Raising Ragnarok Adventure Seed
April 7, 2020 Articles- Concept: Indie Heroes
- Indie Heroes, Continued
- Concept: Raising Ragnarok
- Raising Ragnarok Adventure Seed
The following is an adventure seed for Raising Ragnarok, written in the style of Fire Starters.
Fimblewinter
The long winter is upon you. Both the Sun and Moon have been swallowed whole, and the world has been plunged into eternal darkness. The cocks have crowed, and both Fenrir and Loki have been unleashed from their fetters.
Ragnarok has finally come.
As a proud warrior, you are ready for the end. You welcome it without fear. This harsh reality will last for but an instant in the grand scheme of the universe, and you will go down fighting until the very end.
For now, the dead are rising and it is your job to put them back into the ground before they consume everything you hold dear. To reach Valhalla, you must fight with honor even though you know your end is nigh.
Background
For three years, you have endured the harshest winter you have ever experienced. Not only has the Sun never risen, the snow has rarely ceased to fall and almost everything is covered in its icy blanket. Men are slaying their own kin in a fight for limited resources. To make matters worse, the undead are decimating everything they get their boney hands on.
Many have given up the fight. Knowing Ragnarok will soon end everyone’s suffering, they have chosen to lay down their arms and succumb to their fate. You, however, know that Valhalla makes no room for cowards. Your goal right now is to slay as many undead cretins as you can until you take your last breath or Surtr engulfs the world in flames, whichever comes first.
Complications
The team must battle hordes of undead and prevent them from destroying what little food supply there is left.
Every living being is desperate for food. People are growing weak from hunger and have turned to killing each other for what resources are left. Can the team prevent needless bloodshed and rally others to keep fighting for life?
Shelter is scare and the winter is harsh. Can the team employ survival skills to find some way to shield themselves from the elements? Do they find a cave, make ice buildings, or dig snow tunnels?
As time goes by, it seems like the fight for survival will never end. Isn’t Ragnarok supposed to have begun by now? Where is the call to join the final battle?
Conclusion
After finding or building sufficient shelter, defending it from scavengers, defeating undead, and staving off hunger, the team may be starting to feel discouraged. An avatar of Odin appears to them in a dream and tells them of the god’s plight. Ragnarok seems to have been delayed due to some vile treachery and the gods need heroes who are willing to help discover what is happening. A seat in Valhalla is all but guaranteed for anyone who turns up to help.
Two things are certain: the road ahead will be difficult and failure to heed the call will only result in prolonged suffering. The choice is ultimately up to the team, but can they really ignore their fate?
Follow-Up Hooks
Does the teem heed Odin’s call, or do they choose to continue to fight an endless battle in an endless Winter?
Where can the team go to gather clues about what is happening with Ragnarok? Is there someone they can turn to who can read the future or interpret runes?
How do the new heroes prepare for their journey ahead? What provisions could they possibly manage to secure for themselves before undertaking their new mission?
Other Thoughts
This mission is somewhat simple, but it allows a GM and their players to get familiar with the setting and the system of choice. Players will get to experience the game’s combat system, the skill system as it relates to survival skills, the game’s diplomacy / interpersonal skill system, and any resource management system the game might use. This is great when getting to know a new game.
The Conclusion of this mission is a little more railroayd than I would typically like for a Fire Starters-style adventure seed. However, the Raising Ragnarok campaign as a whole is a bit more defined than other Fire Starters adventures as well. It has a definite beginning and a definite end point. What happens in the middle is what really gets to be well-defined by the players.
What do you think? Does this spark any ideas, or does it need to go back to the drawing board?
