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Iron dm summer champion announced!
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<blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 996008" data-attributes="member: 5137"><p>Ha. I said concise earlier. I lied.</p><p></p><p>Greybar, I sincerely apologize - this one kind of disproves everything I said to you.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, here it is...</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><span style="color: orange">Hateful Ambition</span><strong>[size]</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Primary ingredients:</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Leach - the pumice stone cup, which can be stolen</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Lost vault - the burial chambers</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Horn of Valhalla - Gjöll</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Horseshoes - the PCs' method of getting to Hel or Asgard</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Dark side of a moon - the final battle; where Ing hides</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Wuxia cat - Oddir</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Secondary ingredients:</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Fairy-tale land - Asgard, the rainbow bridge, c'mon!</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Eyes - how to get to fairy-tale land for Ing</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Gifted apprentice - Ing</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Unfriendly barber - Thorsteinn (and Oddir)</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>OVERVIEW</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>The setting is your favorite Norse or Viking period, and can be thrown against a variety of historical periods.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>In essence, the PCs find themselves arrayed against Ingjaldirsdotter ("Ing"), who wants to become a goddess and cast vengeance on those who 'mistreated her' in life. The primary battle will be to destroy her tools, kill her, or otherwise prevent her from succeeding - and without PC intervention, she WILL succeed. If she loses, the PCs have saved the day and move on to the next challenge; if she wins, the PCs have a longterm enemy goddess, and probably a few divine allies as well, and will need to start looking at their longterm survival prospects.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Ing has to acquire the eyes of seven heroes; make a razor of mistletoe; steal the horn of Valhalla; acquire dragon's blood; and kidnap and threaten a god. All of these can be re-attempted until Ing is brought to justice before the gods, killed, memory-wiped or something similar. It is necessary to stop her with at least a few of these (to buy time), and then find <em>her</em>.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>She would also like to kill one god in particular (Eir), and murder her former mentor (Thorsteinn). Although Thorsteinn knows this, Eir does not, and Eir is unlikely to believe it, as Ing is a cleric/healer of hers.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>This text provides many tools to run the adventure, but does not go into the specifics of designing the vaults, or setting up Asgard for invasion. The word count would be obscene if it did <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>GENERAL COMMENTS, DEFINITIONS & DISCLAIMERS</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Level: Somewhere around 7th to 10th is probably best.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Leach is not the same as leech. The definition I am using is that of a porous vessel used to draw liquids from an object (or to draw solubles from a liquid).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Vault also has a lot of meanings, but the one I'm using is that of a burial chamber, particularly one with an arched structure.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>For the Horn of Valhalla, I decided to go with Gjöll (sometimes spelled Gjall or Gjallar), which is the horn Heimdall will blow on at Ragnarok (it is also the horn which Odin uses to summon the gods to war against giants and that sort of thing).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>For Wuxia, I'm using more of it's original meaning. Wu is martial, or having to do with war, while Xia is a person who "is honest in words, effective in action, faithful in keeping promises, fearless in offering his own life to free the righteous from bondage." (Sima Qian) Wuxia, then, is the Chinese variant of the gentleman-knight, but also carries a bit more to it. Xia typically indicated a certain amount of outsider status - the xia was often from humble background, and was often a non-conformist. My Wuxia cat, then, is a feline that embodies these principles.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Wuxia is also associated with high-leaping, high-power, asian butt-kicking, like <em>Warriors of Zu Mountain</em> and <em>The Bride with White Hair</em>. However, that is when 'wuxia' is used as an adjective for a <em>genre</em> (for example, 'wuxia film'). 'Cat' is not a genre I'm familiar with, so I have used it in the context of its meaning for an individual.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>CAST & CREW</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>(note: 'j' is usually pronounced 'y', and 'i' is pronounced as in 'pin'; everything else is usually similar enough to English)</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Gjöll:</strong> The <span style="color: orange">horn of Valhalla</span>, guarded by Hrist and Mist (the two valkyries who serve Odin by bringing the horn when he calls for it). It is also the horn which will be blown by Heimdall when Ragnarok comes. It's primary property is that it can be heard throughout the Nine Worlds, and that when it is heard, virtually all of the Asir will gather in Asgard to prepare for battle, whether that battle is something Odin has chosen, or the beginning of Ragnarok.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Einherjar:</strong> The "sons of Odin", heroes who have been chosen on the battlefield by the valkyries to go to Valhalla. They are important to this story only in that they exist - the eyes of their corpses are useful in the making of a potion which Ingjaldirsdotter needs.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Eir:</strong> Goddess of healing and shamanic healers, companion of the goddess Frigg. She taught her secrets only to women, who were the only healers in Norse society.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Hrist:</strong> A valkyrja, an immortal female servant to Odin. Hrist is known as the "Shaker", who caused land to shake and rend (the valkyries possessed the power to determine who won or lost battles - for purposes of this text, it is assumed that they did so through manipulation of the landscape). Hrist is the less subtle of the two valkyries protecting Gjöll, and tends towards smash strategies.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>For stats, a good mix is a half-celestial stone giant redescribed to be a beautiful valkyrja, with chain shirt, Huge longspear, and earth-related spell-like abilities (including <em>earthquake</em> several times a day, or possibly at will). She rides a half-celestial Huge heavy warhorse (+ fly 100 ft).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Ingjaldirsdotter ('Ing'):</strong> The barber's beautiful and talented and evil apprentice.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Loki:</strong> An Asir god whose name means "knotted loop". He's the kink in everyone's plans, the Great Satan of Norse myth... but he's also a bringer of knowledge to humanity, and one of the few gods who would stand with the downtrodden against the other Asir. Unfortunately for mortalkind, his idea of 'help' is usually filled with hate, bile and cruelty, but at least he's trying.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Mist:</strong> A valkyrja, an immortal female servant to Odin. Mist's name means "Fog", and she often covered the battlefield in mists (see Hrist's entry). Mist is a subtle warrior, using mists and air magics to her best advantage.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>For stats, Mist can be built the same way as Hrist, except that her spell-like abilities should be air-related (including <em>obscuring mist</em> at will).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Oddir:</strong> A wise and ancient and very unfriendly cat who teaches philosophy to strangers in the wilderness, and kicks ass when and where needed. Oddir is <em>actually</em> Thorsteinn, below, after his apprentice got through with him.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Thorsteinn:</strong> An immensely skilled physician and barber, and in some ways the ideal Norse hero (he is a master of all manly arts, including warfare, but has devoted himself to his practice as a physician). His ability to be a hero has been taken away, however, and so he must work through others.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>BACKGROUND</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Once upon a time, there was a powerful physician named Thorsteinn, whose skills very nearly rivalled those of Eir's healers (Eir is a goddess, her healers are mortal women), despite a lack of magic. Eir approached this physician in a dream, and told him that if he continued to defy her will with his medicine, that she would either kill him or turn him into a woman.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Thorsteinn was not keen on either option, and offered a compromise - he would be allowed to continue his practice, but he would apprentice a young healer, teach her his ways, and never teach another man. Eir considered, and agreed. It was a way of turning Thorsteinn into a woman, just from one generation to the next, and with fewer hard feelings, Thorsteinn's precious knowledge would not be lost.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>There were still a few hard feelings, of course, and Thorsteinn greatly resented his apprentice, for he had wanted his son to carry on his tradition. He grew to hate Eir, but feared her threats enough to teach the apprentice what he could.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Ingjaldirsdotter, his apprentice, was a young and beautiful woman, but she was primarily chosen by Eir to learn from Thorsteinn because she was also immensely talented. However, Ing grew bitter under the stingy tutelage of Thorsteinn, and came to feel that she had been given over to Hel by her goddess. She came to resent everything, and she would have simply grown into a very bitter crone of a healer, except that she chanced upon something that provided a terrible opportunity, at a terrible price.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Thorsteinn, after all, could not have achieved such skill on his own. Many of his poultices and healing methods and tools were beyond the ken of mortal physicians prior to him. The idea that he could have discovered each principle and method on his own was beyond unlikely. For Thorsteinn had been given a book by Loki, the knotted loop of the Norse pantheon, and in this book were many secrets. In return, Thorsteinn had promised to keep the book secret and locked away, and had given up his youth.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Ing found the book. Thorsteinn, despite his bitterness, was a good man, and refused to use many of the terrible secrets in the book. Ing was not such a man, but a resentful and vengeful woman. Each night, she carefully copied the pages she wanted, as Loki laughed deep beneath the earth.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>The book held many secrets, but those that Ing chose to copy would allow her to see the divine (a prereq to some of the others), find (and use) Gjöll (the horn of Valhalla) to become a goddess, transform men into animals, and create a razor made of mistletoe which could kill a god (or mortal). However, the book did not give these powers to her - it merely explained how to acquire them.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>The first she mastered was the easiest - the ability to transform men into animals (<em>baneful polymorph</em> for those making the switch to 3.5e <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />) - and she used this upon Thorsteinn when he discovered her. She meant to turn him into a toad, but he managed to transform the curse (although not eliminate it - like the 12th Good Fairy at Sleeping Beauty's ceremony, he could only change it) and became an unusually large cat instead, and escaped with Loki's book of secrets held in his mouth.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Still, he was out of the picture, and unable to return himself to his original form. And so she began to work on the other secrets, and the PCs came onto the scene.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>LOKI'S BOOK OF SECRETS</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>This is effectively out of the picture, but the recordings of Ing are still around. They are:</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Transforming men into animals:</strong> This requires a potion (but the Brew Potion feat is sufficient), but it can be thrown as a missile weapon for the same effect. The result is a permanent <em>polymorph other</em> into the Small-size or smaller Animal of your choice. It does not affect Intelligence, but does prevent human speech. A <em>disjunction</em> or <em>wish</em> could break it, but no lesser magics can.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Seeing the divine:</strong> As with transforming men, this requires a potion, but the ingredients are extremely specific - the eye juice of an Einherjar (the warriors chosen to go to Valhalla). In order to get to Valhalla, one must have the potion (to see the rainbow bridge), but to make the potion, one needs something from Valhalla... except that the corpses are here in this world. Ing will be raiding burial mounds to get enough Einherjar eye juice.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Each potion takes seven days to make, and requires the eyes of seven Einherjar. They must be placed in a cup of ensorcelled pumice stone (which is very expensive to enchant, and is only useful for this purpose), which is itself placed in a ceramic jar. The stronger the Einherjar, the better the resulting potion, and the longer it lasts. Ing is going after the eyes of the seven greatest warriors, which she expects to last for her a year and a day... surely long enough for her to achieve her other goals.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Secrets of Gjöll:</strong> The horn of Valhalla can be heard throughout the Nine Worlds, and thus is useful for summoning the gods. But it has another use as well. A potion made of dragon's blood can provide partial immortality, but only in the Mortal World (and does not protect against violent death); if it is drunk from Gjöll (in an 8 hour ceremony), however, it provides one with immortality in all Nine Worlds, and the invulnerability of a god. With a good bargain with another god, one could become a god by this method.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>The other side of the secret is where the horn is located: at the mouth of the Gjöll <em>river</em>, somewhere in Hel's realm. It is protected there by Hrist and Mist, Odin's horn-bearer valkyries.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Razor of mistletoe:</strong> Mistletoe is truly deadly only to Baldur, but a weapon made of it can be harmful to any Asir god, and a sharp blade made of transformed mistletoe is a weapon which can kill, if it is wielded with sufficient skill and strength. Making it requires a great deal of time and magical work, however.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>For stats, treat as a <em>vorpal dagger</em> +5 which automatically gets past the DR of gods (but the vorpal aspect only does x5 damage to a god; it kills a mortal). The cost and XP is quadrupled or so, whatever you feel is appropriate for such a fine weapon.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>INGJALDIRSDOTTER'S PLAN</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>She seeks the tombs of the seven greatest Einherjar to ever live, but will settle for as few as three or four of them, plus a few other Einherjar, if she has to. She is also crafting the <em>mistletoe razor</em>. When she has both, she will make the potion and apply it to her eyes, use her divine sight to find the rainbow bridge and cross it to Hel (Heimdall guards the way to Asgard), where she will seek Gjöll and steal it.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Her skills as a physician and healer have provided her with a great deal in the way of money, and she has used it to hire a number of mercenaries to help her on the specifics - acquiring dragon's blood, stealing the eyes of the Einherjar, and continuing to hunt for Thorsteinn (who is going under the alias Oddir to avoid magical discovery by name).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Once she has Gjöll, the razor, and the dragon's blood, she will make herself immortal in an eight hour long ceremony, and then attempt to sneak into Asgard with the razor and horn, where she plans to kidnap one of the weaker gods and bargain with them for power. If possible, she will choose Eir, but she won't throw her plan away for that petty part of her vengeance - she can always kill Eir later.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>It's an insane, low-probability plan, overall, but Ing sees it as a choice between dying and going to Hel, or getting her revenge and power fantasies fulfilled. The idea of simply living out her life is abhorrent.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>GATECRASHING</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>There are several good hooks, which will affect how this scenario runs:</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>1) The party is one of the mercenary groups hired by Ing. To them, she is merely a charming, beautiful, rich physician who needs a dollop of dragon's blood (or, if they are more suited, the eyes of a great hero). Or perhaps she hires them to eliminate a monstrous cat that is haunting the nearby wilderness. Regardless, she's the Good Guy. Run them through one of the sub-scenarios, help her out a bit, and then have them run into Oddir (or, if they are hunting Oddir, let them get into a fight with him and then talk - if they somehow kill him, use a mysterious 'physician secret' he learned to turn his body to smoke and bring him back after a few days).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>2) The party runs into Oddir in the wilderness. He asks for help, yadda yadda. See the "Meeting Oddir" section.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>3) The party is travelling through a rural area and is hired to investigate a robbery. Specifically, the tomb of a great hero of the area, the only bit of history the place has, has been raided. Worse, the eyes of the corpse were stolen, which means that his eyes are now missing in Valhalla, as well. They want the eyes recovered, at least half of the treasures of the tomb returned, and the culprits brought in for justice (to be then killed as messily as the imagination of the local leader allows). When the party tries to capture the mercenary band that is making their way back to Ing, Oddir will show up and help them fight. Any mercenaries brought in alive will be mysteriously changed into animals while in prison.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>4) If one of the PCs puts stock in their ancestors, start the session with a "holiday" visit to one of their more famously heroic ancestors... only to find the tomb broken open, their family wailing and gnashing teeth, and then run it as (3), above.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>5) Oddir mistakes the party for the mercenary band who just stole some eyes. A fight ensues, as per the options under (1), and then he asks for their help as per (2).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Most of these hooks focus on getting them to talk to Oddir, so now let's go to that section.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>MEETING ODDIR</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Oddir is a 20th level Expert focused on healing, knowledge and butt-kicking. In general, he has at least a +28 skill in almost anything he needs to, a +15 BAB, proficiency in the weapons he needs, improved unarmed strike, etc. He's bad ass, for an NPC class.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>He also knows numerous Secrets from the book, and so has many weird powers that simply aren't very explainable in terms of class. The best way to represent this is probably the vampire template - energy drain is a "life force punch", the ability to turn to mist is a body control secret, etc. Ignore the vulnerability to sunlight and ability to spawn undead, and give him a vulnerability to misteltoe-covered weapons, and you should be set.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Oddir knows that his former apprentice has been in the Book of Secrets, but he doesn't know what she knows. If the party doesn't know about the eyes of the heroes, he will; if they DO know, he won't. Either way, when he finds out, he'll know what she's planning with them, since there aren't very many uses for Einherjar eyes.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Oddir is cantankerous, uppity and generally annoying. The goal is not to have the PC's like him - in fact, they should empathize with Ing at least a bit (at least with the "killing Thorsteinn" part - the rest of her plan is evil, evil, evil). However, they need him. He's the only other mortal familiar with the Secrets, and he only gives out information very, very grudgingly (he doesn't want a repeat of Ing).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Nor will he fight with them, unless the enemy is already easy. He is aware of the importance of staying alive and keeping the secrets in his head; since he can't share them, he also can't afford to die. So he will act in a seemingly cowardly fashion, even though he's not really afraid, and will generally try to stay out of trouble.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>After all, fights are what PCs are for.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Oddir's purpose is to be the Voice of the GM. He should be an inscrutable, irritating bastard, but he always comes up with good information. He will be the breakpoint between individual adventures in the scenario, the "tavern" they return to for their next mission.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Heavy-handed? Hell, it's Norse mythology <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Variant Note:</strong> As an alternative, and for a more evil-oriented party, you could flip this around. Have them work for Ing the whole way through - she's promised them positions of power in Asgard, and once she's established (having risked her life to test the theory), she'll ascend them as well. Then throw PC-like parties at them.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Other Note:</strong> Oddir is unwilling to give his true name (in case she learned one of the secrets that will let her find him if he states it aloud), nor will he use hers (for the same reason). He can only tell the PCs that the fight is against a beautiful physician. Even if they figure out who she is (or met her in the hooks section), she will have gone into hiding before they catch her. See the HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT section.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>PLACES AND EVENTS</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Burial Chambers:</strong> There will be at least seven vaults, guarded by ghosts, town defenses, etc. The families and towns near the vaults will not be able to afford to let the PCs in to guard them, because the PCs could be the thieves in disguise. They will guard them more carefully due to the warning, of course, but this will not be effective if the PCs are completely hands off about it.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>So the PCs have several choices: break in themselves and steal the eyes themselves to prevent Ing getting them; stake out the place and hope it's the next one hit; keep an ear to the ground for thefts and try to catch the thieves as they run back to Ing; or some other plan I can't imagine <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>The burial chambers themselves are simple affairs, usually a barrow mound with a deep tunnel entrance, a few side chambers, and a massive room large enough for a good fight. Vary it up a little from tomb to tomb, but overall, you're going to be running SEVEN of these, so don't make them too deep or complex.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>The Dragon:</strong> Pick one of the smaller, less well-defended dragons in your campaign. Make him Ing's target.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>The PCs will get wind of this when the first group of mercenaries dies in the attempt. Ing hires another set, and sends them off, and Oddir hears about the first group. Oddir isn't sure what she wants the dragon's blood for, but he can think of at least a dozen evil, heinous uses which she shouldn't. So the PCs will need to defend the dragon, or, at the worst, prevent its blood from being taken.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>This is a good fight to save for near the end, since it is likely to involve high powered mercenaries.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Hel:</strong> Ing herself has to go to Hel, and races upriver to find the source where Bjöll is. The PCs will have the opportunity to stop <em>her</em> from reaching her objective here, at which point she will attempt to escape (to try again another day). Ing should be a high level Cleric, sufficient to provide the PCs with a severe butt kicking (but still defeatable), and have a reasonable chance to escape.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Asgard:</strong> If they failed to completely stop her, Ing will be going to Asgard. She can't sneak past Heimdall, so she does something different: she <em>blows the horn in the Mortal World.</em> As all of the warrior-type gods rush to Midgard (including Heimdall), she sneaks across the rainbow bridge to find the weaker gods who were left behind.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>The PCs will hear the horn, as do all living things in all Worlds, and Oddir will finally realize what she intends. This will be the final battle - she'll be at her full power, damned near immortal, and extremely desparate to finish her bid for power before the other gods discover the truth. If the PCs stop her, good; if they don't, you get to grin viciously and explain that she is now the goddess of the dark side of the moon.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>MISCELLANY</strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Mistletoe Razor:</strong> This takes Ing a full month to make, or any other dramatically appropriate time. While the PCs are fighting off vault thieves, she's making this. In general, there's no reason for the PCs to know to try to prevent this - but when they do find out about it, Oddir will grudgingly tell them that it can be destroyed by soaking it in holy water for seven days.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>He will also inform them that if they just keep it, the gods will be after them (possibly untrue, but he doesn't want such an abominable thing to exist in the world).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Gjöll:</strong> At some point, Ing will have the divine sight potion and the razor. Whether she has the dragon's blood or not (but definitely after the attempt), it will be time to go to Hel and steal the horn.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>Oddir will realize this when he puts the elements together - the potionof divine sight, the attempt on dragon's blood... it all adds up to a shot at immortality.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>He won't tell the PCs about the "power of a god" part, he'll just say that she's trying to get a Boon, and that she mustn't get the horn. At this point, he'll tell them to make contact with a cleric of Odin he knew as a human (he won't himself - too dangerous).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Sleipnir's Horseshoes:</strong> The cleric can produce horseshoes, each with a tiny hair from Sleipnir's fur coat (Sleipnir is Odin's eight-legged horse, who can cross the planes, fly, etc.). Each horseshoe works for one round trip when nailed to a horse's hoof, and weighs 8 pounds. He will provide each PC with one shoe, and will replace them if needed, but will generally refuse to produce very many (each one costs XP, you see).</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>When nailed into a horse's hoof, the shoe provides the rider with the ability to teleport the horse and any riders into any of the Nine Worlds. The horse will then (likely) freak out, and the PCs will be where they wanted to be, just on the back of a freaked out horse. They can return at any time, as long as they still have their horse with them.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong><strong>Goddess Of The Dark Side Of The Moon:</strong> If Ing succeeds, she will become the goddess of one of the only things not already taken by the other gods - the dark, unlamented part of the moon. She's not happy about it, but it's available "divine real estate", and she'll play the part to the hilt.</strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong></strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>As the goddess of the dark side of the moon, she will have powers over darkness, dark emotions, and concealment. She will use these to begin wreaking havoc on the other gods, and any mortals that get in her way.</strong></strong></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="seasong, post: 996008, member: 5137"] Ha. I said concise earlier. I lied. Greybar, I sincerely apologize - this one kind of disproves everything I said to you. Anyway, here it is... [size=3][b][color=orange]Hateful Ambition[/color][b][size] Primary ingredients: Leach - the pumice stone cup, which can be stolen Lost vault - the burial chambers Horn of Valhalla - Gjöll Horseshoes - the PCs' method of getting to Hel or Asgard Dark side of a moon - the final battle; where Ing hides Wuxia cat - Oddir Secondary ingredients: Fairy-tale land - Asgard, the rainbow bridge, c'mon! Eyes - how to get to fairy-tale land for Ing Gifted apprentice - Ing Unfriendly barber - Thorsteinn (and Oddir) [b]OVERVIEW[/b] The setting is your favorite Norse or Viking period, and can be thrown against a variety of historical periods. In essence, the PCs find themselves arrayed against Ingjaldirsdotter ("Ing"), who wants to become a goddess and cast vengeance on those who 'mistreated her' in life. The primary battle will be to destroy her tools, kill her, or otherwise prevent her from succeeding - and without PC intervention, she WILL succeed. If she loses, the PCs have saved the day and move on to the next challenge; if she wins, the PCs have a longterm enemy goddess, and probably a few divine allies as well, and will need to start looking at their longterm survival prospects. Ing has to acquire the eyes of seven heroes; make a razor of mistletoe; steal the horn of Valhalla; acquire dragon's blood; and kidnap and threaten a god. All of these can be re-attempted until Ing is brought to justice before the gods, killed, memory-wiped or something similar. It is necessary to stop her with at least a few of these (to buy time), and then find [i]her[/i]. She would also like to kill one god in particular (Eir), and murder her former mentor (Thorsteinn). Although Thorsteinn knows this, Eir does not, and Eir is unlikely to believe it, as Ing is a cleric/healer of hers. This text provides many tools to run the adventure, but does not go into the specifics of designing the vaults, or setting up Asgard for invasion. The word count would be obscene if it did ;). [b]GENERAL COMMENTS, DEFINITIONS & DISCLAIMERS[/b] Level: Somewhere around 7th to 10th is probably best. Leach is not the same as leech. The definition I am using is that of a porous vessel used to draw liquids from an object (or to draw solubles from a liquid). Vault also has a lot of meanings, but the one I'm using is that of a burial chamber, particularly one with an arched structure. For the Horn of Valhalla, I decided to go with Gjöll (sometimes spelled Gjall or Gjallar), which is the horn Heimdall will blow on at Ragnarok (it is also the horn which Odin uses to summon the gods to war against giants and that sort of thing). For Wuxia, I'm using more of it's original meaning. Wu is martial, or having to do with war, while Xia is a person who "is honest in words, effective in action, faithful in keeping promises, fearless in offering his own life to free the righteous from bondage." (Sima Qian) Wuxia, then, is the Chinese variant of the gentleman-knight, but also carries a bit more to it. Xia typically indicated a certain amount of outsider status - the xia was often from humble background, and was often a non-conformist. My Wuxia cat, then, is a feline that embodies these principles. Wuxia is also associated with high-leaping, high-power, asian butt-kicking, like [i]Warriors of Zu Mountain[/i] and [i]The Bride with White Hair[/i]. However, that is when 'wuxia' is used as an adjective for a [i]genre[/i] (for example, 'wuxia film'). 'Cat' is not a genre I'm familiar with, so I have used it in the context of its meaning for an individual. [b]CAST & CREW[/b] (note: 'j' is usually pronounced 'y', and 'i' is pronounced as in 'pin'; everything else is usually similar enough to English) [b]Gjöll:[/b] The [color=orange]horn of Valhalla[/color], guarded by Hrist and Mist (the two valkyries who serve Odin by bringing the horn when he calls for it). It is also the horn which will be blown by Heimdall when Ragnarok comes. It's primary property is that it can be heard throughout the Nine Worlds, and that when it is heard, virtually all of the Asir will gather in Asgard to prepare for battle, whether that battle is something Odin has chosen, or the beginning of Ragnarok. [b]Einherjar:[/b] The "sons of Odin", heroes who have been chosen on the battlefield by the valkyries to go to Valhalla. They are important to this story only in that they exist - the eyes of their corpses are useful in the making of a potion which Ingjaldirsdotter needs. [b]Eir:[/b] Goddess of healing and shamanic healers, companion of the goddess Frigg. She taught her secrets only to women, who were the only healers in Norse society. [b]Hrist:[/b] A valkyrja, an immortal female servant to Odin. Hrist is known as the "Shaker", who caused land to shake and rend (the valkyries possessed the power to determine who won or lost battles - for purposes of this text, it is assumed that they did so through manipulation of the landscape). Hrist is the less subtle of the two valkyries protecting Gjöll, and tends towards smash strategies. For stats, a good mix is a half-celestial stone giant redescribed to be a beautiful valkyrja, with chain shirt, Huge longspear, and earth-related spell-like abilities (including [i]earthquake[/i] several times a day, or possibly at will). She rides a half-celestial Huge heavy warhorse (+ fly 100 ft). [b]Ingjaldirsdotter ('Ing'):[/b] The barber's beautiful and talented and evil apprentice. [b]Loki:[/b] An Asir god whose name means "knotted loop". He's the kink in everyone's plans, the Great Satan of Norse myth... but he's also a bringer of knowledge to humanity, and one of the few gods who would stand with the downtrodden against the other Asir. Unfortunately for mortalkind, his idea of 'help' is usually filled with hate, bile and cruelty, but at least he's trying. [b]Mist:[/b] A valkyrja, an immortal female servant to Odin. Mist's name means "Fog", and she often covered the battlefield in mists (see Hrist's entry). Mist is a subtle warrior, using mists and air magics to her best advantage. For stats, Mist can be built the same way as Hrist, except that her spell-like abilities should be air-related (including [i]obscuring mist[/i] at will). [b]Oddir:[/b] A wise and ancient and very unfriendly cat who teaches philosophy to strangers in the wilderness, and kicks ass when and where needed. Oddir is [i]actually[/i] Thorsteinn, below, after his apprentice got through with him. [b]Thorsteinn:[/b] An immensely skilled physician and barber, and in some ways the ideal Norse hero (he is a master of all manly arts, including warfare, but has devoted himself to his practice as a physician). His ability to be a hero has been taken away, however, and so he must work through others. [b]BACKGROUND[/b] Once upon a time, there was a powerful physician named Thorsteinn, whose skills very nearly rivalled those of Eir's healers (Eir is a goddess, her healers are mortal women), despite a lack of magic. Eir approached this physician in a dream, and told him that if he continued to defy her will with his medicine, that she would either kill him or turn him into a woman. Thorsteinn was not keen on either option, and offered a compromise - he would be allowed to continue his practice, but he would apprentice a young healer, teach her his ways, and never teach another man. Eir considered, and agreed. It was a way of turning Thorsteinn into a woman, just from one generation to the next, and with fewer hard feelings, Thorsteinn's precious knowledge would not be lost. There were still a few hard feelings, of course, and Thorsteinn greatly resented his apprentice, for he had wanted his son to carry on his tradition. He grew to hate Eir, but feared her threats enough to teach the apprentice what he could. Ingjaldirsdotter, his apprentice, was a young and beautiful woman, but she was primarily chosen by Eir to learn from Thorsteinn because she was also immensely talented. However, Ing grew bitter under the stingy tutelage of Thorsteinn, and came to feel that she had been given over to Hel by her goddess. She came to resent everything, and she would have simply grown into a very bitter crone of a healer, except that she chanced upon something that provided a terrible opportunity, at a terrible price. Thorsteinn, after all, could not have achieved such skill on his own. Many of his poultices and healing methods and tools were beyond the ken of mortal physicians prior to him. The idea that he could have discovered each principle and method on his own was beyond unlikely. For Thorsteinn had been given a book by Loki, the knotted loop of the Norse pantheon, and in this book were many secrets. In return, Thorsteinn had promised to keep the book secret and locked away, and had given up his youth. Ing found the book. Thorsteinn, despite his bitterness, was a good man, and refused to use many of the terrible secrets in the book. Ing was not such a man, but a resentful and vengeful woman. Each night, she carefully copied the pages she wanted, as Loki laughed deep beneath the earth. The book held many secrets, but those that Ing chose to copy would allow her to see the divine (a prereq to some of the others), find (and use) Gjöll (the horn of Valhalla) to become a goddess, transform men into animals, and create a razor made of mistletoe which could kill a god (or mortal). However, the book did not give these powers to her - it merely explained how to acquire them. The first she mastered was the easiest - the ability to transform men into animals ([i]baneful polymorph[/i] for those making the switch to 3.5e ;)) - and she used this upon Thorsteinn when he discovered her. She meant to turn him into a toad, but he managed to transform the curse (although not eliminate it - like the 12th Good Fairy at Sleeping Beauty's ceremony, he could only change it) and became an unusually large cat instead, and escaped with Loki's book of secrets held in his mouth. Still, he was out of the picture, and unable to return himself to his original form. And so she began to work on the other secrets, and the PCs came onto the scene. [b]LOKI'S BOOK OF SECRETS[/b] This is effectively out of the picture, but the recordings of Ing are still around. They are: [b]Transforming men into animals:[/b] This requires a potion (but the Brew Potion feat is sufficient), but it can be thrown as a missile weapon for the same effect. The result is a permanent [i]polymorph other[/i] into the Small-size or smaller Animal of your choice. It does not affect Intelligence, but does prevent human speech. A [i]disjunction[/i] or [i]wish[/i] could break it, but no lesser magics can. [b]Seeing the divine:[/b] As with transforming men, this requires a potion, but the ingredients are extremely specific - the eye juice of an Einherjar (the warriors chosen to go to Valhalla). In order to get to Valhalla, one must have the potion (to see the rainbow bridge), but to make the potion, one needs something from Valhalla... except that the corpses are here in this world. Ing will be raiding burial mounds to get enough Einherjar eye juice. Each potion takes seven days to make, and requires the eyes of seven Einherjar. They must be placed in a cup of ensorcelled pumice stone (which is very expensive to enchant, and is only useful for this purpose), which is itself placed in a ceramic jar. The stronger the Einherjar, the better the resulting potion, and the longer it lasts. Ing is going after the eyes of the seven greatest warriors, which she expects to last for her a year and a day... surely long enough for her to achieve her other goals. [b]Secrets of Gjöll:[/b] The horn of Valhalla can be heard throughout the Nine Worlds, and thus is useful for summoning the gods. But it has another use as well. A potion made of dragon's blood can provide partial immortality, but only in the Mortal World (and does not protect against violent death); if it is drunk from Gjöll (in an 8 hour ceremony), however, it provides one with immortality in all Nine Worlds, and the invulnerability of a god. With a good bargain with another god, one could become a god by this method. The other side of the secret is where the horn is located: at the mouth of the Gjöll [i]river[/i], somewhere in Hel's realm. It is protected there by Hrist and Mist, Odin's horn-bearer valkyries. [b]Razor of mistletoe:[/b] Mistletoe is truly deadly only to Baldur, but a weapon made of it can be harmful to any Asir god, and a sharp blade made of transformed mistletoe is a weapon which can kill, if it is wielded with sufficient skill and strength. Making it requires a great deal of time and magical work, however. For stats, treat as a [i]vorpal dagger[/i] +5 which automatically gets past the DR of gods (but the vorpal aspect only does x5 damage to a god; it kills a mortal). The cost and XP is quadrupled or so, whatever you feel is appropriate for such a fine weapon. [b]INGJALDIRSDOTTER'S PLAN[/b] She seeks the tombs of the seven greatest Einherjar to ever live, but will settle for as few as three or four of them, plus a few other Einherjar, if she has to. She is also crafting the [i]mistletoe razor[/i]. When she has both, she will make the potion and apply it to her eyes, use her divine sight to find the rainbow bridge and cross it to Hel (Heimdall guards the way to Asgard), where she will seek Gjöll and steal it. Her skills as a physician and healer have provided her with a great deal in the way of money, and she has used it to hire a number of mercenaries to help her on the specifics - acquiring dragon's blood, stealing the eyes of the Einherjar, and continuing to hunt for Thorsteinn (who is going under the alias Oddir to avoid magical discovery by name). Once she has Gjöll, the razor, and the dragon's blood, she will make herself immortal in an eight hour long ceremony, and then attempt to sneak into Asgard with the razor and horn, where she plans to kidnap one of the weaker gods and bargain with them for power. If possible, she will choose Eir, but she won't throw her plan away for that petty part of her vengeance - she can always kill Eir later. It's an insane, low-probability plan, overall, but Ing sees it as a choice between dying and going to Hel, or getting her revenge and power fantasies fulfilled. The idea of simply living out her life is abhorrent. [b]GATECRASHING[/b] There are several good hooks, which will affect how this scenario runs: 1) The party is one of the mercenary groups hired by Ing. To them, she is merely a charming, beautiful, rich physician who needs a dollop of dragon's blood (or, if they are more suited, the eyes of a great hero). Or perhaps she hires them to eliminate a monstrous cat that is haunting the nearby wilderness. Regardless, she's the Good Guy. Run them through one of the sub-scenarios, help her out a bit, and then have them run into Oddir (or, if they are hunting Oddir, let them get into a fight with him and then talk - if they somehow kill him, use a mysterious 'physician secret' he learned to turn his body to smoke and bring him back after a few days). 2) The party runs into Oddir in the wilderness. He asks for help, yadda yadda. See the "Meeting Oddir" section. 3) The party is travelling through a rural area and is hired to investigate a robbery. Specifically, the tomb of a great hero of the area, the only bit of history the place has, has been raided. Worse, the eyes of the corpse were stolen, which means that his eyes are now missing in Valhalla, as well. They want the eyes recovered, at least half of the treasures of the tomb returned, and the culprits brought in for justice (to be then killed as messily as the imagination of the local leader allows). When the party tries to capture the mercenary band that is making their way back to Ing, Oddir will show up and help them fight. Any mercenaries brought in alive will be mysteriously changed into animals while in prison. 4) If one of the PCs puts stock in their ancestors, start the session with a "holiday" visit to one of their more famously heroic ancestors... only to find the tomb broken open, their family wailing and gnashing teeth, and then run it as (3), above. 5) Oddir mistakes the party for the mercenary band who just stole some eyes. A fight ensues, as per the options under (1), and then he asks for their help as per (2). Most of these hooks focus on getting them to talk to Oddir, so now let's go to that section. [b]MEETING ODDIR[/b] Oddir is a 20th level Expert focused on healing, knowledge and butt-kicking. In general, he has at least a +28 skill in almost anything he needs to, a +15 BAB, proficiency in the weapons he needs, improved unarmed strike, etc. He's bad ass, for an NPC class. He also knows numerous Secrets from the book, and so has many weird powers that simply aren't very explainable in terms of class. The best way to represent this is probably the vampire template - energy drain is a "life force punch", the ability to turn to mist is a body control secret, etc. Ignore the vulnerability to sunlight and ability to spawn undead, and give him a vulnerability to misteltoe-covered weapons, and you should be set. Oddir knows that his former apprentice has been in the Book of Secrets, but he doesn't know what she knows. If the party doesn't know about the eyes of the heroes, he will; if they DO know, he won't. Either way, when he finds out, he'll know what she's planning with them, since there aren't very many uses for Einherjar eyes. Oddir is cantankerous, uppity and generally annoying. The goal is not to have the PC's like him - in fact, they should empathize with Ing at least a bit (at least with the "killing Thorsteinn" part - the rest of her plan is evil, evil, evil). However, they need him. He's the only other mortal familiar with the Secrets, and he only gives out information very, very grudgingly (he doesn't want a repeat of Ing). Nor will he fight with them, unless the enemy is already easy. He is aware of the importance of staying alive and keeping the secrets in his head; since he can't share them, he also can't afford to die. So he will act in a seemingly cowardly fashion, even though he's not really afraid, and will generally try to stay out of trouble. After all, fights are what PCs are for. Oddir's purpose is to be the Voice of the GM. He should be an inscrutable, irritating bastard, but he always comes up with good information. He will be the breakpoint between individual adventures in the scenario, the "tavern" they return to for their next mission. Heavy-handed? Hell, it's Norse mythology ;). [b]Variant Note:[/b] As an alternative, and for a more evil-oriented party, you could flip this around. Have them work for Ing the whole way through - she's promised them positions of power in Asgard, and once she's established (having risked her life to test the theory), she'll ascend them as well. Then throw PC-like parties at them. [b]Other Note:[/b] Oddir is unwilling to give his true name (in case she learned one of the secrets that will let her find him if he states it aloud), nor will he use hers (for the same reason). He can only tell the PCs that the fight is against a beautiful physician. Even if they figure out who she is (or met her in the hooks section), she will have gone into hiding before they catch her. See the HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT section. [b]PLACES AND EVENTS[/b] [b]Burial Chambers:[/b] There will be at least seven vaults, guarded by ghosts, town defenses, etc. The families and towns near the vaults will not be able to afford to let the PCs in to guard them, because the PCs could be the thieves in disguise. They will guard them more carefully due to the warning, of course, but this will not be effective if the PCs are completely hands off about it. So the PCs have several choices: break in themselves and steal the eyes themselves to prevent Ing getting them; stake out the place and hope it's the next one hit; keep an ear to the ground for thefts and try to catch the thieves as they run back to Ing; or some other plan I can't imagine ;). The burial chambers themselves are simple affairs, usually a barrow mound with a deep tunnel entrance, a few side chambers, and a massive room large enough for a good fight. Vary it up a little from tomb to tomb, but overall, you're going to be running SEVEN of these, so don't make them too deep or complex. [b]The Dragon:[/b] Pick one of the smaller, less well-defended dragons in your campaign. Make him Ing's target. The PCs will get wind of this when the first group of mercenaries dies in the attempt. Ing hires another set, and sends them off, and Oddir hears about the first group. Oddir isn't sure what she wants the dragon's blood for, but he can think of at least a dozen evil, heinous uses which she shouldn't. So the PCs will need to defend the dragon, or, at the worst, prevent its blood from being taken. This is a good fight to save for near the end, since it is likely to involve high powered mercenaries. [b]Hel:[/b] Ing herself has to go to Hel, and races upriver to find the source where Bjöll is. The PCs will have the opportunity to stop [i]her[/i] from reaching her objective here, at which point she will attempt to escape (to try again another day). Ing should be a high level Cleric, sufficient to provide the PCs with a severe butt kicking (but still defeatable), and have a reasonable chance to escape. [b]Asgard:[/b] If they failed to completely stop her, Ing will be going to Asgard. She can't sneak past Heimdall, so she does something different: she [i]blows the horn in the Mortal World.[/i] As all of the warrior-type gods rush to Midgard (including Heimdall), she sneaks across the rainbow bridge to find the weaker gods who were left behind. The PCs will hear the horn, as do all living things in all Worlds, and Oddir will finally realize what she intends. This will be the final battle - she'll be at her full power, damned near immortal, and extremely desparate to finish her bid for power before the other gods discover the truth. If the PCs stop her, good; if they don't, you get to grin viciously and explain that she is now the goddess of the dark side of the moon. [b]MISCELLANY[/b] [b]Mistletoe Razor:[/b] This takes Ing a full month to make, or any other dramatically appropriate time. While the PCs are fighting off vault thieves, she's making this. In general, there's no reason for the PCs to know to try to prevent this - but when they do find out about it, Oddir will grudgingly tell them that it can be destroyed by soaking it in holy water for seven days. He will also inform them that if they just keep it, the gods will be after them (possibly untrue, but he doesn't want such an abominable thing to exist in the world). [b]Gjöll:[/b] At some point, Ing will have the divine sight potion and the razor. Whether she has the dragon's blood or not (but definitely after the attempt), it will be time to go to Hel and steal the horn. Oddir will realize this when he puts the elements together - the potionof divine sight, the attempt on dragon's blood... it all adds up to a shot at immortality. He won't tell the PCs about the "power of a god" part, he'll just say that she's trying to get a Boon, and that she mustn't get the horn. At this point, he'll tell them to make contact with a cleric of Odin he knew as a human (he won't himself - too dangerous). [b]Sleipnir's Horseshoes:[/b] The cleric can produce horseshoes, each with a tiny hair from Sleipnir's fur coat (Sleipnir is Odin's eight-legged horse, who can cross the planes, fly, etc.). Each horseshoe works for one round trip when nailed to a horse's hoof, and weighs 8 pounds. He will provide each PC with one shoe, and will replace them if needed, but will generally refuse to produce very many (each one costs XP, you see). When nailed into a horse's hoof, the shoe provides the rider with the ability to teleport the horse and any riders into any of the Nine Worlds. The horse will then (likely) freak out, and the PCs will be where they wanted to be, just on the back of a freaked out horse. They can return at any time, as long as they still have their horse with them. [b]Goddess Of The Dark Side Of The Moon:[/b] If Ing succeeds, she will become the goddess of one of the only things not already taken by the other gods - the dark, unlamented part of the moon. She's not happy about it, but it's available "divine real estate", and she'll play the part to the hilt. As the goddess of the dark side of the moon, she will have powers over darkness, dark emotions, and concealment. She will use these to begin wreaking havoc on the other gods, and any mortals that get in her way.[/b][/b][/size] [/QUOTE]
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