The troll has been sitting on a chair near the door for a couple of days
now; listening to the discussions swirling around the freehold and every
now and then taking out a lap-top and writing something for a little while.
With a final push on enter he seems to be finished with whatever it was he was writing; for he put the lap-top down on the table, stretched his hands a bit and stood up to get some attention from the rest of the patrons.
"Uhm; hello. I don't know if any of you remember me; but I was in hear a couple of months ago and read you something I was writing on. I didn't really intend to be away for so long; for I liked being here very much last time; cause there's always lots of interesting talk to listen to and all the people are friendly and don't care if you make a fool of yourself like I guess I did last time.
But then I had to go talk to this dragon about a chest of gold he owed my uncle, and after that I had to help a friend look for the sword of Torkjell Staute and then I had to rebuild the tower I happened to tear down while I was looking, and - well I just never got the time to come here then.
But things have quieted down lately so I've been able to come around again, but then I guess you had already guessed that as I'm here talking and all.
Anyway; I've also had the time to finally write some more on the thing I was writing on last time I was here and I asked you to help me with; and you really did, you helped me a lot with it. And now I guess I'm finished with it. Well; it's not really finished of course - it's not really edited well at all and I think it's a bit too long and all; but I have a couple of other things I'd like to start writing on too; so I guess this is as finished as it'll ever bee - at least for now."
The troll finally pauses to draw a breath; looks slightly sheepish around the freehold and adds "I guess I'm talking too much again; aren't I? I always want to say just one thing but then I just go on talking and talking when what I really ought to do was just read you all what I've written."
He retrieves his laptop, clears his throat and starts to read:
Draug.
Background on the folklore.
In Norwegian folklore, the draug is a malign sea-spirit linked to shipwrecks, drowning and storms. Often they were said to be drowned seamen that hadn't been found and buried in "Christian ground" (i.e. a graveyard. The belief that the dead didn't rest peacefully unless buried in consecrated ground is a recurring theme in Norwegian folklore.)
The draug was said to be strong as several men; and awfully fond of hard liquor. More importantly; however, the Draug was a bad omen.
If you heard the draug moving about in the boathouse, it was a sure sign of storms and rough seas. If he was seen aboard a boat; that boat would be shipwrecked. If you saw a draug rowing in half a boat; you knew you were fey - death would soon come to you.
The draug described below are quite a way removed from the folklore basis. It is not so much the draug presented as a character concept; as it is a character concept presented as a draug.
Also; the seelie and unseelie courts doesn't really translate to Norwegian folk-lore; but I like the idea of the dualism so I've used the terms "seelie-like and unseelie-like".
Draug kith.
"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me."
- Blaise Pascal
Have you ever looked at the stars and wanted to know what is out there? I'm not talking about the intellectual curiosity of the kind "I wonder if there are intelligent life out there." or "What would it be like to travel into a black hole?". I'm talking about a wish; almost a need; to see, smell, taste and feel it with your hands - even if it's just a barren lump of ice and ammonia circling an old star. The wish to truly _know_ what is out there. To look at the stars and really, really _want_ to know - even though you know you never can.
_Especially_ when you know you never can!
And have you, at other times, hurried home under the cold, alien stars - scared by the dark and silent unknown above you? Looking at the ground, wanting to get inside, get something between you and this waste otherness. Wanting nothing more than get in, close the blinds and shut out the universe. Safe and warm inside the thin shell of a house that separates you from the night-sky as Lovecraft must have known it: cold, uncaring and so very, very alien.
If you have felt like this at times, then you know something about what it is to be a draug. Created as they are from dreams of far shores and love for the sea; but also from the fear of the great unknown and of the sea's sudden rages.
The draug is a creature of the sea; and he harbors a love and devotion to it that nearly rivals that of the Garou's love to Gaia, but still manages to stop just short of worship. "The sea is a playful mistress, but a demanding wife." is a common expression among them.
The draug is not pretty to look at, to say the least. Water-bloated skin that is always wet and cold to the touch, large black eyes and a huge mouth filled with hundred of small, razor-sharp teeth like in the jaws of a shark. Their hair and beard is tangled with seaweed and they smell of brackish water and decay.
The Draug has appointed themselves as the "Protectors of the wish to learn more". Just what this actually means only the Draug know - they have an extensive philosophical body of works on this subject that they never tire of discussing among themselves. In the end it appears that every draug has his own personal understanding of it that doesn't agree completely, or at all, with any other's.
Still, at least they all agree that they have to interfere with people who are trying to learn or discover something. Due to their nature they mostly interfere with learning related to the sea, but they do sometimes go ashore.
Seelie-like draugs do their interference by more or less subtle manipulations; gently railroading those National Geographic-people into another path of questions; placing a couple of gold coins from the wreck where those diving kids will spot them; placing an old ship's log in the library where that grey-bearded history-professor can't help but find it.
Unseelie-like draugs tends to adopt sabotage and violence; often with an sickening ironic twist. (One notorious incident is the draug Kjell Utaskjer's repeated problems with the marine-biologists from the University of Bergen. In the end the lead scientist was found floating face-down in Bergen harbour; he had chocked to death on an unknown species of fish that had been forced into his throat. The police never solved the case; and no other fish of that species have ever been caught.)
Also, Draugs - seelie-like as well as unseelie-like, are suckers for secrets. They claim that they only seek out secrets so that they can "know which ones to steer the humans towards" - but the fact is that they quite simply love the thrill of discovery - especially if they can be the very first to discover something.
If you want to lure a draug with you on a quest; just "happen to mention" that unexplored cave you will be passing by, or that mountain-lake that no-one has ever dived in. You could probably charge him for the trip, let him do most of the work and still have him thank you in the end.
"All humans seek knowledge, the truth. You understand, we all have this romantic notion that knowledge is worth something absolute. That the world becomes richer if we know if this kind of fish eats that kind of fish, or if this shipwreck is a French galleon or a Dutch galleon.
Well, I'll tell you a secret: The truth is worth something - because since it is there it make you want to learn it. The wish to know is more real than the knowledge itself. Just like the dreaming is more real than reality, you understand. No?
Well; what it boils down to is this: remember when you were a kid and finally wound up your courage to explore that old, abandoned ghost-house you were always afraid of? And remember how disappointed you was when it turned out that it was just 'another stupid old house'?
It would have been so much better not to have gone in there in the first place; or even just have dared a glimpse through the windows - because then you could have kept on imagining all kinds of great stuff about it.
And if you had discovered it bit by bit, and not just all in one fell swoop - perhaps you wouldn't have been so disappointed that it was _just_ another old house? You never did stay to find the chest with old clothes in the attic or the place where someone had scribbled their initials and the year 1897 on the wall, did you?
You understand, what we try to do is to keep people from being disappointed like that. We try to make them learn just enough so that they will want to learn even more than before; and that way maybe they will appreciate _everything_ they learn."
"Insulting a draug is like juggling bottles of nitroglyserin. You never know when it might explode"
- Grunde Hareide; nocker; post-surgery comment.
But the draug's are not just water-dwelling philosophers. Every draug has a dark knot of violence buried inside him; and while it is buried deep and is hard to reach it surfaces suddenly and without warning.
It's difficult to make a draug rage; but when you do he will be just as fierce and passionate as a redcap. Nothing - no rules, no threats, no three-quarter nelson and threat about cold steel can keep him subdued. Furniture flies trough the air; blood flows and there are screams of pain and terror.
And then; just as suddenly as it appeared the storm vanishes, the draug straightens his clothes, makes apologies for breaking the peace and go back to his seat. He'll then continue with whatever it was he was doing while the target of his anger is being taken to the hospital.
The only difference between seelie-like and unseelie-like draugs when it comes to these spells, are that the seelie-like draugs usually mean it when they make apologies afterwards.
Draugs spend a lot of time underwater; often for weeks at a time, only interrupted by meals. Not surprisingly all of them are excellent swimmers. They eat little else but fish and other food from the sea (there are persistent rumours that unseelie-like draug feast on human flesh but no solid proof).
They are even able to survive drinking only sea-water; although they _do_ prefer fresh-water when they can get it. (Actually they prefer hard liquors when they can get that; but I felt that was a bit outside the present discussion.)
Birthrights
Storm-sailer: A draug can navigate a boat under all conditions. As long as the boat is made of wood and has some form of propulsion (oars, sails or a working engine); the draug can navigate it without danger in any weather-conditions. Even if the boat has a gaping hole in it's bottom and the wind is at 80 knots; the draug can sail from A to B without damage to neither himself nor the boat (although the boat will normally look a little worse for wear). Cargo and passengers are not given the same benefits, by the way.
Sea-drifter: A draug will not be harmed by the sea in any way. He will not drown in it (although he can drown elsewhere - in a dog-pound for instance ;-) ), he will not be crushed by waves in the most violent storm, he will not suffer any ill effects from high pressure or rapid decompression.
What this mean is that the draug can spend practically forever underneath the waves without any ill effects.
Frailties
Bad omen: "I worked as a deep-sea diver in the North-sea some years ago; out on the oil-rigs replacing the zinc-bars. I and Henrik Ystevik, a good friend and fellow diver were rooming and working together. It was supposed to be his last job below. Henrik had met this girl and was going to get married so he wanted to retire.
It was a few days left of the shift; when I was woken by a scream. Henrik was standing in his bed; looking completely horrified. I turned on the lights and that seemed to calm him.
'What?' I asked. It took him some time to collect himself; then he sat back down and said somewhat embarrassed that he had had a nightmare; some sort of monster had been sleeping in my bed. 'Go back to sleep' I told him, and turned off the light. I didn't sleep anymore that night.
The next morning I tried to get him to write a letter to his girl; but he laughed it away and said he was going home in a couple of days anyway so there was no need. 'I have a bad feeling about this dive,' I said, 'You really ought to write that letter.' He told me to shut up and not give him the shivers; so I let the matter drop.
He threw up in his helmet during the dive. I tried to get him back into the bell; but I knew it wasn't any use.
I quit the same day, and got this job shortly after." Sigmund Hovstad; keeper of Utskjµr light-house.
Only fey people can see a draug for what he is. With two exceptions - humans inside a freehold and the crew on a doomed ship - all normal humans who see a draug for what he truly is dies shortly thereafter. Nothing the draug or anybody else does can prevent this.
(Yes; both rushing them to a freehold and enlisting them on a doomed ship has been tried. Neither work, but it was clever of you to think of it.)
This isn't an effect of seeing the draug, however. People do not become fey from seeing the draug - they only saw the draug _because_ they were fey.
So even if a draug _deliberately_ enchants a human and shows himself with the _intention_ of marking the human as doomed - he is still _not_ causing the human to die. He only decided to take that cause of action _because_ the human was fey.
Fate is playing her fickle game, and the draug is one of her pawns. The draug might never see fate's strings on him; but somehow whatever choice he makes always put him in the way of someone who is about to die - especially those who are about to die on the sea. (It's a rare draug that hasn't seen more than one shipwreck).
And while he might _intellectually_ realize that he isn't guilty of causing the deaths (and not all draugs do); it's something else to tell that to your heart when your friend see a monster lying in your bed.
The "danger" is greatest with enchanted humans of course; and with the exceptions of freeholds draugs avoid places frequented by other people. But sometimes even UN-enchanted and autumn-bound people can see the real face of the draug for a fleeting moment; if only they are fey. This causes draugs to avoid cities and large gatherings of people - in that many people there are almost always some that are fey.
Notes on the role-playing the frailty.
This frailty should have a feeling of fate's fickle play, and that one's fate is forever unavoidable. Good examples are the Celtic death-geas; and the saga's divination of deaths. Let the incidents that lead up to people seeing the draug evolve in unlikely, convoluted ways.
If the draug is doing his best to avoid being seen by someone, just let him get away with it most of the time. But every once in a while you should make the draug's attempts to stay hidden be what reveals him to the person.
This frailty is a tragic streak in the draug, and both the storyteller and player should use it as such. Don't let it just be unnamed NPCs that sees the draug; friends and lovers or the friendly old lady he rents a room with makes a much larger impact and a much better story.
Don't be tempted to save NPCs you care about from the effects. Or at least, don't do it just because you like them too much to let them go. It _shouldn't_ be painless. Not for you and not for the player.
Remember that most people don't know what it means to see a draug - most will just consider it an odd episode and go merrily on with their life.
Just because it is a tragic streak doesn't mean something good can't come from it. The few days his friend's father have left might be enough for the draug to make the two of them bury that old feud and forgive each other; When his wife, lying in hospital with cancer, sees his true appearance the knowledge might give her rest for the few hours she has left; When the old, retired lawyer realizes he has only a few days left to live, he might actually finish that poem he has been trying to write for the last twenty years.
The completely unavoidable effects of this frailty makes it a very disturbing element in the wrong hands. ("What do you mean you show yourself to the president and the senate?") Consider the _player_ twice before allowing him to play a draug.
Boggan
- Ugly devils; and for all their talk about truth and secrets they don't know anything about anyone.
"They're the glue that keeps the courts together. Not that any of the court-fae know it."
Eshu
- They don't say much; but hang on to what they do say.
"It's nice to have a visitor every now and then. Not many people take the bother to come all the way out here. Invite them in; share some tales. Buy some swamp-land in Florida."
Nocker
- Bloody nonsense-talking, spaced out, "oh, ain't I mysterious" Sluagh wannabees with inferior taste in clothes.
"When it comes to insults their stamina exceeds my endurance. I leave the room when a nocker enters."
Pooka
-oh-oh - don't go near them! They're bad luck!
"Truth is saccarine-flavoured as well as bitter."
Redcap
- Yeah, I met one once - Would you believe he was almost as ugly as me? ... Well - _would_ you?
"I'm uneasy around them. They remind me too much about myself."
Satyr
- Great drinkers; but as for partying - forget it! These guys are practically married to the sea - and they don't dare to cheat on their wife.
"Stay away from their company. They are nice and lots of fun to be with but they will not think before enchanting someone even when you're around."
Sidhe
- They discomfort me - they know too much and talk too little.
"They believe they are the only possible leaders for the Kithain. Well; they are right. But not for the reasons they think."
Sluagh
- We are too different to be family, and to alike to be friends.
"Relatives of a kind - the deep sea isn't the only keeper of secrets."
Troll
- Honourable, most of them. They often know much that can be of use. Their knowledge often comes with it's own price though. Still, I'll ask them before the Sluagh seven days of the week.
"Trolls will keep their word even when they know it is wrong."
The troll close the lap-top and looks around on the people with eager but
slightly fearfull eyes. "Did you like it? I mean, if there's anything
you think I ought to change I can do it. It's finished, but it's not like
finished-finished if you know what I mean."