'It takes at least 10 to crew a longship. Recruit any clansmen who'll join you, then travel to Ribe and hire some mercenaries to round off the crew.'
Preparations: A Motley Hird is a storyline quest that starts after the completion of The Plot Thickens. The objectives are to find anyone brave or willing enough to join you on your voyage across the sea.
Recruitable followers[]
- Roskva the Black - Upon exiting your home, she will stop you and ask to join you. You can decline, but there is no reason to.
If you used poison on Asleifr Grimvardarson and recruited him after the duel, then recruit Roskva, you will lose morale with him.
- Gunnarr the Peaceful - This one is also optional, but he's a strong and capable fighter and makes a great addition. He can be found in the same place as before, tied to the post just north of your home. You can either free him without any consequences, execute him and thus earning 5 reputation points for Clansmans and losing 10 reputation points for Northsman, or ask him to join you and losing 5 reputation points for Clansmans.
- Eydis Asulfsdottir - She can be found to the south of your home, across the bridge. She is involved with the other storyline quest Preparations: Tomb Raider. Talking to her also offers some morale changes among your followers.
Selecting "Dwarves or elves? You're joking" gains morale for your sceptical followers, but loses morale for your superstitious ones. Selecting "I don't like the sound of that..." has the opposite effect on these morale changes.
- The remaining followers are mercenaries that can be recruited in Ribe. You can either pick some existing mercenaries, or create your own. It's basically a character creation process. You will need to complete the quest Monsters in the Marsh before you can recruit mercenaries however.
One extra hirdman in Denmark[]
After finishing Monsters in the Marsh, filling all still remaining slots with mercenaries, it's possible to travel with a hird of eleven (ten hirdmen + thegn of Skjern if Eydis Asulfsdottir is recruited after completing this quest. The only catches are that the party can't change mercenaries, or else the situation returns to normal and the hird might lose equipment if the hirdman who isn't going to be selected for the second act, transferred its equipment to other party members or the inventory.
Since the player must select mercenaries before the second act is started, the group will still sail towards Britannia with a hird of ten in total (nine hirdmen + thegn, not confirmed yet). The player can still profit from the extra hirdmembers performing tasks at campsites or having one more reserve fighter, especially at higher difficulties.
Reward[]
- 5 Skill Points