Njalsson Saga
by Andi Newton
Inspired by the adventures of Skarphedin Njalsson in the world of LOTRO
Skarphedin had only seen eleven winters when orcs raided his village, slicing through the farmers and tradesmen in an unstoppable wave. Skarphedin's father, Njal, was a scholar who normally spent his days researching relics found by adventurers or transcribing letters for his fellow townsfolk. But when the orcs attacked, Njal grabbed a staff and stood with the other men to defend the village.
An orcish sword split the staff in twain, and Skarphedin watched his father fall under the blow.
He ran from their cottage, determined take up his father's broken staff and continue the battle, but the orcs merely laughed at him, hauling him up by his shirt collar and tossing him on the back of one of the foul wargs they rode. They joked with each other that Skarphedin would make "good sport or at least a tasty meal later", then turned their attention to ransacking the town.
The last thing Skarphedin saw as they carried him out of the village was an orc setting fire to his family's cottage, his mother and younger siblings still inside.
The orcs met their own end a few days later, at the hands of a company of soldiers. When Skarphedin told them of the attack on his village, the soldiers just shook their heads sadly. They had ridden through the village the day before, and nothing remained but the smoldering husks of buildings. The only survivors they found, an old adventurer named Grettir and his daughter, Freya, took charge of the young Skarphedin, teaching him to fight and handle a sword as he grew from boy to herald and, finally, a captain respected by the rest of the men in the company.
Passing through Bree one day, they heard a bard sing about a scholar named Njal who fought orcs and trolls and the allies of Angmar, felling them with staff and spell to avenge his slain family. And Skarphedin knew then that his father had survived the slaughter years before. With the blessing of the rest of the soldiers, he, Grettir, and Freya set out to find Njal, not only to reunite with him, but also to join him in avenging their kin.
And as they go, they battle orcs and trolls and the allies of Angmar, in vengeance for those they loved that the orcs slaughtered so many years before.