Sunday, February 5, 2012

A chance(?) meeting Thorri 16, 2012

Jouki, A Saami hunter-shaman (kindly played by a visiting friend of Kevin's, Darin) has come to barter with Tyrwald carrying a load of furs behind his reindeer, but payment in iron tools & weapons will have to wait until they return to Skalby. With prisoner in tow Tyrwald and his retinue (including the party members) head back toward the home village. During the first night the prisoner tries to escape and Arvarodd hogties him in a novel but period manner to discourage an further attempts. (OWWW!!!) Skolmr shames the prisoner into submission with his flytings (insults).

Midmorning of the second day, the travellers come across a scruffy, half-blind old beggar leaning on an old spear traveling in the opposite direction. Tyrwald dismissively throws a coin at the old codger and his horse edges him off the road. In return for the kindness shown by the party members the old man weaves them a story about when he was a young man (2 dog-lives before Frodhi Sheafchild came oe'r the water) he served a great Hero-King whose grave mound lies nearby in a boggy mountain vale beneath a cliff marked by a stone spear. In that grave lies his armour and weapons and he encourages the players to recover these artifacts and bring renewed honor to his fallen King by great deeds with them. Jouki and Arvarodd are rather skeptical and cautious of this odd fellow dressed in dirty dark-blue rags & a large brimmed floppy hat but eventually they are persuaded to join the enthusiasm of the others. After parting with this chance traveler (& if you believe that I have a swamp in the Shara I wish to sell you) by early afternoon the retinue has returned to the village.

During a week of preparations before the journey, Arvarodd manages to offer the Brideprice to Siv's parents and gain his betrothal to her. That evening in a sweet little scene he presents her with the gift of a beautiful indigo wool & white fox-fur cloak. The runes are cast and doom for good or ill pronounced that evening. Likewise Jouki retires to his tent, sings himself into a trance, and cast the bones. The result is that he has a vision of the route that the party needs to follow. As a sign of his guarded esteem, Tyrwald designates Ulfar as leader of the party but advises him to listen to the rede of Skolmr and Arvarodd for wisdom and follow the suggestions of Siv if he wants to have children.

The first few days & nights of travel are fairly unremarkable save for the problem with Skolmr falling asleep on watch. In the depths of the third night (Skolmr asleep on watch again) a Large Black Wolf wakens Ulfar (the one member of the party with a deathly fear of Wolves) by drooling in his face. Ulfar screams like a little girl & attempts to climb a tree (after a courage roll he comes back down) Arvarodd runs screaming naked from his tent & captures the wolf by tackling it and barely manages to avoid the arrow shot by Jouki that wounds the left rear leg of the beast. Arvarodd attempts to tame the wolf by biting its ears. Siv patches up the poor friendly wolf. The next day after Jouki leads the party to the Cliff marked by a giant stone spear the wolf leads the party the rest of the way up the overgrown path into the vale where camp is made in the growing twilight. But off the wolf charges into the bog pursued by Arvarodd, Skolmr, and Ulfar. Skolmr & Ulfar fall in the nasty muck, but Arvarodd follows closely enough to watch the Wolf  charge past the shiny black stones guarding the perimeter and straight into  the solid side of the burial mound. Arvarodd attempts to follow and uses his head - he eats dirt because where the wolf can pass easily, he can't.

Jouki says "Veda Kateen" to the thought of going to the mound & heads off into the wilderness. Eventually the rest of the party catches up to Arvarodd and in the gathering dark lit only by torches and the unearthly blue-green glow from the mound, they dig into the mound. They ignore the tingling they get from the obsidian markers around the grave mound that are marked with woe-runes!  Oh too bad, so sad, to you! Tyr takes the opportunity to make a long speech & annoys Huginn, Muninn & the everyone in the party. Huginn and Muninn express their displeasure on his head. After much hard work they eventually open the mound. Ulfar leads the way by trying to climb one hand down the rope while holding a torch, CRASH! & something breaks under his feet, when he hits & puts out his torch. Mar thinks that went so well he'll do the same darn thing! Finally in a more common sense approach Arvarodd clibs down & reignites everyone's torches. What's this? It seems Mar has grabbed a piece of the buried grave-ship & is accidentally using it as a torch. He tries to correct the situation and does so ----- as far as he knows!!!!! Siv and Skolmr also join the group inside the mound. There in the center of the small grave-ship they see two cloth covered bodies. The first is a large bloated blue-glowing body of a Warrior. The other is the body of the Wolf that had been a brief part of their company who bears a beatuful collar that Arvarodd takes for himself. After some token offerings they proceed to loot the Warrior's body of a "A beautiful sword that is very nicely decorated with gems & scroll work. It’s light & balanced giving an extra 5% to any sword attack" (taken by Siv), a "broken down looking spear with a blackened shaft that doesn't seem to ever miss its target when thrown" (taken by Ulfar), some "very heavy, scruffy, hairy made up of matted bear fur and tar, lined with even more heavy leather" (taken by Mar), and a "stout, old fashioned six sided oblong shield all done in black" (taken by Arvarodd).  

In the morning they close the mound back up and head back to the village. It's slower going because they've lost their Saami guide, and Siv is haunted by visions sent by Sif. When he puts together some clues Nate (Arvarodd's player) expresses his approval(?) by saying to the GM "You A**!!! You F*****g B*****d!!!! It's a G*******d Kinslaying Sword!!!!!" It's moments like that I live for, Heh-Heh! At about a mile from home they notice that oddly enough for a Winters day that no smoke is rising from the cook-fires. They rush madly back to the village & see that it has been torn apart. Buildings smashed, some burnt, bodies everywhere! The Smithy is burnt to a cinder & the thick sod walls thrown down. Siv's parents home is smashed and the family heirlooms packed up and taken! Ulfar's home & his mother lie in a smoldering ruin. Tracks of wagons appear to head up the north road. In the Meadhall, Tyrwald lies ripped asunder, surrounded by the shredded remains of his huskarls. Arvarodd notes that this looks like the same work of those who massacred his parents! He takes his Uncle's armour & carves Vengeance-Runes in the shattered remains of the door!

2 comments:

  1. For my part, this is all details on my way to either lift the curse from myself and redeem my family, or to witness Karin slay a great monster so I may write an epic song about it and gain vicarious came.

    Of course, sometimes the devil is literally in the details....

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  2. It was Siv who made it down the into the grave okay, Arvarodd called us idiots and fell on his ass as well. Also, Ulfar made a blood oath to take the head of the man who destroyed the village and mount it on his father's spear.

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