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Beers and Dragons session zero |
| 2020-10-29 |
Beers and Dragons session zero
Sometimes around AD 890 in the lands north of Jorvik, two saxon teenagers, Oswald, a jack of all trades, and Gerald, strong with an axe, were having a good time with their girlfriends. It would have been a most fine time, if one of the girl's little sister weren't throwing stones at the couples and sermoning them about not getting lured by the two boys.
At some point, the little girl stopped bothering the couples. All was fine under the late morning May sun, until screams were heard. "My little sister" gasped a girl. Oswald and Gerald stood up, retied their pants and got closer to the small ridge behind which the little girl was, a few minutes ago.
The little sister, gagged and tied to a perch, was heaved like a captured boar on the shoulder of four creatures. Pointy ears, pointy tooth, green skin and grinning, they looked really happy at their find. Wielding short bows, were two or three guards, covering all angles around the transport party. The girl secured, they left westwards.
"They got my little sister, I'm going to tell my father" and she ran for the fields the villagers were busy preparing. Oswald and Gerald, left alone by the two girls are a bit mystified. Their grandmothers had told them about "goblins", but they had never seen one. "Gerald, I have trouble spotting them, I set my eyes on one of them, then try to locate the second one, and the first one is gone in the greenery". "Same for me, they are gone".
As they were standing wondering, the fathers and bigger brothers arrived. "We saw something like goblins..." "Idiots! That doesn't exist, they must be slavers, we got to get back the girl before they reach the coast". With those words, the villagers headed east, where the sea was lying, two days away.
An older villager, farmer and fighter when needed, stayed behind with Oswald and Gerald. That gray beard was named Rudgard, he went to investigate where the little girl got picked up and found a container, a gourd, containing something, like a liquid or some sand. Rudgard opened the gourd and there was some kind of white sand in it. "Salt, white rock salt, nice little treasure". Happy at his find, he pocketed it, saying "You said they headed west? I believe you, that's because such salt comes from there".
The three men went on following hints across the wood, tracing westwards. At round four pm, they reached a point where the track ended as the shrubs ended. Trunks of tall trees barring the north-south axe faced them. As they exited the shrubs they were greeted by two arrows. Rudgard got pierced, all three hit the ground. Ensued a succession of crawling and googling forward, with one or two arrows fired at them from time to time. Finally Oswald spotted a green shooter up in a tree. The old Rudgard was staying behind, swearing at his wound, while Oswald and Gerald coordinated their move towards the shooter's tree. Gerald took a hit in the back from the other, yet unspotted, shooter.
The first shooter tried to descend quickly but fell clumsily on the ground, greeted by the Gerald's axe, and the next instant Oswald's arrow hit him and killed him. Gerald and Oswald faced the other shooter general direction but no arrow came. He probably escaped at that point. "No idea where that second bugger went" said Rudgard. A salt gourd similar to the morning's one was found on the goblin's corpse.
The three Saxons went investigating cautiously fourty feet round, and found the entrance of a cave. The cave is a 20 feet radius circle, with the left half with barriers forming some kind of jail. There are traces of a hastily dismounted encampment.
Session ended here.
