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The vast, icy Northlands of Midgard are equal parts deadly and beautiful. The dwarves, trollkin, and humans who call these lands home are hardy folk who are reliant on customs that seem foreign to those in warmer lands. Northlander society is built not only on the custom and bonds of kin, but also the felag—the fellowship and partnership between those who understand the daily struggle to survive.

Nowhere is the felag more evident than in the many longhouses and meadhalls of the Northlands. Frequently, longhouses serve as the focal points for Northland chieftains, jarls, and kings to reward their subjects and assure their ongoing oaths. Meadhalls permeate all levels of society, where even the most common folk can revel during the long winter nights—provided they have the coin.

This article presents Sweetadder’s, a meadhall in Huldramose.

Huldramose

The city of Huldramose is situated on the Northlands peninsula known as Langrosa (“the Long Pinky”). The city’s residents are predominantly trollkin, infamous throught Midgard—not for raiding, as their cousins are wont to do, but for their fierce warrior women who were among the first of Wotan One-Eye’s valkyries. In these lands, the old ways of the land are still honored, the fey are still plentiful, and companies of Huldra mercenaries depart and return cyclically as though they were in the southern Septime Cities.

Huldramose was settled in a lowland between two rivers that flood frequently. Instead of resettling elsewhere, the hardy folk of Huldramose built their homes and businesses on thick stilts. While residents often walk between buildings, it’s also common to travel between structures by paddling boats.

Residents of Huldramose often forgo traditional faith in favor of witches and hedge healers. They commonly eschew traditional study of arcane magic for sorcery and pact magic. Many practitioners incorporate serpentine components into their rituals, whether by using snake poison to brew hallucinogenic tea, binding magic items in dried snake skin, or good old fashioned snake handling.

The Two Queens

Huldramose is ruled by two queen sisters—the elfmarked sorceresses Thorgerd and Dark Irpa, who claim relation to the elven nobility of Thorn. One sister spends the year ruling Huldramose while the other adventures in the Northlands, returning at the Lantern Festival to trade roles for the coming year. Aside from the Huldra themselves, the Two Queens conceal Huldramose’s most valuable asset—a World Tree sapling said to be brought from ancient Thorn. As the Two Queens’ Tree is swiftly growing, Thorgerd and Dark Irpa have taken steps to protect its presence from the outside world.

Sweetadder’s

A decade ago, Sweetadder’s was a bevy of rotting shanties at the northeastern edge of Huldramose called Adder’s Cove. Dwarven outlaws muddled boots with elfmarked outcasts, shadow fey scoundrels, and trollkin cowards, eking out a meager life.

Then, the sapling was planted.

The two queens’ decision to plant the sapling in Adder’s Cove was not taken lightly. However, this shanty town was named for a rare asset in the swamplands of Huldramose—high ground. Adder’s Cove was named for the high ground at the shantytown that never flooded. Here, the Two Queens’ druids reasoned, the sapling could thrive.

And thrive it did. After its first year, the sapling had grown to the size of an adult oak. While excited at its rapid growth, the Two Queens feared that knowledge of a new World Tree would bode ill for Huldramose. This fear was amplified by the reputation of the tree’s neighbors in Adder’s Cove.

During the drunken festivities of the Lantern Festival, the Two Queens ordered Adder’s Cove liquidated. All residents were moved to newly built shanties along Huldramose’ southern border. In its place, Dark Irpa ordered the rapid construction of a new structure before the winter snow melted.

In its place, gnomish artisans erected upon thick stilts a circular structure around the high ground of Adder’s Cove. No expense was spared in acquiring large panes of glass that formed the conical roof of the structure, which Dark Irpa claimed was for the new royal greenhouse. Upon completion, the royal guard patrolled the structure.

Soon thereafter, a wood hag (see Tome of Beasts 3) named Sweetadder came to claim her ancestral land. A century ago, Sweetadder had bargained away the rights to her “cove” with a former resident. Now that her tenant had been resettled, the hag came to inspect her former home.

Through tense negotiations, Dark Irpa and Sweetadder came to an agreement. The Two Queens could use the high ground for their greenhouse, provided that Sweetadder could use the structure around her land as an inn. Dark Irpa agreed to a geas that prevented her disclosure of Sweetadder’s existence, while the hag agreed to a geas against discussion of what’s truly inside the greenhouse.

For added protection, the Two Queens added illusory panes within the rooms of Sweetadder’s. Anyone inside the structure looking into the greenhouse sees a small growing forest of oak trees instead of the blossoming world tree. Sweetadder quickly found a shadow fey named Maerel Fencalor to run the inn that bears her name. Periodically, the hag returns to collect her rent from Fencalor, which typically requires oddities from throughout Langrosa. As she is too busy tending to her many patrons, Maerel often hires adventurers to locate her landlady’s new “shopping list.”

Drinking Buddies

At any given time, a dozen persons of interest drink at Sweetadder’s. Such individuals may include:

• Biethar Leipuri is a Trylleri baker at Sweetadder’s. A former thrall to dwarven reavers, Biethar was freed by a Huldramose war company near Ut-gard. He cooks soft flatbreads that he lightly spices with fennel seeds and dark syrup, as well as crusty sourbreads that are served with Sweetadder’s soup du jour. Due to his people’s nomadic lifestyle, the baker often seeks help sourcing rare ingredients from the wilds of Langrosa.

• Lemet Bottomswallow is one of the gnomes who designed the illusory panes looking into the greenhouse. Unlike her fellows, she remained in Huldramose to do maintenance. When a pane breaks or doesn’t provide the desired effect, the gnome has been known to silence those who saw the world tree sapling, by force or enchantment.

• Rhiam Skyddaboggon is a shield maiden of Sif who is raising a war company for the coming season. She holds no prejudice against anyone due to their upbringing, heritage, or lineage, but she demands any seeking to join their company to prove their mettle on the Northland tundra along the Tearstain River.

Adventure Hooks

Use the following threads as adventure hooks involving Sweetadder’s:

• While staying at Sweetadder’s, a guest dies shortly after their glass pane breaks in their room. Detective Lemet Bottomswallow is soon on the case, deputizing the PCs in her investigation. Is the gnome covering up her own murderous action, or was the true murderer something trapped inside the pane?

• Queen Thorgerd wants to reclaim Sweetadder’s from the wood hag. She asks the PCs to travel to the Shadow Realm and confirm the wood hag’s claim to the land—not realizing that the true claim resides with a truly ancient evil.

• Maerel is struggling to locate the last of Sweetadder’s rent payment—the last cherry blossom to fall from an orchard in Gloaming Crag in Bjornrike. The shadow fey can’t travel because she must tend to the meadhall, and she’s not welcome in Old Honey Paws’s realm as it is. However, as the wood hag demanded this from several tenants, the PCs must race against other groups to ensure the last blossom falls into their possession.

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