awakeHere is the tenth session report on the Friday night Yggdrasill game campaign. This session was played on Friday, January 10th, 2014, and is the most recent game session of the Friday group. You can read about the previous session of the campaign in this journal entry. This post is somewhat long, so I've put it behind a cut so that folks who don't want to read any detailed rpg posts don't have to.
April 24th, 215
Taken somewhat by surprise, the player characters reacted swiftly. Ogir Haralfsson (Nick), Ingrid Horoldsdottir (Kathy), and Sigrun Evardsdottir (Joanne) attacked the bear, and were able to wound the creature sufficiently to drive it off. This surprised the brigand tribe, and the player characters gained the upper hand temporarily. While the characters fought the bear, Amund Torkelsson (David) and Dagna Styrsdottir (Joanne) used the distraction of the bear to go and find Vigfur Egilsson (Tom), and they were able to release him, using some stealth, guile, and a bit of magic to deal with the two guards they found on him. However, Amund, Dagna, and Vigfur couldn't rejoin the others, as they kept having to conceal themselves from the Blood Bears.
Meanwhile, Ogir and Ingrid were able to catch up with Sigrun, who had moved forward while the other two dealt with the bear, who had scouted out the campsite somewhat; she was impressed with the Blood Bears' organization, skills, and sheer tenacity, despite the small size of what she came to realise was the Blood Bear clan. The three were forced to defend themselves against several Blood Bears, and were able to dispose of them, primarily due to Ingrid's skill with arms and Ogir's sheer tenacity. The three were able to join up with Amund, Dagna, and Vigfur, and the player characters managed to make their way out of the Blood Bears' encampment and seek shelter.
While planning what to do next over the next several hours, the player characters found themselves facing what seemed to be a developing late winter storm. Figuring that the Blood Bears would also be forced to stay where they were for the nonce, and with the storm hiding their tracks from the brigand clan, it was with a heavy heart that the player characters decided to return pretty much empty-handed to the town of Grontvand, Sigrun deciding that the information they had was of importance to the townspeople and her jarl.
On their return to the village, after a somewhat harrowing four day trip, they went to face the town Jarl. Evard Knudsson was not pleased at their story, and the player characters were told that they were to help Bjorn Ulfsson to prepare to defend the town against the depredations of the Blood Bears. He wasn't positive that they would come after the player characters or even find the town, but Evard wasn't prepared to leave Grontvand open to the attack of the Blood Bears. For the first, but certainly not the last, time, Sigrun actually contradicted her father, stating that it was only a matter of time before the Blood Bears found the town. As the characters began to go about their daily business, and Ingrid started training some of the villagers in more sophisticated combat, Sigrun noticed that there were several ravens gathering...
This was the first gaming session I've had in the new year, due to weather and physical problems, but I felt good enough yesterday to decide to run a game last night, and continued on with the Yggdrasill campaign.
Despite the weather conditions forecast, the various players were all here at my place for around 7:15 pm, so after recapping what had come before, we got down and into the game. This game session saw several combat situations, some very tough decision making, and some good roleplaying on the part of all the players. When the game session was over, the players felt like they had made the only decision that they could at the end, and they rather liked the ominous portent that I wrapped the game session on.
This session wrapped up the third scenario that the group has played of the game, and all of the players were rather pleased at how things are going. Most of the players stated that they're still quite enjoying the mechanical aspects of this game, and are having a good time with the Norse culture elements, finding this to be one of the serious strengths of the game.
A good way to start off the gaming year for 2014, and I'm looking forward to starting another Yggdrasill adventure with the Friday night group.