Remove ads

NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

Reader mode
Regarding the Nithing Pole, you guys might be trying too hard to find a specific symbolism to it. Its one of those weird ass local customs that goes back beyond recorded history and is kept going purely through cultural inertia.

It's a "It Just Works" type of deal, and with magic involved that kind of widespread acknowledgment is its own foundation. Especially given shit like gandrs in the general vicinity.

Hrmmmm

The allegorical parallels are clear enough.

So the horse head is a guidance system, and the pole carrying the message and terms of the curse? Then I might've misunderstood. This isn't cursing the stone warrior dude.

This is cursing the fae themselves.


Ooooooooooooh

The pole funnels them towards a designated task, but the actual curse is being laid upon those Little Watcher creatures instead lmao.
 
Imperial Fister said:
You take one of the seats at the edge of the hall, next to a younger warrior sleeping off more than a few horns of alcohol — no doubt one of Dorri's hirdmen. The hird, of course, being the armed men that accompany Jarls in their day-to-day lives as well as into battle. He must be relatively new and you expect that he'll be getting a chewing out once all the tales are told.

And speaking of telling tales, the skald launches into another story. Even though your seat is far away from the graybeard storyteller, you still hear his honey voice perfectly. It's your eyesight that suffers at distance, not your hearing, though his talent for speaking surely plays a role.

The tale begins as many tales do, with a man killing another man. However, the first man, instead of facing his punishment head-on as is expected of all men of standing, fled and ran from his righteous pursuers. He was declared an Outlaw and was now on the run.

The Outlaw retreated and ran like a coward, always staying just one or two steps ahead of the vengeful pursuers. He used trickery and hid from them wherever he found them, always refusing to stand and fight like a man.

Until one day he found a secret carved into the bones of the earth. A recipe for evil creations of malformed and warped form and demeanor. Using these secrets, the Outlaw crafted monsters from the flesh of animals to aid him in his endeavor.

The tale ends with the Outlaw harassing the heroes, only to be impaled on the horns of one of his own creations.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
said prophecy
So, im not sure if we should turn it back on Horra, as fun as that would sound....
Definitelly notify the headsman though, but the uno reverse tactic.... yeah, im not sure if it would be lawful...
we will probably get a vote on it, i think
 
Huh, then they'd lash the fuck out on him once let free, wouldn't they? Which makes getting the Evidence we need that much easier and him having a harder time to explain it when everything starts going Wrong around him.

Still, what in the hell are we missing at this point? We seem to have decoded each part of it by now, right? "The Curse-Pole compels the Landvaettir to harass and torment the Stone-Warrior until he is banished from the land in all forms, any who attempt to halt this will lose their beard, and continuing to do so will have their scrotum be pierced."

Where does the Troll fit in though? That might be what we're missing here. Because Trolls don't just randomly set up camp next to places with spooky juju like this, even less right next door to it.
 
Last edited:
TheCount said:
said prophecy
So, im not sure if we should turn it back on Horra, as fun as that would sound....
Definitelly notify the headsman though, but the uno reverse tactic.... yeah, im not sure if it would be lawful...
we will probably get a vote on it, i think
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If the fae are being enslaved you don't even need to go that far. Just break the curse/contract and itll snowball on its own. Probably the same kind of loopholes the original caster abused when cursing the spirits to act on their behalf in the first place.
 
KreenWarrior said:
You know "Little-Watchers" could mean "Watchers who are little" or "Those who watch littles (ie kids)". That doesn't feel quite right, but it could apply to a parental guardian spirit.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Maybe that's the issue, yeah. This curse does have our mother's face after all...

Would this then be more-correct?

'Let all the Little-Watchers [Parental or Guardian Spirits] bear witness to Stronghoof's Sireling [A rotting, dead horse]. Let them know no rest till ESONTRIARWOR[Stone-Warrior, a kenning for Steinarr] is driven from the land in mind, body, and soul. May any who dare disrupt this righteous act have their face suffer worse than the downy-cheeks of RJUNNTABLS[Burnt Njal- ie: losing your beard]. Let all who continue learn the pain of Thorthur Skarfr meeting Helgi Droplaugarson. Throd Cormorant, who met Helgi Droplaugrson and promptly got his scrotum pierced by a spear, a horrible way to go]'

Or

"Guardian Spirits are to be tormented by the sight of this cursed, rotting horse's head until the Stone-Warrior (Steinarr) is banished from their sight in all respects. May any who dare disrupt their righteous act have their beard fall out and their scrotum be pierced."
 
FallenTemplar86 said:
Compelled Guardian perhaps? Maybe it already lived in the Area and the Pole was placed here to have a convenient Guardian?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Maybe, but the question then is why it didn't follow him home for littering on its lawn? Trolls are extremely vengeful, but it seems to be perfectly chill with a giant curse-pole on its front lawn?
 
Congratulations, you have solved the puzzle!

This;
"Spirits of the Land are to be tormented by the sight of this cursed, rotting horse's head until the Stone-Warrior (Steinarr) is banished from their sight in all respects. May any who dare disrupt their righteous act have their beard fall out and their scrotum pierced."
-is the correct interpretation.

Good job!

And you completed it with half or more left on the clock. Good work, everyone!
Scheduled vote count started by Imperial Fister on Apr 14, 2023 at 4:08 PM, finished with 124 posts and 0 votes.
No votes were able to be tallied!
Click to expand...
 
wait... sireling...

if we go with little watchers being child guardian spirits....

'Let all the Little-Watchers [Parental or Guardian Spirits] bear witness to Stronghoof's Sireling [A rotting, dead horse child]. Let them know no rest till ESONTRIARWOR[Stone-Warrior, a kenning for Steinarr] is driven from the land in mind, body, and soul. May any who dare disrupt this righteous act have their face suffer worse than the downy-cheeks of RJUNNTABLS[Burnt Njal- ie: losing your beard]. Let all who continue learn the pain of Thorthur Skarfr meeting Helgi Droplaugarson. Throd Cormorant, who met Helgi Droplaugrson and promptly got his scrotum pierced by a spear, a horrible way to go]'
 
Imperial Fister said:
Congratulations, you have solved the puzzle!

This;
"Spirits of the Land are to be tormented by the sight of this cursed, rotting horse's head until the Stone-Warrior (Steinarr) is banished from their sight in all respects. May any who dare disrupt their righteous act have their beard fall out and their scrotum pierced."
-is the correct interpretation.

Good job!

And you completed it with half or more on the clock. Good work, everyone!
Scheduled vote count started by Imperial Fister on Apr 14, 2023 at 4:08 PM, finished with 124 posts and 0 votes.
No votes were able to be tallied!
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Success! And we only needed one, relatively small hint to do it!

Good job team!
 
It took just slightly under 2 hours to solve this puzzle and one very small hint, mostly just confirming something we were already starting to suspect and just needed to have one possibility of two or three locked down

I think we did pretty well!
 
Alectai said:
Maybe, but the question then is why it didn't follow him home for littering on its lawn? Trolls are extremely vengeful, but it seems to be perfectly chill with a giant curse-pole on its front lawn?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Some sort of mystical compulsion perhaps. That sort of thing is surprisingly common in Christian Theurgy, so it's possible Horra adapted it from there. It's "The power of Faith compels you", not "the power of Faith requests this of you". If Horra replaced faith with some other force, that could explain why he's managed to pull off what he has.
 
I'll get started on Investigating Steinby 6, which is probably not going to be especially long.

You folks did a great job and I'm very happy to have you as my audience.
 
Hunter531 said:
Some sort of mystical compulsion perhaps. That sort of thing is surprisingly common in Christian Theurgy, so it's possible Horra adapted it from there. It's "The power of Faith compels you", not "the power of Faith requests this of you". If Horra replaced faith with some other force, that could explain why he's managed to pull off what he has.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't think it's Christian, he was last sighted somewhere in Persia, I believe (maybe some old magic from a lingering cult of Ahriman, or something?), but he has displayed the previous ability to compel magical creatures to his service, so that may well be what happened here.

Which does mean that the land spirits taking vengeance upon him may be dicey (though they'll try), but may well also mean we actively shouldn't mess with the troll since it might hold a grudge against him and we're pretty down for a troll killing the guy if it can.

Imperial Fister said:
"A man called Hasvir,"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Going back to this for a minute, this could be Horra under a pseudonym, but my bet is that it's another one of his sons. And either way people saw the guy in question, which (if he matches the description of Horra or his son) would be supporting evidence that he's behind this. Not enough on its own, probably, but we can collect evidence of who Stronghoof belongs to in order to support our court case when we get a bit more info.
 
Last edited:
Wow, I don't even know how I would've contributed there, but everyone did a hell of a good job there. I hope the theory that we can reverse this holds weight, as Horra's had it coming for a while.
 
Constenanto said:
Wow, I don't even know how I would've contributed there, but everyone did a hell of a good job there. I hope the theory that we can reverse this holds weight, as Horra's had it coming for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I actually think we don't need to reverse it and probably shouldn't do so. That would still be compelling the land spirits and we don't want to do that...on the other hand, as soon as they are free of compulsion they are going to be very upset indeed and may well need to compulsions to target Horra for serious unpleasantness.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
I actually think we don't need to reverse it and shouldn't do so. That would still be compelling the land spirits and we don't want to do that...on the other hand, as soon as they are free of compulsion they are going to be very upset indeed and may well need to compulsions to target Horra for serious unpleasantness.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Wonder if we'll get a boon from them for releasing them?
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
I actually think we don't need to reverse it and probably shouldn't do so. That would still be compelling the land spirits and we don't want to do that...on the other hand, as soon as they are free of compulsion they are going to be very upset indeed and may well need to compulsions to target Horra for serious unpleasantness.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Oh, fair enough. I'm not actually sure how land spirits work - are these, like, 'our' land spirits? Or is Horra influencing the land spirits of the entire Hading Valley? How much power do these land spirits have in the grand scheme of things is what I'm what I'm trying to say. Either way, it'd be a boon for us, so I don't really mind. They don't need to be able to directly screw with Horra to help us, anyway.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top