Join us this Thursday, Dec. 13th, at 8 EST for the Second Episode of the Ragnarok Live Campaign!
A quick recap: Or catch up on the action by watching the first episode!
Winter is slow to retreat from the Mythic North, and people hunger as the last of their winter stores are exhausted. The weak begin to die. Sigiwulf Jarl of Arnborg, sensing the desperation of his people, opens his private stores and hall to all who attend a feast in honor of Saehrym, former jarl and father to Sigiwulf, who did not survive the cold months. Arnborg’s best hunters return with a massive, magnificent hart with a coat like hoarfrost, a worthy centerpiece for the feast, . The people of Hasafel respond with sudden, brittle joy, throwing themselves into to the festivities and casting away fear of famine even as ravenous wolves howl in the hills.
We meet our heroes:
Svava, a warrior woman astride a powerful horse arrives at the open gates of Arnborg, simultaneously with a hulking, gray-skinned fellow named Steinhard with a heavy stone hammer and a brow to match. Each of them is drawn by news of the Festival of Jordmanad and the prospect of food and shelter from the unremitting chill. Entering the settlement, they are greeted and shown games of skill with which the local people honor the gods, and given the opportunity to compete for the recognition of the Jarl. Svav excels at the Spearcatching, and Steinherd hoists a stone previously thought impossible for men to lifte. Meanwhile, a local woman named Gyda, has little time for such activities, instead choosing to offer to Jord, the giant-goddess of the Earth at the local horgr, where she halts a misunderstanding between a young fellow with a temper and the presiding priestess.
At the end of the short Northern day, horns sound to announce the feast. Honored guests (including those who did well in the contests) are favored with a seat within the hall, on benches set aside for the Champions of the games. The last of the mead and beer are served, and all await the food. There is some delay, amid consternation from the cookhouse, and Sigiwulf calls for his thegns and then the champions of the day to regale the assemblage with tales of their exploits.
Still the food does not arrive.
Finally, Sigiwulf jarl loses patience and demands that the food be brought, led by the massive hart that all present have smelled roasting all afternoon! Six servers bear a huge platter in, the smoking, crisp-skinned animal arranged upon it, the head with its splendid array of antlers rejoined to the body for presentation. Birka the Cook comes forth hesitantly to carve, knife hand cradled strangely in the grip of the other. Sigiwulf urges her to her task, and she bends to it, only to cry out and drop her knife, as water and steam escape the cut she had begun.
Her hand, and the carving knife are rimed with frost! On investigation, only the skin of the beast is cooked - within, the body is as frozen as the sea which no longer laps the shores below Arnborg.
Those in attendance gasp or look about, fearing some sorcery. Some eyes alight on the huge fellow who lifted a massive stone with ease, suddenly fearful of this Giantblood warrior. Others note the warrior, Svava, standing spear in hand, from the toppliing Champion's Bench. Few note Gyda who, drawn by the eldritch energies radiating fromt the hall, dashes past the Hall Guards in time to regard an unfamiliar serving woman in the midst of a strange and terrible transformation . . .
