The Ravenar Sagas: Three Viking Adventures for Cthulhu Dark Ages (A Cthulhu Dark Ages monograph #0348)

THE RAVENAR SAGAS are a collection of three Cthulhu Dark Ages scenarios spanning a thirteen-year period between 989 AD and 1002 AD. The Sagas take place across Scandinavia and what will later be known as Nova Scotia.

Players will be taking the roles of the crew of a small knorr (a Viking longship). While pre-generated characters are provided keepers may allow players to create their own. These characters will have many adventures during the Sagas, honing their skills as they face countless challenges. Investigator’s skills may well increase from scenario to scenario; status and the characters' ages definitely will. Investigators will be sailing dangerous waters and battling deadly adversaries, some may not survive. Provisions are written in to allow “replacement” crew to be recruited between voyages.

The Havamal — First recorded from the oral tradition around 1200 AD by Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, The Havamal is a collection of Old Norse poems. These short poetic verses, said to be handed down from Odin himself, gives us a window into the life, values and warrior traditions of Scandinavian culture during “The Viking Age” (790 –1070 AD). It is part of a larger collection of pre-Christian lore called The Poetic Edda, which includes many stories from Norse Mythology. Pieces of The Havamal are sprinkled throughout this book, as well as other, more modern works where appropriate.

The Viking People — During the Viking Age no one, not even the Scandinavian peoples themselves or rest of world, used the term Viking. Scandinavia was without a central ruler, a patchwork of small semi-independent kingdoms long before the formation of countries like Norway, Sweden or Denmark. Outsiders referred to these northern seafaring peoples by many different names. The Irish called them Gaill (Foreigners), the Slavs and Greeks called them Rus, the Arabs called them Majus, the Anglo-Saxons called them Danes and the Franks called them Normanni (Northmen). Of all these varied names Northmen is the term used through this book when referring to native Scandinavian peoples during the Viking Era.

The Saga of the Ravenar — The sagas of the Ravenar are three adventures that take place in Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Vinland, between the years 989 AD and 1002 AD. The scenarios began with “The Unsung Saga”, a short high action demo posted on the Chaosium Missionary website just after the release of Cthulhu Dark Ages. The following scenarios kept to the theme of high action horror. Players expecting to read ancient tomes in monastery libraries while carefully unraveling a mystery are in for a shock. The crewmen of the Ravenar are men of action, well armed, fearless and eager to carve out legends for themselves.