Meanwhile on-board The Valiant


We asked long time DW fan and Player’s Book contributor Damian May to write up some of his many adventures in Legend…

The Companions are on-board the Valiant a large coastal cog headed for
Beltayne.

They’ve just rumbled a group of young Thulanders in a stolen longship
who were trying to pass themselves off as Sea Draugr ( Blue Men).

Aoife ( 1st Rank Barbarian from the Trackless Ooze) and Hrolf ( 1st
Rank Barbarian from Thuland) crashed into the longship crew followed
moments later by Torsten and a couple more handfuls of the crew. The
first few moments were a confused tangle of limbs, weapons and yells.
But then the longship crew seemed to recover somewhat from the shock
and began hewing at those who had descended into their midst.

Stello ( 1st Rank Selentine Assassin) wound his crossbow back and
raised it again releasing another bolt, this one struck home and the
enemy captain clutched at his leg in pain.

Madra( 1st Rank Water Elementalist and Aoifes younger brother. )
called the wind ( Cutting Power of the Mind) and felt his mind become
one with its shifting currents, he cast the eel spear and it thudded
into the enemy captains shoulder as he pulled Stellos bolt from his
leg. The man swore loudly and threw himself down behind some barrels
out of sight. Madra ran over to the cargo hatch and slipped inside.

The marines fired again causing a number of the raiders to fall from
their climb back onto the deck of the longboat, the marines then
dropped their bows and drew axes. The rest of the crew, captain and
Jan ( First Mate NPC) included held their weapons ready.

Below Deck:

Sword, shield…sword, shield….damn it where are you?

Madra scurried about below the deck, kicking and throwing gear out of
the way in his hurried search for his war gear.

From above came the roar and clang of weapons as both sides mixed in
combat.

“Come on you $5Β£@$%!” he shouted

“Aha!” and he had them.

His scabbard gets thrown into the gloom as he unsheathes his short
sword and his shield is hoisted into place.

“Right….” and he then stops as he stares at the square of light in
the roof.

“…erm….right….” and the young man’s valour begins to recede as
his new found intelligence gives him far to many reasons not to go on
deck.

“Deep breath Madra….deep breath…”

On the longship:
.
Two men went down before Aoife and Hrolf in gouts of blood and
Torsten( Hrolfs Cousin NPC) accounted for a third, but two of the
Valiants men were also downed. And the crew remaining on the longship
began to surround their attackers, those climbing the Valiants flank
would be over the rail in seconds.

Hrolf catches the blow of one enemy’s axe on the haft of his own and
opens a brief breathing space by the simple expedient of propelling
the man bodily backwards into his friends through strength alone. He
instinctively moves to cover Aoife’s back, incoherently roaring his
defiance.

The Valiants Deck:

Madra, decision made, pulls himself back on deck just as the first
wave of enemy have begun clambering over the rail.

“Their captain is down!….Their captain is down!…..Push them back
in to the sea!”

His shout echoes out loud and clear above the clamour of battle, and
seeing a bow by his feet the young man drops his shield and slams his
blade into the wooden floor.

“Send them to the depths” he roars, grabbing an arrow from a marine’s
quiver.

Madra hollers out as loud as he can in his own tongue “Aoife..catch
their captain…”

On the longship:

“Bit busy right now…” she hollers back.

The Valiant:

Stello hung his crossbow on the mast and stepped up onto the spar
walking lightly across it until he was above the men coming over the
railing, then as he’d been taught long ago he dropped onto the wood
(and a couple of men), knees soft and sword drawn. He lashed out with
the blade but the man he targeted was knocked aside by one of the men
he had crashed into when he landed.

Madra got back up onto the deck and ran across to engage the enemy,
but his artificially sharp mind noted the bows on the deck and
snatched one up while he was still under the winds grace, he knocked
an arrow and snapped a shot off at the men coming over the rail. It
thudded into the deck but gave pause to the raider it had just missed.

Beside them the marines and the rest of the crew fought fiercely and
the attackers surge onto the valiant faltered, Stello saw two of his
shift-mates fall. And the captain fell back wounded along with three
of the marines.

Stello glances along the line of sailors and marines, bounces lightly
on the balls of his feet and cries, ” On me, lads! Don’t let them take
the deck!”

With that he leaps towards the rail, sword licking out to smash hands
and faces and push back the next assault.

On board the longship:

Aoife hewed about with her axe; beheading one raider and spilling
anothers belly on the deck, for her efforts she received a deep cut to
her thigh and another blade barely missed her throat digging into her
off shoulder.

Hrolf also split two raiders asunder but his weapon was trapped in his
downed opponents ribs for a few moments and that was all that was
needed for a rain of blows to come down on his arms and shoulders. He
tugged his axe free in a rain of blood, both his own and his opponents
and roared his defience.

Torsten and the remainder of the Valiant crew who had come aboard
formed a wedge and drove the raiders back from the two beseiged
companions, Torsten was wounded on the arm and another one of the
crewmen was run through, but at least they had a few seconds breathing
space.

“Push them into the sea!” Aoife roars, in the local tongue, joining
the wedge.

Hrolf’s breath comes in great gasping gulps as he reels in an
adrenaline and pain-soaked haze.Β He’s not really aware of how
seriously wounded he is, or of anything much else beyond the dogged
determination to keep fighting.

Reacting to Aoife’s call he drags in another laboured breath and
charges with the others, determined to see the fight through, a
nightmarish giant covered in blood.

With the others; Hrolf, Torsten and Aoife charged across the deck
taking the raiders by surprise and tumbling a great number of them
into the cold waters, when the yelling had stopped there were fifteen
men in the water. Those left on the oars rose to draw their weapons
but they were a little hesitant to do so in the face of the three
bloodstained warriors.

Torsten grinned and looked at Hrolf, ‘ You really should take better
care of yourself, cousin.’

——————————————————————————————-
Some weeks later after a run in with hidden assassins and the ship
almost sinking due to said assassins the companions arrive in
Beltayne, Hrolf elects to stay on board with his cousin and the PCs
are reduced to three individuals:

Tossing his bag and assorted weaponry onto the bed, Stello is
unhooking the seax from his belt as Madra arrives.

“Doubt we’ll be able to get much done now,” he ventures. “I suggest we
find somewhere to eat and see what this Nunnery of Jan’s has to offer
by way of entertainment. After that journey, I think we’ve earned a
decent meal and an indecent woman.”

He tosses the seax onto the rest of his equipment and turns to give
the tribesman a grin.

“Sounds good to me” replies Madra as he drops onto his bed.

“You sound just like my Da”

Stello gives the other man a sympathetic look. The appearance of the
Ravens ( Clan of Harbingers) has left him without glib words to follow
it with, Stello is no longer so certain of Tupper’s ( Aoife and Madras
father, the reason for their journey) fate.

“He’s tangled himself in some dark business,” he says softly. “We need
to be quick about chasing him, but not so quick we end snared in the
same tangle.”

“More likely shagging some poor sod’s missus and now on the run with
half the country raised after him” quips the water witch.

“It’s winter Stello, and we’re going into hills, reputedly full of mad
men the size of Hrolf……” a look of defeat crosses his face
briefly…. To be replaced by one of sly anticipation almost
immediately.

“Feck what am I worrying about? Tonight I’m going to get laid at a
nunnery……..AOIFE! Are yer ready yet? Time we was going…”

The young man leaps to his feet and stands before his friend

“How do I look?…..sniff…..And do I smell okay to you? Wouldn’t
want the ladies thinking I was a savage…..”

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” Aoife calls out.

The three of them made their way down onto the dark streets lit
fitfully by great iron cages of flickering wood fires at each
intersection.

It was late, too late for most reputable places to be serving
supper…..luckily they weren’t headed for reputable places.

Heading south down the street and then turning left before the bridge
they eventually found their way to a large stone manorhouse now
adjoined by workshops and tenements. Two scarred men with shaved
heads, whose arms and shoulders could almost have put Hrolf and
Torsten stood either side of the door.

‘ Wot is yur bus’ness ‘ere?’

5 responses to “Meanwhile on-board The Valiant”

  1. Ah, I always knew Madra would become famous…:)

    For those interested ,he’s a 17-19 year old, socially inept loud mouth, with a special way with the waves. He smells like Otter.

    He gets beaten up a lot….

  2. That’s not the same old Thuland campaign from rpol.net that was in that magazine is it?
    I would think they’d be past 1st Rank by now, even if progression was slow. πŸ˜›

  3. No definetely not that one. πŸ™‚

    I’ll see if I can post some more excerpts in the future if anyones interested. πŸ™‚

Leave a Reply