Session #4, January 19, 2018
Play resumed at game time November 12, 837, at approximately 03:00. The previous play session had ended just after two tribesmen bearing another incapacitated pair had arrived in camp begging aid and Koriol had administered goodberries to the men and settled them on the floor of the bunkhouse.
Rather than attempting to track the two-headed dog that had attacked the tribesmen in the night, the party doubled watch for the remaining dark hours and planned to set out in the morning, leaving the tribesmen with the run of the camp. The grateful tribesmen tried unsuccessfully to give the party the fur cloaks off their backs, but the leader insisted they accept a necklace of silver figures on a leather thong. Haldora coaxed them into telling that their home hunting grounds were about 4 days north and east of here. The hunting had become extremely poor this season after many years of plenty, and they were ranging further south in hopes of harvesting enough game to help carry their steading of three dozen or so though the winter.
The thin, crispy snow left from a few days earlier proved helpful to tracking the dog from the site of the tribesmen's camp. The tracks ran Northeast to the shore of a river, presumed to be the Skinnende Elv (Shining River) which empties at Horgevik, 10 - 15 miles south of Amkedvik, then followed the tracks upstream. About 4 miles upstream from a branch in the river, the party came upon a brown bear fishing at a ford. Climbing the bank to avoid disturbing it, they continued upstream, matching the hill profiles on the map from the ruined village with the terrain on the far bank.
By early afternoon, after climbing out of taiga, forested hills, and eventually into rocky hills, the group spotted some sort of castle wall on the hill as described by the map. Reckoning it would be about sunset when they arrived there, they opted instead to make camp a mile or two back downriver and behind a rise. Koriol returned to the base camp, getting charged by a boar on his way back, but killing it after suffering a nasty wound from its tusks. At camp he provided herbs and treatment instructions for the dog bites to the grateful tribesmen, at least one of whom showed signs of the disease Koriol had suffered after being wounded by the dog weeks ago.
After eating and quickly sleeping, Koriol packed a few food supplies and made his way to the party's lean-to in the wee hours. True to their prediction, the overcast weather of yesterday developed into a light snow. Iorad began the day weakened from subsisting on trail rations (temporarily at -2 to STR and DEX) and would need to rest after half a day's exertions. They broke camp, backtracked to the ford where the bear had been, crossed, then followed the river upstream into the rocky hills and found the castle hill again. They approached the castle stealthily, coming around the back of the hill and over the top to view it from above. Here it became clear that the structure was merely a section of wall built into a near-vertical part of the hill. Wrapping back around to the other side they found a well-used track that had been used by traffic traveling away from the keep just a couple of hours earlier. The track went generally northeast from the keep and showed wheel tracks as well as bipeds'.
Following the track around to the keep's side of the hill, they found that 8' wide stairs led from the track up, behind the wall with no door or gate blocking the way. Taking the steps up, they found a hallway inside the wall, pierced on the left, away from the hill, with several arrow slits. At the top of the stairs to the right an archway opened into a small guardroom in which a swineman half stood, half sat with drooping eyelids. Allis rushed into the room, followed immediately by Iorad. The swineman was dispatched before he could raise his weapon or give a shout.
The guard room had a second exit on the south wall, and hearing nothing through it, the party went in, dragging the dead swineman in and leaving a trail of gore behind him. This room contained several empty wooden armor and weapon racks which looked quite old. Three other doors on each of the other walls were closed. The party heard a muffled growling sound through the south door and silence at the other two. Haldora braced one of the racks against the southern door. Checking the eastern door, it opened at the southern end of the arrow slitted hallway. Opening the western door, they observed a man reading a book while sitting in a chair upon a dais in a large audience hall-sort of room, with a two-headed dog sleeping on the floor before him. The dog immediately woke and lunged at the party.
Both the dog's heads bit Allis. The party managed to kill the dog before the man on the chair had even recovered from his surprise at their intrusion, but once he had, he blasted the party with a fireball which incapacitated Allis, killed Iorad instantly, and wounded the rest of the party rather badly. Despite these losses the party was able to kill the man before he delivered any more damage. The room was lit by a chandelier of six oil lamps and on the north wall had been written:
Vafthrundis
What secrets to the Gods belong
And to the gigantean throng
I will unfold In evry world
I my banners have unfurld
Behold nine traversd spheres above
Th extent of my researches prove
Beneath the shades of Niflhil lie
There the men of Hela die
After tending to Allis, Koriol noticed a pair of swinemen start to enter the chamber through an archway in the south of the room and immediately retreat back through it. The party quickly grabbed the man's coin purse and book and returned east into the armory room, then north into the guardroom as the door on the south side of the armory opened, breaking the armor rack braced on it, and swinemen began streaming through. The party took up a defensive position outside the archway into the guardroom at the top of the stairs which enter the keep. Here they fought the swinemen singly as they tried to force their way into the hall. Midway through this fight another swineman, this one wearing chainmail rather than hide armor as the others, caught Forni in the shoulder with a javelin from the south end of the arrow slitted hall. Forni charged him with his sword, wounded him badly, and managed to push him back a step. This forced the swineman to step on a pressure plate causing a dart to shoot from the wall and strike him, killing him immediately. By the end, 7 swinemen lay dead in the guardroom and hall.
