Nordheim Adventure Inspiration?

C

Clegane

Mongoose
So I recently picked up a copy of Betrayer of Asgard and I find that I am quite fond of it as a semi-epic scenario. Fond enough that I would like to run my upcoming Conan campaign (this will be the fourth that I've run) as a purely Nordheim-based campaign, with the PCs all playing Aesir from the same clan. Well...and one young Cimmerian 'nobleman' who is a ward of the clan as part of a treaty-securing 'hostage' exchange.

Anyway, I want to have the players work their characters up, rather than just dropping them into BoA at the recommended 5/6th level. Problem is, there is a dearth of published material that is useful for Nordheim and I am finding myself with somewhat less time to write up 5 levels worth of campaign than I had hoped for.

Aside from the limited canonical material pertaining to Nordheim, do any of you have any good suggestions from which I can draw to work up some material for the first half of this campaign? I don't really have time to read any novels before launching the game, but I could certainly handle a few short story suggestions, as well as any tips on actual gaming material (Conan or otherwise) that would contain quasi-relevant background for the area.

I have a copy of an old Viking sourcebook from 2E AD&D that I can milk for a few ideas, as well as the 'The North' boxed set from TSR's 2E Forgotten Realms line, but neither seems to have any truly relevant information. Thulsa's adventure anthology, while containing excellent adventures and being a beautiful book, really doesn't have much that can easily transfer into Nordheim.

Any ideas or leads in the proper direction would be appreciated. Also, while I'm certainly not looking for someone to do all of my 'work' for me, if any of you have solid adventure seeds that you've used in your own Nordheim-based campaigns, feel free to mention them. I'm just finding myself woefully short on inspiration.

Thanks in advance.
 
My first Conan adventure followed the same format, that is, three Aesir and a Cimmerian on a Nordheim based adventure.
The characters were warriors in the personal warband of an Aesir Chief named Torskel Wolftooth, King of Skjaldbork. Torskel was a powerful chieftain living near the borders of Vanaheim. By force of arms he had united nearly a score of villages into a nascent Aesir Kingdom. His personal "House Carles" were known as the Wolf Tooth Warband and each was an accomplished warrior in their own right.(Each wore a necklace of teeth taken from a wolf they had slain in single combat.)
The adventure started at the beginning of autumn. All through the summer there had been fighting along the border with the Vanir. Both of Torskel's sons had gone to Ymir's hall and the middle aged King was keen to father another son and heir.
He knew of an Aesir Lord, far to the east, near the borders of Hyperborea who had a daughter of surpassing beauty. He could only spare three of his House Carles to travel to Agnar's village to ask for her betrothal(our heroes).
The Cimmerian who had fought alongside the Aesir all summer was well thought of by the Wolf Tooth warriors and when he asked to accompany them, they readily agreed. They felt that they might need another sword to protect the considerable dowry that they were escorting.
The journey involved a run in with a Cave bear, a pack of wolves, hungry for the parties mule and a running battle with bandits before they reached the settlement of Brandistok.
Brandistok was much smaller than Skjaldbork and Agnar was lord of no more than two score warriors. Seeing the dowry, Agnar agreed the betrothal of his daughter in principle.
However, first he wanted to test the mettle of these much vaunted warriors of the Wolf Tooth warband. A "Troll" had descended upon the farms of the east valley from Hyperborea. If theycould track it down and slay it they would prove that this Torskel Wolftooth was worthy of his daughter. If they failed it would show that he was a weak lord followed by weaklings.
Of course they were successful.The Troll was in fact a Gurnakh, an abberation created by the Witchmen of Sigtona.
Don't have time to post the rest of the tale tonite, will try to finish it up tomorrow. :)
 
WeakAsAKhitan said:
Signs and Portents issue 53 has a low-level scenario set in Nordheim, "Temple of Tears", which might be useful.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for mentioning this! I have all of the SnP pdfs in a folder, but I somehow seem to have missed this adventure when scanning the SnP Conan index online.
 
Ok, where was I? Oh yes...

Having tracked down and dispatched the Gurnakh/Troll the characters returned to Brandistok where Agnar threw a great celebratory feast in their honour.
There was the obligatory eating and much drinking, as well as tale telling and competitions of strength and skill such as axe throwing and wrestling( well, bare knuckle brawling to be precise.).
The characters were able to take part in a re enactment of the axe throwing scene from the movie "The Vikings" and everyone had a thoroughly good laugh.
Midway through the feast, Astrid was revealed for the first time. The Aesir nodded appreciatively but were honour bound to escort her to their lord. The Cimmerian had no such compunctions and decided to steal her away and run for the southlands. Astrid too had little inclination to marry Torskel Wolftooth and was extremely enamoured of our young dark haired reaver, to the extent that she slipped out of the longhouse when everyone was so drunk as to be unconscious, or nearly so, to join him in the barn.
The scene was being set for a potential betrayal of his comrades in arms, but fortunately for his honour but unfortunately for all others concerned the village was attacked,just before dawn, by Hyperborean slavers.
The slavers were from Sigtona and were led by Starkad Bloodeye, captain of the Queen's Bloodshield bodyguard.
(There is another post on here somewhere where his stats and those of his men can be found)
The attempt at defence was quickly overwhelmed and the characters, along with the surviving Aesir were taken in chains to Sigtona to await the whim of the Witch Queen Tuonetar.
In Sigtona, the characters witnessed the evils of the Witchmen cults as their Aesir allies were transformed into abberations and forced to fight in the arena for their pleasure.
The Cimmerian, gained a mortal enemy in Starkad Bloodeye as he became a rival for the affections of the immortal and decadent queen. Astrid too had become a handmaiden of the Queen and life looked like it might be okay for the Cimmerian until Tuonetar caught Astrid and he "in flagrante".
The Cimmerian and the surviving Aesir were forced to fight a pack of huge abberations known as a Vargr(bipedal and Werewolf like in appearance)in the arena to protect Astrid who was chained to a post.
The visiting Prince of an eastern Hyperborean city, Rykainen, was so impressed that he purchased the survivors at great cost.(Our heroes + Astrid)
He intended to pit the characters against his Hyrkanian slave gladiators and expected to recoup his costs sevenfold.
Tuonetar finally relented to the persuasion of Prince Rykainen and agreed to the sale. The characters were chained in a cage wagon and set off for the city of Tuonela. Along the northern foothills of the Graaskals they headed, guarded by the mounted warriors of Rykaine's escort.
A day out of Tuonela and the Prince and the bulk of his men rode off to the city leaving only the two drivers and a pair of guards. That night Astrid performed the dance of Atali and while the guards were entranced by her beauty, the characters escaped from the cage wagon. The guards and drivers were quickly overcome and the characters made off in search of a pass into Brythunia.
Climbing the pass, they looked back to observe that they were being followed. It was Starkad Bloodeye and a dozen of his Bloodshields. He was unwilling to forego his revenge against the Cimmerian upstart who replaced him in the affections of Queen Tuonetar.
Leaving the main pass they climbed a goat path until they found a cave, hopeful that the Hyperborean's would pass them by in their haste.
This was not to be and our heroes set themselves to mounting a last stand. By the whim of the God's the cave they found contained the remains of dozens of bodies, many of whom had been armed and armoured.
Fully armed and armoured once more, the characters prepared to face the Bloodshields. The fight had just commenced when the noise of the fracas awoke the denizens of the cave, a score or more of Draugr(ghouls).
A three way fight ensued and many fate points were spent before our heroes emerged from the cave, bloodied but still unbowed and considerably richer to boot.
The Aesir decide to return to Skjaldbork and escort Astrid there. The Cimmerian didn't mind as he had grown tired of her by this stage. :roll:

I hope that you can find some use out of this. I pludered shamelessly from various works for this adventure, Bernard Cornwell,Dave Gemmell, and Kurt Busiek to name but a few.
 
I ran part of our campaign through Nordhiem. I found GURPS Viking useful. Also, get a reference book on Norse myth's & legends. And, of course; RttRoK.
 
The old Vikings boxed set from Avalon Hill's Runequest III contained some nice Norse background and adventures. It might be difficult to find today, though...

There was also a D&D Gazeteer (N°11, I think) called the Northern Reaches. I remember it as being not too bad...
 
I wish I had something more useful to contribute other than to say that this is an awesome thread! :)

FWIW, I did find the D&D 3.5 book Frostburn very useful for adventuring in a cold wintery climate. It covers a lot of interesting aspects of traveling and surviving in an extremely cold climate. I think most of it would easily be used in a Conan D20 game. :)
 
I also read Eaters of the Dead. I have to say that I actually like the movie much better than the book. Although the book does give good details about Viking life, the movie seemed to flow better and had more action involved in it.
 
keylan said:
I also read Eaters of the Dead. I have to say that I actually like the movie much better than the book. Although the book does give good details about Viking life, the movie seemed to flow better and had more action involved in it.
Click to expand...

I have to say that both really compliment each other. I read the book first and about 6 months later saw the movie and I can say that bothare pretty damn good and true to each other.
 
The Snow Haired Woman is an adaptation of a CTB issue for AD&D 2.
You can find it at:
http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=740
 
How about REH's own The Cairn on the Headland?

Text: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Cairn_on_the_Headland

There is an audio version of the tale in Dial P for Pulp's 6th episode (starts about 16 minutes in): http://media.libsyn.com/media/dpfp/dialpforpulp-006-Mar08.mp3
 
I stumbled upon an adventure called Into The Frozen Waste on WTC's site. It looks a bit too much D&D for Conan but it's surely possible to salvage some ideas.
Here's the link:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030111a
 
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