I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
I sketched Halla. I can't draw faces or hands or feet/shoes to save my life, so I didn't.
NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Action
-
- Tags
- norse mythology (mythology) original xianxia cultivation western cultivation ask sirihand did your mother tell you anything? discussion pleases yggdrasil farming gloating gets people killed granary management hubris is a coward's word you will die norsemen do not die when they are killed the qm has a bad memory the qm is bad at math viking courtroom drama (legal drama) vikings
- Location
- Bretonnia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ok? But the culturally important also extends to hamr - fighting is apart of our culture, too. And support skills are good and all, but that's no reason to slack on our physical skill. Support skill won't be that much use if we can't actually end the fight.
The plan isn't about dropping hamr for good. It is just focusing for a turn to get the skill up to useful levels.
Our hamr isn't at rank 0, unlike poetry. So one turn to catch up isn't far fetched.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm on board in theory, but I want to finish locating the witch first, and they're competing for exploration slots.
True, and we should raise it over time, but I don't think we need to drop everything to raise it as fast as possible.
Our Poetry is arguably at 6 since we can use it untrained with Hugr and even invest a die in it on top of that. That's better than most of of our Hamr stuff (only Axes equals it, nothing exceeds it).
Last edited:
- Location
- Bretonnia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The thing is that our hamr is actually close to ranking up. Not to mention we're going into the forest that we know to have draugr in. So I'd rather prioritise our hamr and fighting skill than our hugr, especially since - as I said before - we just ranked our hugr up, and this plan still trains a little poetry.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
Poetry is something that you can work on slowly. While it is pretty useful for spreading your feats around, you can also just hire or make friends with someone who can do poetry.
- Location
- Bretonnia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, this is also true. Though I still think we should raise our own poetry - being able to compose poetry of our deeds would be nice, though it might come off as somewhat arrogant to do so.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
Poetry doesn't have to be about your own deeds, either. It can also be about flexing how smart you are through using really complex kennings and still earn you orthstirr. Sonatorrek wasn't about a feat or flexing of intelligence, it was about Egill Skallagrímsson's grief after he lost his son to drowning.
Good poems about our friends deeds might even be win-win:
We get Orthstirr about the quality of our poems and our friends get Orthstirr about the deeds.
Would a group of friends having multiple poets writing about their deeds, each bragging about their friends deeds while having appropriate humbleness about their own deeds be frowned upon like poetry bragging about your own deeds?
What skill/quality would be needed to make poems people consider worth listening to?
How would crafting a poem work, one skillcheck to determine successes=quality? Skillchecks until we have enough successes=quality that we are happy with the result?
Edit: also, are skill level gains always through explicit training, or would successfull use of a skill also slowly add to training successes?
Last edited:
I have a question: are the draugr here just your ordinary armed undead, or the original magical, size-changing, crazed-dancing, undead madlads can only be put back down by decapitation and ramming their severed heads up their asses?
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
Nope
Depends on the audience and content matter. If it's an off-the-cuff sort of thing, it can be lower quality though it is way more impressive if it's high quality. If you're writing to impress a king so they don't kill you, then, much like Egill, you're gonna wanna put your back into it.
Lets say that 1-3 Successes is low quality, 4-6 is medium, and 7-9 is high. Anything beyond that is pretty goddamn good writing.
The first. But you can try again on the same poem infinite number of times, until you're dead, that is.
You can sit down and write poetry whenever, but you can get inspirations, which give bonuses upon completion.
Also, side note, if you the players write poetry (especially in tune with skaldic rules!) you get orthstirr and a Reward Dice, which are dice you get through omakes and the like that you can use to bolster a roll. I'll add a post talking about that here in a bit.
If you got a crazy roll, then yeah. Otherwise, only through training.
Yes : - )
Each Draugr is a different beast with different powers. Some are just ordinary armed undead. Some are whacky goofs. Others are fucking Glam.
Reward Dice and Fanwork
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
@Omegahugger has 2d6 Reward Dice
@DeadmanwalkingXI has 2d6 Reward Dice, one of which replenishes yearly (Used)
@mastigos has 1d6 Reward Dice
@Toboe has 2d6 Reward Dice
@Exmorri has 0d6 Reward Dice
@KreenWarrior has 9d6 Reward Dice, with 2 held in reserve
@Sirrocco has 2d6 Reward Dice
@Constenanto has 1d6 Reward Dice
@Silverking has 2d6 Reward Dice
@Omeganian has 1d6 Reward Dice
@Alectai has 0d6 Reward Dice, one of which replenishes yearly (Used),
@Tylonius has 1d6 Reward Dice
@CedeTheBees has 4d6 Reward Dice
@JustGazzer has 1d6 Reward Dice
@Skippy has 9d6 Reward Dice
@AeonIlluminate has 8d6 Reward Dice
@mythfan12 has 2d6 Reward Dice
@FancyMolasses has 3d6 Reward Dice
@alexthealright has 3d6 Reward Dice, one of which replenishes yearly (Unused)
@Shard has 7d6 Reward Dice
@Oshha has 2d6 Reward Dice
@KittyEmpress has 2d6 Reward Dice
@DeadmanwalkingXI has 2d6 Reward Dice, one of which replenishes yearly (Used)
@mastigos has 1d6 Reward Dice
@Toboe has 2d6 Reward Dice
@Exmorri has 0d6 Reward Dice
@KreenWarrior has 9d6 Reward Dice, with 2 held in reserve
@Sirrocco has 2d6 Reward Dice
@Constenanto has 1d6 Reward Dice
@Silverking has 2d6 Reward Dice
@Omeganian has 1d6 Reward Dice
@Alectai has 0d6 Reward Dice, one of which replenishes yearly (Used),
@Tylonius has 1d6 Reward Dice
@CedeTheBees has 4d6 Reward Dice
@JustGazzer has 1d6 Reward Dice
@Skippy has 9d6 Reward Dice
@AeonIlluminate has 8d6 Reward Dice
@mythfan12 has 2d6 Reward Dice
@FancyMolasses has 3d6 Reward Dice
@alexthealright has 3d6 Reward Dice, one of which replenishes yearly (Unused)
@Shard has 7d6 Reward Dice
@Oshha has 2d6 Reward Dice
@KittyEmpress has 2d6 Reward Dice
Poetry, omakes, fanart, all of this and more will earn you reward dice, which you can then use to bolster any roll you desire. You can also set them up to bolster in-turn rolls, if the specified roll happens. If the roll doesn't happen, then the reward dice isn't used and is refunded. Reward dice also cannot roll failures.
Poetry can also earn you orthstirr if it's written in the skaldic style, especially if it's in character as Halla/whoever the protagonist is.
Examples of Reward Dice Uses:
-Add an additional training dice
-Add an additional attack, or some other combat usage
-Bolster a social roll
-add a dice towards or against certain traits during child generation
-Etc
edit: I forgot to post this in the beginning of the quest and ever since then I've been struggling to work it in without feeling like I was being weird about it, so I've decided to just go for it.
Last edited by a moderator:
Height Comparison between Halla, Age 13, Abjorn, Age 14, Steinarr, Age 44, and Average Viking
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
Halla is 5'6" (167 cm), at the moment. She's got some growing left in her, though. Very tall for a 13-year-old girl, let alone one in xianxia-9th century. She'll probably end up around 5'7"-8" (~175 cm).
Abjorn is over a foot taller than Halla at 6'7" (~204 cm), at 14. Giant's Blood will do that to you. He's far from done growing, for that matter. In early versions of what would eventually become this quest, Abjorn would reach well over 8' tall. I'm not sure that I'm going to have him be so tall in this quest, as his character is rather different, but we'll see.
Steinarr is around 5'11"-6'1" — big dude, but not outlandishly so.
To put this into perspective, the average height of a Scandinavian male around this time period was on the higher end of 5'7" (~177-ish cm).
Last edited:
Good for Halla that she's rather tall for a girl. Also damn Abjorn is huge. Can see why she's now into his muscles considering his arms are literally at head height for her.
Also reading back in the thread that Abjorn actually counts for the little sister boon. Which probably will sting for Halla considering her crush and that he sees her currently as a little sister figure more than a possible love interest at least for now.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yup. He is very large.
He pitched a guy into a pond for kissing her, and has never been anything but pleasant to her despite his temper with other people. I think the crush is mutual to at least some degree. He definitely also has a protective thing going on, but that specific set of behavior is more indicative of a crush than just friendship, IMO.
Clearly Abjorn simply has not yet received The Talk, and thus knows not what category to put Halla in. I suspect this will change in some time.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
There is actually an instance in the sagas where a dude gave a woman three unwanted kisses, which caused her brother to attempt to kill him then and there, but was only stopped from striking with his sword by the timely intervention of another woman. Happens in.... Oh I wanna say Kor-something's saga? I can't remember the name.
Anyways, the dude was fined, like, two ounces of gold for his act.
Abjorn doesn't actually have any sisters. He has an older brother — Farbjorn — but that's it. Make of that what you will.
Stigr has a younger brother — Stigmar — and an older brother — Stigulf — as well as an older sister — Stigrun.
The Norse often went with similar-sounding naming schemes for their children.
Last edited:
I would say the whole mutual crush will be in full swing once Hallas beautiful trait actually kicks in. Then again that would have several guys having crushes on her. Insert something about Halla being a Jade beauty or some gibberish like that.
Actually what age would beautiful trait kick in at? Like 14-15? I mean the info just said it isn't active at 12 is all.
Actually what age would beautiful trait kick in at? Like 14-15? I mean the info just said it isn't active at 12 is all.
Last edited:
My brain is already making Sigmar comments please help me
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
It'll probably start kicking in fully around 16.
By the time somebody — unless they were an isekai protagonist, I suppose — who knows what a 'flawless jade beauty' is shows up, I imagine that Halla will probably have more than enough visible scars to disqualify her from the running.
Actually, a genre savvy isekai protagonist would be hilarious to have show up. Not in canon, obviously, but as a non-canon side story. Imagine that you're getting sent to a cultivator world but instead of the flashy mega-move shenanigans that you were expecting, you get the 'wrestle-em-down-and-shank-em-in-the-mud'-world.
All that genre savviness? Useless in the face of goat milk!
That means it's working
Last edited:
It's a good world. Has strong roots. Those other cultivators are liable to float away on the breeze with all the airs they put on.
Maiden’s Ire (KreenWarrior)
Tried my hand at a skaldic verse. Please be gentle, I only have a moderate familiarity with sagas and these are basically stunt-poems for how difficult they are and possibly more for the sound than language. I think I got the syllable counts right, the alliteration and most of the rhymes, but didn't really count stresses tbh:
Witch-suckler[1] and wastrels
Watched white-shield[2] skaters.
Prince-biters[3], drudge piercers [4]
Possessed by greed, charge.
For maiden's rights, flying,
Forth war-seeds[5], friend falls.
Axe-giant, adamant,
Awed by maiden's ire.
[1]There are norse creatures employed by witches that steal milk, one of several references to the character of our assailants.
[2] "White-shield" = kenning for a frozen lake
[3] Reference to Prince Oleg, killed by a snake hiding in the skull of his horse (after it died). Calling Osborn a snake
[4] Reference to a legend where Loki killed a servant out of jealousy. Implying Osborn and crew are jealous.
[5] Kenning for arrows, cause they sprout out of people
and possibly more for the sound than language. I think I got the syllable counts right, the alliteration and most of the rhymes, but didn't really count stresses tbh:Witch-suckler[1] and wastrels
Watched white-shield[2] skaters.
Prince-biters[3], drudge piercers [4]
Possessed by greed, charge.
For maiden's rights, flying,
Forth war-seeds[5], friend falls.
Axe-giant, adamant,
Awed by maiden's ire.
[1]There are norse creatures employed by witches that steal milk, one of several references to the character of our assailants.
[2] "White-shield" = kenning for a frozen lake
[3] Reference to Prince Oleg, killed by a snake hiding in the skull of his horse (after it died). Calling Osborn a snake
[4] Reference to a legend where Loki killed a servant out of jealousy. Implying Osborn and crew are jealous.
[5] Kenning for arrows, cause they sprout out of people
Last edited: