The long awaited session two summary.
If you’ve listened to the “Story So Far” at the Adventures of the Ottawa Warband, you don’t really need to read this.
So, our heroes had set off after Sven, in the hopes of reaching Balagard first.
Historical note: I made Balagard an island in the south-west of Finland. There is mention of Balagard in some of the legends, and it was mentioned in A Brief History Of the Vikings: The Last Pagans or the First Modern Europeans? by Jonathan Clements, but I couldn’t find any real information on it. A link to Louhi, the Finn death goddess, was also mentioned in Clements, but in relation to another location. I just put the two together, picked an island by zooming in on an archipelago in Google Maps, and BOOM, that’s Balagard.
So, the group arrives only to find that they have beaten Sven to Balagard, but two of his ships are already at the island. Landing, the group finds Harald the Black, Thorgil’s brother-in-law. Luckily, Harald knows Toste, the NPC captain of the group’s ship, and so is willing to accept the group and introduce them to Helga, his wife and Thorgil’s sister. The group has to announce Thorgil’s death, but it turns out Helga had a prophetic dream, and no one is much surprised. Further, Harald and Helga’s son, also a Harald, turns out to be Thorgil’s son, fostered to his sister for undisclosed reasons.
The group and Harald the Black begin to make plans to attack Sven’s men and remove them before Sven arrives. In the midst of this discussion, Harald the Black’s daughter Visna takes interest in Nemit, who has not joined in the conversation as he doesn’t speak Norse. Visna speaks to Nemit in his own language, and reveals she has been gifted with all languages by the witch Ullin.
No one in Balagard believes in the witch, but after Visna’s display, the group decide it might be wise to find her and consult her. Young Harald joins them. The group encounters two “trolls,” Dis and Pater (who refer to themselves as Didius and Pertinia). These guardians are easily mollified by Visna’s cookies. The witch reveals herself and tells the group that they are threatened by “the Visitor.” The group learns that Young Harald will find aid in Aldeigjuborg, on the route to Miklagard. The encounter ends suddenly when the witch announces that the Visitor has arrived.
The group returns to find Toste’s ship burning. One of their members, Blatik, has died in the fire. Sven Helmcarver’s ship has arrived. Sven’s men are busy fighting the fire and rescuing those whom they can. Faced with Young Harald, whom Sven guesses is Thorgil’s son, Sven denies murdering Thorgil. He tells a story of a disagreement over an unpaid debt that ended in drawn swords. Sven says that while he had wounded Thorgil, he hadn’t killed him. Holm’s Truth-Reading reveals this to be true, leading to no end of confusion.
Using Object Reading with the remains of Toste’s ship, Nemit sees a dark-haired, thin-featured man with a long moustache set it alight without waking anyone. The man turns and recognizes Nemit, speaking to him. This throws Nemit out of the vision.
The group agree to accept Young Harald as their captain and join with Sven Helmcarver to travel to Aldeigjuborg in an attempt to uncover more information about the Bulgar Gold.
And that’s where we left it at the end of the second session.