The Lady’s Quest – 1

Into Deirodia

The snows were late. This far north, this time of year, there should be some signs of snow thought Urd. It was cold enough, there had been a good frost on the ground, yet the orange and gold leaves still clung to their branches. The mild weather was good in that it made travel easier, but in Urd’s mind it was bad in that the party’s leaders would want to go farther north, where they could be trapped once winter did come.

Urd Snorrissdottir took the job as guide at the behest of Thorkel Bjornsson, her old sword master. It was an unusual job, one of Thorkel’s students, Lady Greenholme, desired to find her son who was taken in a raid over six years ago. Thorkel had not only wanted Urd to guide the party, but also to be someone the Lady could trust.

Walking in the lead, she could feel the chill wind on her face as she surveyed the road ahead. Roads in the central lands were well maintained to move goods and troops, the roads in the borderlands well little more than paths between settlements.

Hearing footsteps and the rustling of cloaks, Urd looked over her shoulder to see she had been joined by her two companions, Abi Gunnar and Ljufa Skarfdottir.

Urd smiled, “How goes it back there?”

“Loud,” replied Abi.

“It’s not yet mid-morning and already he’s complaining,” added Ljufa.

“What is our suitor complaining about, this time?” Urd asked. Abi giggled. By “suitor” Urd meant Biorn Marsson, one of Lady Greenholme’s retainers.

“It’s the same old song, the Lady is a noblewoman and she and her retainers should be riding; if we can have pack mules, we should have horses. The lady is a delicate woman, and so on,” answered Ljufa.

“He’s the only one talking,” added Abi, “everyone else is quiet.”

“You know, for all of the weeks we’ve been traveling, I don’t think I’ve heard Lady Greenholme utter more than a dozen words,” said Ljufa.

“Lady Greenholme’s quest weighs on her soul, I doubt she’ll say much until it’s over. Besides, look at the sky,” said Urd, changing the subject.

Abi looked at the low hanging gray clouds and asked, “Snow?”

“No, rain, you can taste it on the wind. It’ll start within the hour.” Urd answered. “Ljufa, take the lead, Abi and I will fall back and prepare the others.”

They were lucky in that they only had one day of rain, and by the end of the week, they were in the village of Thunderwind. Thunderwind grew up around the military outpost guarding a ford of the Elivagar river. Though the river was known as the “ice ribbon”, there was very little ice. The snows were indeed late.

Among the Northmen, the last day of the week was not Saturday, but Laugardagr – “bath day”. The village’s only inn, The White Goose, had an adjacent bath house.

“After five weeks on the road, that bath was sorely needed,” said Ljufa.

“Have you noticed every settlement has an inn with ‘goose’ in its name? White Goose, Gray Goose, Fat Goose, Roasted Goose – yet goose is seldom on the menu,” Abi pondered.

“The important thing about this inn,” said Urd, “is that it is across the road from the mead hall. I’m famished, I’ve heard they have a fine selection of sausages, cheeses, fresh butter and black bread.”

Abi asked, “Will the others join us?”

“Swein and Sigvald are on watch in the stable. Brynhild and Finnur are asleep since they have the next watch. We may see them before they start their watch, but I doubt we’ll see Swein and Sigvald when they go off duty.’ replied Urd.

“Lady Greenholme and Biorn Marsson are in their rooms for the night,” added Ljufa.

As the trio entered the mead hall, Abi asked, “What I don’t understand is why Biorn Marsson got a room and Ulfrik Olvirsson didn’t, aren’t they both retainers?”

Ljufa replied, “Hey, you can ask him yourself, he’s at the bar.”

Even without his armor and Dane ax, Ulfrik was a large formidable man. He seemed to be enjoying a slice of buttered bread and a pint as a serving girl fawned over him.

Urd and her companions were greeted by a large dark woman, “You must be from the party that arrived this morning. Don’t you just love Laugardagr when everyone is clean and feisty?” she asked and then quickly moved on without waiting for an answer.

“I think I’ll have what she’s drinking” said Ljufa.

“We should split up and mingle. Find out as much as we can about this place,” said Urd.

“Hah, you just don’t want us around so you can flirt” giggled Abi.

Ljufa said, “Why not? Sweet words often loosen tongues.”

The mead hall was buzzing with excitement, soon the Hunter’s Moon would be full. Plans were being made for hunting trips, the last of the harvest, and preparations for the winter months. Urd, Abi, and Ljufa moved freely about the room gathering information.

Abi and Ljufa were sitting at a small table near the fire in the common room of the White Goose Inn. It was well after midnight when Urd joined them.

“All right, ladies, what did we learn tonight?” Urd asked in a soft voice to not waken those asleep in the room.

“Well,” Abi began with a giggle, “we know there’s raspberry lip stain on your cheek.”

“From a curvaceous dark-haired Dwarven serving girl no doubt.” added Ljufa.

Urd blushed, “Putting that aside did you learn anything useful?”

“I think Urd’s infatuation with short women might be useful someday,” said Ljufa. Abi giggled.

“Yes, let’s all share what we learned tonight.” said a deep voice behind them. The startled women looked up to see Ulfrik standing over them.

“Ulfrik, please sit down and join us.” said Urd, “We’ll gladly share what we’ve learned.”

“Only if you promise it is more than the titillating affections of a Dwarven girl,” said Ulfrik pulling up a chair.

“This region is called ‘Deirodia’, it’s from an ancient holy language meaning ‘place of the monastery’ and the monastery is in Wyrmby, several days north of here.” said Ljufa.

Ulfrik surprised them by speaking next, “The region is ruled by Jarl Harald Lyengar, whose manor is in Underwood, a few days to the east. It will be wise for Lady Greenholme to travel there to pay respect.”

“The outpost here is manned by eighteen warriors – six huscarls and twleve men from the leidang. The huscarls serve here for a year and the leidang are rotated every two months. It has been decades since any enemy force has attacked this ford,” said Abi.

“That’s right,” continued Urd, “raiders cross the Elivagar at points north of the Emerald Heights mountain range. There’s ancient ruins, called the Shattered City, where warbands divide their spoils before splitting up and returning to the northern wilderness. We should find it, it may hold clues.”

“I’ll inform Lady Greenholme in the morning,” said Ulfrik, “I may even include the tale of the Dwarven serving girl, it might amuse her.”

Abi giggled, Ljufa snorted a laugh, and Urd blushed.

Notes

This campaign is inspired by one of the greatest Westerns of all time, the 1956 John Ford classic, The Searchers. If you have never seen this movie, shame on you.

I’m using WHAT (Warrior Heroes Adventures in Talomir) from Two Hour Wargames for movement, combat and many of the encounters. The campaign engine I’m using is from Five Leagues from the Borderlands by Modiphius. Other campaign resources used are The Solo Wargaming Guide, The D&D BECMI edition Rules Cyclopedia and maps generated by Perilous Shores.

The party entered the map on the road to Thunderwind, nothing happened in the travel phase except that it did rain on one day. The campaign starts in the Autumn with the Hunter’s Moon.

First night in Thunderwind is a WHAT Carousing Encounter. And yes, Urd does have a proclivity for short women.

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. The second campaign turn will be played tomorrow and I hope to have it written up sometime next week.