Campaign Log: A Doe Among Wolves

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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?

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.