The First Installment

Our story starts in Ivar’s tavern in Astrakhan, where Håkan the Dwarf seeks escorts for a voyage to Khitai. Håkan makes the mistake of starting with Maiyn, an evil looking elf with a surly personality. New to the job, Håkan’s usual approach does not go over well with Maiyn, who first issues the usual elven insults to Dwarves, then adds injury to insult by picking Håkan’s pocket to make a point (and grab some cash). Frustrated for a comeback, Håkan turns his attention to Markku, a Finnish wizard. Communication through a low pass filter results in an apparent commitment for Markku to travel along with Håkan.

For no apparent reason, Markku decides to cast Blur on Maiyn. Three copies of Maiyn appear. Confused, Maiyn hides in the shadows – and his copies disappear too. Suitably amazed, Håkan now talks to the only other person in the room, Åsker. (Håkan has recognized Åsker’s drinking buddy, Ludde-Bjorn, as a bear rather than a large hairy Viking.) Åsker bargains for money. Håkan claims poverty. Ludde-Bjorn persuades Åsker to go along with a not-very-subtle elbow in the ribs.

Feeling less confused, Maiyn re-emerges from the shadows. Markku buys him a beer. Markku tries to cast Blur to confuse Ivar about the cost of the beer, but fails. Maiyn eventually agrees to go along with Håkan for a full quiver of arrows and an armor upgrade.

At this point Åsker decides to try to steal some steaks from the bar for Ludde. Unfortunately, he does not fool Ivar the Barkeep for a second. Ivar grabs Åsker by the scruff of the neck. Maiyn thinks about stealing something in the confusion. Ivar backhands Maiyn across the room. Markku casts Cloud of Mosquitoes, and everyone starts to slap at them. Ivar uses Åsker to slap with. Ludde hears “steak” and comes to his feet roaring. Ivar calls for Sven the Bouncer, whose entrance makes the small bar a lot smaller. Sven starts to fight with Ludde. Håkan smashes a table to try to stop things from getting out of hand. Ivar has had enough fun, now his bar is getting damaged, so he tosses Åsker into the street and grabs Håkan, to shake out the cost of his table. Markku wisely leaves. Maiyn decides he probably won’t be able to steal anything and leaves. Ivar tosses Håkan into the street. Sven tosses Ludde on top of everybody, distributing bruises, and the door slams behind them.

The party adjourns to a nearby Fletcher, who, having heard the commotion at the bar, is only willing to deal with the party through his spyhole. Maiyn objects to pre-payment, however, assuming that the Fletcher will steal the money because, well, because that’s what Maiyn would do. So the party leaves low on ammo.

Returning to Ivar’s the party goes around to the stable at the back and finds a cart with an attached Ox. The cart contains a large bundle covered with a tarpaulin. The tarp is tied down with multiple ropes, well knotted. Each knot is seals with purple wax. Someone does not want people looking into the bundle. Åsker immediately tries to peek, but is foiled by the elaborate bindings.

Purchasing an arbitrary amount of Adventurer-Chow™ and camping gear, the party gets ready to go. Markku announces he will visit the shrine of Perkunas, a sacred hill some five miles north of town. He promises to return in three hours. Twelve hours later the party is tired of waiting for Markku and leaves without him.

Later that night Håkan is on watch when hears a noise in the darkness. Muttering is coming from that direction. Ludde wakes up roaring. Markku decides to enlighten the situation by casting Light. Unfortunately, he botches the spell. The entire camp is plunged into darkness, despite the well-tended campfire. Blundering about in the dark has potential, but Markku aborts the impending friendly fire incident by shouting out his name, and the party is reunited.

The party now travels east on the busy Silk Road, passing through Bokhara (where Maiyn discovers that it is hard to conceal a stolen rug), Samarkand, and Kashgar before emerging onto the plain of the vast Taklamakan desert. Here the Silk Road divides. Markku reads his runes and the party turns right.

With the desert on the left and foothills leading to mountains on the right, the party is nearing the caravanserai of Hotan when they are jumped by bandits from the hills. Interestingly, the bandit leader goes not for a party member but slashes at the tarp covering the load. He is assisted by Ludde-Bjorn. Riding in the cart, Ludde stands to swat at the bandit leader and slips on the load, falling backwards off the cart, ripping the tarp off further and landing on Maiyn, who has crawled mostly under the cart unsuccessfully seeking a shadow to hide in.

Meanwhile, Åsker has collected an arrow and traded swats with a rider. Markku has cast Cloud of Mosquitoes on a shaman and also traded swats with a rider, much to Markku’s disadvantage. Håkan nails a rider on the side of the head, knocking him off his horse. Two other riders are disabled in the confusion.

The drumming that heralded the attack now changes in tone, and the leader, bowmen and Shaman make for the hills. The party sees a figure in yellow or reddish robes at the top of the hill who appears to float away from them and disappear. The surviving bandits get away clear. The loose horses also follow their stablemates into the hill.

Maiyn emerges from under the cart and sets about industriously killing unconscious bandits and robbing their corpses. It’s not a big haul. Too bad no one thought to talk with them first.

The party gathers around the newly revealed cargo they have been employed to escort to Khitai. There are two casks marked with the rune Laguz, and one with the rune Ansuz. There are also six logs, each eight feet long, six inches in diameter, debarked, of the best Swedish pine. Confused by the absence of heaps of gold and jewels, the party trundles off to Hotan and adjourns to a bar, all except Markku, who elects to stand next to the cart and commune with Perkunas.

Markku is dragged out of his communing by a *pouf* sound. He opens his eyes to a brown world. It is so brown that he cannot see the cart, which was five feet from him. He hears the patter of many bare feet and scraping sounds, as of things being dragged. Laying about his with his staff, Markku makes contact with something that yelps, then takes off running after the foot-noises until he runs headlong into a building.

After a time, the brown color starts to fade. The outlines of buildings become visible. The party emerges from the bar to find an empty cart, a placid Ox, and a despondent Markku. Maiyn jumps to the logical conclusion (for Maiyn) that Markku has stolen the cart contents. The party is on the verge of going headlong after the brown cloud, receding into the mountains to the south. However, Thoden the barkeep persuades them to visit the Dzong, or fort, at the outskirts of town.

At the Dzong, the party finds two lamas sitting on the front porch. The forbid Maiyn, Åsker or Håkan from entry. Their demeanor is sufficiently intimidating that Maiyn, for example, does not force the issue. Markku arrives and is recognized as a fellow religious type by the lamas. Markku gets to sit on the porch, drink tea with yak butter, and make conversation. He discovers that the brown cloud is a Tibetan magic feat performed with tsampa, or barley flour. When he offers the monks a birch twig from his staff, the monks return the gift with a piece of cloth with a faded map.

As the sun sets, the monks roll up their mats and retreat into the Dzong, closing and barring the door, and marking the end of the first installment of Vikings in Tibet.