NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Talking to Steinarr
"Dad? I need to talk to you about something." You rub your elbow, rocking on your heels as you wait for Steinarr's answer.

Steinarr looks up from cleaning his arms and armor. He nods and puts away the tools, though he makes sure to bring Crowfeeder and a shield before following you from the house.

You and Steinarr sit down on the steps outside the front door.

Where do you even begin? So much happened since Steinarr left that you just don't know. Heck, when Steinarr left his hair was the same color as yours, if a little faded, now there's streaks of gray.

You might as well get the hardest one out of the way. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you turn and regard the patiently waiting Steinarr.

"Dad, was I named after an ancestor or... or someone?"

"Every time I meet your gaze, I see my father's eyes looking back at me." Steinarr runs a hand through his beard as he seems to deflate, his eyes filling with watery tears. Breathing a heavy sigh, he blinks away his sorrow. "He's buried in Gotland, an island to the east, where I and my brothers were born and raised."

Steinarr falls silent as he's lost in old memories. Eventually, you break the silence with another question. "What was he like, your father?"

"He was wise in matters great and small, war and peace. He was honorable and intelligent, with a cunning that would rival the greatest of the Gods." Steinarr's fingers tap a steady beat against his knee. "Not before and never since has there been a man quite like him, as strong a man as Hallr Blackhand."
Steinarr, worthiest of all sons, you honor me with words I don't deserve.
Hallr Blackhand, your father's father. The man you're named for. The man whose eyes you bear.

Suddenly, it clicks.

When a child is born, it is often tradition to name them after a dead family member, often a father or mother. This is done in the hopes that their hamingja is passed onto the child. It would seem, in this case, you received far more than simple hamingja.

As you go to speak, to tell your father of your revelation, you find that your mouth won't open.

'Think, girl,' a voice, old and gruff, speaks in your mind, 'Steinarr is a good man and a far better son than I deserve, but his heart is too big. It nearly broke him when I died, the risk of losing me again would be too much to bear. Should he learn that I live on through you, he would never let you out of his sight.'

You sit as still as a mouse caught by a mouser, the voice of Hallr Blackhand echoing in your mind. A sense of shock mixed with relief passes over you like waves of the ocean. Breathing as steadily as you can, you barely hear Steinarr's voice as he keeps talking.

'Pay attention to your father, girl,' Blackhand snaps, 'He's taking time out of his day to speak to you, treat it like the treasure it is.'

Well, at least it's not a demon or monster possessing you. Just a cranky old man.

Blackhand bristles at that, though he can't quite hide the echoes of a smirk.

"-and there was this other time that I watched him pick up a vikingr's ship and throw it so far that nobody, not even Torvig Farsight, could see where it landed." Steinarr grins as your attention returns to the conversation at hand. "A decade-and-a-half later, while I was adventuring deep in the mountains of Persia, I came across a carved dragon head that looked oddly familiar. Imagine my shock when I realized that it was the prow of the ship my father threw so long ago!"

Steinarr slaps his knee as he laughs. You politely stay silent, trying to figure out if you know where this 'Persia' is or not.

You quickly realize that no, you do not.

'I did get rather angry that day...' Blackhand sounds almost bashful as Steinarr tells more tales.

You listen for a little while, Blackhand staying silent for most of the increasingly outlandish stories, save to confirm that yes, that did happen or if it happened differently.

Honestly, the only reason you believe half of the stuff is because Blackhand's already doing the impossible by being 'alive' after death, if only in your mind.

"Um," you say, not really wanting to interrupt your father's roll but also having a lot more to cover.

Steinarr pauses, a happy smile on his face. "Yes?"

"I met a Witch and she unveiled my fylgja." You blurt out, not having a smooth transition available.

Steinarr nearly chokes. "W-what?" He manages after a minute of coughing.

"Well, I was asking around for information on fylgjur and when nobody had anything to tell me, I went looking." You shrug as Steinarr pales further and further with every passing word. "I eventually met a Witch and she unveiled my fylgja for me."

To illustrate this, your owl flutters down from the spirit realm. Steinarr eyes it, realization sparking in his eyes.

Eyes burning with in-facing rage, Steinarr curses harder than you've ever heard anyone curse before. So hard that the very air thrums with fiery power. "Gods, I'm so stupid! Of course you'd just go and find someone else to do it for you!"

Steinarr's fury sparks a realization of your own. "You knew!" You point an accusatory finger at him, a scowl on your face as you leap to your feet. "You knew what fylgjur were and you didn't tell me!"

"I did! I did and I'm sorry!" Steinarr buries his face in his hands. "I was just trying to keep you safe; Godsdammit I'm so stupid. You're probably owned by some damned Witch, Gods."

You want to be angry with your father, you really do. But in the face of such self-deprecating agony, it's difficult to stay mad. Your hand drops to your side as you sigh. "I don't owe the Witch anything other than a favor equal to the ritual." You rub at the bridge of your nose. "You can calm down."

'You're welcome for that, by the way.'

"I'm sorry, Halla. Fylgjur are the major weakness of most who have them revealed, I didn't want that to be a concern for you." Steinarr heaves a sigh. "Gods, this has been an emotional day."

"It's about to get worse." You smirk. While you can't stay angry at Steinarr, you can at least tease him a little bit. "I'm going to marry Abjorn."

Steinarr blinks, processes, reprocesses, and proceeds to fall down the stairs.

"What." He hisses out after several seconds of silence.

"I kissed him after he stopped a giant tree from crushing me." With hands on your hips, you carry on with a smug grin. "Also, what are and how do I use muna and hugareida? This is related to Abjorn and I marrying, by the way."

Steinarr squints and mutters something about him needing a 'dowry'. He sighs and sits back up, "Muna are moments so impactful that they burn themselves into your memory, in the process they usually bring some kind of power or trick. Hugareida," he grunts, climbing to his feet, "are, essentially," he frowns as he thinks, rubbing jaw and chin, "how do I word this? They're..." He trails off with a shrug.

'Hugareida are insights into concepts far beyond the ken of men. It is impossible to improve upon hugareida through training, the only way is by experiencing and comprehending deeper, more complex, versions of the original experience.'

You repeat Blackhand's words to your father, who nods and snaps his fingers. "Yes, that's it exactly! You know, Father was quite the adept user of hugareida... If only he were here now, then you'd have all your questions answered."

A scoff fills your mind, though no words follow it.

"Yeah, if only..." You trail off awkwardly as Blackhand snorts.

"You're sure you want to marry Abjorn?" Steinarr eventually asks.

"With all my heart."

"Well," Steinarr runs a hand across his jaw, "he'll be an adult a year before you, so there's a bit of time to get his measure as a man before sending you off to him."

"I'm sure that you won't find him wanting." You declare, scoffing at the notion.

"A lot can happen to change a man in a year, let alone three."

You find that you can't exactly argue with that, so you settle with sticking your tongue out.

(Journal Updated! 'What Happened to Me?' is now complete!)
(Boon: ??? Revealed as Soul-Charred-Black! Soul-Charred-Black - A trait guaranteed to be passed down to your successor. This trait gives the recipient access to the counsel of their predecessors as well as parts of their knowledge.)
(Hugareida: Standstill is Grade I!)
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(Yule Poem (Hugr+Poetry): 2, 3, 5, 2, 5, 2, 3) 3 Successes
The poem isn't anything spectacular, though everyone listening appreciates it.

You do stumble over Asva's section, as you sorta maybe forgot to include her...

But hey, you do gain some orthstirr from the appreciative listeners, so that's nice.

((1+1 Drengskapr)= +2 Orthstirr for flattering poetry)
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Visiting an unknown farm with Stigr, Abjorn, and Aki
When you arrive at Runby and tell him of your plans for that day, Aki takes a single look at you and tells you that that would be a bad idea.

"And why would it?" You ask, hands on your hips with your head quirked to the side.

"Because that's where Hod Horrasson lives. The one that Stigandr shot, remember?" Aki says with a dull look in his eye. The raven croaks high in a tree. "You will get into a fight that you won't win. Also, don't tell Steinarr that Horra lives there. It won't end well."

You blink and take a half-step back

Alright, then.

(Horrby, Horra's Farm, Revealed!)
(Journal Updated! Who's Horra?)
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Seasonal (Unneeded this turn, because I've gotta figure the order out properly)
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Personal (Pick 1/2, if no Exploration is picked):
[ ] (Personal) Stigr came by, asking if you wanted to go ice fishing with him. (Hamr+Fishing)
[ ] (Personal) Ask Randi to tell you some stories
-[ ] (Optional) Write in the topic
[ ] (Violent) Pick a fight or spar with...
-[ ] Eric, your older brother, for fun
-[ ] One of the local boys, for violence and/or fun! (Optional Write In)
-[ ] Asva (You doubt she'd be willing to fight you, but maybe you can needle her enough?)
[ ] (Personal) Spend time with... (Write in)
[ ] (Crafting) Try to make something (Write in) (Hugr+Some kind of crafting skill)
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Exploration/Travel (Pick 1 or none):
[ ] (Visit) Go visit... (Unavailable)
-[ ] The Witch! (Actually, it's probably a good idea to avoid her entirely)
-[ ] Asvir!
-[ ] Vidby, Abjorn's Farm
-[ ] Kerby, Stigr's Farm
-[ ] Buriby, Osborn's Farm (Has a guaranteed chance of ending in a fight)
-[ ] Glebby, Sverre's Farm
-[ ] Runby, Aki's Farm
-[ ] Horrby, Horra's Farm (Has a very good chance of ending in a fight)
-[ ] The one at the bottom of the river
[ ] (Exploration) Go on a walk through...
-[ ] The fields!
-[ ] The Hading!
-[ ] The hills!
--[ ] (Optional) Towards where the flaming thing landed. Maybe there's something you missed?
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Training: You have 12d6 training dice to spend as you see fit.
[ ] (Blackhand's Training) Try to develop old/train new hugareida tricks (Write in)
[ ] (Steinarr's Training) Ask Steinarr to teach you a trick/some tricks (Write in)
[ ] (Training) Hamr (15 successes to rank up)
-[ ] (Optional) Train a hamr skill or trick (Write in)
[ ] (Training) Hugr (7 successes to rank up)
-[ ] (Optional) Train a hugr skill or trick (Write in)
[ ] (Training) Fylgja (2 successes to rank up)
-[ ] (Optional) Train a fylgja skill or trick (Write in)
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Orthstirr Available: 17
How do you want to use your orthstirr?
[ ] (Orthstirr Usage) (Write in)
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AN: For the sake of my sanity, you can only visit places once a season. Also, this one turned out shorter than I expected, whoops.

You're starting to get a fair bit of orthstirr for your age, too.

Charred-Black-Soul is how the 'carrying on' mechanic functions, by the way.

Also, trying out a new thing with actions. Essentially, you can choose to forgo exploration and get another personal action instead.

25-minute moratorium.

I just remembered a problem I ran into with an RP I GM'd with a similar system to this one, and the solution I came up to solve it.

Essentially, a problem my players had was feeling like they were limited to weapon choices they made early on, when they were still learning the rules and mechanics. The solution for this is to change the skill from the weapon being used to the type of attack that's made.

This means that, as long as the weapon is capable of doing such a thing, you no longer are restricted to certain weapons simply because you have tricks in it.

The 'combat skills' are now:
Chopping (Axe will be changed to this)
Cutting
Piercing
Bashing
Shooting (Bow, crossbow, things of that nature)
Throwing (rocks, spears, slings, things like that)
Dodging
Defending (Shield will be altered to this)

Martial arts like Glima will stay in their own unique sections.

You don't need to change anything with your current plans, as you're not trying to gain any new combat skills in them.

Obviously this isn't concrete, if you'd prefer the old method then let me know.