Deeds of the Danes
Gesta Danorum
The original copy of the Gesta Danorum penned by Saxo Grammaticus in the late 12th century, containing all the information later omitted from the version given to the Archbishop Absalon and subsequently published. The original, spanning over 3000 pages and required to be memorized end-to-end by the children of the Grammaticus family before they turn 10, contains information pertaining to the location of a vast amount of mythical Nordic items, phenomena, and tombs, as well of those of semi-historical kings and warlords. Using this fountain of wisdom, it has become tradition within the Grammaticus family to dig up at least one relic of myth or ancient history as a coming-of-age ceremony. After this ceremony is complete, the child is allowed free access to the family armory of Mystic Codes, repurposed relics of Norse myth created by their many ancestors. Though a few of them have been lost in tragic accidents or battles against what even the powerful magi of the family could not defeat, the family’s continued prosperity and collection of a myriad of magical items has remained mostly untarnished since Saxo’s age.
While detailing a myriad of places such as the locations of Mimir’s now dried-up well, the ruins of Valhalla and the body of water Siegfried’s body fell into which’s surface subsequently got covered in dragon scales, it has no purpose as a Noble Phantasm or Mystic Code besides being an almost impeccable source of information. Each member of the family carries a small copy of it in a satchel on their body that is enchanted to instantly combust if touched by someone not carrying their bloodline, allowing them to access the information even on the go. These volumes of the original text are treated with the utmost respect, even by more light-hearted members of the family such as Allan, as in them lies the foundation of every bit of the family’s success, and without them, a vast amount of yet undiscovered artifacts would waste away without ever being found.
Twin-Headed Dragon of Verdant Greenery
Mistilteinn Twin Swords
Twin shortswords, shaped more like oversized daggers, forged from shattered fragments of Mistilteinn, the weapon made of the mistletoe plant that Loki used to kill Baldr, and later wielded by the Draugr Þráinn and Hrómundr Gripsson. Half-plant half-damascus steel shards were recovered from Hrómundr’s burial site by Ejler Grammaticus in 1484 and were since reforged into their current form by that same man. As Mistilteinn was the bane of Baldr, these swords carry the concept of ‘robbing the world of light’. Cuts suffered from these swords cause the target’s five senses to dim and dull, and while a single wound won’t make much of a difference besides a slight blurriness of the target’s vision, reduced hearing and sense of touch, a couple dozen wounds can cause the target permanent blindness, hearing loss or the inability to feel anything they touch. Recovery from this condition is possible through magical treatment or transplant of new sensory organs, and unless the target is rendered fully robbed of one of their senses, the effects of only a few cuts will dissipate in a span of days.
Allan bases his swordsmanship technique with these blades on that of the Roman Dimachaeri, twin sword-wielding gladiators that are fairly poorly documented, but a book written in Latin brought back from an educational stay in Paris by Saxo Grammaticus contains a thorough overview of gladiator fighting styles, including the Dimachaeri. Taking out most of the theatrical flair of gladiator combat, Allan has polished this form of combat to a murderous technique where both swords are used for a continuous, rhythmless flow of attacks, relying upon his agility, reflexes and footwork to defend himself instead of using one of his swords for such.
Boots of Spatial Distortion
Lacquered Víðarr Shoes
A pair of exquisitely crafted leather shoes that the head of the Grammaticus clan at the time, Viggo Grammaticus, had made by the legendary Danish shoemaker Jeremias Elias Spannjer in 1843. What the shoemaker was not aware of at the time, of course, was that the leather scraps Viggo insisted that the shoes be made out of were some of the few pieces of Víðarr’s legendary boot that he had dug up from a burial mound in southern Norway the year before. The original boot, made from all the extra leather cut off from the heel and toe of the shoes by shoemakers since time immemorial, which kicked in Fenrir’s jaws and killed the beast after it devoured Odin, was absolutely enormous and spanned all the way up to the wearer’s thigh. Viggo was only able to recover a couple handfuls of scraps, the original having surely been cut up and worn as something like protective charms after the demise of Víðarr.
Possessing only the slightest hints of Víðarr’s boot’s original power, these shoes are nonetheless an effective Mystic Code. In addition to being tough enough to be able to be kicked through a stone wall without damage to the shoe, they completely mute the wearer’s footsteps, based on the idea that Víðarr swore an oath of silence. Furthermore, they can be used to ‘traverse space unhindered’, such as moving Allan’s legs on their own to avoid unseen traps or allowing him to walk through Bounded Fields that blocks entry from the outside without being detected by any alarms it might trigger.
Re-Strapped Belt of Prodigious Strength
Megingjörð
The gilded belt strap of Thor’s magical belt, which Allan discovered deep beneath the earth in southern Sweden as his coming-of-age dig. While the dwarf-treated dragonscale belt it was once attached to was nowhere to be found, or had perhaps rotted away, the strap itself was remarkably intact, and Allan took to polishing the beautiful lightning-decorated strap until it shone like a mirror, before hand-crafting a belt worthy of it using draugr-skin leather inlaid with a beautiful blue pattern of magically fortified silk bought from China with some of the family’s enormous fortune.
While much of the strap’s original power has been lost through the ages, and the loss of the dragonscale belt it was attached to means that anything more than an inkling of its potential cannot be drawn out. Even so, the strap greatly fortifies the strength of anyone who wears the belt its attached to, and with it on, Allan is capable of crushing a brick simply by making a fist hard enough, jumping half a dozen meters vertically without a running start and kicking a hole in a steel plate. However, the belt does not help in the slightest with actually letting the body support such exertion, and neither does it fortify it against damage, so accessing this strength excessively can lead to severe muscle cramps, exhaustion, and tissue damage. Despite his peak physical condition, Allan can only access the belt’s power fully for about ninety seconds of continuous use before risking breaking his own bones or ripping his muscle fibers apart, and as such he has designed the Mystic Code to accept a phrase to switch it on and off. In his case, the word ‘
’ activates and deactivates it.
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
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