The Hunter's Camp

After recruiting Bjorn, the Adventurers crossed the Shiver Water and entered the Forest of Skara. Climbing King Harald's Crown, an eerie, lifeless mound of dead earth rising above the treeline also known as Bald Man's Head, they surveyed the forest. One of the things the Adventurers could see was, not too distant, a column of smoke climbing out of the canopy.

7. The Hunter’s Camp

Three HUNTERS – Plokki, Jurgon, and Leif, are camped here. They are small, wiry hard men, well on the way to getting drunk. They are sat around a campfire drinking a fierce liquor from a stoneware jug as a few birds roast over the fire.

They laugh, high-pitched, desperate laughs. They are drinking because they are scared, and they are ashamed of what they have done (see 7a). Any close interaction will reveal that they have bloody hands and stained tunics. If challenged, they will claim that this is a result of hunting, though they have only a few small birds on the fire. Jurgon and Leif are ready to break and confess, but Plokki is adamant that they have done what must be done.

HUNTERS

SKILL 6 STAMINA ⑥⑤④③②①

Weapon	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Spear	2	2	3	3	3	4	5
Short Bow	1	2	2	3	3	3	4

7a. Sacrifice to the Beast Lords.

In order to propitiate whatever gods are responsible for the crawling sickness and infestation of spider-kind in the forest, the hunters have sacrificed their comrade Grum. A few hundred metres along a narrow trail running deeper into the forest the Adventurers will find his body stretched out on a crude wooden frame. Grum’s head has been replaced by that of a boar. In poor light it might look as if this is some kind of is a man-beast, but this is not Marrangha, just a crude sacrifice. Some distance away, in the undergrowth, lies the body of a boar, Grum’s head stuffed into its hollowed abdomen.  

Among other things, I wanted to give the players another choice to make, which may have longer term consequences for their characters. The Adventurers discovered the bloody ritual, but let the three hunters go.