Witches and Giants: A NorseQuest Riot Fangame

Domestic Dispute

Katla Bubblingbroth and Katla Eriksdottir were talking. More specifically, they were arguing.

"Iceland moss is fine in a porridge, sure, but mixing it with a soup is such a waste. The flavor is too strong, it's better to bake into a bread if you are trying to save flour, and make into a tea for health in good times."

"No, the soup mellows the flavor enough that it enhances the taste! You've had my soup, it's as good for the lungs as it is in tea, and the tea is bitter besides!"

"If the tea is bitter you brew it poorly, a few hours to heat and the tea is sweet!"

"If you are to brew tea for hours you may as well make soup, it's as sweet in soup as it is in tea!"

"A soup shouldn't be sweet!"

"That's what the angelica is for! Mine is some of the best on the island, you've seen my garden!"

Both women pause for a moment to take a breath. Bubblingbroth moves to stir the pot as one of her children runs up, spindle in hand.

"Mama! I did it!"

The girl proudly displays a length of wool, spun smoothly.

Both Katla's smile for a moment, one proud and the other fond. The mother responds.

"Well done! You'll be spinning better than your mama if you keep that up!"

The girl giggles, and runs off, taking her spinning with her as she runs outside. Katla Bubblingbroth calls after her.

"Take the roving with you, Fjóra!"

The girl spins around on one foot, nearly falls over, and runs back over to the door as she moves to pick up the basket, and the women sit in companionable silence for a moment. The hostess interrupts the moment.

"I hope my daughters are as energetic as her. She's a good girl."

Katla Bubblingbroth laughs. "You might not think that after they wake you in the night enough times! She slept poorly as a baby. Thank the gods she settled down a bit, or else you might regret hosting us!"


Authors Note: I got a lot of information from Edible wild plant use in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It's useful if you want to know what your characters might be gathering or growing in gardens rather than fields.
 
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Domestic Dispute

Katla Bubblingbroth and Katla Eriksdottir were talking. More specifically, they were arguing.

"Iceland moss is fine in a porridge, sure, but mixing it with a soup is such a waste. The flavor is too strong, it's better to bake into a bread if you are trying to save flour, and make into a tea for health in good times."

"No, the soup mellows the flavor enough that it enhances the taste! You've had my soup, it's as good for the lungs as it is in tea, and the tea is bitter besides!"

"If the tea is bitter you brew it poorly, a few hours to heat and the tea is sweet!"

"If you are to brew tea for hours you may as well make soup, it's as sweet in soup as it is in tea!"

"A soup shouldn't be sweet!"

"That's what the angelica is for! Mine is some of the best on the island, you've seen my garden!"

Both women pause for a moment to take a breath. Bubblingbroth moves to stir the pot as one of her children runs up, spindle in hand.

"Mama! I did it!"

The girl proudly displays a length of wool, spun smoothly.

Both Katla's smile for a moment, one proud and the other fond. The mother responds.

"Well done! You'll be spinning better than your mama if you keep that up!"

The girl giggles, and runs off, taking her spinning with her as she runs outside. Katla Bubblingbroth calls after her.

"Take the roving with you, Fjóra!"

The girl spins around on one foot, nearly falls over, and runs back over to the door as she moves to pick up the basket, and the women sit in companionable silence for a moment. The hostess interrupts the moment.

"I hope my daughters are as energetic as her. She's a good girl."

Katla Bubblingbroth laughs. "You might not think that after they wake you in the night enough times! She slept poorly as a baby. Thank the gods she settled down a bit, or else you might regret hosting us!"


Authors Note: I got a lot of information from Edible wild plant use in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It's useful if you want to know what your characters might be gathering or growing in gardens rather than fields.

I love this! For the story, +1 Omake. For the research, +1 Omake!

Expectations:

Audvin Chainbreaker's life had never gone how he expected it to. Not once, not in big things anyway. He hadn't expected to lose his mother at the age of five to a miscarriage of a baby that also didn't live, he hadn't expected his father to never remarry, or to move into his uncle's home with his father thereafter (not a truly unpleasant surprise, for once, but still a surprise), nor had he expected to spend his childhood trying and failing to activate the family bloodline. He certainly hadn't expected to be raided by pirates on his first foray out with his father, he hadn't expected to be bound in chains, he hadn't really expected to escape, and he sure hadn't expected his father's Fated Day to leave him a ship captain at 16 thereafter. So you'd think he'd have given up on expectations by that point, but that's easier said than done, and his expectations continued to be invalidated in the face of reality, though less unpleasantly thereafter...whatever bad luck had run through his childhood, he seemed to have broken the chains it had around him when he earned his Kenning.

But nevertheless, he certainly also hadn't been expecting to fall in love, nor how it happened. In the two years since his father had died and he had assumed ownership of a merchant ship, he had been primarily focused on the well-being of his crew, recruiting new ones as necessary, and various mercantile matters. He had expected that, were he to marry, it would be for monetary advantage and connections, or, as he occasionally imagined, to some woman so beautiful her beauty alone made him lose all reason, and resulted in a love like something from the sagas.

Neither of those things is what happened. Instead, he met a slim dark-haired woman his own age who at first seemed to like his ship more than she liked him, made dark jokes, and while she came from a family of great mariners, had little money and poor prospects. But, at least to him, her smile brightened the room and made him forget his troubles, she listened when he spoke and gave smart, level-headed advice when he engaged in flights of fancy or unrealistic idealism, but without dismissing his ideals or goals, and when he talked of freedom, she understood. He was smitten.

As a fairly successful merchant courting a girl with few prospects, he had relatively little trouble convincing Brynnhildr's family...his own was harder, but Audvin had always been gifted with words, and he managed the task well enough. And so they were married.

Being married wasn't like what Audvin had been taught to expect any more than falling in love had been. He was always taught that as a trader, one's wife stayed home and minded the house while you went out voyaging, but while his wife was certainly competent at traditional women's work, she was better known for drowning men with her Water Kunna and certainly a better sailor than her husband, and what's more, in love with the sea, absolutely refused to stay home most of the time. It must be said that Audvin didn't try very hard to convince her either, he liked having her with him, she was a wonderful person to have at your back in a fight or on a journey, and he was a great believer in freedom. So she came with him for the most part, defying another expectation, and the two were happy.

He hadn't expected to, only a few years later, be hired to free a thrall, and wind up incidentally freeing an entirely different one that had killed a Jarl's cousin, and needing to uproot his life for the Faroes, but by that point, he was honestly used to expectations not panning out, and hopeful, though admittedly worried and dubious, that such things could, in the end, be for the better. Time would tell whether that hope would ctually pan out, but at least he'd mostly gotten out of the habit of having specific expectations of how things would turn out.

"seemed to like his ship more than she liked him, made dark jokes," Brynnhildr characterization locked in. +1 omake.
 
could be the good kind, where it's how many wolves are rampaging through our farms. Also, since I don't think it's been mentioned in the Thread proper yet, the Screaming Tree is dealt with. It was pretty touch and go for a bit, most of us are near dead and Arne, once again, had to pull himself back together after taking a fatal blow. Reborn in Blood is really my saving grace in this game.
 
Hallþorra sighed, looking over her home. Her apprentices, Alfíkr, she reminded herself viciously, and the new one, Flikki Tokisson, were hard at work, doing the basic repairs on far too many swords. She snorted, irritated. At least the Jarl was good for something - providing work for her apprentices where she didn't care if they screwed up.

Flikki had clearly learned some skills from his father - her door almost looked like a rabid bear, perhaps one named Kamban, hadn't shattered it.

She shook her head and moved to the forge, activating her Sundersight. The places where things will break became clear, and she examined his work with a critical eye, wincing at the stress points. She might not care if Kamban's entire posse dropped dead after their tools betrayed them, but that was no excuse for shoddy work.

"Alright, we're redoing this one. Quench it slowly, don't drop it in, it'll shatter. And - I'd say don't hit it like you're trying to kill it, but you shouldn't actually fight like that either."
 
Midwinter 1 Non-Adventure Action Resolutions
[X] Ebbe Tryggrsson Mid Winter 1
-[X] Major Action: Caring for his Livestock (two Pigs [T2 and T1] and one T1 Cow) whilst breeding one two Units of Pigs. (One T2 via Husbandry 2 and one T1 from Productive 1, the T1 Cow produces three T1 Food [Cow Milk]).
--[X] Free Action: Slaughter one of the T1 Pigs for Food and Materials. (Four T1 Foods [Pig Meat/Pork], two T1 Hides [Pig Skins] and two T1 Bones [Pig Bones].)
--[X] Free Action: Slaughter/Sacrifice/Gift the last of the T1 Pigs to ??????.
--[X] Free Action: Send six T1 Food to the Community Warehouse in case the Jarl raids next Summer again. (Three T1 Pork, three T1 Cow Milk)

Ebbe Major: Under your watchful eye, new life comes into the world. You gain the listed livestock.
Slaughter: And remove the old. You've given these pigs a good life but their time has come.
Warehouse: One of the Kamban farmhands is standing guard at the warehouse and greets you warily. Villagers don't usually approach this land unless they have very good reason and he is instantly suspicious. Your offering is accepted, after being thoroughly inspected. Dagmar, it seems, is elsewhere. "Off fighting crabs, I think."
Sacrifice: You leave the carcass of the slaughtered pigs on the hill's dewy spot. That night, a thick fog rolls across Ebbesby, tendrils creeping in through the gaps in your sod blocks. In the morning, when you return to the hillside, they are gone.

[X] Audvin Chainbreaker
-[X] Food: Eat later in the turn.
-[X] Major: Creating a Tier 4 Farm on my plot (using T2 Seeds, T2 Farm Tools, and replacing my Farming 0 with my T2 Valley Plot)

Audvin Major: It was not the quiet season you expected. Twice did your property come under attack by roving packs of wolves. Despite the odds, with the help of family, each time you prevailed. At the close of winter, you survey your property. Much of the superficial damage has been fixed, although the barn is still lacking doors with holes broken in many places. Yet there, in the best land in the fertile valley, is your new field, your pride and joy.

Tier 4 Field created.

[X] Gyda Dahlberg Mid-Winter 1
- [X] Food Consumed: Not consuming food during Mid-Winter 1.
- [X] Major action: Gyda weaves three tapestries with different images. Her trait tier is 3, the instrument (Fylgja form) is tier 2, and the materials she uses are 1 tier 2 wool and 2 tier 3 wool. This should produce 1 tier 4 and 2 tier 5 textiles. Tier 4 tapestry depicts a high, isolated hill with steep rocky sides. The next one captures the previous season's battle with the stone monk. Alfin(@Shard) can choose the image of the final tapestry since that would be the payment for his Shapecraft service.
- [X] Fylgja major action: While in the loom form, the Fylgja guides Ordstirr along the threads and performs an Intermediate Filter Seidrcraft as Gyda weaves her Tier 4 tapestry of a rocky hill. The object now accumulates the essence of rock, forming a rough, thin outer layer when charged. Smashing it releases the stored force and temporarily raises the plot level so that the formed cliffs provide a natural defence. To recharge, provide the artefact with a unit of stone. The stone's quality impacts the height of the rise and the difficulty of climbing the cliffs.

Gyda Major Action: Weaving on the loom of your very soul, you create a tryptic of tapestries fit to make the Norns themselves weep. In one of the weaves, you and your soul stitch magic within and beyond the threads, making artwork co-existing on two planes of the Written World. To Seeing Eyes, the tapestry takes on additional beauty.

Created
Tier 4 Tapestry: Battle with the Mountain-Skin Monk
Tier 4 Imbued Tapestry: High Ground:
Activate to create natural defenses on a plot for a Season. Charged by offering a Unit of Stone. Tier of Stone affects strength of defenses. Uncharged.
Tier 5 Tapestry: @Shard depiction decided by Alfvin.
 
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Hallþorra sighed, looking over her home. Her apprentices, Alfíkr, she reminded herself viciously, and the new one, Flikki Tokisson, were hard at work, doing the basic repairs on far too many swords. She snorted, irritated. At least the Jarl was good for something - providing work for her apprentices where she didn't care if they screwed up.

Flikki had clearly learned some skills from his father - her door almost looked like a rabid bear, perhaps one named Kamban, hadn't shattered it.

She shook her head and moved to the forge, activating her Sundersight. The places where things will break became clear, and she examined his work with a critical eye, wincing at the stress points. She might not care if Kamban's entire posse dropped dead after their tools betrayed them, but that was no excuse for shoddy work.

"Alright, we're redoing this one. Quench it slowly, don't drop it in, it'll shatter. And - I'd say don't hit it like you're trying to kill it, but you shouldn't actually fight like that either."

I love little flavor pieces like this and Hallþorra's character shines nicely through. +1 Omake!

Realized I never posted this to the thread, so here you folks go.

Astrid Bjornsdottir

Link is broken, but that's okay.
Plus one Omake, anyways.

(I wrote a poem, I'm giving myself an omake too.)
 
Mid Winter 1 End
Midwinter 1 End

The bulk of the winter has passed and the warriors (and the not-warriors who took up arms to defend Finningur nonetheless) have returned to the village. Those who went to Kyrksangr return with terrible tales of a new threat to the islands, although, armed with knowledge, perhaps they can find themselves equal to it where the outlying villages which have disappeared were not. The saga of the Screaming Tree has ended, or perhaps simply come to its final act. Klaus's eyes have been taken by the Seeress and his land utterly ruined by the Screaming Tree but, despite sacrifices, it is no more. Even now, those who defeated it harvest its scorched parts to build Finningur anew after its ravages. Yet, not all is well. The hatred in Brenda Beast-soul's heart has only been watered by this season's events and rumor has it that she intends to call holmgang upon Astrid Bjornsdottir at the Thing. Most talked about of all are the events that occurred among those that pursued the wolves into the mountains above Finningur. In the darkest days of winter, where mutterings that the cold of last year would be eclipsed by the wolves of this one, the Norsemen triumphed. Although details of what occurred have already been obscured by myth, rumor, and retelling, it is known that true heroes of Finningur dueled the great trickster Fastulfr, who had lived among them for near a year, and sent him fleeing into the wilds, taking his summoned horde with him and from their lands forever.

With slightly less ceremony, Dagmar Knockingdawn returns to Finningur, sailing in on a battered boat with Gandalf Tough-Luck, who leaves in a hurry after depositing the hersir. The reason quickly becomes clear. The supposedly blessed-of-Ran Island was no such thing and their sacrifices to the goddess did nothing to avert the Skittering Tide. Trusting in Tough-Luck's baseless superstition had seen Dagmar fighting alone for days against the Skittering Tide as Tough-Luck's mind had broken immediately under their illusory assaults. Regardless, the problem has been driven off for the foreseeable future. In addition, Dagmar has returned with a wealth of crab meat and chitin plating, a large amount of which he gifts to the village's new woodworker. Soon, Embla Velvet is seen around Finnigur sporting polished chitin jewelry dangling stylishly from her antlers.

Life is not still on the Faroes. The unknown guests at Ulfsby have departed, presumably sailing out to parts unknown. Hraorr Stormcaller has picked up a new wild rumoring, claiming that he's seen great beasts the size of hills clashing in the swampy lowlands in southern Eysturoy. Toki Bracebeam has completed the new longhouse for the Sjavarfli after the jarl destroyed the old. Eternally grateful to Katla Eriksdottir, Katla Bubblingbroth and her famly leave Katlasby for their new home, one which is actually much nicer than the old one, given that it is built mostly of quality wood from Tyrfingr Logger's woodlands instead of driftwood and sod, as the last one was. Speaking of the longhouse's destroyer, Jarl Kamban has been seen only occasionally this season, on one particularly notable occasion, departing with his felag to hunt a pod of lesser whales. Although they shared the spoils of their successful hunt with no one, the bay was stained red for near on two weeks and the fishing has been poor ever since. Finningur's normally jovial shapecrafter, Aelfgard Deepvocied, has also been complaining about ruined experiments to anyone who will listen.

The winter is nearing its conclusion, although some Norsemen still have plans and tasks to complete before the changing of seasons. The Thing looms on the horizon, sure to be memorable if for no other reason than the duel of two of Finningurs most promising young warriors.
 
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