Olaf the Lofty, a priest of Njord and his friend Guntram, a mercenary with some rogue skills, agree to help Vernick, the landlord of the Docker’s Arms, find his missing daughter, Almira.
Guntram makes enquiries. Suspicions fall on a fellow called Bo who was seen speaking with Almira. He lives somewhere in the marshes that fringe the north bank of the West Otanga. Digging deeper it seems to Guntram that his infrequent visits to the city often coincide with the disappearance of young women. Bo left the city two days ago with an unidentified female companion in a faering – a small boat.
Olaf immediately volunteers to go in pursuit. Vernick says he has no gold to offer. Guntram considers himself a professional and is a member of the Mercenaries Guild. He sighs but agrees to accompany his friend. He says he’ll expect a lot of free beer when they return. Vernick readily agrees.
Olaf has his own faering – his family are shipwrights – and he is a veteran sailor. Guntram has enough sailing skills to be more help than hindrance and is a powerful oarsman. They make good time across the Chittagong Basin and up the West Otanga. As the light starts to fade they make for the north bank. They take a narrow channel that shows signs of traffic and are rewarded with the sight of a small settlement. By chance they arrive just in time to thwart a band of goblins creeping up on the cattle pen in the dusk. They are severely outnumbered and the goblin leader, a hobgoblin in a mail shirt with a war axe, is tougher than the usual run of his sort. However, the alarm is raised and by the time the occupants of the steading arrive the hobgoblin is slain and any goblin not dead has fled.
They are welcomed in by Harold, the headman of Retford. He is grateful for their intervention against the goblins for they would have struggled to see off such a strong band without casualties or loss of livestock. He is even more grateful when Olaf prays over his sick wife and cures her of a wasting affliction. When they ask about Bo, he is happy to share what he knows.
Bo is the headman of a settlement called Selecta. It is a strange place, with far more women than men. Bo is a mysterious fellow. He has a reputation as a minor healer – for a price – but is considered an enigmatic, even slightly sinister, figure around the district. He appears peaceable enough but ill often seems to attend those who cross him. Harold gives them directions to Selecta.
The following day Olaf and Guntram pay Selecta a visit. It is situated on a tributary of the West Otanga and surrounded by a broken down palisade. There is great hall built as an extension to a ruined tower that seems much older than the rest of the settlement. There is a large barn and a scatter of very humble dwellings. Most of these are pit houses – holes dug into the ground roofed with turf on wood and wicker frames. The strangest feature is an upturned longship. As Harold said, there are few men to be seen but many women.
Bo greets them courteously and invites them to dinner in the hall. He proves a gracious host and good company. He and Guntram share a keen interest in alchemy. Towards the end of the evening he offers them positions in his household. They say they’ll think on it. They hope to be invited into the hall, but they are given quarters in one of the pit houses.
Once alone they decide to take a peek under the upturned longship. Bo had said that it was put there by the first settlers and now forms the roof of a shrine to Geb and Nut – a fertility god and goddess. Steps lead down under the shell, and there is indeed a shrine to Geb and Nut. However, Guntram, searching around behind the altar, finds a secret door and a passage beyond. The passage slopes downwards into a chamber with a second shrine. This is dedicated to three much less savoury gods: Apesh, Sotek and Set himself.
Olaf in particular is outraged at this great deception. They return to the hall where Guntram picks the lock on the door. Two guards inside surrender when it becomes apparent that they are over-matched in arms by the two large and muscular intruders. Olaf and Guntram rush upstairs in time to see Bo climbing out of a window. They try to give chase but find themselves mobbed by women as all Bo’s “wives” crowd around them to impede their progress. They have no stomach for turning their weapons upon the women, so they turn and run down the stairs again to pursue Bo through the village. Being on home ground and unarmoured, Bo opens quite a lead on them. Reaching the jetty, he leaps into a row boat moored there and begins sculling downstream towards the Otanga, making good progress.
It is a dark night and Bo is soon no more than a vague shape to Olaf. However, embedded in the pommel of Guntram’s hand-and-a-half Southern sword is a gem imbued with a magic that permits him to see in the dark as if it were day. On his belt he carries a balestrino – a light crossbow, wrought of sprung steel and extremely compact. Guntram draws it from his belt, takes careful aim and shoots. The bolt strikes Bo in the middle of the forehead, just above his eyes and he slumps over the oars, stone dead. They retrieve the boat. The sack that Bo was carrying that proves to hold a very substantial quantity of gold.
They return to the hall to announce the death of Bo. There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth from his “wives”. Fortunately, the two guards, Arron and Goole are pragmatic men who seemed less attached to Bo than his womenfolk. They can see they have new employers and do not fancy becoming wanderers in the wilderness just as winter sets in. Olaf and Guntram find Almira in a room in the tower, where she was apparently being groomed for marriage to Bo. She is plainly under the influence of drugs but otherwise seems unharmed.
In the morning they set about restoring some order. Bo had something in the region of 30 wives, and many daughters (some of whom were also wives). Strangely there are only two boys. Almira is fully recovered and is a great help in assisting Olaf in reassuring the shocked and bewildered women. Guntram searches the barn and finds it to be Bo’s alchemical lab. There are many herbs and it is strewn with papers and parchments in a great muddle. He finds various healing products, some poisons, and some items he doesn’t recognise. He finds large stocks of two drugs in particular that he know. One is Capture – a drug to render a victim unconscious. The other is Sunshine, a mood and mind-altering substance that makes the user mildly euphoric but robs them of will and critical faculties. This is how Bo ruled his household. He guesses that there will be a lot of headaches and mood swings over the coming days as they withdraw the drug.
Some days later Guntram takes the faering back to Chittagong. With him goes Almira and a few other girls who think they have families in Chittagong with whom they can reconnect. He also takes most of the paraphernalia from the secret fane, including the three gold statues along with some of Bo’s gold. Almira is returned to the Docker’s Arms. Vernick is delighted and offers Guntram beer on the house.
Guntram takes the religious paraphernalia to the Temple of Horus. They are delighted to have the artefacts of these inimical cults and richly reward Guntram with useful and valuable items. Guntram returns with the faering piled high with provisions and with items like boots, clothing and blankets, for the women of Selecta appeared to have nothing of their own and winter was coming. He also found space for a few gifts and luxuries – ribbons, bolts of bright cloth, fine thread, honey and sweetmeats – to treat them and their children. Morale rises in Selecta as its inhabitants start to realise that life might actually improve under the new management.
Some days later a man on a horses rides up to their gate. Olaf walks out to greet him. Guntram stands in gateway, heavy crossbow cradled in his arms. He introduces himself as Asa Banipol. He is an emissary of an organisation called Five Star. He had an arrangement with Bo for the protection of Selecta. He wishes to extend the same terms to the new management. The cost would be a mere 1000 gold pieces per annum. His face twists in fury when Olaf refuses him and says that they will come to regret their response. Guntram raises his crossbow. Banipol wheels his horse and rides off.
Later enquiries reveal that Five Star to be a shady organisation based in Aemilia, around the worship of five gods – the five that featured in the two shrines beneath the upturned ship.
There is a new shrine there now – to Njord, the God of the Waters.
H-1
OE Date: November 696
Characters: Olaf, Guntram NPCs:
Real World: January 2017; Where: Anglesey