Only two magi available to headline this weekend's session of the Trelleborg Kobbar saga on the fair island of Zealand:
Emma, follower of Bjiornaer. Peaceful Animal specialist. Lately embroiled in vendetta with deadly magical goat. Goat, however, known to be vacationing somewhere in France.
Fulminare "Don't pronounce the E" Ex Miscellanea, deaf smith with rune-flavored magic who favors flaming swords and is totally not a Muspelli - though the resemblance has caused a little confusion. He now has a big hammer that hits like a fireball and thinks everything looks like a nail. Recovered from lab accident, walking again.
Waddenze covenant to west still recovering from goat visit. Crintera to east off the table: We owe them vis. Lubek covenant to south not available for adventuring, either: Wiped out by actual Muspelli.
Bishop of Roskilde unwilling to see visiting magi, due to mind control and hate.
Powerful NPC mage in charge of covenant turned to human torch and killed by blind weaver lady.
NPC mage and another PC mage lost in previously unknown regio in ruins of covenant.
Vision-seeing companion in Copenhagen never has anything but bad news. Last time it was something about a wolf ...? No, that was when Ulrich was crippled. Last time was rats.
Late autumn mist curls across the island of Zealand as a boat beaches near the covenant. The only passenger: a limping Redcap whose skin is clammy with seawater and whose lips whisper of shadows in the fog. He delivers a broken wax tablet with a single word scratched deep: "Knudsrune."
You’ve never heard of it.
But Emma’s Heartbeast form shudders at the name. Some primal memory deep in her animal soul remembers a predator (how predatory is the Goat again?).
Fulminare’s hammer starts to glow faintly red. Something about the runes seems wrong. Not Infernal, not quite Magical... but off, like a memory of fire in a mirror.
Having too much fun (and waiting for next session), sorry:
The Runestone That Shouldn’t Be
A recently unearthed runestone in the hills near Roskilde is drawing rumors. Locals say it whispers at night and that the Bishop’s cat has vanished. The bishop’s reluctance to see our magi just might be from more than mind control trauma? (He dreams of burning deer...)
Fulminare's expertise in smithing and rune-magic may give him an edge here. This stone predates the traditional norse runes (adapted to Hermetic use by Verditius) so can't be (easily) read - but perhaps his tradition has some forgotten knowledge. Possibly Muspelli... possibly worse.
Horrifyingly, it bears the sigil of a goat with antlers made of thorny vines (what did the bishop dream of again??)
Emma's vendetta goat, long thought vacationing in France, is back. But something's changed.
The night is full of storm and lightning...
The goat wasn’t just a magical beast, it was one of Thor’s goats: Tanngnjostr or Tanngrisnir, hiding in the mortal world, biding time... And now, it’s found its way back to its true master. (What has the Goat complained about Emma to it's true master?)
EDIT:
The magi wake up one night from the lightning. Outside the aegis, they find hoof-prints(!). Follow the hoof-trail into the shattered regio (or Asgard). Trees are not trees. They bend upward like antlers.. Everything smells of ozone and hay. The Goat awaits, seemingly more massive, but calm. Its horns shimmer like iron (larger, like antlers?). It speaks without moving its mouth:
“You mistook me for a beast.
I was the cart.
Now the driver is awake.”
Lightning strikes!
EDIT 2:
BOOM. Thunder peals through the landscape/regio. The air tears like cloth, and the magi are shook. And there, flashing in the lightning: Thor.
Or, what’s left of him.
His eyes are mirrors. His right arm is a braided whip of lightning and ash. The other clutches a broken haft, seeking its head (now Fulminare’s hammer, mystically or really... or just faerie shenanigans).
Check out the book "Hooks" the dark tower can always work (a knight with good connections show up saying that he has a vision of doom caused by the magi) or one about vikings (might be appropriate due to the location).
Otherwise, check out the scenarios that i have posted onnthe forum and see if any inspire you.
Option 1: the magi leave the swamp of Zealand and head to the wondrous faerie regios of Funen instead.
Option 2: The hreppar of Kattegat (a loose association of hedge magi following the section "The Raudskinna compact" in Rival Magic p106-9, bringing together hedge witches, learned magicians and trollsynir of the Danish and Swedish coast) decide to closely investigate if your runesmith is a Muspelli or not, as they can't allow Muspelli to roam through Denmark. If they decide he is friendly, maybe they offer a chance for him to join them in solving local supernatural problems.
Option 3: If you like a terrible pun, have a merchant come to sell them geese for goose quills for writing. This goose merchant mentions he's seen a terrible magic wolf running around the countryside, and is willing to tell them the location if they will kill the wolf and give him its eye-teeth. The merchant is in fact a gently Gifted Muspelli follower of Nidhogg who really wants magic wolf teeth to make into a gandur. He will lead them into the countryside, then while they are camping he disappears off and uses Summon Animals to summon a foul wolf from the Ironwood. Should the player character magi kill the wolf, they can locate the vis in its teeth - they can cheat the merchant by using Gather the Essence of the Beast to move the vis into another body part. The merchant won't care because he has the material component needed to make his gandur. If the players discover that it's all a Muspelli scheme, you can tell them that it should be obvious that the source for the goose is the source for the gandur.
(This story arose when I was playing around with the idea "How do Muspelli get the objects for their gandur in the first place?")
They definitely don't believe that, but it's tempting to have the two more belligerent members use it as an excuse to ignore the Ash Gild's "Play nice!"
I'm likely going with either low-key covenant daily life shenanigans, or have companions do something about the Bishop: a couple of the players expressed an earnest desire to get a streak of lab work done before the next disaster. As if it's all my fault ...
Generally, though, looking over the responses, I see I'm going to need to discourage the goat-story SG from ever coming here.
'Cuz I'm sure everyone's waiting with bated breath:
It ended up as a mostly book keeping session, with a lot of time spent discussion ways to beef up the covenant's defenses, and the lion's share of that time spent working out an invested item: The Eye of Satan - An obsidian sphere built into the covenant wall splits open to release a stream of lava, which is directed using the compass rose installed above the sphere.
Going a bit dark tower ... but it made the player very, very happy. And you should have heard his initial plans.