Session two - March 25th - 30th 2077
The survivors stood in the snow outside of Virgus Settlement over two dead trolls. Ingevar tried to calm her breathing and listen to the footsteps behind the building. Ulric struggled to reload Reason faster. Axel struggled to stay calm but the anticipation of the next attack panicked him. He tugged at Urlic's jacket and begged him to go before running off into the mist. Ulric continued to try to load for another second before heading after him. Ingevar stood her ground listening, unable to discern where the trolls were going with the ringing in her ears, eventually she retreated after the others.
Ulric found Axel laid out on the wrong dock, looking to have slipped on the ice and gone head-first into a pylon. He tried to revive the unconscious boy but Axel was completely "away from the table". Ulric hoisted Axel over his shoulder and moved back towards Tall Olav's boat cautiously. As they moved through the mist they heard the crack of a crossbow and the whistle of a bolt fired at them, shouting at the old man "It's us! Stop shooting" to which a gruff "Sorry" came back from the shadow of the sailboat. They retreated back to the boat with very little of their spoils and their unconscious friend. There was no sign of the Trolls who seemed to have lost their nerve so they waited watching the swirling mist. Ingevar suggested they back out into the bay and drop anchor and wait out the night. Tall Olav was unconvinced that Trolls don't swim and didn't like the idea of a night on a frozen fjord. Finally they decided to grab all of their belongings and hustle into the relative security of the head-man's house. They hurried down the frozen dock carrying boat gear and Axel.
Inside the house Ulric engineered a brace to reinforce the door Axel had based in. They found a trap door down into the cellar and cooked up some late-winters stew and the battened all of the shutters over the windows. They slept in shifts and listened to the howl of the wind for signs of the trolls coming back. In the morning Axel still hadn't come to. They were getting worried that his injuries were serious.
When the light broke they decided they would quickly loot the buildings and get out of the bay rather than pushing their luck. Ulric returned to the toolshed and with better lighting he found a cobbled together ATV and a diesel still. Ingevar found a longhounse behind the buildings on the shore that had been used for a communal home, there were no more corpses but there were 10 beds and a few cribs and more signs that people had been taken by surprise. She also found a dome-shaped barn and tried to investigate but the scent of mutilated animals drove her back, likely animals eaten by the trolls. Tall Olav moved Axel out to the boat and wrapped him in blankets to keep him warm, then went to the other dock to take the boat moored there and tie it off to his own.
As they were struggling with the boat Ulric noticed a broken patch in the ice and something just under the water. He dragged the bloated corpse of a red-headed woman out of the water, her belongings soaked. Her clothes were strange, gloves fingered, boots fur-cuffed. She had a submachinegun that had been emptied on a strap around her neck and a strange patch on her jacket with a symbol of a crown and strange foreign writing. In the woman's backpack was a nice compass, some sort of flashlight with what looked like manufactured batteries and little canned meals, the cans oddly primitive and not covered in corrosion. One was some sort of rice and tomato dish, the other some kind of potato hash with beef judging by the cartoon cow and potatoes.
Ingevar and Ulric came back to the dock with their first load of farmhouse loot, some tools, and housewares and a book Ingevar found with the history of the settlement. Tall Olav's boat was nearly full and they didn't feel the sailboat they were towing was seaworthy enough to carry either the ATV or the Still. They decided to make one more run at the settlement. Ingevar went back for more bedding. Ulric grabbed one of the diesel cans from the shed, Tall Olav loaded up on mason jars and pans of Lutefisk.
As they returned to the dock the morning fog was clearing and out of the mist came a large longship with a man clutching it's figurehead and staring them down. In and instant they agreed this was a running fight rather than a standing one, they threw their belongings in the tow boat and pushed off from the dock. As they oared to the edge of the ice and put up their sail as the longship started it's steam engine and began to lazily push through the ice into the bay. after an hour they weren't being followed, but surely the settlement of Virgus would be picked clean. As they sailed into the middle of the straight the weather turned rough once more and they had to fight for every league. It was only with Tall Olav's skill that they kept the tow boat from sinking. As they pulled into Orkanger's port in the freezing night, wet and exhausted, Axel's eyes opened and he woke.
They pulled themselves out of the boat and dragged all of their loot back to Olav's little fishing hut. Olav put on some hot tea and baked some fish with the herbs he found in the Virgus Headman's house while they divided up the loot. Axel had some food and showed signs of recovering. For his share Tall Olav wanted the typewriter and an antique shotgun they found, pricey share but they agreed he had earned it. In the morning there was a knock at the door for Ulric, Skinny Sven from the garage calling on Behalf of his boss Omar, who was pissed his star mechanic was gone for two days. Ingevar helped Axel back to the Scav barracks to rest and she set about selling their ill gotten gains. Ulric showed the patch of the women soldier around the garage while she worked but nobody had ever seen anything like it. Omar came up to bitch at her for slacking and noticed the patch and told her the writing was English "God Save Our Queen." he said. Ingevar bartered well but didn't know the value of a lot of the things they took. Their haul was good, but not enough to make much of a difference in their lives. Later the both of them went to speak to Sherriff Gordon Wynn about what they found in Virgus. He seemed unconvinced until they showed him the patch and submachinegun and his demeanor became concerned.
The following day on her way by the town square, Ingevar heard a commotion, people talking about the Jarl's wife appearing in the town square and calling for capable men to do service for the town. Ingavar followed the crowd of hunters and cocky boys to the Jarl's hall to hear the proposal. Ingevar had never been in the Jarl's Hall, it was nice, big, rustic and full of expensive things. Jarl Ominson called on men to volunteer to pursue the census while the town militia investigated a problem in a remote settlement. He needed four men to go to the all-female settlement of Inger. Ingevar's hand went up with the other men but she was selected first and her suggestion of Ulric as a villager who had had dealings with Inger before was chosen as the second. The other two were Skinny Sven and a cantankerous young hunter named Poldar. The Jarl gave Ingevar a census book for Inger and told her she must see the born and the dead and accept no mischief from the women of Inger. The chosen census takers agreed that it was too late in the day for the journey and they would meet at the bridge gate before dawn.
They met in the chilly dawn and set off on foot along the cliff road. Skinny Sven was fairly well convinced that the women would make an exception for him and let him into the village, lesbians liked him he argued unconvincingly. In the afternoon they heard the barking of seals below on the beach. Poldar wanted to go down the cliff to hunt some of the seals but Ingevar didn't want to approach the settlement at night. The end of their trip was a mile long tunnel in the cold and dark that opened up on a destroyed bridge with a group of buildings on a hill on the far side. There was a path that led down into the ravine and back up the other side, a hard approach for anyone who wanted trouble. They were hailed from the settlement by a shouting woman "Men, what's your business in Inger?". Ingevar called back "Not a man, we come for census.." An envoy of three women with rifles crossed the winding valley path to the other side and greeted the census takers coldly letting them know men were not allowed in the settlement but they could sleep in the rundown barn on this side of the ravine, they would take Invegar into the settlement for the census. Ulric didn't like sending Ingevar on her own but they agreed on a signal for danger and she left with the armed women.
Up on the hill Ingevar found the settlement beautiful but small with lush gardens and well-laid out buildings all constructed after the fall. Women watched her with fearful curiosity as the head-woman, Matriarch Hairnsdotter, welcomed her to the settlement and introduced her to her daughter Dannika who would some day be running the settlement. Ingevar was taken into the big house and fed a meal that included a delicious yet suspicious fried potato hash with corned beef. The men were brought a sack with a bottle of beer and some raw vegetables in their cold drafty barn. In the morning Ingavar was shown the graves of two women that died and met little Loreli, the girl born over the winter. She looked around certain that there would be proof of the other foreign women but she could find none. Invgevar got her nose in as much as she could before explaining she would be on her way and giving the women of Inger a cryptic warning about untrustworthy strangers. Ingevar was much better at beating messages into people than subtlety.
The party packed their things and left the way they came. Ulric noted that while the road to Orkanger was destroyed the road the continues up the coast was largely insecure. Ingevar shared her suspicion that Inger had been compromised by the lady soldiers. On the way back along the cliff Poldar finally managed to convince the group to stop and hunt. They came back up the cliffside with three seals. By nightfall they had returned safely back to Orkanger but Inger and Ulric were deeply unsettled by the idea that a loyal settlement might be about to betrey the town.
Ulric found Axel laid out on the wrong dock, looking to have slipped on the ice and gone head-first into a pylon. He tried to revive the unconscious boy but Axel was completely "away from the table". Ulric hoisted Axel over his shoulder and moved back towards Tall Olav's boat cautiously. As they moved through the mist they heard the crack of a crossbow and the whistle of a bolt fired at them, shouting at the old man "It's us! Stop shooting" to which a gruff "Sorry" came back from the shadow of the sailboat. They retreated back to the boat with very little of their spoils and their unconscious friend. There was no sign of the Trolls who seemed to have lost their nerve so they waited watching the swirling mist. Ingevar suggested they back out into the bay and drop anchor and wait out the night. Tall Olav was unconvinced that Trolls don't swim and didn't like the idea of a night on a frozen fjord. Finally they decided to grab all of their belongings and hustle into the relative security of the head-man's house. They hurried down the frozen dock carrying boat gear and Axel.
Inside the house Ulric engineered a brace to reinforce the door Axel had based in. They found a trap door down into the cellar and cooked up some late-winters stew and the battened all of the shutters over the windows. They slept in shifts and listened to the howl of the wind for signs of the trolls coming back. In the morning Axel still hadn't come to. They were getting worried that his injuries were serious.
When the light broke they decided they would quickly loot the buildings and get out of the bay rather than pushing their luck. Ulric returned to the toolshed and with better lighting he found a cobbled together ATV and a diesel still. Ingevar found a longhounse behind the buildings on the shore that had been used for a communal home, there were no more corpses but there were 10 beds and a few cribs and more signs that people had been taken by surprise. She also found a dome-shaped barn and tried to investigate but the scent of mutilated animals drove her back, likely animals eaten by the trolls. Tall Olav moved Axel out to the boat and wrapped him in blankets to keep him warm, then went to the other dock to take the boat moored there and tie it off to his own.
As they were struggling with the boat Ulric noticed a broken patch in the ice and something just under the water. He dragged the bloated corpse of a red-headed woman out of the water, her belongings soaked. Her clothes were strange, gloves fingered, boots fur-cuffed. She had a submachinegun that had been emptied on a strap around her neck and a strange patch on her jacket with a symbol of a crown and strange foreign writing. In the woman's backpack was a nice compass, some sort of flashlight with what looked like manufactured batteries and little canned meals, the cans oddly primitive and not covered in corrosion. One was some sort of rice and tomato dish, the other some kind of potato hash with beef judging by the cartoon cow and potatoes.
Ingevar and Ulric came back to the dock with their first load of farmhouse loot, some tools, and housewares and a book Ingevar found with the history of the settlement. Tall Olav's boat was nearly full and they didn't feel the sailboat they were towing was seaworthy enough to carry either the ATV or the Still. They decided to make one more run at the settlement. Ingevar went back for more bedding. Ulric grabbed one of the diesel cans from the shed, Tall Olav loaded up on mason jars and pans of Lutefisk.
As they returned to the dock the morning fog was clearing and out of the mist came a large longship with a man clutching it's figurehead and staring them down. In and instant they agreed this was a running fight rather than a standing one, they threw their belongings in the tow boat and pushed off from the dock. As they oared to the edge of the ice and put up their sail as the longship started it's steam engine and began to lazily push through the ice into the bay. after an hour they weren't being followed, but surely the settlement of Virgus would be picked clean. As they sailed into the middle of the straight the weather turned rough once more and they had to fight for every league. It was only with Tall Olav's skill that they kept the tow boat from sinking. As they pulled into Orkanger's port in the freezing night, wet and exhausted, Axel's eyes opened and he woke.
They pulled themselves out of the boat and dragged all of their loot back to Olav's little fishing hut. Olav put on some hot tea and baked some fish with the herbs he found in the Virgus Headman's house while they divided up the loot. Axel had some food and showed signs of recovering. For his share Tall Olav wanted the typewriter and an antique shotgun they found, pricey share but they agreed he had earned it. In the morning there was a knock at the door for Ulric, Skinny Sven from the garage calling on Behalf of his boss Omar, who was pissed his star mechanic was gone for two days. Ingevar helped Axel back to the Scav barracks to rest and she set about selling their ill gotten gains. Ulric showed the patch of the women soldier around the garage while she worked but nobody had ever seen anything like it. Omar came up to bitch at her for slacking and noticed the patch and told her the writing was English "God Save Our Queen." he said. Ingevar bartered well but didn't know the value of a lot of the things they took. Their haul was good, but not enough to make much of a difference in their lives. Later the both of them went to speak to Sherriff Gordon Wynn about what they found in Virgus. He seemed unconvinced until they showed him the patch and submachinegun and his demeanor became concerned.
The following day on her way by the town square, Ingevar heard a commotion, people talking about the Jarl's wife appearing in the town square and calling for capable men to do service for the town. Ingavar followed the crowd of hunters and cocky boys to the Jarl's hall to hear the proposal. Ingevar had never been in the Jarl's Hall, it was nice, big, rustic and full of expensive things. Jarl Ominson called on men to volunteer to pursue the census while the town militia investigated a problem in a remote settlement. He needed four men to go to the all-female settlement of Inger. Ingevar's hand went up with the other men but she was selected first and her suggestion of Ulric as a villager who had had dealings with Inger before was chosen as the second. The other two were Skinny Sven and a cantankerous young hunter named Poldar. The Jarl gave Ingevar a census book for Inger and told her she must see the born and the dead and accept no mischief from the women of Inger. The chosen census takers agreed that it was too late in the day for the journey and they would meet at the bridge gate before dawn.
They met in the chilly dawn and set off on foot along the cliff road. Skinny Sven was fairly well convinced that the women would make an exception for him and let him into the village, lesbians liked him he argued unconvincingly. In the afternoon they heard the barking of seals below on the beach. Poldar wanted to go down the cliff to hunt some of the seals but Ingevar didn't want to approach the settlement at night. The end of their trip was a mile long tunnel in the cold and dark that opened up on a destroyed bridge with a group of buildings on a hill on the far side. There was a path that led down into the ravine and back up the other side, a hard approach for anyone who wanted trouble. They were hailed from the settlement by a shouting woman "Men, what's your business in Inger?". Ingevar called back "Not a man, we come for census.." An envoy of three women with rifles crossed the winding valley path to the other side and greeted the census takers coldly letting them know men were not allowed in the settlement but they could sleep in the rundown barn on this side of the ravine, they would take Invegar into the settlement for the census. Ulric didn't like sending Ingevar on her own but they agreed on a signal for danger and she left with the armed women.
Up on the hill Ingevar found the settlement beautiful but small with lush gardens and well-laid out buildings all constructed after the fall. Women watched her with fearful curiosity as the head-woman, Matriarch Hairnsdotter, welcomed her to the settlement and introduced her to her daughter Dannika who would some day be running the settlement. Ingevar was taken into the big house and fed a meal that included a delicious yet suspicious fried potato hash with corned beef. The men were brought a sack with a bottle of beer and some raw vegetables in their cold drafty barn. In the morning Ingavar was shown the graves of two women that died and met little Loreli, the girl born over the winter. She looked around certain that there would be proof of the other foreign women but she could find none. Invgevar got her nose in as much as she could before explaining she would be on her way and giving the women of Inger a cryptic warning about untrustworthy strangers. Ingevar was much better at beating messages into people than subtlety.
The party packed their things and left the way they came. Ulric noted that while the road to Orkanger was destroyed the road the continues up the coast was largely insecure. Ingevar shared her suspicion that Inger had been compromised by the lady soldiers. On the way back along the cliff Poldar finally managed to convince the group to stop and hunt. They came back up the cliffside with three seals. By nightfall they had returned safely back to Orkanger but Inger and Ulric were deeply unsettled by the idea that a loyal settlement might be about to betrey the town.
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