Campaign Log: A Doe Among Wolves

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.

[coronatiger]

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.