Session 044

## The End of Payne

**Age of the Wolf, Year 5, Autumn, Aerlun Toil 3, Days 6-7**

*The heroes are faced with a choice, and decide on the northern path. They find an old enemy, and crush him under their boot heel. Reveling in their power, but their quest unfulfilled, they question some prisoners. Allowing one enemy to survive to tell the tale, they turn south and reach the edge of the frozen glacier, still in pursuit of the boy Drekki.*

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## Player Characters Involved

* Nygäär the Dark the Fey Blooded Rogue/Fighter/Dualist played by Dana
* Esbjörn Sigvardson the Giant Blooded Barbarian/Cleric/Surtr's Chosen played by Greg
* Heiða the Mother Fucking Veleda the Dökkálfar Blooded Dread Necromancer played by Justin
* Vindr Skreevarson the Bastard Blooded Human Scout/Ranger/Cleric played by Donnie

## The Trickster's Power Grows

The grizzled old crusader Clive Greyson bid the heroes farewell, his task complete. Clive traveled east, informing the party that he was going to Voluspa and then on to Jute lands to inform his adopted Jarl of the goings on in Wulfling lands. Nygaar watched his mentor leave, secure in the knowledge that with his new powers he would soon lead Seron to victory against the hated foreigners. Meanwhile, Heida, exhausted by her extensive foray into the spirit realm already, returned beyond the veil to ask the spirits which way their quarry Drekki had been taken. Unfortunately, the spirits knew only that Loki himself was shielding the boy from view, and that they had no way to point the heroes in the right direction. Heida returned concerned, as this was a clear indication that the Trickster's power was growing. Ever the Web-Weaver, the Lie-Smith, the Knot-Tangler, it seemed the Trickster was thwarting them even from his prison in Helheim. Heida informed the party of her failure, and they debated which direction they should take.

Making ready to depart, Heida returned to the nearby battlefield. Standing over the corpses of the frozen spawn of Fenrir, she used her dark arts to command the the two massive wolf corpses to stand, sacrificing two black pearls of Raen by placing them in the beast's mouths. The flesh sloughed off their bones, and two fearsome skeletons stood before her, prepared to do her bidding in a mockery of their former lives as fearsome killers filled with their forebears ferocity. Heida returned to the camp, and informed the party they would use the undead beasts as mounts to chase down their quarry. While it pained the others to trust in the undead, they saw the sense in using speed to their advantage, and Vindr used his skills to brandish a makeshift harness out of Nygaar's magical rope to allow Esbjorn to ride in relative comfort on one of the beasts. The other would carry Heida and Nygaar, although it would be a long uncomfortable ride perched upon the bones of the massive beasts. Before leaving, Heida removed the fey relic known as Brisingamen, handing it over to Nygaar, and donned her own necklace infused with magical power once more. They then made ready to depart, but the question still remained as to the direction of their pursuit, and the heroes discussed this amongst themselves.

It seemed clear the boy wouldn't have been taken east, as it was the direction of the Surtshellir clan who bore no love for foreigners, and the band that headed east was commanded by the Harii berserker Demonaxe, who reports indicated was under some kind of arcane thrall. The heroes dismissed the south path as well, surmising that going in that direction took the boy away from Aarhus and that the Umbrians would probably not trust such precious cargo to a Geatling witch like Gunhild the Hag. So the choice came down to north or west. Nygaar and Esbjorn remembered well their encounter with Marlowe Payne and Fang Li, and their negotiation with those foreigners, their backs to the Firehand clan stronghold, an army of Frost Giants arrayed before them across a yawning chasm. The gall of being chased through the mountains only to be forced to pay a weregild price to their hated foes for killing frost giants still resonated with them, and Nygaar was eager to go north and lay Payne to rest once and for all. While it was certainly possible that the Xi'an wizardess Fang Li had headed west with the boy, the party soon decided to ride down Payne and make him pay.

## Upon the Backs of Wolves

Vindr, long a master at reading the white book, had little trouble in following the tracks north. He led the way upon the back of his magnificent steed Glaer, and the heroes tramped north at breakneck speed, Esbjorn cursing and grumbling in his makeshift saddle and riding a mount he had no control over. Heida and Nygaar hung on for dear life upon their own slapdash mount, and the old growth forest blurred by them at dizzying speed. Luckily the weather held, and Vindr had little trouble following the path of the redcloak cavalry. No doubt the skalds would tell the tale differently, but the journey was an uncomfortable one, and it was almost a relief when after nine long hours they finally tracked down their quarry:

*As you venture north, following the tracks of your enemies, the landscape slowly changes around you. What had been old growth forest is now interspersed with rocky terrain, the ancient granite visible in spots around your feet. The wind rushes by you on your makeshift mounts, and the day is clear and cold. You soon enter a relatively open area, and see a turned over wagon before you. Ahead, the stamping and whinnying of a small group of war horses is visible, and what looks to be seven mounted men await your arrival, arrayed in battle formation. It seems they were able to spot you during the chase, and a large white eagle swoops above you as if to verify that fact. The bird descends quickly, and lands on the saddle horn of your hated adversary, Marlowe Payne. Payne stands up in the saddle, and waves arrogantly at you. You see no sign of any Harii boys, and the torn up ground behind Payne leads you to deduce that the larger part of the force has proceeded north, the boys presumably in tow.*

Standing above the party on a gradual slope, the horsemen made ready to charge. Battle was quickly joined; there would be no negotiations here. Vindr, Nygaar and Esbjorn quickly dismounted, while Heida leaped directly from the back of the skeletal wolf into the air and took flight.

## The Payne Killers

While Vindr rushed through the landscape to get into a good bow position, Nygaar called out a challenge to Payne. Meanwhile, Esbjorn casted a spell of power upon himself. Unfortunately for the Umbrians, Heida was well prepared for this combat, and moved more quickly than they could charge. The six horsemen were unceremoniously engulfed in a field of rubbery black tentacles, each ten feet long, that sprung forth from the earth and grasped and entwined around the foreigners, holding them fast and crushing them with great strength. The arrogant smile on Payne's face withered, and as his redcloaks struggled to break free the rest of the party moved in to attack. Payne sounded a large horn, and reinforcements appeared, in the form of three fearsome frost giants. As the party fought to strike them down, and hack down any horses or men who fought their way free from the horrid black tentacles engulfing them, Payne disappeared in a cloud of smoke, to reappear within the thick of combat.

In a frenzy, Esbjorn and one of the frost giants traded taunts, and Surtr's Chosen once again used his magic to surge up into the air and float down into a position to do maximum carnage. The frost giant he fought laughed at this, but soon his laughter turned to screams, as Esbjorn hacked him to bloody bits in his fearsome rage. Meanwhile, one of the redcloak horsemen was able to break free and charge Vindr, who unused to taking damage in combat, shook his head in disbelief and proceeded to pepper the interloper with arrows. While Heida flew above the fray, Nygaar was struggling to fight off another giant, who dealt the Grimmlyor nobleman and would be king of Seron a number of fearsome blows. Heida swooped in to his aid, and Esbjorn and Vindr watched in wonder as Heida and Nygaar used sword stances and battle tactics they had never before seen. Moving with prescience, supernatural speed and deadly skill, Heida and Nygaar somehow seemed to slow time, and were able to dart and deal blows to their enemies with impunity. Two of the giants quickly fell, and the horsemen fared no better.

Payne entered the fray too late, and he taunted the heroes in a last-ditch effort to cause them to leave themselves vulnerable. It didn't work, and as Nygaar hacked down the remaining giant, and Vindr shot yet another Umbrian paladin from his horse, Esbjorn was able to reach their leader. Wielding his vorpal blade Kappi Hogg Brandr, Surtr's Champion hacked Payne apart, ending the fearsome exchange by grasping him by the throat and slamming his bloody and flaming corpse into the earth in an orgy of violent and gruesome death. The killing blows and subsequent annihilation of his corpse left the party unable to question him, and even an attempt to use healing magic to revive him failed. The two remaining Umbrian paladins, who had finally fought their way free of the horrid black tentacles, only to watch their leader, their fellow cavalry, and three frost giants get killed in a matter of moments, quickly surrendered to Nygaar, sliding off their horses and raising their arms in defeat.

## The Pursuit of Fang Li Begins

Shaking in fear and horror at what they had witnessed, the two remaining Umbrians, who identified themselves as William Bailey and Aric Tulley, soon offered up all the information they could muster in the hopes they would be spared. Meanwhile, the white eagle that had once been Payne's was spotted by Vindr perched in a tree, and he used his woodland magic to speak to it. To his surprise, some foreign intelligence briefly inhabited the bird, saying in the voice of an old man something to the effect of "impressive, very impressive" before it retreated and Vindr spoke to the animal itself. Finding it strange, Vindr nonetheless adopted the eagle for his own, and it eagerly landed on his shoulder ready to serve.

As Nygaar questioned the paladins sharply, and Esbjorn growled menacingly while covered in the gore of what had been their former leader, it took little skill to reason that the foreigners spoke true. Over the course of the night, as the party camped, they continued to gain information from the defeated paladins. Vindr advised Esbjorn that the easiest way to get the maximum amount of information from one was to slowly burn the other, and Aric was the unlucky victim of Esbjorn's offering to Surtr. In the morning, William was allowed to flee north on foot, sure to spread the tale of the fearsome band who killed Payne. The party found out a number of details, concerning both their pursuit of Drekki and the foreigners plans in general:

* Fang Li has the boy Drekki

* She plans to head west and then south out onto the glacier, and is seeking out the lair of the fearsome Ice Linnorm known as Isorm for reasons unknown

* Esbjorn's brother Wulf Sigvardson is with Fang, and if rumors are true she is his paramour
* Fang's troops, who number twenty five, seem to have an unusual devotion and loyalty to her and her alone
* The Umbrian's have three hundred infantry troops stationed at the village of Gloomwaithe
* The Umbrian's expect an army of five hundred troops to reach Aarhus in Geat lands by the winter solstice
* The Geat clan is now led by the Archmage Faegun the Magus, an Umbrian wizard and leader of the Umbrian wizards guild
* The Umbrians plan on consolidating their holdings and taking over Mixin and Geat lands completely, followed by a possible attack on the Grimmlyor clan
* The Umbrians are developing powerful new siege weapons infused with magic
* The Umbrians have made a pact with the Frost Giants near Odin's Heart, and these giants have agreed to wipe out the Western Harii clan

While their quest to obtain the Harii boy Drekki as yet remained unfulfilled, the party had been able to wipe out one of their enemies and felt the information gained was well worth the effort. Breaking camp, the heroes once again climbed upon their undead mounts and rushed south and then west, retracing their steps in pursuit of the Xi'an sorceress Fang Li. Covering a dizzying number of miles in just one day of travel, the heroes soon realized that Fang had indeed turned south. As they reached the edge of the massive glacier, they paused to camp and take stock of their situation. The cold winds blew over the icy terrain as they huddled around the fire, contemplating what they would find when they finally caught up to the foreign witch. Why she was seeking out some fearsome monster, and not returning west to her master, was a puzzle they pondered over.

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