West Marching Wolves Session 1
The saga begins!
Dramatis Personae
Rúna and Frodi, former thralls, and Hrolf, the lame son of the former master. A crew of 9 Marines.
Events
In a longship northeast of Albann, the appointed leaders of a group of 12 desperate ex-thralls confer over a map, deciding where to go. They settle on the simplest path: due southeast, towards an island large enough not to be easily missed.
They discover the isle of Kark, off the coast of Faroe. The isle seems to be uninhabited with scant plant and animal life. After spending a night camping on the beach, they hop back in their boat and hug the coast. On the southern tip, they spot a jetty and an overgrown footpath leading to an abandoned village.
In the village, they find discarded valuables and traces of life hastily abandoned. Only when they approach the lord's longhouse at the center of the town, within a stone wall, do they discover that it is inhabited by sickly smelling creatures whose flesh is hideously fused with shards of glass. The only one of them who can speak, the self-proclaimed Troll-king Hjalmar, greets them warmly and proposes that the visitors give them passage to the mainland so he and his invincible brethren do not starve.
Fearing the trolls, the search party agrees provided they are bound, unarmed, and unarmored. They return to their camp, but the king sends one of his brothers, Friedbert, to make sure the trolls are not betrayed.
At dinnertime, the crew "tests" Friedbert to see whether a chain is enough to restrain him, wrapping his leg. They slaughter an ox, and attempt to trap the chain underneath it, though Friedbert quickly escapes. As the crew runs back to the longship, several stay behind and fight the troll, though they observe his battle wounds seem to heal just as quickly as new protrusions of glass poke through his skin. Once everyone is onboard, Rúna boasts that she will knock Friedbert into the water, grabbing the chain affixed to his leg and pulling him into the sea. Friedbert, desperate for revenge, is nearly paralyzed by the pain, and Rúna is able to rejoin her comrades aboard the karvi. No food has been acquired, but everyone is (miraculously) alive and the ship is stocked with looted goods.