Chronicles of the Skargat Five

Session 0: Hoard of the Sea Wolf King

Group of aspiring adventurers from the village of Skargat have arrived on rowboats at the flooded sea caves on the southern coast of Big Andrik. Their goal is to prove their bravery in this coming-of-age challenge. They are to gather 200 gold pieces from the danger-laden Tomb of King Skorgald. Upon arrival a group of 4 negotiate their way past some bandits and steal some of their equipment in the next room. They make their way past a hall detailing the history of King Skorgald and his legendary deeds such as the sacking of Lysfinn and the slaying of the Drake Igald.

The group makes it to a winding cave system with bat droppings everywhere. One of the party holds a torch to the ceiling, angering the stingbats that rest there. In the ensuing chaos, 2 of them perish as the bloodsuckers descend on them. The survivors retreat and are soon reinforced by a pair of new adventurers.
At this point the group negotiates with the bandits for an alliance. Only one dim-witted bandits stays, while the others steal a boat. Continuing their delve into the caves, the party manages to sneak past the stingbats this time and they encounter some nords. Two Sea Wolves are guarding a cavern entrance, but the party doesn't get much out of them, only that they gotta piss off as Garatha is the one who will claim Skorgald's treasure.

Moving on the party finds some valuable pearls in an empty Siren den and fight a gray ooze. Nearby they spot a statue of Thor who is wearing a beautiful elven cloak. One of the party tries to grab it and the statue fries them with lightning. Canute Erling then decides to try and grab the cloak again, but luckily Freja Nyland pushes them out of the way just in time. Canute gains the Cloak of Elvenkind and the party moves on. They spot a wide lake and decide to backtrack to the boats and go explore it. On the center of this small underground lake, they find a small island that is Skorgald's resting place. Skorgald, now a draugr emerges from the stone and addresses the party: "Bring me the head of Garatha, the last of my traitorous blood, so that I may rest in peace at last!" Understanding that this means Skorgald would leave behind a heap of gold and the Axe of Nines Eyes, the party begins scheming.

With the cunning of Audun Helvig, the party convinces Garatha that they just want to serve her. They would lead Garatha to Skorgald's treasure if they were escorted safely out with their pearls. Garatha takes the bait and they lead the whole group of berserkers to the lake. Once landed, Skorgald attacks Garatha's crew while the party watches from their boat on the lake. Garatha's head is the first to roll from Skorgald's attacks and only a handful manage to flee the impervious draugr. The party are then awarded the Axe of Nine Eyes and 500 gp.

Surivors: Audun Helvig, Eirik Holmen, Canute Erling, Freja Nyland

Session 1: Carousing and goblin killin'

After the long winter, the party had risen to lvl 1. At the beginning Olaf Nyland called a town meeting and declared that they would raid the Rolug - the village of seers. This was to happen after 30 days of preparation for the raid. Freja noticed his fathers health was not great and their new village seer, Brugatha, was a bit too close to his ear. Olaf claimed his wife had died because of the old seer and conveniently Brugatha had arrived only a few days later to fill the vacancy. Nevertheless the party would join their Jarl on the raid.
The party started out with carousing and got rumors about a talking bear and an abandoned Dverg forge. They decided to go look for the talking bear. Some armed themselves with Smith Hagen and his daughters weaponry, while others like Canute went to Marvolo's Market - an exotic goods market run by a goblin foreigner. Canute became a club member and was given a stamp card for health potions. Afterwards Canute went to visit Hanna Elwinsdottir the Apotechary. Hanna's roof had collapsed in as she was making acorns that ignited like grenades when thrown. Canute bought some of those too.

Once the party went into the woods they encountered a group of naked goblins having target pratice on a carved out picture of a bear. Once the party talks to them they find out they had been hunting the talking bear but the bear had killed many of them. The fanatical goblins then thought the party were here to steal their kill and began attacking. Eirik went down immediately, but the others managed to help him back up. Canute threw his acorns and managed to take out most of the goblins while Freja and Audun cleaned up.
With Eirik so battered, they decided to rest under the big tree. Their sleep was interrupted by approaching torchlight. Bursting out of the trees was a Treant chased by many red-cloaked Sea Wolves from Valthis. The Valthisians had torches and were burning the Treant, but the Treant was running toward the party. The party backed up and the Treant awakened another Treant from the big tree they were resting under. Once Freja saw one of the Treants effortlessly crush one of the redcloaks, the party decided to flee into the dark forest.

Cold and tired, the party arrives at a longhouse hidden in the woods. In the pattering rain, they knock on the door and are met with a grizzly hermit. He introduces himself as Ogden and welcomes the party in to rest for the night.

Session 2: Fanatical Goblin Soup

When the party awakes, Ogden offers them green soup, which Freja deduces to be made of goblins. Eirik asks Ogden about the talking bear but he doesn't have an answer. However Ogden does tell of the goblins that arrived upon Andrik at the end of winter. The forest around their cave had started dying out and this worries Ogden very much. The party decides to investigate and find themselves at a cave mouth where all of the green forest around it has turned black.
They spot a goblin hunting party arriving at the cave and ambush them. With the hunters taken care of they notice some of them are wearing seafaring garbs. The curious party enters the cave, fighting skeletons, normal goblins and fanatical goblins. At the end of the cave they find a glowing purple gemstone. After a fight with a goblin shaman the purple light expands and the party sees a vision of skinless giants rising from the ground in a faraway land.

The party then returns to Ogden to rest. In the morning Ogden vows and oath to the gods to restore the forest to its former beauty and the party bears witness. Afterwards the party returns to Skargat and goes straight to Marvolo. Marvolo lets it slip that he had a pirate crew of goblins who went insane after they found the cave. The party then goes to the Cup & Axe for a well deserved drink...

Session 3: Flameless Forge of the Dverg (part 1)

Skald Horf Peikonsoittaja sings with the players while they carouse: "
Odin silmäänsä pyörittää, kun Signen saaliit ryövätään! Huh-hei, huh-hei, huh-hei, HUH!
Jaarli Signe vendetan vannoi mut silti vaan vaippansa vaihtoi! Huh-hei, huh-hei, huh-hei, HUH!
Signen poika Rulfinrääpäle, rohkeutta rouskun rouskutti, sillä Valthislaiset vaipan tarvii, kun muuten vana virstaa tulvii! Huh-hei, huh-hei, huh-hei, HUH!"
This song angers some of the Valthisians in Cup & Axe and the party is dragged into a bar fight. Luckily they win the fight and the battered Valthisians are thrown out by Hagen. Unfortunately Audun got the shits from the goblin soup and is bedridden so he couldn't help.

The players buy Birgitta the Donkey from Marvolo and some supplies before heading out to explore the Dverg Forge they heard about. On the way they fight giants wasps and harvest their stingers. When they arrive at the general location where they believe the forge is hidden, Canute finds a cave behind a waterfall. They leave Birgitta outside and enter the cave.
They come to a crossroads and follow the upper path, coming to a hot spring. However there is a big Rock Troll bathing under a small waterfall inside the spring. The party then retreats back and takes the lower path, coming to a mined-out cave with a large stone slab in the middle. The slab has the dwarven rune for "ascend" on it. Canute is able to lift the slab they see a deep pit beneath. Eirik knows dwarven so he gets on the slab and exclaims: "descend" in dwarven. The slab begins moving down like an elevator and the party hops onto it.

Now deep inside the earth, the party comes to a large built room with racks of weapon and armor. They see that the armor is completely made of mithral and Freja tries to grab it. As she does, the items begin to move and form into 3 animated armors. With the help of Freja's berserk, they manage to defeat the armors without taking much damage. The party now has a bunch of mithral armor and weapons that have a strange black hue.
Continuing their delve with high spirits they come across cast-iron chests. Everyone starts moving these chests toward the elevator when they hear a terrible metallic screech from the end of the hallway as a large iron construct in the shape of a blocky humanoid appears. Steam exhausts from its joints as it walks and a set of 3 gems glow behind a trellis in its chest. Eirik and Freja drop their chests and bolt for the elevator, but Canute greedily drags the heavy chest along. This means that the construct catches up with Canute and crushes him under its fists. Eirik and Freja make a split-second decision to rescue their village idiot. Eirik is able to heal Canute while Freja holds up a shield wall. Once all of them recover, they bolt for the elevator.
As the elevator is ascending, the construct grabs it and its mouth begins to open. The party is able to pry off the monstrosity's hands with a crowbar and are able to flee with their lives. When the party is leaving the dungeon, they encounter a Sea Hag by the waterfall. They manage to leave with the promise of never coming back to her lair. While escaping Canute catches a glimpse of the hag's cauldron and sees an image of Jarl Olaf rolling in his sleep.
Deciding to come back with Audun the next time, the party returns to Skargat with their mithral loot and level up to 3.

Session 4: Flameless Forge of the Dverg (part 2)

While carousing the party meets Astrid Thors - a seer exiled from Rolug. Astrid is looking for a green marble and thinks she might find it in the Forge. The rest of the party is spent in singing and a drunken knife-throwing contest which ends with Canute getting a dagger embedded in his skull. Luckily he didn't even notice, but he did suffer a terrible hangover and stayed in Skargat.

When the party returns to the Forge they take the upper path this time and luckily the troll is not there. In the next room Eirik identifies a dwarven firepillar trap and Audun solves it by laying rocks on the fire runes. The party smashes through a locked door and finds a dead dverg. Audun finds mushed berserker mushrooms beneath and they continue to a room flooded with water. While wading through, a Drowner attacks them and tries to pull Freja under, but is quickly hacked to pieces.
Finally the party comes to a room with a statue of Brokkr - god of the dverg. In front of the statue is a stone anvil and the party gains minor enchantments from it. One of Freja's javelin is also turned into cold iron. After going through a room with a 100 hammers that all had the mark of Loki and a depiction of an object upon them, the party encounters Rulf Signesson - the heir to Valthis.
Rulf and his berserkers have gotten stuck in this section of the dungeon by the dverg and Rulf is berating his subordinates for losing all of their mushrooms. The party picks a fight with Rulf and Audun ends up fighting an unarmed duel with him. Audun loses and Rulf challenges Eirik. Eirik is also knocked out and Freja takes the challenge. Freja is able to beat Rulf with a bit of deception. Somehow Freja is able to convince the berserkers to back out of the dungeon and see to Rulf.

After licking their wounds, Freja realizes the hammers create strange effects upon their designated objects. She manages to soften the metal hinges on a locked door but she also breaks a valuable cold iron axe with them. Continuing deeper into the dungeon they finally arrive at the Flameless Forge of the Dverg. Three Dverg are working on something by the anvil when the party reveals themselves. Bredagar the dverg leader tells them to leave immediately. Audun asks about the Axe of Nine Eyes and shows it to Bredagar. Upon seeing the Axe, Bredagar gasps and tells the dverg to attack!
The party fights off the dverg pretty easily, but Bredagar backs off to the other side of the room where he opens a large locked ruuber door. Through the door the cold iron Construct begins to squeeze through. When the dverg die, Bredagar drops her disguise as a Sea Hag and frightens some of the party. Astrid manages to kill the hag just as the Construct bursts into the room. The party is battered and sprayed with hot steam, but surprisingly they endure and use nearby rubber tubes that contain "cold iron gas" to distort the Constructs whole body. Cold iron is made with this gas as the iron is easier to shape while it moves about. Eirik manages to get the killing blow on the Construct and the area becomes seemingly safe.

Session 5: Flameless Forge of the Dverg (part 3)

Canute arrives at the scene just in time to see Eirik fell the Construct. Continuing to explore the lower levels, the party finds another unfinished construct and sees that it can be programmed with 3 simple dwarven runes chalked into it. Eirik chalks "protect - humans - in Forge" and the thing begins to follow the party, laying its protective hands to their sides. It indeed protects them from a pack of undead guard dogs as they continue exploring.
The party finds a library and a private workshop with schematics on creating the Axe of Nine Eyes and a Drakeslayer Blade. The party eventually comes to the same armoury they stole the mithral gear from, but they notice a crumbled wall.
Through a broken down wall, a narrow passage leads to a cavern with molten walls. Chained to a cold iron pedestal in the center, a dwarf with metallic bronze skin and flames in place of hair. This is Rinfaf, former Grand Smith of the Dverg who forged the Axe of Nine Eyes. "Grant me my freedom and I'll awaken iron that makes even the gods tremble before you!", he exclaims. From the schematics the party knows that it was signed by Rinfaf and they know he isn't lying. Rinfaf also quite openly tells them that he hates all the other gods except Loki as they are the reason he is in here. Audun is very much aligned with Loki and the others don't object to freeing him so they do. Rinfaf relishes on being free and offers to enchant weapons. The Axe of Nine Eyes is awakened and he also forges a cold iron longsword that he gifts to Eirik. Because Eirik willingly took this offer, Odin takes away his powers. If Eirik is to do priestly magic he must do so in Loki's name.
As Rinfaf finishes enchantments on his own warhammer, two dverg stumble upon the forge. They are horrified by Rinfaf being free and curse the party for it. Rinfaf then turns into a dragon with black scales and fries the dverg before they can leave. As Rinfaf turns back to his "dverg" form, he bids the party to come visit him in Dvergheim and saunters off.

Shocked and worried about what they just let loose into the world, the party begins their trek back to Skargat. Just outside in the woods, they are ambushed by Rulf and his berserkers. Rulf holds aloft the head of Birgitta the donkey and throws it down at them. The party is immediately under huge amount of pressure and are on the verge of a total party kill when their luck suddenly turns. Eirik manages to fell a tree on a couple bersekers, Freja cuts down some of them and Canute, using his invisibility cloak scales the cliff and kicks down Rulf. At the bottom Audun chops off his swordarm. After the surviving berserkers flee, the party then proceed to humiliate Rulf, dubbing him "Birgitta 2" and using him as a mule.

Still on the way back they have an encounter with a Weald Hag in the night who lured them into the dark forest with the promise of truffles. Audun chops off the hag's leg and the party flees, making it back to Skargat in one piece.
Back in town Astrid steals a green marble that hangs around Rulf's neck. It's not her marble but manages to wrangle out its origin: Skorgald's Tomb.

Session 6: New Alliances

Back in the village the party carouses, throwing in enough money for a 3-day feast. Freyja is dubbed "The Hook of Skargat" and made her father's heir. He informs her that Jarl Signe of Valthis is coming to negotiate for her son's freedom.
When the sun rises Signe, her pet wolf Fenrir and a dozen Valthisian warriors converge with the Skargattians at the Court of the Gods. She has heard of Freyja's "unhonorable" fight with Rulf and demands her son's freedom. Signe sees how ragged Rulf is and threatens the Skargat with a bloody retribution. Eirik and Freyja manage to negotiate terms: Valthis could partake in the raid of Gandrunne and Rulf is released back to her. Signe accepts these terms because she has a personal vendetta against Jarl Karsgald of Gandrunne.
With this deal the raid's target is changed to Gandrunne, scheduled a week earlier and the 3-day feast continues. Canute shops at Marvolo's, gaining many stamps and 2 healing potions. Eirik's mentor, Freja Westergard shuns her pupil for embracing Loki. Eirik vows to redeem himself. Then Freyja Nyland experiments with one of the cursed hammers from the Dverg forge. She strikes a replacable handaxe and I roll on the d12 table for curses. I then ask the player to scream a 5 word substantive, to which they give a hearty "VITTU" and I then inform them that they have just screamed out their "True Name" aloud.
Audun feeds his Axe of 9 Eyes on some thieves and convicts and Freyja teaches her 2 brothers Goln & Boln some combat tricks for the upcoming raid. The halfwit lanky Goln is taken down easily, but Freyja struggles with Boln and is about to lose so she rages. In her anger she breaks Bolns leg, making him an invalid for the rest of this campaign. Boln resents her for this and for snatching his title as heir to Skargat.

After carousing, the party buys a rowboat and Signe gives them a horse. They carry boat across the forest towards the Sea Caves where Skorgald's Tomb is.

Session 7: Back to the Beginning

This time they take a different route into the caves and eventually find a whole longboat inside one of the larger caverns.
Canute hops in to investigate the boat and finds a linen-draped body of woman. He snatches a ring from her fingers and the air suddenly grows cold as the woman's ghost takes over his body. Canute begins attacking the others but they manage to outpower him and eventually the ghost leaves and is dealt by the cold iron weapons.

The party then hear the flapping of wings in distance and a dozen stingbats come flying towards them! Eirik leads everyone to a nearby room and slam the door shut, which quickly begins to break. Here the party comes face to face with Garatha's Revenants - a rival crawling party.
The revenants are what remains of Garatha's followers after the party used her as bait for Skorgald back in session 0. They are led by Harl rune-face and are on edge, but Eirik manages to calm the situation by promising that they'd retreat from the cave.

When retreating from the caves they take a familiar route where they find 2 baby wyverns and their nest. They decide not to engage in case mama comes back. After exiting the caves the party climbs up the cliff to set up camp in the forest.
During their rest, Astrid sees Garatha's Revenants leaving the caves with a bunch of loot toward Skargat. After resting the party decides to return to Skargat, virtually empty handed. On their way however, they spot Harl's pet wolf dead on the ground.

Session 8: Of Wolves & Wyverns

Through the thicket, the party spies a large wyvern feasting on a horse carcass. Jewels and gold coins litter tle ground nearby, but Astrid's eyes lock on the body of the Seer they encountered just yesterday. After convening the party gathers their courage and decides to ambush the wyvern.
Audun and Eirik range through the thicket while the rest make a pincer move towards the wyvern. The surprise attack succeeds and the creature howls in pain, but begins quickly to fight back. The creature's poison is especially deadly and Eirki(?) is knocked unconscious, but luckily the party had a healing potion from Marvolo. In the end, the creature tries to escape but Canute shoots it down. Freyja tries to extract poison from the creature's stinger but almost dies herself. Afterwards the party finds the Torm the Seer still alive but dying and Astrid saves him after looting their emerald wand. Eirik also finds a large cryptex and a map with 5 spots marked: einn, tveir, frir, fyra, fimm. The party can't carry much stuff and are all beat up so they leave the carcass here and return to the village with the wounded Seer.

Back in the tavern, the party finds the ragged remains of Garatha's Revenants and make amends. The survivors, Harl, Torm and Gorm decide to retire.
Canute goes to Marvolo's again and exchanges a bunch of valuable (100gp?) stuff for a bunch of snake oil. Eirik sacrifices all his loot to get back into Odin's good favor. Odin sends him on a quest to slay the dragon Fafnir. Astrid realizes the emerald wand acts as some sort of compass.

The party then rest and head back to the wyvern carcass, which is being devoured by wolves. The party deals with the wolves and skins them and the wyvern. Sometime later a dryad tries to seduce Canute, but fails as Canute is too dense to understand these things. They return to the village to prepare for the upcoming raid.

Session 9: Raid of Gandrunne

The night before the party leaves on the raid, an envoy from Vingrike has come to Skargat's hearth. Vingrike is a large federation consisting of tribes from Nordving that is planning a large-scale raid against the Empire of Auron. Balder, the "Young Crow" has come from the capital to seek the aid of the Wargholm and its large navy of longships. His father the "Old Crow" is known for uniting the tribes of Nordving.
Jarl Olaf asks his daughter, Freyja for her opinion on the alliance and she decides its best to wait for now. Balder expects a response within 2 weeks. Balder then beats the players in a drinking contest before retiring.

The next day, wyvern leather is donned, axes sharpened and sails hoisted for the raid of Gandrunne. The party sails to Little Andrik and meets up with the Valthisian fleet in a fjord near Gandrunne.
Signe is set on assaulting the Jarl's longhouse herself, while the players decide to strike at a peculiar black tower which is Gandrunne's treasure hoard.

The raid begins with arrows raining down as the longboats land on the beaches of Gandrunne. Players manage to burn a guard tower with snake oil and advance toward the treasure hoard. They encounter little resistance and break into the black tower.

Here they make their way up and encounter a small group of Sea Wolves guarding the hoard. Among them is Ivar of the Lynx Coast swinging the Father of Swords. He is loyal to Jarl Karsgald and engages the players.
He swings around wildy attacking and dealing severe damage, but the players eventually overcome him. However one of his last acts is to push Freyja down the pulley hole in the middle of the tower. Freyja plunges back to ground level, going to 0 HP. Luckily Astrid was close enough to heal Freyja and the party manage to loot the tower without casualties.
Afterwards Canute claims Ivar's sword.

On their way out they burn a couple of longboats and steal another. Signe's ship sails beside them and she throws Jarl Karsgald's head on the deck, boasting all the while. She also informs without much compassion that Freyja's lanky brother Goln died assaulting one of the guard towers.
Instead of returning back to Skargat the party decides to visit a nearby island where the marking "fimm" is made on the map found in Skorgald's Tomb.

Session 10: The Lindorm

The party and their rowers, represented by Ingimar Runolfsson head over to a nearby isle that is heavily forested. They spot some movement in the forest and decide to land on a low beach. Here a small scuffle between Canute and Freyja breaks out for the Father of Swords. Freyja did suffer the most at Ivar's hands and after a brief fight, she rips the sword from Canute, who suddenly didn't care about it anymore.
While still on the beach, Freyja yet again experiments with the cursed forging hammers. She overloads the handaxe with curses, eventually destroying it and turning it into the Hilt-of-Many-Things. The hilt had a 5 letter wordlock which manifested a blade in correspondence with the word.

The party then trek into the forest and begin to notice autumnal leaves the deeper they go. During spring this is most peculiar. They eventually come to a grang oak at the isle's center, which is guarded by a Lindorm - a massive acidic serpent.
The party battles the beast and with every succesful hit, acidic blood is sprayed upon them. Freyja summons an eagle from the hilt that rips into the scales with vigor. Eventually Audun finally decapitates the serpent.

In the aftermath a group of pointy-eared elves come around the oak with arrows notched at the dead serpent. Siegfried Lightspell introduces himself and thanks the party for slaying the Lindorm. He and his warriors were barred from entering back into Alfheim by the serpent. With a loud bang a wooden door from the oak swings open and radiant light bursts through. Siegfrieds brother, Sigurd, introduces himself and Astrid immediately notices his tiara with a green marble stuck to it.

Session 11: Raido

Sigurd tells of the elven custom of visiting here every 100 years to make a sacrifice to the goddess Rafflesia. When prompted by Astrid, he tells them that's where his half-of-a-green-marble was found. He then gifts the marble to Astrid and the party goes to search for Rafflesia's shrine. The elves thank the players and return to Alfheim via the oak.

In the dark shrine, the players find a fountain and a broken skull with half a green marble inside. After Astrid picks it up a coldness envelops the room. Through the wall a dark blue wraith emerges and introduces himself as Raido. Raido lets it slip that the cryptex holds a relic that helped his father - Skorgald to become King of the Sea Wolves. He tells how his father hunted him and his brothers, Magnus, Isleif, Isrodd, Meili after they killed Mordeme the youngest. They felt wronged by Skorgald after he made Mordeme his heir. To prevent reaching Valhalla, Skorgald would trap their souls in these green soulstones. Raido was lucky enough for an unwitting elf to break it.

At this point the players figure out the cryptex is supposed to spell out "MIMIR" after Skorgald's sons. They solve the puzzle and out comes Mimir the god of Knowledge or his head at least. Seeing this Raido becomes aggressive and tries to take the head, but Eirik manages to cast Lay To Rest and successfully banish this LV8 wraith. Astrid then pops the marble pieces back together, happy to be one step closer to redeeming herself.

The party then sail back to Skargat and Freyja spends some time with the Jarl's weaponmaster, Thorfast Timber, to learn how to use the Father of Swords.

Session 12: Marvolo's Marvelous Sidequest

Balder the Young Crow has returned and informs that Gandrunne is now under Vignrike's protection. He had obviously used Gandrunne's weakened state to his advantage to gain their fealty.

After this Canute finally wants to help Marvolo out with a quest he had been bugging the party about for days. They head out to a nearby island where Marvolo in his pirate days had stashed some loot. At the island they find a sea cave and leave their rowers to guard the entrance.
They find the cave full of stingbats and pirate corpses. Here they ask Mimir a few questions about the world, but he appears to be drunk and attracts more stingbats. Canute goes into a frenzy, leading the party from room to room, killing bats left and right.
Finally a matriarch appears - a giant white stingbat. The party however makes short work of it by blowing some black powder kegs and loots the entire cave. They even find a ouijaboard.

However when their about to leave, one of the rowers sounds the alarm outside...

Session 13: Storm Giants and Graverobbers

Outside the cave, a large Storm Giant called Aegir is harassing the longboat. The party manages to bribe him to get past, but one of the bribes was a bottle of snake oil. Aegir's reaction when he takes a whiff is of revulsion and he promises scuttle them if he ever sees the party again.

After that scare, the party returns to Little Andrik to where "fyra" marking is on their treasure map. During a rest in the forest they encounter a familiar ghost - Goln brother of Freyja. Goln laments the fact that he'll never get to Valhalla because he was cursed by Gandrunne's seer Aberg. Freyja vows to free her brother in due time.
After resting the party moves on the runestones of Little Andrik - a graveyard of worthy sea wolves killed in battle. Astrid's compass points to one of the graves so the party turn into graverobbers. Canute retrieves a Comb of Wisdom, which grants him 18 WIS, while Astrid finds another green soulstone.

The party then leave and find Mother Aberg camping out with her apprentices. The party lays an ambush and Aberg promises to lift the curse if she is given a swift death. Freyja obliges and Golni ascends to Valhalla.

Session 14: Divine Intervention

The party returns to the cemetery to bury Aberg's and her oracles. The gods do not view killing the oracles of Rolug in a favorable light which leads to a Valkyrie descending upon the party from the sky, riding a horse on a rainbow bridge.
She is here for blood, but Eirik manages to ward her off with a promise that his vow to slay Fafnir would be fullfilled in 1 month's time. Satisfied, the Valkyrie leaves.

Afterwards the party decides to visit the seers' village of Rolug. The people of Rolug are dancing around a giant bonfire just outside the main hall. Torbald Bloodless and Astrid's master, Jan Frostglad, welcome them. Jan is please with Astrid's progress on reclaiming the marbles and invites them to partake in the monthly ritual of foresight.
The party spends a night in Rolug and Torbald shows them the Final Saga - a series of bloody engravings on the cliffside. Each month they sacarifice a human here and more of the saga is revealed. Audun participates by volunteering as the executioner. The saga now shows five images: Man with a 9 eyed Axe, Fafnir the Black Dragon, 5 broken green marbles, a great battle between Andrik, Auron, dragons and giants and finally above it all a humanoid figure radiating power.

In the morning Eirik receives a cool raven tattoo and Scroll of Annihiliation for the quest to slay Fafnir.

Session 15: Canute the Cauterizer

While party sails towards "Einn" island they bump into something in the water: an angry multiheaded Hydra. The ship flees desperately toward the island while the Skargat 5 are fighting it off from the rear.
Everyone sustains considerable wounds and it looks like they won't make it to the island in time until Canute throws one of the apotechary's pinecones at the beast. The pinecone critically hits in a spectacular wall of flames that kills and cauterizes the remaining heads of the Hydra.

On the island they find a spackle of small rocks marking a grave. Beneath they find an ancient tomb and venture forth. They are met with a flashfreezing trap, which they manage to deactivate. In the room is a frozen man in a white toga who is defrosted and seems stable but unconscious.
When the party revives him he speaks terrible Nord but it quickly becomes clear that this is a student from the Arce Veneficus magical academy in Auron. He intrdocues himself as Flavius Orion Aurelius, son of Mortus Orion Aurelius, nephew to "Mater" Aurel Aurelius, the first Empress of Auron.
Its evident that Flavicus still believes that Aurel is still in power so he must have been in the ice for over 200 years. Nevertheless Flavicus is not hostile at all and is in fact working on his bachelor's thesis about magick's of Andrik. He is more than happy to follow Astrid and Eirik around and see how their magic works.

At the end of the tomb, the party finds a bony man in a cage with a green soulstone necklace. The cage is guarded by Hans the draugr who challenges Audun to a duel. Audun wins and Freyja snatches the necklace from the starving man.
The necklace's soul, Magnus the eldest, immediately tries to take over Freyja's body but her mind resists the pressure.

Session 16: Old Enemies "Die" Hard

The party sets their course towards "Tveir" island, but on the way they stop to rest in a fjord. They spot two dverg camping out nearby and Eirik manages to calm him by speaking dwarven. The dverg are Horst and Jarge who tell how they fled Dvergheim after it was attacked by Fafnir the Black Dragon. They thought to take refuge in the cold iron forge, but Valthisians are guarding it. Alarmed by this the party decide to cross the mountains to go back to the forge.

With the dverg's guidance they make it over the mountains with ease and arrive at the forge a day's travel behind them. The dverg show another way into the forge - a cave above the forge for griffins to enter from.
Sneaking past some partying Valthisians, the party make it down to the forge and see Rulf "Birgitta II" Signesson blackmailing some dverg smiths to forge him a magical gauntlet of cold iron. When the party blows their cover all the Valthisians inside the forge attack and the drunkards upstairs are alerted. Rulf's eyes flash with hatred and he vows to kill every last Skargattian.
The fight is made a bit difficult by the Dvergish Sentinel trying to stop the humans from harming eachother. Eirik puts a stop to this by ripping open the terllis in its chest and reprogramming it: KILL-VALTHISIANS-HERE. The fight then is essentially over as the Sentinel crushes all opposition and runs after the drunk Valthisians who fled at the first sight of the beast.

In the fight, Freyja cuts off Rulf's balls and Astrid brands his forehead to mark him as a Skargattian. This prevents the construct from killing Rulf. The dverg are pleased by this development and thank the party. They offer to help in any way they can and grant the players more cold iron gear, including the gauntlet. Rulf is locked up in a cage and the party resumes their marble hunt.

Session 17: Forest of the Old Gods

The party return over the mountains back to their boat docked in a fjord. Here Eirik spots a shipwreck at the bottom of the fjord. They decide to dive down to investigate and eventually find a golden box decorated with draconic visages. Inside is a large ruby.

Sailing towards "Tveir" island, the party is almost charmed by sirens, but eventually make it to the edge of a forest full of spruce trees. Three clear paths into the forest can be seen and the tree trunks by each path have carvings: wisdom, honor, lies. Each party member follows the path that speaks to them.

Astrid and Eirik follow the path of wisdom to a glade with a statue of a raven in its center. They meditate and find a piece of a soulstone appear in its beak. When they take the piece a tree at the edge of the glade animates into a treant and starts pursuing the pair. Astrid uses her spells to prevent it from approaching too fast.

Canute and Audun follow the path of lies to a forest path with a broken down cart and a plump merchant who asks for help. The pair are a bit skeptical, but eventually the merchant's bandit friends spring an ambush on them and Audun's face is almost burnt off by the merchant's spell. Canute and Audun make short work of the bandits and loot the merchant's pocket for a piece of the soulstone.

Freyja follows the path of honor and bumps into Rulf Signesson. Rulf challenges her to a duel if she promises not to kill him. In the end this mirage of Rulf is no match for Freyja and she keeps her promise, even after the fake Rulf tries to provoke her.
The final piece of the soulstone manifests in Freyja's hand as she kept her promise.

The party meets up back at the beach with an angry treant hot on their heels. They cast off and their rowers act surprised that the party returned. They claim that the party had been in the forest for (d6) 4 days and they were just about to leave them here.
On the return journey to Skargat, Astrid spends some time reading the runes of her fate. It is revealed that Odin doesn't want the soulstones back in Rolug because something evil dwells there. Astrid also believes that Audun Helvig, the current owner of the Axe of 9 Eyes is the future King upon the Isles. She asks the runes this and Odin answers: no...

Session 18: The Norn

Balder is in Skargat again and acting a mediator between Valthis and Skargat. Signe is yet again demanding that her son be freed and this time it seems only a Mog'Tharok - a ritualistic duel can diffuse the situtation. Balder just wants the isles to be a unified force, so he will back whoever is the strongest and manages to unite the villages. Signe has made it clear that there are only 2 options: she leads the raids on Auron or she dies in a Mog'Tharok.
During carousing, Astrid begins a long series of gambling games to win the last soulstone from Marvolo. The rest of the party travels to the forge to retrieve Rulf. There they show Horst the dverg the ruby they found in the fjord. He reveals that this is what he and his brother were searching for in the fjord. It is Igald's soulstone - a dragon matriarch who commanded the lesser drakes upon the isles. Skorgald once used the ruby to sack the city of Lysfinn with his traitorous brother Hothor inside.
Once the party returns to Skargat, they still see Astrid blowing all her money in Wizards & Thieves against Marvolo. Flavicus accompanied the party and is delighted to see a real Nord village.

The party hear a rumor of a wise and unaligned seer living on a remote island to the south and decide to pay them a visit. Eirik wants to know more about the evil within Rolug.
The party finds the island easily enough and in its deepest woods a moss-covered hut is found. When they enter they see dozens of golden strands hanging from the rafters and a hunchbacked old blind lady weaving them together.
She speaks in riddles and makes everyone a bit uneasy. When Freyja ask her about her fate she looks deep into their eyes and grabs a golden strand. At Freyja the Norn just smirks and when Eirik asks her about Torbald the Bloodless she recites: "5 + 11 marbles deep within Rolug... Torbald will serve the gods until the end of his days..." At this point she begins to cackle and the party quickly exits.

When the party is about to disembark from the island, Igald's ruby suddenly flares to life and a draconic call echoes out. Two firespitting drakes descend upon the shore and Igald's soul speaks through the ruby: "bring me back to my heart, or your village burns." Somewhat dumbstruck the party begins bartering. In the end they agree to venture inside Dvergheim to find her heart. This works for Eirik as well as he must slay Fafnir there.
The drakes pick up the party members and fly them over the sea and into the mountains, dropping them off at a large stone door carved into the mountainside. They then send one of the dragons to pick up Astrid.

Session 19: Gauntlet of Heroes

Astrid is gleefully dancing towards Skargat's longhouse with the final soulstone in her hand when she is suddenly snatched up by a dragon. The villagers are aghast and Astrid can't believe her luck... However after a few hours she is dropped off by the rest of the gang and they inform her of the encounter with the Norn and of Igald's demands.
There are is a main entrance with the inscription "Only a true hero's sword opens the way into Dvergheim" and a side entrance with the plaque "Gauntlet of Heroes" written on it. The party ventures forth into the gauntlet of heroes, while the 2 drakes remain at the entrance to ensure the party doesn't return empty handed.

After climbing down a staircase, they come to a long hallway with many symbols and obvious traps. There is a side path, but the party ignore it. The party decide to just power through the hallway, being sliced, burnt, crushed and befuddled before finally reaching the end.
They spot a chain that opens the way forward beside the staircase by the entrance. So now they need to get back through the gauntlet again. The party decides to look for an alternate route. They enter a side tunnel with a bunch of minecarts full of tar, feathers, snakes and hot coals. After getting through those with only minor injury, they come to an elaborate elevator trap with oil at the bottom.
Canute attempts to pass the trap with a long leap, but ends up pushing the elevator downwards, creating sparks and igniting the oil. He is saved from the flames, but is now choking from all the smoke. The rest of the party powers through the gauntlet and just makes it in time to open up the way for Canute and get some fresh air back in his lungs. Bruised battered and beaten, the party has proven themselves worthy and now proceed to the final chamber.

They are met with an ancient sleeping dverg on a throne wearing a crescent moon amulet and a statue of Thor in front of an anvil. Hundreds of wispy strands tied with thousands of tiny runestones hang from the ceiling.
Freyja steals the crescent moon amulet from the dverg who suddenly wakes up! He is revealed to be Dwalin - the first king of Dvergheim. Panicked, Freyja puts the amulet back and Dwalin instantly falls asleep again. The party is not sure what to do so they start carrying Dwalin around on their shoulders.
Thor's voice booms out and offers to forge the party weapons worthy of such heroes that would best the Gauntlet of Heroes. Each party member creates a runeword from all the runes hanging from the ceiling and sets it upon the anvil along with one of their mundane items. Thor forges an item for each party member.

• Canute is gifted with "Bitfröstbågen" - a longbow that can create a rainbow bridge.
• Eirik is gifted with "Cursteel" - a longsword which can cast cure wounds.
• Freyja is gifted with "Vihan Väitsi" - recharging the Hilt-of-Many-Things
• Audun if gifted with "Välkäs" - empowering the cold iron gauntlet even more
• Astrid is gifted with "Tailuo - a staff that can cast a random seer spell each day

After venturing forth deeper into Dvergheim, they find the city is completely burnt to the ground. Ash covers the ground and beneath it is molten stone turned into lava. With a Bitfröstbågen bridge the party crosses over the city and into a hallway leading deeper into Dvergheim.

In a room with dead dverg, there are 2 short statured humanoid creatures with their bodies covered in copper. They are known as "forgelings" and begin questioning the party on their business. The party manages to convince them that they were the ones that freed Rinfaf (which they did) and were here to serve him. One of the forgelings then escorts Eirik to some coin-sized slots in the back of this antechamber. Peering through he sees mountains of copper, mounds of silver and piles of gold and other riches laying all around a huge vault with a high arched ceiling. Pacing anxiously around the piles of wealth is a large dragon covered in black triangular scales - Fafnir.

The forgeling calls out to his master and Fafnir comes closer to speak to Eirik. It turns out Fafnir is stuck inside the vault and that the mithral keys used to open the vault have been taken by the surviving dverg and some trolls down in the mines. Fafnir orders Eirik to retrieve the keys and free him. Eirik sees an opportunity to infiltrate deeper into Dvergheim so he accepts.
The forgelings escort the party deeper, but don't follow the players when they are about to cross a chasm into the mines.

Session 20: Mines of Dvergheim

The party crosses the chasm with another rainbow bridge and find the dverg King's bedchamber. There is a small construct shooting jolts of energy guarding it, but Astrid manages to speak the correct password which deactivates it. They loot the bedchamber of its mithral sheets and find a secret door into the mithral mines.

Walking past a dverg memorial hall, they come to mine with the roof collapsed in several places. From the rubble the players find dead dverg and loot some of their possessions. Some time after ghostly dverg emerge from the piles and upon seeing the players carry the legendary 1st king of Dvergheim, Dwalin, attack the party. Canute manages to intimidate the ghosts by threatning to slit Dwalin's throat and the party flees back to the memorial hall.
In the memorial hall they wake Dwalin again and he explains that dverg must be commemorated or they'll haunt their place of death. The players then go through the possessions and find nametags. They then engrave plaques for them and put them up in the memorial hall. Dwalin is pleased and offers to help the party for this act of kindness. However he is old and instructs the party to put the Necklace of Immortal Slumber back so he wont die of old age.

The party then continue deeper into the mines and are ambushed by a Roper - a stalactite lookalike that hangs from the ceiling. The fight goes poorly and the party decide to try and flee. Eirik rushes deeper into the mine and emerges in a rough oval cavern with a pile of skull and bones stacked to form a macabre throne. On the throne sits a massive red troll wearing a crown of scorched bones.
The troll's voice booms out: "Who dares to barge into the hall of Chieftain Argax?!" Eirik and Audun exchange a glance and immediately fall on their knees. Eirik succeeds critically to beg and serve Argax and the whole party dumps over 200gp in treasure at his feet. Argax is pleased, but still wants them to prove themselves by killing the roper. All this time Astrid has been struggling in the dark against its attacks and is about to be ripped apart when the others rally back and manage to kill the roper.

Pleased with his new servants and their strength he decides they would be a great vanguard in his assault against the dverg. Argax gathers his forces of other large red-skinned lanky trolls with fiery eyes and curved tusks. They then begin to march out of the mines with the party in the vanguard.
Only a few rooms away from where the surviving dverg are holed up, Argax stops his forces and gives a rousing speech. He then orders the party to charge in, they would follow a few minutes behind.

Session 21: Last stand at Dvergheim

The party goes through a pantry and a kitchen to find a heavily barricaded door. They knock on it and a dverg slides the peephole on the door open. The panicked Skargattians quickly dump a lot of the info on the dverg who seems skeptical and untrusting. Only when they wake up Dwalin does the young dverg understand the gravity of this situtation. The barricade is quickly dismantled and the party makes it on the other side, which seems to be a workers' quarters. The only occupied table has a group of dverg huddled around a large map of Dvergheim. The current King, Regi, introduces himself and the party quickly tells of the approaching trolls.
Regi is most pleased as he needs the other mithral key to enter the vault and Argax usually carries it with him. He decides for the dverg that they will make a last stand here to reclaim their vault! Many of the dverg are a bit hesistant, but that's when the first attack against the barred doors is heard; the trolls are here! Eirik out of remorse for freeing Rinfaf and bringing about Dvergheim's destruction wants to help the dverg fight on, but the rest of the party is reluctant.

For a time the party stands with the dverg as they break through and slay many of them, but eventually the dverg are overrun and when King Regi falls the rest of the dverg flee. The party flees with them through an armory and seal all the doors behind them. It would appear that Argax isn't pursuing them since he now has both mithral keys.

The dverg hide in the armory while the party goes to scout forwards. They end up at the forge of Dvergheim where the forgelings are crafting mithral armor for Fafnir. The party sneaks into the adjacent room that has a red and hot glow to it.
They find the grand furnace of Dvergheim and Igald's ruby lights up. She speaks to Freyja that her heart is the source of this furnace. Canute has the "Drakeslayer Shield" which grants him immunity to fire, so he jumps into the furnace and plunges the ruby into the heart. The insane heat from the heart stops and it begins to regenerate veins around it slowly. Igald then demands the party to take her outside. When Canute gives Freyja the heart, she decides to eat. Igald screams in horror as she is devoured by the surprisingly hearty Freyja.
After consuming Igald's heart, Freyja now has the ability to command drakes and is fire immune.

Noticing that the furnace extinguished, the forgelings attack the players! They are not a match for the party and half of them retreat to warn Fafnir. The party pursues them but are quickly overcome by greed and stay to loot the mithral throne of the now dead dverg king. They find a secret tunnel, stash the throne there and take a nap.

Session 22: Eirik Fáfnirsbane

After spending the night in the secret passageway, the party sneaks out and they feel and hear a giant tremble in the ground. They quickly deduce this to be the vault door opening.
The party rushes to the vault and sees Argax with a small cotary confronting Fafnir. Fafnir offers an alliance, but the hot-headed Argax just attacks to claim the treasures within the vault. After a brief fight, Fafnir devours Argax and the issue is solved.

The party sees this and forms a plan. Audun with Loki's backing would lie that Eirik is his prisoner and that he wants to join Fafnir, while Eirik has betrayed him. When Eirik is close enough he would use the Scroll of Annihilation on Fafnir. Audun critically succeeds in his lies and Fafnir decides to see him act out an "execution" of Eirik. When Eirik is brought before Fafnir and Audun raises his axe, it misses Eirik's neck and he spring forth with the scroll.
Giant ball of black energy appears upon Fafnir and his lower body is completely obliterated. Eirik has done it! He has redeemed himself in the eyes of Odin!

However from the maw of the slain beast opens and Argax steps out, angry and ready to rumble. The party rush him and the two troll escorts. All of it is over in the blink of an eye - Audun slices Argax from head to toe with a huge critical hit. He then turns to the other trolls and tells them to go back to hell! The scared trolls oblige and start running. The party follows them and finds their source: an obsidian portal to Muspelheim - the land of the fire giants. They destroy the portal and go search for the surviving dverg.

Dwalin and the rest of the dverg are ever grateful as the slaying of Fafnir returned all the forgelings back to their dverg forms. The forgelings explain how Fafnir had an ability to "forge" anyone he devoured to be his servant. The party is rewarded with much treasure and they exit Dvergheim as heroes. The drakes guarding the entrance dare not touch Freyja Nyland and they make it down to the nearest town.
Only problem is that its Valthis. The party tries to bribe Signe with treasure from Dvergheim so as to deter her from attacking Skargat. Signe's greedy eyes demand more and the party leaves for Skargat, unsure of what happens next.

Near Skargat the party finds a scouting party of Valthisians. With their cover blown, the Valthisians just act like they were about to come visit Skargat so they join the festivities abou to ensue.

Session 23: Bacchanal of the Sea Wolf King

The Skargat 5, now rich and certified heroes for taking down Fafnir and freeing Dvergheim from its troll problem, throw a 2-week long feast in honor of this achievement. During this legendary bacchanal, the party would revisit many of the friends and places they visited during their adventures together. The festivities grew larger and larger, changing from place to place.
The dverg promised to arm Skargat with cold iron weapons and mithral armor. Audun managed to find out Signe's weaknesses in combat. Eirik was gifted the Robe of the Allfather and he gladly sacrificed his eye for it. Freyja formed an alliance with the Young Fox of Gandrunne. Flavicus gifted the players with wine and stories of his homeland. The Skargattians finally decided they would partake in the Old Crow's grand raid of Auron. Astrid finally returned the soulstones to Jan Frostglad and was welcomed back to Rolug.

Near the end of the festivities, while Rolug was hosting the feasts, Audun and Canute spotted a ragged wolfhound intently gazing at them across the feasting hall. While others were distracted they followed the beast. He led them to Torbald's quarters where he was scratching a wardrobe. Opening the wardrobe, they found a secret passage deep into the cliffside. There they found 16 green soulstones confined in an obsidian cave. The wolf then began to speak in Loki's tongue: "This is your chance to sow chaos like you've never witnessed."
Audun and Canute decide to sow chaos by stealing the soulstones and sending them around the continent. They would employ the unwitting Flavicus as their mule. Pleased by this, Loki promised them both 1 favor and left.

Eventually the festivities winded down and the final day was hosted by Rolug. This would mark the day of Mog'Tharok between Valthis and Skargat. The winner would be recognized as King of the Sea Wolves by Vingrike and given command of the fleet that would raid Auron.
Audun "Trollsbane" Helvig stepped up, wielding the Axe of 9 Eyes. Signe took him up on the challenge and took up a shield and the Axe of the Fen-Dweller. The duel started off rough for Audun. Signe wasn't strong, but she was quick and all of Audun's attack's kept missing, while her fine handaxe cut into him. When things looked dire, Canute evoked his favor with Loki and a hound suddenly barked loudly in the crowd. Signe got distracted and Audun's axe cut into her, finally slowing her down a bit. She had to sunder her shield, but things still weren't looking great for Audun; he was at 4 HP. Knowing its now or never, Audun evoked his favor with Loki and his steel reflected the sun at Signe's eyes when he swung it. With a slash and thud, Signe's head came off.
After a brief stunned silence, the crowd began to cheer "King of the Sea Wolves!"

Epilogue

Audun became King and Admiral of the Great Northern Fleet. The green soulstones found their way to Auron and the Arce Veneficus academy where they have rumored to cause magical catasrophes. Astrid became "The Wise One" of Skargat and Jarl Freyja Nyland's seer. Astrid and Eirik decided to partake in the grand raid to convert the people of Auron to the worship of Odin and would later encounter one of the green soulstones there. Canute Erling took over Marvolo's trade empire and is now the richest man upon the Sea of Wolves. Before Vingrike launched the fullscale invasion of Auron, Freyja Nyland would raid Alfheim, take over their cities and enslave the light-elves living there. She grew Skargat into the first real city in the Wargholm archipelago and would eventually find a backdoor through Alfheim into Nordgard. This allowed Vingrike to quickly take over Nordgard once the full-scale invasion of Auron began. Freyja eventually slays the Sun Empress of Alfheim and only enclaves of elven resistance now remain there. Among these are the Ambershard family.