Fairy Tale Challenges?

[Dr. Confoundo]

As described in one of my previous threads (found here), my group of World War II superheroes is rapidly heading towards a face to face battle with Loki and his Nazi Runekriegers at the White House, which should end with the PCs being transported to Asgard, while Loki and the Nazis rampage across the U.S.

 

So they will be lost in a place of mythic reality, where stories that have been passed down from parents to children for hundreds of generations got their start. They will eventually make their way to a run-down and abandoned Valhalla, containing only the inconsequential spirits of the mighty warriors it once housed, and a broken down old Odin, bereft of believers. But as anyone who has read any fairy tales knows, it's not always easy to get somewhere... the journey is almost as challenging (if not more so) than what you find at the destination.

 

I'd like to run a session where the PCs have to face some odd challenges which showcases the mythical and mystical location that they find themselves trapped in. Does anyone have a suggestion or two that I can use?

[Trebuchet]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

How about a fight against the honored dead which inhabit Valhalla? They're just ordinary men (or more accurately shades of men) with axes and other Viking-age weapons, but there's (if you'll pardon the pun) a Hell of a lot of them. The superheroes can of course beat them up in job lots, but they need something more than that to stop the onslaught... perhaps all those dead warriors need a new cause to fight for?

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

The Books of Magic 1: The Invitation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Books_of_Magic

 

The Sandman Book of Dreams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_Book_of_Dreams

 

Grimm Fairy Tales (comic series)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm_Fairy_Tales_%28comic_series%29

 

Category: Comics based on Fairy Tales

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Comics_based_on_fairy_tales

 

Mage (comics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mage_%28comics%29

 

 

Cheers

 

 

QM

[Korvar]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

One thing that springs to mind was a series of challenges given by an old woman to (I think) Thor and Loki. An eating contest with someone, try draining this drinking horn, see if you can lift this cat, wrestle this old woman, that kind of thing.

 

Despite Thor and Loki being, well, gods, they fail in all these tasks - can't drain the horn, can only lift a single paw of the cat, and so forth. But then it turns out that things weren't as they seem - the drinking horn was connected to the world's oceans; the other person in the eating contest was, in fact, Fire; the "old woman" was Old Age; and the cat was actually the Midgard Serpent that circles the world. And the apparent failures were in fact so impressive (lifting one paw of the cat == hefting a tiny portion of the hugest creature on earth, and so forth) that the people behind the contests were completely terrified of Thor and Loki.

 

After writing that all out, I found a version of this on the Net, which lays it out much better.

 

To do this for your group, you'd have to work out what is the best attribute of each character, the one they would be the most proud of. Find something, preferably mythical or abstract, that could beat them at that. Put a speedster up against Thought, a brick against Old Age, that kind of thing. Have the contest close, but the character loses.

 

At the end (and fairly quickly, because nobody likes their character to lose, especially at their signature ability), reveal that, in fact, their characters have done Epic-class feats of power (nearly outrunning Thought, smashing mountains in two, draining oceans enough to create ebb-tides), and the folk running the thing think they're the bestest people ever.

[Legatus]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

Wow! Korvar, great ideas!

 

But in my campaign these feats are up to gods not heroes. I would go for a mixture between known places or artefacts and new story arcs.

 

1- The heroes arrive at asgard via the bifrost bridge, where they meet the guardian of Asgard Heimdall. Heimdall greets them in a friendly manner, because he can see and hear far and has heard of their heroic deeds. Heimdall assigns them a quest. His horn, the Gjallarhorn has been stolen, and the heroes must retrieve it. If the Gjallarhorn is blown, it will announce the end of the world, Ragnarok. He gives the heroes his horse Gulltopr, who will carry them to Jotunheim to steal back the horn.

 

2- In Asgard the heroes will find the garden of Idun, the goddess who grows the apples, that give the gods their immortality. Her garden is a mess, because Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjost, the goats of Thor, have completely wrecked it. Now Idun asks the heroes for help. Capture the goats, but do not harm them in any way. Otherwise their owner, who happens to have a bad temper, will be quite upset. And by the way, what happens if one of your heroes gets hungry and tries one of those delicious apples?

 

3- Arriving at Valhalla, Odin assigns them their third quest. The dead warriors in Valhalla drink milk from the goat Heidrun, standing on the roof of walhalla. Heidrun has an infection and her milk has become undrinkable. Now it's up to the heroes to cure the goat. Perhaps a herb from the realm of the dark elves will help, or a scale from the Midgard Serpent, or drop of dew from Nifflheim? Think of something scary and extremely dangerous!

 

That should be a trip your heroes will not forget for a long time.

[Gadodel]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

It was whispered into the ears of Giants that the characters were the enemy. Thereafter, the characters have to face all sorts of attacks from various Giants.

[Legatus]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

I instantly had an idea of who the whisperer was, but he is on a rampage across the United States. Otherwise it would fit right into character.

[Pariah]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

So they will be lost in a place of mythic reality, where stories that have been passed down from parents to children for hundreds of generations got their start. They will eventually make their way to a run-down and abandoned Valhalla, containing only the inconsequential spirits of the mighty warriors it once housed, and a broken down old Odin, bereft of believers. But as anyone who has read any fairy tales knows, it's not always easy to get somewhere... the journey is almost as challenging (if not more so) than what you find at the destination.

 

I'd like to run a session where the PCs have to face some odd challenges which showcases the mythical and mystical location that they find themselves trapped in. Does anyone have a suggestion or two that I can use?

 

It was whispered into the ears of Giants that the characters were the enemy. Thereafter' date=' the characters have to face all sorts of attacks from various Giants.[/quote']

 

If Valhalla really has become run-down and abandoned, the Giants would have long since moved in and conquered the place. So now maybe Valhalla is just a vassal kingdom of Jötunheim. For the heroes to get the help they need, it'll be up to them to fight their way through hordes of giants, find the captive Odin, and fulfill some quest for him, thereby returning the gods to power in their own land.

 

Just a thought.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

Why not use the six soldiers of fortune?

 

http://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/six_soldiers_of_fortune

[GestaltBennie]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

The elves of Alfenheim will give you weapons to fight Loki(or banish him to Asgard adnd seal off the connection between Bifrost and our world), provided you can do one simple task: guess the elven prince's name.

 

Oh, and they want the first-born from every member of your team if you fail.

[Dr. Confoundo]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

How about a fight against the honored dead which inhabit Valhalla? They're just ordinary men (or more accurately shades of men) with axes and other Viking-age weapons' date=' but there's (if you'll pardon the pun) a Hell of a lot of them. The superheroes can of course beat them up in job lots, but they need something more than that to stop the onslaught... perhaps all those dead warriors need a new cause to fight for?[/quote']

 

I was already planning a little fight with some of the remaining ghostly heroes of Valhalla, culminating with Odin breaking up the melee. Think the Army of the Dead/Dead Men of Dunharrow from LOTR:ROTK.

 

1- The heroes arrive at asgard via the bifrost bridge' date=' where they meet the guardian of Asgard Heimdall. Heimdall greets them in a friendly manner, because he can see and hear far and has heard of their heroic deeds. Heimdall assigns them a quest. His horn, the Gjallarhorn has been stolen, and the heroes must retrieve it. If the Gjallarhorn is blown, it will announce the end of the world, Ragnarok. He gives the heroes his horse Gulltopr, who will carry them to Jotunheim to steal back the horn.[/quote']

Too late for this one... one of the items that Loki tricked the PCs into finding was Heimdall's Gjallarhorn, because he needed it's ability to connect to the Bifrost Bridge to power his ritual.

 

It was whispered into the ears of Giants that the characters were the enemy. Thereafter' date=' the characters have to face all sorts of attacks from various Giants.[/quote']

 

I'll definitely have to have a big Giant battle somewhere in here. Haven't decided yet if it'll be Surtur and his fire giants, or some of the non-flaming variety.

 

If Valhalla really has become run-down and abandoned' date=' the Giants would have long since moved in and conquered the place. So now maybe Valhalla is just a vassal kingdom of Jötunheim. For the heroes to get the help they need, it'll be up to them to fight their way through hordes of giants, find the captive Odin, and fulfill some quest for him, thereby returning the gods to power in their own land.[/quote']

 

Interesting. I hadn't considered what else would have taken place in Asgard while Odin's powers were on the wane due to lack of worship; my take on it was that this entire shell game of Loki's was to prove to the modern world that he and the rest of the Norse gods still existed... this should be enough to insure a rapid rise in their worship, thus bringing them to the much-delayed point of Ragnarok.

 

But I do like the idea of having to go into Jötunheim in order to complete one of their tasks. Perhaps a series of tasks which will also take them to...

 

The elves of Alfenheim will give you weapons to fight Loki(or banish him to Asgard adnd seal off the connection between Bifrost and our world), provided you can do one simple task: guess the elven prince's name.

 

Oh, and they want the first-born from every member of your team if you fail.

...Alfenheim. They do need some way to stick Loki back into his cave, and to bind him down there. I was trying to figure out where they could get the shackles to do it to him, but I hadn't thought of using the elves or the dwarves. Maybe they'll need something from each of them.

[Dr. Confoundo]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

One thing that springs to mind was a series of challenges given by an old woman to (I think) Thor and Loki. An eating contest with someone, try draining this drinking horn, see if you can lift this cat, wrestle this old woman, that kind of thing.

 

*snip*

 

To do this for your group, you'd have to work out what is the best attribute of each character, the one they would be the most proud of. Find something, preferably mythical or abstract, that could beat them at that. Put a speedster up against Thought, a brick against Old Age, that kind of thing. Have the contest close, but the character loses.

 

At the end (and fairly quickly, because nobody likes their character to lose, especially at their signature ability), reveal that, in fact, their characters have done Epic-class feats of power (nearly outrunning Thought, smashing mountains in two, draining oceans enough to create ebb-tides), and the folk running the thing think they're the bestest people ever.

 

Why not use the six soldiers of fortune?

 

These are much of what I had in mind in the first place. I've got five players, but one of them won't have to be tested*, so that means that I'll have to determine individual challenges for four of them. Let me give a brief rundown of the characters, and maybe some ideas will spring to mind.

 

1) The British Blur: a young Jewish man who saw his archaeologist father gunned down by the Nazis as they were trying to escape occupied territories. Now he has powers of Illusion, Teleportation, and Mental Attacks.

 

2) Ironwood: an ex-Olympic gymnastic hopeful and small-time catburglar. Now he is stuck in a Swamp Thing-esque tree-like form, with Elongation, Regeneration, and Plant Control powers.

 

3) Beacon: a medic and a small town boy. He now has a range of Light-based powers, making him a very Green lantern like character; he can blast things with lasers, make hard light force fields, or glow like a star.

 

4) Etalon (French for 'Stallion'): a Belgian man who lost his family to German invaders, he moved into France to join the Resistance. He is now a martial artist with danger sense and other forms of warning powers.

 

*The remaining PC has a secret that he hasn't shared with the party as of yet. He's not really Dr. Atomic, with power blaster and rocket boots... he's actually the god Hermes, using what remains of his powers to pretend to be a superhero in order to investigate Loki's secret plans.

[Korvar]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

Etalon sounds like he needs something that would sneak up on him despite his warning powers. I would nominate Old Age again (age creeps up on you, after all). He could go up against some other epic-level stealthy folk (a mighty hunter, perhaps), to be finally defeated by an old lady. At the end it turns out that only actual Old Age could sneak up on him.

 

Beacon: he would need a darkness even his light could not illuminate. Ignorance? Death? Not sure how to make a contest out of that off the top of my head. Maybe he needs to find something in a cave - again, perhaps have a few caves to begin with that he can light up, but is defeated by the last one. The second-to-last one is Ignorance, the final one Death.

 

Blur could be given a creativity contest (with his Illusions), assuming that counts as his "signature" power. He could be up against Thought itself, or Imagination, or the God of Lies or something.

 

Coming up blank for Ironwood

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

Dr. Confoundo, you might get some help from the section of the Encylopedia Mythica on Norse mythology. You can look up more there about the characters and situations I describe below as possible tests.

 

1) The British Blur: a young Jewish man who saw his archaeologist father gunned down by the Nazis as they were trying to escape occupied territories. Now he has powers of Illusion' date=' Teleportation, and Mental Attacks.[/quote']

 

My first thought is some kind of duel of illusions with Utgard-Loki, Jotunheim's master of false seeming. I'd need a few more details of the Blur's abilities to determine if that would work.

 

2) Ironwood: an ex-Olympic gymnastic hopeful and small-time catburglar. Now he is stuck in a Swamp Thing-esque tree-like form' date=' with Elongation, Regeneration, and Plant Control powers.[/quote']

 

Ironwood will have to use his Skills and Powers to steal back (perhaps from the giants), and restore the power of, Idun's casket of magic golden apples, which restores youth to any who eat them, including the gods.

 

3) Beacon: a medic and a small town boy. He now has a range of Light-based powers' date=' making him a very Green lantern like character; he can blast things with lasers, make hard light force fields, or glow like a star.[/quote']

 

Beacon's Powers make him the only one able to save the sun-goddess Sol and return the light of the sun to this mythic realm. This could involve driving off the wolf Skoll that seeks to devour the sun, infusing his light into Sol to revitalise her, and/or successfully driving the sun's chariot across the sky.

 

4) Etalon (French for 'Stallion'): a Belgian man who lost his family to German invaders' date=' he moved into France to join the Resistance. He is now a martial artist with danger sense and other forms of warning powers.[/quote']

 

Before the god Heimdall will let the heroes pass into Asgard, he sets them a test of skill: they must recover something from Heimdall's hall of Himinbjorg, past traps and perils that only someone with senses as keen as Heimdall's can evade.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Fairy Tale Challenges?

 

Blur could be given a creativity contest (with his Illusions)' date=' assuming that counts as his "signature" power. He could be up against Thought itself, or Imagination, or the God of Lies or something.[/quote']

 

That's the sort of thing I was thinking of. Perhaps a skaldic competition with Bragi, the god of poetry and eloquence (to whom you could give the ability to evoke images with his words), to narrate and illustrate their respective epic adventures.