Posted: 27 February 2022 (reading time: 9 minutes; 1731 words)
Recap by Arash Shahangian with Melissa Savlov and Orren Merton
Bersi had informed Vali and Asgarday∂a that an emissary of King Torvald, whom Vali quickly identified as Hallmund Asfrithsson, was on his way, ostensibly to negotiate with Vali. Vali was extremely skeptical. Hallmund had been second in command of King Grunlaff, whom the current King Torvald had murdered in order to usurp power. That Hallmund chose to work for the usurper in a diminished capacity meant he was either a traitor under Grunlaff, or a spineless wretch with no loyalty to any but himself. Either way, it did not leave Vali thinking anything could come from negotiations.
Hallmund arrives at Vogsal with 10 guards who are fully armed with spears, axes, and shields. He’s a very pampered-looking fellow. Vali’s negotiating team consists of Gaettr, Osk, and Bersei. Asgardey∂a and the orc chief Graklak act as witnesses.
Edgar has been hiding away and sulking in his hall, surrounded only by his guards. He’s still the Jarl, but it’s in name only because Vali is in charge. He’s ashamed to face his army and Vali’s men hate him.
In a sickly-sweet, phony voice Hallmund says “Friends! Vali! So good to see you again! The King admires you! I have been blessed by Odin to give you the most generous offer. Lay down your arms and go home, and no one needs to spend time in jail. All will be forgiven. I will take all your grievances back to the kind and compassionate King Torvald.” He pretends not to know about the summoning of the eldritch horrors from the far realms of the Great Old Ones.
Belnirith projects an image of a Gugg and tells Hallmund to look upon it. Hallmund looks terrified but keeps it together. Most of his ten guards are able to remain stoic, twitching a bit, but Gruenthrn notices that five of them don’t respond at all, not even slightly. Greunthrn knows something is up, and sets about quietly warning Asgarday∂a and Vali. Greunthrn’s warning comes just in time; as Hallmund turns to address his solders, five of them turn out to be creepy monsters using soldier’s skin as meat suits. The creatures from the far realms have tentacles formed from otherworldly ooze with eyes teeth on the ends.
Those “soldiers” then kill off the real soldiers and Hallmund, himself, who first begs for his life, then yells profanities at them.
Vali calls out: “Man the walls!” Graklak runs off and returns to his Orcs. Greunthrn peppers the oozes with arrows. The monstrosities, proto-shoggoths, grapple and squeeze Vali, while suffocating Bersi.
Vyshka successfully banishes one of them back to its home plane. Osk saves Valli from the proto-shoggoth grappling him, exploding it. Belnirith waves her spear and throws a lightning bolt, hitting all three of the remaining proto-shoggoths who happen to be standing neatly in a line.
Vyshka manifests her spiritual tree with little hammers for leaves that dispatches the monstrosity grappling Bersi. Bersi then kills one of the proto-shoggoths with his excellent longbow skills. Osk and Belnirith finish them off, except for the one Vyshka had banished.
Asgardeyda discuss whether to bring it back and kill it. Laguza argued in favor, but Belnirith argued that it’s not worth it because there are plenty more out there that can come back at any time. Greunthrn has a moment of inspiration and searches for a portal, and finds one, about a quarter of a mile away at the foothills of the Ironlow Mountains.
Suddenly, a new, huge, otherworldly terror as big as a tower, a shoggoth, arrives on the scene attacking the wall at the back of Vogsal near Edgar’s house, along with 12 ugly, little, flying creatures, called mamura. Another shoggoth with more mamura attack the wall near the front entrance to Vogsal. Greunthrn blows his Horn of the Æsir to warn the soldiers and Asgard alike—and hopefully inspire the soldiers to keep their footing against such terrifying horror.
Just as hope begins to fade, in the distance, high in the sky, they see group of Valkyrie led by Nadira, Belnirith’s celestial guide and the only black Valkyrie riding proudly on flying horses. Behind Belnirith and Osk, Belnirith’s father, Narjarhil, in his full, awe-inspiring Einherjar form, appears, placing hands on their shoulders and says: “The truce was broken, so we can come here directly now. Don’t worry, we’ve got this. We’re proud of you. Both of you.”
Stunned, Belnirith says “Father?” then composes herself a bit and smirks “You look good.”
Osk, to Belnirith exclaims “So you were his daughter! I knew it!”, to which she responds, “He talked about me?” Osk: “He did! Let’s talk about it later.”
Narjarhil says “Find and destroy the portal through which the otherworlders are coming. Go, make haste!”
Asgardey∂a follow Narjarhil’s command and head out the direction of the portal. Vali, Gaettr, Bersi, and Osk stay behind in Vogsal. Vali heals himself and lays his hand upon the others so that they are no longer damaged. Vali rallies his troops, unsure if the terror of these inhuman invaders will break them, but they stand strong. There was never any doubt that the frost giants and orcs would remain.
High above, Asgarday∂a notices the same copper warbler watching them as they’ve seen so many days before.
Asgardey∂a head toward the hills in the northwest, to mouth of a cave. Belnirith sends Asja ahead. Asja sees many more mamura heading out for battle. They head into the cave, wary of what they’ll find. The inside of the cave have been finished, like the floor and walls were carved out and constructed, but the ceiling is unfinished and still cavelike.
The area contains a long destroyed altar and some torture racks, along with tattered ancient clothing, coins, and bones everywhere. A toppled, broken statue of a devilish woman with horns similar to Belnirith’s lies to the size of the ancient, defiled altar.
On top of the broken altar lies a glowing, purple gem. Belnirith, who uses similar transportation to return to Yuki, knows that there must be a circle of gems on another plane, that these creatures are using to enter Hættrland, with one gemstone here, that someone is using to open the portal. And true to form, nearby is Lüngr, the King’s advisor, who has been opening the portal. “Fuck!” he exclaims as he sees Asgarday∂a. He spins his hands and forms runes to escape; Belnirith tries to counter his spell, but Lüngr counters Belnirith’s attempt and he wisks away, leaving his gemstone behind.
In the corner, a large heap of bones come together to form an undead creature, a Bone Collective. It hiss-growls at us and then re-spreads itself across the floor as bones. Several mamura who had freshly entered this plane through the portal created by the gem gather themselves to attack. They are small and lightning fast. Each one has 3 claws and a nasty tail.
One mamura poisons Greunthrn with its stinger, then tries to attack Laguza. Its claws and tail miss her. Vyshka’s invokes Spirit Guardians which are shaped like the little mamuras themselves, but angelic, in the hopes of confusing them. The little angels cuts the mamura’s speed in half.
Greunthrn uses his seax to attack the purple gem, but fails to inflict damage. On his second attempt, he cracks it, reducing its glow by more than half. Laguza follows his attacks with Klókr, her great Axahammer, and with the hammerhead shatters the crystal. She then attacks one of the mamura.
Belnirith casts Slow on the mamura, and combined with Vyshka’s Spirit Guardians, the mamura can barely move.
Vyshka attacks all of them with fire, though the damage is minimal.
Greunthrn fatally shoots one through the tail on the mamura’s head, but he misses the other one. Laguza hacks up one of them but misses the other. Then she bashes another’s head in with a shield. The Bone Collective reconstitutes itself. Its teeth are like ribs.
Vyshka’s spirit guardians do a little damage to the last remaining mamura. It has little effect on the Bone Collective. Greunthrn kills that last one and damages the Bone Collective. Then Laguza goes in and attacks Bone Daddy. She bludgeons him. Broken bones fly everywhere! He’s gone.
Greunthrn digs through the bones to see what he can find. He finds chore lists and scattered amounts of coins, as well as a few broken-open chests. It looks like it’s been thoroughly ransacked over the centuries. He finds some Infernal writing which Belnirith can read (mostly curse words and such), which has been scratched out and replaced with Abyssal, which Gruenthrn can read. There are also decaying feces. It was clearly desecrated long, long ago. Still, Asgardey∂a manage to find 150 gp.
They also find a bedroom, also strewn with debris and bones. The bed looks like it’s built for a 20-foot tall creature. The ancient, decaying remains of furniture looks like it has been thoroughly ransacked.
As Belnirith digging through the rubble, she finds a broken and destroyed horn that looks like hers. She finds skulls with all the teeth kicked out. It’s been looted by graverobbers. There seems to have been some sort of devil here, who was killed under troubling circumstances. Belnirith can’t help but feel… almost sad.
Greunthrn notices a locked drawer in the furniture. He uses his thieving tools and the lock opens easily. Inside the decaying drawer is a ring for a large creature. The metal engraving on the ring is of a fine-looking female face with horns that looks much like Belnirith’s. Belnirith recognizes the image as that of Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus and ruler of the sixth plane of Hell. Belnirith carries a part of Glasya’s essence in her blood and her form. The inscription on the ring says “Ulvik” in Infernal.
The ring is not magical, but Laguza with her expertise in jewelry determines that it seemed to have some sort of deep emotional significance to the devil, likely a pit-fiend from the size of the bed, who stayed in the bedroom. Greunthrn hands it to Belnirith with the tacit consensus that the ring belongs to her.
Belnirith and Vyshka perform a ceremony to cleanse the area before Asgardey∂a take on their next challenge—to travel across the planes to wherever this portal leads, and destroy the gems on the other side so that it can’t be used anymore.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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