Session 027

## War Averted

**Age of the Wolf, Year 5, Summer, Aerlun Toil 3 days 1-3**

*The party reaches the safety of the Firehand stronghold. A parley with their pursuers bears fruit. The dwarven alliance is strengthened while new possibilities for adventure are contemplated. They return to the comfort and safety of the Freehold to recuperate and resupply.*

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## Player Characters Involved

* Nygäär the Dark the Fey Blooded Rogue/Fighter played by Dana
* Esbjörn Sigvardson the Giant Blooded Barbarian/Cleric/Surtr's Chosen played by Greg
* Brydd Hjarta the Jörmung Human Sorcerer/Marshal/Sand Shaper/Incantatrix played by Jason

## The Final Stretch

Following the destruction of the foul undead creatures known as the entombed, the party healed themselves as best they could and staggered onwards. After three hours, Esbjorn, Nygaar, and Brydd all struggled to continue, relying on healing spells and potions in order to fight off their fatigue as they hurried down the mountain trail. Droog was sent back to act as a scout and soon came back with worrying news. Their pursuers were very close, and the quasit warned that they would have to hurry. With the stronghold of the dwarves of the Firehand Clan in sight, the party rushed forward to the rope bridge that spanned the precipice in front of the mountain fortress:

*The once faint sounds of your pursuers have become a cacophony of hoofbeats, war oaths shouted in jotun, and the howling and snarling of the fearsome wolf pack. You flee towards the sanctuary of the Firehand fortress, battling fatigue at the end of your long and weary march. Dusk has fallen, and the waning white moon Aerlun hangs low in the sky. An icy rain begins to fall, and distant thunder and flashes of lightning add to the foreboding atmosphere.  Within moments of reaching the rope bridge that leads to the dwarven stronghold, you see the frost giant war party emerge from the mountain pass, looming behind you. From the peak of the mountain fortress, you hear dwarven war horns sound, echoing across the landscape. The dwarven guards begin shouting and gesturing to you to hurry across the bridge; it seems they recognize you from your recent visit just a few short days ago. As you peer back for another hasty look, you see that the giant war party has come to a halt a few hundred yards from the foot of the bridge. The giants roar battle cries, stomping their massive legs and shaking their fearsome axes in blood lust. The wolves snap and snarl menacingly but restrain themselves at the orders of their jotun masters. The mounted humans are aligned in rigid formation, adorned in plate armor and blood-red cloaks, faceless behind ornate closed helms.  One clearly feminine figure wearing blue robes trails along on horseback behind these knights, her long black hair whipping in the wind of the storm. One of the mounted knights rides to the front and stands up in the saddle, his bright red and gold cape billowing. He raises the visor of his helm and grins savagely, his bared steel blade clenched tightly in his armored fist.*

The woman in blue robes, along with the obvious leader of the mounted knights, dismounted and slowly made their way toward the bridge. Meanwhile, the party rushed across, with the exception of Nygaar who had to be cajoled by the dwarven prince Durin Oakspine in order to leave the far side of the bridge and cross to safety. As their enemies approached, the party greeted the prince and the priest of Volund Asrik Bronze Fist. Asrik transformed himself into living iron, and the stones cobbles cracked under his immense weight. Brydd alone recognized the awesome divine power of this spell, known as Iron Body. The dwarves looked around hastily and inquired as to the whereabouts of the girl Heedi. Using all of his considerable guile, Nygaar was able to convince Durin that Heedi had fallen in battle to the frost giants, and his calm assurance, the presence of the horde of enemies at the gates, and the frost giant heads Brydd produced from his bag of holding was enough to make this seem to be the unquestionable truth. After a few minutes, the woman and the knight reached the bridge and asked permission to come across. Permission was granted, and they were soon standing before the exhausted party and their dwarven allies.

## A Parley of Sorts

The woman in blue robes, robes which Brydd recognized as similar to those worn by the Umbrian mage Lucius the Blue that he had killed near Raendale, introduced herself as Fang Li. She had the obvious look of a foreigner and wore a magnificent white fox fur cloak and a necklace of exquisite blue garnets. She informed the party that the giants demanded a weregild payment of two thousand gold pieces for each of their fallen comrades, or they vowed to return with an army and wage war upon the dwarves. Her manner was very calm, and she possessed the look of someone not frightened or concerned in the least bit in the present circumstances. Durin scoffed and turned angrily to the party, telling them to pay the price. While the allies argued over what to do, the knight who had previously remained quiet spoke up loudly.

He introduced himself as Marlowe Payne, and the sound of his voice sent a wave of fear and rage through Brydd, although the Harii sorcerer maintained a picture of cool detachment. This was the man who had taken Brydd's eye, revealed at last as the leader of the Umbrian elite forces known as the Redcloaks. Marlowe stood cocksure, his mithral blade resting upon his shoulder, and demanded an extra one thousand gold for himself, or he warned the party that the brutes behind him would produce a "special gift" for the dwarves. The party realized their enemies had found Heedi's grave, although most realized the knight was bluffing in insinuating that this might be something that could put them at risk. Winking boldly at Brydd, Marlowe again attempted to draw the party into a fight by mentioning how close they had come to catching them and stating that only the capture and torture of "that old wolf and the ranger" had slowed them down enough to allow the party to escape. Marlowe grinned as he spoke of "playing with them" before he killed them, and Esbjorn believed what the others were sure were lies, and made ready to slay the knight. With Nygaar trying to incite Durin's rage, the parley nearly degenerated into a battle. Luckily, Fang Li quickly spoke up.

Fang turned upon Marlowe angrily, telling him in no uncertain terms to shut his mouth and begone. The Blood Knight started to protest, but the party saw the fear in his eyes as the foreign wizardess reminded him of his station. Marlowe hastily retreated back across the bridge, Nygaar taunting him to "take care of my sword." With the Umbrian knight gone, negotiations continued more or less amicably. As the dwarven prince went to confer with his father the king concerning the weregild price, and Brydd handed him the crag drake head as a bargaining chip, Fang explained her disinterest in the whole affair. As they waited for the dwarven king's decision, she spoke of a more esoteric subject, something which effected Brydd specifically.

## An Ancient Augury

Calling out Brydd by name, the wizardess explained that she was indeed a member of the Umbrian wizards guild the Lokibarn, and had been tasked with a specific objective. Her master Faegun, the leader of the Umbrian wizards currently residing in Aarhus, had sent her out to find a boy. It seemed that Faegun was a powerful diviner, and using Brydd's eye (given to him by Gunhild the Hag) he had seen something which intrigued him. Fang intimated that Faegun possessed ancient rune sticks that contained scraps of a mysterious elven augury, written at the dawn of the Age of the Alfr some fifteen thousand years ago, which told of

"*a boy conceived in deception, a member of a barbaric clan of cannibals and murderers, who will act as a vessel for the power of Loki and pave the way for his return from Hel."*

Fang told Brydd that Faegun wished to possess the boy’s soul and gain a portion of Loki’s power for himself and that he needed to acquire the boy before the midwinter solstice. Curious what this had to do with him, Brydd looked puzzled. But when Fang mentioned the woman Iona, and the mark upon her son's chest that looked like the world serpent, Brydd stepped back in alarm and surprise. This mysterious woman spoke of what could only be Brydd's son, a boy of two who he had not openly claimed as his own among his people. Brydd asked her if the boy had a name, and grew heavy with dread when she spoke the name Dreki. Brydd asked Fang why she would share such information with him, and she spoke plainly, telling him that her loyalty was to Luo-Ji (the Xi'an name for Loki) and not Faegun. She warned Brydd that Faegun would not stop until the boy was found, and asked that she be rewarded for her loyalty by the boy when he came of age. She mused that the boy must have a special lineage to be the one fated to channel the god’s power, and advised Brydd that he should leave the continent with the boy, even going so far as to invite him to seek refuge with her mother Ru-Shi Li in Kai-feng, a city of the Xi’an empire to the west. As Brydd reeled from the import of this information, Durin returned with the king's decision.

Grammar Oakspine had spoken; he was willing to pay for the death of one giant but not both since his niece had been lost while under the party's protection. Sensing this was the best they could hope for, the party gathered up some treasure, including the two fine goblets they had looted from the very giants in question as part of the weregild price. Fang accepted this offering and nodded minutely. With a wave of her hand, the Xi'an wizardess disappeared, reappearing back with her fellows perhaps a thousand feet away. As the cold rain continued to fall, the party watched their enemies depart, returning back into the mountains from which they had come. War averted, the priest Asrik Bronze Fist implored the heroes to go at once and speak with the king, and they reluctantly agreed.

## An Alliance Sealed

With their enemies gone, the party went to explain Heedi's demise to the king. Awed by the majesty of the throne room, the others allowed Nygaar to speak. The king demanded first to know what had befallen his niece, and Nygaar wove a tragic tale of her fall in battle and a tumble off a steep mountain cliff. Esbjorn groaned inwardly at the deception and worried that the details of the lie would not match up with Nygaar's tale if the remains of Heedi were ever to be discovered. The king asked if they could be led back to the site of her fall in order to recover the girl's remains, and Nygaar claimed that this would prove difficult. The king seemed to accept Nygaar's recounting of the events, and next asked about their adventures in Storm Hammer Keep.

The party revealed that the spirit of the cold iron mines Muldruun still resided there, and had protected that precious metal from the crag drake's healthy appetite. Grammar was pleased. They went on to recount the creatures they had encountered and the connection between Midgard and Svartalfheim that had drawn the dark elves to attack the keep. They said that the connection still existed and that a powerful demon even now lay trapped in the recesses of the keep. Once they informed the king of the swan maiden, and Muldruun's belief that only she could sever the connection and purge the evil from the keep, the king asked that they do as the spirit had directed them and seek this fey creature out. In return, he pledged two hundred troops led by his son Durin to fight against the Umbrian invaders. When he realized that the party felt that they had already earned these troops, the king was forced to sweeten the deal. Reaching above his throne, he took down a magnificent adamantine sword and offered it to Esbjorn as a loan. If the party could purge the mines of this evil once and for all the sword would be Esbjorn's to keep, along with the eternal loyalty of the Firehand clan. Cunningly, Nygaar waited for this moment to earn the king's esteem, presenting him with the axe Riftsplitter.

The king took the sacred axe with shaking hands and looked at Nygaar with respect and appreciation. When he asked where the axe had been found, Nygaar told him he had come across an ancient tomb long ago and had found the weapon. He went on the explain that Heedi had recognized it and that with the import of Chaosjaw's weapon explained to him he felt obligated to return it to its rightful place. The king accepted this news and ordered Asrik to show his guest to their chambers so that they could rest. As the party left the throne room, the king seemed lost in thought as he lovingly stroked the runes engraved upon the axe.

## Back to the Freehold

The alliance secured, the party retired gratefully and woke up refreshed and ready to depart. Esbjorn secured an animate objects scroll from the dwarven priest, and Nygaar made some requests of his own: that an axe be made for him in the sacred forge of Volund to replace Riftsplitter, and that the dwarves work to create a replacement for his eye. He learned that an artificer of great power named Kazak Kazdul could replace his eye, and was shown on the map where he resided. Ultimately Nygaar was able to convince the dwarves to summon Kazak, and the party left the Firehand clan secure in the knowledge that their alliance was formed and that an axe and possibly an eye would be waiting for them upon their return. Meanwhile, Brydd acquired a sending scroll from the dwarves and reached out to the Adogit scout Batu. It seemed the Adogit were gathering up their forces and traveling to Geat lands. Brydd promised to meet them at the southern tip of Viborg lake. The party departed the dwarven keep traveling west on Kettel's Road, and reached the freehold after a leisurely two-day voyage.

Their return was well met. Immediately upon their approach to the gates of the Freehold, the party saw Arlow bounding upon the battlements, jumping from log to log while carrying his heavy training sword and shield. Upon spotting his friends, the boy tumbled off the ramparts, standing before the party with a wide grin upon his face at their return. Arlow's face dropped slightly at Nygaar's missing eye, and Esbjorn's divine increase in size was also noted by the quick-witted lad. Assuring Arlow that he was fine, Nygaar smiled warmly and told him not to worry. Arlow noted that Odin too had lost an eye, but the party did not fail to note the look of concern and question on his face as he looked his lord over critically. Eventually, the boy said that he must return to his training, and continued to sprint along the ramparts. The party made their way into town and sought out Kettel, passing the mad priest Finn the Fool dancing around the sacred ash tree on their way.

Kettel was pleased to see them and promised a reward for the flathead thumbs they presented to him. Nygaar generously told Kettel to keep the gold and use it for a feast instead. The leader of the freehold nodded knowingly when the party explained that the war between the frost and fire giants had pushed the flatheads out of the mountains. Nygaar espoused his belief that a king was in fact necessary to unite Seron, and reported to Kettel that the party had won the loyalty and respect of the dwarves, which included a pledge of troops. As the heroes and Kettel talked, a familiar face emerged from an adjacent room. It seemed Elof Orrison, the Geatling prince, was paying a visit to the freehold as well. The party turned to address this new development, wondering what it might portend.

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