Icons Grinnir

The Grinnir

[uncanny silence]

Allies

The Berserker • The Speaker of Spirits • The Unicorn of the Frostwood

Enemies

The Great Clans • The Pastoral Sainted

Token Benefits

The Hunter's Tread (3 tokens) • Goodberries (2 tokens + quest)

In the deeps of the Grinnirwood, the forest itself stirs. Witches and cultists and canny huntsmen know the secrets of the Darkest Wood, and they seek to preserve its sanctity and to serve the Grinnir. The Grinnir is a creature of life and death, a hunter's totem that blesses those who take life from under his trees, for his promise is that the day will come when they themselves lie as bleached bones beneath those trees, feeding the wood they fed themselves from.

Usual Location

The Grinnir is largely assumed to dwell within the fastness of the Grinnirwood, in the eastern Vale. But given that the Grinnirwood once filled the whole of the Vale, it is possible the Grinnir might have influence far beyond that small wood.

Allies

• The Grinnir is part of a strange fraternity of primal powers, remnants of the days when dwarves never existed their mountain fastnesses, and only the wild strange powers of the land held sway over these lands. The Grinnir and the Berserker are brethren-in-bloodshed, while both the Unicorn of the Frostwood and the Speaker of Spirits hold to the sanctity of the wildwood that is the essence of the Grinnir's Mysteries.

Enemies

• The memory of the wildwood is long, and the Grinnir yet remembers when the Great Clans came out of the mountains with axes and flame to make homes for those who dwell in the Vale, and to the Pastoral Sainted who tamed those nuded hills, and who maintain the dominance of humanity's agriculture over them yet to this day. And that memory is an angry one.

Unique Token Benefits

• The Hunter's Tread (3 tokens): It is said that hunters who win the Grinnir's favor may be taught the subtle secret step that grants them passage in shadow and silence through the woodlands.
  • Those who pay for this benefit are guided by dreams as a downtime action to a mentor, who was likewise brought to them. This downtime week is spent learning the technique.
  • From that point on, anytime the character is in a forest or jungle environment, they may spend 1 tokens to gain advantage on a Stealth test.
  • While within the Grinnirwood or the Thanewood, the character with this lore may instead spend 2 tokens, and gain the effects of a pass without trace spell on themselves and the allies, per the limits of that spell.
• Goodberries (2 tokens + quest): Those who spill their blood on behalf of the Grinnir and the wild places sometimes find that strange deep red berries grow overnight over the places where they spill their blood beneath the shadowed boughs of the woodlands. These berries serve to heal and nourish the one so favored, but are a poison for all others.
  • Once this benefit is paid for, any time the character finishes a short or long rest in a wild area with plenty of plant-life, their player may spend 1 token. This causes 1d4+1 goodberries (as the spell) to appear within their sight as they finish up their rest. These retain their magic for 24 hours, and only function for the character allied with the Grinnir. They are foul-tasting and cause minor stomach upset to any others who consume them.