Gaming Story: Man or Beast?

To set the scene, I'm running a Viking-themed OSR game and the party is composed of three PCs, the daughters of a Jarl. They are taking part in a hunting competition hosted by the Jarl of a nearby island. They have three days to hunt for the most impressive game they can find in the Jarl's forest, but they have been warned that the woods are dangerous at night and they should seek shelter in the hunting cabins dotted around the forest.

There are five more hunters that have been assigned to the PCs' area of the forest: Snorri, Dorfi (the local Jarl's second son), Mӧttul, Brenna, and Gunnar (firstborn son of their hated rival clan).

There is already some tension (which is good) thanks to the time limit, the apparent skill of the other hunters, Brenna's moodiness, the danger of being so close to the heart of the forest, and the presence of Gunnar who firmly believes that the sisters are cheating and doesn't trust any of them as far as he could throw them.

 After the events of the first day, during which the party spots a creature they identify as fine game likely to win them the contest, the PCs look for one of the hunting lodges. When they find one, there is smoke rising from the chimney but the door is barred. One of the PCs knocks...

In my head I am cheering because my last party probably would have kicked the door down or dropped grenades down the chimney or something.

...and they hear a voice call out from inside the hut.

"Who goes? Man or beast?"

The players laugh a bit about this and answer "man!" The challenger from within says "then state your names!" The players call out their names and the door is unbarred and opened by Dorfi. He lets them in and explains that, since it is getting dark, it would be unwise to open the door without knowing what is on the other side.

There are some unspoken rules or conventions that establish themselves pretty quickly here. Dorfi is the local Jarl's son, so presumably he knows the area and he has a reputation as a competent warrior. He also asked the PCs' names and when they gave their names that was enough for him to trust them and open the door. So if there is a beast out there that can claim to be human, then presumably it cannot give a name, or the name it would give would reveal the creature's duplicity. Most of these conventions will be realised by the players subconsciously. The tropes are now reinforced by repetition.

The PCs pick out their bunks for the night when there is a knocking at the door.

Knock-knock!

I'm knocking on the underside of the table we're playing at. I find that it draws the players attention more than just saying the words "you hear a knocking at the door."

At least on the PCs knows what is coming next and almost shouts out "man or beast?" but Dorfi calls out first. "Man or beast?" I tell the players that their characters recogise the gruff voice of their bitter rival, Gunnar. "Man!" The players laugh and make jokes about how he should have answered "beast."

Dorfi demands a name, Gunnar gives his full name and title, and Dorfi unlocks the door. One of the PCs suggests that they should have left Gunnar outside for a while longer. When he sees the PCs, Gunnar is visibly irritated that he will have to sleep under the same roof as them, but it is also clear that night has fallen and he will struggle to find another shelter. He suggests, strongly, that everyone leave their weapons by the door as a sign of good faith. There is some hesitation, but since I have armed the PCs with secret weapons, they agree to leave their bows and spears by the door and watch Gunnar carefully as he places his spear and swordbelt aside.

Every GM has difficulty getting the PCs to surrender their weapons. I tried to circumvent that difficulty, while still disarming the PCs, by giving them weapons that they can hide in plain sight. At the beginning of the session the PCs' father gave them all penannular brooches with pins long enough that they could be used as an improvised dagger in self-defence. This was inspired by the possibly-real-life dark ages practise of using long brooch pins to stab people when your sword was unavailable.

Gunnar is about to complain some more but...

Knock-knock-knock!

Without prompting the party calls out in unison "man or beast?" The person without cries "I'm a woman gods damn you open the door!" The PCs know it must be Brenna but they ask for her name anyway. "It's Brenna! Who else would it be? Open the door!"

So Brenna is allowed to enter, is displeased with having to leave her bow and spear by the door, but settles into the bunk bed furthest away from everyone else. The party is talking about setting up a watch for the night because they don't trust Gunnar and want to keep an eye on him. Two PCs turn in while the third stays awake under the pretense of making sure the fire doesn't go out. It's an hour into their watch when...

Knock-knock!

Everyone is stirred by the knocking and the players yell "man or beast?" and make bets on whether it will be Snorri or Mӧttul at the door.

"Man! Man! It's Mӧttul! Open up it's freezing and there's something out here!"

He sounds worried so one of the players unbars the door and Mӧttul stumbles in, shivering and red-faced. He sits by the fire to warm up as the players bar the door and ask him what was out there. He says he didn't see anything but he heard something following him through the undergrowth. He claims that he got lost in the dark and thought he was going to end up as a troll's dinner. The party is a bit worried that something might be out there and this reinforces their decision to keep watch. There is still one more hunter, Snorri, out in the woods so they want to make sure someone is on hand to open the door should he turn up.

At midnight the second PC is woken to take their watch. The other hunters seem to be sleeping and the fire has died down but is still providing a little warmth so it seems like an easy enough watch.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The PC calls out "man or beast?"

No answer. Then...

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The other characters in the hut are beginning to wake up now. The other two PCs shout "man or beast?" but there is no answer. Everyone is staring at the door. One of the PCs says that it might be Snorri and he might be hurt; they say that they will open the door to check but the other players yell "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!" and the door remains closed.

At this point I didn't have to say or do very much. The pattern and expected course of events has been interrupted. The players' imaginations are going into overdrive and coming up with some horrible thing on the other side of the door that wants to get into their sanctuary. Paranoia starts to creep in and now I just have to measure the NPCs reactions to whatever the PCs want to do.

One of the PCs grabs their spear just in case the door is knocked down. Gunnar doesn't like this and pushes the PC aside so he can grab his sword belt. Brenna doesn't like this and reveals a hunting knife she had hidden under her cloak. Dorfi and Mӧttul both demand they be allowed their weapons as well and everyone begins arguing about the safety of the lodge, what is outside, the legitimacy of Gunnar's hereitage, whether or not the PCs' mother was a harlot, and whether Snorri could still be alive.

I didn't even have stats for the thing that was knocking on the door. If the PCs had opened the door then I could place a night troll, hag, shadow man, or anything else remotely nightmarish out there, but I was counting on the players being spooked and staying indoors. Players are often curious, but this group also has a healthy sense of self preservation.

Fortunately no one brandished their weapon at another competitor and eventually everyone went back to their bunks, with their weapons, and tried to get to sleep without imagining whatever dark monstrosity was waiting for them outside.

Afterthoughts

A few more interesting things happened during that session, but the knocking on the cabin door felt like the evening's crowning moments. One of the players even said "well... that's mildly terrifying" when there was no reply to their initial "man or beast" challenge. If I could change anything I would have done the initial knock-knock-knock and then left it, rather than go on knocking. The initial prompt was enough to demonstrate that the pattern the players had grown comfortable with had been broken.

Everyone said they enjoyed themselves and that they're eager to continue playing, so no harm no foul. I established at the beginning that we would use a traffic light system in case anyone was uncomfortable with anything that came up, and so far no one has invoked it. I'm looking forward to establishing more rugs to pull from under their feet in the future.