The ongoing playtest of Bodil’s Gap continues! In part five the party sailed home to Ymafjord only to discover that, because of the delays they suffered in transit, the raid they had been preparing for was on the verge of launching without them. Hastily preparing to sail again, they await only the tide before launching on their quest to bring vengeance down on Kettil Sea-Strider, who murdered Þejn Arnolf and his son Steinar.
The Cast
Ingvild Scoreslayer, Dýrsark - Ingvild is an old and bitter warrior, cunning but prone to the rage of a berserker. He was brother-in-law to the murdered Þejn, Arnolf, and was once a close advisor to the Laxbrynjung clan's leadership. However, he has since had a falling out with the new Þejn, Trond—Arnolf's younger brother—over the execution of Arnolf's will.
Mundr Ivaldisson, Óttimaðr - Mundr is a promising but untested young man endowed with the strength of giants by a mysterious incident during his travels abroad. A Laxbrynjung by birth, Mundr is the only child of the late Ivaldi, the youngest of Arnolf's brothers. Since Arnolf's death, he has ingratiated himself to his uncle Trond in an effort to keep the family from splitting apart.
Ylva Blood-Cup, Seiðkona - Ylva is a sorceress endowed with the power to see and speak with spirits, and uses her magic to curse her enemies with great misfortune. Though dwelling apart from the clan in the woods, Ylva is an ally of the Laxbrynjungs, having been a close friend and confidant of Arnolf's murderd heir, Steinar.
Hrafn, Skald - Hrafn is a travelling merchant blessed by a drop of the Mead of Poetry. Left with neither trade goods nor coin by an accident on the road that destroyed his cart and belongings, Hrafn has joined the Laxbrynjung raiders to avenge their Þejn and enrich himself.
The Game
On the shore at Ymafjord, the PCs are greeted by their allies Rurik, the old Þejn's surviving son, and Odd, the local raid-planner. They have some good news—Rurik has managed to secure a small ship, and can bring some of his supporters on the raid. Odd starts to suggest that he has a plan to win Rurik and their faction some glory and influence to rival his uncle—Trond, the self-declared current þejn—but is forced to hold off on explaining as Trond catches up with the welcoming party, his arrival slowed by his bad leg.
Trond is effusively glad to see Mundr and company return with his wife's cousins, the Askarfjorders, and makes a show of rewarding every sailor of the crew with silver. The PCs are forced to grit their teeth as Trond's show of generosity only reinforces his command over the men, but Mundr is put in an even trickier position when Trond sees that Mundr's shield is missing and makes a gift of his own to the young man. Unable to refuse his uncle, Mundr feels his loyalties being pulled in too many directions.
There's little time to brood about it, however, as all those assembled are set to sail with the morning tide. As the sailors load fresh supplies into the party's longship, the PCs make the rounds of the shore investigating how many ships and fighters will accompany them on the morrow before bedding down for the night.
The size of the raid seems to have grown in their absence. From their own faction—those that support Rurik for the þejnship—there are three ships: Odd's, crewed by his children and fellow veterans; Rurik's, with a small crew of loyal partizans; and the party's own, crewed by men as loyal to Trond as to the party.
Trond's faction likewise boast three ships: Trond's own, crewed by his men; Vágarhlaupna, Arnolf's prized ship, now captained by Trond's sons; and the ship of a trading partner of Trond's, crewed by mercenaries.
Finally, two additional ships fit somewhere between. The Askarfjorders are kin of Trond's wife but not overfond of the man himself, and are indebted to the party for their previous aid. The last ship, meanwhile, is crewed by Radulf Sigridsson, the husband of Rurik's older half-sister. Radulf is not of the clan, and Rurik's relationship with his sister Ranveig is tense—how she and her family-by-marriage will act is hard to predict.
In the morning, all of these ships sail for the region of Hvalarsnes, far to the north, where Kettil Sea-Strider is known to frequent the city of Egil's Landing. It is a trip of five days' sailing, with a single stop at some islands along the way. The first two days of travel are uneventful, and as they draw to a close, the islands come into view. A wave of grim recognition passes over the party and their crew, for these are the same islands where Arnolf and Steinar's ships were beached for the night when Kettil and his men set upon and murdered them.
When ships are beached on the two islands for the night, the party find a good camping spot on the smaller of the two. Rurik and Odd join them, and Odd is finally able to impart the plan he spoke of earlier. The location of the Sea-Strider's home is unknown—finding him in Egil's Landing when he arrives to trade is the best chance of catching him, but by no means a sure thing—but Odd knows the location of a fort where Kettil's son Olaf dwells. This information is unknown to Trond, and Odd suggests that Rurik and the PCs should separate from the larger raiding party to strike at this fort. Bringing back Olaf's head while Trond's expedition searches potentially in vain for Kettil himself would go a long way to winning Rurik the kind of prestige he needs to claim his rightful þejnship from Trond.
The PCs are agreeable to this plan, but separating from the larger expedition is a matter for tomorrow. In the meantime, they have their own idea for winning some recognition; they plan to cross over to the larger island, find the old campsite where Arnolf and Steinar were slain, and raise a cairn or other memorial for their fallen kinsmen.
Finding where Arnolf and Steinar camped takes some searching, but soon they spot where the rocks were blackened by campfires and begin to search around for any traces of their kin. While searching, Mundr spots a glint of light amid the rocks, and discovers what seems to the tip of a steel sword, snapped off between two stones and still stained by the dried blood of the thrust that likely broke it.
Steel is rare and expensive, and so the party realizes that this sword must have belonged to either Kettil himself or one of his closest comrades. Ylva takes charge of it and works her seiðr to link sword tip and blade together once more. Spinning in her hand, the broken sword point begins to point north across the sea, drawn toward the place the rest of the blade lies—a compass to guide the party very near to their ultimate goal, Kettil. Ylva is cautious, however, for she recognizes something else: that this fragment of blood-stained steel used to murder a Laxbrynjung kinsman is in itself an omen of death and a token of bad luck—bad luck that will accompany the party as long as they carry the thing.
Sobered by their discovery, the party decide to hold a sacrifice to the sea god on the nearby cliff, hoping to counteract this bad luck through the goodwill of the gods. They recall a place on the smaller island where they saw evidence of seals gathering, and return their campsite to try catching some for their sacrifice. With night well and truly falling, they and their crew arrive in time to see the seals emerging from the water to sleep on the black rocks of the shore, which still retain the heat of the sun.
Ingvild and Mundr, the two strongest party members, prepare to wade in among the seals and wrestle one into a net, but just as they set foot onto the rocks a voice calls out from the water, commanding them to stop. Turning, they recognize the face of Froda, the old steersman of their ship, emerging from the waves with seaweed braided into his hair and beard.
When last they saw Froda he had been mortally wounded by a monstrous crab, and the party traded their favour with the selkie they had aided in exchange for her help healing him. She took him away beneath the waves and promised he would be returned to his home when he had recovered. Now the party is faced with him striding out of the water, his torn chainmail shirt patched with glittering new rings carved from mother of pearl, his sword resting in a scabbard of driftwood instead of leather, and his cloak dyed the green of the sea. Standing up to his knees in the water he calls up onto the shore, forbidding any man from harming the seals, which are under the protection of his bride.
At once the party's crew erupts into shouting. Some of them think that Froda has been bewitched by the selkie and must be rescued, others that he should be envied for apparently marrying one of the legendary seal-women. Yet others think that Froda has died and that this is his ghost come to haunt them.
While Ingvild turns his steely and menacing gaze upon the crew to quell them, and Mundr and Hrafn prepare to wrestle Froda to the ground if the need arises, Ylva looks Froda over from the shore. Immediately she can tell that Froda is not a ghost, having encountered such spirits previously, but it's equally clear to her that the man is now touched by the spirit world, and has certainly been enchanted in some way—at the very least, to the extent that allows him to survive in the Selkie's watery domain. If his mind has also been clouded, or whether he has married the spirit of his own free will, is harder to determine.
Mundr begins questioning Froda about what happened to him while he was away, and why he was not returned home as promised, and Froda answers. He describes his time healing in the selkie's care; how beautiful and kind she was; her many gifts to him, like his repaired armour; and the sense of purpose he found defending her domain. He speaks of how, when the time came to be returned to his home, it seemed that home was below the waves where he already was.
Hearing his story, Ylva determines that there is little to be done if Froda does not wish to return to land with them. Though the man is indeed enchanted and his love of the selkie was facilitated and by enchantment, it seems to have naturally arisen under unnatural circumstances, rather than to have been imposed upon him. There is no curse to dispel that would return him to his old self, and undoing the enchantments upon him would simply leave him unable to survive below the sea where he clearly wishes to remain.
This leaves the party conflicted and at something of an impasse, for Froda currently stands between them and the seals they need for their sacrifice and none of them wish to fight their former comrade over the matter. Mundr rallies himself to make a plea that they be allowed to take one seal to honour the sea god and the memory of their former þejn, and his speech is enough to give Froda pause. Finally he agrees to allow them one seal, but insists that he be the one to swing the sword when the time comes.
Returning to the site of the slaughter with Froda and their seal in tow—the creature oddly docile in Froda's presence—the party stand on the cliff and make their declarations to the sea god. Ylva promises to see the true Þejn of the Laxbrynjungs ascend to leadership, Mundr promises to see Kettil Sea-Strider and his son Olaf thrown into the sea in sacrifice just like this seal, and Hrafn asks for the sea god's blessing on Froda's marriage to the selkie. Ingvild abstains.
Their declarations made, Froda's sword falls on the seal's neck, and the best is hurled off the cliff and into the waves below. Froda embraces his former companions and makes his goodbyes, and then descends down to the water himself, vanishing into the waves. The next day, buoyed by their faith in the sea god's favour, the party sails alongside the rest of their warband, setting out for the remaining three days of their trip to Hvalarsnes.
And on the second day out, the curse of ill luck tied to their seið-compass hits home as the sea erupts beneath their convoy, churned to a raging foam by the surfacing of the kraken.
Behind the Scenes
The interactions with Froda were my favourite part of this session. I didn't anticipate him becoming as dear to the PCs as he did, but they had a lot of early interactions with him and then bargained to save his life instead of asking for a boon for their own sake. As soon as the selkie took him below the waves, I had in mind a later meeting with a Froda who didn't actually want to return to shore, and was very gratified by the players' concern when he wasn't already waiting for them on their return to Askarfjord. This trip across the sea was the perfect opportunity to have him resurface, and I'm glad it worked out the way it did.
I'm also kind of glad the kraken made an appearance, despite not having planned for it all. When the party was crossing the sea I rolled on my random encounter table, and got the highest result possible—the kraken. This thing showing up has drastically altered how I expected the raid and its aftermath might play out by derailing things really before they had started, and it's been very interesting working from there.
Next time, the party will have to deal the the beast's surprise arrival and still make it to the northern coast so they can raid the fortress of Olaf Mangler, the son of their þejn's murderer.
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