The year began with the ascendancy of Ray to the position of Dux over the land of Gillockium. At the same time there were rumbles from abroad that the men of Odin had raised Charles to the position of Warchief.

The season began with Charles sending scouts into near the village of Stacy. After learning that he had plenty of livestock for the pillaging the Vikings assembled their longships headed up an inlet north of Stacy’s village.

All seemed to be proceeding well until Dux Ray and the mercenary Hoppy arrived from the northwest. As the brave Viking Duane disembarked from his longship he was showered with arrows from Ray’s dead-eye archers. Duane’s men immediately decided that they would rather seek cover than have more of their numbers murdered by bowfire. Meanwhile Stacy’s soldiers were herding their civilians and livestock into a corral and behind the village.

As Duane’s warriors began to sail down the river seeking a safer place to land a battle crazed unit of Romano-Brit cavalry led by the impetuous Chris charged into the river and began to attack the retreating longship. During this time Charles had withdrawn to the safety of his longship and was keeping a watchful eye on the other longships to prevent the Romans from destroying his men’s way home. The young Viking raiders Mike and Derek had pushed up to the edge of the village and Mike had begun facing Stacy’s stallwart Roman shieldwall.

Stacy and his men quickly introduced Mike’s marauders to the business end of their gladius. Mike quickly decided to lay down his arms and cut a deal with Stacy. Derek on the other hand, unleashed his berserker and moved the rest of his men up to charge. As the brave (stupid?) berserker crashed into the Roman line he was quickly cut down. At this point, Duane was furious about Chris’s bold move against his ship and promptly rallied. His men leapt into the cold river and savagely attacked the Romano-Brit horse.

Though Chris’s men desperately attempted to over run the Vikings they were overwhelmed and one by one pulled from their horses and drowned in the frigid river. Duane’s vicious assault encouraged Charles to once again come ashore and move to the flank of the awaiting Roman Dux. Hoppy and his mercenaries had still tasted no blood and were too far away from the fighting to get any blows in. Stacy seeing his men about to be over run by Derek and his blood crazed Northmen cut a new deal with Mike that gave him back his arms and had him fighting on the side of the Romans. As Mike and Stacy’s men began to overwhelm Derek’s raiders the Warlord Charles could be seen shaking his head and marking Mike for revenge.

As the last horseman ran from the field Duane hurtled himself at the Dux men from the flank. At the same time Charles crashed into more of Ray’s bold defenders. Hoppy who now had changed direction from trying to reach Stacy to trying to bail out Ray, still had spilled no blood. Ray’s Romans were quickly overwhelmed and fleeing and Derek’s vikings were doing the same.

With the treachery of Mike and the sun setting Charles called a general withdrawal and the Romans began celebrating. Nothing had been plundered but the vikings had none the less learned some valuable lessons, chiefly not to trust Mike the coward. This closed the first season of raiding and began the campaign.