Wolves Upon the Coast - Session #1

My online gaming group started up Luke Gearing’s Wolves Upon the Coast last week and it occurred to me that I’m playing as Pádraig the Skald, which puts me in the prime position of recounting the tales of battle, glory, and bloodshed that our intrepid crew will undertake these next few months (assuming we live that long). Sadly I didn’t think about doing this until we had already completed our real first session, so I’m going to treat that as “Session 0” and treat this week’s session as “Session 1.” So yeah. Also the system we’re using is a variation of T. Thomas Giant’s As Above, So Below.

I am also going to attempt to write this in Pádraig the Skald’s voice, but that may wind up being terrible and I might stop and just write it down normally. We’ll see. Should be fun while it lasts, especially since the Skald is illiterate as hell.

The cool map that T. Thomas Giant provided for us to help track out adventures, created by Galen Pejeau.

The Crew

Gripard the Near-Sighted - Hails from Faroe. He willingly signed on to Snori the Craven’s crew to avoid starvation. Understands some arcane secrets.

Gull the Wanderer - Hails from Ruislip, in the northwest. He is of humble stock, but his kin did not appreciate his talents. Their parting of ways was mutual, but it wasn’t long before he was captured by the Norse.

Haoelkbaeolker “Bulkor” the Foul - Hails from Littitie. Also called Bulkor, he was banished by his kin for being a general nuisance and ass. It is a wonder we haven’t killed him ourselves.

Lurg the Littitian - Hails from Littitie, a faraway and distant land. A proud, barbarian warrior - he is slow to trust others, including members of the Brimuxi’s crew.

Pádraig the Skald - Hails from Mar, a coastal land to the east of the North Sea. He was betrayed by his mentor, who grew jealous of Pádraig's growing popularity amongst their kin, and sold to the Norse as a galley slave.

The First Voyage

With our foul captor, Snori the Craven, finally slain - infection from an untreated wound - my kinsmen (in blood if not in water) and I were left without direction, sailing aimlessly along the northern shores of the island of Noos. Uncertain as to our future, the warrior known as Gull the Wanderer proclaimed that we would sail inland along a great river. Enraptured by his decisiveness and air of command, we agreed and began our journey deep into the island of Noos.

Our first day passed without major event until we encountered one called Ermelandus of the Christian Court of King Roderik, who we found asleep beneath the wrecked hull of a Pyorran vessel. He spoke many tongues at us until finally he settled upon Norse, which my companion Gripard the Near-Sighted could speak and understand in fullness (I have not yet mastered the tongue of my former captors, thought I strive to learn it with Gripard’s aid). We learned that he sought coins valuable to his people - a silver coin with two faces on one side. An odd southron fellow, I learned that he believes there is but one god, but I know that there must be at least four, as my own Mar kinsmen worship three gods (Rúna, the Crone, goddess of life, the summer season, the earth, and knowledge. We pray to her for understanding and guidance. Vegir, the Son, god of travel, the spring, the sea, and birth. We pray to him for health and strength. Daudi, the Faceless, deity of luck (ill and good), the winter, the winds, and death. We pray to them for fortune and advantage.).

As I was fishing along the river with Emrelandus and Gripard we were accosted by a score-and-one scale-clad warriors wearing horned helmets and bearing sickle-shaped blades also made of bronze. We returned to our camp to warn our kin, but it was too late, the interlopers had found us. They threatened us, brandishing their sickles and telling us to leave the shores of Noos. As night had already fallen, Gripard the Near-Sighted (knower of the Noos and Pyorran tongues) convinced them to let us remain at camp for the night, but we were to leave immediately at daybreak.

While we camped Gripard called for a moot to determine our next steps. He wanted to deceive the Noos warriors and travel further inland, but Gull said we should leave in the morning as agreed upon. I cast my stones and the gods seemed to favor Gull’s plan, so I backed him. Lurg and Bulkor had nothing to say during this meeting. We turned to our beds and found rest until morn. As the sun rose the Noos blasted their horns and summoned us to a meeting only to tell us to leave, something we had already agreed to do. Arrogant, ignorant Noos! I cast fish guts upon the ground as we left, but Gripard told me the ignorant Noos took it as a sign of generosity. Pheh!

The location of our crew as the session ended, battling with the reanimated skeletons.

At Gull’s direction we went back downriver to the sea, the wind against us but the river at our backs. We returned to the sea and after divining with the gods we decided to go south, hugging the coast so we could find a port city for rest and trade. Vegir smiled upon us and we made good time across the waves. Daudi added her own favor as Lurg spied a great beast through his far-seeing glass. We brought the Brimuxi closer to shore to get a better look at the beast - a great bull made from stone and clay. Not finding a reward worth the risk of battle with the beast we continued onward, sailing further south.

Around midday Lurg spied a ruin along the coast, prompting Gull to land the ship for further exploration. It appeared to be a camp of sorts, long lost to the ravages of time. We saw a banner amidst a field of rusted swords and shields. I recovered one such blade before making my way to the banner to bring it down - a fine offering it will make to the gods! When banner came down, however, skeletal hands of the dead began to churn the earth at our feet. Swift of foot, I evaded the foul dead, but my companions weren’t so lucky, tripping and falling as fingers wrapped around their ankles.

Feeling the gods smile upon me, I turned and bellowed at my companions: “Hark, friends, I shall clear a path for your escape!” My chest swelled with valor as I prepared to charge the vile corpses, shield raised. I charged, striking against the first skeleton like waves upon the coast, but alas my legs were caught up in the tangle of bones of my enemy and I fell amidst other dead.

As I crashed and tumbled, Gull completed an incantation he had begun when the dead first appeared. The foul wind - a combination of rot and salt air - burst around us, leveling many of the dead, the foul beast embattling me among them.

But as to our ultimate fate? Ah, that is a story for another day!