Gunnolf Amundson

Player: Mark W.

Character name: Gunnolf Amundson

Character Age: 37

Lifepaths: Born Noble, Student, Squire, Freebooter, Thinker

Early Life
Gunnolf Amundson is the youngest son of Amund Jørgensen and his hearthwife Kjersti (née Björnsdóttir), the lord and lady of the House of Týr-in-Midgard. Formerly a great house of the north, Týr-in-Midgard had declined somewhat in stature before the birth of Gunnolf, and indeed before Amund's ascendance, largely due to the rising influence of the cults of Alföðr, the All-father. During Gunnolf's lifetime, the family still wielded considerable influence in certain circled, recognized as they were as champions of justice. Nonetheless, they could command almost no direct political influence in the Skaadi social order.

Born the youngest son of three, Gunnolf recognized that the only hope he had to lead the family required both of his beloved older brothers to die. Thus it was that at the age of 19, his studies completed, he departed his family's estate to join Brothers of Dusk.

The Mercenary
Over the next nine years of his life, Gunnolf fought in numerous campaigns and incursions, sometimes playing the hero, but just as often playing the villain. During a particular battle far to the south of his homeland, north and east of Aquataine, he distinguished himself as a particularly ruthless, blood-thirsty warrior, slaughtering the majority of a squadron of unarmored archers he found left unguarded at the doorstep of the Black Forest. The remaining archers fled and told the story of Gunnolf the Mad rampaging through their lines, laughing like a maniac, apparently enthralled by the joy of sheer bloody-handedness.

Though he fought in several mercenary companies (some more or less reputable than others), the organization he called home was The Brothers of Dusk. During his time with that company, he forged a lasting friendship with quartermaster Hamar Björnsson. Also during that time, he learned of a half-breed Xalapa girl was spotted in the city of Dinant, wearing a face like his, apparently born to the brothel whore who gave him his manhood.

The Philosopher
Though Gunnolf would remember the five years as a squire in The Brothers of Dusk fondly, he gradually grew weary of the Freebooter lifestyle into which he graduated when he left his squire post behind him. He began to read. Being of the house of Týr, he first studied law, both secular and ecclesiastic. This naturally led him to the study of languages and philosophies of morality. The product of these studies was a clear perception of what honor and nobility were. Though it made him sick at heart, he realized that he was neither. He completed the terms of his 4-year contract with the Black Hand and left the mercenary lifestyle.

A Bitter Homecoming
Gunnolf returned home only to find the House of Týr-in-Midgard in disarray. After the death of his father, his oldest, yet least-wise, brother Reidar had taken their father's Seat and squandered what vestiges of respect remained to the family. Though he remembered his brother fondly and loved him dearly, Gunnolf could not ignore his brother's wayward foolishness, and so challenged Reidar to a duel. With tears streaking his face, the battle-hardened Gunnolf easily slew Reidar. And yet, lordship of the house was not his. Reidar's death made a lord of Trygve, his other brother. After securing a vow from Trygve to work to restore his family's honor, Gunnolf took what inheritance still belonged to him and moved to a new estate in the city of Dinant, in the southern county of Aquitaine.

Dinant
In Dinant, Gunnolf acquired an estate, dubbed it Grimstad, and moved his library, his reliquary, and the rest of his belongings and his household in. He decided to set about finding this girl who Hamar swore must be his own bastard daughter, thinking perhaps to redeem some of the sins of his freebooting years by giving the child a better life than she was likely to make elsewise. He contacted his old fence Mama Dregs, one of the few people he knew in his new city, and she seemed to know more than she was letting on. But her knowledge of his rough-riding, thoroughly impeachable history seemed to keep her mouth such on this particular topic. Gunnolf decided that persistence and acts of contrition were likely to be more successful than intimidation, so he let the matter rest for the nonce.

Session 1

He discovered one evening that there was a Bragi Temple in Dinant. Early the next morning, he traveled to the Temple to seek admittance. Bragi's monks were friendly and welcoming.He studied in the temple library for hours, emerging refreshed and inspired in the later afternoon, deciding to visit dregs again. She was slightly more receptive the second time, almost admitting she knew where the child could be found. But still she needed proof of his reform, so Gunnolf committed to more than a dozen unknown future favors, and sent a Skaadi cobbler to Greywater to provide shoes for her two-hundred and something orphans.

While he dined later that same evening, Gunnolf was visited in Grimstad by an Aquitainian man named Remy Moreau. He claimed to be a renowned local historian, but Gunnolf had the sense that he was, at best, exaggerating his fame. The man clearly came from noble stock, but also seemed to have fallen on leaner times of late. Gunnolf liked the man immediately. All he wanted was a chance to peruse Gunnolf's library, a favor he was happy to grant. But they were interrupted by Gunnolf's manservant, who brought him information that a certain high-priest had arrived at the Skaadi mead hall and appeared to be well on his way to becoming thoroughly pickled. Gunnolf excused himself, bade the servant to see Remy to the library, changed into traveling clothes and removed all his Týrian glyphs, and fairly flew to the hall.

Upon entering, he could see that the evening was not going to be the one that he had hoped for. The high-priest of Odin was there, along with at least a dozen acolytes, all muttering just beneath the tumult. Across the hall's dance floor--a place mostly occupied by the hall's private security, were five of his brother Týrian priests. Gunnolf strode to the priest and plonked down two mugs. He filled his with Aquitainian ale, and then the other. He drank his in one pull, and watched as the priest did the same. They spoke for a few minutes, and Gunnolf satisfied his suspicion that they were not going to be dissuaded from their course. They meant to roast the Týrian priests, and Gunnolf had to find a way to stop it, or he'd be joining the charred dead.

He stood and barked to the mead-hall and Odin's priests, but mostly to his own brothers in Týr:"These dogs of Odin would attack you with their father's power, because they know they have none of their own. They are base cowards, without even the honor of a goat pissing on the graves of your fathers. Rather than face you in battle like men, they would cry to their Sky Father.""Brothers! You do not want this fight! It is not our Lord Týr's way. It is not the Skaadi way. Theirs is the way of Odin's milk-drinking witches and whores! Come with me. We'll make our own battle in our own way, and do our Lord Týr's justice upon them on our terms. On honest terms."His commanding presence and Oratory mastery cowed the priests of Odin, who left with their hoods up after muttering half-heard threats. Gunnolf joined his brother priests and drank the remainder of the night away, returning to Grimstad in the pre-dawn hours.

Session 2

When he staggered home after the night of carousing, he was met in Grimstad by Remy Moreau, who apparently stayed the night, and had bacon in his pockets for some reason. Remy informed Gunnolf that his villa had been robbed. Gunnolf discovered that four precious relics had been taken. Chief among them were the charred fingerbone from Týr's own hand during his struggle to chain Fenris the wolf, and a broken link from Fenris' unbreakable chain.

While Remy and Gunnolf spoke in the road before Grimstad, they were approached by, of all things, a Dwarf who introduced himself as Lee, asking after some of the Dwarven trinkets and tomes in Gunnolf's library. The Dwarf's general odor was offensive and he seemed disdainful of humans, so Gunnolf mistrusted him immediately.

Nevertheless, Gunnolf stuffed himself into his old battle armor and the three walked to see Dregs in Greywater about retrieving his missing items, since she was the only fence Gunnolf knew.

Dregs wasn't home, so Gunnolf and company were treated to a tour of the Greywater waterfront. Eventually, Gunnolf, Remy, and the dwarf were able to consult with Dregs, and while she denied having the items, she gave the distinct impression that she knew more than she was letting on. Regardless, she could not produce the thief. But she did set a meeting for later that night, with the promise of some information about Gunnolf's daughter, and suggested that she might ask around for his belongings and bring them if she could find them.

Not having another choice, Gunnolf and his friends retreated to his mansion to while away the day.

That night, Gunnolf (now changed into more practical clothing) and the Dwarf (now changed into unbelievably heavy plate armor) went to meet Dregs and some mysterious informant that the crone claimed had information about his offspring.

A momentary standoff ensued, with the unarmored but lightly armed Gunnolf feeling like he was surrounded by moving shadows. During the confrontation, Dregs revealed that the informant, a slight young Xalapa man named Itzli, was in fact Gonnolf's child. Gunnolf was unconvinced since it was relayed to him quite consistently that he had sired a daughter, not a son. Nonetheless, he could not deny the young man's resemblance to himself, and to the wench he bedded on his 14th birthday.

Gunnolf accepted Itzli as his son, and further accepted the responsibility for spearheading a mission to retrieve the boy's younger sister from slavers, which will require a visit to some apparently spotless, but actually very corrupt magistrate.

Beliefs, Instinct, and Traits
Beliefs
 * 1) I have a daughter in the city I've never met. I must find her and tend to her needs and what remains of her upbringing. Mama Dregs may know who she is, so I will talk to her.
 * 2) As it turns out, my elusive daughter has become a son, whose name is Itzli. He'll need a proper Skaadi name soon. And my son has a sister, so it seems to me I have a son and a daughter. But the girl has been abducted by some corrupt magistrate, and presumably traded north as chattel. I'll contact my ethically negotiable associate in the city guard to see if I can find out where she has been taken.
 * 3) The girl has gone north. It seems to me that she was taken as a part of a concerted effort by city administrators to reduce the number of Xalapa on the streets. I can't help but feel like her disappearance is a part of the same conspiracy that's producing these oddly marked corpses.
 * 4) I think I have exhausted all of the information-gathering resources available to me in the case of Itzli's sister. I will arrange an expedition to travel North to track the girl while Itzli chases down his own leads..
 * 5) I want to expand my literary and spiritual horizons. I will explore the Bragi temple library in Dinant and attempt to determine what they have to offer.
 * 6) My family's majesty is fading, due to the rise of Odin. I will erode public confidence in Odin's cult by eroding confidence in his priests. After my encounter with their chief in the Mead-Hall, he knows my face, so I can no longer pursue him myself and must operate through agents. I will ask Itzli if he and Dregs' other urchins Flotsam and Jetsam would be willing to eliminate the priest before he can do whatever apocalyptic thing he's planning.
 * 7) We have agreed to join Floki Lightninghand and his Odinite nutcases in battle north of the city. During the confrontation, I intend to kill Floki myself.
 * 8) Floki is dead, and the remnants of his force driven north. And yet, I am left feeling that, in spite of his death, he accomplished whatever it is he was after. I need to Track his men and Investigate.
 * 9) I've been robbed! My reliquary has been looted. I will find the perpetrator and retrieve my missing items. Mama Dregs is a fence, so I will ask her to keep an eye open for my things.
 * 10) My artifacts have been recovered, though Dregs persists in refusing to tell me who took them. I suppose the important thing is that they've been returned to me. But my friend Remy seems to believe they have some important role to play in the havok playing out in the north, at Arnhelm. I may have to travel north with him (And the dwarf, and perhaps that twitchy Skaadi Halvord) to find out what's going on.
 * 11) I have lost interest in finding the thief. Dregs can keep her secrets. I am beyond caring who it was. But the fingerbone in my reliquary needs to go north to play out its destiny, whatever it is.
 * 12) I think Magistrate Reynaldson is concealing his true interest in the Greywater murder. They've never seemed to care what happened in the waterside slums before, so why now? He must be hiding something. I think that either he was involved in the murder, or else he knows who was. I will find out. To do this, I will visit my "friend" in the city guard.
 * 13) Reynaldson seems to be a bit player in a larger drama here. There have been many more corpses produced than just the one in Greywater. My associate was a bit scant on details so I need to talk to Reynaldson directly
 * 14) Magistrate Reynaldson seems to think that the law is some Holy writ, rather than the apocryphal rantings of pestilential old grey-beards it actually is. I have grown tired of verbally sparring with politicians. Next time I see that foul old blighter, I might have to chop off his head. Nonetheless, he obviously now knows of my dislike for him, so I expect some form of unwanted attention from the guard. I will try to keep to myself and Grimstad as much as possible while I prepare to go North.
 * 15) We're going North. I need to pool my resources and gather supplies.

Instincts
 * 1) I am always armed and ready for a Fight.
 * 2) I never abandon friends in trouble.
 * 3) If I feel backed into a corner, I will attack and Fight my way out.

Traits
 * 1) Mark of privilege
 * 2) Cold-blooded
 * 3) Aggressive
 * 4) Booming voice
 * 5) Grim
 * 6) Drunk

Artha
Fate: 8

Persona: 3

Deed: 0

Skills
Languages: Aquatanian, Northern

Resources
Run of the mill arms; Dwarven light mail; War Horse; Clothes; Travelling Gear; Shoes; Personal Effects; Villa