NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Action
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- 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
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
Just as a bit of a heads up from me. So, a guy I knew might have died. I wasn't the closest to him, but it's definitely robbed me of the writing mood.
I dunno if it'll come back tonight, but we'll see.
I dunno if it'll come back tonight, but we'll see.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Sigurdr's adventures are gonna be wild. I can't wait to possess him.
[X] DeadManWalkingXi
Edit: Oh geez I'm so sorry.
[X] DeadManWalkingXi
Edit: Oh geez I'm so sorry.
- Location
- Space between realms
- Pronouns
- He
Condolances Fister; take your time
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Oof, yeah, take some downtime. I've been in that boat myself.
Have we already tried weaving with the 3 components (Frami, Virthing and Saemd)?
I might have skipped discussions about this...
I might have skipped discussions about this...
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That sucks man, I'm so sorry, take all the time you need.
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I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
That's how you cultivate.
0~0~0
Update on myself. I'm currently in the process of writing the next bit cause that's better than sitting around and getting bored of doing nothing. So I'll go ahead and call it now.
If ADHD is good for one thing, it's getting over emotionally complex situations.
Aki's Strange Prophetic Visions of the Future (Shard)
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Akiquest
Normally, Ravens do not venture so far out into the far strands of fate too bring home the news of what may happen. Tonight, though, seeing Halla do.. whatever.. she was doing.. seems to have driven your soul into a frenzy to know. So it ventured out far. Then further still...
---
Upon a land killed, in a dead town, on top of a grey building, you watch through a window from outside.
Two men, unarmored. Weaponless. You stare. Beardless - no, their beards shorn away. Thralls?
One presses their fingers down on some kind of.. thing. Monotomically. The light the stare at changes shape.
You heard words between the two men. Oswiss. Orthsirr? The tongue is foreign, but not so much you cannot understand.
The other man points at you, they both stare. Are you a spy here? Then they both wave at you happily and speak something that sounds like a friendly greeting.
Or maybe life is so rare here, that even a raven draws notice. Your flap, and wander to another strand.
---
Three maidens. The Norns, you realize, as fear grips your hear. One ancient, one old, one young. They look.. decrepit. Or grieving. Watching over a loom gathering dust upon their strands. Three pairs of eyes lock onto you. The youngest looks ready to slay you, only to be stopped.
"Show some mercy, Clotho.."
She speaks twice over herself, once in words you cannot grasp, another that burns your ears, and the final in your own tongue, for your benefit.
"For we should abide by guest-right still, no? Especially a youngling so brave as this one, venturing so far to find a secret in his home, hidden in plain view."
The youngest looks.. amused, and plucks the loom, then you are elsewhere.
---
Your Raven tries to tell you something, but honestly you don't know what it's trying to tell you. A place where stranger-Fylgja are welcomed, where men would shave their own beards and walk proudly without weapons? A secret in his own home hidden in plain view? None of this makes sense!
..Okay, maybe you should go look at that strange picture of a boat you found last time. Maybe they're actually runes in disguise?
---
AN: I had this weird fucking dream about Norsequest and I had to write it out before I forgot.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Hmm... Aki's Strange Prophetic Visions of the Future ?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Rags do mitigate that, if we go join up with the ambushers and remove our rags, joining them as an owl not dressed in rags, they shouldn't recognize the rag-covered owl later.
That said, I'm not sure that's a major factor anyway, time is running out and our only remaining excursion to scout Horra is probably some B&E at his sanctum in the Summer so we can get evidence of black magic. Hopefully, we do that when he isn't even around. Then, we bring charges and scouting around his place will rapidly become difficult as we go public, though hopefully we also gain significant help and legal sanction on the 'kill Horra' front.
Winter 6/Turn 3.2
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
[X] Follow after the cart discreetly trying to listen in on any conversation, see who they are delivering to exactly, witness the delivery and the response from both these people and those they are delivering to and make plans from there.
-[X] While doing that, with your body at home get Gabriel, Tryggr, Trausti, Stigmar, Sten, Abjorn...anyone who's right around other than maybe Steinarr together to potentially ambush them on their way back depending on what we witness.
-[X] While doing that, with your body at home get Gabriel, Tryggr, Trausti, Stigmar, Sten, Abjorn...anyone who's right around other than maybe Steinarr together to potentially ambush them on their way back depending on what we witness.
The men guarding the cart of covered goods seem wary — not just of their surroundings, but of the twitching, cloak-covered man trailing a few steps behind.
One of the men — a younger spear-wielder — shakes his head as he turns to his buddy, a frowning whisper on his lips. "This isn't worth it, man."
"And we've got a choice in the matter?" The buddy in question — a lengthy man with short beard — scoffs as he rolls his eyes. "You know as well as I that if we so much as twitch wrong, the Whore'll pop our heads off."
"Still, dying would be better than," The first glances over his shoulder, a flash of fear in his eyes, "...ending up like that."
The buddy waves that off, but his heart's not in it. "We've got a Berserk, he'll take care of it if it tries anything."
"I dunno..." The spear-wielder looks like he's about to say more, but a sharp look from the mail-clad man at the front puts a stop to that.
"None of us like him, but keep dissent to yourselves." The Berserk growls out a warning, his hand resting on the sword at his hip while the other holds his shield close to his chest. A wicked scar webs its way up from beneath his shirt to the side of his black goatee-clad face. "The raiders are gonna be pissed about their friends. We can't afford to not bring it along."
"Aye, Wolfwind." The buddy nods and jostles the spear-wielder, who quickly follows along.
You relay all you've learned to the crew gathered around you. Sigurdr sits in your lap while Asgeirr and Eyvor try to climb Abjorn. Their father is trying his level best to ignore them, but when not using each other as handholds, they're using his beard.
"Sounds like they're expecting a fight," Sten says as he runs a comb through his beard — cleaning it of metal flakes.
"Do you think we should give it to them?" Tryggr asks in turn as the chair creaks from his weight. "Could be a good way to even out the odds."
Sten frowns. "Without the blessing of the Headsman, any action we take will have to be in secret. Which means we'll have to eat some nid to do that."
None of the people gathered seem very keen on that idea.
"Still," adds Trausti as he folds his arms in front of him, "if I know Jordan Sharkmouth, and I do, he's not gonna be very happy to hear about Lars' death."
"Unhappy enough to kill the messengers?" You ask as Sigurdr's eyelids grow heavy.
"I've seen him do it before, for lesser news than his cousin's death."
"You know anything about this 'Wolfwind'?" Stigmar asks the twins as he leans forward, a spark of worry in his eyes at the mention of a 'Berserk'.
"Aye," Tryggr adds with a nod, "Definitely stronger than I or my brother, but was he as strong or stronger than Sparkbutt? I dunno. I'd give him even odds of nailing Jordan if it came down to a fight, though, his glima was good and he could pull off some kinda floating trick with his wind hugareida."
Regardless, it's up to you on how you plan to use this information.
[ ] write in
0~0~0
AN: not the best of my updates, content-wise, but I think it's fine regardless.
no moratorium, but no third update today.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hmm. I think something like this:
[X] Keep watching as they actually meet with the bandits. If the bandits kill them, that's fine, if they kill the bandits that's also fine. If they act all friendly or discuss business, that too is fine as it gives more evidence of Horra consorting with bandits.
Basically, we want this meeting to happen. It does give the bandits some supplies, but all the other outcomes are good for us (especially this guy killing Horra's people and disassociating from him). We want to be in a position to ambush them on the way back to Horra's if that seems useful, but not until this meeting goes down.
[X] Keep watching as they actually meet with the bandits. If the bandits kill them, that's fine, if they kill the bandits that's also fine. If they act all friendly or discuss business, that too is fine as it gives more evidence of Horra consorting with bandits.
Basically, we want this meeting to happen. It does give the bandits some supplies, but all the other outcomes are good for us (especially this guy killing Horra's people and disassociating from him). We want to be in a position to ambush them on the way back to Horra's if that seems useful, but not until this meeting goes down.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
... can we steal whatever it is they're transporting maybe?
Oooh, better idea, we use the glue
To elaborate, we use the Glue from our Tree, we place it secretly on the road before them, and it means they can't bring the cart.
Which means their 'Insurance Plan' goes up in the air. Might even wake up whatever beastie they're bringing, which means that whatshisface the Raider blames Horra for the bullshit and attacks him.
Oooh, better idea, we use the glue
To elaborate, we use the Glue from our Tree, we place it secretly on the road before them, and it means they can't bring the cart.
Which means their 'Insurance Plan' goes up in the air. Might even wake up whatever beastie they're bringing, which means that whatshisface the Raider blames Horra for the bullshit and attacks him.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
We maybe could, but that would maybe call off this meeting. We really want this meeting to occur, I think. It's almost certainly the first incontrovertible evidence of Horra's farm being in league with bandits (and claiming Horra is orchestrating it) and we need that.
And apparently Horra can make berserks, but maybe not very well or without terrible side effects. That seems worth noting. His magic being shapecrafting but more messed up definitely fits what we know of it.
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- Location
- some computer lab
[X] Keep watching as they actually meet with the bandits. If the bandits kill them, that's fine, if they kill the bandits that's also fine. If they act all friendly or discuss business, that too is fine as it gives more evidence of Horra consorting with bandits.
I'm also hoping that they kill Horra's people. Depending on how that goes, we might be able to kill the bandits right afterwards without Nid, as they are bandits and we can kill them whenever.
I'm also hoping that they kill Horra's people. Depending on how that goes, we might be able to kill the bandits right afterwards without Nid, as they are bandits and we can kill them whenever.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
The problem is that they're practicing some pretty damn good Opsec for the most part too, and it seems to be suggesting that Horra's daughter is trying to pull a fast one as well on everyone involved.
Hrm, that being said, like, if we actually see all this go on, is that actual Evidence? Or would they just close ranks anyway without something to actually nail him to the ground with?
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Keep watching as they actually meet with the bandits. If the bandits kill them, that's fine, if they kill the bandits that's also fine. If they act all friendly or discuss business, that too is fine as it gives more evidence of Horra consorting with bandits.
Seems likely they're transporting some fleshcrafted monstrosity ala the nisse, but made out of human corpses. 🤔 And taking it to the raiders... As a gift? Something to sell?
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
More like something to whip out if the Raiders decide to take the loss of their friends hard to give them a shot at laying down the Rules of Nature again. It's why I'd like to unleash it on Horra's own boys while they're transporting it.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Only inasmuch as they don't refer to people by name. If we see them meet we don't need them to do that.
We can swear in court to things we actually see and almost certainly be believed over Horra and his people. Our Drengskapr is very high and theirs is the opposite of that. What we can't do is swear to things we only think we know, because we'll get questioned on how we know, not be able to answer, and then we either admit we're speculating or we lie and there are almost certainly ways to tell if you lie in court (plus the nid, obviously). There may be ways around them (still garnering nid, obviously) but we don't have those.
So we need eyewitness testimony that actually proves Horra's perfidy, but it can be our eyes. His people saying they're working for him delivering this to someone in the north isn't quite that, our eyewitness testimony that the person in question is a bandit, however, is. Horra can try and claim he didn't know, but if the conversation with Wolfwind mentions the other group, then he was provably delivering to multiple caves in the woods full of armed men, so nobody will believe him.
Basically, if it literally comes down to he said she said about things that were seen with our own eyes, we should be more believed due to the vast gulf of Drengskapr between us...but we need to see that evidence ourselves because anything he can talk his way out of without calling us a liar is a problem and may be presented in the best possible light for him.
Additionally, if he directly calls us a liar, we or Steinarr can challenge him to holmang right there and nobody will bat an eyelash, because then Horra will have forced the issue...nobody will blame anyone for killing the man who called them or their family liars, because the whole society agrees that's the only acceptable response to being called a liar. Like, being killed for calling someone a liar to their face in public is, frankly, the sort of thing his family will just have to accept.
But him directly contradicting us seems unlikely...I don't think he'll come to town to defend himself from a potential outlawing, because that's likely a death sentence if he loses the case, and he's too much of a coward to risk that. He'll send someone and likely fort up.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Or he'll just run away, which is the problem here.
Remember, even if we Holmgang him, if he wasn't an outlaw? Revenge Spiral. He can very much fork us on that. "You have the right to defend yourself from accusations, but we have the right to take revenge against you killing him in retaliation for his accusations as long as it wasn't that he was a proven shitter when this happens."
It's all of this which is why we can't just barge into his Sanctum while he's there, kill him, and then use the proof. Even if it turns out he was doing Outlaw worthy stuff, you still killed him while this question wasn't settled, which means Revenge Spiral Time.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is it? We've got one Berserk, three men, and one 'man-shaped twitching thing' in a cloak, I think. The wagon is full of supplies, the cloaked guy is the 'monster' and it sounds like it's being used as insurance more than anything.
Him running is a potential issue, but I don't think he will. He's old, and spiteful, and has traps and tricks...he thinks he can win this. And I think he wants to kill Steinarr almost as much as Steinarr wants to kill him.
Actually, IIRC, when we asked about that Imperial Fister said that we could get away with a Holmang if he gave us a public justification that wasn't ancient history. We can't just kill him or challenge him out of the blue, but if he called us a liar to our face in public we could.
But he's aware of that, so getting him to do that is a lot harder than just getting him outlawed.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I thought the Berserk was the twitchy guy, and the Monster is in the Cart as their Insurance?