Yog the Beast and Kiness the Cunning buy and fit out a small cog and take a voyage to the Ivory Coast, way to the south. They hire a professional helmsman called Orr Half-ear and recruit a large and multifarious crew that includes Grettir, the berserkers Eric, Clarence, Grunt and Brodin as well as the Marna the Houri, Silden the Dwarf, and the hobbit Frekki. They return with holds full of ivory and other exotic southern produce six months later.
Encounters along the way include: an attack by shaguine; a storm-wight; trade with a (reasonably) friendly sea-giant; a whale with a whole shipload of undead warriors in its stomach; a very large sea serpent. They raid along the Ivory Coast taking slaves and ivory. On the way back there are more shaguine and a sea-battle with an Atlanean pirate ship. The Atlanean ship is damaged beyond repair. Its surviving crew, led by Kjarlmark the Tall, Londur and Imar the Black, attempt to take the cog but are repulsed. In the end they swear oaths, join Yog’s crew and become trusted friends and allies. The voyage takes about 6 months – they return in Spring 676. Dorlas does not survive the trip but a young warrior called Salrod comes to the fore.
The homecoming celebration at the Red Axe Inn in Chittagong is interrupted by the arrival of a very large armed man seeking Grettir Strongarm. He is Huron the Steady, chief huscarle of Yithmak the White, Lord of Sequarl to whom Grettir is slightly related. It transpires that Yithmak’s son and heir has died, leaving the succession empty. It seems that the nearest male to the bloodline of any note is Grettir. He is invited to marry one of Yithmak’s daughters (a choice of three) to become the heir to Sequarl. It is an offer that he cannot refuse.
Ref: A14
OE Date: Autumn 675 to Spring 676
Characters: Grettir, Eric Psychoson, Grunt Monoslab, Brodin, Dorlas, Clarence Fairweather, Marna, Silden, Frekki, Peredur, Glonwick, Salrod. NPCs: Kinness, Yog, Orr Half-ear, Gram, Kjalmark the Tall, Londur, Imar the Black, Huron the Steady, Yithmak the White
Real World: When – Autumn 1980 (1st Term); Where – St Andrews
The expedition is run over many weeks and sessions (at Warsoc and Hepburn Hall).
I remember Dorlas’s death well. He was quite badly wounded and then healed to death by someone, maybe Frekki
The GM’s notes have Dorlas dying on the Voyage to the Ivory Coast (a14). However, there is a bit of an anomaly in that a15 seems to be chronologically earlier than a14 but run out of sequence. Dorlas was on both trips. I do recall Salrod, your next character, appearing on Yog’s Cog (and chasing Grunt Monoslab up the mast). He may well have been a bilge-cowerer until Dorlas died. If a healer accidentally killed him on that trip that would almost certainly be Silden, the dwarf priest. Frekki was a Hobbit and a rogue (in every sense) with no known healing powers. He was guilty of much, but not this.