Welcome back to my Wolves Upon the Coast solo campaign: The Tale of the Free Thirteen! You can find all past entries HERE.

All test, saves, changes in inventory, hex locations, oracles, and other game elements will be notated within the report as they arise using brackets, like so: [example].

Day 1 - August 16, 789
Starting Location: 27.08

The men and women take Thorn as their leader. It is, after all, only due to him that they are free - as short-lived as it may be. The isles of Abhaus and Argadnel sit to the north and south, respectively. The crew looks to Thorn to decide their course.

Seeing a large stele atop Abhaus’s greatest hill across the water to the north, Thorn points towards the island and grunts. The rowers turn the karvi and head toward the isle, the strong breeze working in their favour.

[Wind: Strong Breeze]

In little time, the crew makes landfall on Abhaus [28.08]. Thorn leaves six of the rowers with the kharvi and brings six others with him as he travels a winding path up and around the lightly-wooded hill. At its peak, the grey stone stele is worn with age. The seawind has rounded its many edges. Thorn runs his hands over the faint memory of an inscription at the stele’s center, long removed by time.

The group uses the vantage point to take stock of their surroundings. To the west: smaller hills and open fields. To the north and south: the sea. To the east: a smattering of trees gather into a wooded valley. At its center, a large stone mound juts out from between the branches. Strange.

Thorn and the others return to the karvi as the sun draws low along the horizon. The Free Thirteen eat a paltry supper together on the beach, telling tales and singing songs as the stars wind brightly overhead. They are free, at least for tonight.

[Inventory Update: Enough food and water for crew to survive for 3 days]

Day 2 - August 17, 789
Starting Location: 28.08

The Thirteen rise with the sun, and look to Thorn for their next destination. There is nothing but safety for them here along the quiet coast of Abhaus, and they need spoils to survive. Thorn leaves 4 rowers with the kharvi, gesturing to those he’s chosen to join the day’s raiding party before heading off to the southeast in the direction of the stone mound.

The party makes their way through the thickening woods and comes upon the massive heaped stone mound with a single opening at its center [29.08]. Thorn looks to the group, pointing to one rower’s supplies. He gestures as if holding a stick, wiggling his fingers at its top to indicate a burning flame, a torch. The rower bends down and readies a torch after several minutes of fumbling with his flint. Another rower follows suit. Two torches between the nine of them, they head into the stone mound. Thorn leads the way.

Inside, Thorn finds himself barely squeezing through a narrow corridor of worked stones soft with moss and lichen. He heads down a set of stairs as a chill rises to meet the him. The torchlight flickers over his shoulder, revealing a chamber split by overlapping coils of purple flesh, softly scaled. The flesh is coated in a shimmering liquid. It is unlike anything Thorn has ever seen. The coils reach out to the east and west exits of the chamber. The group fans out across the chamber, staring at the hulking tubes of flesh.

[Morale Test: 8 - Morale Holds]

The group is unsettled, but they hold their ground, looking to Thorn for guidance. They imagined this place to be a tomb to rob, not the den of such a beast - if a beast it is at all.

The clear liquid seeping from the flesh pools beneath it on the floor. The flesh pulsates, movement rippling down the coils from one side of the chamber to the other. Thorn cuts a strand of the syrupy liquid stretching from the flesh to the floor. It has no ill effect on his axe. He moves to the west, attempting to keep clear of both the flesh and the liquid. The others follow suit.

[Thorn - Agility Test: Success]
[Party - Agility Test: 2 Failures, 6 Successes]

Thorn enters the next chamber safely and finds nothing but more flesh. Here, the coils exit into a hall to the west and then double back into the room before continuing out to the north. There is only cracked stones, purple flesh, and the exits beyond.

Behind Thorn, Alsvinn slips on the liquid and moss beneath his feet, dropping one of the torches and putting his hands out to catch himself. Within seconds of his hands splashing into the thick clear liquid, he lets out a painful wail, falling and rolling onto his back as his arms and legs cramp and his muscles pulsate furiously. Braggard reaches down to comfort his newfound friend and retrieve the torch, but the moment he too touches the liquid, he suffers the same affliction as Alsvinn. The two men writhe, nearly paralyzed as their muscles betray them. The rest of the party moves away quickly, pushing against the walls as far from the flesh as possible as a massive ripple undulates down the purple flesh. They have been noticed.

Thorn speaks in what little broken Norse he knows, “We get. When back. Fast.” He readies his battle axe and heads quickly into the western chamber.

The next room widens out farther to the west and north than any chamber the group has encountered so far. The coiled flesh surrounds a resplendent tree at the center of the room. Its fruit are as golden as the midsummer sun, reflecting more torchlight than touch them and sending shimmers out across the verdant leaves of the tree and into the room beyond.

Thorn turns back to the group as the purple coils of flesh begin to quickly shift and slide in the party’s direction. He gestures to the tree with his axe, a crazed look in his eyes.

“Thorn. Fruit. Mine.”

[Boast: Thorn will take fruit from the resplendent tree.]
[HD: +1, NEW HP: 6]

Next Time on Wolves Upon the Coast: Can Thorn retrieve the fruit and live to tell the tale? What awaits the party at the far end of the purple flesh?