Thurstle Island: Notes on Camp

Birka, a historic viking town restoration

Perched on the edge of the City of the Ancients, Thurstle Island's vikings have established a fortified camp. From this base, they regularly venture into the City's towers and under-structure to plunder powerful artifacts and strange materials. 

• The City of the Ancients is inspired by John Arendt's Black City. Here's his version of the camp.

The leader of the camp is Kjartan, a tough-minded mercenary and brother to Cove Town's jovial viking boss, Harald Halfjaw. Kjartan has one eye and a voluminous black beard. His growing wealth and power is derived from his cut of all treasure pulled from the ruins. Consequently, he needs a steady stream of adventurers and actively recruits new delvers. Kjartan believes that the whole of the island rightfully belongs to the vikings and if he can build sufficient strength, he'll drive the Gothic garrison off. He'll be very eager to get any Ancient weapons discovered in the City.

• Kjartan's right hand, Hilda, is a tall, wiry woman famed for her spear-throwing skill. She leads his crew of enforcers and will brutally repress any attempts to weaken Kjartan's primacy or withhold his cut of treasure. She hates the Gothic colonists and will be suspicious of any Gothic people in the camp. She might even sic rival crews on Gothic adventurers.
• Crucial to Kjartan's enterprise is a Gothic scribe, Beedle, who appraises items from the ruins relative to their resale value back on the mainland. He is responsible for the camps exports and assessing Kjartan's cut. Unknown to most, he is also a wizard, eager to explore the esoteric knowledge of the Ancients for himself. If he thinks a crew can keep a secret, he'll give them assignments to find magical texts and items for his personal collection. He'll be particularly  endeared to any other Gothic people in camp. He's lonely among all these vikings.

Order in the camp is maintained by Kjartan's rough crew, but out in the ruins anything goes. Backstabbing and inter-crew piracy is common. 

Offenses against public order are usually punished by sentences of hard labor building out the camp and its defenses. On any given day, crews will be digging out new sod hovels and expanding the palisade and its towers.

In the camp, some basic provisions and gear are available at exorbitant prices. 

• Food, rope and torches are kept in stock, but there's only a 50% chance any particular, common tool will be available. More specialized gear is even less likely to be for sale.
• For the impoverished would-be adventurer, there is a variety of weapons available made from shards of the City's tough glass. These weapons are very cheap but prone to break on a powerful blow (weapon shatters if it deals max damage).

• Rough sod huts are rented to delvers at high prices. They are very uncomfortable. The area is bitterly cold, but lighting a fire will thaw the piss and vomit of previous tenants. 
• A much nicer hall, with private rooms for the prosperous is under construction.
• As the game progress, if the camp prospers more and better services will be come available. I'll let players pick upgrades as part of the informal advancement track.