Into the Snow

Junius, after being elected tribune, takes 300 men from the XX Legion as his personal bodyguard and heads into the wilds, intending to restore ROTHGAR, Sigrid Wulfsdottir's uncle, to the throne usurped by HENGIST, her wicked uncle. Should that occur, Sigrid swears Rothgar will donate his treasure to House Valerius, which could use it.

A sea voyage is intercepted by Rothgar's longship, but when 300 Romans crowd the decks, the longship turns right around and retreats.

A landfall in the land of the Belgae turns ugly when POUNCEQUICK sells a local chieftain some copper for an emerald. The chief immediately regrets his decision, demands his emerald back, and calls out half the townsfolk to pummel Pouncequick.

BJERN knocks down the biggest Belgae, and the rest think better of their rashness. Also the Roman army lines up on the dock with shields locked, ready to practice Basic Riot Drill. There is no riot.

With plenty of supplies, the Romans take to deeper water, avoiding the kobold-haunted woods under Sigrid's navigation and making landfall quite close to Tor's Hammer, a massive rock sticking into the sea atop which Rothgar's hall, Theorat, is built.

But nothing is visible from the sea. A landing party goes up the back path around the mountain to the site of Theorat, which has been burned down. Odd, small paw-prints litter the ground.

BJERN and POUNCEQUICK, who are evidently linked by fate, go into the snowy woods to investigate. SIGRID and RETARIUS go up over the hill to the vale where the farms are; Retarius think that if the women and children had escaped Theorat's fall, they would have gone there.

A blinded elk rushes past Bjern and Pouncequick. Pouncequick follows to warn the others. Rosa talks to the elk and calms it down, but it's not very coherent just yet.

Shaggy gray wolves follow the elk! They try to detour around Bjern, but he hacks one. The other two come around, one in front of Bjern, one behind.

Meanwhile, Sigrid and Retarius crest the hill, seeing the vale beyond full of hurrying gray forms. And the howl goes up ...