun on “Jaggurd” and “guard.” They were on the same shift as us, but we hadn’t had much to do with them. I gave my name as Edel, and Koldan gave his name too. Rune said he’d heard rumors about him, prompting Koldan to say that someone’s face collided with his fist. Grimleif just muttered “Grimleif.” Nobody commented on his scent. In the smoke-filled boathouse, the smell of burned food was almost concealed. Lulla and I went out to find materials to build a rack for drying clothes, and she observed that I had snagged quite the pretty knife. I mumbled that since nobody else had taken the jewel-covered rapier, I might as well do it. It wouldn’t do anyone any good on the bottom of the sea. Lulla got Karl Egil to help her build the rack, so I sat down by the fire to get some warmth. I tried to conceal my shock when all the former soldiers, Lulla included, took off all their clothes. Rune decided we had to keep watch during the night to keep the fire going and to make sure the clothes hanging nearby didn’t catch fire. Also, we had to keep an eye out for anyone trying to sneak up on us. Rune said we needed a lot more firewood, so I borrowed a knife and spent the first shift getting cold and wet again, gathering branches from the nearby trees. With Rune’s threat that someone hostile could be out there, I never ventured far from the boathouse. When I had built up what I deemed a sufficient supply of firewood, I relieved Koldan and Rune, and I woke Grimleif to keep watch with me. My clothes were mostly dry when I lay down to sleep a couple of hours later. I was so tired, I fell asleep almost immediately, but I woke to the sound of a voice challenging, “Who’s there?” I sat up and looked around. Through the door opening, I saw two figures who suddenly dashed off. Rune sighed and asked if anyone saw who they were. In the twilight, nobody got a good look at them, but Karl Egil, who had been on watch, said they were human. Rune said we shouldn’t go haring off after them, but he warned everyone to stay alert on their watches. One of the two on watch should stay outside the boathouse where they could more easily keep watch in all directions, just in case someone tried to sneak up on us again. If we were attacked, everyone had to pitch in, Rune said, his eyes commanding and fierce. Koldan promised that there would be at least three dead around his own corpse. I asked if anyone knew how to use a rapier; I certainly couldn't. Karl Egil raised his hand and said he was proficient with a wide range of weapons, so I let him borrow my weapon, and he passed his knife to Lulla. Koldan left to find a stick to use for a club, and I followed to look for stones I could throw at the enemies. I would do little good on the front line, but I might be able to support from the rear. Throwing stones at people shouldn’t be too different from throwing stuff into the air, but I dreaded the idea of using violence at another human being. Or elf, dwarf or orc, as the case might be. The beach was mostly mud, so there were few stones to be found outside. Luckily, the boathouse walls were made of stone and collapsed in a few places, and I was able to scavenge a pile of handy stones from there before I returned to sleep. |
Session 5 (2024-08-11)
The sun was shining, and quite high in the sky, when I finally woke up. Rune said he hoped everyone slept well. Then he asked who we were. He wanted more information about us than just our names, he said. I told him I was a street kid from Rødvik, but he interrupted and clarified that he wanted to know who we had aligned with on the ship. Grimleif snorted that we kept to ourselves for the most part, just trying to earn coupons for our food. Lulla said we had a cellmate who was a member of the Claw. Grimleif told her Sindre had been insane; he had killed Karya. Rune asked if anyone had tried to enlist us into their gangs. I replied truthfully that I had been approached by at least four recruiters, but I had turned them all down. Rune seemed to believe that my reply included Koldan and Grimleif too despite their acceptance of Sindre’s recruitment. When Rune and the others burst in on us in the nobleman’s cabin last night, they had been quite clear that they were hostile towards the Claw, so Koldan and Grimleif wisely kept their mouths shut now. Still, Rune checked our hands for Claw tattoos.
Rune took the Jaggard off to talk to them privately. I sat down and absentmindedly juggled with three of my newfound throwing weapons. Grimleif told Koldan that we needed to go into the woods to find food, and Koldan went to have a look around. Grimleif said there was a river about two kilometers down the beach, just outside the walls of the abandoned city, where we could procure drinking water. When Koldan came back, he said there was a makeshift raft not far away from the boathouse, but in the other direction, so someone must have come ashore near us. I thought maybe it was the same people that had tried to sneak up on us during the night. Grimleif said that in addition to food and water, we should look for things we could use as containers, for water and for things we gathered. I suggested we also looked for a place to stay that wasn’t as visible nor as decrepit as the boathouse. The Jaggard came back and we discussed what to do. Lulla wasn’t sure the river water would be safe to drink, not so soon after heavy rains. She seemed to know what she was about, but Rune asked if any of us had experience with survival in the wilderness. Koldan raised his hand, and Snobben said he thought we might find useful stuff along the beach, especially in a couple of hours, during the ebb-tide. Rune decided we should move towards the river and the city. I put two stones in each pocket and held one in my hand. Before we left, we poked through the debris in and around the boathouse, and Grimleif found a small, rusted metal cup and a skeleton clutching an old copper coin. He gave the coin to Koldan. Grimleif cut the sleeves off his shirt and knotted one end to make simple pouches. Snobben explained what to look for as we walked along the beach, what was edible and what wasn’t. I didn’t see much that someone else hadn’t already spotted, but I occasionally caught sight of fish, and on Snobben’s encouragement I tried to hit them with my stones. Throwing stones at fish was harder than I had first thought, and I didn’t hit any, although I managed to retrieve all the stones. Karl Egil, on the other hand, skewered a fish with the rapier. In addition, we gathered up enough clams and mussels to make a meal. Lulla said we should have brought embers from the fire so we wouldn’t have to start from scratch. When we reached the river, it was brown and not very appealing. Grimleif ignored the sight and drank his fill despite Lulla’s warnings. He said it tasted good, but Lulla repeated that we shouldn’t drink this. Instead, we should see if we could find somewhere in the city where rainwater had gathered. Koldan followed Grimleif’s example, but nobody else did. There was a suburb outside the mostly intact city wall, and we searched around there first. Maybe we could even find a well. We moved slowly up along the river which looked like it might have served as a moat for the city when it was inhabited. We saw the remains of drainage, possibly used to gather up rain water, but time and the elements had rendered them useless. Occasionally, we came upon footprints, presumably from other survivors of the shipwreck. Outside the open city gate was a bridge crossing the river, and we went inside. The buildings inside the wall were sturdier than those outside, but they had felt the effects of time too. Some looked like they could fall before a strong gust of wind, but there were others that looked almost like new, at least from a distance. Bjørn pointed out a small tower on top of a two-story building, which looked like it could be a water tank. There was no outside stair or ladder leading up, and the interior of the building had collapsed, including the second-story floor. Getting up to the tank looked impossible. Snobben and Lulla began to gather twigs and branches for a fire to prepare our food, while the rest of us focused on looking for useful items, more food, and somewhere to stay. I uncovered two rusted shovel heads. Even without hafts, we could use them to dig, and I was quite pleased with myself until Grimleif found a kitchen, fully stocked with utensils, although there was much rust there too. We found another building with a water tank on top, and while the interior stairs were long gone, we managed to climb up, first to the second story, and then through to the roof, by having everyone helping out. The tank was damaged, and held only about one tenth of its original capacity, but what was there was still enough to fill several water skins, had we had any. We stayed up there drinking until everyone was satisfied, and we were thirsty, let me tell you. The water level was considerably lower when we left. With a stove and intact walls and ceiling, the kitchen was where Rune decided we should stay. The eternal gratitude for helping the Jaggards get to shore alive had petered out, and Rune declared that our two groups would gather and prepare food separately. The tone between us was still amicable, but I felt a tension rising. Koldan and Bjørn began to sort out the food, and I started to clear out the bush that had grown out of the stove. We didn’t have near enough food to keep us going very long, so Rune said we had to go out again, both tonight and tomorrow. Karl Egil volunteered to make a ladder so we could access the first water tower. Bjørn and Koldan stayed behind to tidy up the kitchen, make a fire and cook. In the evening, Grimleif was still seething after he tripped and fell into the river. Having gone a full day without food and in the company of humans didn’t lighten his mood at all. The evening meal was most welcome, and we ate almost everything we had gathered so far. At least our group did; I didn’t keep track of whether the Jaggard stored anything away for later. We discussed whether we needed to keep watch during the night, and we agreed that we did. Rune volunteered Koldan to do it. He was injured and could do with a rest while we went out gathering food tomorrow, and he could sleep then. Keeping watch shouldn’t be too taxing. |
Session 5 (2024-08-11)
19th of Høylys
In the middle of the night, Karl Egil shouted that someone had been here. I reflexively put a hand on my chest to check that my medallion was still where it was supposed to be, then I asked if anything had been taken. Nobody replied, but Karl Egil and Rune ran into the night to look for the sneaks. There was no sign of Koldan, and he didn’t respond when Grimleif called either. The rest of us began a search for Koldan nearby. He could lie unconscious or dead where the sneaks had ambushed him, but in fact he stood on the roof, staring into the night. He pointed and whispered that someone was over there. We checked it out, but found nothing. After two hours, we gave up and went back to the kitchen. Rune said we should have two guards, so I volunteered to join Koldan since I was already awake, and I knew I would have trouble falling asleep again. As expected, it took a while to find sleep after my watch, but I managed to sleep through the night. Koldan burned the breakfast so bad, there wasn’t enough food for three of us. I insisted that Grimleif and Koldan shared what was left; they needed the food more than I did. After breakfast, we all went to the water tower, bringing pots and pans so we’d have water available at the kitchen. We took most of the water with us. It was good that Karl Egil was working on a ladder, for we probably needed to get to the other water tower soon. Koldan and Bjørn stayed behind with Karl Egil when the rest of us went to forage. Rune, Snobben and Lulla searched along the river, heading upstream, while Grimleif and I parallelled them in the forest, where Grimleif told me what to pick and what to leave. After a couple of hours, Grimleif spotted someone sneaking through the trees, and he said they were armed. I suggested we made our way back to the river, to the safety of numbers, but Grimleif called me an idiot; if we moved, we would be seen. We hid behind some bushes, and waited until we thought it was safe to resume the foraging. I moved on silent feet and kept my mouth shut. If the stalkers were still nearby, they could hear us otherwise. Suddenly, a small furry animal with long ears sticking up from its head peeked out from behind a tree just in front of me. I dropped it with a stone before it could react. Grimleif said it was a rabbit, and good food, but he shook his head when he realized I hadn’t known. When we got back to the kitchen, Grimleif borrowed a knife and thoroughly butchered the rabbit. He made a veritable mess, and what was left of the rabbit wasn’t edible anymore. It had to do with contamination from the intestines, or some such. I was heartbroken. I had looked forward to rabbit meat. We found enough greens to make up a meal, so it wasn’t a completely wasted trip. Rune banned Grimleif from ever trying to cook again. From what I saw, it looked more like Grimleif was searching for something inside the rabbit than preparing it for eating. Bjørn said three visitors had arrived while we were gone. They had asked if we knew anything about the Shadows, but both Bjørn and the visitors had been unwilling to be the first to reveal anything. Koldan had slept through the visit, and I thought perhaps that was for the better. He doesn’t quite have Grimleif’s way of turning everyone against him, but my impression is that he’s too hot-headed for his own good, way too eager to start a fight. Grimleif described the people we had seen in the woods, but they were not the same as the visitors. In the afternoon, we took another trip up along the river to forage. Grimleif and I went with the others this time. The alchemist found a mushroom that he said wasn’t poisonous, and we collected fish and mussels. After the evening meal, I felt slightly restored after my missed breakfast. Grimleif also found some medical herbs which he administered to Koldan, to help him heal faster. I took the first watch as usual, with Koldan who would stay up all night and sleep tomorrow. 20th of Høylys I was told someone tried to sneak up on us again tonight, but Koldan and Grimleif spotted them, and they ran away. Again, we didn’t have enough food for three at breakfast, so again, I skipped the meal. Rune said we all had to step up and improve our foraging skills. In fact, we should bring everyone with us, although that was more for safety. We should also bring the precious water with us. Karl Egil’s ladder was finished, so we brought it with us to the unexplored water tower. I climbed up and verified that this water tank was intact, and it was full of water, holding at least ten times the amount the other one had. We hid the ladder in a house a little further along before we all left town. We found a suitable spot in the woods for Koldan to rest. Bjørn stayed with him to guard him and our things while the rest of us went foraging again. Today it was my turn to fall into the river, but I got out quickly. The sun was out and the weather warm enough that I felt it was all right being a little wet. When we returned to the kitchen in the afternoon, the place was trashed, and someone had written with ash on the wall, “Get rid of the stinking dwarf or feel our wrath!” Rune asked Grimleif if he had anything unsettled with someone from the ship, but Grimleif thought the unknown enemy was someone from his past. Rune sighed and suggested we moved our base, so nobody would know where we were. Bjørn, Lulla and I were sent out to find a new home for us while the others went foraging again. Bjørn spotted a good place pretty early, but we weren’t meeting the others before sunset, so we still had some time to search. We didn’t find anywhere better, so when the time came, we went to the water tower where we had agreed to meet up. We retrieved the last water from the little tank, and then we went to have supper at our new place. Grimleif had found some magical ingredients for his alchemy, and he spent some time preparing them. I kept as much distance between myself and that as I could. When he was done, he served up the elixir to Koldan, who drank it without question. Nothing happened to Koldan that I could see, so I assumed he was fine and that the elixir had worked. Grimleif also gave Koldan medicinal herbs, and he said that the combination of the elixir and the herbs should speed up his recovery significantly. |
Session 5 (2024-08-11)
21st of Høylys
Grimleif must be as skilled an alchemist as he makes out, for Koldan said he was feeling much better this morning. I could tell Koldan wasn’t completely fine yet, but I didn’t think he’d lie about improving, not when that could jeopardize our safety. We needed to keep our new base of operations hidden, so Rune forbade fires during daylight hours, when smoke could be seen from far off. His plan was to set up camp in the woods. Someone could cook food there as the foragers brought it in. Lulla thought that the silt and mud that the storm had whipped up into the river water should be mostly settled on the bottom by now, so the water should be safe to drink, although she wanted to inspect the river before anyone tried drinking from it. The river passed her inspection, and we filled up most of our pots with river water. When we went foraging, I stumbled upon some channels of water under the turf, near the river. The channels were home to a colony of blue mussels, and we spent most of the day harvesting those. Grimleif discovered what once may have been an herb garden, and he stayed there to pick through the weeds for useful plants. At one point, I spotted a red, knitted cap behind a bush, but when I pointed it out to the others, it disappeared. I didn’t get a good look at the wearer, but I thought they were smaller than a human, unless they were a younger child than me. Rune was pleased that I found that mussel colony, for we now had food for a few days stored up. Now that we didn’t have to forage for a little while, we could use our time to explore and to gather information about the island. The prisoner camp that had been our destination was probably somewhere on this very island, Rune believed. I wasn’t so sure about that myself, but from what I’d heard on the ship, we might not be more than a day or two away. We should also begin making plans for the winter. True, it was the height of summer, but we were likely to remain on this island for some time. In the winter, we would need warmer clothes, and I thought we also might need a better shelter. If we could hunt down more animals, we could make needles from wood or bone, and sewing thread from sinew, and we could stitch together furs to make winter clothes. Grimleif and Bjørn had a discussion about alchemy, for it turned out that Bjørn had an uncle in the business. They spoke about healing potions and love elixirs, and they mentioned a brew called the Gentleman’s Aide, usable only by old men for some reason. They were rather vague about that. Maiden’s Regret, on the other hand, was a name I recognized. I wasn’t entirely certain, but I believed some of the ladies at the Perfumed Halls had mentioned it. Grimleif said he didn’t want to go exploring yet, as his herb garden had still a lot to yield. Koldan would also stay behind, since long days of walking might not be the best for his recovery. I was hesitant to leave them, for if there was anyone on this island I would entrust my safety to, it was those two dwarves. Rune had expressed eternal gratitude for saving the Jaggard’s lives, but that hadn’t lasted long. We were temporary allies, but Rune had made it clear that if we became liabilities, we would be on our own. |
Session 6 (2024-08-25)
6. A New Home
22nd of Høylys Today, I woke to the faint tapping of a light drizzle. Rune said we were going exploring today, and he asked if anyone possessed relevant skills, such as navigation. Grimleif said he could brew ale and doctor accounting books. Nobody chimed in with actually useful skills. Rune wanted to have two parties exploring different parts of the surrounding area, but I reminded him that Koldan was still too wounded to move very fast. Rune decided that Koldan, Grimleif, Karl Egil and Lulla should stay near the old herb garden so Koldan could rest and the others could forage, while he took Snobben, Bjørn and me along for a scouting trip. After considering, Rune chose to swap Lulla and me, for our group hadn’t built up quite as large a food store as theirs had, and it would be better if I could help with the foraging. We all went to the herb garden and then Rune took the scouting party farther inland. He said they would follow the river and see what they could find upstream. When they returned some hours later, they came from almost the opposite direction, and Rune was injured. Snobben was bare-chested, and Rune clutched his shirt against his stomach. The explorers had gone upstream and met other prisoners. The Honorables were camped just inside the northern city gate, farthest from the sea, and most others had gathered outside those gates, with the Brothers of the Warg, the Shadows, and the unaffiliated sharing a fire but living separately. Between the two camps, there were around fifty or sixty survivors living there now. Rumors said the Claw had settled further west, away from the city. The area north of the city was claimed by the other prisoners for foraging, and we were warned to stay away from there. The area around the city was surrounded by walls. Along with a strip of beach several kilometers long, the walls made a rough triangle. The walled-in area was mostly forest, except for a narrow band along the sea and the rivers. In the northern end of the triangle were more ruins, including a fortress. The explorers had followed the eastern wall back towards the beach, where another fortress stood. This one was occupied by guards and crewmen from the ship, and it was them that had shot Rune. After Grimleif had checked on the bandaging and given his nod of approval, Rune took the Jaggard aside to talk to them. Koldan took the opportunity to hear if Grimleif or I were proficient with ranged weapons. Grimleif said he could throw stuff or shoot a crossbow, although he admitted he wasn’t very skilled at either. I didn’t say anything since I didn’t want to fight anyone, but Grimleif pressed me for an answer. I whispered that I probably wouldn’t be very helpful if someone came to fight us. Koldan wondered if we could barter for a crossbow, but he had no idea who might be willing to give up such a valuable weapon. I asked if either of the dwarves knew why the guards had taken up residence in the old fortress, if the prison camp was somewhere on the island. They didn’t know. Maybe we had been wrong to assume that the prison camp was here. According to Lulla, there were wild boars in the forest, and Koldan suggested we dug a pit trap to catch them. He talked to the Jaggard about it too, and Lulla warned him that if we were to hunt the boars, we ought to be really careful, for they were immensely dangerous, and easily angered. Koldan wanted to chase the beasts into the trap, but nobody wanted to go along with that plan. I proposed that we could make the trap far from where we stayed, so if some of the boars fell into the trap, the rest wouldn’t know we were to blame. We could perhaps check the trap once a day to see if we’d caught anything. 23rd of Høylys While we were having breakfast, a group of three prisoners walked past us. I hushed the others, so we wouldn’t be spotted. Grimleif muttered about one of them being mean. We watched in silence until the trio had passed. Rune said we were going to explore the ruined city today, and that tonight, we would join those camped outside the northern gate. I was just starting to come to terms with our current living arrangements, but it would take some time to truly feel comfortable around the Jaggard. Why did we have to join a new bunch of strangers? I said nothing, trusting the grown-ups to know best. Grimleif whispered to me that perhaps we should seek out the Claw instead. I shrugged noncommittally. I wouldn’t be any more comfortable there. Grimleif whispered to Koldan too, and he replied that as long as we had food, it didn’t matter who we lived with. While exploring the city, we spread out so we could cover more ground, but not so far that we couldn’t call for help. Once, I caught sight of Bjørn, and he was dragging a long metal chain after him. It looked sturdy, but I wondered what he meant to use it for. He saw me staring and said the chain might come in handy. Near the beach stood what once might have been a palace, or perhaps a fort, or a combination of the two. I found a stone shed on the outskirts of the palace area. Inside were several useful things: A couple of hammer heads that we should be able to make handles for, a sickle, a digging bar and a garden fork. The digging bar was so heavy I didn’t want to haul it along the rest of the day, but Koldan took it; I gathered up the rest of the things. Soon after we left the shed, Koldan’s dwarven sense triggered. Koldan, Grimleif and I split off from the Jaggard to investigate. We made our way inside the palace, climbing over a tall pile of rubble, and soon found ourselves in a large chamber. Suddenly, a vision appeared before me. The throne room was filled with guards and nobles, and on the thrones sat a king and a queen. The vision was shared by Koldan and Grimleif, and Koldan exclaimed that we should be able to find weapons here, although what he had sensed was probably a coin similar to the one Grimleif had found in the boathouse. Grimleif found a spot of rubble that he said concealed stairs down to the basement, and we spent some time clearing it away, only to discover that he had been mistaken. Grimleif continued poking about there, but Koldan and I walked over to the thrones. The coin he had sensed lay on one of the seats. “Oh, they are all so incompetent! There is a serial killer on the loose, and all they can do is make elaborate excuses and shoving responsibility around!” I looked see who had spoken, but there was nobody there. I shuddered; the palace was clearly haunted. The voice had spoken in a foreign language, I was certain, but I could still understand. Grimleif insisted the man had spoken Ardisk. Koldan pointed at two walls that had toppled towards each other, wanting to investigate. I went with him. I didn’t want to be left alone with the ghosts. We started digging. After a while, I heard Karl Egil’s voice calling from outside. Relieved to have an excuse to go, I volunteered to go talk to him. The whole Jaggard was there. They wondered where we had been, and I told them we were digging around inside, but we hadn’t found anything of value yet. Rune pointed out where they were going to explore next and said we should catch up within the hour. When I returned to Koldan, he had uncovered stairs leading down, and Grimleif and I helped him clear away enough wreckage that the dwarves could go down to explore. They could see in the dark. I couldn’t. The cellar was close enough to the apparitions we had seen earlier that I feared there might be ghosts below as well, and if I had to encounter ghosts again, I’d rather do it where I could see, so I stayed above the stairs, waiting. Koldan and Grimleif returned after a few minutes with a full set of plate armor, another helmet, two javelins and an axe head. They had left behind the rest of the scale mail, and I wondered why they had even brought the plate. It was far too big for either of them, and while I might almost be tall enough to wear it, I’d just collapse under the weight. We could make a handle for the axe, and it would be very useful. The javelins could be used for hunting or even fighting, but the armor puzzled me. The Jaggard was impressed with our find, and Rune offered to trade one of their knives for the plate. A knife should be infinitely more useful than a suit of armor, especially one that lacked straps for holding it in place. The leather, or whatever material had been used originally, had long since rotted away. Koldan and Grimleif didn’t think the price was right and they went aside to confer. After a couple of minutes, Grimleif waved me over to get my opinion. I told the truth, that a knife was a valuable tool, but an armor was useless weight. Grimleif and Rune haggled, and the Jaggard ended up passing over a knife, seven food rations and Bjørn’s twelve meters of metal chain for the plate armor. After lunch, Bjørn and Karl Egil snuck off to the armory, and they retrieved the scale mail before Grimleif and Koldan could get there. Koldan and Grimleif grumbled about it. I didn’t mind very much. If there was fighting to be done, I would rather have the Jaggard take care of it, being professional soldiers and all. I didn’t think they’d suddenly turn on us. But I’m just a kid; what do I know? |
Session 6 (2024-08-25)
Rune said the Jaggard was going to join the unaligned outside the city walls. If we wanted to stay with them, we had to explain how we could be useful to them; in that case, they would recruit us and offer their protection. We were allowed to confer.
Koldan was indifferent. He thought we could just as well set off on our own, going upriver and making camp in the woods. Grimleif had mortal enemies in the Brothers of the Warg, so he opposed camping near them. Maybe we could go to the Claw instead? I said if we were to team up with criminals, I would prefer it being the Honorables. I didn’t trust Koldan and Grimleif with an explanation, but the voice from before spoke again. He said that we shouldn’t join criminals, for we belonged to him. “Who are you?” I asked, but I got no response. Koldan drew a circle on the ground, with eight evenly spaced arrows pointing out of it. He tossed the two copper coins into the air and looked where they landed. In the middle of the city, it was difficult to determine directions, but I believed the coins had landed near the arrow pointing to the north-west. Grimleif and Koldan didn’t agree, but they didn’t agree with each other’s interpretation either. His attempt at divination had clearly failed, so Koldan suggested we tried to enlist with the Jaggard, since they were the only ones who weren’t criminals. If they wouldn’t take us, we would go up the river. Grimleif and I agreed. I asked Rune what they required of us. There were two things. First, I needed to show that I could be useful to them. Grimleif had already displayed his healing skills, and Koldan could fight. Secondly, we had to show the Brothers of the Warg that we were no easy prey. I racked my brain. Juggling was not a useful skill on a deserted island. I claimed to have done fairly well at foraging for food, but Rune scoffed. He wouldn’t accept my claims about being a keen-eyed observer, and he disregarded my ability to move silently. I didn’t allege to have great skill in those fields, but I thought I was better at them than the average person. As a last-ditch effort for acceptance, I hefted Koldan’s javelins, one in each hand. I had never thrown one before, but it couldn’t be too different from throwing pebbles at windows to alert my friends that the homeowners were returning. Karl Egil, the Jaggard weapon master, administered my test. First, I demonstrated that I was able to hit a tree ten meters away. Then he upped the difficulty. He counted down quickly, not giving me time to aim properly before I threw. Finally, he started shoving me just before I was about to throw. I missed on the more difficult throws, but Lulla spoke up on my behalf, asking Rune if he thought he could hit that tree while Karl Egil was distracting like that. Rune grunted acceptance when Karl Egil said I’d satisfied him. Grimleif said he was going to gather magical ingredients for alchemical elixirs that would enable us to do something about the Brothers of the Warg. He would need a week to finish the brew. Koldan had another plan, but his grasp of our language failed him. His plan apparently required us to knock him unconscious, but that didn’t make sense to me. The Honorables had made camp inside the city’s northern gate, and they had built barricades. We had to pay them two food rations to pass. A boy around my age scowled at Koldan and received a rude gesture in return, but he made no trouble for us. Outside the gate, we crossed a bridge over a water-filled trench. Then we were in the outer city and soon came upon a bonfire where two streets met. On three sides of the street intersection, prisoners from the ship had taken residence in the half-ruined buildings. Conifer branches were piled up on the roofs to stop leaks, just like we had done on the boathouse. While they shared the big fire, the people were separated by more than ancient streets. I could almost feel the tension in the air. Rune said we were taking the fourth street corner. I went to study the houses that Rune had indicated. It wouldn’t do to have a roof fall on us while we slept. Karl Egil and Snobben came with me, and they agreed that the second house looked most safe. The slanting roof was covered with shingles, and it looked sound from the outside, but puddles had formed on the floor inside where rain water had found a way through. The house had once consisted of two rooms, one about double the size of the other, but now the wall between them lay in a collapsed heap. I dumped my sizeable pile of belongings, which now included the two javelins, in a corner, and then I began to clear out the stones from the wall heap. I imagined it would take me half the night to remove all the rubble, but everyone chipped in and we got it done in a jiffy. For now, we piled up the stones in the alley behind the house. Lulla and I climbed up on the roof to see if we could figure out how to repair it, and Grimleif and Snobben helped from below to pinpoint the leaks. The roof tiles were covered with moss and the footing was treacherous in the light rain that had gone on for the last couple of days, but the roof seemed solid enough that we should be able to walk on it without crashing through. Lulla proposed we made wooden gutters to gather up the rain water, although she wasn’t sure how safe it would be to drink after running through the moss and dirt. This was all work for later; there were enough dry patches on the floor that we should find sleeping spots for everyone. Rune said the Brothers of the Warg didn’t know we were here yet, and we would have the opportunity to confront them later. Koldan said he wanted to challenge their champion to a duel, and Grimleif offered to make elixirs to help him, but Rune said that nobody would benefit from people getting injured. Injured people couldn’t pull the same weight as hale people. He said it was all right if we wanted to threaten violence, but it shouldn’t come to blows. Rune decided that he and Koldan would watch through the night, so I found my corner and closed my eyes. The ghostly voice spoke. “Oh, it’s been such a long day. Grubb, you must remember to fetch a new pot, you’re so forgetful! Good night!” I had a sense the voice had been addressing Grimleif, who muttered that perhaps we should barter for a pot tomorrow. Snobben didn’t seem to have heard the voice, for he said we should just do our business in the alley; no need for a chamber pot. Grimleif asked who Grubb was, and I said I thought the voice had been talking to him. He began calling me names, chastising me for misunderstanding. His name was Grimleif, not Grubb. I wasn’t so sure about that. It wouldn’t be too far a stretch to guess that Grimleif wasn’t his real name. I wasn’t telling anybody my real name either. I tossed and turned for hours. The hard stone floor didn’t bother me; I was used to sleeping rough. It was the presence of all those people, just outside. I could hear them, barely. Talking, so faint I couldn’t make out words, then someone’s snore, which had to be terribly loud for those trying to sleep much closer. It all reminded me that there were strangers nearby. Dangerous folk. 24th of Høylys I had just fallen asleep when Koldan yelled “Stop!” and rushed outside. A few seconds later, he shouted that the next person who tried to sneak up on us would get a fist to the face. When he returned, he said he’d followed the culprits to the home of the Brothers of the Warg. Rune said we should go back to sleep and deal with it in the morning. An unfamiliar voice woke me at dawn. “Ella, it was a late night yesterday. Can’t I have breakfast in bed? And take care so you don’t trip over the rug again.” I got the feeling that the voice had spoken to me, so I sat up and looked around. I asked if anyone else heard the voice. Koldan and Grimleif said yes, but the Jaggard just stared at me as if they had no idea what I was talking about. I wondered if it was time to get up, but Rune said we could sleep a little longer. |
A Note About Languages
Languages
The countries around Ardaland are all part of the Viking culture in north-eastern Heimsmark, and while most of them have their own language, all the languages are descended from Alltungemålet ("the common tongue"), and speakers of one language can generally and for the most part understand what speakers of other languages are trying to convey. In game terms, if you learn one language to Accented level or better, you automatically gain all the other languages at one level lower, although the GM may require a period of getting used to a language the first time you encounter it. There are a few other regional language groups that work similarly, found further away from Ardaland and the Viking region. These include the "racial" languages of dwarves and elves. Orcs (the last major race on Heimsmark, after humans, elves and dwarves) also have their own language, but they don't have a country or an area where that language is the official one. Relevant for this campaign, people from Immelheim (like Koldan Antonov) speak Flamsk. Linguists can trace that language's roots back to Alltungemålet, but being geographically and politically isolated from the rest of the language group for a millennium has made Flamsk develop in another direction, rendering it unintelligible by those speaking modern Viking languages. |
Session 7 (2024-09-08)
7. Encounters in the Woods
24th of Høylys (continued) Rune didn’t take his own advice. He had a morning meeting. Koldan asked what that meant. I could have said it meant Rune was going to meet some people this morning, but Grimleif’s explanation made it sound more formal. He added that Rune was meeting with other faction leaders, presumably to discuss topics that involved the entire camp. I was allowed to sleep a few hours before Rune woke everyone. He declared that it was pouring down outside, as if that wasn’t glaringly obvious. I poked Grimleif’s shoulder and whispered that it might be a good idea to build a fireplace inside so we wouldn’t have to go outside to cook our food on the great bonfire. Rune decided that we should come up with a list of things we needed to do to improve our living space, and he inexplicably wanted to have the list written down. I asked why it was necessary to write it down when we could just remember; it wasn’t like we’d ever forget that the roof leaked, for instance. The grownups just stared at me for being a stupid child. Nobody had anything to write with or on, so Koldan tore up one of the floor tiles and Grimleif scraped off the thin layer of moss before taking up a hammer head, ready to carve words onto the stone. The grownups came up with these items: Fixing the leaky roof, creating a storage tank for rain-water, digging a latrine, making an oven, barricading doors and windows, finding a method for preserving food and acquiring leather to make straps for the suits of armor we found yesterday. Rune said the Claw had a tanner amongst them, and he wanted Grimleif, Koldan and me to seek him out. Of all the people in this camp, we were probably on best terms with the Claw. I wondered briefly if Grimleif or Koldan had been stupid enough to admit membership of that group, but then I recalled we had claimed to be unaligned, although we had gotten along well with Sindre, a known Claw member, before he drowned. Rune informed us that yesterday one of the Shadows had walked into a primitive trap and had been poisoned. At the morning meeting, it was concluded that it was unlikely the guards from the eastern fort had made the trap. Tensions between the different groups in this camp were high, so it could very well be someone here that had made the trap, and Rune admitted that the others believed us to be the most likely culprits. We knew we hadn’t done it, of course, but nobody would take our word for it. Another possibility was the Claw, so Rune wanted us to find out what they knew about it, since we were going to them anyway. He added that we should find out as much about their activities as possible. Koldan and Rune had stayed up all night to keep watch, and they were going to sleep now. When Koldan woke, we should leave for the Claw’s camp, but Grimleif and I should help out with the home improvement until then. Karl Egil was in charge while Rune slept, and he offered to make hafts and handles for the tools we found yesterday for the price of one hammer head. I glanced at Grimleif, who said he agreed to the deal. While Karl Egil and Lulla worked on the tools, the rest of us should start working on the oven and the latrine. After a bit of brainstorming, Bjørn and I went off to look for a suitable place for the latrine in the nearby area. Karl Egil had emphasized that we should consider the area as hostile territory, so we had to consider safety; one was particularly vulnerable while doing one’s business. We checked out the closest buildings on our corner of the street intersection, but none seemed suitable, and in the end, we decided our best option was to set aside a corner of our house for a latrine. It might not be too pleasant, odor-wise, but it would certainly be safer than any other place we could have found. And come to think of it, it probably won’t smell worse than Grimleif. While we were out, Grimleif and Snobben went to talk to the potter Bjørg. She agreed to instruct them in how to build an oven with rocks and clay for a bit of food. Grimleif also offered to examine her injured arm, and when Bjørn and I returned, he was rubbing a salve he had made on the arm. There were two windows in our house, one in the corner where I’d slept, with a view out to the main street, and one on the middle of the back wall. We agreed that it would be best to have the latrine in the corner and the oven centrally placed to best heat up the building. Grimleif grumbled about it, though. He had wanted to build the oven in the corner. After Bjørn and I had dug a nice hole in the corner, Snobben suggested we put some thought to how to get some privacy. I thought it was more important with a frame to sit on. Squatting over a latrine pit could be difficult. Incredibly, I won the argument, so when Bjørn and I went back out again, it was to cut wood for my frame, but a privacy screen of some kind would probably be next. Karl Egil and Lulla hadn’t finished making a handle for the axe head we had found, so we had to make do with a knife. We cut up the logs into suitable lengths and then carved them so they would fit as we built up the frame. The construction turned out to be quite rickety, but it could easily be disassembled when we needed to empty the pit. I didn’t think it would collapse under anyone using it, not unless they actively wanted to fall into the latrine. Later, when we have access to more tools than just a knife, we can make something better. Grimleif and Snobben did even worse with the oven. When Bjørg came to inspect it, she said they had to take it apart and start again. That was just around the time when Rune and Koldan finished their rest, and we ate. Rune wanted Grimleif, Koldan and me to go to the Claw after the meal, so the others would take over our tasks. I picked up the two javelins, handing one to Koldan. Grimleif brought his two improvised sacks with most of our remaining food, for bartering with the Claw. Maybe we could do some hunting on the way as well? First, we had to decide how to cross the western river. According to Rune, there was a bridge over it a couple of kilometers north of the city. The bridge at the western city gate had crumbled a long time ago, so we couldn’t use that. As soon as we stepped foot outside our house, the rain had us drenched through. We couldn’t get any wetter if we swam over the river, so I suggested we went straight towards the Claw’s camp; going up to the bridge would take at least an hour longer. On the way to the river, we passed a couple of Honorables coming the other way. I wanted to scowl at them, but I didn’t dare. It wasn’t fair that they blocked the city gate with barricades and demanded a food tax for anyone wanting to pass. The river was almost ten meters wide at the north-west corner of the city walls. I took one of the food bags in one hand and put the javelin in my mouth, wading into the river. It got deep quickly, so I turned around, leaned back and swam, holding the food above the water. Grimleif and Koldan threw their belongings over. The second food bag landed in the mud on the bank with a wet splat, and I hurriedly scooped it up before it soaked up too much mud. Once Grimleif and Koldan had crossed, we estimated the direction to the Claw’s camp and set off into the forest. I led the way, trying to keep us going straight, but it wasn’t long before Grimleif laid into me. He accused me of having no sense of direction. I tried to ignore his insults, which basically said that my head was too far away from my feet to know where they were going, but with fouler word choices interspersed with racial slurs. The rain camouflaged the tears running down my face as we proceeded, this time with Grimleif in front. I hated when he talked to me like that. I bet it was his tongue that landed him on the Southern Wind in the first place, and it would surely get him in trouble again. It was probably the cause of his difficulties with the Brothers of the Warg, too. I had to conceal a grin when we emerged from the trees onto the beach. Grimleif had overcompensated from my taking us too far to the right. At least now we could follow the beach the rest of the way. Grimleif’s grumbling about my poor navigation only bolstered my mood, for it was clear he had wanted to go straight to the fort where the Claw were said to hole up. “Stop where you are! Put up your hands!” We had just come in sight of the fort when the challenge came from among the trees. I did as the voice said, and so did Grimleif and Koldan, although Grimleif rolled his eyes. Two men and a woman approached us. The woman held a loaded crossbow; the men had a knife and a baton. The woman asked what our errand was, adding that she hoped we weren’t spying for the Honorables. Grimleif nudged Koldan to reply. He said we had come to trade. “First, we want to know what your relationship is with the Honorables and what they are up to,” the woman replied. Grimleif answered that the Honorables had made camp in the north part of the city and Koldan said they had set up traps in the woods. The woman asked if we knew if any of the guards from the ship had come ashore. Grimleif informed her about their fort on the other side of the city. He said theirs was much more intact than this ruin. |
Session 7 (2024-09-08)
Grimleif played on our friendship with Sindre, which made the woman recognize Koldan as the one with a reputation for beating up certain wimps. The trio remembered me as well, the juggler. They invited us to come into their camp, but they said we needed to do something about our weapons. Koldan tied his food bag to the end of his javelin, but I was allowed to hold mine in hand if I gripped the weapon at the tip. I did as they instructed. The woman, Vigrid, showed the way to the Claw’s campfire.
The Claw looked to have set up in smaller buildings just outside the fort. There were four gangsters huddled up around the fire, an ice elf and three humans, and another was climbing a tree trunk high up on the fort, drawing Koldan’s interest. Bjarne, the tanner, was out foraging for food, we learned. Koldan went to climb the fort while we waited for Bjarne to return, but Grimleif and I stayed by the fire. The Claw members found Grimleif’s vocabulary charming, which almost made me drop the stones I was juggling. Grimleif managed to draw some information out of the Claw. One of them told us they had encountered a strange creature wandering the woods. About the size of a dwarf, she had red skin and sprouted horns from her head. She wore fine clothes and carried a large backpack, and she appeared to be a trader of some kind. She wasn’t interested in dealing with the Claw and hadn’t displayed her wares, but she wanted them to find her again if they discovered any coins to trade with. Another thing the Claw had observed was an abandoned village of wooden houses. The houses had recently been inhabitated. Maybe whoever lived there had left when they saw people starting to wash up on the shore. After a while, the foraging party returned. Koldan had satisfied his curiosity and was back, but it was me that Grimleif wanted to talk to the tanner. I walked over to Bjarne, still juggling. Bjarne complimented my skill, but he made me feel like an even younger child than I actually am. I upped the difficulty of the routine while asking if he had any leather for sale. The tannery was situated well away from the camp, almost all the way back to the beach. What material Bjarne had available now wasn’t properly treated; that process would take several weeks. He could sell us some cleaned rabbit skins, but they would likely rot within a couple of months, although by then, he should have something better for sale. Grimleif handed over three food rations for a few rabbit skins, and then asked how much for a crossbow. Bjarne just laughed. The Claw wasn’t willing to give up something that valuable for any amount of food. We went back to the camp, for the dwarves wanted to interrogate the Claw about poisoned traps. When we got back, more people had gathered around the campfire. I recognized Nolle, one of the leaders of the Claw. Jon Blund and Viggo Vekt weren’t there, and I suspected they had not survived the shipwreck. It was clear Nolle was in charge, at least for the moment. Grimleif wanted us to mingle with the Claw, but Nolle wanted to know who we were first. Grimleif gave his name and occupation of alchemist, and Koldan said he was Grimleif’s bodyguard. Nolle stared at me. “Edel,” I whispered before my throat seized up under that menacing gaze, but Nolle was satisfied. She said as long as we weren’t friends with the Honorables, we were welcome in the Claw’s camp. Grimleif warned everyone that someone was going around making poisoned traps in the woods. One of the Claw members whispered something to Nolle, who asked if we were seeking information. Grimleif replied with an insult and had to part with almost all the remaining food for the information we sought. The Claw had found snares near the river, further inland, but no poison. We set the course for home, and it didn’t take long before Grimleif started to argue about the direction again. I didn’t dare fight back, so I silently accepted that we might have to take a detour of a couple of hours before we got back to our house. Suddenly, Koldan and Grimleif pointed up ahead. They had caught sight of the strange creature the Claw had told us about, the red-skinned, horned little woman. She held up an umbrella to protect her from the rain and waved back to us when the dwarves hailed her. The woman removed her backpack and set up a tent, which we entered. Up close, I could see that she was even shorter than Grimleif, although not by much. I thought she looked like a city merchant, not at all what I would expect of someone traipsing through the trees. Her wide smile showed sharp teeth, but it was a warm and gentle smile nevertheless. I felt welcome in her tent, and almost safe. Grimleif introduced himself politely, and the merchant bowed and replied that her name was Grima Valtutten. She and Koldan exchanged a few words in his language. Then she looked at me and said something unintelligible before switching to what sounded like Ardisk. “Would you give me the pleasure of knowing your name, miss?” she asked. “Edel,” I responded, not quite in a whisper. Grima said it was nice to cross paths with us. She traded in what was not mundane, and if we have coins, we can buy her wares and services. Koldan asked to see what she had, but Grima asked us instead to tell her what we needed. Koldan wanted something to let us see who it was, the strange voice who had talked to us but which the Jaggard hadn’t heard. Grima said she had potions that could let us see invisible things, but she warned us that voices could appear without anything making them, visible or invisible. Grimleif asked if there was anything I wanted. I said I wanted to go back home to Rødvik, but that would apparently be more expensive than we could afford with our two coins. Koldan said he was willing to give up a coin for something I couldn’t quite catch. Grima, who clearly knew every language in the world, offered to translate without any cost. She explained that Koldan wanted information about the voice. I thought he seemed very curious about it, but I couldn’t fathom why. The ghost, or whatever it was, clearly couldn’t hear us when we spoke back to it, so it wasn’t as if it would help us any to learn who they were. The ramblings had nothing to do with us, and I said as much. Grimleif interjected that he would like a magical alchemy set. I thought that sounded much more useful, but Grima didn’t appear to have one available. In the end, I managed to convince the dwarves that we should hang on to one of the coins. If we spent both now on frivolous requests, we would regret it later, when we discovered that there was something we desperately needed. Koldan paid one coin for information about the unseen speaker. Grima explained that as we discovered the old coins, something happened to us that allowed the souls of the lost nation of Gardheim to communicate with us. The voice that had followed us was Sivir the Fourth, the last king of Gardheim. He was a king with limited power, Grima claimed. A reasonable assumption, if he was the last king of a fallen nation, I thought. Sivir believes that we are someone he knew while he lived. When Grima had no more to say, we said goodbye to her. Grimleif called her a red-skinned devil, but she merely smiled and bowed. She remained still inside her tent, watching us until we couldn’t see her any longer. After a while, we came to a river, with a wall on the other side. Had we come back to the city, or had we turned around in the rain and found the outer wall? I gave my opinion, then let Grimleif and Koldan argue. It turned out that Koldan had mistakenly swapped the words for “left” and “right,” and when that became clear, the two dwarves were in total agreement. We went left. It didn’t take long before we were at the north-west corner of the city. We tossed our things over the river and swam across. Then it was just a short walk back to the house. Inside, the Jaggard had made a flimsy-looking privacy screen for the latrine, but the oven looked sturdier. I hurried over to warm myself, reveling in the heat from the oven’s blazing fire. Lulla was curious about our trip, but not so much that she didn’t take the time to fetch Rune first. We handed over the rabbit skins and told what we had learned. Rune said someone in one of the neighboring houses had seen a small creature wearing a red cap, but that was obviously not Grima. Grimleif thought she was magical. Rune wanted Grimleif to try to identify the poison used to in the trap the Shadow member had triggered. He thought it was one of the former prisoners that had made the trap, but I believed it more likely to be a local trying to chase us away, possibly the wearer of the red cap. Grimleif agreed to examine the Shadow tomorrow. I curled up near the oven, tired after a long day, but Grimleif began to brew an alchemical concoction for Koldan’s wounds. The sounds of his tinkering were strangely soothing, and I had almost fallen asleep when a voice said, “Try not to lean on the wall while you’re keeping watch, Elg, for you know what will happen!” Grimleif looked about, asking what wall, but I recognized Sivir’s voice. |
Session 7 (2024-09-08)
25th of Høylys
The sun was shining today, and Grimleif thought it was an excellent opportunity to go out and forage. We had only left enough food for a day or two, even after Rune paid us back for the rabbit skins. Lulla agreed that today was foraging day, but Rune reminded Grimleif that he had promised to examine the poisoned Shadow. Grimleif asked Koldan to accompany him, for he didn’t want to go alone. Koldan said he could sleep after, for he had stayed up all night keeping watch again. Rune asked Snobben to go with them, so there would be someone there who could speak to the Shadows. Lulla climbed up on the roof while they were out, and she decided we should scavenge shingles from the neighboring roofs to replace the damaged ones. Grimleif, Koldan and Snobben were gone only for about ten minutes. Koldan and Rune needed to sleep, and Rune wanted someone to stay behind, awake. Lulla volunteered for that and she said she would see if she could fix the roof while Snobben, Bjørn, Karl Egil, Grimleif and I were out hunting and foraging. The area between the rivers was claimed by the others camping near us, so we wanted to cross the eastern river so we wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes. There were two bridges. One was a couple of kilometers upriver, the other at the eastern city gate. Unfortunately, the gate bridge was behind the Honorables’ barricades. I suggested we cut down a tree to make a new bridge, but the few trees that were tall enough to span the river couldn’t hold enough weight to serve our purpose. Getting wet was something we could avoid today, so nobody was keen on swimming. We had to take the northern bridge, even though it was a bit of a walk to get there. Once we crossed the bridge, we spread out to begin looking for edibles. Suddenly, I spotted two men with crossbows and leather armor. I sneaked over to Grimleif, who was the closest of my companions, and told him what I’d seen. We decided we had to inform the others, so we sneaked our way to Karl Egil. Or rather, I sneaked. Grimleif stepped on so many dry twigs, I would never have believed it if anyone told me it had been raining yesterday. Karl Egil told us to hide, but he stood up and shouted, “Assassins in the woods!” The crossbowmen were coming our way, and I whispered that we needed to flee, but Karl Egil shouted that we were more than them and that they should give up before we attacked. He was most explicit in his threats. From the distance, Bjørn called, “We’re surrounding them! They can’t get away!” From another direction, Snobben yelled, “We’re coming!” Karl Egil acknowledged the calls and told them to proceed. To Grimleif and me, he explained that the Jaggard used a code to confuse their enemies, and that we were not going to follow as the assassins fled. Bjørn and Snobben joined us after the crossbowmen were gone. They believed the crossbowmen were guards from the south-eastern fort, and that they were hunting Grimleif and me. Grimleif thought they might be from the Brothers of the Warg instead, but Karl Egil didn’t think it likely. The Brothers of the Warg didn’t possess two crossbows. I couldn’t fathom why guards from the ship would want to hunt Grimleif and me. I could imagine the guards feeling hostile towards prisoners in general, but not why they would target specific prisoners. Well, Grimleif had showed the guards the rough side of his tongue, but still… Would they seek him out just for that? I believed the guards had been out hunting and foraging, just like us, and that they decided to take the opportunity to harass us when they stumbled over us. They had fired on Rune just the other day, without warning, which they would have given had their only concern been to protect their territory. I suggested that we brought shovels if we intended to come this way tomorrow. We could dig pit traps that we could lure the guards into, traps that might also capture one of those creatures Lulla had talked about. Wild boars, was it? We continued our foraging. I skewered a couple of rabbits with my javelin and I found some greens to go with the meat, but it didn’t feel like a great result. It was about enough to feed the dwarves and me for one day. Grimleif only picked up some herbs. I don’t think he found any food at all. Heading back, we had just crossed the bridge when I nearly triggered a poisoned trap. Luckily, I spotted it just in time. A sharpened stick was fastened to another, which was bent back so it would punch the sharpened stick into my leg if I had stepped on the trigger. We examined the trap and the surrounding area. Grimleif recognized that the poison on the sharpened stick came from a toad, and he knew how to make an antidote, if he could find the right herbs. Near the trap we discovered footprints in the mud. I compared the tracks to my own feet. “I don’t think it was the guards that set this trap. I think it was the little local with the red cap.” Grimleif dismantled the trap and brought along the sharpened stick with the poison on the tip. Koldan and Lulla were just finishing the roof repairs when we arrived back. Rune reminded us that we had to deal with the Brothers of the Warg if we wanted to stay with the Jaggard, and he gave us two days to sort it out. I went to bed after the evening meal, but Grimleif stayed up to prepare his alchemical ingredients. |
Session 8 (2024-10-06)
8. My First Kill
26th of Høylys Rune banged on pots to wake everyone. He was going to his regular morning meeting, and he wanted Snobben, Koldan and me to accompany him to explain what we learned about the poison trap we found. Grimleif was allowed to sleep in, presumably so his stench or his foul words wouldn’t upset the delicate diplomacy of rivaling groups trying to cooperate. At the meeting were Bjorke the rumormonger, and Bjørg the potter, as well as a woman in her forties that I didn’t know. The first topic of the day was the saboteur, and Rune looked to us to tell what we knew. I looked at Snobben with puppy eyes and he did the talking. He described the trap and the tracks we had found around it, saying we suspected the elusive, little local with the red knitted cap, although we had no actual proof of their guilt. When he was done, Snobben asked Koldan and me if he had forgotten something in his tale, but I shook my head, and Koldan said no. Rune dismissed us when the other leaders didn’t have any questions, and we went back to the house. Karl Egil cornered me and said he wanted to take me outside and show me strength exercises for my throwing arm. I had seen no reason why Karl Egil might be untrustworthy, but I asked if Koldan could come with us, just in case he was up to no good. We exited the back and entered another house across the alley, and Karl Egil set us to do exercises that made my whole body burn, not just my arms. If he insists on keeping this up, I might not like him very much in the end, but I will be the strongest kid in Feidvang, or at least on this island. Finally, it was time for breakfast. Rune said we had two days to show our mettle, if we still wanted to join the Jaggard. He said the Brothers of the Warg would accept our presence if we could find the “saboteur” and take care of them. He meant whoever was responsible for setting up the poisoned traps. Furthermore, Hvaltann, a baker recently recruited by the Honorables, disappeared yesterday, so if anyone figured out what had happened to him, there would be a small reward. King Sivir’s ghost said it would be nice to take a trip to the job fair, so he wouldn’t have to think about politics for a while. Koldan yelled something I didn’t understand, waking Grimleif, who sat up and rubbed his eyes. Rune asked what was wrong with Koldan. Koldan said he was going crazy, which Grimleif thought had already happened. Rune said he didn’t tolerate such outbursts. With Grimleif up, Rune wanted medicine. He had seen how well Grimleif’s remedies had worked on Koldan. I had no idea if Koldan had recovered more speedily than he would have without the medicine, but the grown-ups seemed to think it likely, and Grimleif started a new brew immediately. I sat down in a corner after I finished eating and began to juggle, but the others were doing chores and giving me the stink-eye, so I went to help. When it was time to go out, I suggested we went up to where we found the last trap. Maybe we could find the “saboteur” if we foraged around there? I brought a shovel in addition to the javelins, so we could dig a pit trap for the wild boars and/or the guards. Koldan hefted his axe, which now had a handle. Karl Egil had done a good job with it. I thought it looked balanced enough that it could be used as a throwing weapon. We discussed whether to recruit Snobben to help us follow tracks, but Grimleif thought he and Koldan should be able to handle it, since they didn’t go around with their heads in the clouds like us humans. It was a bit of a walk to get back to the trap, and we looked for food on the way. I found berries, but not more than we ate as we walked. Koldan felled a grey beast with funny stripes on its head that Grimleif said was a badger. We found the remains of the trap as we had left it. The footprints in the mud nearby led further into the forest, and we started to follow them. After a couple of kilometers, Grimleif had led us to a clearing, and we had to stop and spend some time looking around to see where the tracks went from there. Just a couple of minutes after we left the clearing, I spotted a tripwire. I asked the others if they thought it was a trap. Grimleif cursed and said yes, but I noticed that the string continued into the woods on both sides of the track. I followed the string a few steps. It looked to be going around a large anthill just ahead. Suspiciously, another string tied to the first went inside the anthill. I wasn’t so sure it was an anthill anymore. The string looked more like an alarm than a trap, I figured. Grimleif asked if he could borrow a weapon from Koldan or me. I offered a javelin, but Grimleif spat and said that respectable dwarves didn’t use such flimsy weapons. He looked around for something he could use, a stick or a rock, perhaps, but eventually pulled out his tooth medallion. I didn’t think it looked very sharp, but Grimleif looked so confident holding it, I guess he knew how to fight with it. Grimleif wondered if we should attack at once, or if we should take a more friendly-seeming approach. I didn’t want to fight anyone, so I said we should try to resolve the situation peacefully, but Grimleif ignored me and asked Koldan’s opinion. Koldan said he would fight if we were attacked, but he didn’t want to be the first to strike a blow. Grimleif muttered that if Koldan started to fight, it might be difficult to get him to stop. I frowned at that; did Grimleif possess some dwarven insight about this? I didn’t think either of us had ever seen Koldan fight. Oh, he must have meant when we were fleeing the sinking ship. There had been a brief scuffle in the stairwell that I hadn’t seen since I had been told to get out of the way for those who actually could fight, but that had lasted no more than a few seconds, and Koldan had seemed quite normal afterwards. We sneaked up to the hut. Suddenly, Koldan walked into a trap and fell down a hole. There were sharpened sticks at the bottom and one struck him right in the face. Most of the sticks had poison on them, Grimleif said, but Koldan had been lucky and avoided those. Koldan ripped the sticks from the ground and tossed them up, and I lay down the javelins so I could start digging steps for him to get out. A small hatch opened in the hut and two eyes peeked out at me. “Who are you?” a voice asked. I put on a smile. “Hi, I’m Edel. Who are you?” “Nobb. What’s your name?” the voice retorted, and I got the feeling he was trying to be funny. “My name is Edel,” I repeated. “What’s your name?” “How nice,” said the voice. “Where are you from?” “Rødvik,” I admitted. “Does your mommy and daddy know you’re here?” “No,” I said, suddenly saddened. “Who’s your friend?” Nobb asked. “That’s Grimleif, and Koldan is down in the hole,” I explained, pointing. Nobb offered to come outside to help. I smiled and thanked him. Grimleif was kneeling on the ground, reaching down to Koldan with one of the sticks from the trap. A fully-grown human might have been able to reach high enough to pull themselves out without help, but not a dwarf. I lay down beside Grimleif and stuck the shovel down. Koldan started to climb, and it was going well when Nobb came and bumped into Grimleif. Nobb apologized immediately, but his trickster nature shone through. Nobb backed away, and we were able to get Koldan up. The creature Nobb was about the same size as my friends, but he had no beard. He had the red knitted cap we had observed earlier, and simple clothes. “My name is Nobb,” Nobb said to the dwarves, who gave their names to him too. I asked why Nobb was making traps for us, but he explained that he wasn’t making them for us; he was making them for the snorting beasts and the big two-foots who hunted in packs with their hounds. Nobb didn’t think we were wise to venture into the forest where so many scary beasts roamed. I said we had to, to gather food. Grimleif cut in. “Listen here, you red-capped buffoon! Your traps are getting in our way!” Nobb rose to the challenge. “No, you listen, you short-bearded smarty-pants! My traps keep the dangers away from you too!” Nobb had stood with his hands hidden behind his back, but all of a sudden, he proffered a yellow flower to me. I took it, dumbfounded at the unexpected gallantry. Grimleif leaned in to look at the flower and then asked Nobb why he had given me a poisonous flower. I dropped it immediately. “Oh, no, take this instead!” Nobb said, holding out a purple one. I accepted the offer, but dropped it on the ground. Grimleif advised me to rinse my hand as soon as possible, before the poison penetrated my skin. He wasn’t particularly nice in the way he said it, though. Koldan asked to see Nobb’s hands, for it was clear he was hiding something more behind his back. Nobb showed one hand and then the other, but not both at once. Koldan warned him to drop whatever it was he was hiding, or he was going to sit on him. Nobb thought it best if we parted ways now. Grimleif suggested we captured Nobb and brought him back with us. Koldan gave Grimleif the axe, then went over to Nobb and swung a fist at him, but Nobb ducked away from the blow. Grimleif followed Koldan and Nobb around the hut, but I just climbed right over it. On the other side, Grimleif warned Koldan not to step into another trap, but that was just what Koldan did. Grimleif took aim with the throwing axe, and Nobb focused on him, ready to dodge, so he barely noticed when I launched myself at him from the roof. Hitting someone with my body hurt, and I fell. Luckily, Nobb only made a half-hearted attempt to strike me with his stone axe before he ran into the forest, laughing. I had left the javelins on the other side of the hut, but I still had the shovel, which I found myself in an excellent position to thrust down to Koldan, getting him up. He had avoided the sharpened sticks in this trap completely. |
Session 8 (2024-10-06)
Grimleif dashed after Nobb, but the little bugger was faster, so Grimleif came back to us. He gave the axe to Koldan, and I fetched my javelins. Grimleif said Nobb had vanished, but then lowered his voice and told us he was over there, watching. I asked if we should go to the river so I could clean the flower poison off my hands, but Grimleif told me to use the water we had brought.
Grimleif gave first aid. It really helped, but he also found the medallion I was concealing. He looked at the stag and the wolf for half a second before I snagged the medallion away. Nobb and Koldan stood staring at each other all the while. I took over the watch while Grimleif helped Koldan. Koldan took over watch duty again afterwards, and I poked around systematically for more concealed holes in the ground. Grimleif went inside and started to plunder the hut. I was of two minds. I didn’t condone stealing, but Nobb had just tried to poison me. There were two blankets and some food and herbs, and a stone shovel and a long piece of string. Grimleif didn’t know what to do with the toad Nobb kept in a cage. I told him to release it, even though it was a source of poison. Grimleif wrapped up the loot in the blankets and insisted on carrying it all himself, so Koldan and I could fight unencumbered if Nobb attacked. Nobb attacked. Just as we were leaving, he came swinging at Koldan who was going first. Koldan and Nobb fought, but neither axe landed a hit, although Nobb got in a decent kick at Koldan’s privates. When Grimleif and I came closer, Nobb swore and ran into the woods again. Koldan and I threw axe and javelin, but we both missed. Then Nobb went for Koldan’s axe, and we all ran to intercept him. Grimleif grabbed hold of Nobb, and from there the battle was decided. Grimleif made sure Nobb couldn’t flee nor attack effectively, and Koldan tried to hit Nobb with his fists. I picked up my thrown javelin on the way, rounded the brawl and punched Nobb in the back. I didn’t hit very hard, but Nobb collapsed. “I killed him,” I said, so low that nobody heard. Nobb must have been more injured than I thought to die from a prod in the back. Then it dawned on me what I had done. I had killed a living, thinking human-like being. I screamed and fell to my knees. “I killed him! I killed him! I killed him!!” I kept repeating. Grimleif was busy giving first aid to Koldan again, so he just acknowledged my trauma with, “Yes, we know. Good job!” The next few hours went by in a blur. Grimleif gave me string and told me to tie up Nobb. I could only imagine that flapping arms and legs would be a hindrance when Koldan was going to carry the corpse back to camp. On the way back, Grimleif and Koldan made a big fuss when the corpse started to speak. I couldn’t bring myself to care that the undead were rising; I was barely able to put one foot in front of the other. When we got back home, I sat down in a corner and stared blankly into the air. Was this what had happened to Torkil? Had he too killed someone and been brought down by the weight of his conscience? Grimleif and Koldan began to report about our trip to Rune; I didn’t want to hear what they had to say and covered my ears. I got some peace and quiet while the others went off to dispose of the body. Grimleif and Koldan returned after a while, and Koldan pulled me to my feet. He wanted to go swimming with me, but I couldn’t understand why. Grimleif said that I wasn’t the one who killed Nobb, and Koldan claimed he wasn’t even dead. They had pulled much information out of him about the island. I thought they were just trying to trick me, having figured out why I was so depressed. Koldan asked if I could juggle for Nobb, but that made me break out in cold sweat, so he helped me sit down again. Koldan said that Surtur valued torture and knocking people unconscious over killing them outright. Why would he say such a thing? I was horrified. And who was this Surtur, by the way? After staring at Koldan for a bit, I recalled that Nobb had tried to poison me with those flowers. Was the cold sweat and the shivers just the effects of that? Or was it because I had killed someone? Was Nobb even dead? I asked Grimleif why he and Koldan were contradicting each other. Koldan said Nobb wasn’t dead, but Grimleif said I had killed him. Grimleif called me an idiot for believing him. He said he was going to examine me, but I accused him of wanting to snoop on my medallion again. When he insisted, I took off the medallion and held it in my hand while he poked and prodded. Grimleif concluded that I was indeed poisoned, but the effects would wear off soon. Grimleif instructed me to drink as much as I could during dinner, to cleanse myself of the poison. After the meal, I curled up under one of the blankets, hoping to sleep it off, but there was too much activity in the house for me to doze off. Grimleif butchered the badger and then he helped Koldan stack up stones in one of the two doorways leading out back. Watching them took my mind off my troubles, and soon I was feeling better. Rune came and told them that it was fine that they closed up one of the doorways, but he wanted a proper door built at the others. I didn’t think the stacked-up rocks looked very stable, but Grimleif was pleased with the work. Since he was a dwarf, I assumed he knew what he was talking about. Dwarves know about stonework, right? I had one idea for improvement, though. I suggested we went down to the river and dug up some clay that we could stuff into the cracks between the stones, to stop the wind from blowing through. The three of us brought some kettles and a shovel when we went to the river. There was some discussion between the dwarves of whether we should bring wet or dry clay, and Grimleif decided on dry. I assumed those were technical terms to describe the properties of the clay; I couldn’t see any difference. It all looked like the clay Bjørg had provided for our oven. Back home, I went inside to begin on that side, while Koldan and Grimleif started from the outside. I had barely got started when Koldan came inside and said he wanted to check how sturdy the construction was. He took a running start and slammed into the stack of stones, making it topple outwards. Most of the stones had been scavenged from walls elsewhere and were nice and square, but those on the bottom were more rounded. Maybe that hadn’t been such a good idea? I proposed we used square stones all the way. There were enough ruins nearby that we could have rebuilt the entire city wall, had we wanted to. When we had finished the construction, we returned to the river to wash out the kettles. We also took a walk through the nearby forest to forage, and both Koldan and I caught a pair of rabbits. I also found some greens to supplement our meals. Grimleif did the butchering when we came back home. He had done such a terrible job the first time he tried that Rune had banned him from that task, but I could tell he had improved his skill immensely since then. Maybe Rune would allow him to continue when we joined the Jaggard and pooled our resources with them? Snobben, Lulla and Bjørn had also been out foraging, and they returned just after us. Rune informed them that we had caught the red-capped saboteur, and he was going to show Nobb to the council tonight. Rune believed he had gotten all the information he could out of Nobb, and the little trickster was going to be executed. I wasn’t comfortable with that, but I said nothing. At least they didn’t want me to do it, and I wouldn’t even have to watch. Rune warned us that we shouldn’t tell anyone what Nobb had said, for that information was valuable enough that it could be sold. I didn’t know the details, and I was happy to keep it that way; then I couldn’t slip up and reveal anything. |
Session 8 (2024-10-06)
27th of Høylys
Grimleif kept me awake last night with the sounds of him working on the rabbits, but when he was done, I was able to fall asleep. Rune didn’t wake us when he went to the morning meeting, so I woke well rested just in time for breakfast. While we ate, Rune looked at me and asked if everything was all right. I didn’t know why he singled me out, but Grimleif said it was all fine; we were ready to join the Jaggard. Rune explained what that entailed. We would pool our resources; everything was now owned by the Jaggard. We had to follow orders from Rune and Karl Egil. None of us had any issues with that. As long as I didn’t have to take charge of anything, I was fine. King Sivir said that all this about taking orders was nonsense; as members of the king’s guard, we should only take our orders from him. He added that we were going into the city today. Snobben asked why the three of us zoned out, and Koldan said we were cursed. Grimleif took the King’s orders and suggested he, Koldan and I went into the city to scavenge. Rune was fine with that. We three had shown that we could work well together, so he saw no reason to split us up. We should have two “patrols” of three that could go out and do whatever was necessary, and he and one other should remain at the base, watching our things. Karl Egil spoke up about how we should divide our house into rooms. We already had the latrine in one corner, but we should have a kitchen, a bedroom and a living room too. Koldan was a wellspring of ideas for how we should divide the space and how it should be furnished, and it seemed most of them were good. Rune had plans for the plate armor we had found; he was negotiating a deal with the Honorables and hoped to secure a crossbow. The scale mail was assigned to Karl Egil to prance around in, to prove we were no pushovers, so Rune warned us not to give anyone the impression that we were chickens. He glared at me as he said it, but if he expected me to grow up right now and turn into a paragon of bravery, he was in for a disappointment. Rune had plans for morning drills, to get us in shape and hopefully make us look like soldiers. Wooden furniture would long since have rotted away, but we were to look out for other materials to furnish our home. We also brought kettles to bring back water from the tank we had located earlier. Hopefully, the ladder was still where we had left it, so we could access the water tower. The two blankets had proven useful for improvised packaging, so we took those as well. And food, enough to stay the whole day and to pay the Honorables’ toll. The Honorables had somehow learned that Grimleif, Koldan and I had been the ones who captured Nobb, and they said in honor of that, we could pass without paying today. King Sivir said it was only to be expected that the King’s Guard was allowed into the city, but the toll-takers couldn’t hear him, of course. Once we got out of sight from the Honorables, we picked a place to use as storage, so we wouldn’t have to drag around whatever we discovered all day. Then we started our scavenging. The houses nearest the Honorables’ camp had been searched already, so there was nothing for us there. Once we got a little further away, we found a hatstand and some metal hooks that might be fastened to the wall. After a few hours, King Sivir spoke up again. He said we should go that way, but since we couldn’t see him, we didn’t know where he was pointing. Looking around, we saw ghostly movement in the distance, and we guessed that was where he wanted us to go. We came to a large square. Here and there we spotted ghosts moving around, but it was difficult to pick them out; it was more like noticing movement in the corner of one’s eye. When we tried to look directly at the ghosts, they vanished as often as not. King Sivir said there were many interesting characters around, and that we could use some learning. The king’s prestige increased if his people were competent, he said. Grimleif told Koldan they had to use their dwarven sense to detect valuables. While they stood there concentrating, I looked around. Something glittered on the coping of a dried-up fountain, and I went to check it out. It was another of those special coins. I picked it up. The square suddenly came to life. Color blossomed everywhere I looked, in people’s clothes and in the awnings of the stalls set up all around the square. As quickly as the vision came, it vanished, but some of the ghosts remained clear to my sight. I hurried back to the others. Koldan decided to go and look more closely at the remaining ghosts, so we followed him. The first person was a man dressed in a white suit with some golden embroidery that included a hand on the left breast. The man looked at Grimleif, who said, “Hello!” Something tickled my memory, and I blabbered that I thought this man was part of an organization that had Veide as their patron goddess. I didn’t think the man was a priest, though. We moved on. By his clothes, the next man was obviously a magician of some sort. A fortune teller, perhaps? There was a smattering of magical-looking objects lying around near him, but they were as ghostly as the man himself. When the man proffered a glass-like sphere, Grimleif tried to take it, but his hand went right through. Next, we came to a nobleman seated at a table, sipping tea from a delicate cup. The man sported a ridiculous handlebar moustache. He fixed me with his eyes and gave a welcoming gesture. Instinctively, I responded, “Many thanks for the invitation. I hope we’ll have a wonderful afternoon together.” The nobleman appeared to hear me, for he reached out his hand for me to take. Suddenly, a worry popped into my head. What would happen if I took his hand? Would I bind myself to him somehow? I gestured that I appreciated his offer, but I needed time to consider it. Taking a deep breath, I asked Grimleif and Koldan if we should move on. The next person we encountered was a knight in shining armor. He had his arms crossed. I thought he was a recruiter of some kind, but I got the impression that he was a noble. Odd that he would do the recruiting in person. Two vaguer figures behind him were sparring, so clearly, he was offering some kind of military job. Koldan was about to take the man’s hand, but he realized it might be a good idea to meet all the recruiters first. We met another fighting man next. The knight looked to be on parade, but this man looked like someone used to getting his hands dirty. A big, two-handed sword leaned against the wall behind the man, and he wore heavy furs over his armor. I thought he looked drunk, and wasn’t keen on staying long. A woman waved us over from an alley. I could tell she concealed items under her clothes, but paradoxically, I was able to see some of them, including a dagger. I suggested to the others she might be a thief or some other kind of criminal. Maybe a spy? She reminded me a little of Sindre. Grimleif got the feeling that she might be involved in organized crime. Grimleif was far more intrigued with the next person we met. This was a shrewd-looking man with long nails and plenty of jewelry. The man was seated at a ghostly table, and he rested his hands on a strange book. The book cover depicted a goddess with gems for eyes. Grimleif said this was an accountant, someone who counted money. Grimleif said he liked the man, despite the way he stared at him. I just thought he looked creepy. We still had more people to see. The woman we met next wore a cloak over leather armor. A bow and quiver rested against the wall behind her. She looked tough, something I might aspire to. She wrinkled her nose at Koldan, but then she showed us a monstrous skull and nodded at him and me both. Grimleif said she had to be a monster hunter. Her armor displayed a symbol of a bow crossed with a fist and underarm. I had no idea what the symbol meant. The last people we saw were all priests and priestesses, recruiting for the seven goddesses. They looked at me with interest, but ignored both Grimleif and Koldan. Maybe they didn’t have what it took to join the priesthood. If King Sivir was to be believed, we might learn something useful from whoever we picked. Grimleif wanted to go back to the man with the book, the accountant. Koldan and I were less certain. I said I found the nobleman drinking tea most appealing, but if I was brave, I might go to the monster hunter. Grimleif said we were in a situation that required strong warriors, not tea-drinkers. I didn’t say it, but I figured accountants weren’t in very high demand either. |
Session 9 (2024-10-13)
9. The Choice
27th of Høylys (continued) Something told me I had to pick one of the ghostly recruiters. Was it peer pressure from Koldan and Grimleif that made me feel that way, or was King Sivir IV exerting his force? I didn’t feel like I would be able to make an informed choice yet. Some of the recruiters had seemed more interested in me than others, but all I had to go on was my gut feeling. We made an attempt to get the recruiters to talk, but to no avail. They didn’t appear to hear when we tried to question them. We visited the accountant first, then the monster hunter, the fur-clad warrior and the knight. We got no more out of him than the others, but Koldan suddenly reached out his hand. The knight looked at the hand, then shook it. Time stood still while the knight introduced himself as Oda Markus, a baron and an officer of the Fist of Fare, a knightly order charged with fighting evil and upholding the hierarchic structure of the nation. Then the knight disappeared and Koldan froze. Grimleif and I tried to shake him out of his stupor, but to no avail. We could only hope that Koldan would come to his senses on his own. While we waited for that to happen, Grimleif and I continued around the circle of recruiters. We visited the magician. Grimleif was particularly interested in a book that lay on the ground near him, although he studied all the objects strewn about. Then we saw the man in white and gold again. I somehow perceived that he had a couple of glass vials hidden in a pocket, but I had no idea what they contained, and the ghost didn’t answer any questions. I told Grimleif I needed to see the tea drinker again before I made my decision. Grimleif wanted to visit the creepy, long-nailed accountant again, so we split up. Luckily, Koldan had recovered, and he joined me. He explained that Oda Markus had brought him to a lecture hall where he (and a bunch of others) were taught about the nobility and etiquette. Finally, Oda Markus had charged Koldan with a quest to defeat a monster. When he did, he could return and become a full-fledged member of the Fist of Fare. I got no more out of the tea-drinking nobleman than I already had. Heeding Grimleif’s suggestion that tea-drinking was of little use on this island, I told Koldan I thought I was going to pick the monster hunter woman, so we went back to her. She still seemed interested in me, so I gave her my hand. Her name was Ina, and she explained that she was a recruiter for the Forest Shield, a company of forest wardens. She brought me to a place that looked to be a sparring ground at first sight, but the place offered training in tracking, stealth and how to take care of yourself and your equipment in the wilds in addition to weapon skills. I can’t say how long the training went on, but eventually it ended. Ina told me my initiation quest was to capture or defeat a worthy prey animal and bring back evidence. I didn’t have to drag back the entire thing, but a characteristic horn or tooth would do very fine. While I was gone, Grimleif signed on with the nail man. His name was Vakar Jann, Grimleif explained, and he was a man of knowledge seeking the unknowable. He appreciated Grimleif’s interest in the esoteric. Grimleif followed him to a tower somewhere in the city, and in the basement he was taught magic. Grimleif’s quest was to bring back a recently dead humanoid, and he thought he should dig up Nobb. I shivered at the idea, wondering how he intended to explain that to the others in the camp. I figured this wild boar that Lulla had talked about might be a suitable prey for my quest. Grimleif’s assignment was the most urgent, at least if he meant to use Nobb’s corpse, but we decided we could postpone it at least until tomorrow. Today, we would finish up our city scavenging, but we started by filling up our kettles with water from the water tower. In addition to the hatstand and the hooks we had already stored back near the Honorables’ camp, we discovered a rusty metal rack, five heavy, lidded ceramic urns, and the heads of a pick and a rake; Karl Egil could make hafts for those. Then I found what appeared to be a complete set of woodworking tools, so rusty I almost didn’t think them worthy of bringing, but Grimleif mentioned having seen a grindstone. If we got that spinning, we could clear the rust and sharpen the tools to be usable again. We might even rent it out to the other groups in the camp. Koldan fetched the grindstone, and it was so heavy I didn’t think I could have carried it more than a few steps. On the last trip out from our storage, we found a metal rod as long as I am tall, and a small anvil. It was too heavy for Grimleif or me, but even without it, we would have to go several trips to bring everything. So nothing would be stolen, I held watch at the Honorables’ barricade while Koldan did all the heavy lifting. Grimleif watched at the storage, just in case someone decided to investigate where Koldan brought all these valuable things from. I found some rocks and began to entertain myself with some juggling. An Honorable who looked like he hadn’t had enough sleep watched from the other side of the barricade. He asked if I had seen Hvaltann, the missing baker, or a woman of loose morals named Frida who also had vanished. The guard explained that Hvaltann had gone missing after joining Frida for some fun in the woods. Some had suspected Frida when she returned alone, but then she’d disappeared too. The guard thought they might have concocted a plan to escape together. He asked if I’d seen anyone during my trip into the city, but I told him I hadn’t seen a living soul other than my two dwarven companions. I felt quite clever and couldn’t contain a grin. The guard told me to come to him directly if I found out anything about Hvaltann or Frida, and not to tell anyone else. When Grimleif and Koldan brought the last of our things, the guard asked them too about the missing people, but they hadn’t seen any more than I had. Then he said we had to pay a food ration to pass. I told him what the other guards had said, that we could pass freely today since we captured Nobb, but the guard got angry and decided we had to pay one ration per trip we made. Koldan and I carried the first things through the camp while Grimleif kept an eye on the Honorable. He looked likely to steal anything we left unattended for even a moment. I looked for familiar faces across the bridge but saw none of the Jaggard. Koldan told me to go get help for the carrying. I only found Rune, and he dealt with the Honorables and got them to help with the carrying. The rest of the Jaggard came back from their foraging trip not long after we got everything inside. It almost felt like they lingered just so they wouldn’t have to carry anything heavy. Rune told us we had done well. He appointed Grimleif as quartermaster, which meant he would be responsible for keeping track of our inventory. If anyone wanted to bring any of our gear outside, Grimleif had to be told. I got Lulla to explain where she had seen the tracks of those wild boars. It was all the way to the north, at the corner of the vaguely triangular walled-in area. She even described how the tracks looked. With my new skill, I thought I could find the tracks myself. |
Session 9 (2024-10-13)
28th of Høylys
I was still sore this morning after my aerial assault on Nobb. I wasn’t built for fighting. Groggily, I asked the dwarves what we were doing today, and Grimleif said we were boar hunting. That reminded me that his quest was perhaps more urgent, and I suggested he dealt with that first. Grimleif made some feeble excuses why Nobb should be buried in the city, and in the end managed to convince Rune that he should be allowed to exhume the body and give it a proper burial according to the dictates of the goddesses. Rune didn’t think it important enough that Koldan and I could go with him, so he had to make do on his own. Karl Egil took everyone outside after breakfast for a morning drill. He called out our names as if he couldn’t see who were present, and then we had strength exercises. When I thought we were done, there was more. I glared as angrily as I dared at Karl Egil’s back. I did the work, though. Nobody had ever accused me of being buff and I didn’t think anyone ever would either, but having some muscles would be useful with all the lifting and carrying we were doing around here. While Grimleif was away, Karl Egil recruited Koldan and me to help him make doors for our house. We spent some time brainstorming, then got to work. The first attempt wasn’t very good, but I hadn’t expected anything else. We were discussing what needed to be changed for the next attempt when Grimleif returned. I asked Karl Egil if he needed more help, or if we could go out and gather food. He said he and Rune would manage while the rest of us were out. Lulla, Snobben and Bjørn had left already. Rune and Karl Egil weren’t convinced we could tackle a dangerous animal like the wild boar, but we were allowed to try after I detailed how we meant to make traps. We had no plans to go up against the beasts in a face-to-face encounter. Rune warned us that if anyone got hurt, we wouldn’t be allowed to take such initiatives again. Grimleif, Koldan and I walked up along the river. Grimleif told us Nobb’s corpse was fresh enough that he managed to complete his quest. I wondered how my own hunt would go. Koldan said he might fight a gnoll for his quest. A gnoll, I learned, is a dog-like humanoid that according to Nobb inhabits this island. I found Lulla’s boar tracks and started to follow them. The path took us out of the walled-in area, across an old stone bridge. We agreed that since all the former prisoners roamed around inside the wall, it would be best to make the traps outside. After following the tracks for a while, I determined that they weren’t very fresh. It might be more than two weeks since the boars went through this way. Koldan began to dig out the pit trap. Grimleif said he would look for herbs and the like in the area, and I followed the tracks a little further, just in case a better place to set the traps were nearby, like a watering hole. I didn’t find anything interesting, so I returned to Koldan. I sharpened a stick that I used to loosen the earth where Koldan was digging, to speed up the process. When the hole was complete, around two meters long, two meters deep and one meter wide, we covered it with sticks. Koldan said he was trained in camouflage, so I let him conceal the trap with moss and leaves. I didn’t think he did a very good job, but at least it should be easy to find the trap when we came back to check on it. We had worked for several hours, but Grimleif had still not returned. I looked around, found his footprints and tracked him down. Grimleif had found an area where some kind of luminescent mushroom was growing, and while it wasn’t safe to eat, the mushroom had potent magical properties. Koldan and I helped him gather it all up, for Grimleif wasn’t convinced he could find this place again, and he scorned my tracking skills. We returned home later than we had meant, but Snobben in particular was impressed with our find. I explained where we had made our pit trap, in case the others wanted to go out there. It should be easy enough to find; it was near a large mound of dug-up earth. Rune asked how often we intended to check on the trap. It was a little too far away from our house that we could go every day, but I said we might go and check every three days or so. When we went, we would bring the shovel again and make another trap nearby, since we were already out there. 1st of Sensommer Koldan wasn’t there when I woke up, and Rune asked where he was. I thought he felt foolish for not noticing Koldan slipping away when he was supposed to keep watch. Rune had to go to his morning meeting, but everyone else should look for Koldan. While we were out searching through the nearby buildings, Koldan sauntered in from the east. He asked if we would believe him if he said he didn’t know where he’d been, and Grimleif said yes. Snobben asked Koldan to think again before he explained his absence to Rune. Koldan told Grimleif and me that he had woken up far away. Grimleif suggested that someone might have tried to disappear him, so when Rune returned, Koldan said a red-capped creature had tried to kidnap him. Rune didn’t believe him and said he had to punish Koldan. Koldan held out his hands, which made me frown. What kind of person could he be, that he responded so instinctively and acceptingly to the idea of punishment? Rune decided that Koldan’s punishment would be to lose his beard and hair. He pointed at Lulla, and she drew a knife and set to it. It didn’t look very comfortable, but I thought Lulla did Koldan a favor by getting rid of that tangled mess that adorned his head. After the morning drill, Rune asked Grimleif to calculate how much food we needed to store up before winter. For eight people, it was an enormous amount. We expected to be able to hunt during the winter, but not to gather roots and berries. We also needed enough that we could trade for winter clothing for everyone. Rune worried that some of the other groups might not gather enough for the winter and try to steal from us. Grimleif said he needed to spend the day preparing his magical ingredients. Rune didn’t mind that. He was very pleased with Grimleif’s medicine. Koldan and I went out with Lulla, Bjørn and Snobben to forage. I felt I had a great day, gathering about half as much as the other four combined. Rune finished his negotiations with the Honorables while we were away. He gave them the plate armor in exchange for a crossbow and some bolts. With the one the guards had “given” him, we now had six bolts. Rune said they were too valuable to waste hunting rabbits; for that we should whittle some primitive bolts. Only if we were attacked, or perhaps if we went hunting for big game, should we load the crossbow with real bolts. As I was preparing for bed, King Sivir said, “Oh, I thought the serial killer was caught, but then another murder happens!” I thought he was out of touch with time again, and didn’t worry at all about a serial killer on the loose. That must be a memory from the king’s life. I fell asleep thinking about how strange it was that the ancient job fair should be able to teach us useful skills. |
Session 10 (2024-10-27)
10. Missing People
2nd of Sensommer While Rune was away at his morning meeting, Snobben wanted to talk about what kind of place this was. Was the work camp on the same island as us? Nobb hadn’t known about it, apparently, so the island had to be huge. Koldan suggested that it might not be an island at all. Was it another continent like Heimsmark? Lulla thought this was a strange place that made Grimleif, Koldan and me zone out from time to time. Grimleif explained that we were hearing and seeing ghosts, and I though we weren’t the only ones, for Karl Egil seemed uncomfortable when ghosts were mentioned. Rune and Karl Egil finished the second door yesterday, but now I remembered that we had left two hidden behind a bush after using them for rafts to get ashore. If memory served, there should be three chairs and a small pile of ballista spears there too. That was of course if nobody had found our stash and taken it. I suggested both foraging teams headed there today. Even though we had made doors already, the large boards could be used as tables or work benches. When Rune returned, he told us he and the other leaders thought a Grimleif clinic could be very useful. Only the Brothers of the Warg opposed the idea. It wasn’t fully fleshed out yet. For example, when Grimleif should make himself available and at what price was still up in the air. Rune wanted Grimleif to come to the next meeting, and to consider beforehand how he would want it to be arranged. Another Honorable had gone missing, a man named Brugg. He had disappeared while foraging. His companions hadn’t noticed anything. Rune said Brugg probably was the last one to see Frida before she vanished. When Brugg had been questioned about that, he could apparently not recall the details about his trip into the woods with her. The Honorables suspected the Claw. Maybe he was an assassin who had killed Hvaltann and Frida and then left when suspicion fell on him? I thought Koldan was in danger. He couldn’t remember how he got out of the camp yesterday. I told Koldan he shouldn’t be alone in the woods. Rune asked Koldan, Grimleif and me to find the truth. He sent Snobben with us to visit the Honorables, so someone would be able to talk to them. I tend towards timid, especially around grown-ups, Koldan doesn’t speak the language very well, and Grimleif is just plain offensive, even when you discount the smell. After the morning drill, which we couldn’t skip, we split up to catch the most people before they went off on their various work details. Snobben and I went together, for Grimleif, when given the option, chose to pair up with the other dwarf. Snobben and I found the two who presumably knew Brugg the best, a couple named Jonleif and Jalle. The three had lived together here in the camp. Jonleif and Jalle had only met Brugg onboard the Southern Wind during the mutiny, although they had seen him a few times before around the ship. Jonleif said there was something strange about Brugg. It was as if he had suddenly grown older in the last couple of days. Jonleif thought his skin was looser and more wrinkled, but Jalle said she hadn’t noticed, which made Jonleif second guess himself. All three had been new recruits to the Honorables, so they’d been worked very hard, perhaps so hard that Brugg had decided to run away. This testimony made my heart sink. I had never had much to do with the Honorables before, but I didn’t think the leaders would abuse the grunts to such a degree. I knew it for truth, for I had seen with my own eyes how tired many of them seemed. Grimleif and Koldan found three dwarves, members of the Grey Beard League, who were allied with the Honorables and thus camped and collaborated with them. The dwarves said Brugg was a loner who had been teamed with them for foraging duty. They hadn’t noticed him doing anything suspicious, and they hadn’t realized he was gone until after the fact. They found neither blood spilled nor any other signs of a struggle when they searched for him, but they admitted they might not have looked in the right place, if he was indeed ambushed. Snobben had to meet up with Lulla and Bjørn, so I had to face all the dwarves alone. I only caught the tail end of their interview, but I understood they had some inkling as to where Brugg was before he vanished, so I suggested that we went out there ourselves to search. One of the Grey Beard dwarves said we should be careful with what we found out, especially if it turned out Brugg had defected to the Claw. They didn’t want the already bad blood between the factions to turn to open conflict. I heartily agreed, but I stopped myself from nodding lest anyone thought I had opinions. In my experience, grown-ups don’t take kindly to children speaking their mind. The dwarves recommended we looked around the area where Frida had brought the men, in the woods due north from the camp. I was beginning to imagine a soul-sucking monster jumping between hosts, and I was afraid its lair was right where the dwarves were sending us. I would have preferred to search where Brugg vanished, but I kept my mouth shut and let Grimleif decide. My logic said Koldan was the most likely target, and possibly already possessed, so as long as I could keep him in sight, I’d be fine. Right? I should be able to outrun a dwarf. There was something about the moat outside the city walls that Koldan wanted to check out. We had enough trouble figuring that out, for Koldan doesn’t know the word “moat,” and insisted we went to the river, which was so long a walk that Grimleif and I weren’t keen to humor him unless he could explain what he wanted there. We crossed the bridge and found a spot where the side of the moat had crumbled so it was easy to get down to the water. I waited up top while Grimleif accompanied Koldan down. Then Koldan, out of the blue, tried to push Grimleif into the water. “By Nidhogg, what are you doing?” Grimleif asked angrily. Koldan held his nose and pointed at the water. I agreed that Grimleif smelled worse today than even he usually does, but I didn’t think a dip in the moat would do any good. Grimleif responded to the gesture by trying to trip up Koldan, but they both ended up in the water. I made a tactical retreat. If Grimleif and Koldan wanted to kill each other, I didn’t want to witness it, and if either of them was going to strip and wash, it might be easier without a female presence. Rune and Karl Egil were regarding the door and discussing how to reinforce it. I slid past them as unobtrusively as possible and waited inside for Grimleif and Koldan to return. Seeing their wetness, Rune asked for a report, so I came outside. Grimleif explained what he and Koldan learned, and then he poked me sharply in the side to get me to spill my beans. Rune insisted we armed up before we left. Karl Egil had prepared some improvised bolts for the crossbow, but he reminded Grimleif, who claimed to be able to use the weapon, that he should use the proper bolts if we were attacked. I brought my javelins and Koldan his axe. Grimleif took us north and quickly found some footprints in the mud where we suspected Frida had taken the men. I sighed and asked if we should follow them. After three kilometers or so, I told the dwarves these weren’t the tracks of someone looking for a private place to hook up. Either we had found the tracks of someone going exploring or foraging far away from camp, or we had found Frida’s tracks, but she and her companion had other plans than what they had let on. Koldan thought we should keep following the tracks and maybe find out. After another kilometer, we found an overgrown village, long abandoned. Grimleif asked Koldan to draw back the crossbow; he wasn’t strong enough to do it himself. The tracks went right through the village and towards what was once a mansion on the other side. The mansion had two stories, but it was quickly obvious that the back half of the building had fallen. Grimleif spotted a dark patch on the gaping door frame, and it didn’t take him long to ascertain that this was fresh blood, only a few days old. We sent Koldan inside to investigate. Grimleif stood in the door opening with the crossbow at the ready, while I went to peek inside the windows. I looked in on what might have been a kitchen, but the only thing that remained was the fireplace. Through a door opening, I spotted Koldan going the other way. Grimleif stopped me on my way to the other window to point out more blood near the stairs going down to the basement. The only other room still halfway intact was larger than the kitchen, but I could see nothing that indicated what the room might have been used for. The dwarves wanted to check out the basement. It was almost entirely dark down there, so I was happy for the others to check it out, but I waited at the top of the stairs so I wouldn’t be too far away if something happened. Koldan said he saw a large room with six stone benches and two stone desks. There was a coin on one of the benches and a door opening to the left that he wanted to check out. The other room held seven lidless sarcophagi – not that Koldan knew that word – of different sizes. When Koldan reported that there was nobody there, I descended the stairs. I had just reached the heavy metal door, which conveniently had stood wide open, when Grimleif picked up the coin. A vision came to me. By now, I shouldn’t be surprised, but it still startled me. The cellar came to life. This was some kind of laboratory, where a mad scientist hovered over one of the benches. On the slabs lay naked bodies, presumably dead. The farthest was just a child. Another was also human, but the last two were something else, larger and monstrous. The scientist retrieved a giant syringe from a drawer and injected a green fluid into the chest of one of the monsters, making its arm twitch. |
Session 10 (2024-10-27)
When the vision passed and my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could just make out the mummified remains lying on the work benches. Koldan checked out the sarcophagi. Some were empty, others held skeletons. They all had chains and manacles to restrain their occupants, as did the work benches.
Grimleif winced when he stepped on something unpleasant. He bent and picked up the flayed skin of a human, torn in several places. I had to swallow a few times, but I was proud that I didn’t run away screaming. Koldan came, and the two of them uncovered another skin and the remains of prisoner clothes like those we wore. Swallowing again, I asked if it was possible to identify who this had been. Grimleif quickly ascertained that one had been a man and the other a woman. The man had a tattoo on his ankle and the woman a large birth mark on her thigh. Koldan said we should bring the remains back and give them a proper funeral. I chimed in that we should take the clothes too. They might be ripped up, but Gerd could surely mend them. Grimleif said we weren’t safe in the mansion, a reminder that something had done this to two of our fellow convicts. Koldan stood watch outside the heavy cellar door while Grimleif and I went through the rooms for anything useful. Grimleif examined the mummies, and I was happy to leave that to him. I found two glass flasks that I thought Grimleif might appreciate for his alchemy, although the flasks were filled, one with a blue liquid, the other slightly bigger one with green liquid. I also picked up ten pieces of chain that could come in handy for something. Koldan wanted to bring the metal door. It was so heavy, it was a miracle we even teased it off its hinges. Sliding it up the cellar stairs was a lengthy operation, but we got it done. There was no way we could carry it all the way back to camp, though. I climbed up the rubble at the back of the house to access the second story, but there was little of interest there. I found a stone plaque with some inscription that I brought down. Grimleif read, “Man over world.” Maybe that was the motto of the house’s owner, back in the day. Koldan had an idea to make a simple sled to carry the heavy metal door. Grimleif and I looked around outside the house for tracks, but we only found a small pile of meat and bones, far too little to fill an entire skin. Koldan’s sled didn’t work as planned, so we abandoned the door. We brought everything else, including one of the mummies, the most monstrous one, back to the village and spent a couple hours searching the houses there. We found an old backpack that looked remarkably sturdy but for its long-gone shoulder straps. We also found a rusty sword and some kitchen utensils. We left the skins and the monster mummy in one of the houses on the outskirts of town, for we didn’t want anyone to see us carrying those around, then we fetched Rune to come and inspect them. Whoever killed those two humans had to be a monster, a psychopath, or both. I suggested some kind of parasite that first possessed Frida and killed Hvaltann, then jumped to Brugg and killed Frida. Grimleif had a grimmer explanation. He said Brugg looked older and wrinklier because the skin didn’t fit properly. I wanted to throw up, but Koldan distracted me. He threw out his arms and stared up at the ceiling, proclaiming at length in his unintelligible language. Rune grimaced and told Grimleif and me to get Koldan under control. Koldan reached out towards me, so a ducked back. Then he drew his axe and began to chop at the skins lying on the floor. Rune pulled a martial arts stunt and tackled him to the ground, pinning him in place, and told me to fetch Karl Egil. I ran. Luckily, Karl Egil wasn’t hard to find. He picked up the rapier and surged after me back to the others. Koldan had come around in the few minutes I was away, but Rune was so mad, I thought it best Grimleif took Koldan back to the house. I chickened out and went after them, leaving Rune and Karl Egil to decide what to do with the skins and the monster mummy. Since Rune and Karl Egil wouldn’t be gone very long, it might be best if Grimleif, Koldan and I made ourselves scarce. I still wanted to investigate where Brugg had vanished. On the way there, I discreetly examined Koldan and Grimleif. It didn’t look like their skin was particularly loose-fitting, thankfully. Just to be safe, I felt my own cheeks. Was my skin always so loose? I acted like nothing. If I had become a monster, it would be in my own best interest not to let anyone know. There were lots of tracks near the place we suspected Brugg had disappeared, but no signs of struggle. We picked one set of footprints and followed them west, eventually ending up near the Claw encampment. A female ice elf sentry challenged us and summoned more armed folk. They recognized us as having visited before and wondered what business we had today. I explained that we were searching for Brugg and described him as best I could. I said we were worried by his disappearance and followed some tracks from where he was last seen, but I admitted those tracks didn’t have to be his. In fact, they were likely not. Grimleif said we thought Brugg was dead, so I revealed that we suspected a monster of having killed him and was now wearing his skin. The Claw members didn’t believe me and asked the grown-ups if they had a better explanation. Grimleif backed me up by saying Brugg was dangerous, and that nobody should go anywhere with him alone, for he had likely killed two others who had also disappeared. We had to come into the camp. The ice elf insisted. I thought she might know something. Maybe Brugg was in their camp, or maybe someone else was behaving oddly. The camp was deserted. Everyone else was out foraging, it looked like. The ice elf asked one of the other three to keep me entertained while the grown-ups had a talk. Koldan sensed my discomfort, so he stayed with me. I knew the Claw member from before. He was an odious drug addict by the name Rune Rønne, and he tried to entice Koldan and me to join him in chewing some leaves he must have found on the island. Koldan wisely refused, as did I. Grimleif was shown two corpses. The ice elf said Brugg had come into camp complaining about the conditions at his old place, and the Claw had welcomed him. Brugg had been assigned to go out foraging with three others, Bjarte, Sandra and Arve, and out of the blue, Brugg had attacked and killed Bjarte and Sandra. Arve had managed to flee. Grimleif explained what we had found out and examined the wounds on the corpses, then they returned to us. The ice elf introduced herself as Dailinnanni, and she and one of the others took us out to where the fight had taken place. Grimleif had apparently boasted about my tracking skills. I found some promising tracks left by a large humanoid, and we followed them for a couple hundred meters, but then they vanished. I suggested the monster could have put on a human disguise, so perhaps we should look for human footprints instead, but we didn’t find much, so we went back to the Claw’s camp. |
Session 11 (2024-11-10)
11. Monster Hunting
2nd of Sensommer (continued) I asked Grimleif and Koldan if they thought our mission was complete. We had learned that Brugg had gone to the Claw, so now that he was their problem, he might no longer be ours. The dwarves didn’t agree, and Koldan reminded us that his spirit quest required him to defeat a monster, which Brugg clearly was. Or rather, whatever wore Brugg’s skin was. Dailinnanni said we had to talk to someone called Proffen, and we also wanted to interview Arve, the lone survivor of Brugg’s attack on the foragers. Since Brugg hadn’t been seen after that, I found it likely that the monster now wore Arve’s skin. I juggled while we waited for the foraging parties to return to camp. Grimleif mused that the monster was too large to fit into the skin of a dwarf, but it might just squeeze into mine. When the first foraging party returned half an hour later, I recognized Nolle and Vigrid. With them came a girl and a boy around my age. Dailinnanni took Nolle aside, and it was obvious she was talking about us. They finished their talk before I could build up courage to approach the other youths. Nolle said she understood we had certain suspicions against some of her people, but she warned us not to make trouble. We were not allowed to draw our weapons in the camp, and if there was a serial killer present, the Claw would take care of it. She gave Grimleif the stink-eye before retreating out of his miasma, and Grimleif told her back that we were setting up a healing clinic in our camp, but only those we liked would be treated. The next group to return included Arve. Using my juggling as cover, I observed Arve, but I didn’t dare go close enough to see whether his skin was suspiciously loose or wrinkly. Arve sat down, removed his shoes and massaged his feet. That was not monster behavior, in my mind, but perhaps he was just clever. Koldan sat down next to him on the log, ignoring Grimleif’s attempt to intercept him. Arve thought Koldan sat a little too close and had him scoot over a bit. Proffen came in the next group, and Nolle and Vigrid took us aside to talk to him. Proffen was an aging ice elf who remembered us from our last visit. He was curious why we had returned, and Koldan said we looked for a killer. “Plenty of those around here,” Proffen replied. Koldan began to explain our purpose, but he interspersed so many words from his own language that it was impossible to follow. Grimleif and I had to explain instead. We revealed everything we had discovered during our investigation. Vigrid thought we were making it all up, but Proffen understood that we were telling the truth. At least, he said we weren’t deliberately lying. While we talked, Arve had disappeared from his seat, and Nolle went to check. She quickly waved us over. Arve had left just a couple minutes ago, taking another man named Arnt with him. Nolle and Vigrid drew back their crossbows, and Nolle called for Dailinnanni, Fjord and Vigdis to grab weapons and join us. I located Arve’s tracks while the others got ready, but they meant to run, so I wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on the tracks. I think we got lucky, if locating such a terrible monster could be considered as such. We ran for several minutes before Grimleif spotted movement off to the side. We charged where he pointed. The horrible sight that met us completely blanked my mind. How such a large creature could fit inside a human skin was unthinkable. It wore no skin now. It was just flesh and bones. We had caught it in the middle of its meal. A corpse hung over a tree branch and the creature was tearing into it. The next few seconds went by in a blur. When I snapped out of it, I was vaguely aware that I had run past the monster and that it had tried to slice me up, but I must have run too fast, for I was completely fine, except for being a little winded. Turning around, I saw that Koldan was down, bleeding right next to the monster. Fjord was down too, but I learned later that he had straight out fainted at the sight of the monster. Vigrid had hit it with a crossbow bolt, but was now engaged in melee alongside Nolle and Dailinnanni. I thought the monster had welcomed us gleefully when it saw us coming, but it decided to run away. It didn’t look like Vigrid’s bolt had hurt it very badly. Maybe it decided the melee fighters were too skilled to fight them all head on. I wasn’t impressed with my allies’ prowess. Apart from the crossbow bolt, I didn’t think we had landed a single hit. The monster trampled Fjord as it made its escape. Nolle and Vigrid loaded their crossbows and Grimleif got Dailinnanni to load his for him, and two of the bolts struck the monster in the back as it vanished into the trees. I tried throwing my javelins, but I didn’t get anywhere near the target. The sky was darkening, and nobody was keen to follow the monster into the night. After Koldan and Fjord had received first aid, Nolle invited our party to spend the night in the Claw’s camp. I would rather be with the Jaggard than with people I don’t know and trust, but crossing the forest when I knew a monster literally could be hidden behind every tree was even less tempting. Grimleif, Koldan and I were assigned a little house for ourselves. I didn’t think I would be able to sleep, not in a new place and with the terrible image of the monster feeding so fresh in my mind, but I must have been more tired than I thought, for I fell asleep instantly. |
Session 11 (2024-11-10)
3rd of Sensommer
It was raining heavily when the Claw’s camp came to life. It was a day for holing up with your friends under a roof, not for hunting monsters. I asked Grimleif if we had any food left, but we had eaten it all yesterday. We hadn’t planned to stay away so long. Nolle chivvied us all to gather outside. She said despite the bad weather, there was a monster that needed to be hunted down. She wasn’t going to force Grimleif, Koldan and me to go since we weren’t her subordinates, but Koldan was eager to go despite his injuries, and Grimleif said he would come if he was allowed to study the monster after it had been defeated. I whispered to him that we should ask for food if we were to join this expedition. With Grimleif so hard of hearing, I had to whisper loud enough that almost everyone heard anyway, but Grimleif proposed that the tracker – me – could do with some food. Nolle agreed to supply us with food and water while we helped them with the monster. Nolle wasn’t coming with us today, but she assigned Vigrid, Vigdis and Dailinnanni to go. The six of us returned to the site of yesterday’s battle, where we located the monster’s blood spatter. Some green liquid also appeared to have leaked from the monster. The rain made it more difficult to follow the tracks, but I took my time and managed to stay on the scent. The monster had gone north-east and crossed the bridge over the river. Further upstream, too far for us to shout, was a foraging party. They didn’t behave like there was a monster nearby. I continued following the monster’s tracks, hoping we wouldn’t go near the foragers. The tracks continued towards the north-east, and I began to suspect that the monster was heading home, towards its lair under the mansion. I was soon proved right. The tracks led right to the front door and down the stairs to the basement. We pulled back to plan. I waited for someone else to speak up, but everyone just looked at each other and at the map I drew of the basement. I suggested we sent Grimleif down the stairs to scout. As dwarves, he and Koldan had the best vision down in the dark, although Dailinnanni should be able to see fairly well with her elven eyes. Koldan had been badly wounded yesterday, and Dailinnanni seemed to be as scared as me, so Grimleif was the best choice. Vigrid and I would stand ready at the top of the stairs with crossbow and javelins. If the monster lurked in the laboratory, we hoped Grimleif could lure it into the stairs where we’d be advantaged. Otherwise, we should try a similar approach to the sarcophagus room. Grimleif’s comment to my plan was, “Koldan, if I die, go pee in Edel’s bed!” The monster wasn’t in the laboratory. On Grimleif’s signal, we began to sneak down the stairs so we could cover the opening to the inner room with our ranged weapons. Vigdis tripped and fell, alerting the monster to our presence, if it hadn’t already heard us. Grimleif swore, but he began to circle the door opening so he could peek inside from a safe distance. A loud noise made him freeze. I realized that the monster had taken position on the left side of the door opening, so I gestured to Grimleif to beware that side. When Grimleif peeked inside, the monster slashed at him, but he was ready and managed to duck back with a squeal. Koldan charged, axe and pick at the ready, and the Claw members followed him. Vigrid yelled “Attack!” I just reached the inner room to see the monster swipe its claws at Koldan. Blood sprayed across the room, but Koldan remained on his feet, making a counterattack. I ducked through the crowd to get away from the monster’s immediate reach and then took aim with my javelins. Grimleif, armed with our crossbow, also aimed, but Vigrid snapped off a shot that hit the wall. Vigdis and Vigrid rushed in to surround the monster, but Dailinnanni fought more cautiously, only darting in when the monster was distracted. We got in several good hits, including Grimleif’s shot, but my first javelin didn’t strike hard enough to stick in the monster’s side. The monster lashed out, striking both Koldan and Vigdis, and I thought both of them were out of the fight. I was wrong. Koldan hurled his axe towards the monster, then began to get up. Vigdis, on the other hand, remained where she had fallen. Vigrid shouted encouragement and drew the monster’s attention. It cut right through her leather armor, but didn’t take her down. Grimleif, Koldan and Dailinnanni swarmed in to assist Vigrid. I had to aim high to guarantee not striking any of my allies, and my second javelin struck the monster’s face, entering the mouth and punching through the cheek. Koldan ripped open the monster with his pick, and Vigrid and Dailinnanni followed up with decent strikes of their own, felling the monster before I could suggest that someone took hold of my javelin to twist the monster’s head. Now that the monster was down, Koldan and Vigrid agreed that it was time to pass out. I wasn’t so sure it wouldn’t get up again, so I grabbed my first javelin and repeatedly skewered the thing’s chest. Grimleif gave first aid to Koldan, but Dailinnanni insisted I should do the same for Vigrid and Vigdis. I had no idea what to do, but Dailinnanni wouldn’t listen. Luckily, Grimleif came to take over before anyone bled out. I picked up the axe and decapitated the monster. Then I cut off its hands and legs, just for good measure. King Sivir said it was only to be expected that his loyal subjects caught the serial killer. Grimleif told him to shut up, which made Vigdis and Dailinnanni stare. Grimleif said he was going to study the monster, so Dailinnanni and I helped the others upstairs, where we sat down to catch our breath. Grimleif came up after ten minutes, and he brought the monster’s head. We said our goodbyes. The Claw members weren’t welcome in our camp, so it was time to part ways. Vigdis and Dailinnanni said they would appreciate if Grimleif could visit and give medical treatment to the injured in the Claw’s camp. Unlike Vigdis, Koldan and Vigrid didn’t wake up and needed to be carried. Grimleif and I had to take lots of breaks, but in the end, we managed to haul Koldan back to our house. Rune and Karl Egil had built a contraption for the grindstone and were sharpening rusty tools when we came inside. Rune was as expected not happy to see Koldan unconscious, almost a full day after we had said we’d be back, but his mood improved greatly when he saw what was skewered onto my javelins. Grimleif left me to tell the tale while he began brewing potions. Rune told me to sharpen a stake and display the spectacle on our roof. When I came back inside, Grimleif and Karl Egil were moving Koldan into the latrine room. Grimleif’s healing elixir had a side effect that polluted the air around Koldan, so they thought it best to put him where the smell was already bad. Grimleif and Rune discussed how many food rations should be demanded for Grimleif’s various services as a physician. When they reached an agreement, Grimleif said he had some patients lined up already. He said he wanted to spend the rest of the evening brewing medicine. I asked Karl Egil if there was anything I could do, and he sent me off to chop down a tree. He had a plan to hollow out the tree trunk and hang it along the roof to gather up rain water. Lulla, Snobben and Bjørn returned from their foraging trip while I was out. Lulla had an idea for a game that we could play when we weren’t working. It required quite a lot of little sticks, so she set to work whittling. We considered methods for preserving food for the winter, and while the grown-ups had several ideas, nobody knew exactly how to do it. Rune told Snobben to take some time to find out if anyone in the nearby camps had any experience with this. |
Session 12 (2024-11-17)
12. Mobile Abrasive Smelly Hospital
4th of Sensommer Koldan woke up in the morning like the rest of us, but according to Grimleif, that wasn’t necessarily expected, as Koldan had been on the brink of death. He might never have woken up again. I was happy to see him exit the quarantine latrine. Koldan groaned and said we had a good fight yesterday. When Koldan sat down next to Lulla, she reminded him that he couldn’t sit with us at breakfast, for Grimleif said he poisoned the air around him, an unfortunate side effect of the elixir because it hadn’t been brewed to perfection. Grimleif examined his patient and suggested he sat in a corner where he could avoid breathing on anyone. When Grimleif went with Rune to the morning meeting, I took the ripped clothes that had belonged to Hvaltann and Frida and went to visit Gerd, the old seamstress. She said she could mend the clothes, but it wouldn’t look pretty. She also thought the Honorables might claim the clothes, since it had been their people who had worn them. Among criminals, might makes right, and Gerd didn’t think I could stand up to the Honorables. Neither did I, for that matter. Gerd suggested I conferred with the grownups in my faction. I got back in time for the morning roll-call and exercises. Koldan was excused from the latter. Rune congratulated Koldan, Grimleif and me with our successful mission. He reminded us not to reveal details about the fighting. The Jaggard’s tactics were not to be disclosed to outsiders, and if the Honorables got wind that Claw members had been injured, they might decide to take action against their weakened enemies. Rune didn’t say as much, but I thought he found it convenient that the two most powerful factions remained about equal in force so that neither side could swallow up the rest of us. Grimleif had promised to visit the Claw, and while Rune would have liked for me to join the foraging party, he empathized that Grimleif didn’t want to trek through the woods alone, so he agreed that I could go with him. Grimleif’s disparaging comments made it clear he didn’t consider me useful as a bodyguard, but Koldan wasn’t fit to go anywhere, let alone fight. Grimleif and I passed Bjørg at the bonfire, and she wanted us to tell our story; she had learned that we were the heroes of yesterday’s adventure. Grimleif said we killed a big, scary monster and nudged me to tell the tale, but I just said, “Yeah, it was really scary,” and let him do the talking. Grimleif followed Rune’s instructions and didn’t give many details. Bjørg claimed that the Claw were interested in buying old coins, if we found any. We shook our heads. Why would anyone need money here on this deserted island? Bjørg explained that the coins were magical, but she didn’t know what properties they were alleged to have. When we were out of hearing, I told Grimleif about my visit to Gerd and asked what he thought we should do with the ripped-up clothes. We agreed that it would be best to make bandages with them, and then use them to heal wounded Claw members, since they were the enemies of the Honorables. We walked in silence for a while, until I remembered that we should ask the Claw’s tanner, Bjarne, about adding shoulder straps to the sack we carried, so we could use it as a backpack, as it once had been. Grimleif’s compliment sounded more like an insult, so I grumbled and returned to looking for food. This was the Honorables’ claimed area for foraging, but we didn’t feel like respecting their boundaries. As long as they didn’t see us, we should be safe. Dailinnanni stood on watch when we reached the Claw’s camp. She waved and welcomed us. I asked if Bjarne was home. Dailinnanni said he was out foraging, but he was expected back early. Nolle came to meet us as we entered the camp, and she said she hoped Grimleif could keep his vile tongue still and just do the healing work. Grimleif explained that he was going to charge the Claw the same prices as he charged anyone else, but Nolle said we should have a few extra food rations for making the trip. We said nothing about foraging on the way, but even if we hadn’t, the trip would have taken well over an hour. Nolle summoned Proffen to keep track of what services Grimleif provided. Proffen wanted to discuss the monster we had slain, but Nolle told him that had to wait. Healing came first. Grimleif wouldn’t want my assistance even if I offered, so I found some round stones and juggled to pass the time while I waited for Bjarne to return. Grimleif’s patients greatly appreciated the entertainment. Grimleif asked Proffen if he could help identify the contents of the two bottles we found in the mansion cellar. By his reply, I didn’t think Proffen knew much about the topic. He assumed they might be magical, and he thought the green liquid might be what we had seen the monster bleed. Maybe it nourished or activated the monster? Bjarne took his time returning, so Grimleif and Proffen had ample time to talk. Proffen thought the monster had been some kind of undead construct, and Grimleif revealed that King Sivir had been speaking to us, but without giving too many details. Proffen believed something supernatural had happened during the shipwreck, and he mentioned the momentary feeling of weightlessness that I too had sensed, but which Grimleif thought was Proffen’s imagination. I didn’t say anything; even if some force had lifted the ship and smashed it down, knowing about it wouldn’t help us survive on this island. When Bjarne finally arrived, we talked to him about straps for the sack, and he said he could have them ready by tomorrow if we didn’t mind something temporary. The tanning process clearly takes more time than he’s had so far. Grimleif and I took our time looking for food and herbs on our way back, although the catch wasn’t great. Koldan had spent the day finishing Lulla’s game, and he and Snobben were playing when we came home. Snobben said there were gnoll tracks near the pit trap we had made; he had been up there on his foraging trip with Lulla and Bjørn. There was a short line of people waiting for Grimleif, so he had to dispense medicine and health advice in the evening. Based on how much time he spent on each patient over at the Claw’s camp, it didn’t look like he’d have time to see everyone here. With his rough tongue, I wouldn’t want to be near when he started telling people to come back later, although I suppose he could use a body guard. Karl Egil should do fine; he looked quite the warrior, prancing around in his suit of armor. |
Session 12 (2024-11-17)
5th of Sensommer
I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of Rune and Koldan arguing outside. I peeked cautiously out the window. I couldn’t guess what had happened, but Rune decided Koldan was to be tied up at night. Maybe he was walking in his sleep? Karl Egil took the long chain and tied up Koldan. The whole incident unsettled me so much it took several hours before I could find sleep again, and then it was morning. After the morning drill, Grimleif and I headed for the Claw’s camp again. Grimleif said we had to look for medicinal herbs on the way, for he ran out last night. We spent extra time on the task, allowing me to look extra carefully for the herbs Grimleif had described, but I found nothing. Luckily, Grimleif found a little. While Grimleif saw to his patients, I visited Bjarne and Fjord at the tannery. Bjarne had the shoulder straps ready, but affixing them to the pack wasn’t part of the deal. I hoped Rune was successful in locating someone who knew how to work leather; he said he was going to ask around camp for that today. I sold some rabbit skins to Bjarne for a few food rations. I understood he already had someone in our camp supplying him with furs to make leather, but there was no use letting ours go to waste. I was sure Bjarne could use all the skins he could get his hands on. Bjarne didn’t have the food rations at the tannery, so he told me to inform Vigrid about the deal, and she would pay me. I met up with her in the main camp, and to my surprise, she paid up. I guess she would find out soon enough if I had swindled her. I found some rocks to juggle while Grimleif finished his treatments. Then Proffen came and wanted to talk to us about the supernatural. I suggested we rather spend the time gathering herbs, and Grimleif agreed. He must have picked up everything along the path between our camps already, for we found nothing, although I speared a little rabbit. Like last night, people were queued up waiting for doctor Grimleif when we got back. I went inside and played Lulla’s game with her the rest of the evening. The game required steady hands to pick sticks out of a tangle without disturbing any of the others. I expected I’d do fairly well, which was indeed the case. When we wrapped up and I started to prepare for bed, Grimleif came inside and started brewing a new potion for Koldan. 6th of Sensommer Grimleif asked Koldan if it was all right if we revealed what we knew about King Sivir to Proffen. Koldan was fine with it. Grimleif and I gathered food and herbs on the way, and I juggled for the patients while Grimleif did his thing. Then Grimleif talked to Proffen, revealing just about everything. Proffen thought we were on the same landmass as the prisoner work camp where we had been heading, but that it would take days to walk there. He believed they might send an expedition to look for us when the Southern Wind failed to appear, and he had Claw members on the lookout for ships. They hadn’t seen any so far. I wasn’t convinced anyone would come looking. There might be many reasons why the ship never arrived, and only one involved us being shipwrecked where we might be found. Proffen found it unlikely anyone would look for us with scrying magic, which only strengthened my belief that we would be left alone. 7th of Sensommer Yesterday, Snobben learned that the Honorables had among them a baker with knowledge about food preservation methods. That boded well for us being able to set up winter stores, so maybe someone might survive the winter. When Grimleif and I visited the Claw today, Nolle decided my juggling was entertaining enough that it warranted a salary, so when we left, we had a little extra food in our backpack, to which Karl Egil had affixed straps for my convenience. 8th of Sensommer Koldan declared that he was going to the city to have his quest approved. Grimleif and I couldn’t go with him because of the demands on Grimleif as a doctor, and Rune refused Koldan to go anywhere alone. He was still fragile enough that a stubbed toe might kill him. Grimleif agreed to set aside time tomorrow so the three of us could go to the city, but today we had to visit the Claw again. That went about as I expected, with a little juggling to pass the time, and Grimleif engaging Proffen in discussion, and a little foraging on the way there and back. |
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