Payback time!

The trollkin gang on the move with their spoils.

1605, Earth Season, Movement Week, Clayday

After returning to the Stead, our heroes aid in repairing the damage done by the magical snow storms, before the Karanen Thane gives them a new mission: to locate the whereabouts of the trollkin troupe that is suspected to have killed the lumberjacks in the northern forest.

After taking in supplies, our party heads north into the woods.  After about half an hour of hiking, they are attacked by two giant ticks.  The party stands to fight, and one of the ticks is killed quite easily, but the other one manages to attach itself to Kemal's leg and inject its debilitating poison before it too is dispatched.  Kemal collapses onto the ground babbling nonsense and unable to move any further.  His two clansmen decide to build a primitive stretcher, and return to the stead to ask for the shaman's help.
Once Kemal is good to go again, we set off again into the northern woods.  Upon arriving at the old lumberjack camp, they manage to find some tracks that point in the direction they followed the last time around, and start following them, avoiding some gorps near the creek while heading in eastern direction.  They notice the Hound Knob in the distance.  Suddenly they are under attack from a gang of trollkin.  After some exchange of arrow fire, they prepare for the clash, when they notice the dark troll leading the trollkin.  It is to late to retreat, and our brave Hiording have no choice but to stand and fight.  The trollkin group up and try to press home the attack by superior coordination, but fail to break the adventurers, who slowly retreat while fighting in order to spread the enemy out as much as possible, as strategy that turns out favourable: when the dark troll charges into them, all three of them focus on the ferocious dark creature, and after a bloody fight they manage to put the fiend down.

A weird occurence

1605, Earth Season, Stasis Week, Windsday

The week begins under good auspices, when Indra learns she receives a hide of land upon becoming an adult in the Hiording tribe.  She asks her cottar friends Kemal and Drayin to accompany her to the hide, in order to inspect it, but before they have the opportunity to do so, a snowstorm erupts out of nothing, highly unusual for the time of year.
The tribe members gather in the village square in order to discuss this freak occurrence, when one of the wardens arrives and reports that the Karanen cemetary has been disturbed, and several graves have been disturbed.  This is alarming news indeed, and it is to be suspected that evil forces are at work.  The shaman decides to perform a telling and the signs are clear.  Chaos is at work, dark plans are unfolding, danger lurks in the woods.  The Karanen Thane sends out patrols in all directions.  Our heroes are sent south, towards the lumber encampment in the forest.  As they approach the camp, they notice it is abandoned.  Upon close inspection they find there has been fighting.  Two unknown trails head out of the camp, but the snow makes it hard to track.  They find tracks of a troll party, heading east, and other tracks heading south.  Since they have been noticing how the snow got heavier and heavier as they went south, but not when they headed east, they decide the cause of the snow must be magical, and to the south, so they decide to head that way in order to stop the snow, that risks to damage crops just weeks before harvest.


After some difficult searching in the snow, they approach a snow-free area, and notice a pair of Broos in the middle of an incantation.  It is clear one of them is performing powerful weather magic.  The other Broo spots them and attacks by summoning a ghost.  The second Broo stops the incantation and summons a chaos beast, that also attacks the party.  They decide to press on.  Drayin is attacked by the spirit but succeeds in beating it.  The party suffers some wounds, and both Kemal and Indra are infected with the Chills, but succeed in killing the surprised Broos.


Upon returning to the village, the Shaman performs a healing ritual, and our heroes learn that a raiding party was reported in the North, and a big patrol was sent north to investigate.  However, the news of the death of the thee lumberjacks is equally alarming.  The family head sends our three adventurers after the suspected murderers: the Troll party whose tracks led east.  Before doing so, however, they head to Apple Lane in order to trade the stuff they found on the Broos to Gringle.


On the way to Apple Lane, they are ambushed by a Dragon Snail, another indication of the increased Chaos presence.  They dispatch the horror without too much trouble, and are in luck as it does not explode upon perishing.  After getting a good price for their loot, they head back to the lumber jack camp.  The snow has gone, the weather has returned to normal, and following the tracks will now prove a lot easier.



They follow the tracks of the troll party all the way to the river, only to run into a party of Broo that seems to be following the same group of Trolls.  The Broo try to ambush our party, but fail.  Once again, our brave Hiording save the day.

Rites of Passage

1605, Earth Season, Fertility Week, Windsday

It is the week of the Alda Chur Fertility Flame Festival, and traditionally, the Karanen bloodline have the rites of passage for their young warriors during this week.
Kemal and Drayin befriend young Indra, the daughter of the Karanen Head Thane.  This strong willed girl is also performing her rite of passage, and she is put into the same group as our two cottars.  They must head south into the wilds, to Pig Hollow, on the frontier of Black Spear territory.  Their mission is to bring back a decently processed wolf skin each, so our party must find a wolf pack. 
The trio sets out from the Karanen stead.  The Colymar wilds are normally off limit for non-adults, so it is for the first time that our three Hiording venture into the dark forests south of Apple Lane.  The weather is cloudy but dry, and not too cold.  For over an hour they advance, and when they arrive in a clearing amidst several mounds covered with underbrush and shrubs.  They are alarmed by a sound up ahead, but cannot make out any threat.  Once they advance into the small clearing, a group of trollkin tries to ambush them.  Kemal is hit by a rock from a sling.
Indra Karanensdottir is young, but well trained with the bow, and her first shot pierces the head of the apparent leader.  Drayin and Kemal charge towards two other trollkin that appear, while Indra tries to get into position to take out the slinger.  The trollkin turn out to be no match for the party, after the leader is killed.  The party salvages a nice set of brigandine armor and some other goods.
They continue towards Pig Hollow, and around noon they decide to try and hunt some game for lunch, but without success.  They end up eating some wild carrots that Kemal finds.
Once into the Hollow Indra starts tracking wolf trails, and they quickly pick up a pack. All of a sudden they find themselves under attack by a group of 8 wolves, that are closing in fast.  Good ranged fire thins out the pack somewhat, but the party still are faced with 5 hungry wolves.  It takes a determined defense and some serious healing to best the hungry canines, but in the end the party prevails.  It takes a lot of effort, and some help from the gods, but the three manage to produce three decent wolf skins, and they head back home.  It gets dark early in Earth Season, so the group decides to spend the night in the field.  During the night a goblin notices the skins, and manages to steal them without Drayin noticing, so that morning they are in for an unpleasant surprise.  Luckily, the tracks of a goblin draggin about 3 heavy wolf skins are easy to recognise, and the culprit is quickly found and justice is swiftly and brutally dealt.

Broo Invasion

1605, Fire Season, Movement Week, Windsday

 Kemal and Drayin are allowed to participate on the trip to the Runegate market.  Because of one of the traders getting sick on the way, Kemal and Drayin end up having to man their own stand.  They are given precise instructions on what price they can sell their sheep.  However, most of the customers intend to trade rather than pay with silver, making it an awkward experience for the two young cottars.
  

Things turn bad the moment a delegation of Black Spear arrive on the plot where our adventurers are trying to run their business.  They request aid from the Hiording, their allz clan, and Kemal and Drayin let themselves be talked into giving the Black Spear 20 sheep.  They neglect to make propoer introductions, they have no name of the recipient, and of course they get in a lot of trouble with the clan and teh Issaries Runelord.  They are called before the council in Swantown, but the Karanen Thane takes up their defense and because of their lack of experience they are not punished.  The council, however, makes a remark about the boys' age, and insist that they make an effort to pass their adulthood rites as soon as possible.

After the meeting the group returns to the Karanen stead via Apple Lane.  They notice a campfire in the hills south of Apple Lane, in the middle of Karanen territory.  However, the Thane knows of no parties so far outside at this late hour.  Upon arriving in the Karanen stead, a patrol is sent to investigate.  The next day the party has not returned, so a large patrol including Kemal and Drayin is sent to investigate.  They discover the campfire, as well as the 3 fyrd from last night's patrol, all dead.  The intruders are nowhere to be seen, but the place has clearly been tainted by chaos.

The clan sends a delegation to the nearest Storm Bull temple, and the next day Storm Kahn Buxor arrives.  He insists on solving the problem alone, and snickers when the Karanen thane tries to convince him to take a patrol by telling him three have died.  He does, however, accept the two protagonists as a guide.

The two lead Buxor into the hills, where he begins his divinations.  He soon discovers a party of broo in hiding, but fails to locate a broo shaman and his assistant hiding behind him.  As he charges towards the party of Broo, the Shaman jumps out of hiding, and attacks Kemal and Drayin, who were ordered to stay back by Buxor.  This fight turns ugly very quickly, the boys are no match for the shaman and his helper, and Drayin nearly dies, until Buxor spots the danger, returns and rescues the day.

The Storm Kahn starts the rites of purification, and Kemal and Drayin empty the pockets of the shaman and find a POW 7 storage crystal.

Ducks, Ducks and More Ducks

1605, Sea Season, Fire Week, Clayday

After several weeks of working in the fields of the Tula, repairing the buildings and studying with the wise woman, our friends have some spare time and decide to make another run to the wilds looking for herbs and wood for bows.  The Shaman provides them with some healing salve, and sends them on their way.
While making their way through the woods, they spot a wounded Duck, collapsed against a tree.  As they approach, they notice a second Duck, lying face down in the underbrush.  This one is grievously wounded, and on the brink of death.  As the young Hiording start bandaging the wounded ducks, they hear the noise of fighting coming through the trees.  It sounds like the fight is taking place just behind a small mound.
Since the wounded Ducks were unable to clarify what was going on, the party is not sure what to do next, when they see two more ducks under attack from a small gang of trollkin.  Still, after some consideration they decide to save the two remaining Ducks from what looks like certain death and a subsequent appearance as first course.  They charge forward, and take the trollkin by surprise.  These turn out to be no match for Kemal and Drayin.
They construct a small litter for the wounded Ducks, and take them along to the Tula of the Karanen, where the Shaman takes care of them all evening.  The next morning, the Duck are ready to leave, albeit with one still very weak Duck.  The trollkin did not yield much loot, but the party finds a crude skeleton key in the pockets on one of them.
The next day our friends head to Apple Lane in order to sell the new bows.  Gringle has a proposition for them, they have to stand guard during Gringle's absence.  Our two heroes accept, not knowing what they are getting themselves into.  That evening Gringle and Quackjohn are ready to leave for Swantown, when the Pawnshop is attacked by a gang of Baboons.  Just as the one night guards think they are going to come out ahead, a second group of thugs breaks into the pawnshop through the backdoor.  As the party sees the centaur leading the newcomers, they become quite scared.  However, at that exact moment, Gringle bursts out of the backroom and downs the centaur with one mighty stroke.  The fight now quickly turns in the party's favor.  When Xarban is downed, the fight is over.  The party repairs the damage to the roof, and the next morning they assemble their loot and collect their pay.  They fail, however, to fully understand the exchange in tradetalk between Gringle and Xarban, and Gringle will collect the ransom without sharing.

Theft at Stead Jaarsten

1605, Sea Season, Truth Week, Clayday

Kemal and Drayin have made a bit of money selling their bows to Gringle, and decide to try the same recipe once more.  The Shaman needs more herbs as well, and they manage to convince their father that the errand needs to be run, and they can't help on the field.
Contrary to their last walk to the wilds, they get lucky and find a lot of herbs, as well as a splendid elderberry tree full of long, straight branches.  However, while sawing those off, they fail to notice a boar family walking into them, and Kemal only notices the charging boar just before he gets run of his feet, seriously wounded.  It is an alert Drayin that saves him, taking out the boar with a good javelin throw.  They notice a second boar, guarding the piglets, just as it decides to charge, and Kemal goes down a second time.  Again, Drayin has to save the day.
They return to the Stead in rather bad shape, and the Thane notices.  He orders them to pull their weight on the Stead, and the next weeks they assist in the cattle count, sheep shearing, and inspection of the fruit stores before an opportunity to get away from stead life presents itself again:  It is time to go into the hills and find new grazing grounds for the sheep, and they are sent to the west hills with a herding dog, Blackleg. After an uneventful trip they run into a small trollkin gang pulling a fancy looking horse and some loot.  Drayin is wounded by a thrown rock, but Kemal finishes off the three weak trollkin on his own, with a bit of help from Blackleg.  When they are relieved the next morning, they realize the horse is marked as Jaarsten property.  The Jaarsten are clansmen, guarding the western border.  Kemal and Drayin know where the Jaarsten Stead is, and bring the horse back.  It turns out to be the Godi's horse, and it threw him off the day before, possibly because of a trap set by the trollkin.  The Godi is grateful, and offers both young men a mastiff pup.  They eagerly accept: mastiffs are big and strong dogs, and a valuable partner for any young Hiording.

Looking for Elderberry

1605, Sea Season, Illusion Week, Freezeday

Kemal and Drayin head out to look for Elderberry trees in order to make simple bows which they hope to sell to Gringle or at the Swan Market.  They are also on the lookout for herbs for the shaman: Cattail and Sorghum to make a healing salve. While scouring the edge of the Wilds they run into a bunch of clan youngsters that are setting up traps to catch hares.  After spending a lot of time looking for their wood, they notice an unknown traveler fighting a small gang of ducks.  One of the ducks is lying on the ground, and the boys are uncertain which side they have to take, but as they approach the unknown traveler flees.  They soon learn that the trespassing traveler intended to kill the ducks in order to get the Lunar reward, something that is frowned upon in the Hiording clan.  They take care of the wounded duck and report what happened to Dar Swan, who sends out a patrol to look for the stranger.  Our young adventurers deliver the herbs to the shaman and Drayin starts manufacturing the crude bows.