Posted: 26 September 2021 (reading time: 7 minutes; 1367 words)
Recap by Joel Hermann
“Can they even be defeated?” Nadira quietly whispered to the Allfather. She had never seen Odin’s face so drawn and bereft of its customary indomitability. In his pain and frustration the only answer he gave was to slam both of his fists down upon the table.
From the far end of the Great Hall, a flash followed by the thundering of overturned tables, with all their horns and gold settings crashing to the floor, served notice that Thor had arrived. Nadira saw others nearby wincing at the sound. Though some, like Freyja, were too consumed by their grief to even notice.
Odin’s head turned towards his son, watching him advance down the hall like a storm. If she’d blinked, Nadira would have missed the changes in her leader’s face: First, in spite of their grim circumstances, the faint smile of fatherly pride. This was followed by an immeasurable sadness, which suddenly turned into a look Nadira couldn’t quite understand, though there was an almost feral gleam in Odin’s eye.
Odin quickly scanned the faces of those assembled, assessing their mettle, probing the depths of their fear of and hatred for their foes.
“We must make them pay for what they’ve done!” raged Thor.
“They will pay dearly…” The sadness of a grieving father briefly flitted across Odin’s countenance again. “Here is my plan…”
Returning to Vestri after the six-day sojourn to find Gunnläg’s magical horn, the group finds a note from Hrafn: “My past caught up with me. Be back shortly.” Vyshka nods to herself, as these sorts of distractions are exactly what she expected from Hrafn. But she soon learns that even gods lead complicated lives.
Not long after, as she meditates, Vyshka is suddenly in the presence of her patron, Thor, who is in tears as he hovers over one of his magical goats. Freyja stands beside him, attempting to provide comfort, but Thor merely holds the left front leg of his goat and plaintively looks to Vyshka, babbling “I told the boy! I tell everyone: Don’t eat the skin or the bones!”
Turns out a young boy, eager to enjoy the hearty marrow within, had broken one of the leg bones from the magical feast of Thor’s goat, and Tanngrisnir is now lame as a result. With Thor inconsolable, Freyja informs Vyshka only one thing she knows of that can heal the goat:
Near the peak of the conflict between the Old Ones and the Asgardians, an archdruid named Kostgras was able to take some spores from another dimension and, by nurturing them with the blood of the noble, fallen Tyr, they grew into fungi, whose mushrooms have unparalleled healing power.
This feat, along with many others, would earn Kostgras a place of honor at Freya’s table in Folkvanger (Freya’s hall and meadows for the dead). Although great druids are known to be long-lived, the mortal Kostgras should have reached Folkvanger by now, but he has not arrived. Freya and Thor ask Vyshka to seek out Kostgras’s grove, to learn what became of him and, if possible, retrieve some of the mushrooms that will heal Tanngrisnir.
Accepting their quest, Vyshka awakens.
When Vyshka shares her vision with the rest of the group, they agree immediately to assist her, as they did for Greunthrn before. They decide to first seek out additional information about the area that was indicated as Kostgras’s grove.
Belnirith goes to see Olaf the Herbalist, while Greunthrn talks to Vali. The commander is aware of the area, and knows that some of the locals speak of a cave in the vicinity as “The Cave of the Dreaded Dead”.
Laguza, the most practical among the group, decides to make sure that there is a barrel of ale that will accompany them. It comes in handy almost immediately, as there is a blizzard on the day they intended to set out, and they sensibly retreat to the keep, raise a glass, and hope for better weather.
Once the good weather finds them the following day, they make progress, with only a brief clash with an angry water elemental that swallowed Vyshka whole, and Greunthrn’s occasional path-finding missteps, slowing them down.
On the fifth day after Vyshka’s dream, the group finds a cave that seems likely to be their destination, and they enter.
Once inside the many bodies of warriors lining the walls spring to a facsimile of life, muttering “Kill me” and “Put me out of this misery”, and advance on the party. Vyshka exercises Thor’s divine power, sending many of the undead fleeing towards the exit in the far wall. The remaining handful are quickly dispatched.
Moving to the next chamber of the cave, they find both the otherworldly mushrooms and Kostgras. Although cursed with undeath, as a way of preventing him from reaching Folkvanger, Kostgras still is able to communicate intelligibly with the party. He informs them that he must attack them if they attempt to take the mushrooms, but that he can be released from his curse with a weapon coated in the ichor of beings from the plane of existence where the mushrooms originated. He also warns that should they attempt this, they must not let themselves be seen interfering in the outer planes, or they might inadvertently break the fragile truce that keeps the Old Ones from Hættrland.
Vyshka prays with the weary Kostgras and he hands her spore dust from the other world. She passes the dust along to Greunthrn, who uses it along with Gunnläg’s mighty horn to open a planar portal.
The entire group steps into a shattered world that was clearly the scene of a fierce battle, and immediately encounters two large, nightmare creatures, each with many long tentacles, beady eyes, and horrifying mouths, which mutter about telling their “mother”, whether to each other or themselves, it is unclear.
Through determination and good fortune, they prevail against the two horrors, and coat blades with their foul ichor. Just as they arrive back in Kostgras’s cave through the return portal, they briefly see a creepy being with a huge mouth and teeth, but no eyes, and hear it saying in their minds, “I see you…”, before it vanishes.
Kostgras tells them that they have seen a dimensional shambler, which normally acts as a scout for greater beings. Although they had been successful on the other plane, it appears that their meddling has been noted.
Kostgras makes one last request that the group find an herbalist to take care of his mushrooms, so dearly paid for in blood and suffering. Vyshka performs the ritual killing of Kostgras’s undead form in a holy manner that honors Thor and Freya. Belnirith sees Nadira and another valkyrie on either side of Kostgras as he quits the world, ready to transport the archdruid to Folkvanger.
The group returns to Vestri without further incident, bearing all of the mushrooms in Laguza’s Bag of Holding.
As soon as Vyshka meditates again, she is once again in the presence of Thor and Freya, who are so pleased to have the mushrooms for Tanngrisnir and to be able to welcome Kostgras home, respectively. But when Vyshka relates word of what they fought off-world, the two become grim. Thor says: “We should tell Dad about this.” He then asks Vyshka, “You weren’t seen, were you?” Vyshka’s answer, relating the shambler’s message, further drains the color from their faces.
Meanwhile, Belnirith visits Odin and shares their story. At his request she shows the whispering horrors to Odin in the hearthfire. Nadira starts shaking. “I thought we got them all. How old are they?”
Odin replies, “They come out of spores. I thought we killed them all. I guess we didn’t. Those looked adolescent.”
Nadira elaborates to a confused Belnirith: “We never defeated the Old Ones. Instead, we slaughtered their young: spore, spawn, and egg, until the Old Ones were willing to call a truce.”
Odin continued, “We knew that they would replenish their numbers one day. We just didn’t think it would be so soon. I fear the great war is coming sooner than we could have imagined. But still, we are glad that you brought back Kostgras.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
Filed under