Fate of the Norns

Lets say you have a group of adventurers who managed to sail up the river Gjoll and are currently at Gjallabru. What do you think Nilheim and Helheim look like? What do you think Hel would do with half a dozen adventurers who are actually quite alive?

Phenomenal question! In the 20 years we ran FOTN, we only had 2 adventures that took the adventurers to Niflheim.

The first group needed to retrieve an object of great importance so they travelled along one of the roots of Yggdrasil before attaining Niflheim. There was a large drop and Odin's Noose (magic item that reappears in DotN) got them down safe and sound. The fun part was that they met some of their dwellers that had failed their afterlife rolls. During the adventure one player died in Niflheim, failed his roll, and then continued to play his dweller in Niflheim for the remainder of their stay. He even managed to level up while deceased which was really paradoxical! However when the group had to leave, he couldn't go with them due to the "physics" of Niflheim and the spirit world.

The second group saw me as a player, and I chose to play a druid. I'll never forgive the Norn for starting out the adventure in Niflheim and for about half a dozen play sessions I had no powers due to the absence of any life within that realm. *shaking fist* damn you!

Anyhow long story short there will be a massive write-up and map for Niflheim in Lords of the Ash (Giants & Gods). Until then there are quite a few fun sources you can look for for details: the Prose Edda, the Vafthrudnismal poem, Baldur's Draumar, Helreid Bynhildr among others.

Short and sweet of it:
- It is a land of pure death, the ground is dust that cannot sustain life
- It is a misty realm as the adjacent realm Hvergelmir creates fog that permeates into Niflheim
- It is pitch dark, and light sources (even magical) are seriously hampered by the fog
- The dead wander about aimlessly and get tormented by corpse swallowers- massive skeletal juggernauts whose purpose is to inflict pain and suffering... picture a borg cube made of bones (hundreds of feet tall). they can also turn souls into Draugar.
- Hel's dominion in in a sub-realm of Niflheim called Helheim- a land of steep black stone mountains (Niflheim realm ore comes from here)
- Helheim is protected by her elite guard known as the Draugar
- There are 3 gates that encircle Niflheim: helgrind, nagrind and valgrind
- Bridge over the river Gjoll is guarded by a giantess/troll named Gjallarbru
- Entrance from Midgard (Gnipahellir) is guarded by the hound Garm
- The living can enter and leave, albeit not easily. The dead cannot leave without Hel's express permission (which is beyond rare).
- Adventures here should be rare and absolutely epic and memorable!

Let us know how it goes!

edit: text will show up in LotA, not DotN

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I thought the bridge was called Gjallarbru and the giantess is called Moðguð? Was just reading the Prose Edda this morning. Yes of course, that's totally normal, right?

That's some great reading over some Cheerios. My copy of the Prose Edda is totally worn out from so many read-throughs. I need to get a new copy before it disintegrates. Yes you are absolutely right, I had a brain fart, I was thinking river and bridge as I was writing it.

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No problem. I get this stuff confused all the time.

I can't find any reference to the corpse swallowers as you state them. Can you point me to a reference?

I'm trying to figure out what Hel could want that the party could get in return for her doing them a favor. I mean.. I suppose they could be instrumental in getting Baldr into Helheim (heeeey, Loki... here's some mistletoe...) but I think a little less on-the-nose.

I kinda made Ran go really insane and build a literal mountain of drown corpses as a dam redirecting Gjoll into Midgard, causing some serious issues. See... she (perhaps rightly) thinks that she can "win" Ragnarok by denying Odin. Freya, and Hel bodies - since she has purview over the drowned, if she drowns the world, she gets all them. The heroes, of course, want to stop this, but kinda needs some help.

They're called Hraesvelgr and I cannot recall off hand where they were dug up originally.

Hel could be persuaded easily when it comes to her kin (help her brother Fenrir or her father Loki). She was cast into Niflheim by Odin, so any vendettas involving Odin would also be a good way to go.

Your Ran story arc sounds really interesting- let us know how it goes!

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I LOVE THAT IDEA!

I ended up going with that. They went to Hel and says "um, give us a hand?" And she kinda said "prove your worthy and win my favor!"

Her two servants (the players named them Limpy and Gimpy) were helpful. One suggested that if she got something comparable to Brisingamen that she might be happy. The other said she might like a husband, someone bright.

So first they opted for the Brisingamen option, going to Nidrvellir and conning a couple dwarves into making necklaces in competition. They said they were not complete and they should steal (respectively) the stone from the neck of the Hrimthursa queen or the gem from the pommel of the Hrimthursa king's sword. They pansied out at this thought and decided to go to Muspelheim and talk to Surt, because clearly, "bright" meant a fire giant. Then they managed to persuade 2 of Surt's sons that Hel was quite the get, with lands and property and all that. They even tossed in their ship Naglfar (yes, that one) as a wedding present.

The very clever wizard of our group suggested that they should have a competition to get the aforementioned gems, because clearly those were fire giant property, stolen long ago. It so happens that the wizard has a brother who now captains Naglfar (he's dead. So is the whole crew. Ghost ship) and their mother's a volva named Mim.

So, assuming they are successful in getting the gems, they will have cemented an alliance between Hel and Surt and be within spitting distance of Ragnarok. I'm kinda thinking that there will be a removal of the giant wall, and a wedding celebration, and Loki will be there and invite the Aesir. Clearly games will have to happen, and what better game than "throw stuff at Baldr and see how tough he is".

Yes, I expect that my campaign will end Friday. sadly, not actually FOTN but pulled a lot of stuff from it. Happily would do it again with FOTN.