Session 013

## Welcome to Visby

**Age of the Wolf, Year 5, Spring, Laelun Toil 2, days 5-6**

*The party bid farewell to their new ally Stig and made their way north on their journey towards Ornolf's cave. On their way, they encountered more evidence of the Umbrian invader's treachery and reached a village north of the fork in the Verde River. They found evidence of divine interference in mortal affairs, along with enemies old and new.*

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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

## Non-Player Characters Involved

* Arne the Mute
* Siggi Lokisdöttir
* Karsid Skelison
* Gormi Goutison
* Rungar the Woe-Weaver

## Parting Ways with Stig

After a long rest, the party made ready to march after nightfall. Before they bid farewell to Stig, Heiða informed him she had reconsidered her request for help slaying Frida Shadow-Walker. As such, the party left with Stig owing Heiða and Nygäär an as-yet-determined blood debt. They headed north along the river, with Nygäär scouting out in front on horseback. As they approached the river fork, they came upon a disturbing scene.

## The Sacked One-God Outpost

Nygäär noticed what was once a cluster of small buildings nestled between the two rivers. They were now burned to the ground, smoldering, filling the night sky with a soft red-yellow glow, and flickering ominously off the wide river. Wooden bridges had been constructed over both branches of the fork, and a stone road led to the west towards the capital city of Aarhus. Another dirt road led northwest along the far side of the western river fork. Within the ruins, Nygäär made out a lone figure ponderously poking through the ashes. Sensing there was no danger, Nygäär gathered the rest of the party to enter the remains of the outpost.

They approached the old bent-backed man, who they would later learn was named Arne the Mute, and he peered up at them and slowly watched as the party strode forward. Strewn about him were the charred remains of wooden buildings, along with a number of headless corpses. Based on the clothing, the corpses were those of slain Umbrians. The party questioned the old man, but his grunts and shrugs provided little in the way of answers. The mute slave gestured north along the dirt road, and so warily, the party agreed and brought the old slave along with them.

## Village of Visby and Freyr's Sacrifice

The party left the sacked outpost ruins and continued north along the clearly centuries-old dirt road. Kurg, being local to the area, informed the party that they were heading towards the village of Visby, a small Geat settlement of perhaps fifty or a hundred souls. As they walked, the party surveyed the landscape, a mix of cleared farmland interspersed with old-growth forest. They began to see mysterious lights shining in the trees around them, but far enough off the road to foil any attempt at identifying them or their origin. The strange lights seemed to follow them as they made their way north. Another thing of note was the way in which the old road would sometimes wind around strange earthen mounds covered in white flowers as if the builders had intentionally avoided disturbing them. As dawn approached, they neared the village. The heads of Umbrian troops skewered on pikes began to appear along the roadside, apparently placed there by the locals. As Visby came into view, a fox suddenly sprung out towards them, seemingly from nowhere. The small animal collapsed at Nygäär's feet, and transformed into a young woman! Close behind the exhausted girl, two horsemen clattered up the road, pulling up sharply when they saw the party.

The girl at Nygäär's feet, visibly exhausted, begged the young noble for his help. The horsemen hesitated and shaken at the appearance of the party. After a brief exchange, the party learned that the girl was known as Siggi Lokisdöttir. Outcast from the Visby, she lived alone in the nearby forest. It seemed she was orphaned, and her cruel aunt mistreated her for her strangeness and the mystery of her parentage, as her father's identity was scandalously unknown. The riders were from Visby, and the current headman of the village, Karsid Skelison, asked that she be given to them for use as a sacrifice. The party refused and demanded more information.

The villagers had recently fallen on hard times. The Umbrian garrison had mistreated them, especially the local women, and the villagers had fought back. Their former headman, a warrior named Koli the Left-Handed, had been killed for trying to stand up to the Umbrians. In response to this outrage, the villagers attacked and killed the Umbrian troops at the river fork outpost. In addition, a strange circle of runestones had risen from the ground within the village. Karsid Skelison, the newly elected headman (and a priest of Freyr, the god of the harvest), had called a Thing to allow everyone to have a voice on what they should do. The villagers decided that the girl Siggi, who for years had been the target of whispers and rumors that said she was touched by evil, should be sacrificed to appease the gods. Upon learning this, the party asked to be shown these runestones in order to determine for themselves their nature.

Bowing to the whims of the party, Karsid led them into Visby. The town had been recently fortified, with earthen dikes put in place around the meager settlement. As if to verify their story, Karsid showed the party a number of mutilated women who lived in the village, proof of Umbrian cruelty. The boy Arlow was shaken by this evidence. Clearly the good-hearted lad found his native countrymen's actions revolting. Impatiently the party demanded to see the runestones Karsid had told them about.

The party was led to a circle of nine granite runestones, located within the heart of the village and adorned in glowing runes. Using their collective knowledge of religion and the local area, Brydd and Heiða worked together to decipher the obscure symbols. Freyr wanted a sacrifice of the tusks of three dire boars. In exchange, the village would be protected from the foreign invaders menacing their homeland. The party contemplated this, but Esbjörn became furious. With Surtr and Freyr being mortal enemies, the giant-blooded warrior would have no part in answering Freyr's request.

As the rest of the party engaged in discussion, Esbjörn drew his massive bronze blade and began to pray aloud to Surtr in the tongues of the Jotuns. He intended to sunder and pulverize the religious pillars of Freyr until the blasphemous columns were no more than dust and rubble. Before Esbjörn ended his prayer and was able to release his holy vengeance, Brydd (who understood the tongues of giants) quickly deduced what Esbjörn intended. Brydd swiftly came to Esbjörn’s side and did his best to dissuade and discourage the man from destroying the holy relic. Esbjörn was enraged at the thought of letting the pillars stand, but finally, the wily sorcerer Brydd was able to convince Esbjörn to focus on defeating the Umbrian invaders, and not to destroy the pillars should it delay Ragnorak. Esbjörn conceded, so long as the party would have nothing further to do with the pillars or any religious ceremonial event related to the holy columns of Freyr. If the villagers wanted to pray to Freyr, then they would have to do so under their own capabilities.

Esbjörn's rage over the blasphemous pillars remained, however, and so the hulking, infuriated priest sheathed his blade and stormed off toward the village tavern hall, all the while releasing his anger and rampage on any nearby wagon, fence, or unlucky villager who got too close.   After Esbjörn stormed off from the party, Heiða quickly spoke to Brydd explaining in Ancient Common (the language of the fey) that this village would be protected by performing the rite. Siggi could speak fey, forcing Heiða to make up a story that the townspeople themselves needed to perform the sacrifice and that it wouldn't work if outsiders did it. With Esbjörn rampaging through town, Heiða advised Brydd and Nygäär to go and meet with the fey folk in the forest that Siggi mentioned and to let them know how to save the village. Heiða then ran off to try to calm Esbjörn down before he did something they would all regret.

Karsid said that the party was welcome to stay and rest in the village. It seemed that they were only the latest visitors to come to Visby. There was a silver merchant from the Wulfling clan named Gormi Goutison along with a warrior named Rungar who had both recently arrived in the small village. Nygäär's eyes flashed with menace at the sound of Gormi's name, as that was the name of a nobleman who had mistreated him during his time with the Wulfling clan. As fate would have it, the name Rungar was familiar to Brydd. Unaware of the level of rage burning in Esbjörn, he went with Nygäär to haggle with the local merchants, as Heiða and Esbjörn went to the main hall for food, drink, and release.

## The Seer's Bounty Finds Her

Esbjörn was in a dark mood as he entered the hall, peering ominously at the small group of local warriors sitting at the benches. Finding nowhere to comfortably sit, he made a show of scaring away some of the men to make room for himself and the seer. The giant blooded warrior and the seer began to drink heavily, looking for some time and space to make conversation and relax in peace. The only others in the hall (other than the locals) were a fat merchant on the far side of the room who left them well alone, and a slender and dangerous-looking warrior with long black hair wearing black leather armor. The slender warrior clearly did not belong there, but he assumed a reckless nonchalance by boldly approaching Heiða and sitting down nearby. He asked the seer if she would like to share a drink, introducing himself as Rungar, and asking her name. Heiða introduced herself as well, but the conversation went no further as Esbjörn furiously snapped at the stranger to go elsewhere. Rungar withdrew, and Esbjörn and Heiða dared to hope they would finally have some peace and quiet.

Unfortunately, Rungar was an assassin and had been lying in wait in Visby on a tip that Heiða may be heading this way. It seemed the bounty put out on Heiða by the Harii volva, Frida Shadow-Walker, had reared it's ugly head. Esbjörn noticed that the black-clad warrior had suddenly disappeared, and both he and Heiða realized they were in for a fight. As Heiða stood up, she narrowed her eyes at something between the veil. An eerie moment of suspense occurred before she suddenly shot rearward, bending away from the open space in front of her. As she fell backward, her back hit the table hard and she quickly rolled to her feet. Rungar suddenly reappeared, looking shocked at Heiða's prescience. In the interim, Brydd and Nygäär had entered the hall and immediately joined the fray in defense of their companions. Nygäär's eyes flashed in anger as he spotted the merchant at the far side of the hall, and he gritted his teeth in rage.

The party found Rungar a difficult foe to destroy. Brydd's touch erupted flames all around the assassin in a bright burst, but incredibly, the flames had no effect on Rungar, who grinned wickedly in Brydd's face. The party seemed at a loss, but they had cut off all avenues of escape for their assailant. Pulling a curved dagger dripping with a foul green substance, Rungar slashed Esbjörn across an area of exposed skin on his leg. Esbjörn's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed instantly, sending tables and benches flying. The assassin calculated the odds and decided to beat a hasty retreat, fleeing out the door into the village. Nygäär went in half-hearted pursuit out the hall doorway but was unable to spot the assassin. Sensing this was a foe they best not press, the party tended to Esbjörn, who was soon back on his feet but feeling confused and dizzy.

## Nygäär's Revenge

Meanwhile, the locals in the hall had withdrawn to a safe distance and watched the battle as it unfolded. With Rungar gone, Nygäär turned his attention to the fat merchant at a table on the other end of the hall. Gormi Goutison was a member of the Wulfing clan, one of those young noblemen who had made Nygäär's life nearly intolerable during his imprisonment there. The fat merchant smiled condescendingly at Nygäär, joking that the warrior should come and sharpen his blade for him. With little fanfare, the elvish blade Lentidagnir flashed from Nygäär's scabbard and cut the fat merchant to shreds, sending blood and gore spinning across the hall. As the locals looked on in horror, Nygäär turned calmly to Gormi's slave and demanded that he show him to the merchant's wagon of goods. Surprised, all present, including Nygäär's companions, watched him leave the hall.

With a slave leading the way, the Grymmlyor nobleman looted the silver jewelry from Gormi's wagon. Nygäär then turned to the merchant's slaves and informed them that they were free, handing them a small bag of silver. The slaves bowed to their liberator and immediately left the village, heading south along the old road back the way the party had come. It seemed the party spread discord and chaos wherever they went. As the heroes settled down to rest in the main hall, the locals eyed them nervously but kept their distance. It seemed Visby would find no help with their struggles from these adventurers.

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