Thursday 20 June 2013

Vikings & Valkyries, Session 4

Session 4 (June 8, 2013)

(Back to Session 1)

The report of our latest Vikings & Valkyries game of ours, in which the party fights Sea Devils again, gain some help from villagers, and - by a hilarious(ly clever) trick - conquer a whole village, the home of the bastard Gregorssons.


The party consisted of the following characters:
  • Harald Greentooth (Viking 2) and his follower, Gustavsson
  • Jormund (Sorcerer 2), and his follower, Karl
  • Gottfried Flogasson (Prince 1), and his archer, Sturla
  • Skorr (Thief 1)
  • Erik the Grey, who later renamed himself to Erik the Green
The party, given up the idea of looting the small settlement they were staying next to, was waiting for better weather conditions, when one night another group of Sea Devils attacked them. The fight was tense, both Gottfried and Erik fell to the ground; if it was not for Jormund and his Illusion spell, they would all probably have died there.
Referee's note: I let Harald's player roll for forecasting the weather on a successful (Wits x 2 + Luck) test, for he had the Sailor background. I thought it would make sense, and the player enjoyed his newly granted "power" unlocked by his clever thinking.
After the fight, they convinced the villagers that the Sea Devils will not rest until they are dead, so they joined the party and finally headed towards the Gregorssons, whose settlement the party would like to loot and pillage.

After several days of sailing, they reached the shores of Beornia; they made camp a few miles away from the Gregorssons and decided to send in Skorr to gather intelligence, while the rest of the party examines the outer walls. Skorr played the role of a skald (and occasional actor, presumably a gay one, interested in queer things such as herbs) very well, and next day they devised their plan.

The plan was based on the idea that the Gregorssons adore goats more than anything (the narrative ephemera of the player of the original Gregorsson): they built a Beornian Goat, inside of whose belly a couple of soldiers could easily hide, while the locals admire the wooden manifesto of their love and drag this gift from the gods inside their walls.
Referee's note: The idea seemed so ridiculous, yet clever that I just could not let it not work. For a few seconds, I mused about what if the scenario had played out as in Monty Python's Holy Grail (which was actually mentioned and laughed at extensively); in the end, I thought it would feel like some sort of punishment and discourage such logic based on fun. And I could not do that...
During the night, Skorr let the soldiers out of the Goat so they could kill the guards and warriors of the settlement, while the rest of the party closed in on their ship and shot a couple of Sea Devil tridents with their self-made missile engines (an ability gained through the Sage background). After a short battle, they won themselves the right to rule this settlement.
Referee's note: This session was a lot of fun. They killed several monstrous humanoids and men and looted a whole village. To determine the loot, I used an online application provided for ACKS; I am eager to devise my own setting-specific tables, though. For some time, they might be our last session of Vikings & Valkyries, for I intend to play with Torchbearer once it comes out.
(Next session)

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