The Lost Mountain Saga

This is the final chapter of The Lost Mountain Saga. It is time. Good luck!

Background

Sigrid Magnusson always knew that she was special. Being abandoned as a child by her own mother but then rescued by a kind, strange creature that lived in the forest, known as a troll, Sigrid had an unusual upbringing surrounded by vaesen.

Knowing and experiencing the power of these creatures, the ambitious Sigrid hoped that she herself could one day gain similar powers. That hope eventually turned into an obsession. What if the barrier that separated humans and vaesen could be removed? And from it, a new magical world could emerge where humans and vaesen would co-exist in the open?

After meeting the Vanadisir and Eira, Sigrid learned of the green gemstones and their powers. With further research and investigation, she discovered that the stones could temporarily control and potentially even harvest the magical abilities of certain vaesen. How, or why, she did not yet understand.

After leaving the Vanadisir and having learned of the green stones found in the ruined mine at Abisko, she traveled there. Claiming she was a renowned geologist, the manipulative Sigrid convinced the manager to give her full access to the mine, and managed to find a few pieces of the green stone.

For several years, she conducted experiments in secrecy on both humans and vaesen. The stones behaved in the way that Sigrid had hoped, but she was still unable to truly understand their full potential. Their ability to temporarily bind the powers of vaesen seemed to happen purely by chance, until Sigrid realized she could force the vaesen through coercion and eventually torture.

A decade later, Sigrid had climbed the social ladder and was able to convince the rich and influential to open the Abisko Mine once more by showing them the potential of the stones. She didn’t shy away from using lies and manipulation to get her way. Sigrid argued that through research and science, the stones could change everything, not only for Sweden, but for humankind.

Karl Magnusson, Sigrid’s husband and the founder of Svea Mining Corp, initially shared Sigrid’s vision for a better world. As the project went along, however, other interests started to influence the operation THE LAPPONIAN GATE In the story of The Lost Mountain Saga, there was once a gate in the north of Sweden. Guarded by ancient giants, known as Guardians, the gate functioned as something similar to a portal to their old world. The gate has not been opened for thousands of centuries, and virtually no one, including the vaesen, remembers its origin.

When the last Guardian died, thousands of years before the first human settlers arrived in the area, the memories of the once impressive gate were forever forgotten, leaving only a gaping hole behind that was eventually known as the Lapponian Gate.

The Lapponian Gate is a valley in the Abisko National Park. Its unusual, round shape gave it its name as it resembled an enormous gate. Most scientists have explained it as a curious geological variation with its perfectly round shape carved out in the middle of a mountain ridge. It looks like a mountain used to be there. A mountain that was lost. The remnants of the last Guardian are now where the Abisko Mine is located. It’s his corpse that is being mined for iron and the mysterious green gemstones.

more and more. Karl and the military pushed for a weapon. The investors pushed for financial gain. The university pushed for more research.

Now, Sigrid stands at the top of the new research center, looking down at the mine and the famous Lapponian Gate and its strange geological shape. It’s in the middle of July but there’s a harsh, cold wind from the northern mountains. The mine, the stones, the whole idea… What was once something that belonged to her and her alone is now being worked on by over a thousand men and women. She’s losing control.

Lisa Johansson, the unfortunate soul who had her autonomy stolen from her, has come here without fully understanding why. Whatever it is within her is drawing her to the mine, and she can no longer resist it.

Conflicts

This is the last and final chapter of The Lost Mountain Saga, which means it is the final mystery and the outcome will have global repercussions. There are several conflicts that are each important, the main one being between the ambitious Sigrid, the greedy humans she’s surrounded herself with and the remaining vaesen who are seeing their world slowly collapse.

The secondary conflict is between Karl and Sigrid Magnusson who have used each other for their personal goals and they’re both starting to realize it. Sigrid used Karl’s money and influence to reopen the mine and continue her research, hopeful that she would eventually be able to make her ultimate goal come true: A new world, where a selected group of humans can wield the power of vaesen and cure all ills.

Karl, on the other hand, does not believe in Sigrid’s grandiose ideas and instead uses her knowledge to develop a powerful weapon of mass destruction that he hopes would change the world order. He has invited the investors and prominent political figures for another demonstration of the weapon. Sigrid is vehemently against this.

A third conflict is between Lisa and Sigrid. The revenant possessing Lisa is sworn to destroy anyone who uses the green stones for personal gain. Sigrid does not even know Lisa exists, but she is about to find out.

Invitation

A formal invitation from Svea Mining Corp arrives at Castle Gyllencreutz in the beginning of August along with train tickets for the newly constructed railroad that will take the players comfortably to the north of Sweden (Handout 5A, also found at the end of this book and available to download from the Free League website). Esteemed Sir/Madam, You are cordially invited to the official opening of the research center of the Abisko Mine, hosted by the Svea Mining Corp, in conjunction with Upsala University.

Join us for an evening of erudite discourse and intellectual exchange, as leading experts in the field of mining and geology share their insights and knowledge. The event shall encompass a stimulating demonstration of our latest discoveries, insightful discussions, and ample opportunities for networking among esteemed professionals and academic luminaries.

Your presence at this gathering of intellectual minds shall be greatly cherished.

With utmost anticipation and admiration, we remain, Yours respectfully, Karl and Sigrid Magnusson Svea Mining Corp If the player characters managed to charm Sigrid in the second Mystery, their train tickets are upgraded to first class.

Preparations

If the player characters have any experience points that they have not used yet, this would be the time to do it. And as always, they can gain an Advantage before leaving Upsala. Clues they can gather before leaving Upsala:

• If they make a successful LEARNING while studying the area they will learn that Abisko and the surrounding national park is a desolate area and part of Sápmi, the cultural region that belongs to the Sami people who’ve lived and used the land there for thousands of years. At this time, the Sami are heavily oppressed by the Swedish government and the Abisko Mine was opened without their consent.
• Close to where the mine is located is the Lapponian Gate, a geological U-shaped valley in the middle of the mountain ridge. It looks like an enormous gate, thus its name.

The Journey

It’s very early on a beautiful summer day when the player characters board the newly built luxurious train that will take them to the north and the newly reopened Abisko mine. Svea Mining Corp, swimming in gold from investors at this point, specifically constructed the line for fast transfer between Upsala and the mine, however, it’s northern part is not fully finished yet and the player characters will have to spend a night in the small town of Kiruna before continuing the journey by stage coach the next day.

After almost three days of travel, it’s late when the player characters arrive at the train station of Kiruna. Unlike the winter months, when the sun never rises, now the sun never sets. People are still out eating and drinking despite the late hour.

A stage coach waits for the player characters and takes them to an inn a bit outside the city. While the sun is still up, it suddenly feels a lot less festive and bright. As the temperature cools, mist starts rising from the ground and everything is completely still and quiet. Nature knows that it’s night, even if the sun doesn’t.

Shortly after arriving, the player character with the highest Empathy, the same person who felt a connection to Lisa Johansson in previous Mysteries, gets an eerie sensation that they are being observed by something in the dark forest behind the inn. The creature that once was Lisa Johansson has found them.

Either the player characters seek her out outside or she will enter their room in the middle of the night. She wears a dirty white nightgown and has long black hair, but unlike the young petite woman they once met, she now stands taller, more regal. There’s an elegance despite her dirty clothes. Her eyes are completely black and her mouth has changed its shape. It’s somehow wider, elongated. “Help…. me….” she whispers, her voice raspy and foreign as if the words are physically hard for her to form. Lisa won’t attack the player characters, and if they attack her she will try to flee.

If the player characters choose, they can try to communicate with her and eventually she will explain what happened to her. As she does so, her humanity slowly comes back. Her face slowly returns to its normal form and her eyes will return to their natural brown color, though they are still full of grief and pain.

“After… what happened,” she begins, her voice cracking up from fatigue and sadness, “I realized I could not contain it anymore, this monster inside of me. It’s longing for something.” For a brief moment, the old, brutal creature is back but Lisa is able to push it down. “The stone helped, I could control the monster with it. But eventually it weakened. Whatever it is inside of me, it seems to be somehow bound to this.”

Lisa takes out the gemstone that once belonged to Franzibald. Its green color is now dull and faded. “We both seem to be bound by it. When your friend was carrying it, I… was blinded. I could not stop it.” Now in the voice of the shieldmaiden. “The Vanadisir must be stopped.” Lisa regains control, but she is very weak.

“I need your help. The mine in the north. I must go there to fulfill my task, whatever it is…” It’s up to you, the Gamemaster, how much you want to reveal about how and why Lisa was possessed by the revenant but she will tell the player characters that she can’t travel with them, it’s too dangerous. If they decide to help her, she will meet them at the mine “when the time is right.”

She won’t know how they can help her, she just knows that if there’s an answer, it will be at the mine. The player characters can attempt LEARNING to see if they recognize what might be possessing Lisa and if successful, they will understand it’s a revenant.

Arrival

The next day, the stage arrives at Abisko and the mine. They arrive early in the morning. Until recently, the whole area surrounding Abisko and the village itself was mostly arctic barren grassland. The village was more like a camp for the miners and workers.

Everything changed when Svea Mining Corp took over. The once beautiful national park, framed by mountains and the Lapponian Gate, is now industrialized. Sounds of heavy machinery and smoke from coal plants fill the air, while hundreds of workers carry heavy equipment from place to place. There’s a yellowish tint over the entire area as smog covers the sun.

A massive brick building that resembles a fort stands in the center of Abisko – the Research Center. Guards in uniform are everywhere, looking suspiciously at every worker that passes them by. The stagecoach takes the player characters all the way to the entrance of the center. It’s an unwelcoming site with its dystopian aesthetic, built for pragmatic reasons and to signal strength. The emblem of the University of Upsala and its motto hangs over the entrance.

Gratiae veritas naturae. Truth through the grace of God and through nature.

A stern, old man greets them. “From Castle Gyllencreutz, eh?” he says and leads the player characters into the building. He introduces himself as Bengtsson but beyond that, he has very few words to share. It’s dark and murky inside. The group has to climb several stairs to reach the rooftop. From there, they can see the entire town, the crater from the explosion a decade ago, the new mine entrance, and behind it, an open area with some sort of large metal cylinder in the middle. Behind it all, the beautiful Lapponian Gate.

“She’s nice, isn’t she?” Bengtsson says, looking at the mountain formation. “The new people in town have come to refer to her as the Lost Mountain because of what happened ten years ago. As if a mountain can be lost. They don’t know that that formation has been there for millions of years. Lots of idiots around here, if you ask me. But nobody ever does…” he grunts.

If asked about the metal cylinder, Bengtsson shrugs and says he doesn’t know (an OBSERVATION roll will reveal this to be a lie). He leads the player characters to the area where their living quarters are. It’s nicer there, with windows that let in some daylight and furniture and fabric that hides some of the brickwork, but it resembles a bunker. The player characters are given access to an apartment with individual bedrooms and a common area.

Countdown and Catastrophe

The countdown in this Mystery is to help you push the player characters in the right direction, which will lead to the Confrontation.

1. Upon arriving at their rooms, Linus the tour

guide knocks on their door and tells the player

characters they have two options should they

want to visit the mine. “Either 1 pm or 2 pm!” he

says with a laugh, holding his pocket watch.

Linus is extremely cheerful but will be firm

that the players really should try to take him up

on his offer before the welcome dinner later

that night. 2. Linus will once again show up right on time to

escort the group to the welcome dinner that starts

at “7 o’clock! Do not be late.” 3. Later that night, after the welcome dinner and

demonstration, Sigrid knocks on the door to the

player characters’ apartment. She wants them

to help her destroy the mine and bury the green

stones forever. See Confrontation on page 76.

Catastrophe

If the player characters refuse to help Sigrid, she will carry out her plan herself. This will eventually trigger a massive explosion as described in the Confrontation, but in the catastrophic scenario, the player characters won’t be able to save Lisa who falls into the dark abyss together with all the other ancient secrets of the whole area.

The Confrontation of this final Mystery is extended into several scenes. If you want to add more challenges, you can have the player characters encounter more obstacles on their way to the various scenes such as guards and other NPCs who might question them. Otherwise, it’s assumed that the challenges presented in each scene are the main challenges and if they overcome them, they can move on to the next scene.

Sigrid’s Mission

It’s late, and there’s a small knock on the door. This time it’s not Linus, but Sigrid. She’s wearing a dark cloak and asks if she can come in. Her voice sounds thick, as if she struggles to speak. Once inside, she takes her cloak off and her entire face is covered in bruises. “My husband is dead,” she declares after a pause. “I killed him.” If asked about the bruises, she’ll simply say, “I suppose he didn’t like being killed.”

Sigrid sits down on the sofa and takes out a mirror, observing her bruises. She declines any medical help. From her front pocket she takes out a vial with a clear liquid and starts patting her face with the liquid. Right in front of the player characters, the bruises slowly start to fade and her face starts to transform into the younger version again. If asked about it, she’ll tell them the truth. “I bargained with a couple of fairies. They can teach us a lot about aging.” Sigrid grimaces, as if still in pain. “It does not actually heal anything. It’s more like very effective make-up.”

Eventually, she starts to tell the player characters what happened. In the beginning of the reopening of the mine, she and Karl had had an agreement. To further science and humanity, to make the world a better place. As the project continued, however, they realized their definitions of “furthering humanity” were very different. Karl wanted world domination through force. He could not see a world without war. Sigrid’s work and knowledge could help him win his wars.

Sigrid thought she could change his mind but soon realized it was pointless. Everyone followed Karl’s lead and she lost control. The Upsala University had similar concerns as Sigrid, but the institution was soon manipulated into believing that this was the right course of action. “I had no other choice. It needs to be stopped before we break the world.”

“Will you help me destroy it? The mine, the research, everything? It’ll put an end to this misery and possibly save countless lives. Both human and vaesen. There is another bomb hidden in the mine, ten times as powerful. If I can get to it, undisturbed, I can set it to blow. It will trigger an explosion large enough to take the mine and the stones with it… You need to sound the alarm, evacuate the area. We have protocols in place, everyone will know what to do.” She pauses. “For me, I think I won’t be coming back from this. But I have made my peace with it.” The player characters can roll an OBSERVATION. Sigrid seems like she’s sincere in wanting to kill the project.

However, this will change if they mention Lisa. Sigrid does not know about Lisa, but will act concerned for the girl if they bring her up. “I believe it’s all connected. The girl’s suffering is a product of the stones. If we destroy the stones, she’ll be saved.” In reality, finding out about Lisa will awaken something in Sigrid once again. Perhaps her original idea wasn’t an impossibility after all? An alternative plan will form in her head, unbeknownst to the player characters. The GM can choose to let the player characters roll for OBSERVATION again to see if they catch this change – otherwise it will be revealed later.

“I have full access to the entire site but we need to act quickly. In the morning, they will notice the absence of my husband and things will get a lot more complicated. If we’re doing this, we need to do it now.” The player characters can come up with various strategies on how they want to tackle the problem. Otherwise, Sigrid will suggest that they dress up as her personal bodyguards and let her do the talking.

The Bigger Bomb

It’s a quiet night, cold despite the season. The sun is still visible behind the mountain ridge, casting long shadows. The bustling activity from earlier is gone. The mine entrance is watched by just two guards, neither very vigilant. Sigrid tells the player characters to “take care” of the guards, leaving it up to them exactly how to do that (STEALTH, MANIPULATION and violence can all be used – give any reasonable plan a good chance to succeed).

A short distance inside the mine, a bomb just like “Gurra” but even larger rests under a tarpaulin on a flatbed railroad car. Sigrid pulls off the tarpaulin and tells the characters to pull the car out of the mine. It must be detonated outside of the mine for the destruction to be sufficient, she says – the research center must also be destroyed, or the project will just be rebuilt.

Revenge of the Shieldmaiden

Outside of the mine, Sigrid starts tinkering with the bomb and starts preparing it for detonation. A strong green glow is emitted from its core.

That’s when Lisa Johansson, or whatever remains of the woman once called that, appears. Now fully transformed into a revenant, she is a gangly humanoid predator with an unnaturally large jaw. Lisa walks in a jittery way initially, as if she’s struggling to control her legs, but as she notices the group her posture changes. Like a hunter observing its prey, she stands completely still, ready to attack. Two more guards suddenly appear, alerted by the noise, and attack her immediately with their swords. Lisa rips them apart, and then turns toward the player characters – draw initiative.

Lisa, or the revenant that she now is, will be a very hard foe but the player characters can try to stall her. The more noise they make, the more soldiers will be alerted and come rushing to their aid.

The Gate Opens

Sigrid witnesses the carnage. Horrified at first, she looks at the creature once known as Lisa, seeing its power, its determination. Sigrid has a change of heart. Instead of the original, heroic plan of setting the bomb to blow, she is once again consumed by her own desire and ambition to make her initial plan work. Sigrid reaches into the machine and pulls out a handful of green gemstones, illuminating her figure in a strong green glow. “Come to me, you beast!” she shouts to Lisa as she holds the stones into the air, getting the revenant’s full attention.

Lisa, even if Broken, now rushes toward Sigrid, to slay her. Instead, Sigrid grabs the revenant with her free hand. Lisa collapses on the ground like a broken rag doll, the power of the vaesen sucked out of her body. The light from the green stones in Sigrid’s hand intensifies, now permeating her body.

Next, something happens that has not occurred in thousands upon thousands of years. The Lapponian Gate opens. A powerful northern light appears in the U-shaped valley, forming an unnaturally even circle between the mountains. The ground shakes. The player characters feel a powerful presence of vaesen, so strong they must all make a Fear test against Fear value 1. Something wicked is coming. Something big.

Sigrid screams in ecstasy, her entire body now emitting the green light and her features twisting into something feral and haunting.

Let the players react. They can fight Sigrid to force her to close the gate, they can try to reason with her, or they can flee. Having taken the powers of the revenant and been infused with the energies of the green stones, she is a formidable foe. If reasoned with, she will tell the player characters to get out of her way or suffer the consequences – it is time for the ancient vaesen to take back the world from the humans. She won’t be talked down.

The Big Bang

While the player characters confront Sigrid, or run for their lives, the big bomb starts to hum and vibrate. The earth starts to tremble. The ground underneath them begins to cave in. The evacuation alarm starts blaring, echoing in the night. Panicked screams echo in the distance as people flee. The bomb is about to blow. The northern light in the Lapponian Gate flickers, then disappears. Sigrid screams in despair. “No! This was not supposed to happen!”

The player characters must now run for their lives, or they will die. Make sure the players realize this. Each of them must make an AGILITY roll to get as far away as possible. Unless the player characters helped Lisa earlier, she is still lying on the ground. A successful FORCE roll is required to carry her to safety, before the AGILITY roll. Only one character can try. On a failed FORCE roll, they can still carry Lisa, but the number of successes on the AGILITY roll is reduced by one.

Then, the bomb detonates. The massive blast immediately kills Sigrid and anyone else who remained nearby. The player characters are toppled by the shockwave, each suffering three physical conditions, minus one for each success on their AGILITY roll.

As they come to, they hear the earth roaring behind them, as the explosion has triggered a chain reaction deep inside the mine. Like an angry beast, the earthquake starts to swallow everything in the area. Powerful explosions can be heard as the factories and power plants get sucked into the depths. Eventually, the entire research center collapses.

Everyone who’s evacuating can hear the disaster as they continue their panicked attempt to get as far away as possible. Meanwhile, the sun climbs higher and higher as morning arrives. Then, as the survivors finally stop to catch their breath, the whole sky lights up in a green flash, brighter than the sun. Eventually the sound and the pressure wave from the massive explosion of the old Abisko mine hits them all, knocking some of them down. A last reminder to stay away.

In the immediate aftermath of yet another catastrophe at the Abisko Mine, the whole region will be declared a national park and no one will ever be able to exploit the area again. Some will say the area is cursed, others will say that it was nature’s way of saying enough is enough. No more green stones are ever found and some suggest that it was all just a hoax to begin with. As both Karl and Sigrid Magnusson perished in the accident, whatever remains of Svea Mining Corp soon collapses under an avalanche of lawsuits. Upsala University makes a statement, claiming it was deceived. Eventually, the details of it all are conveniently forgotten, simply remembered as one of the many mining accidents that are unfortunately common but not very newsworthy.