Friday 31 May 2013

Vikings & Valkyries, Session 3

Session 3 (May 18, 2013)

(Back to Session 1)

Our third session was quite a short one: we began playing later and finished playing earlier than usual, plus there were five players instead of three. Nevertheless, the session was fun, they managed to set sail and get the hell out of Jarl Olaf's court. Below, I present the most important occurrences only.

Player characters:
  • Harald Greentooth (Viking 2), excellent leader and fearsome wielder of javelins
  • Jormund (Sorcerer 2), a trickster at his heart, a formidable fighter nonetheless
  • Gottfried Flogasson (Prince 1), a proud and noble warrior, Harald's rival
  • Skorr (Thief 1) - mind you, he is not the same as Skurr from the previous session
  • Erik the Grey (Hunter 1)
The party (Harald, Jormund, and Gottfried) arrived with the corpse of the witch in Helvi's clothes; after handing it over to Jarl Olaf, they went to bed (also, they ran into some old friends of theirs, Skorr and Erik).
(Referee's note: I realise it was a rather quick introduction, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Not spending much time with or effort on such scenes is one of the things I am actually thankful for the OSR, Melan's advices on refereeing in his Kard és Mágia: Mesélői Irányelvek in particular.)
Next day, Jarl Olaf announced that his daughter Helvi has gone missing (again), thus his participating in the upcoming raids was cancelled. The party, waiting for the raids all along, decided to go on some adventure anyway; with a crew of a handful of people on board of the ship of Gottfried's father they set sails towards the homeland of Karl Gregorson, the one who kidnapped Helvi (for real) in the first place - sort of a practice raid.
(Referee's note: Unfortunately, I did not have a map that we could use; I randomly determined the distance of the destination, the weather - according to the Player's Manual -, plus the occurrences of random encounters. Of course, I will have to do a proper map for the next session in June.)
The party soon realised that their food and water supply would not last until the end of their journey, so they decided to stop at some small settlement and acquire the necessary goods. Discussing the matter, they also decided not to buy the trading goods but take them - along with the more manly villagers, as well (first to be rowers, then to be sold as slaves).

They plotted an intricate and well-thought-out plan to take care of the able-bodied and weapon-wielding men without much loss of Hits or men; soon after the night's fall, however, the party, carrying passed-out villagers to their ship, was attacked by raiding Sea Devils (a random encounter). They managed to kill most of them, and the rest fled. In the fight, they lost three men (Karlsson, Sonsson, and an a nameless one) and Gottfried almost died.
Referee's note (to self): I really need to make up some simple procedures for determining how much goods a given settlement possesses (to be traded or taken), how many able-bodied men there are, and how many of them is willing to follow the characters. And "vikingifying" the standard Mazes & Minotaurs island generator, too.
(Next session) 

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