We’re rolling onto the second session recap of our Urban Shadows: Reykjavik 1-on-1 campaign. This session was incredibly dense with character conversations and Debts sliding back and forth. I’ve captured some of the Debt exchanges in the recap.

New to the Urban Shadows: Reykjavik campaign? For a bit more background context, the starting character sheet and now a NPC cheat sheet, check out this index post 

Session 2: The Manticore and The Dragon

Rumour: The statue of Ingólfur Arnarson, normally located at Arnarholl, has gone missing. Rumour is the theft was an social attack, intended to call into question how much power local Wolf leader Sigrun Ingólfrdóttir truly has.

Erick, Sigrun’s right hand werewolf, owes Curtis 1 Debt for asking Curtis to investigate the missing statue.

Curtis owes Sigrun 1 Debt for loaning Curtis a wooden shard believed to come from Ingólfur’s ship. When placed in water, it will point towards to the statue.

—

The session opens with Curtis just finished meeting with Erick at Sigrun’s compound in Elliðaárdalur, having discussed rumours about the missing statue. His next move is to look for Bergrisi, the Landvættir of the South and currently the Landvættir watching over the Capital region.

Bergrisi doesn’t have fae minions like the other Landvættir. Instead, he has deep ties to mortal parts of the city’s infrastructure, including politicians and police. The information Bergrisi has access to would be valuable, but Curtis isn’t sure why he hasn’t called him to discuss the situation yet.  

Unfortunately, while driving back to the downtown, the one of car tires blows. Curtis gets out to replace the flat, hears footsteps approach from behind and catches a glimpse of Þor in the hubcap reflection.

Þor was, at one time, a wood sprite connected to Griðungur, the Landvættir who ruled the capital before Bergrisi took over. During that unstable time, Þor served as Griðungur’s messenger and main contact when dealing with Curtis. Þor left Reykjavik in the aftermath, joining a rebel faction of fae who oppose the Landvættir‘s rule and their relationships with mortals.          

It’s clear from Curtis’s interactions now that Þor is a true believer in the rebel cause. His new clothing is elf-made, hinting at his connection to Sola, the rebellion’s elven leader. Sola and Curtis’s past relationship has been rocky at best; she tried to unleash mysterious magic at an relic auction last year and was only stopped when Curtis interrupted her.

Sola is now extending an offer of peace and hospitality to Curtis, which Þor is here to deliver. There’s things in Iceland that should not belong here, Þor explains, and the rebels want to cast those elements out and let Iceland return to a balance where mortals worship and serve the land spirits.

That idea doesn’t sit well with Curtis. He knows he could usher in an age of change; he’s a dragonic broodmate, with all of the power and problems that come with that. Curtis explains to Þor that forcefully removing person from their home is violent and he’s not willing to spill blood for the rebels. Þor is surprised and a little bit taken aback; he didn’t consider Curtis to be that powerful until he revealed it just now.

Þor spends a Debt on Curtis to make an offer: consider selling Sola one of relics in the collection, an alien spellbook. Curtis is left with a twig that can either be used to summon Þor or to teleport Curtis to Sola’s stronghold in Ísafjörður, a town in the Westfjords.

—

There’s not enough time for Curtis to look for Bergrisi. There’s a very important meeting he needs to get to. In the private room in the back of Gömulueiðir, Curtis arrives for a dinner meeting with the investigator that Moorelove hired: Yosef Martichoras.

On the surface, Yosef is a tall, muscular man in his 50s. In supernatural circles, his rep is an old-world sorcerer of an impossible age. Yosef doesn’t have a known sanctum and considers his powers and artistic pursuits to be interwoven. His latest magical venture is to project power into paintings, which then bless and empower the spaces they’re hung in.

Also, he might be magically connected with manticores, but everyone knows that.

Curtis is more stressed and nervous than normal and ends up flubbing most of his interactions with Yosef. The dinner goes awkwardly at best. Yosef asks Curtis questions about mundane mannerisms: Why did he salt his food before tasting it? What would he like to order for dessert? Why? Doesn’t coffee keep him up late at night?

At the end of the meeting, Curtis shakes Yosef’s hand and uses the opportunity to skim the sorcerer’s thoughts. All he reads is “I wonder if the oracle will try to read my mind”.

The only crack in Yosef’s armour is his reaction to Curtis asking to exchange phone numbers. It’s something the sorcerer didn’t consider. Yosef fumbles for a business card, then exits dramatically into the night.

—

As soon as Curtis gets home, he looks up manticores in Einar’s book The Field Guide to Icelandic Fae and Mysteries:

Manticores are an example of several myths blurring up together. Some parts are tied to wild animals and corrupted into monsters through art and legend. However, the human face is important to note. Supernatural creatures with human-like faces have their legendary roots in humans first, rather than animals. In short, a manticore may have been a human who forsook humanity for something monstrous.    

On a whim, Curtis decides to see if he can just call Bergrisi. He looks up an old phone number that the Landvættir used to call him once or twice in the past. It still works and Curtis cashes in a debt to get Bergrisi to show up his apartment to discuss the statue. There’s a knock at the door seconds later.

Bergrisi is underwhelmed by Curtis’s request to do something about the missing statue. Curtis tries to appeal to Bergrisi by explaining that the statue has cultural significance and importance to the mortals living in the capital; as the Landvættir guardian of the region, Bergrisi should be aware of missing statue’s consequences. Bergrisi snaps back, accusing Curtis of dragging him out to explain what he already knows.

Curtis counters, bringing up the time there was a conflict between two Icelandic powerhouses: Sigrun and Griðungur. His visions of the future then were apocalyptic. Both sides cared deeply for the city and still wouldn’t have be able to save it from a disaster. If Valberg is involved, he probably cares less about collateral damage and the lives of innocent people. Curtis feels that if the situation doesn’t get under control, he’ll have to force the city into a new status quo. He doesn’t particularly want to do that, which is why he’s talking to Bergrisi now.          

Bergrisi acknowledges Curtis’s concerns by forwarding the police files on the missing statue. He also mentions that the Víkingasveitin have extra funding to hire a consultant, if Curtis was interested.

Once Bergrisi leaves, Curtis goes to a secret hiding place in the bedroom and pulls out a book. The writing inside looks similar to the Voynich manuscript, but more unsettling. This is the spellbook that Þor was asking about.

Curtis lays the book out on the dining room table and asks the ghost of Olympias of Epirus, current trapped in Curtis’s translation bracelet, about her opinions on the book. In exchange, he offers to allow her to possess his body so she can see her son.  

(You might be asking yourself: Why is Olympias of Epirus trapped in a translation bracelet? Isn’t this game set in Iceland? WHAT IS HAPPENING? The short version is that Alexander the Great’s body was a MacGuffin last campaign. Olympias weaponized The Varðturn Buyers Group, the arcane network, against each other in an attempt to bring her son back from the dead. Her gambit mostly failed, although the network was never the same. Sigrun ended up with Alexander the Great’s body. Curtis ended up with the ghost of Olympias trapped in his translation bracelet. And thus ends our recap in a recap)   

Olympias explains that the book is the key to mastering an alien form of magic, even more removed from this world than fae, demonic or draconic magic. There’s no known defense against what the book could produce. It’s a weapon, but not inherently evil on its own.   

Curtis asks, given that Olympias had political experience while alive and has witnessed some of Sola’s politicking, if there’s wisdom in selling the book to the fae rebel. Olympias reflects that the Landvættir are mostly a boys club and have been stagnant since the 800’s. A woman leader with challenging ideas may bring positive change, but would be crushed without powerful tools. However, Iceland is not Olympias’s country or people and Curtis should also seek out the wisdom of someone with more local experience.        

After thanking Olympias for her help, Curtis takes the bracelet off, leaving it in the dining room as he calls Fjola and requests her help with the Olympias’s possession.

—

Curtis doesn’t remember much about the possession. Olympias takes over his body in Sigrun’s compound, mourns the death of her son while with the coffin, and then returns back to the bracelet. The experiences he remembers clearest are Olympias’s emotions: the ghost is clearly unbalanced and untrustworthy, but her feelings of loss and grief are valid and real.

As soon as Curtis is fully back, Fjola loses her cool and demands to know what Curtis would do something so reckless. If Olympias broke the agreement and took Curtis’s body on a joyride, Fjola explains that she may have had to kill Curtis.

Curtis explains the stakes in play and Fjola says, given what just happened, that they really need to consult the Norns about the spellbook. The Norns are powerful spirits that dwell in north, in the domain of Gammur.

Fjola proposes that she should go, as it’s important for Curtis to stay in the city. Curtis hesitates, and Fjola rightly surmises that Curtis and Gammur have a on-again, off-again sexual relationship and that’s clouding his judgement. Not willing to listen to any more arguments, Fjola takes the spellbook and tells Curtis she’ll call him about the Norn’s decision.

—

The next morning, Curtis texts Caesar, an old fae contact in Boston, about Yosef and what dangers lie in dealing with him. Caesar tells Curtis that Yosef takes the man eater idea literally and is poisonous to the touch. Victims of the poison sometimes don’t know they’ve been infected until days, even weeks later.

The statue is still missing. Curtis uses the wood shard like a compass, tracing the statue to a storage facility on the outskirts of town.

Once Curtis arrives, he sees that the statue has been removed from the storage unit and loaded into a cube van. He snaps a picture of driver and sends it to Erick, who identifies the driver as Tyr, an Aware who does supernatural community members’ dirty work for a quick buck. There’s a lingering presence of goblin magic around Tyr.

Curtis tells a bullshit story to Tyr about how he’s here to help with the shipment. Tyr is confused and steps away to make a phone call. Curtis hops onto the truck, finding the statue to be real and intact. As Tyr comes running back, Curtis slams the truck door closed and damages the lock with some weak Oracle magic, trapping himself inside with the statue.

Of course, that’s when Yosef calls for an update.

Curtis explains the situation and gives Yosef his location, asking for backup. While Curtis is trapped in the cube van and still on the phone, the sorcerer takes the opportunity to interview Curtis:

Why are you in Iceland? Because Curtis saw a vision that his hunter ex-girlfriend would lose control and kill him. He needed to put space between them for both of their safety.

Why are you a Scholar? While in Iceland, Curtis stepped in and saved Marshall Hare, a member of the Buyers Group, from being murdered by two young vamps after a deal went south. Marshall offered to train Curtis and make a space for him in the Buyers Group.  

Why did you accept the offer? Because Curtis felt he should be paying his own way through Iceland and it seemed like a job he could do reasonably well at.

Are you good at your job? If Curtis was truly good at his job, would he be trapped in a truck right now?  

The truck eventually stops. Curtis uses his powers to sense the world outside, discovering that the truck is parked at Arnarholl. The door swings open, with Tyr and Yosef on the other said. Tyr is clearly under some sort of magical mind control.

There’s a tense moment as Yosef offers Curtis a hand down. Curtis tries to read Yosef’s body language and reactions, coming to the conclusion that the sorcerer is curious if Curtis researched his past and still concerned that Curtis could be intentionally screwing over Moorelove. Curtis takes Yosef’s hand and tells him that he’ll explain the truth of everything over lunch.

In Stormasamurhvass, Curtis tells a more complete story of how he came to be in Iceland: he was an oracle in Boston who accidentally woke up the dragon inside local businessman Merov King. Months later, Curtis discovered that he was connected Merov, stuck in the same cycle of death and rebirth across time: Broodmates or Soulmates, depending on the myth. The situation in Boston boiled over, resulting eventually in Curtis leaving and coming to Iceland. Life as a Scholar worked out okay until Curtis came into ownership of Precipice, a draconic sword. Curtis knew he couldn’t return to Iceland with both the sword and his accidental hoard of relics without that unbalancing the dragon in him, nor could he keep rejecting his role in the draconic cycle forever. So he sent Precipice to his ex-girlfriend, Robin, for safe keeping and starting selling off his collection to those who needed power. He’s been selling off the relics for cheaper than their actual value, which is probably crashing the market.

Yosef thanks Curtis for the information and says he’ll consider it in his investigation.

Einar calls. He tells Curtis he thinks he may have found the source of the problem in the east: Valberg has been in Seyðisfjörður recently.      

—     

Session 2 Thoughts:

As I mentioned above, this was an interaction-heavy session, with a lot of in-character conversations. Admittedly, this makes writing the recap a little bit tricky. A bit of characterization that got lost in the recap was Yosef’s reaction to any unusual or strange answers Curtis would offer: “Interesting”. The flow of the conversation would shut down shortly after. Yosef is not big on small talk.

I guess this is one of those “You had to have been at the table” details that benefits from a recorded Actual Play. It played out delightfully later on, during the exchange with Bergrisi at the apartment. Curtis explained part of the current situation to the giant, to which Bergrisi answered “Interesting” and I added “Curtis noticeably flinches as he goes to the kitchen to get coffee.”

Random fact time: Ingólfr Arnarson is considered to have founded Reykjavík back in 874. The Reykjavík we know today owes a lot to Skúli Magnússon, a political figure in the mid to late 1700s. Skúli’s roll seemed to be less widely known in the English speaking world. The man doesn’t even have an English Wikipedia page.

And that detail will become very important in Session 3!