The date is Saturday, 1st April
Hunterton is a small village in the vast tundra region of Midgard. It is situated on the shore of a lake fed by streams that come down from the
White Mountains to the west.
The people live by fishing, hunting and herding
reindeer. They trade skins and meat for grain and metal ores.
The village is home to around 30 families and is surrounded by a palisade for defence, the tops of the gateposts are carved into dragons' heads. They do not have a militia or guard, in times of war all the men and women of age defend the village. They can muster 60 fighters (1st level), mostly armed with spears.
The houses are made from wood with turves on the rooves, usually with a central fire.
The village hall is made from roughly cut wood with a thatched roof.
Brogi is the village chieftain and he is easily the best warrior in the village.
Asami is the village cleric. She is in her 50s and maintains the frequent rituals needed to keep the favour of the gods. She can heal and brew potions. She was responsible for our rescue from the orcs in our youth.
Hamir is the village blacksmith. Most of his raw metal comes from passing dwarf traders. Sigmund works with him.
Media is the brewer, supplying mead (made from imported ingredients) and vodka (made from local ingredients) for important events.
Eriulf is a very old (80) wizard who needs much help and care. Seer works for him.
The sun shines brightly in a blue, cloudless sky and the smoke of campfires drifts lazily through the still, crisp, spring air. Somewhere a dog barks, and the thud of a woodman's axe marks time. The wooden houses with their turf rooves blend into the flat tundra landscape. Two carved dragons protect the gate of the surrounding palisade. The villagers, in twos and threes, slowly make their way to the longhouse…
It's a special day - the day we all officially become adults!
Brogi gives a fine speech.
Asami wishes us luck and provides a gift of a healing potion each to help us on our quest.
The long winter has broken, the geese have returned and the bear nurses her cubs. It is time for our youths to show that they are children no more, but warriors.
We depend for our livelihood on our reindeer and the greatest threat to them is the wolf. A full day's journey southeast from here is the Howling Wolf Hills. Go there and bring back a single adult wolf pelt (between all 5 of us). Remember that we live in balance with nature.
A day's journey east of here lies the Crows Wood. There is a lake there, on the far shore of which grows a plant with yellow leaves and deep blue berries. Go there and fill these jars with the berries which Asami uses to make potions.
The skin of the beaver is warm and resists the summer rain. They make their homes in the dams at the waterfalls to the north. It is a long trek in the wild. Go now and may Uller (the god of hunting) go with you.
We return to our quarters and gather some supplies for the journeying ahead. Before we depart
Seer casts his augury sticks and tells us the gods disdain our ideas. That doesn't help us select a destination but we opt for the Howling Wolf Hills. Fine snow begins to fall.
Travel south, cross the river and then head in a south-easterly direction through scrubland for several peaceful hours, foraging for food as we go. Make camp for the night - it's very cold. Our first ever night spent outside the village passes seemingly without event, other than distant wolf howls.
The date is Sunday, 2nd April
As we break camp we start searching and soon find some
wolf tracks to encourage us we are heading the right way. As we proceed, the terrain becomes more hilly.
This is the furthest any of us have ever been from home!
As we approach a boulder zone we spot a wolf watching us from atop a huge rock. We fan out and approach it. It howls and moves to attack, accompanied by another wolf which appeared from behind a different rock. We tentatively move to engage in combat, conscious we should only bring home a single wolf pelt so wondering how we might avoid harming too many.
Fyren uses magic to make the wolves fall asleep! This allows us to kill one humanely and leave the other in peace. We realise we have killed a father wolf, and leave the sleeping mother wolf with some pups, departing with some haste. Behind us, we hear a mournful howl, answered all around by other howls.
We head back to our previous campsite. It seems we're being followed... We light some fires to try and discourage the wolves from approaching. We skin the wolf and cook some juicy wolf steaks for our tea. Overnight on watch, we spot wolf eyes watching from a distance but they decline to attack and we have a quiet night.
The date is Monday, 3rd April
We return to Hunterton. We proudly present the wolf pelt to Chieftan Brogi who is happy with it and accepts our word we killed only one wolf.
We plan to head north in search of beaver pelts next.
Seer casts his augury sticks and glares at us as he declares that one of us will interfere with the plan.
Brogi gives us some advice.
Beaver Falls to the north, is home to unusually large beavers that can be quite dangerous. To get there they should follow the river downstream until it merges with another river coming the other way. They should then follow that river upstream for 2-3 days until they reach a waterfall. At the top of the falls is a marshy, wooded area caused by the beaver dams.
We head out after lunch. We spend the rest of the day following the river north out of the village. We make camp by the river and pass a quiet but cold night. We continue on for the next couple of days, following the river as instructed.
The date is Sunday 9th April
We finally reach the waterfalls and beaver country. Seer uses magic to summon a bat and ask it to scout the area and locate some beavers for us. We find a huge dam and unsubtly shake it to attract some attention. It works, as 4 giant beavers emerge and attack us. We ruthlessly despatch them and pile up the corpses ready for skinning.
Fyren notices that the massive dam has diverted the course of the river. The old river bed is covered in ferns and a narrow stream disappears through a narrow gully into the blackness below... Seer again summons a bat and directs it to scout for us. Meanwhile we skin the dead beavers.
The entrance is covered in thick, almost luminous green moss and ferns. The water entering the cavern is barely a few centimetres deep. The passage is quite steep and slippery with wet vegetation.
There are a few small stalagmites and stalactites in this cavern. The stream flows off to the east, another passage leads off to the north.
