Session 073

# The Battle Above the Clouds Rages On

**Age of the Wolf, Year 5, Autumn, Laelun Toil 2, Day 3**

*The battle rages on, a flurry of blood and smoke and fire. Each hero feels the fog of war descend upon them as chaos reigns. The tide of the battle is turned when Heida strikes down the hand, while her companions continue to slay fire giants in a gruesome display of powerful seidr and swordplay. As the fighting continues unabated, the volcano begins to rumble menacingly.*

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## Player Characters Involved

* King Nygäär the Fey Blooded Rogue/Fighter/Crusader played by Dana
* Esbjörn Fireforge the Fire 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 Mongrel Blooded Human Scout/Ranger/Cleric played by Donnie
* Jor the Emberwrought the Giant Blooded Human Transmuter/Beguiler/Human Paragon/Ultimate Magus played by Jason
* Irrian the Shadowborn the Human Shadowcaster played by Koski

## Nygaar the Dark, a Whirling Frenzy of Steel

With enemies all around him, Nygaar grinned in bloodlust and awaited any giants foolish enough to attack him. He didn't wait long; as flaming rocks flew all around him, one giant strayed too close, and Nygaar countered his greatsword attack with a flurry of blows, knocking the giant prone. The smoke of Droog's breath weapon lingering nearby, Nygaar took a deep breath and plunged through it, intent on destroying the magical flaming hand that had been a thorn in the party's side for the entire battle. Slashing at the hand, he was able to distract the enemies around him, and give Heida an opportunity to attempt to free herself from the hand's clutches. Watching Heida slash away at the gargantuan hand, Nygaar wondered if it could actually be hurt. He had little time to ponder, however; suddenly Heida disappeared, and the hand clenched into a fist and slammed Nygaar in the chest with a devastating blow.

Knocked out on his feet for a fraction of a second, Nygaar's training took over, and he was able to recover. Unfortunately, he had dropped his weapons, and he scrambled to re-arm himself. Killing the giant he had laid prone, he then fought the seidr-made hand with his speed sword Lentidagnir, while slashing at any giants that approached. Being attacked from three sides, Nygaar counter-attacked to devastating effect, slaying three of the lumbering humanoids in mere seconds. Watching with surprise as Heida struck down the flaming hand of Surtr, he continued fighting, making room for Droog to leap into some nearby smoke and disappear. As Nygaar fought off and killed another two giants, he was finally able to take a moment's respite, and snatched his axe up off the ground which he had dropped when he had been struck by the hand's stunning blow.

## Fireforge and Kappi Claim a Head

Standing shoulder to shoulder with Nygaar, Esbjorn burned with quiet fury, glancing up from time to time even in the midst of battle to gaze on his new love Logandi. As the fire giants all around them moved in, Esbjorn struck one down, and badly wounded another. Turning towards Heida, who was trapped in the magical hand's clutches, he nodded to Droog to act. The newly-made imp called out to Heida to drop her resistance, as the tiny creature brandished his benign transposition wand. Meanwhile Esbjorn suddenly saw a half dozen flaming boulders flying towards him, and made to catch one out of the air and fling it back. Unfortunately he missed his catch, and nearly took a thirty pound flaming rock to the face, which narrowly whizzed by his head. Knowing that the smoke of Droog's breath weapon could level the playing field, he asked Jor telepathically (through the message spell cast upon them) to relay the code word "bearclaw" as a signal to any who heard it to hold their breath.

Suddenly Heida appeared beside him; Esbjorn guessed that Droog had somehow freed her with his wand. After striking one of the charging giants down, Esbjorn ordered Droog to hide them, and he and Heida became engulfed in the fiery black smoke of Droog's breath weapon. Protected for a moment from the charging giants to the north, Esbjorn suddenly found himself grappling with the giant flaming hand. It made sense; clearly Surtr and his minions wanted to destroy Esbjorn and retake the god rune above all other things. Fighting off the hand once, and quickly slashing down a giant who approached him too closely, he was unable to fend off the hand during a second skirmish. Esbjorn once more felt the crushing weight of the supernatural hand squeezing the life out of him. Fortunately, Heida kept up a relentless attack on the hand, and it suddenly dissolved in a gust of magical fire and disappeared. Grinning fiercely, and feeling confident that victory was eminent, Esbjorn attacked yet another fire giant, slashing his head from his shoulders with a furious blow of his adamantine blade.

## Heida Destroys The Flaming Hand of Surtr

Heida found herself engulfed in the grip of the magical hand, and hacked relentlessly at it in a bid to free herself. After a flurry of blows she began to doubt she could escape, yet suddenly she felt the strength of massively powerful seidr, enough to overcome her resistance, engulf her. A fraction of a second later, she found herself standing freely next to Esbjorn, with a large host of giants bearing down on her. Glancing to her left and right, she barked a series of stern orders, directing Esbjorn, Nygaar and Droog to shift formation. The power of her Odin-inspired presence was such that her companions obeyed without even consciously thinking about it. As Droog engulfed her and Esbjorn in his smoky breath weapon, she activated the aura of fear that she usually held at bay, and waited until her enemies drew close. Calling to Imra to reveal herself, Heida made ready to paralyze the giants with fear.

She didn't wait long; the raging fire giants charged in and one inevitably went to strike down the petite volva, who seemed to be an easy victim. While the giant didn't seem affected by the fearsome aspect of Heida or Imra, Heida was able to successfully land a holy smiting blow upon the giant, injuring him seriously. Heida glanced to the east and suddenly saw Jor join the fray; she grinned knowingly as she watched three giants try and fail to hit Jor, knowing full well that Jor was using his seidr to bewitch the dim-witted giants. Meanwhile, the flaming hand of Surtr had once again snatched Esbjorn, and Heida turned and attacked the giant hand with all her might, finally destroying it. Unbeknownst to her, the strange undead creatures she had called forth what seemed a lifetime ago, but was only little more than a minute before, struck down one of the giants by attacking its mind, allowing the group of elves the giant held captive to scramble to safety into a fog cloud.

## Vindr the Magnificent Fights (With His Eagle On His Shoulder)

Vindr watched as a group of giants stumbled out of the icy shadows of the seidr-made wall that Irrian had invoked to land on them, and moved towards him. Unable to fend off their blows, Vindr was struck twice by vicious greatsword strikes, each one almost hitting his eagle that was perched on his shoulder. Vindr quickly moved to fall back in order to gain some separation from his enemies. Tumbling through one giants legs, and dancing nimbly around another, he unleashed a deadly flurry of arrows, killing three giants in seconds. His Eagle had long since learned how to stay perched on his shoulder as his master frolic'ed around the battle field. Fighting on his own with his faithful steed Glaer flying high above him, and his eagle perched on his shoulder Vindr glanced northwards, wondering how his companions were faring. Unfortunately, he had his own problems, as yet another giant charged him, striking him once again with a sword blow that again nearly hit his eagle (because he was perched on his shoulder).

Sprinting northwards, Vindr half-turned to fire, casually putting an arrow through the throat of the giant pursuing him seemingly without even aiming. He watched as the magical flaming hand punched Nygaar, then moved to attack Esbjorn. He sent three arrows into the hand, wondering if his volley would even harm it. Moving to rejoin his companions, Vindr continued firing, landing another barrage of arrows into the unprotected back of one of the large group of giants still engaged with his fellows.

## Jor Smugly Surveys the Battlefield

Watching from high above, Jor coolly surveyed the battlefield, his thoughts moving orders of magnitude faster than that of his enemies (or his companions). Seeing Heida engulfed in the hand's clutches, and knowing both that Droog only had one charge left to use and that Heida's spell resistance was unusually high, he decided the first order of business was to use benign transposition to get the volva back in the fight. It was a calculated risk, but he judged his spell would succeed, and naturally he was right. Heida freed, he watched the large group of giants remaining close in on his companions, and thought it would be fun to "join" the fray himself and distract some of their enemies. Tapping into energy from the shadow realm, Jor created a quasi-real, illusory version of himself in the midst of the fray, challenging three giants to face him in melee. As he knew they would, the giants were fooled by his seidr, and wasted a flurry of attacks that were never able to strike the blur that was Jor's illusory self.

Looking further north, Jor noted with mild concern that the giants guarding them had nearly pulled the remaining elves from the fog clouds he had so cleverly wrought a moment earlier to stop them from being sacrificed to the volcano. Thinking that would not do at all, and quietly calculating exactly how much fire damage he had protected each of his companions from suffering up to this point, he willed his image to intervene. The illusory Jor sprung up, high above the heads of giants he was fighting, and raced northwards to cast a spell upon the two elves in immediate danger. The elves immediately teleported back into the center of the fog cloud, and Jor nodded with satisfaction. Turning back towards his companions, he noticed that his illusions to the far south of the battlefield were no longer needed, and he waved them away distractedly.

## Irrian Digs Deep into the Well of his Powers

Wondering once again why he continued to put himself in harm's way for his new companions, Irrian made ready to unleash further shadow magic upon the giants who seemed to be everywhere. Concentrating deeply, Irrian opened up a sudden rift into the shadowlands, through which a cold wind began to blow. Torrents of shadow arced out of the rift, and a blast of cold energy infused with electricity bounced from enemy to enemy. Irrian looked around, and saw to his dismay that his seidr had been noticed, and that one of the giants was charging towards him menacingly. Hurrying to protect himself, Irrian attempted to solidify extraplanar shadow, and create a solid prison of darkness to trap his attacker.

Unfortunately, the magic failed, and Irrian made ready to be slashed in half by the giants massive greatsword. He realized once again how out of his depth he was with his new companions, who seemed to find danger wherever they went. Luckily, tiny Droog had taken a liking to Irrian, as he had helped make possible and had also borne witness to his transformation. Droog enveloped Irrian in a fiery cloud of smoke, and the giant was stymied in his plan to skewer the shadow mage. Unbeknownst to Irrian, Vindr easily shot down the offending giant, and when Irrian eventually emerged from the smoke he saw only enemies to the north threatening the rest of the party. Choosing three nearby, he once again created a wall of frigid shadow that wracked the giants inside it with cold and left them stumbling blindly in darkness. Irrian glanced over to see the flaming hand of Surtr disappear under Heida's attacks, and gasped in relief.

The relief was short-lived, however. Suddenly the volcano began to rumble menacingly, as if the destruction of the hand signaled some new forthcoming attack. The battle was far from over.

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