Game 21: Knarr Clan

Synopsis

The party returns to Hilde to push Beowolf's claim to Inkeri leadership. They find the Inkeri Knarr Clan encamped on the Aden Sea ice sheet, and Beowolf challenges their chief Faering for leadership. Beowolf defeats Faering with unseen help from the shaman Kajal, then orders Faering to continue leading the Knarr as his steward.

The Game

At the end of Game 20, the party rescued Beowolf's parents from the divine prison, Narshasa, but they hadn't sought out the Hobnail who put them there, Bering. Now, they decided not to pursue Bering, but to push on with Beowolf's quest on Hilde. So, they returned to the Inkeri camp in Gibb Park to talk with the Inkeri mystic who'd advised them, Kajal.

There, they find Kajal talking with the three elders. Kajal reminds him that one of the things they have to do, presumably the first thing, is get a talisman that will let the party travel on the interior of Hilde. But, the elders break in and say, there are several of them, and traditionally they represented the sovereignty of the different Inkeri clans. To get a talisman, it will be equivalent to taking the sovereignty of a clan, and that's not going to be easy.

Kajal briefly described a few of the Inkeri clans they might seek out, their original cities, and the refuges they'd established after Highpyre was destroyed.

Knarr clan: City of Pulte, which is at the far end of the Pulte ice sheet on Hilde. The clan is now hiding out on the ice sheet proper. This was Belwe's clan; his father in charge is Faering.

Byrthing clan: City of Hodge at the source of a river on the map. Now hiding out in some caverns with a reservoir under mountains nearby. This is Leutwin's clan; his father in charge is Ferja.

Karvi clan: City of Busse in some foothills on the map. Now hiding out on a high mountain. This is Asger's clan; his father in charge is Skeid.

Since the party already planned to find Belwe's father and claim Belwe's remaining possessions from him, they decided to visit the Knarr Clan first. Of the three major bays around Hilde's periphery, they'd visited the Aden Sea on their first visit to Hilde. Now to find the Knarr clan, they returned to the Aden Sea to find the Pulte ice sheet.

Sailing along the edge of an ice sheet, the boat can see some people from Knarr clan wrapping up a walrus's meat in its own skin, and they can give the party directions over the ice sheet to the Knarr camp.

They follow cracks in the ice or other features to the Knarr Clan camp. There, they find a camp similar to the camp in Gibb park, about the same scale.

There, they found the Knarr clan's leader, Faering; his younger sons Kemetian and Ferja; and the mystic, Mirtis. Beowolf addressed Faering respectfully, presenting Belwe's body and claiming his remaining possessions. He explained his quest, to unite the Inkeri under his own banner, and Faering heard him respectfully. But Faering and the others rejected Beowolf's claim.

The party's immediate goal was to get the Knarr Clan talisman, which would let them travel in Hilde's interior without the timeslip the party had experienced on their first trip to Hilde. Faering wore the talisman around his neck, and the players discussed stealing it, but ultimately Beowolf decided to challenge Faering directly.

Beowolf and Faering fought, and Faering's stats were similar to Captain Burns's. Initially Faering beat Beowolf badly, but the mystic Kajal secretly helped Beowolf with a healing surge, and Beowolf ultimately won. Beowolf declined to kill Faering at the end of the fight, instead putting him back in charge of the Knarr Clan as his steward. Beowolf took the Knarr Clan talisman, and gave Faering the harpoon Hosingen as a new emblem of authority.

Notes

Some of my unused material for the encounter with Bering, which the party didn't pursue, is here.

The name of the mystic Mirtis here was mistakenly reused for another character, Krohn's collaborator and "great evil" Mirtis, in Game 23.