The storm has finally subsided. Of the dozen or so crewmen only six remain. The rest, including your aged captain, were swept away by the waves. As the second-in-command, and moreover, as the brother of the deceased captain, the men now naturally look to you for leadership. Though it is something you have dreamt about all your life, the loss of your brother leaves a bitter aftertaste. He was a hard, taciturn man, slow to laughter, but of cool temper and always fair-dealing with his crew. You hope to live up to his example.Speaking of the crew, it is clear they are in poor spirits. The suddenness of the storm and the magnitude of the destruction left in its wake have rendered them mute and listless. The karve, at least, is still yare and true. There was a small rent in the sail, which you will need to fix or replace the next time you're ashore, but the spare is working beautifully. The clouds have torn apart to distant clumps and there is a fair wind blowing from the east.Most important, the cargo and provisions are still fully intact. One of the morbid advantages of a reduced crew is that you can go quite a ways before needing to resupply.\ooD==/ship diagram key:`D` is the sail`o` is a full barrel of provisions, which feeds a dozen crew for 2 TURNS (double that for <8 crew)`=` is other trade goods (TBD next post)Your orders, captain?>"To Langholmen, to rest and recover awhile." Langholmen is close by [2 LEGS] and returning home for repose is sure to improve the crew morale [SHAKEN->>CONFIDENT]. Though it does mean delaying the unloading of your cargo, which comes with its own troubles.>"To Fjordheim, to dispose of the cargo." Fjordheim is your brother's former port of call. It is a large and populous town where anything can be bought and sold for the right price, though it is a bit distant [3 LEGS]. >"To the nearest shore, to perform the ceremonies due to the dead." Land has already been sighted [1 LEG]. A chance to mourn the fallen may alleviate some of the crew's tension [SHAKEN->STEADY], but no telling what you might find in the uncharted wilderness. >write-in
>>6422788>"To the nearest shore, to perform the ceremonies due to the dead." Land has already been sighted [1 LEG]. A chance to mourn the fallen may alleviate some of the crew's tension [SHAKEN->STEADY], but no telling what you might find in the uncharted wilderness.
>>6422788>>"To the nearest shore, to perform the ceremonies due to the dead." Land has already been sighted [1 LEG]. A chance to mourn the fallen may alleviate some of the crew's tension [SHAKEN->STEADY], but no telling what you might find in the uncharted wilderness.ON WE SWEEPWITH THRESHING OAROUR ONLY GOAL WILL BE THE WESTERN SHORE
>>6422788>>"To the nearest shore, to perform the ceremonies due to the dead." Land has already been sighted [1 LEG]. A chance to mourn the fallen may alleviate some of the crew's tension [SHAKEN->STEADY], but no telling what you might find in the uncharted wilderness.
>>6422788>"To the nearest shore, to perform the ceremonies due to the dead." Land has already been sighted [1 LEG]. A chance to mourn the fallen may alleviate some of the crew's tension [SHAKEN->STEADY], but no telling what you might find in the uncharted wilderness.Should pay our respects to our brother.
Your brother probably would have pressed on to his port of call, Fjordheim, for it was never his way to delay what was necessary. The crew, on the other hand, would like nothing more than to return home and hold their families close. But to face your mother with news of your brother's death, and worse, to face his wife, is not something you have the stomach for just now. Therefore you compromise, you opt to drop anchor as soon as possible and give the men a chance to mourn the dead on solid earth. Luckily land has already been spotted: a small, likely uninhabited island whose coastline rises dense with trees. As the wind is favorable you allow the men to pull in the oars and get some rest, with yourself manning the steerboard. A few of them nap peacefully beneath the gentle sun, while others murmur in low voices and munch on salted fish, licking their fingers, tossing the fishbones behind them into the sea. The pebbled beach soon grows to fill the horizon and once you are close enough, you order the men to go down and pull the karve ashore, which they do in short order. A pair of them then break off to gather some firewood from the forest, while the rest begin unloading vittles and other supplies for the ceremony tonight. You decide to include among these some special mead from your brother's stash (courtesy of his wife) which you intend to be passed around during the sumbel. At last the sun sinks beneath the sea and the pyre is lit. The men take turns telling stories of the deceased. These are inconsequential trifles or accounts of ribald escapades of which your brother would definitely not have approved, but which get roars of laughter all the same. When the mug finally comes around to you, you merely sip it, and rather than talk about the past, you say a few words regarding the present and then a few more about the future. The chests in the karve are filled with relics from the cross-men, whose strange god seems to demand his tokens be cast in silver--the more to your benefit. Others are filled with the iron of the ones who had tried to take it from them and had failed. Your brother called it a stroke of luck, one likely never to be repeated in his life (and how right he was!).You, however, call it ørlog, the kunckle-bones reckoned at the beginning of time. You know that some of them will take their share of the spoils and retreat into the quiet life, as is their right. But you have no such intentions. This is for you a beginning, not a conclusion. And though you do not expect them to follow you in the pursuit of your ambitions, ambitions which even your brother dared not dream of, those who do will forever have a place at your table. In this life, and the next. With that, you pass the mug to the next man, but there is nothing more to say, and the men, suddenly contemplative, soon retire for the night.
>>6422890\ooD==/Your orders, captain?>"Take another day to explore the island." You might discover wildlife to replenish your provisions or the remnants of civilization, though the delay will bring you no closer to your final destination.>"Set sail for Fjordheim." It is best to return home laden with goods your people can use, not luxuries they can ill afford. At Fjordheim you can trade one for the other, and the wind still favors that journey [3 LEGS].>"Set sail for Langholmen." There you can replenish the crew without having to pay for it and recruit those more amenable to your stated ambitions, though it lies now the opposite direction [3 LEGS].>write-in
>>6422892>"Take another day to explore the island." You might discover wildlife to replenish your provisions or the remnants of civilization, though the delay will bring you no closer to your final destination.Then Fjordheim, assuming we don't discover something worth delaying even further.
>>6422892>>"Set sail for Fjordheim." It is best to return home laden with goods your people can use, not luxuries they can ill afford. At Fjordheim you can trade one for the other, and the wind still favors that journey [3 LEGS].
>>6422892>"Set sail for Fjordheim." It is best to return home laden with goods your people can use, not luxuries they can ill afford. At Fjordheim you can trade one for the other, and the wind still favors that journey [3 LEGS].Time to put our brother's haul to good use.
>>6422892>"Set sail for Fjordheim." It is best to return home laden with goods your people can use, not luxuries they can ill afford. At Fjordheim you can trade one for the other, and the wind still favors that journey [3 LEGS].
>>6422890>>6422892With the wind in your favor, you decide to set sail for Fjordheim, hoping to relieve yourself of the valubles which your brother had pilfered from the ruined monastery. You make good time, traveling nearly twice the distance you would have were the wind not so advantageous, thereby cutting your travel time almost by half.Along the way, you run into a merchant coaster, another karve like yours, that has just concluded its business at Fjordheim and is now headed home laden with fresh goods. It hails you as you pass and requests the honor of your company aboard, not only to exchange news, but also to possibly conduct some trade. It is soon apparent that the young merchant, going by Ketil Crow-Tongue, cannot match what you might get on shore. However, he intimates his involvement in a far more profitable venture involving his father, captain of a great knarr, in about a month or so, which involvement (and profits) he is ready to extend to those who prove their friendship. It's nature he will not reveal until that "friendship" is confirmed.\coD==/ship diagram key:`c` is a half-barrel of provisionsYour orders, captain?>"Unload the goods for my new friend!" Trade some of your goods at a loss in order secure this opportunity and potential patron.>"Back to the ship! We'll have no dealings of kind." Refuse the offer and press on to your destination.>"To arms! We'll loosen that tongue or rip it out." Enter into immediate combat with the other ship. It will be a hard fight as you're outnumbered almost 2 to 1, but the element of surprise should assure your victory.>write-in
>>6425085>"Back to the ship! We'll have no dealings of kind." Refuse the offer and press on to your destination.There's no shortage of opportunity already, what we are short on is silver. When we return home, we'll not want to lose face for coming back with little to show for it, along with the loss of our brother and company.
>>6425085>>"Unload the goods for my new friend!" Trade some of your goods at a loss in order secure this opportunity and potential patron.Risk vs reward
>>6425085>"How about a horn of ale instead!" Share food, drink, and news with Ketil, but decline any trade for now. Cultivate Ketil's friendship and arrange to discuss the opportunity in Fjordheim.Talk about how "True friends need no silver between them", or "Let friendship come before profit", or maybe that he is a shitty negotiator and he needs to work on it.
>>6425123Swapping to this.
>>6425085>6425123He is going away from Fjordheim, but no need to be rude in declining to give away the goods. So agreed, break bread with him but be on guard for him turning his sword on us -- we are outnumbered.
>>6425175Um, I meant I agree with >>6425123, with reservations.
>>6425117+1>>6425123+1Let us trade and make merry!
>>6425175I meant that when ketil returns to fjordeim in the future, they should link up.
>>6425123>+1 to this. Lets try to get him drunk and loosen his tongue.We may be able to bypass him entirely or convince him of our value .
>>6425085Though interested in the opportunity, you are not willing to part with your spoils, won by so costly a sacrifice as your brother's life, for anything less than their full measure. Therefore, you offer instead to feast on the surplus provisions (which you will soon replenish ashore anyway) and to loosen to the merchant's tongue by the oldest emollient known to your people: good mead. So your brother's bitters are poured out to the last drop.Ketil Crow-Tongue, at first wary and reticent, and disappointed by the rebuff of what he must have assumed was an easy mark, takes a while to warm up. But Ketil proves to be a proud man and a braggart, and that presents an easy means into his confidence. He never formally extends an invitation to what you eventually discover is an expedition to the distant western lands, but before you part ways he has let slip some of its more salient details. It involves the trade of horses with one of the kingdoms of that realm, and a secret host who has great need of them, one apparently gathering without notice to the newly crowned king.You arrive at Fjordheim about noon, mooring at one of its many piers. The men cheer as they disembark, scattering like children into the narrow streets. You make for the wharves along the waterfront, easily losing yourself in the multifarious crowd. There are men here from all over, easterners with dark hair, their clothes decorated with colorful embroidery and hanging tassels; westerners speaking in their strange brisk tongue, crosses of wood and silver and gold worn around their necks, the wooden clogs on their feet clicking on the stones as they walk, even men from the far south, adorned in white turbans and headscarves, wrapped in the same fine silk which they ply with animated vigor to the tradesmen.
>>6425792h.h.\c_D==/.h.hWealth: $ (Destitute)Crew: 6/12 (Steady)Renown: LowlySecrets: - There will be a trading expedition to the western lands in one month- A great host is gathering for an unknown purposeCargo:`c` - half a barrel of provisions`=` - assortment of weapons and armor`=` - various crossmen relics made of silverMarket: Luxury [DEMAND+], Weapons [DEMAND], Timber [SUPPLY], Iron [SUPPLY]Shipyard: `\___D___/`: Snekke (24 Crew) `\___D__D___/`: Ormr (36 Crew) `,`: Heavy Steerboard (fares better in storms; slower in combat) `H`: Boarding Bridge (easier to board ships, docks, palisades etc.) `+`: Grapnel (catch prizes, wreckage, ships, docks, and sea-creatures)Patrons: Yngvar of UlfjordYour orders, captain?>"Unload the goods to the wharf!" Spend the day in the market to trade your cargo for whatever you need.>"A day about the town!" Roam the streets and alehouses looking for rumor and leads for work. >"Let's pay Yngvar a visit!" Yngvar was a patron of your brother's and has a share in the karve. You should report to him first.>write-inQM Note: Regarding wealth and the market, goods in demand increase your wealth by one level when sold. Goods in supply do not decrease your wealth when bought. The `+` indicates an additional bonus upon sale/buy.
>>6425793>"Let's pay Yngvar a visit!" Yngvar was a patron of your brother's and has a share in the karve. You should report to him first.
>>6425793>"Let's pay Yngvar a visit!" Yngvar was a patron of your brother's and has a share in the karve. You should report to him first.Nice. Definitely have to unload all of our goods ASAP.
>>6425936+1
>>6425793>"Let's pay Yngvar a visit!" Yngvar was a patron of your brother's and has a share in the karve. You should report to him first.Our cargo is in demand so we dont have to rush.>There will be a trading expedition to the western lands in one monthDefinitely francia, but is it east or west?>A great host is gathering for an unknown purposeThe Great Heathen Army!
>>6425793>>"Let's pay Yngvar a visit!" Yngvar was a patron of your brother's and has a share in the karve. You should report to him first.
