Session 011

## One Down, Two to Go

**Age of the Wolf, Year 5, Spring, Laelun Toil 2, days 3 - 4**

*Finding no trace of Yric, the party loots the ship and sets it ablaze. The party learns from Elof that the followers of the One God are fleeing. With the Red Lawspeaker's task completed and the One God's followers departing the region, the party begins traveling to meet the mountain hermit, Ornolf. Along the way, they encounter a hostile group of humanoids once thought extinct in this region.*

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## Player Characters Involved

* Nygäär the Dark the Fey Blooded Rogue/Fighter played by Dana
* Heiða the Seer the Dökkálfar Blooded Dread Necromancer played by Justin
* Esbjörn Sigvardson the Giant Blooded Barbarian/Cleric played by Greg
* Brydd Hjarta the Jörmung Human Sorcerer/Marshal played by Jason

## Aftermaths of the Ship Battle

The party had done the impossible - the corpses of their enemies were piled high on the damaged Umbrian cog. The ship was damaged beyond hope of steering or controlling it. Hearing a distant crash during the battle, Heiða and Brydd peered over the side of the cog, searching for Yric where they had left him in the small ship they had commandeered prior to the battle. Ominously, all they saw were the remnants of a ship totally destroyed. Looking more closely, Brydd recognized the tell-tale sign of black magic - pieces of the small ship burned with black flames. To Brydd's trained eye, it seemed some dark variant of a fireball spell had been used. It should have been impossible that it came from shore - Yric had been floating nearly a mile from shore, well beyond the range of a fireball spell.

While Esbjörn, Heiða, and Brydd gathered up the enemies steel armaments, Nygäär investigated the cargo hold of the cog. He found heavy warhorses and an interior cabin. Using his acute fey senses, he also heard someone hiding behind the water casks. Ordered to come out by Nygäär, a slim, twelve-year-old youth crept out and stood before him. Nygäär questioned him and found out his name was Arlow Bexley. The boy was a page of a paladin named Sir William, one of the holy knights whom the party had slain. Nygäär demanded to know what was in the cabin. Arlow told him it was the quarters of the paladins on board. A quick investigation led Nygäär to find a small chest, which he immediately took. Telling the boy to keep quiet for his own safety, Nygäär returned to the deck.

Nygäär wished to keep the boy's existence a secret, fearing what Esbjörn would do. Unfortunately, Heiða sensed someone else was aboard and spoke about the boy aloud. After a brief discussion, it was decided to search the ship once more to ensure they didn't miss anything. Descending back into the cargo hold, the party found a secret door, behind which was revealed a magnificent heavy shield and a small wooden box painted yellow. Knowing time was of the essence, the party quickly lowered the small boarding vessel attached to the cog, driving the remaining horses into the sea and setting the cog ablaze before they did so. They brought the boy Arlow with them, with Nygäär taking the boy as his responsibility at the insistence of Esbjörn. With Esbjörn walking upon the waves and pushing the rowboat, the party quickly reached the shore a few miles east of Raendale. Seeing that two of the released horses were nearby, Nygäär sent the page Arlow to retrieve them, and the boy easily brought the dangerous beasts to heel. Thinking it might be useful, Esbjörn slung the rowboat upon one of his massive shoulders and carried it up into the hills alongside the party, as they quickly returned to camp under the blood-red moon.

## Discussions with Elof

Upon their return to camp, the party was met with a surprise. Elof Orrison, the Geat prince, was sitting quietly and talking with Esbjörn's apprentice, Kirg. The wolf, Vungar, rested his head upon Elof's lap, and Elof's berserker followers stood quietly nearby. Sensing their friendly demeanor, the party entered the camp and bid the prince a cautious greeting. Elof seemed genuinely pleased to see the party. He told them that the destruction of the Umbrian cog had convinced the invaders to leave Raendale and return up the coast to the Geat capital of Aarhus. The witch Gunhild and Elof's sister Asleif Orrisdottir had fled with them. Swearing his eternal friendship, Elof promised the party that they would always be welcome at his table once he ruled Geat lands. Talking vaguely of his plans, the boy assured the party that it would not be long until he was the Geat Jarl. Seeing the party was sorely fatigued, Elof took his leave, returning to Raendale with his warriors.

The party slept, using the time they had to patch their wounds as best they could. In the morning Brydd used his skills as an engineer to turn the erstwhile rowboat they had taken from the cog into a snow sled. Putting their two plundered war horses in the traces, the party headed north along the Varde River. They decided to heed the advice of the white-robed lawspeaker and pay a visit to the hermit Ornolf's cave near Odin's Heart.

## Battle of the Wounded Lion

The next day, while traveling to the north, a wounded dire lion came upon the party. The huge white beast was bigger than any horse and as the creature charged forward, Heiða and Esbjörn rushed forward to meet its advance. Heiða fired her curse once she was in range and the screaming skulls she summoned were mostly repelled by the creature's massive strength. Some marginal withering of muscle was barely noticed by her astute eye. With Esbjörn greeting it in melee he was able to land one terrible blow under the creature's sternum before the creature reared up and bit deeply into the side of his neck. Tangled with Esbjörn, the giant could not free himself from the lion's bite and the creature briefly was picked off the ground by Esbjörn. Perhaps thinking he could pin the lion, instead Esbjörn aided the beast. Free from the ground, the dire lion began raking deeply through Esbjörn's plate mail tearing chunks of flesh wherever it was exposed.

The rest of the party moved forward, their flanking coordinated by Brydd, who began cajoling the team to work together to take the beast down. Nygäär hit the creature's exposed back, wickedly opening a large wound that began bleeding furiously. Vungar, that sickly old wolf, still had it in him. His icy bite was nearly fatal as it tore a large chunk out of the lion's throat. With the realization that death was upon him, it was all the beast could do to avoid Heiða's touch. She wrestled briefly with the creature's soul as its withered dead body fell on top of the heavily wounded Esbjörn. Within a moment the terrified soul of the beast was lost and a lion's panicked roar echoed upon the wind.

With the sounds of more approaching figures arriving, Esbjörn prayed to Surtr to hasten his own healing, glancing briefly at Heiða with a look that clearly communicated he needed time. Heiða clumsily donned the powerful shield they had looted from the Umbrian ship and walked forward to meet the incoming ambush. What appeared was a large hunting party of ape-like creatures, with twisted claw-like hands at the end of their long arms. Their faces were grey with flat snouts and flat foreheads, hairless brows, and over-sized crooked teeth. The creatures were armed with primitive spears and clubs. Nygäär recognized these half-men from his studies (as a man born of the nobility); they were creatures known as flatheads, once created by the dark elves of Svartalfheim for use as battle fodder. They had not been seen on Midgard for hundreds of years, and were assumed to be extinct.

The party turned towards these savage creatures with no hesitation. The flatheads flung their fire-hardened spears in a flurry, but Heiða's shield moved by itself. Despite her ineptitude, she looked better than any shield maiden with it. Flanked on all sides the shield moved her arm to block nearly everything her foes threw at her. Nygäär's lightning-quick blade slashed through their flesh as easily as a shark's fin through the water. Upon hearing Brydd's urging to flank, the rest of his allies moved into unique positions that aided them when it was time to strike. Badly wounded, Esbjörn entered the fray, but in his weakened state, he was barely able to keep his bastard sword between himself and the creatures. By the end of the battle, dripping with sweat and blood, the party had killed all save one of them. The last flathead was too fast for the party to catch up to. But not too fast for an arrow. Heiða dropped her shield, pulled out her bow, and let loose an arrow with an arc far more perfect than she should have been capable of. The arrow pierced the creature's flat snout with a force aided by gravity and the abomination was dead before it hit the ground. The party caught their collective breath and made ready to continue their journey.

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