Ragnarok has begun. The celestial wolves Skoll and Hati have devoured the sun and moon, plunging the world into darkness. You have lived through one year of Fimbulwinter – there is only one season: winter. It is perpetually dark, and the cold is deathly. Crops have failed and the world of man has turned on itself in a quest for survival. Morality has broken down, and men with good hearts have turned to murder to feed their families. It is truly the end of an epoch, a time that heralds the final confrontation between the gods and the Jotuns.
Since Fimbulwinter has destroyed the economy you knew, you have abandoned your previous occupation. You are now mercenaries, ready for a new adventure. You heard of a remote mining outpost that has seen prosperous times turn sour. Something has disrupted the flow of ore out of the mine. Knowing there is money to be had for one who can find a solution to a problem, you embark on a ship heading to Evingard.
You navigated through an ocean filled with icebergs. As you turned north, your ship was ambushed by a sea monster, an ice kraken, and your shipmates were devoured. Only the captain and you had the good fortune to escape that fate, and you now sail the ship alone. But just as despair sets in, you see the lights of Evingard in the distance. Together, you manage to dock the ship. As he disembarks, he waves dismissively in your direction and mumbles something about a drink, stumbling off towards the town gates.
You are left alone on a ship you have no doubt will be ice-locked in a matter of hours. Two other ships in the port – or what’s left of them – have been frozen to the docks and are very obviously no longer seaworthy: they have been dismantled and picked clean by thieves.