Session One: The Outlaws

Played first session for about four hours last night. Just an introductory scenario to get hang of rules (Harnmaster 3) and introduce the characters.

First session was rescuing a daughter of one of the important Jarin freemen in the village. Their father was incapacitated with a broken leg and most of the men were out fishing or trading, so they went off with one of their friends, Grim (from a minor clan) and one of their father's huscarles, a tough Rognan called Adulph. They tracked the bad guys for several days and finally found some of them at their camp. They pretty easily got the upper hand with this lot, mostly by entombing them in an old mine. The very first combat of the campaign involved Charys using her bow to hit a fleeing bandit lookout in the back of the neck at long range (rolled an 05). They released a few other prsioners the bandits had and Adulph took them back as he was injured in the fight and not up to traipsing around the mountains.

They discovered that the girl was not at the camp and neither were the bandit leaders. They continued to track them til they came to a small house in the woods. They decided to smoke the bandits out (only one door) by drapping a cloak over the smoke hole and getting them as they came out. Unfortunately Charys slipped and almost fell through the roof which kind of alerted the bad guys. Two rushed out straight into Bulvae who stabbed twice with his spear and killed two men instantly (one CS to the face, the other a CS to the throat). What can a GM do with dice luck like that? One more bad guy (the tough leader, ran towards the commotion and Ragnar stepped out of the shadows and buried his axe into the back of his head as he went past.

Meanwhile, the few bandits inside fired arrows out the door, one of which caught their man Grim in the shoulder. Charys got pissed off and grabbing a shield, barged her way into the house, knocking over the bandit holding the doorway. She backswung as she tripped over him and took down the second bandit who was trying to knock an arrow. She began grappling with the first guy when a Jarin woman lept on her and stabbed her in the back (M1 wound). Before the fight ended Charys also got a nasty S2 gash on her head from another stab before she axed the woman down. They found the girl they were looking for as well as a large pile of weaponry (spears, arrows, shields, several barrels of swords). They figured that these bandits were Jarin resistance. The girl confirmed it saying that her captors accused her father of being a traitor, and were going to ransom her for some of his apparent wealth or something like that.

Session ended with them torching the house and contents and high tailing it back to Genheim.

All in all, a fun start.

The Whale Road

"In the end each clan on the outlying coasts beyond the whale-road had to yield to him and begin to pay tribute"

Beowulf.

The Whale Road is a norse kenning used to describe the sea.

Welcome to The Whale Road

This blog is going to be where players in my Harn fantasy role-playing campaign can read stories, see information relating to the campaign and plan session times.

Links will be provided to character sheets, rules and other information as is needed.

The campaign is set in Orbaal, a Kingdom on the Island of Harn (N. Robin Crossby and Columbia Games). The characters are all members of the ruling clan of a village called Genheim. I decided to make all characters related to give some internal consistancy to the campaign. Although I like the "You meet in a tavern" style as a way to bring disparate party members together this time I wanted something different.

The characters for the game are:
Charys Keldarj - A priestess of Sarajin and favoured daughter of the Valhakar. She is as lesbian as they come, has a Rethemi mother (a war-bride) who was a Pamesani gladiator and likes nothing better than laying about with axes.

Ragnar Keldarj - a weaponcrafter of some skill. Not at the forefront of action so far but not adverse to a little axe-play either.

Bulvae Keldarj - the other great hope for the clan apparently. Studied Peleahn magery under the friend of his cousin Guntar Keldarj (a character frolm my old Harn camapaign from the 90s and who is goingto make a comeback as an older, guest PC from time to time).