Character
Wait and gather strength, and your day will come. Trickery and treachery is fair play. Nurse your bitterness, and drown your hate. That which does not kill you makes you strong. The eternal winter is coming.
Power
Loki. Loki is as fickle in his hidden realm as elsewhere, and though (like all the Norse) he enjoys human company, he doesn't care for it here. He retreats to Winter’s Hall only when he has offended his fellow powers in Asgard, so he’s never in good spirits when he gets here. The realm’s perpetual snow is the most obvious sign of this; its cycle of half-mad feasts followed by surly, grumbling recoveries is another.
Description
Winter's Hall is a
snow, blizzard-ridden region of Pandemonium, with visibility limited to a few feet. Most of the realm's snow never rests: it’s constantly whipped up by the winds, coating the hills and even the creatures of the realm in a more or less uniform layer of ice.
The howls of the realm’s wolf packs are torn away by the wind, so a basher never even knows he's being run down until he pack’s on him. Packs vary from normal wolves to worgs to berserk lycanthropes.
The hall itself is a rough wooden building, long, high, and sooty from the smoky hearths. It's walls are lined with sleeping alcoves, and the center is a double row of scarred tables. Weapons are propped up against the hall's many pillars. A large root of the World Ash Yggdrasil reaches into Pandemonium here, forming the center supporting beam of the roof of Winter's Hall.
Principal Towns
Like Ysgard, this realm has no towns, There's only a single great hall of rough timbers a gathering place for warriors and their alecups, with hounds and winter wolves underfoot. If there's a feast in progress, the giants are drinking barrels of stolen mead and kicking the dogs. Slow or sloppy servants are forced to dance in the fireplace until their boots, leggings, or tunics catch fire. If they’re not feasting, the warriors are boasting about their past achievements, snoring, or out hunting with the hounds.
Special Conditions
Anyone who comes here better have a grievance against the Norse, or be able to tell convincing lies. Anyone who doesn't fit either category is immediately branded a spy for the Aesir. Spies are good for playing games with: games like pin-the-pike-through-the-Clueless, hearth-fire dancing, boulder bowling, and crack-the-armor. The giants sometimes make exceptions for amusing skalds or bards.
'Course, the giants only question those that they catch. The nature of Loki’s realm increases the proficncy modifier by 1 for every bard or rogue. Loki's a trickster himself, so anyone who can give his giants the slip deserves his freedom; anything stolen from this realm is fairly taken. Failure draws immediate attention, though, and if a basher can't give 'em the laugh he’d better have a whopping tale to save himself.
All wolves, dogs, and canine monsters entering the hall become the servants of the Mistress of the Hunt (see below). These creatures don't want to leave the realm and are charmed to obey the giants of Winter’s Hall, hunting, sleeping, and fighting beneath the feast hall tables.
Principle Non Player Characters
The jarl who leads the giants is Starkad the Gnawer, a half-mad cloud giant who claims to be Loki’s appointed proxy when his god's away. Starkad enjoys brawling, hunting, and wenching much more than making decisions, so he is a mediocre ruler at best.
Ingrid the Serpent-Tongue, the Mistress of the Hunt, is the real power in the hall, a giantess able to make giantish warriors quake at her approach. She enjoys great prestige in the Hall, since she leads most of its hunts and gathers much of its food. Anyone attacking her is torn down by the hounds; she defends herself only if every wolf and dog is dead.
The Leader of the wolfpack is White Fang, an albino yeth hound, tough on Ihe outside but softhearted within. He doesn't speak any human tongue, but gladly talks to druids, rangers, and others who can understand the animal languages.
Some of the realm’s petitioners are Loki's followers, but the most tormented are all unwilling visitors to Pandemonium, captured by the giants during raids from Jotunheim into Asgard, Vanaheim, or Nidavellir. There are about twice as many humans as elves and dwarves, but the three races get along rwasonably well, bonded by their hatred of the giants.
Services
Loki's servants are always willing to hire out for gold and glory, or just for the joy of leaving Pandemonium for a while. They're loyal as long as they're well treated. Other services are limited to rough food and rougher entertainment.
Comments