The House By The Sea

An adventure seed for In Nomine

In a small house by the sea, on the northern coast of Greenland, lives an old, old man and his granddaughter. Their names are Eikki and Gerda. They live in relative comfort; although the floor is stone and the roof is thatch, the fire warms them and the weather never gets too harsh for the pair to handle. Most of what they need, they can find in the frozen forest, the tundra, and the ocean; when they cannot, they head to the market in the village some two leagues away. The villagers know them by name: from the homeless man who moves from doorstep to doorstep each night to the highest town official, the pair are Eikki and Gerda.

However, all of that has now been called into question. By chance, a Friend of Man going by the name of Jakob von Passau stopped by this particular village in northern Greenland to pay a visit to a friend when he encountered Eikki and Gerda. On a whim, he used his resonance on the two - and discovered that he could not. Much as if he had tried to use his resonance on a Superior.

This intrigued the curious Mercurian, who began doing some historical research in Yves's Library, and discovered that, in fact, Eikki and Gerda had been coming around the village much longer than they had a right to - not to mention more than the thirteen years which Gerda claimed as her age. However, it was not until he discovered reference in a lost journal of Leif Eriksson to a pair living on the northern coast of Greenland by the names of Eirik and Garthf that he began to suspect that something was seriously awry.

At this point, he called his Superior, Laurence, who began questioning the other Archangels about whether they had Roles as an elderly gentleman and his granddaughter on the northern coast of Greenland. It bothered Laurence slightly to discover that none did - and Dominic was present to verify that the answers were true.

Now, technically there is meant to be no collaboration between Heaven and Hell; such a thing would be paramount to treason. However, word has begun to circulate around the Fallen Realms of this household out of time, and the Princes are now beginning to get curious.

Various rumors are flying around Heaven and Hell as to what these two might represent:

Powerful Ethereals hiding out in plain sight (along the lines of Norse gods or the like);
Princely roles for rest and relaxation;
A very clever Luciferian illusion;
Lost Superiors (the prime theory here is Oannes and Vephar); or,
A very strange coincidence.

Within a week of Jakob's revelation to Laurence, at least five investigation teams have descended on northern Greenland. While Heaven has managed to put together a cohesive unit comprising servitors from several salient Archangels, Hell has forwarded no fewer than three teams:

Beleth, Kronos and Asmodeus have teamed up; the joint venture will investigate both in the corporeal and in the Marches;
Nybbas, on his own, is sending a team of investigative reporters to get the scoop on this eternal villa;
and Baal has agreed to assist Saminga in figuring out why these people aren't dying. (Baal's part of the team is doing a little extra; Baal has convinced himself that these two are Odin and a young Valkyrie, and wants to try to recruit them.)

In addition, several other demonic teams - possibly independent, possibly not - are scouting the area. Unfortunately for everybody, Kronos - secretly or not - has his finger in every pie, and is manipulating each Infernal team so that they'll come to the wrong conclusions. (It was his suggestion that led Baal to believe what he does about the pair.)

This leaves the fifth investigator. Rumor has made its way (likely via Beleth's minions) into the Marches as well, and this has drawn at least one Norse god out of the woodwork - Hermod. Having accumulated Essence without spending much at all for centuries upon centuries has left Hermod with a fairly hefty power base, and his Role as Dain Kolinkar, a Scandinavian explorer, is nearly unbreakable. Hermod is on a reconaissance mission: if these are, in fact, Ethereals from the Norse pantheon, then there is quite a bit of hope for the rest of his lost aesir.

Unfortunately for each of the teams closing in on this seaside homestead, none of the explanations above are correct.

Eikki and Gerda (once Eirik and Garthf) are mere humans - although Eikki has a seventh Force and Gerda a sixth. Around 400 AD these two - who are honestly grandfather and granddaughter - encountered a hooded figure wandering the wastes who offered them a deal: he required a cloak, woven of the finest sheep's wool and strands of gold. In return, said the hooded man, for every day that you work on this, I will grant you a day longer to live. When the cloak is finished, I will know, and I will not come to you until that day. As Eirik was a fine weaver but growing older and closer to death, he accepted.

The man then drew back his hood to reveal a bald head with a pair of short, sharp horns jutting from his brow, a face with bright white eyes that Eirik had only seen before on the sightless. To have made a deal with an unknown stranger was foolish, he told them, and continued to say that on the day that Eirik and Garthf died, he would have their spirits in Hel. Eirik protested, but the man simply laughed and vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind the materials for the cloak and an enchanted loom.

Since that day, Eikki has worked every day save two on the cloak, but every night, he unweaves what he has woven that day. The cloak is thus permanently unfinished, and the bald, sightless man cannot collect on his deal.

Kronos is exceptionally unhappy about being denied his two souls, but has forbidden himself from interceding. Now that the two have been discovered, however, he has been free to manipulate events. His goal is for Baal's team to arrive and recruit the two; Kronos knows that if he can get them into battle, Eikki and Gerda will die, and he can reap the reward. In addition, the loom is actually fairly valuable - it subtracts one day from the age of the user every day that it is used for at least five minutes. The cloak is also useful; made of the materials given to Eirik, and upon the enchanted loom, the cloak will be a relic, named Bifrost, which allows the wearer to traverse the boundary between the celestial and corporeal realms soundlessly.

The loss of the loom is not particularly troubling to Kronos; although it is not unique, it is also not particularly powerful on its own. The loss of the cloak is more pressing, as it would be invaluable to any Superior coming across it. But the loss of two souls is a personal affront to Kronos.

It has not yet occurred to him that Eikki and Gerda may have also met their destiny over 1600 years...