Session 09: Finding Hunger

General Summary

Having gleaned all the information they could from the wreckage of Einar the Windy’s tragic exploration of Coldlight Fjord, the companions watched in horror as a blizzard suddenly brewed out of nowhere across the water to their west. A ghostly longship emerged from the heart of this blizzard, with no crew aboard, save one. Perched grotesquely from the prow, like a predatory scarecrow, was a wiry figure shrouded in leathers. Cold dead light seethed out like frosty steam from every seam in his clothing. From the depths of his hood there was no sign of a face, only an eyeless, pitiless mass of cold dead light. The figure turned its gaze upon the Bloodkraken and her crew, and a beam of freezing light shot out across the water to find them. This was Haftan the Hungry, and he was death to those who dared sail his haunted waters!


Aela screamed to Svagnir, “What did you learn from the skull, Dead Eye? Which of the three islands holds the sword?”
Not knowing that answer the young druid replied, “Head to the middle isle, and try to put the first isle in Haftan’s way as we go by!”
Aela called her crew to the oars and the Bloodkraken lurched toward its destination, but they were already within the clutches of Haftan’s curse! The water around the Bloodkraken began to freeze, slowing the longship to a near halt. And then the dead emerged from the frozen waters! All the unfortunate souls Haftan had sent to the depths rose to meet his command. A constant swarm of water-logged and half-frozen skeletons crawled over the gunwales of the Bloodkraken to attack the crew. And perhaps worst of all, Haftan’s frozen gaze passed over the deck of the Bloodkraken, temporarily stunning any it fell upon!
The race for survival was on! The companions burst into action to ward off the freezing water and the swarming undead. Kradar tried rowing first, but discovered he lacked the talent of a seaman, and so decided to use his oar to entangle a skeleton in place. The barbarian then went about tossing skeletons overboard like dirty laundry. Isulf and Worhana defended Aela at the helm, where the undead seemed to gather thickest, allowing the captain to steer the boat unhindered by attacks. Svagnir blasted the water with magical flames to free up the ship’s movement, while also tearing apart the undead with his necrotic whispers. Mabd selflessly drug the comatose Bjekmir to the front of the boat to keep him safe from the undead, and then standing tall upon the prow, summoned the greatest display of magical power she ever had in her young life to blast the frozen water apart with a continuous arc of mighty lightning. Clever Janicka told Aela to drop the sails as she summoned a wild gust of magical wind. The captain quickly had her crew abandon the oars and drop the sail, which billowed full of the magical wind. This bit of quick thinking on Janicka’s part freed up the crew to fight the undead, greatly increasing the odds of everyone’s survival.
The battling race to the middle island raged on! Haftan’s freezing gaze hindered one after another of the crew. Three crewmen fell beneath the blades of the seemingly endless undead, but Worhana was able to stabilize one before his soul departed for the Great Tree. And then Isulf, who did not have a chance to don his armor before the fight broke out, fell beneath a flurry of undead attacks just as the Bloodkraken ran aground on the gravelly beaches of the middle island! Aela immediately abandoned the helm to begin dragging her dying first mate and lover toward land. Svagnir met her half way and summoned his healing magic to save Isulf from the lip of death’s door. One after another the companions, the two surviving crewmen, Eiuin and 31 made it off the ship and to the safety of land just as Haftan caught them to come aboard!
Unable to come on land, Haftan called back his undead minions and stared hatefully at the companions on the beach, his eyeless stare eventually landing on Isulf. Undead crows circled above the ghost as he and the paladin of hunger locked eyes in a moment of mutual hatred and kinship. And then Haftan and his undead horde melted back into the blizzard, which quickly dissipated, leaving the waters of Coldlight Fjord unnaturally calm on this pleasant summer day.
The survivors assessed their dire situation. They may be trapped on this island now, and three crewmen had lost their lives. Aela, with Isulf’s assistance, conducted the Tide Wolves’ funeral rites for the fallen crewmen. Meanwhile, Svagnir checked on Mabd to make sure she was fine after such an awesome display on magical power. He also shared some encouraging and caring words for the young sorceress, which she accepted with an awkward blush of pride. Mabd then told Svagnir that this place felt “wrong” and asked if he felt it too. Svagnir did not, but he believed Mabd and began taking extra precautions.
With the funeral rites for the fallen crewmen complete, some of the companions noticed that the two surviving crewmen had lost all faith in their captain Aela. They were Tide Wolves, and it was a great dishonor to be driven from the sea to hide upon land, not to mention her decisions had led to all their fellow crewmens’ deaths. Aela and Isulf conspired with this information and decided to strike first, killing both crewmen in a quick trading of blows.
Worhana expressed some displeasure with Aela and Isulf’s murderous actions, and Aela gave the elven cleric a glance that warned be careful or you could be next.
The companions then searched the island they had landed upon. Several ancient statues of a feminine form dotted the beach, but they were all defaced, with their heads and appendages seemingly smashed or ripped off. As the investigation was ongoing Aela mentioned that the island felt wrong, and a clever Svagnir concluded it must have something to do with arcane magic, as only those who dealt in the arcane arts could feel it. The companions then discovered a stone shelter made against the foot of a cliff. Much of this stone shelter was made from the heads and arms of the broken statues. Piles of bones, both fish and humanoid, along with a pile of crab shells stacked in a primitive, ritualistic way, decorated the shelter.
As the companions approached the shelter a pair of very strange looking steintrolls emerged, aware that visitors were on their beach. Something was wrong with these steintrolls. Their normally earthy coloration was twisted into garish shades of green and pink. Their flesh seemed to crawl when it should have been rock hard. Perhaps whatever arcane “wrongness” haunted this island had caused these steintrolls to mutate or change?
Isulf, who speaks the giant tongue, engaged the steintrolls, trying to discover if they knew anything about the magical sword Hunger that the companions sought. Unfortunately the conversation didn’t last long, as Isulf said something that triggered instant rage from the steintrolls.


A desperate battle for survival raged on the gravel beach of headless statues! Isulf, Kradar, Janicka, and Aela closed with the hulking monsters to fight toe to toe. Svagnir, Worhana, and Mabd rained spells from afar, discovering that magic doesn’t work as it should here. Sometimes their spells failed utterly, and sometimes they were dramatically heightening with extra power. The companions also discovered that the strange steintrolls were bloated with cursed magic, and each time they were struck gouts of acid, poison, deadly spores, hungry flies or worse were released. The fight was brutal, and the companions were bloodied and tested, but ultimately the steintrolls were defeated.
After the battle the companions resumed their search of the island for the magical sword Hunger. They discovered the steintrolls had nothing besides bones, crab shells, fishing nets, and a few pearls. And then Isulf noticed that a pair of his crows were perched upon a particular statue on the beach. The companions began investigated it thoroughly and discerned that it, along with all the other statues, were ancient elven tributes to Greyja, goddess of magic. Perhaps the statues had been empowered with some primal element of the goddess they honored, and their defacement caused magic to warp in weird ways on this island?
Worhana used a ritual to her goddess to sense magic in the area. She discovered two important things. First, a strange presence of divination magic hovered over the comatose Bjekmir. Worhana made a point to display care for Bjekmir for this divination magic to observe. She also sensed magic in the dirt beneath the statue Isulf’s crows had perched upon.
Isulf and Kradar began digging, and moments later Isulf discover the hilt of a black sword in the silty hole he had excavated. A smile spread across his dark face, and then he touched the sword. As his fingers closed around the hilt a blizzard instantly rose up along the water’s edge out of nowhere! Haftan was returning for his blade. As the companions all whirled to face the storm, the third of three foretold storms, Kradar suddenly collapsed in mortal pain.
The companions now face two mysterious dangers at once! What will Isulf do with the magical sword Hunger, and what say will Haftan have in that choice? And what of Kradar? It was foretold that upon the third storm he will change the world, and that Svipul, the great changing mist, the greatest foe, would come. Will this be the end of our heroes, trapped on this magically cursed island in the midst a haunted fjord?

Report Date

16 Aug 2022