Bjergholde

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.

Camp Found

Session #3, January 5, 2018

The clouds had been increasing over the past two days and on November 2, 837, the sky was fully overcast with a continued moderate west wind. Forni knocked together a couple of wheelbarrows to aid the excavation and then worked on building the camp.

As the rest of the party continued its exploratory excavations of the mountain slide, they spotted a small group of armed men in the distance. Closing and hailing each other, the two groups recognized one another as Viking and Suebi.

The four Suebi tribesmen were guarded, but not hostile. When asked if they knew of the mining camp, had perhaps traded with them last year, they said they did not and did normally hunt in this area. Uncomfortable around each other, the two groups went back to their business with no more discussion.

After a peaceful night, November 3 was warmer still, but with a light rain. Again the party went back to digging, but with Forni, as he had been yesterday, concentrating on building out the camp. In the afternoon the woman Haldora arrived in the camp bearing a small cask of mead. She was known to the men as she had been in Amkedvik this past year, arriving from a steading south and east along the coast. Unsurprisingly, a pretty woman walking into the camp with alcohol was welcomed with no questions asked.

The light rain kept up during the night, but early on November 4 cooler air arrived and it changed to snow. Unable to ignore the oncoming winter any longer the party paused its dig in order to concentrate on standing up a more protective camp. In four day's time, the 20' square timber bunkhouse was roughly completed with a fireplace to feed the smokehouse, a root cellar below holding 70# of smoked venison, and a wattle fence around the 80' X 100' compound.

On November 9 the party once again focused on the digging and began finding some more debris. Digging on the next two days also revealed likely mining camp debris, but on November 12 they final revealed crushed huts. The three stone, wood, and turf-built huts they found were partially crushed, but having voids within. Voids devoid of any miners, but including this:

Koriol employed his primeval awareness to ascertain the presence of anything unnatural within a 6 mile radius about their location and felt that there were elementals, fey, and undead present.

Late in the night, after the party had dragged their tired bodies back to the campsite for sleep, the four Suebi tribesmen returned, two of them unconscious and being hauled by the other two wounded men who begged for help.

[Once again weak memory, but slightly better notes. Please forgive any inaccuracies.]

Recovery and Return to Fjallisilfur

Session #2, December 10, 2017

Koriol's wounds from the two-headed dog's bites seemed to be infected as rather than healing, the flesh was dying away and he felt very unwell. In game terms, Koriol would suffer disadvantage on all to-hit and ability check rolls. He and Forni realized that this disease would eventually kill him if he was not cured and that his best chance for survival was to suffer through the two-day journey back to Amkedvik and hope that one of the drenge experienced with infected battle wounds could help.

They made the return trip without incident and Koriol was laid in a bed in his father's home where Allis, a berserker who had raided with Koriol's father, Kjorin Finnison, tended him. Although Allis was no healer and could not stop the disease, he was able to help Koriol stay as strong as possible while his body fought the disease. Finally, after a week in bed, Koriol pulled through and was on his feet again.

In preparing to search again for the buried mining village, Forni and Koriol recruited Allis, Iorad (another experienced raider, if an annoying one), and Gyrdhi who knew something about mining and was quite keen to find the silver mine that the men in the mining camp had supposedly discovered before an earthquake-driven mountain slide apparently buried them in their camp. The men equipped themselves with 6 shovels, 3 picks, 100' of rope, buckets, a hammer, a ladder, lamp & oil, a scale, two iron pots, cook's utensils, 5# of flour, 1# salt, 5# cheese, and a 5 gallon butt of beer. Plus sacks and a pair of donkeys to carry it all.

On October 29, 837, the five men set out to the east in search of the lost mining camp in clear but cold weather. At dusk the party disturbed a nest of giant wolf spiders which they dispatched quite easily. Koriol was bitten by one of them, but its bite delivered only enough venom to numb his arm for an hour.

During second watch that night, Gyrdhi's, three swinemen attacked the camp. Gyrdhi was killed instantly by one's greataxe. Koriol was knocked down as well before the swinemen were finally killed.

The next day was mostly sunny and warmer, though still below freezing. The party arrived at the site they had staked out for a base camp and began setting up a small smokehouse to preserve game they hunted, designated a paddock for the donkeys, and started work on a bunkhouse.

November 1's weather was much like the previous day's, just a little warmer and a little cloudier. The party spent the day excavating the mountain slide again, but finding little. As they worked a small flock of scarlet bloodhawks attacked them. Iorad was badly wounded before one of the hawks was killed and the others flew off.

That night, during the first watch, they heard something crashing slowly through the woods. Upon investigation they discovered a giant lumbering along and eating everything in its path, even ripping saplings from the ground to munch. Although it was not on a direct course toward the camp, the party reasoned it would soon smell their food, so they set up positions to snipe at it. The tactic worked exceedingly well as the giant was unable to figure out where the attacks were coming from and the party managed to kill it before it's reckless, random rampaging actually found any of the characters.

[Recreated from poor notes and weak memory. Apologies for any inaccuracies.]

In Search of the Lost Mine

Session #1, December 3, 2017

In the afternoon of October 15, 837, Koriol and Forni were drinking together in the meadhall of Amkedvik. Both were ready to strike out from their families' homes and they decided that they should travel to Fjallisilfur to investigate the report they'd heard last year of a mountainslide that buried a mining camp there; perhaps there would be silver. They recruited Mundi's daughter Sylfa, who was like a sister to Forni, to join them.

The next day they set off in a heavy rainstorm and traveled east into the forest at a foraging pace, finding 3# of wild plants and fungi and harvesting a doe that yielded about 75# of venison. After dressing and partially butchering the doe, the party continued east at a normal pace. That afternoon Koriol spotted 2 swinemen traveling north with only 100' separating them before they noticed, thanks to the storm. The party shot arrows at them, killing one before it closed the distance to attack with great axes. Sylfa was badly wounded and unconscious before they killed the second one. Koriol used his healer's kit to help Sylfa. Collecting the faceless coins (10 greengold and 17 silver) and axes from the bodies, the two men carried Sylfa and set up a cold camp 100 yards from the site of the fight and about 13 miles from the village.

The rain ended after midnight as Koriol kept second watch. October 17 dawned clear and moderately breezy and the group traveled east. By midday they were another 12 miles east of Amkedvik. Here they set up camp with a lean-to and fire, then roasted and smoked the venison.

On the 18th they set out east again under increasing clouds and a light northeast breeze and in about 2 hours sighted the mountain a few hours away to the northeast, arriving at the base late in the afternoon. Looking around, there were no immediately obvious signs of a camp or a mountain slide and they made camp for the night, planning a thorough survey beginning the following day.

The 19th was warmer and mostly cloudy, but not raining. While surveying the lower part of the mountain for remnants of the mining camp or signs of the slide, Koriol spotted a mammoth. The party gave the animal a wide berth while searching the rest of the base area unsuccessfully. After finding nothing around the base, they went back to the area the mammoth, now gone, had been in, and discovered signs of a slide and a piece of wrecked timber. Spending more time at the site they tried to piece together the bits of evidence to narrow where they might try to dig, then sited a good long-term camp about 20 minutes away from the slide area where there was a spring.

That night, during the second watch Sylfa was charged by a large, two-headed dog. It bit her and though the sword blow she landed on its flank didn't seem to affect it much, it ran off immediately. Koriol stayed up for the rest of her watch and later after she had gone to sleep it attacked again. This time it kept up the fight taking down both Sylfa and Koriol and badly wounding Forni before it ran off again, though this time obviously badly hurt. Forni attempted to bind Sylfa's wounds, but she died before he could staunch enough of the bleeding. Koriol's wounds were not as bad and he was stable by the time Forni had a chance to check him.

Koriol slept until noon healing and Forni built a pyre for Sylfa. When Koriol woke he realized that he was suffering from some kind of poisoning apparently from the dog bites which were not looking good. Reflecting on the past night, Forni remembered that the two-headed dog was wearing a silver collar just above its shoulders.