The Battle of Asvig's Farm

Since Asvig Longthews seemed to be behind many of the attempts to thwart the party’s plans, they had decided to pay him a visit. They arrived at his farmhouse after dark to find some sort of party in full swing. They’d set fire to one of his barns to draw most of the Ulfen fighters outside, then snuck into the house through a back door. Inside, they found that their diversion had worked; only a couple of very drunken warriors were still on their feet, along with half a dozen passed out on the floor or under tables. However, when Shinjiro pulled aside a screen blocking off another room, he found himself facing a pair of very sober and very angry looking warriors, along with Asvig’s wife, Helva Longthews, who had a raven perched on her shoulder. She let out an ear-splitting screech and cast a hex at Shinjiro, who collapsed to the floor in a deep slumber.

Helva’s raven familiar leapt off her shoulder and began winging towards the front door, presumably to summon help, but Bella was quick with her bow, and her arrow impaled the bird to the wall of the farmhouse. Unfortunately, the raven’s warning wouldn’t have been necessary – outside where he was leading the firefighting efforts, Asvig heard his wife’s scream, and with an oath he rushed back towards the house, shouting for his men to follow. Zhustin, who’d been lurking outside keeping watch, rushed in through the wool storage room to warn the others that trouble was on its way, but he found that several of Asvig’s men had also come that direction, and were piling in behind him. He cast a quick Color Spray, but only managed to stun one of his pursuers, and began taking damage from the others’ axes. Using his Arcane Bond ring, he recast the spell, and managed to take the other two out of the fight.

Back inside, Marie saw this was likely to be a tough fight, and read a scroll of Prayer, which she followed up with a Bless spell; the party would likely need all the help it could get. She also began kicking Shinjiro, trying to wake him up. Sandoval saw what Helva had done to Shinjiro, and decided to focus on her. He drew his Wand of Scorching Ray, and hit her full in the face with a blast of eldritch fire. Her hair and clothing caught fire, and her screams as she died were horrible. Sawyer charged one of her bodyguards, but found that these Ulfen were much tougher than the ones they’d fought at Skalsbridge, and he took a critical hit from one of their battle axes, and more damage from his partner. Nicki hit one with some Magic Missiles, and Marie delivered a Cure Moderate Wounds, but it seemed that they were getting the upper hand on the big fighter.

About that time, Asvig charged into the room, followed by a horde of his men, all filled with beserker fury. The thralls ran screaming from the room as they charged. Asvig stabbed Sandoval with his shortspear. Sandoval got in one blow from his echoblade before two of Asvig’s men chopped at him with their axes, and the bard went down in a bloody heap. Shinjiro had awakened from his cursed sleep and regained his feet, but he, Sawyer, and Marie found themselves outnumbered and nearly surrounded. Bella threw one of her Thunderstones into the crowd, but all it seemed to accomplish was to wake up some of the partiers who lay passed out on the floor. Nicki cast a Flaming Sphere that rolled onto Asvig. The reaver found himself immolated; he stumbled backwards beating at the flames, but they were too intense, and he joined his wife in fiery death.

His followers were undeterred by his death; if anything, they redoubled their efforts, and it looked like things were going to go very badly for the party. But Zhustin, all but forgotten at the opposite end of the room, still had one trick up his sleeve. He cast a Web spell that filled two-thirds of the room and trapped seven of the Ulfen warriors in its sticky strands. With them temporarily out of the fight, the rest of the party were able to focus their attentions on a few enemies at a time, and the tide began to turn. Helva’s two bodyguards finally fell, and the handful of warriors not in the web also began to die. Bella dragged Sandoval away from the webbing and forced a healing potion down his throat. With a cough, the bard regained consciousness, cast a Cure Light on himself, and rejoined the fight.

The web not only covered the Ulfen attackers – it also covered the firepit in the center of the room and Nicki’s Flaming Sphere. The web quickly began to burn, and the trapped Ulfen became panicky as they struggled to escape before the flames reached them. Nicki gleefully steered his Flaming Sphere thought the webs to engulf more trapped victims. A few struggled out the back side of the web, where they charged at Zhustin, whose response was to flee out the front door and around the side of the building. His attackers looked around at the burning building (the burning web was beginning to ignite the thatch roof of the farmhouse) and their fallen leader and comrades, and decided that maybe the little guy had the right idea, and they also dashed out the door and off into the night. Zhustin continued around the building and back to the wool storage room where he’d started. There he used the skills he’d learned from Bella, and began methodically slitting the unconscious Ulfens’ throats.

Finally, there were only two Ulfen left alive inside: one struggled in the flaming web while the other was just beginning to groggily regain consciousness on the floor. Nicki demanded they surrender, and the one in the web readily agreed (the other just puked on the floor, which Nicki interpreted as surrender). Marie freed the thrall who had been tied to Asvig and Helva’s bed while Bella checked out the door at the back of the bedroom. It led to a storeroom, crammed with Asvig’s loot, but a quick glance showed no sign of any sword that might be Suishen. As the farmhouse began to burn in earnest, the group hurried to empty the storeroom while Bella and Nicki led the prisoners and remaining thralls (at least those who hadn’t already run for the hills) out into the yard to begin questioning them.

Unlike the prisoner they’d tried to question at Skaslbridge, this Ulfen seemed able to answer questions without dying. Some of what he said confirmed what they’d already learned from the thralls. The party had been a funeral feast for Asvig’s thane, and old jarl named Snorri Stone-Eye. Snorri had been a renowned Viking raider who had led many raids against the soft lands of the south. However, on one of his recent journeys he’d contracted a mysterious illness. His decline was swift, and he died a week ago. A traditional Ulfen funeral will be held for him tomorrow at sunset, when his body will be sent off on a longship packed with funeral treasures and set aflame. When asked, the prisoner said that funeral ships are traditionally launched from Spear-shaker’s Point, just west of Kalsgard.

With Snorri’s death, Asvig would likely have taken over as the leader of Snorri’s war-chiefs. However, the rumor was that Snorri had sold off most of his assets before his death, and it wasn’t clear that Asvig would have inherited enough to be able to pay for the loyalty of all of Snorri’s men. He told them that Snorri Stone-eye had had an estate called Ravenscraeg, somewhere south of Kalsgard, but he’d heard that it had also been sold off.

He also confirmed that Ulf Gormundr had been held prisoner. He said that initially, Asvig just wanted to hire the guide to do some work for him, but when he’d described the mission – to chart a new trade route through the already well-traveled Grungir Forest - Ulf had disdainfully declared it to be ”bullshit work”, and refused the contract. Rather than let him leave, Asvig had ordered him taken prisoner. He’d been here at the farmhouse until yesterday, when Asvig had him taken away. The Ulfen didn’t know where he’d gone, but had heard Asvig joke that Ulf would be “joining old Snorri”, and he guesses that Asvig might have planned to have him burned on the funeral ship.

Nicki asked about Suishen. The prisoner insisted he’d never seen the sword, but he did say that a few weeks ago Asvig had taken a group of his men to steal a sword from some old trader. He didn’t know why he stole it or what he’d done with it. They asked who he took his orders from. “I don’t know,” the man stammered. “Other than Snorri, that is. He always acted like he was the big boss, but you could tell someone else was usually calling the shots. He did do a lot of work for the Rimerunner’s Guild, but that’s all I know.”

Nicki gave him his patented glare. “You should know that because of the theft of the sword, a blood-feud has been declared. Unless you want to meet up with us again, I suggest you stay well clear of any of Asvig’s men.”

The prisoner nodded, then a light of recognition went on. “Are you the folks that Asvig sent that crew to ambush?” Nicki and Bella looked at each other. “What ambush was that?” they asked coyly.

“A couple of weeks ago, Asvig sent a whole crew off to ambush some group coming up from the south. He was pissed as hell when the very folks they were supposed to kill ended up sailing the Aril’s Hammer back into Kalsgard themselves.” Nicki nodded. “And did Asvig rent the Aril’s Hammer from the Rimerunner’s Guild?” he asked. The prisoner shrugged. “Don’t know if he rented it, or if they just gave it to him.”

They decided they’d learned everything they needed from the prisoner (the other had done little but nod blearily in confirmation of what his friend said, in between bouts of retching). With one last admonition to keep their distance, they let them go. The thralls were grateful for their rescue, but preferred to go back to Kalsgard on their own (perhaps fearing new enslavement by their rescuers). There were about a dozen horses tethered in one of the unburned barns, and the party hastily loaded their loot onto them. They could see the torches of the group they’d spotted earlier, likely another band of revelers come to join the party, and they were approaching much faster now, undoubtedly drawn by the flames that were shooting into the sky from the burning buildings. Leaving the flames of Asvig’s farm behind them, the party melted into the darkness, on their way back to Kalsgard, to try to come up with a plan to rescue Ulf and retrieve Suishen.

The PCs gained 2200 XP for their exploits, putting them at 15,141 XP and 5^th level. They need 23,000 XP for 6^th level. We’ll be at Rich and Joette’s next Sunday, although Scott will be missing.