First Look: Fate of the Norns: Fafnir's Treasure

Sunday, 10 am, First Exposure, Fate of the Norns, "Fafnir's Treasure"

For my final game of the convention, I went to Double Exposure's First Exposure room, where various game designers were looking to playtest their games. As I'd hoped, there was an open slot in Fate of the Norns.

• GM: Andrew
• Bearsarker Turbog, hunts with wolves
• Jabon, runemaster / blacksmith
• Bard / skald fiori
• Me: Vanadis, witch

All of the PCs were balanced here. I think we were level 10. By comparison:

• Peasant = L3
• God = L72

Every player had a bag of runes. The PC's essence determined how many runes were in the bag. This was kind of like hit points, as every hit removed one run from the bag, and this affected all skills. The PC's destiny determined the number of runes to be pulled at random for chance, combat, skill checks, and so on. The runes fell into three groups: Physical (red), Mental (blue), and Spiritual (green). Our runes were preselected, as we had pregenerated characters.

All of the PCs in this adventure had 6 Essence and 2 Destiny. According to my notes, this meant they'd started with 10 points. Each point of essence cost one point, and each point of destiny cost 2.

When pulling runes, one often needed specific colors, but if one drew two of the same color, they could be combined as a wild card for any other color. There was some fungibility for which category something fell into. Fr'ex, Common Sense could be Mental, but if one wants to justify using it as Physical, one could say, "Well, this is about common sense in the woods, and the woods is _my_ thing, so I want to use Physical". And, if it's a reasonable enough argument, the GM should agree.

During conflicts, runes moved from one's bag through a chart. I don't know how easy I'd find this as a GM, but as a player, it's simple because the chart is a lovely laminated Yggdrasil with areas clearly identified.

Fate of the Norns is set during Fimbulwinter, which made it feel oddly similar to "The Stars Are Fallen". The adventure, "Fafnir's Treasure", is available online for free download. We didn't play through all of it, and I've not yet had a chance to read it.

The world was cold and dark, for the sun and moon had been swallowed. Trolls could walk freely, as there was no sun. Torchbearers, torches, and stars provided most of the light. Looting a body was considered _very_ taboo. This made blacksmiths very important indeed. My notes say something about an afterlife roll and that dead characters might return.

The PCs were heading for Evinguard, as they'd heard it could be quite lucrative to hire on to help that town. There was a clear disparity of wealth in the town based on where the lights were.

The guards were more than willing to allow the PCs in to help, but asked if they really wanted to throw their lot in with the town. The PCs asked what problems the town was facing. There were several.

Miners were dying of disease. Fighters were dealing with a returning pack of polar bears that rose up again after they were killed. This might be because of an Alka, a sacred piece of land or an item infused with a conduit to another world on the tree Yggdrasil. That would thin the veil, and might well allow for zombears -- er, for bears to rise up again after they were killed. Odds are that the bears had been exposed to the realm of Nifelheim, or to the energy from it. Various lore roles recalled that the current town was a new version of the town. The old town was like a Norse hippie town, if one could conceive of such a thing. It had built where it was _because_ of the Alka, and its inhabitants had experimented _too_ much.

But, the worst problem of all was that there were two opposed emissaries in town. One of these was a Son of Muspell, Aud, hosted by Sven, an innkeeper. Muspell was the realm of the fire giants. The other emissary was Volstagg, an Einherjar, one of Odin's army of Valkyrie-claimed warriors, hosted by the chieftain of the town, Ingvar. Both sides were desperate to pick up bodes for their ongoing war. The GM noted that neither side could be simply described as "good" or "evil". Both were extremely dangerous. And having the two emissaries in town meant that the town was in serious danger of being torn apart by their conflict.

I think the group saw an albino owl in a tree during the day. This usually means that one will meet someone who is two-faced.

I forget the context of this:

Someone: You've talked me down.

Someone else: You've probably gotten used to doing that after weeks of traveling together.

The group fought briefly against a gang of children trying to rob them and, unsurprisingly, won. They proceeded to the inn, which I think was called The Grinning Boar. There, the emissary from Muspell was talking to people who wanted to serve him, seeking to determine who was worthy. Meanwhile, men threw knives at a woman pinned to a wall by her two braids, trying to cut the braids. One of the PCs managed to throw two knives, cutting the braids, whereupon she made herself scarce.

The bard talked with the emissary, Aud, who wanted to know if he'd be loyal to Muspell.

Bard: I am loyal to Evinguard's cause.

Aud: Evinguard is but a flea on the proverbial dog.

Bard: Yes, but I am one of these fleas.

Aud: Then, I am looking for the king of the fleas.

The bard made a sweeping bow, indicating that he himself was the King of the Fleas.

The emissary explained that he wanted a holy relic, a ring that was part of Fafnir's Treasure. The group could go and take any other item it wanted from the treasure, so long as it left the ring for the emissary.

Lore rolls and, to a degree, player memory of stories, established that the ring created gold on command, and that Dvergar -- dwarves -- would accept gold in return for weapons. The group was certain that this ring was also what Odin's emissary sought, and the PCs pondered flinging the ring through one of the veils. The GM noted that every group did something different.

Indeed, Odin's emissary did want the ring, as well as an oath of loyalty. I forget exactly how the PCs did it, but those who swore oaths, whether to Odin's emissary or to Surt's, phrased things in such a way as to pledge loyalty to Evinguard. I think they convinced the emissaries that, clearly, it was in Evinguard's interest for [whichever emissary they were addressing at the moment] to get the ring, and the emissaries accepted this logic.

So, the next step was to collect the ring, which was guarded by a river hag. Well, in the spring, she was fairer and sweeter tempered, but this was Fimbulwinter.

The group set off, and I think they bought iron snowshoes. At one point, there was an omen sent by Odin, I think involving the behavior of ravens, which could be interpreted as counseling relying not on strength, but on cunning and thought.

Bard: Thanks, Odie!

The group rested, but I think did post watches, and those who were asleep woke when they realized that they were being attacked / approached by dead children. I gather that the omen was supposed to indicate that they could use cunning, but brute force seemed to work as well. And, I discovered that my witch could throw devastating spells against the undead children _and_ bless her comrades, all without bothering to sit up.

At this point, we called the session, as it had been about four hours, and most of us had to be somewhere. I don't know how easy I would find running the game, as we played with the author, but it was a lot of fun.