Session 082

# A Brief Respite

**Age of the Wolf, Year 5, Autumn, Laelun Toil 2, Days 6-9**

*Nygaar orders the army to fall back to the Freehold, with the party preceding them by walking in the shadow realm. The party reports their recent victory to Kettel, and the heroes take some well deserved rest. Esbjorn binds the pit fiend Doden to his shield in a relic ceremony, and uses the forge of his friend Hermod to improve some gear for himself and his friends. Some of the heroes shadow walk to Trondheim and gather information and supplies, including a scroll that allows Jor to remove Vindr's curse. Irrian does some scouting in Wulfling lands, while Heida uses her crystal ball to talk to Harald's surviving family in an attempt to gain more intel on the frost giants.*

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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 Valkyrie 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

## An Affirmation of Loyalty

The trial of Harald complete, Nygaar made the decision to order the army to march to the Freehold immediately. His reasoning was sound; the army could do little to fight the frost worm and the manpower was better spent elsewhere. Ordering the goat men to lead the other factions through the treacherous terrain, the party heard some bickering at the assumption that the goat people would be in charge. Quickly nipping this prejudice in the bud, Nygaar made it a point to ensure that the troops followed the crafty goat men through the hidden passes, and that their knowledge of the safest routes was not to be questioned.

Meanwhile, Vindr apologized to Laerad, and gifted her with a fine ermine coat for her attempt to help him see that he was charmed. Laerad accepted the gift willingly, blushing as Vindr draped the soft white fur cloak over her slender shoulders. She agreed to stay with the party and lead them to the Rime Citadel when the time came. The party decided that they must go on ahead of the army, and made ready to enter the shadow realm. Before leaving, Nygaar checked in with the army leadership one last time, saying farewell to his cousin Gryph and speaking briefly with the elvish captain Lucien. Assuring Lucien that the elves would be put to effective use soon, the army marched out of the cavern, leaving the party alone.

Nygaar sensed that much had happened with the charming of Vindr and the arrival of Branoc, and decided that a reaffirmation of loyalty from his fellows was necessary. Heida especially seemed changed, and Nygaar was eager to learn where she now stood in regards to his leadership. Esbjorn and Jor quickly affirmed their continuing loyalty, to no one's great surprise. Nygaar next turned to Irrian, in an attempt to gauge where the foreign shadow wizard stood. Irrian pledged his loyalty, in return for Nygaar's help in his own struggles to regain his lands and get revenge on the Umbrians. That decided, Nygaar next turned to Vindr and Heida.

Hoping that the wizards had effectively alleviated the curse, at least for the time being, Nygaar asked Vindr if he would acknowledge him as king. Vindr was pleased; it had long irritated him that as a former slave the nobleman Nygaar had simply assumed his loyalty as a given. Given the respect of Nygaar formally asking him, Vindr pledge his life to his king, but as a friend and equal and not a servant. Nygaar finally understood Vindr's seeming reluctance in the past, and readily agreed. Finally, Nygaar turned to Heida, who had not yet seemed to have recovered from the trance she had fallen into earlier in the day. Still distracted, Heida swore that she still served Odin, and that the All Father had instructed her to continue to serve Nygaar as Odin's champion. With Nygaar also affirming the loyalty of Laerad, Vungar, and Branoc, the party was ready to depart. Irrian opened the dark path, and the heroes stepped through, rushing to return to the Freehold.

## A Return to the Freehold

In less than an hour, Irrian led them unerringly through the shadow realm and back to the Freehold. Climbing on the back of his new companion Branoc, Nygaar draped a long rope of fire giants skulls from his belt, and flew over the stone walls of the Freehold. The simple gate guard Bol jumped up and down in pleasure and awe as he watched Nygaar drop the skulls in front of Kettel's hall before dismounting in a flourish. It was late at night; the rest of the party walked through the gates and quickly proceeded to the hall to eat and warm up. Inside, the heroes caught up with Kettel and Gauk and informed them of their victory over the fire giant war band on the top of Odin's Heart. As Nygaar showed Kettel the rope of skulls, Branoc introduced himself. The old man was taken aback at the appearance of this magical beast, and began to mutter that perhaps it was time and that a king had been found at last. Excusing himself, Kettel went to pray at the temple of Odin.

After eating and drinking their fill, Nygaar and Vindr both retired, leaving the rest of the party in the great hall. Nygaar went to finish reading the dense magical tome he had found, eager to gain the magical benefits of increased dexterity. Vindr, meanwhile, took the opportunity to be alone with Laerad, and made passionate love to the young goat maiden. What Vindr failed to remember, much to Heida's chagrin, was that Imra was still in residence inside Vindr's head, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy Vindr's extracurricular escapades. Trying not to pay attention to Imra's murmurs of delight, Heida turned to the rest of the party.

Jor and Irrian seemed to be getting along well, bonding over their similar interests. Irrian assured Jor that he would help him regain his son, in return for Jor's help in his own goal to regain his homeland. As Heida listened distractedly to their talk, Esbjorn approached her, and sat down across the table. Esbjorn wanted to check in on the veleda, to ensure that she was still herself and was ready for the battles to come. Heida admitted that she had begun to doubt Nygaar, but that her faith in Odin and Nygaar was now restored. Nodding his ponderous head, Esbjorn seemed satisfied with that answer, and began to explain to Heida his plan to use the head of Doden and incorporate it into his magical shield as a relic of Fireforge.

This idea intrigued Heida, Jor and Irrian, and as seidr users they all began to discuss different strategies to ensure Esbjorn's success. After formulating a plan using a number of spells in addition to Esbjorn's divine magic, they all calculated a high chance of success; Esbjorn felt renewed confidence that he would succeed. That taken care of, Jor gifted Heida with a magical valknut tattoo on her forehead to increase her wisdom. Heida then turned to Esbjorn, and thanked him for believing in Nygaar. Heida then cast healing magic to regenerate Esbjorn's missing hand, which made all three of her friends gape in awe. It seemed that her former powers as a great healer had returned to her; surely Odin had touched her as she claimed and she was on the path to become a true valkyrie. Irrian in particular was taken aback; he had not realized until that moment what Heida was. The night growing late, the four decided to get some rest; Heida planned to speak to the spirits in the morning to see what could be done about the potential interference of Surtr in the upcoming ceremony.

## Fireforge Crafts a Relic

The entire party met up the next morning at Hermod's forge, anxious to see what would happen. Heida attempted to speak with the spirits, but was unable to. After Esbjorn explained his plan to Hermod, the wizened old dwarf advised him to rid himself of anything that might be sacred to Surtr. Esbjorn nodded at this wisdom, and removed his armor. Next, he handed Nygaar the god rune and asked that he go to the temple of Odin to diminish Surtr's presence. As he handed over the rune, Nygaar and Heida noticed that Jor was once again momentarily tempted to reach out and touch it, but mastered that urge quickly and subtly. Nygaar took the rune and departed at once, greeting the madman priest Finn as he entered. Heida looked at Jor, and made a reference to the temptation, but Jor seemed to ignore her, focusing on the spells he planned to cast.

In order to protect Heida's mind during the ceremony and temporarily replace Imra's protection, Jor created a ghostly great helm (that only he could see) that appeared around her head, warding her mind against outside control. Following that, he casted a number of spells on the decapitated head of the pit fiend in order to lower its resistance to spells and alter its fortune to become temporarily unlucky. With that, Jor had done all he could do, and he stepped aside to allow Heida to make ready her necromancy. As Esbjorn drew forth the head, Heida immediately cast a spell that allowed her to command the undead, and the head seemed to be controlled under the power of her dark magic. Esbjorn then began to wave his hammer, chanting the divine words of his own newly-founded religion and weaving runes made of fire in the air. As sweat poured from his body, Esbjorn beat his magical hammer into the shield again and again, slowly fusing the head of the pit fiend Doden with the shield. Heida had to repeat her spell three more times, as she tried desperately to give Esbjorn the time he needed to finish the ritual. Across town, the god rune began to shake and grow hot; Nygaar and Finn prayed to the All Father to keep Surtr at bay. Finally, the ceremony mere seconds from completion, Doden seemed ready to break free and escape; Heida cast a last ditch spell to bind the head in rigor mortis and let the relic ceremony succeed. Fortunately, it worked; Esbjorn kneeled exhausted, his masterpiece complete and Doden forever trapped in the shield and at Fireforge's service. Nygaar brought the god rune back to Esbjorn, who mocked Doden mercilessly and watched in delight as any disobedience on the pit fiend's part resulted in horrific pain for him. Esbjorn's control and revenge was complete.

## A Quick Jaunt to Trondheim

Over the next few days, Esbjorn continued to forge, conspicuously not going to the dwarven ghost forge at night. He improved his blade, and set about forging a new bow for Vindr; anyone who spent time at the forge with him noticed his frequent lapses into the dwarven tongue. While he was hard at work, the rest of the party decided to use their time wisely, and a trip to Trondheim to buy much needed supplies was organized. Heida took Vindr's place at the forge, the only shopping she needed to do able to be completed in the Freehold; to buy Glaer a pearl of speech as an apology for harming the horse with her acid fog spell. Vindr, Jor, Irrian, and Nygaar set off for Trondheim, traveling through the shadow realm and stepping out in the temple district of the city.

Nygaar immediately went to the temple of Odin and sought out Arn Odinsight, and greeted the Wulfling clan heir Raven-Eye as well. Raven-Eye hinted that he would be happy to take over the Wulfling clan for Nygaar; Nygaar was non-committal to say the least. Nygaar and Arn spoke about the battle of Odin's Heart, and how Odin had helped them turn the Umbrian cavalry to their cause. Arn informed Nygaar that a plot to assassinate Crom's mistress Melkorka had been uncovered, and that Heida was somehow implicated. It seemed Roskva the Black, the young apprentice witch, was now the clan volva after betraying the former head inquisitor Gunnar the Peaceful who wanted Melkorka dead. Nygaar shrugged; Crom was already their enemy and the plot had been worth a try. Arn also told Nygaar that there was confusion in the Frisian army. The city had been abuzz regarding the upcoming war against the Wulfling clan, in which the Frisians would have allied with the Surtshellir clan, but apparently the attack had been called off. Nygaar nodded, and explained that he needed clan Surtshellir to hold back for now. He then gave Arn a sending stone, and made ready to return to the Freehold.

While Nygaar was at the temple, Jor and Irrian went to the clan volva to seek out some seidr items. Outside the shop, they saw a rotting body on display in an iron cage, and Jor recognized Crom's former head inquisitor Gunnar. Going inside, they found the young witch Roskva, who seemed quite pleased with herself as she sold Jor some scrolls. Finding the remove curse scroll they needed, they returned to the temple as well.

Vindr, meanwhile, had gone to the stables to find Bork the Woodsman. He had remembered hearing about some magical barding that was available for what seemed like a small fortune, but now found himself in a position to afford it. Bork was hesitant to part with the magical barding, but ultimately Vindr offered him so much treasure that he couldn't refuse. Vindr grinned happily; Glaer would be much better protected now that the golden barding was his. Vindr met back up with the other heroes; night had already fallen. Eager to depart, they immediately stepped onto the shadow path, heading for what they thought was the Freehold.

## Intel on the Wulfling Clan and the Frost Giants

After a number of hours, the four travelers stepped back into Midgard, and found themselves standing in front of a vast lake with a massive city on its banks. Irrian had talked with Jor about his woman, and he knew that the Wulfling clan had taken her captive. Figuring it would probably be an easy thing to get her back, Irrian had made a decision to come to the capital of Wulfling lands, Viborg, without telling the others. Unfortunately, Wulfling troops were everywhere, and the heroes saw numerous packs of ravenous wolves running all around them. One pack in particular seemed to catch their scent, and the heroes chided Irrian gently and demanded he get them out of there. Relenting, Irrian decided he would come back later on his own and figure things out. The heroes stepped back into the shadows and headed for the Freehold.

Jor returned and immediately got to work, adding spells to his spellbook. Once that task was complete, he tried to remove the geas inflicted by Fang Li on Vindr, and was pleased to find out that his remove curse was successful. Jor pondered, and realized that his success meant he had a better gauge on how powerful Fang might be. In any case, Vindr was free, and Imra was able to return to Heida. With the spell finally lifted, Vindr swore once more that he would have his revenge on the foreign wizardess, intent to punish her for her treachery.

Over the next several days, Irrian made a couple of trips to Viborg to see what their defenses were like. The material plane defenses were extensive, both in magic and in troop strength. Worriedly, even the shadow realm version of the city seemed ominously dangerous, as massive creatures seemed to move just out of sight of even one trained to live and move in darkness and shadow. Doing some more mundane information gathering, Irrian soon learned that Woelvren's concubines were heavily guarded, deep within his magically protected fortress in the heart of the city.

Meanwhile, Heida began to try to get Harald to recover from his shame; she took an interest in him and asked about his family. Heida also took charge of Harald's daily reports to the frost giant king, deciding that Harald should be vague but truthful in his reports and tell the king that the army had fallen back to the Freehold to resupply. Disgusted that Harald seemed to have given up on life and his family, Heida made it a point to seek out Harald's family to see if they still lived. Ultimately she used her crystal ball to learn that two of Harald's children had died. Only Harald's wife Drifa and his ten year old son Eido survived. Heida grew to admire young Eido, whose bravery seemed to know no bounds. The boy told her of his guards, of the many human prisoners in the dungeon where he was trapped, and even of the magical defenses of the citadel. Eino told Heida that the steep stairway leading to the citadel gates was slick with ice, and that a magical wind blew which made it impossible for him to even walk forward without being dragged by the giants. Heida thanked the boy, and told him not to give up hope. She chided Harald for not showing the courage of his young son. Ultimately, the party continued to make ready to march on the frost giants; the three days in the Freehold passed by much too quickly. They awoke ready to meet their destiny.

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