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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 The Weiganstug, a Wolfmark reaver lodge in the city of Skogarholm.

Skogarholm

Perched on the southern shore of the Nieder Straits, Skogarholm is the youngest of the dwarven kings. Once part of the Electoral Kingdom of Krakova, the land fell to invading vampires and ghouls. Spotting an opportunity he would not normally be afforded due to the cruelties of birth order, the youngest son of Wolfmark’s king sailed south with stakes in search of glory and Valhalla.

Landing in a small fishing village called Skogar, this whelp of a dwarf rallied the villagers to beat back ghoulish attackers. He made Skogar into his home, growing the village into a small town fortified by a perfectly circular wall. Despite his lowly rank, he continued to win battles by cleaving vampiric heads from their bony necks. As more reavers rallied to his banner, the whelp became a jarl in his own right. Owing to the circumstances of his birth, Skuti the Whelp called his burgeoning lands The Wolfmark.

Currently, the population of reaver dwarves in the Wolfmark nearly reaches 7,000. Throughout the peninsula, there are “dwarf-towns” meant to house and entertain the reavers until they next make war upon the vampiric colonizers in southern Krakovar.

The Reaver Lodges

To most, Skuti is the undisputed jarl of Skogarholm. The Whelp often hosts dignitaries from Dornig and the Krakvoar court in exile, and he is regularly honored by heroes from faraway Zobeck, Runkelstad and even Triolo. It’s even rumored that his father, King Thulsamir Wolfbrother, graced his youngest son during a winter revel in Skogarholm.

However, to the reavers of the Wolfmark, Skuti is the ruler because he has the beard for administration. He manages the human refugees, settles disputes, and keeps the trade routes running. Most importantly, he keeps the reavers well fed and full of mead, although he sometimes serves as a scapegoat for reaver discontent. Best of all, Skuti knows where to find undead for reavers to hunt.

Within the dwarf-towns of the Wolfmark, the true jarls are the dwarves who operate warrior lodges. Half military unit, half social club, this is where the greatest warlords of the Wolfmark can recruit like minded reavers. Within the lodge’s walls, the reavers eat roasted meat, quaff strong ale and cider, and (most importantly) sleep off the previous night’s carousing, thereby ensuring their “jarls” can find them when it’s time to go a viking again.

While reavers were once very loyal to their lodge, clever warlords realized that they could recruit the best warriors from other lodges with the promise of better conditions. This sometimes led to an undersized warrior lodge being decimated by their undead prey in the field. Despite limits placed upon such recruiting practices, lodges still periodically siphon off warriors from rival lodges, with violent outbursts occasionally raging through Skogarholm. Nowadays, some warlords are just as likely to recruit from the stuppel mutig—courageous warriors displaced by Doresh and Morgau who have the misfortune of not being part of the dwarven brotherhood… yet.

The Weiganstug

Built in the northeastern quadrant of Skogarholm, the four walls of the Weiganstug are a welcome relief from the frigid winds gusting in from the Nieder Straits. Inside, the hearth is always stoked, the stew is always piping hot, and its warlord always seems to know the name of every dwarf who walks through the thick pine doors.

Half of the Weiganstug’s first story is lined with kegs of ale and mead, while the other half is lined with stewpots and roasted meat being slowly turned on a spit. Lining the middle are wooden tables of varying condition, owing to the constant carousing they endure. Meanwhile, the second floor is a veritable sea of pillows and feathered mattresses for the reavers who manage to drag themselves upstairs at the end of the evening.

Visitors won’t find its warlord on either floor of The Weiganstug. Instead, the aged dwarven jarl Thilgiven Klapstone spends most of his days in the basement, planning and plotting raids into the borderlands of Krakovar. He also serves as the head of the warrior lodge, holding services to bolster his reavers ahead of raids. The warlord also plans the funerals of his greatest reavers, most of whom are interred in the basement.

Thilgiven rarely leaves the basement, and reavers who are too deep in their cups speculate as to any number of reasons—grevious wounds, a lost love, or even an unhealthy connection to the earth this far south.

Only Skuti himself and the closest of Thilgiven’s lieutenants know the true reason: he suffers from a curse of vengeance, uttered by a dying fey in the early fight against the Morgau and Doresh. The fey lord demanded that Thilgiven avenge his death by slaying Commander Baleneus of the Ghost Knights, the vampire who slaughtered his court.

If the dwarf failed to achieve the goal in one year, he would age a year for each day he slept above ground. A year and a day later, Thilgiven realized the fey curse had stuck. He’s since slept each night in an empty grave to delay the curse’s onset. Soon, Thilgiven will catch Baleneus between the commanderies along the Great Northern Road. Soon, Thilgiven will be rid of this curse and return to his family in Thunder Mountain.

Drinking Buddies

At any given time, a dozen persons of interest drink in the Weiganstug. Such individuals may include:

• Iswold Hammersail is a young reaver, fresh from the docks of Stannasgard. Known to have escaped slavery in Thursrike, his greataxe detects the presence of the undead. Thilgiven promised much—too much, the old reavers grumble—to secure the young dwarf’s services. The risk of losing Iswold might be enough to coax the warlord out of his basement refuge.

• Sagnstella Libertine is two rare things for a stuppel mutig—she is not male and she does not wield a weapon. Not only is this ginger-haired Krakovar refugee a powerful diviner who helps Thilgiven to seek out Baleneus’ current location, she roasts a mean goose on dwarven holidays.

• Gonden the Disgraced bears his persistent shame in his moniker. While a member of a rival warrior lodge, he led warriors into battle against the cursed undead. Gonden made two mistakes in his last command. First, he allowed his troop to be ambushed by ghouls. Second, he did not die with them. Returning as the sole survivor of the ambush, Gonden was declared outlaw by his prior warlord. Thilgiven brought the disgraced warrior into the Weiganstug as a favor to Skuti the Whelp, knowing that Gonden may prove a valuable asset in eliminating Baleneus. In the meantime, Gonden seeks to honor his dead soldiers by saving an equivalent number of reavers from their undead foes. (Only Sagnstella knows that most of his fallen soldiers have joined the ranks of the Empire of the Ghouls.)

Adventure Hooks

Use the following threads as adventure hooks involving Thilgiven and the Weiganstug or even as part of your character’s background.

• Freshly slaughtered poultry bound for the Weiganstug has been stolen in broad daylight—one of many recent thefts blamed on the influx of refugees. Thilgiven can’t risk a reputation that he can be stolen from, nor can he risk failing to feed the lodge. Thilgiven’s youngest lieutenant charges the PCs with locating and returning the poultry, although the PCs will be disturbed to discover a barnyard golem (see Tome of Beasts 3) outside Skogarholm.

• Thilgiven’s half-brother, Valgor Klapjem, was slain outside the Free City of Jozht, and his body has been taken south into the vampiric stronghold. Wishing to inter his half-brother in the basement of the Weiganstug, Thilgiven tasks the PCs with returning the corpse. It seems an easy task—too easy, unless they learn that Commander Baleneus was behind the bodynapping.

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