It is harsh across the Empire, whoredom rife. A gene age, a machine age. Mankind is riven.
A restless age, a deathless age, before the nine worlds go headlong. Welcome to episode
15 of the Vikings and Valkyries podcast. Joining us to face the end of the world are Bill, Steve,
C.J., Taylor and Annina. Welcome to you, morsels of Munnin.
Hi.
Oh, morsels.
Hello.
Thank you very much. What does the last bit mean?
We're going to get chopped to bits, obviously.
Yeah, I don't like the sound of that. I have a question for Taylor. The armour you have on
the rack behind you, do you put it there when you can steam press it? Is that what that's
for?
Exactly, yeah.
It wrinkles if I keep it in a crate.
Oh, in a drawer or whatever.
It's gorgeous.
I'm literally staring at it.
Me too.
You're a Lord of the Rings fan, right? I think I heard that from an episode, right?
Massive one, yeah.
Yeah, so this is-
I have a Lord of the Rings wedding in November, so yes.
Beautiful. I know C.J. wanted me to tell the story, but this is a basically screen accurate
recreation I did of the Rohan Royal Guard armor. It is all full steel. It's 70 pounds
of solid weight. And I got to wear it at Comic-Con where I met Sir Richard Taylor and a bunch
of the other Weta workshop guys.
Oh, seriously?
I was wearing this, having him talk to me about it. We had a party where there was a
costume contest where they judged it.
And I did win. And then I just kind of decided to screw it, shoot my shot. I was there for
work and we were interviewing them the next day and I just said, you know what? You guys
are doing a panel. Wouldn't it be really cool if someone in armor walked you guys onto the
panel stage at Comic-Con? And they're like, fuck yes, do it. And so I got to walk the
Weta guys onto their stage in that armor. It was a dream come true.
Oh, fantastic.
I love the Rohan armor. So cute.
That's my favorite. Yeah. I'm a Rohan fanboy. I call my illiterate horse boys.
Very good. Now, I've also seen you creating a Viking commercial where the commoners surrender
their valuables just at the mere sight of Vikings because their marketing was so good.
I'm fairly sure that CJ, you were on the riverbank there. Is that right? With the chest.
I was indeed.
Villager number two. Yeah, that was a that was funny. That's that's a you. You had a
great idea, CJ, that the whole thing about Vikings is it's really their marketing. It's
just the fear that goes before them. And at that time, we were running a marketing company
together and we thought, what a good way to advertise it and play to his strengths. And
he did a great job running away from the scary Viking boats and tripping over himself and
not overacting at all.
So our movements were, I think, poignant. They were so lifelike and realistic and not
hammy in any way, shape or form.
Annina, we've just we've got you back with us again today. You've been laying to rest your
saga as Saga for Bardicquest, right?
Oh, yes. Yes. Season one of Bardicquest is now concluded. And it's it's it's a fantastic
finale episode. A lot of tears, happy tears, sad tears. And I'm going to miss her so much.
So so much. That was three years. I played saga.
It's amazing. So we we'll all be sure to tune in for that grand finale and see what's happened.
And hopefully there'll be tears before bedtime today on this episode. Today, we are playing
the Scar in the Sky. And I'm going to give you your chance to win those inspiration points
for the episode ahead so that you can cast them aside and not use them. Now, ordinarily,
let me get to this part of the show, either CJ or our guests get all of the questions
correct, and they allow certain others to hide.
Oh, I see where this is going.
Do you see where it's going?
I think I do. Yeah, I think I do.
Well, what I'm going to do today, just vary the format a little bit. I'm going to ask
you each a question. And if you get a clean sweep, then I will give you the inspiration
point. All right. Seem reasonable. Yeah, I mean, like this is a bridge of cross the bridge
of eternal doom.
I would like to point out that generally we do better at the questions than we do in the
combat. So it's kind of our strength. If you think about it. Just think about that. Let's
see if we can make them eat this challenge.
I have a premonition. I'm going to get a what's your favorite colour question. And Steve, you're
going to get what's the average airspeed velocity of a coconut bearing swallow.
Yeah.
Just you wait and see. We will start with Annina. The poem, Hrafnsmal, largely consists
of a conversation between an unnamed Valkyrie and which bird?
Raven.
Correct. Well done. Taylor, come to you next.
In the Icelandic Book of Settlement, about the first people of Iceland, Hrafna Floki
took three of which birds to help him find his way on the final leg of the voyage to
Iceland.
I'm going to say Raven again.
Correct.
Okay.
CJ, coins minted in the reign of Olaf Guthridsson as the King of York between 939 and 941 were
emblazoned with the image of which bird?
A raven.
Correct. Well done.
Steve.
Like we're heading like 60 miles per hour.
There's a wall coming.
Steve, King Cnut, the great of England, Norway and Denmark, carried a banner made from white
silk at the Battle of Assandun in 1016. What bird featured on this famous flag?
Oh, I'm going to go with, now can I phone a friend? No, raven. We're going to go with
raven. That's my final answer.
Correct. And so we come to Bill. In the Poetic Edda poem, Voluspa, Gullinkumbi is one of
which three birds whose crowing is foretold to signify the beginning of the events at
Ragnarok?
Crows.
I'm dead either way. Whatever way he goes, I'm dead.
Is that your final answer?
Fine. Raven?
It's a rooster, Bill. It's a rooster.
Rooster the crow.
I feel like I made a real cock up of that whole thing.
So close. So you've almost got the inspiration point, but Bill let the side down and ruined
it for everybody.
It was so much pressure. Oh my God.
Let us begin our adventure on the Falkr, the marooned Imperial ship that is stuck on
the sea ice far to the east of Hjalpmakaar. Eir, Ljomi and Gigi, you have made yourself
comfortable over the past few days. You've cleaned out the kitchen of rancid meat. You've
sanitized the sick bay, and now you are trying to work out how to make it go. You still haven't
managed to work out how to shut the door. So it is no surprise when several days later
you hear a clanking and a clattering as yet another group approach the ship. This small
band look like an altogether different breed, but they bear the hallmarks of Imperial soldiers.
Most are men, but they appear to be led by an alfar of some renown and in their midst,
leaving excitedly through the ranks is a familiar face.
Hello? Hello?
Is that a voice? Mother?
Mother wants you to kill again.
Come out, I can smell you. You're here. Hello, it's me. Alma.
Oh my God, it's her. Alma's here. Come on in.
The door doesn't work anyways.
Where have you been, Ljomi says? We were going to look for you, but Gigi needed a lot of
breakfast that day.
Well, have you not heard what happened?
No.
First of all, everyone thought you were dead, since no one would be stupid enough to walk
straight into the blizzard of the century.
Flawless plan.
And also, I did want to meet you, but we had very, very important things to sort out. Oh
meet my new friends.
And who are your new friends?
So a tall form would walk in. You would see a tall, straight, probably seven, eight foot
tall, Alfar, very imposing, kind of looking down, gnarled skin and bark, hovered in drawings
and tapestries of ships, both ancient and new. He kind of just surveys you all imperiously.
Well met.
I am Gryotgarth the Magnificent. My friends call me Gigi for
short. What is your name? Oh, other tree, that second tree I have met in my life.
Yeah, he always talks like that. You get used to it after a while.
I am known as Kol, strange one. Good to meet you.
Welcome, brother, Ljomi says. Would you like some of the population of my bugs that
live on me to join your colony? Perhaps a little exchange, a little cultural exchange?
Should we look away?
No, no, no, it's perfectly natural. Nothing to be embarrassed about.
Thank you, Kin. I'm glad they accept.
The group that has assembled here, led by this character, Old King Kol, as he is known,
has been led to the ship by Alma, and you are kind of refugees or resistance fighters
who have fled the situation in Hjalpmakaar
It seems a merry soul.
This is what happened, OK? It's awful. The sons of Ivaldi, they're the bad guys. They're
like the really, really, really bad guys. You know, like the wolves that aren't even
hungry and they just maul things just for the fun of it, they're them. So they're now
really, they're now picking people off and just making them disappear. So we have to
sort the situation.
What about them made you think they were good?
Did you hear what I said? I said just how bad? We never met one of those rabid wolves.
They burned down the Temple of the Bear.
Oh, Alma, that is terrible news.
Exactly.
What if the brother Alfar that lived there, what if the bear comes?
I don't know. I'm worried, but we need to sort the situation. Nip it in the bud.
There was some hope that we could find them on our travels, but we have heard no word
yet.
So, as Kol is standing there, I only really have paying attention to the conversation
that's happening because, uh, Kol is just taking in the inside of the ship. There's
a wave of familiarity washing over him as he takes it all in. He begins to slowly walk
around kind of feeling the whole panels in a almost tender way of recognition. As the
Falkeir becomes known to him and he recognizes that this ship is essentially the long lost
ship of his charge that he first set out into the cosmos is on. A ship that he deemed lost,
that he deemed destroyed and almost like looking at a ghost come back to life. He's just kind
of in a state of shock at this point.
Indeed, five years ago, the Falkr, as far as you're concerned, was lost in the doom,
all hands presumed missing.
So why did you all walk into the blizzard in the first place anyway?
Wonderful question. Eir, I believe it was your idea.
Yes, I'm pretty sure it was there. Not all of his ideas, not any of his ideas, really.
Yes, it was my idea. We knew that there was, we were given coordinates to something we
needed to investigate, we were told. I consulted with the voices in my head and determined
with some confidence that the blizzard would not arrive until we got there. We knew we
were walking into it and partly it allowed us, I think, the masterstroke of getting away
from any potential pursuit. That and partly just my misunderstanding.
Let's just take a moment at this point because in those intervening days, everyone has leveled
up and taken their Mythic paths. They're at level seven just for the purposes of explaining
character development and your growth as people. You've all taken these new paths to mark your
progress. Bill, you've embraced your inner demon of death and become a Valkyrie. Now,
obviously, everyone's going to imagine you as they're listening now as some kind of busty
Brunhilde character.
Quite accurate in its own way.
True Valkyries aren't these kind of Wagnerian fairy tales. The original form was this fierce
spirit who was doing the command of the war god and stirring up disorder and chaos on
the battlefield. Only later did it become completed with the shield maiden. You've embraced
this bringer of death, this harbinger of doom.
Well, yes, that's one way to express it. I think the real focus should be, it's all
about healing. But sometimes even as a healer, one has to know when someone has lived long
enough or is perhaps suffering. And it may not be apparent to someone who's expert, but
with all the training that I have with a mere touch, I can heal or...
Put people out of their misery.
Or my misery.
Steve, you finally decided to embrace the seer in your ear and in a desperate attempt to stay
awake over the course of each episode. You've embraced the ancestor spirits and become a
speaker.
Yes, really leaned into the spirits and... Well, he calls them the voices in his head.
But yeah, they are the spirits of the dead who walk among us and live rent free in his
head. They have a lot to say. They have a lot to offer. And he's hoping that by really
listening to them and paying attention to what they have to say, maybe they can help
him stay awake.
Right, now, CJ, you have chosen to become a giants bane , a champion of Thor, a protector
against the murderous forces of Ragnarok. And then you've awarded yourself the Polar
Star for conspicuous heroism.
That is correct.
Congratulations.
And I have honor plus nine, right? So you should all respect Gigi out of the gate.
Because wearing your medal proudly on your chest and, you know, burnishing that medal,
you are you've joined the ranks of the exalted.
It's almost as satisfying as the silver medal at the All Asgard Games.
Almost.
Annina, you have chosen the path of the warden. So you can presumably better police
this wild, wild north that you find yourself in?
Yes, protect things and people she finds important.
And Taylor, you've joined us and obviously you're playing all in goal. He's actually
mentioned in the rule book. So you picked up a story there and you're playing a vaettir,
a Chthonic guardian. That is my favorite word of all time, Chthonic. And Alf, chosen for
their dedication to Yggdrasil, a fierce protector of their native lands.
Absolutely. A deep devotion to carrying out the protection and defeat of the threats to
Yggdrasil and an adventurous spirit as well to try and, you know, break through the confines
of the world to explore space and travel. But a deep, deep devotion to that protection
and guardian mentality.
And having listened to several episodes of the podcast over the past couple of months,
you obviously compare and contrast yourself to Bill the Alfar and Ljomi as a character.
What would you say would be the chief differences between your portrayals?
I'd like to hope that Kol brings a stoicism and professionalism to the charge of protection
and exploration that he seeks, hopefully an added degree of innate competency that I hope
to imbibe.
There you go, Bill. The challenge is on. It's like a duel of the alfar.
Yeah, I mean, on our side, we like to have men in the group because they've been useful
so very many times. So that's my advice to you. For long-term survival, keep a group
of men in front.
Useful puppets to kind of, you know, meat shield.
Didn't they just show up with the whole group of them?
They did. So over the course of the next couple of weeks, you will be introduced to more of
your fledgling crew. Alma has recruited a bunch of people and found you out in the wasteland.
And Kol is a skipper in his own right. He used to pilot this very ship before it was
lost to the yawning void. And he is obviously delighted if somewhat mystified as to how
it has survived.
Kol is not one to show too much emotion on his sleeve, but there is a rapture and the
focus is far from the three of you, at least at this point.
Okay, well, as you all gather, the various Imperial pilots and technicians bustle on
board the ship, directed by Kol to various stations to ready the ship, prepare it to
check the munitions, to replenish the stores, and generally make it ready for liftoff. They
also, you'll be glad to know, work out how to press the button to shut the door and prevent
you all being sucked out into the Ginnungagap
I think this whole moment shows that we have handled the task really well. We now know
completely how to operate the ship. Things just tend to go our way.
Did you try and press the button with the door symbol before?
We've been very busy. There were things.
You know, next time before you wander off, you could wait, you know, an hour or two,
and then I'll come in.
Oh, I see. Well, I suppose we could do that. I'm just happy this time we don't have to
run off across the frozen waste. We have another way to leave. Very good.
As you all stand around debating the finer points of dining etiquette, the Hrafn haus,
the raven skull around Ljomi's neck begins to hum with a kind of expectant energy, and
the Utvarp, the radio, crackles to life, and you hear this exchange on what Kol you recognise
as imperial frequencies. The exchange is this. Heka here.
This is Wavewalker. Report.
Target is back in custody.
Firefox asked for confirm. Who was the target?
Lawspeaker trying to escape.
Give me your current location.
78 North, 11 East.
And the other loose ends. There's an order from the Firefox to destroy everything.
Blaine, look, there ain't guys coming, you know, on Her Majesty's service. They'll be
at the observatory soon. Maybe in 50, 60 minutes.
And at that, the frequency crackles off. It was almost as if it was a radio intercept
that the raven skull wanted you to hear.
Holy crap.
We have to go there. We have to go there now. Now we've got 60 minutes.
How fast can we get there? Do we know where it is? So many questions.
There were coordinates, I believe. I think the people who know how to work this should
simply make it so.
78 North, 11 East, they said.
Thank you.
Ooh, it's shining. Oh, can I look at it for a sec? Alma points to the raven skull.
Of course, my dear.
Now Alma does have the remote sense ability, which enables her to use her slightly psychic
powers to determine things about objects and artifacts, including their previous owners.
Yes. Yes. What can you tell us?
Alma, by holding the artifact and focusing your mental energies on understanding, you
are horrified by the realization that this is indeed the skull of Munnin, one of Odin's
ravens. They once perched on his shoulders and reconnoitered to the ends of the earth,
returning each evening to whisper him news. But for some reason, this poor bird has been
reduced to this skull form. Fortunately or unfortunately for you, Huginn and Munnin
never rest and they have been searching for the instruments of their salvation. It just
so happens that for some bizarre reason, they ended up with you. There's something that
comes to you that is even darker, even more mysterious, because as you touch this skull,
you get a very clear vision. And I'll describe it to you. And all of this is in your head.
This is something that is firing the neurons behind your eyes. What you see is a macabre
vision where you are surrounded by dancing tarantulas, the whirl-like spinning tops. And
then suddenly each part of their body is stretched in different directions until they're completely
torn to shreds. At that moment, into the vision scape, a huge raven swoops down, it alights
on a hollow man whose body is made from and also pierced by a huge ironwood tree. The
raven begins to gnaw on screaming corpses whilst their flesh roasts in a sudden burst
of flames. And this whole scene is watched by a ring of men with identical faces and
icy grins. As quickly as that vision flooded your mind, as you put down the skull and stagger
back, it dissipates and you return to the recognition that you are in the raven's nest
on board the falcon.
And she's sort of... she's holding the raven skull. He looks around. Obviously, there's
a lot of people on the ship. But still she leans in and goes, that's murder.
What else can you tell me?
I saw... I saw... I saw people being torn apart and looked at at all these bases. The
same face was just staring at it. I think it just felt evil. They're up to something.
People torn apart, but not us doing it.
No, no, not us. No.
Good, good.
No, no, no. It was...
We have to go to those coordinates now. Can I get a closer sense of who those... the people
with the same face were?
Give me a wits roll.
Seventeen.
So, you are familiar with the fact that the Sons of Ivaldi are rumored to be a clone of
the race. In fact, the identical faces and malicious grins that you saw do reflect their
reputation. They have been known as arms merchants and certainly profiteered during the Jotun
War to a great extent.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the Sons of Ivaldi. They all looked the same in my head. They
were tearing people... tearing these animals apart and... more of me, you know, more of
this. We need to stop that.
Yes, we should go.
How soon can we get there?
That would be down to Captain Kol.
Yeah, when the first radio was intercepted, was that loud enough for the whole ship to
hear it or is it just in their little group where they're talking?
You would have all been in the Raven's Nest and able to hear that.
Your natural position as the former captain and presumably the one most able to command
the ship would be on the con, able to direct the crew accordingly.
Absolutely. I would imagine I would be able to punch the coordinates in to kind of get
a GPS location of where we are from it. Fair to say?
It is fair and you recognise that the coordinates are a military site to the north of the former
archipelago called New Koenugardr. You've worked alongside the military for some time now and
you know it is a previously defunct site but resurrected again between a kind of partnership
between the Sons of Ivaldi and the Imperial forces. It exists somewhere to the north of
Kóngssteinn.
Fantastic. Pilot, please start a course. We need to get there in, what did the message
say, 60 minutes is what we have?
50 to 60 minutes, so in 49 minutes.
49. This place...
It'll give us the elements of surprise.
So then we probably don't want to be blasting in there engines blazing at full speed now,
do we?
Well, if there's more of us then we could.
Your pilot is called Ragny. She has the ability to access thought and memory drive. She does
insist though that the bearer of the Ravenskull, Ljomi, joins her in the pilot's chair so they
can share the thought and memory link, the oblivion link that creates the bond between
the pilots and enables them to visualize a destination and jump to it.
Right. Yomi does so. All about oblivion, or oblivious.
Cole, I'm going to give you a description just for you because you know New Koenugardr
well and you will want to perhaps instruct Ragny as to how close to jump in. Again,
thought and memory drive isn't going to fly you there. You're going to materialize somewhere
close to those coordinates and they're going to be reliant on your description as you paint
a picture in order to effectively teleport the ship to the correct spot. So the base
hunkers glumly at the very edge of civilization. It is situated on the southern side of the
Ullefjord, a stretch of icy water 30 kilometers long and nearly 10 kilometers wide and built
on a flat coastal plateau amidst a backdrop of jagged mountains and glaciers. There is
a harbor there with one large berth for icebreaker ships to dock and the main base is made up
of a dozen large prefabricated buildings to be used as barracks as well as a sickhouse
and they are set in a circle around state-of-the-art twin telescopes that use their antennas to
monitor the gap. Now fortunately for you the settlement is an evergreen silent community
which protects the highly sensitive scientific equipment from disruption. So that's the
kind of lie of the land, this ring of barracks on the edge of a fjord but in addition to
that you know that there is a mountaintop observatory that is reached by an aerial tramway,
so effectively a cable car that leads up to a lonely mountain that sits alongside the
barracks and that observatory is kind of ancient and dilapidated. It used to allow the northern
explorers to penetrate the Arctic in their airships and there is an airship hanger there
as well but you will have to if you are conducting a rescue mission for the Lawspeaker and
as Alma says to potentially find the bear cubs from the Temple of the Bear then you
will need to determine the best spot to jump the ship. The observatory would I know roughly
how often it is visited, I mean you said dilapidated, is it common knowledge that it's fairly empty
most of the time or is it indetermined? To the best of your knowledge it is defunct and
is rarely used. That said give me a Wits roll. Does everyone else on the Raven's Nest,
do we hear or see what's being described? Yeah what's being described is really Kol's
recollection of the place that he can convey to you and to his pilot because if he's jumping
to those coordinates he's just need to make a determination about where to land. Wit
roll was nine by the way. With your weal for wisdom of the ages? Thank you for reminding
me. So thirteen. So you have a hunch based upon your 1300 years of existence that if
you were to keep people out of sight and out of mind you probably wouldn't just put them
in the main barracks surrounded by Imperial soldiers. Exactly. It's probably the quest
of them in the observatory until such time as these men on her majesty's service came
to collect them. I want to ride the cable car. Yeah with the thought and memory drive
can we blink into like inside structure, you said there's a hanger there is it possible
to essentially blink into a hanger or does it have to be kind of an exposed outside environment?
The hanger would be good for an airship which is a kind of zeppelin style device that would
anchor on one of the mooring masts. Your ship is considerably more advanced and would probably
burst through any wooden building where you could appear there. Definitely too large for
a ship. Ragny does suggest to you that you could benefit from the tactics of an ísbjörn
and benefit from a dusting of snow effectively building a den. Ragny is an experienced pilot
who has been part of your command for many years and that would be her suggestion she
can get you close and land the thing and then you would be able to advance on foot to the
observatory. Alternatively other members of your crew suggest that you could use the whirlers
which are effectively drop ships to land though you'd lose that pod and no longer have that
mechanism to emergency eject should it come to that. The head of security who has joined
your team recommends that you might be able to hover above the facility and rappel down
but that comes with the obvious risk of detection. And those pods they're not like shells there's
no way to do a transport back with them. One use and done essentially. There is they're
generally picked up by retrieval vessels but it's not something that you would have the
luxury of time to do. I think the best bet for us is to avoid the main part of the fjord
where the barracks are. There's too many troops there too many eyes watching. We'd be obvious
targets the moment we enter the area but the best thing could probably be to do some form
of a stealth mission. Now these people are probably being held far out of the normal
hustle and bustle of this base up in the observatory. I would recommend we get in as close as possible
to drop in a small team that could infiltrate it extract our people and we pick up and get
out before we're detected. Probably look at the three newcomers and as I see them and
just kind of say do you think you're capable of handling a delicate mission like that.
What the fuck do you think. No you can hear me from space. Right so stuff is not your
strong. Something less flashy. Does he have a muzzle of some sort. Maybe she if you didn't
tell everyone about your victories we might get in quietly. I'm just suggesting you do
bring up a good point. What if I walked up to the front door not they'll know who I am.
We'll talk about all Asgard games and other things. I'll keep them distracted while the
rest of you go do your stealth thing. It's not honorable. I mean this is a base with
quite a few armed personnel who you'd have to distract for quite a while for us to execute
this. And it just so happens that I have an enthralling performance. I should keep them
distracted for a good long while. They're getting rid of people that they don't particularly
like. They don't have to like me. The enthralling performance is magic. It keeps their attention
whether they like me or not. They're shooting people that they don't like. I can handle
the risk. I'll distract them. You jump in do your thing. I'm not too worried. I'm not
going in silently. Use me. Use my strength. Use my loudness and then I'll bugger off and
run somewhere and I'll be fine. Pick me up over there. Alma turns to Ljomi and goes help
me. Time is of the essence. There's bear cubs. Could we quietly smash into the building with
a ship and kick Krapti out of the wreckage maybe. Surprise. That is pretty subtle for
us. You're suggesting a quiet crash. See Koll what I have to do with you. You can't do that
on a daily basis. I admire your patience. I've never used a ship like this before. We're
going to go in quietly. Imagine you're a wolverine like me and you're hunting prey. It's a really
really really scared rabbit. You have to be quiet. Okay. And imagine you can do that plus
all the guards have awareness minus five. I think Gigi may have a point. I think we
can do that. I can go a little bit invisible. Eir's constantly disappearing. It's true. That's
good. And yet keeps coming back disappointingly. But nonetheless. Would I have a sense of how
many people would be there? Like it's defunct. But do I? Yeah. I mean, the main military base
will have probably 40 or 50 Imperial troops and you'll be able to verify that quite quickly
when you blink to the area. When you flip to the area. The observatory again you can't
tell. There might be. There's clearly a retrieval squad on the way. I could disguise everyone
so we could look like the retrieval squad. Can you disguise everyone? I didn't know you
were going to do that. That's a great idea. I can disguise people. It's an illusion. It's
not a real disguise. It's an illusion. It lasts for an hour. I can do it five times.
There's the plan. Make me look like an alfar. Wow. I'm going to just wave my hands in an
attempt to describe this thing. Right? So. Jazz hands. Let's try and do this. So here
is the plateau. And on that plateau is the military base with 40 or 50 troops. Over here
represented by my fist is the observatory. The observatory is to the side of the plateau.
The idea is, I'm tempted to do this with my thumb now, you land on this side. You could
get up there or there's a couple of different ways you could do it. You could go what CJ
says and sort of go straight into the base there with 40 people. You could crash like
Steve says. That would be certainly a route one way of attempting the rescue. Not sure
that anyone in the building would actually survive, but you could take your chances.
You could scale up. You could take the cable car. The cable car links this base and this
observatory. Like that. Do those various hand gestures help in any way? The listeners. Ian's
left hand is the plateau and to his right fist represents the base, you see. It's helped
me understand what I want my code name to be. I want my code name to be broadsword.
And I think Steve should be Danny Boy. That little talk was basically the podcast version
of taking the difficulty down from medium to easy. Right. And thank goodness for it.
This is what a good fit on for us. Don't we have parachutes? Didn't they, Orcneus, jump
from this ship with parachutes? Could we just parachute in James Bond style? You could try
that. That was the parachuting or rappelling approach. Is that another different? The security
officer said, yeah, it depends on your guys' level of risk and what you want to take. I
think the easiest course of action is to avoid the main part of the barracks and the main
part of the building altogether. I imagine your performance is going to be enthralling,
Gigi, but 40 or 50 guards is a lot to distract and feels like will only have the effect of
ringing the doorbell. Remember, I'm famous and I'm rich and I have honor plus nine. That
won't help if you've got a bullet in your skull. OK, so we're going to do what old King
Koll here said. OK, and we're going to avoid the main building. And then we will set up
a open mic night where you can perform for everyone. OK, let's go. A rousing performance
as we fly off into the distance. How about that? Well, the cable car is in the heart
of the base. I don't think we want to walk right into their midst just to take the easy
way up the mountain. All right. I saw it in this movie where Raven's Dare. It was awesome.
Is that a pun because it's where Eagle's Dare and you've just changed it to Raven's for
the sake of this podcast? That's why I said yes. Or yes, it is as well. I did that. We
are all by myself. We are all on to you. Very good. Well, see if you can emulate it. You
better just hope it's not the Guns of Navarone. Yeah, I recommend that we we hutch down on
the far side of the mountain, scale it. We have the crew waiting above to pick us up
and we need to extract. We can use the repelling ropes to egress as well as ingress, I believe.
And that is probably the we're not going to be able to get back down once we get up. We're
going to raise the alarm. So we need a way for the ship to pick us out. Well, this all
sounds very sensible. Very much not what we usually do. But I mean, hey, let's give it
a try. At this point, I would turn to all and just be like, where did you find these
characters? They're a bit rough around the edges, but you know, they're still alive.
They survived the blizzards or something. Charming. Eventually. Kol, do you want to
give the command to the crew so you're going to land on the far side of the observatory?
Are you actually then going to climb up as opposed to? Yeah, that's the tricky part,
isn't it? Wait, I may have a solution for that. I have a thing I haven't got to use
yet. And I was just looking at a lot of things you haven't used. It's true. Secret path.
Like what about secret path? If I can. Well, you weren't that sick. Name a destination
you believe to be within nine miles of you. If it is land spirits. Oh, that just moves
us faster, not instantly. Do you want disguises? Is that decided? Do you remember, CJ, a few
episodes ago when you machine gunned everyone? When you cut runes into the rope in order
to scale the trolls? Of course. Yes, yes, yes, I do. I do remember I have a spell that
allows me to climb walls called branch runes. Indeed. And how many castings of that do you
have? Two. Seven. So I could climb a wall. And I'm very large, so I could carry maybe
like two of you. Like Andre the giant princess bride. Does being a wolverine gives me
expert climbing skills, for a chance. Obviously. I've got claws. I don't know that it does.
Not for the paths that you've taken. There is a there are a couple of paths that do give
you weals on climbing, but not the warden. Wait, so why are we not just bringing the
ship in above and then we can rappel down and then whoever's still on the ship just
bring it lower and then we can jump back down into the ship when we come back the other
way? Well, if you want it to be easy. Are ships really noisy from the outside? Would
they hear us? Yeah, is how loud, right? How obvious is this ship? I mean, like, bear in
mind, like big old pirate ship, all guns blazing, everyone will notice it. Or are we talking
stealth helicopter? More the latter, because whilst it is sizable, it is made of sleek ironwood.
It is like its name suggests, a similar architecture and style as a falcon. And it could hop into
existence. It could split above. You could rappel out of the extravehicular paw, the
door that you've just learned to close, and then it could alight relatively stealthily,
perhaps without drawing attention. Certainly, if luck were on your side, then that might
be possible. It depends whether the fates are smiling on you today or not. We have some
radios. So this is an evergreen dead space, isn't it? It's a silent zone. Exactly. So
they any any we could we could send a flare up when we're ready to be picked up. We have
flares. You have a GG. Yeah, could we just shout out? Steve, could you could you disguise
the whole ship as a cloud? One creature is the ship a creature? Yes, yes, yes, yes, it
was. Wasn't it alive? Didn't it like doesn't it communicate like memory and in the living
woods and my goodness, it's have to be alive to be a creature. You know, it's alive.
Kol thinks it's alive. Exactly. There we are. I believe we have a quorum. Unfortunately,
he's doing the face palm again. Yeah, the veto. No, you cannot disguise the ship as
a cloud. Neither do you need to because it is the polar night and it's dark. That is
an embarrassingly obvious detail we should have probably made sure of. Wow. Yeah. So
turn off the headlights. Yeah. Just before we jump off said ship to the ledge, the knuckle,
the plateau, I would like to use remote sense. GG. Give me the god tongue. Come on. You can
call whatever you want. Come on. I need to find them. Come on. The what? You know exactly
what I'm talking about. Hand it over. I'll give it back. This isn't the time. Look, we
have bear cubs to save. So GG is going to walk over and just very quietly and awkwardly just be
like, hey, you go, but I need it back. He even whispers loudly.
Alma, you are there referring to the errant piece of the Dverg Legsko that GG has retrieved from
the burning Asbjornsson mansion and kept quietly and secretly to himself. You use your remote
sense on it and you are somewhat shocked to find it is a piece of the supercomputer meme.
Perhaps the last ever piece for the machine was silenced in the doom. Oh, oh, wow. You really
need to keep this safe. Doesn't immediately help you now, but perhaps it is good to have used
your psychic powers to at least hint to GG as to why people are so keen to get it back.
Yes, so she'll repeat that. Now this stays here. OK, no spreading rumors because everyone wants
this thing. Oh, I know. Give it back. I'll put it away.
They'll have to get through here.
I know you've had it since we met on the raft, remember? I called you, God Tongue
No.
I'd be insulted if it was anyone else. Right.
Let's go, where we see Pipe.
Your bioship, the Falkr, flits into existence powered by a thought and memory drive.
The pilot brings you immediately above the observatory and you are able to look out of
the extravehicular pore with ropes ready in order to get down to the observatory below you.
You are a height of no more than 20 meters, such is the expertise of the pilot Ragny.
I think we should see if a parachute will support Eir's stony diamond encrusted weight.
This is an experiment.
Only 20 meters off the observatory.
We're not going to have a five foot open.
Yeah, I think we're in it for ropes.
OK, in order to fast rope down then using a rope and harness lowered down to the observatory by
the hovering Falkr.
Well, there are a few approaches.
Fast roping requires a successful might challenge role or a suitable military profession.
Another option is to rappel down with a harness, although it may take some time to set up and
allow the people in the observatory to spot the ship.
I would say military analyst.
That's one of my professions.
Does that help me?
Can I analyze the?
It's a counter to the military profession, so I will assume that you are familiar with
rope work and Viking raids from your time 11 centuries ago and enable you to rappel down
with great swiftness.
The same for Taylor?
I've got the soldier background for sure.
Real quick point of order question, since I have the take the conn ability, do I have to be on the
ship for that to still work?
So in short, can we bring initial group?
You do, but the crew will be able to pilot ship.
There are enough of them currently.
I'm just saying if we could bring half of them with us as extra bodies and leave half, but
that's the end.
Your away party, so to speak, is the five of you.
Perfect.
Annina Alma does obviously as a child soldier.
You also have some expertise here.
Gigi, as you've taken that Giants Bane path that comes with military profession.
So I'm going to enable you to rappel down without a harness as well.
Just holding on to the rope and whistling down just remains for Steve as to how you're going to.
I have options.
I've been thinking about this and Eir has options.
Is it going to be rock like a stone?
I think I'm not ruling that out.
That's probably where we're going to run.
He's going to disguise himself as a member of the Imperial Recovery Team.
Now he doesn't know what that looks like.
So it's going to be a uniform like the Imperial people who are here, except with the words
Imperial Recovery Team on his chest, which that should be good enough.
Then the next plan is going to be either go down on a rope like everyone else and use his spells and
abilities to give him as many rerolls as it takes, ideally, to not fall like a stone and hurt himself.
Or plan C, just fall like a stone and hurt himself.
Because I think the harness is going to take way too long.
Let's make that might challenge roll then, Steve.
Let's do it, buddy.
Everyone else is gracefully sliding down their ropes, just like with a whizzing sound.
And then, Steve, your roll is?
We're going to use Boon, which is our new spell.
And we can use the triggered action to do Boon twice, if I'm reading this right.
Wise Council, that's it.
So that's two rerolls on our might roll, if we need to, which we probably will.
And so are there any weals or woes that I should talk about?
Ljomi could use Guest Council.
He can give you two weals on that.
You know, I'll do Wise Council, Ian.
I should do Wise Council.
Real quick, while he's rolling, can I do one thing before Kol rappels down?
And just turn to my crew and leave orders that I want them to blink back at a lower altitude spot every hour
until they see us outside, since we have no way to communicate them.
And whilst that is a logical and clever idea, Ragny, your pilot,
reminds you that the thought and memory drive effectively operates as a spell.
And whilst she can meditate in order to get that spell, she's got two uses effectively per day.
So she's got one use to get you here.
I want to get us out.
Interesting.
When are we getting an actual real-world lawyer to join us?
I just think it might come in handy.
What's wrong with Krapti, the law speaker?
Well, it's just he's also voiced by the GM, and therefore may come with a bit of an inherent bias.
My final roll is 23.
There you go.
Thanks for the power of re-rolls.
You speed down the rope like a black stone rocket and thud onto the roof.
There's no disguising your weight, but you hope that no one has noticed you.
And the others slide down and alight with a little bit more gracee and finesse alongside you.
So you're all in this dark, enveloping, velvet polar night.
The only thing that's disturbing the darkness is the shimmering scar in the sky above you.
There's no moon. There's no stars.
Alma, with your night vision, you can clearly see down to the barracks below. For everyone else, it is very difficult to spot anything.
You do have your infrared vision, but it doesn't detect any heat signatures.
All of the buildings are the same temperature as the icy polar wilderness.
OK, shall we break in?
Well, you are on the roof. It's up to you to determine whether you break through the roof and land inside, or whether you find a window or go round to the front door.
Peek in through the window first.
Is Eir going to disguise the rest of us at this point?
If you like.
Yes, very much so.
All right. I have four more disguises available. What would you like to be disguised as?
Part of the Imperial Recovery Team, he says, pointing at the text on his chest.
Yes, please, says Ljomi.
One for Ljomi.
Seems logical.
One for Alma.
OK, that looks like that's everyone.
Using Glamour Sight, you can touch any one creature you can reach, and for an hour they have an illusory disguise. You can decide what that looks like. You've gone for an Imperial Recovery Team, and presumably you now want to knock on the front door.
Well, let's peek through the window first.
Agreed.
Let me try and give you a bit more of a lie of the land for this building. So, like I said, the Observatory is a fairly ramshackle building. It shows lots of signs of wear and neglect, flaking paint exposes the grey wood beneath.
There is a platform all the way round, although it has lost its guardrails. Apart from one room at the southern side of the building, all of the rooms are totally dark.
There is no power to this building in general, and the only light that is on is a lamp light in what looks to be an office. As you peer into that room as best you can, you see a couple of, perhaps they are Sons of Ivaldi by their cyborg, implants playing cards by lamp.
The office around them is full of paper piled high on the desk around and there is an old computational dverg that sits alongside them in sleep mode.
It looks like they're on break, they're just playing cards. If we look like this, we should be fine.
Gigi, just turn the flamboyance down from an 11, like a 4.
How noise insulated is the building?
Yes, loudly.
Not very remember it's a ramshackle.
Oh, and the part holes in the wall.
Exactly.
So, ambushing them would be a bad idea.
We look like one.
May not have to.
We can just roll on through as long as we don't engage them in conversation.
From where we're standing, can we see, is there any obvious areas of dilapidation in the building that could be like an entrance point that's not an obvious door, like a hole in the wall cracking something that we could slip into that would maybe not, you know, be an obvious draw of attention.
Good question. And towards the northern part of the roof, you can see that the whole structure is almost open to the winds. There is a weak roof and a weak floor and a whole bunch of the wall has come away.
I'd probably turn to Alma and say, we scurry over there and check through this hole. If it's clear in there, we can slip into there and we'll blend in like we were already inside.
And she dashes off.
Give me a sleight roll with such weals as you have that enable you to move silently.
That's 4. That is, ooh, 21.
Nice.
I am the night.
Yes.
Like a Wolverine ninja, you scale down the side of the building and peer in using your keen night vision and your senses.
You can see and smell Krapti Thorfridsen is in that room tied to a radiator.
Is anyone else in the room?
There's no one else in that room.
The whole structure is clearly weakened here.
And you recognize that you're going to have to tread very gingerly on the floor.
You're going to find your way to Krapti without triggering a collapse.
How far did I just dash to get in here versus where everyone else is?
Not very far. This is not a huge building, so no more than 30 yards.
She's going to pop her head back so they can see her, okay?
I found Krapti.
Listen out. I'm going to try and get him out. It looks really, really rickety.
If you hear anything? Dash in.
Comprende?
Comprende
And you do indeed hear something as the rest of you sitting on top the roof
notice that the cable car has jolted into life and is slowly ascending up to the observatory.
No. I'm going to dash back to where I saw Krapti.
Okay, so you're going to go and try and extract Krapti.
Cole, in the meantime, if you give me a wits roll.
18.
You calculate that the speed of the cable car means that you probably have 11 or 12 minutes before it docks at the observatory where you are.
Okay. I turn to the rest of the crews with us.
Let's move up by this hole in case we need to support quickly. We only have a few minutes and we need to support her actions as fast as possible.
But we cannot go in there until we are given the signal.
Understood?
Yes, understood. Yes, very good.
And, loud boy.
Silent as a mouse.
A large mouse.
Size of a house.
Very large, but handsome mouse.
Alma, if you want to cross the weak floor, then you're going to need to give me another sleight roll to do so.
Yes, I'm going to do my best.
Soft paws on the rickety surface.
15.
You are able to glide across the floor without triggering any collapse.
And you can reach the unconscious Lawspeaker who is, like I said, tied to that radiator. It is possible to quickly release him.
He is insensate. He is non-responsive, but alive.
You can work out a way to carry him out.
If you try and haul him out on the same way that you've come in, then you are going to make the same noise you just did, but with two woes because he is a dead weight.
What does the room look like? Is there anything that could help me?
There's not. It's clearly a storage room of some description. There's an internal doorway, and through that doorway you can see a room with broken windows that is, again, entirely exposed to the elements from the north.
The roof is intact, so you didn't see it before, but the entire northern wall is gone.
And in that room are six metal gurneys, each holding what looks like another chained figure.
So six chained figures held on these metal gurneys exposed to the elements.
The figures are all dressed in heavy woolen trousers and fur parkas, clearly iced over in the bitter cold.
Are they dead? She does a sniff.
Very wise to detect because they are not so much dead as centuries old.
Presumably exhumed as part of the activities of the Sons of Ivaldi. They're wearing whaler clothing and they do smell a little bit like old fish.
Too long in the freezer.
Ian, if I were to, if Ljomi were to touch Krapti and cast Everlasting Runes, would that wake him up?
I haven't gotten him out of the room yet.
No, I know. I was wondering about whether I climb down and do that. And then it's an easier package.
You know, you have you could go full level four spell or you could just use some of your things like Yggdrasil's Gift.
Oh, yeah, that one. Well, that was going to be my next question.
Obviously, Kol has that as well, since you share the alfars Light, Grace and Gift for.
And Yggdrasil's Gift, we have to be in contact as well, though, right?
Correct. Yeah, touch that.
Am I correct in understanding that the troops that are in the barracks down below need to take the cable car to get to where we are?
And we have 11 minutes? Is that right?
That would be a fair assumption in that the only visible physical means of getting to the Observatory is the cable car.
I think he may be reloading his machine gun.
Yeah, Bill and I had the same idea.
Could we Rambo this? How many did you see?
Cut the cable.
Yeah.
There are two Sons of Ivaldi? Three?
There are two Sons of Ivaldi playing cards in the south part of the building, which is the office lit by lamplight.
And it's impossible for you to determine how many of the border steppers this universe's equivalent of ice are proceeding up in the cable car.
I have an image of Gigi getting his machine gun out, turning and saying, don't worry, I'll be very quiet.
I didn't say a word.
How thick is the cable for the cable car?
It is a strong steel cable, but with enough time and enough oomph and enough explosives, it could be dealt with.
Question before everything falls apart.
I'm doing really well, actually
Yeah, I think we should just let the half beast lead because the weasel is actually the least weasely of most of the group, with the exception of King Kol.
The rest of us.
A Wolverine. Its closely related to a raccoon or a bear
If Eir looks out over the base, I know it's dark. Does he see any like navigation lights? Because I mean, there must be a drone or some sort of air surveillance or support going on somewhere.
There's no way that they're sorry. Paranoia set in.
I'm really enjoying the setup here because this is the most care and planning we have ever done.
And yet I feel it's almost certain to resolve in the usual fashion, which is why I'm convinced we're missing something.
I have the ability to sense enemies. So far I haven't sensed anything.
Alma and Kol just like meticulously crafting this rescue plan and then over there we have Gigi gets bored.
And shoot everybody.
Two things then two things to heighten your paranoia.
The first is you notice that there is a landing strip to the far side of the barracks.
The landing strip has a docked Carver, which is a type of Norse warship.
The second thing tighten your paranoia is Annina the corpses that are on those gurneys chained to those gurneys.
All six of them are moaning and rattling, trying to escape.
You'll remember that the scar in the sky is doing a good job of resurrecting anything that has died from the fish heads that were stuck on a runic curse pole.
All the way through to the moose in the swimming pool and these dead whalers.
That was your wife.
OK, she's going to up the speed of what she was doing.
And I'm going to try and haul Krapti over my shoulder and move like a tree and go.
Slight roll with two woes, please.
So I rolled a 16 and then I have a six and a three.
OK, that should be that should be fine.
You take the six and so it becomes a ten.
I did like the way that you rolled those at a large distance and then wouldn't look at them for a few seconds.
That's to be said.
If you watch the last like three episodes of Bardic Quest, you'll understand why.
Because for an entire boss battle, I think for about 10 rounds, I didn't roll higher than a five.
I was a statistical anomaly.
That's why.
What we found in this game is we're able to roll very, very consistently under seven.
It's just a matter of concentration.
Alma, you heft the law speaker onto your shoulder.
You find your way padding around the edge of the room, avoiding any weak spots.
And you make your way back onto the roof without triggering any collapse.
The moaning corpses behind you are left in your wake.
However, you have not yet found the two bear cubs.
OK, so I'm going to bring Krapti to them.
Here you go. There's some dead that aren't quite dead anymore, but they're strapped down.
So I think we're fine. We need to find the bear cubs. Bear cubs?
Are they in there?
They have to be in here.
Can you smell them?
Do I? I'm going to take a big old whiff.
The stench of the desiccated corpses is unfortunately blocking any ability to use your olfactory skills to any heightened degree.
Meanwhile, the cable car lurches along the steel frame.
I'm going to go back in. I'll howl if anything goes wrong.
I don't think you should go alone.
Up to it then.
I'll jump down in.
I'm going to let Annina off any further sleight rolls as she has charted her path across.
But, Taylor, could you give me a slight roll for coal?
Before I jump in, can I use Dream Sight to anticipate where the floor might collapse underneath me?
In this podcast, we like to ignore all of our abilities like Dream Sight and not use them.
So can you stop showing Bill up?
I can try, but I don't want to.
Bill likes to keep them as jewelry.
I've got it. Trophies. Gigi, you've got the medals. I've got spells that I could have used, but yeah.
Your ability to peer into the near future, like precognition, that's the word, are able to dance across the floor and avoid any of the structural faults.
Two of you now stand in what must be close to the center of the observatory.
And you are actually, if you skirt past the mortuary with the corpses, you can see a laboratory.
And in the laboratory are two cubs in barren cages, perhaps awaiting vivisection.
One of them is lying on the cement floor in the cage, the other is turning in circles, pacing back and forth.
They cower at your approach. Each of them has a metal collar on their neck.
What does the locking mechanism look like for the cage?
It should be breakable.
There's not like a handy hook on the wall with a key on it?
There is. You look around and clearly the guards, the technicians have left the key easily accessible should they wish to access these bear cubs.
And you can unlock the doors quite easily.
You have successfully retrieved the two bear cubs who are cradled in your arms, one each.
And you can bring them back out of the back of the building without attracting any attention.
Meanwhile, the cable car continues its inexorable rise.
Gigi's ready.
He's got three grenades. As soon as that door opens, he's tossing them in.
Where's the third one? I'm kind of scared to ask.
Juggling, juggling.
Yeah.
Are you really juggling grenades?
I will be.
Are you really asking Gigi that question?
I told you, enthralling performance.
Memorable.
I think that that's a fair enough response, actually, for you, Gigi.
So as the cable car alights, they look out at your juggling and they are indeed enthralled.
They cannot believe that a member of their unit, wearing their self-same overalls and uniform,
is standing on the roof juggling with such skill and grace.
And they all, rather than jumping straight out and heading to the observatory door,
they all stand mouths agape in the doorway to the cable car.
I'm going to actually juggle some dice here.
And then he's going to go, I'm enjoying the show.
And then, by the way, these are all live, so just kind of one by one.
One, two, three.
Let the games begin.
What type of grenades were they?
The ones from the armory.
It's a good old fashioned incendiary grenades.
Yes. Go boom.
Each of those is two dice six, I think.
Get prepared to give me a whole bunch of rolling.
What kind of roll to aim the grenades correctly?
Because remember, Gigi's not the best at throwing.
You need to make a sleight challenge roll for each of those grenades, please.
Oh, goodness.
You got this.
OK.
All right.
Yes.
15, 16 and 19.
All right.
Nice.
Then in quick succession, you lob those grenades.
And I'm going to assume that in order to speed their departure,
you're going to use your shape-strong gift to give you the ability to have that extra action.
And so, you know, your arms whirl like Starkad of old, and you hurl those grenades.
Each of them is going to explode and release their fiery substance in a dice six plus three yard radius.
We'll say that encompasses the whole doorway.
Everything in there is going to take two dice six damage per grenade.
So give me six dice six, please.
In the meantime, smoke issues from each of the burning substances
and shroud the cable car in thick, dense smoke.
Oh, 17 total.
They know we're here.
They certainly do know you are here.
Steve, have you got any kind of suitable thunder god spells that you might want to unleash to finish the job?
Yes, I think we should.
I'd like to aim Storm Seat, assuming I can see what's going on.
I think a little or a very big lightning bolt in the area would be just the trick.
So that would be three six plus five damage to everything within presumed points.
You have a point on the ground.
Yeah, I just have to be outside.
This is going to work.
You summon an electrical surge from the night sky that strikes the cable car, jolting the entire structure.
Bolts of lightning fly from the sky and everything sparks.
And the smell of ozone hangs richly in the air.
OK, roll your damage.
I did. It was disgraceful.
It was nine points of damage and they each each make a might challenge roll with one woe.
If they fail it, they are deafened for an hour.
Between the three incendiary grenades and the bolt of lightning from the heavens, the cable car careens off its cable
and starts to shudder and fall below with the deafened soldiers within wailing and screaming, howling as they plummet back to Earth.
Taylor, is there a reason why you're doing an impression of me and holding your head?
Yeah, because I'm imagining Kol and Alma inside just hearing like three explosions followed by a crack of thunder
followed by the screams of men hurtling to their death back down to the barracks.
And yeah, I'm probably just turning to Alma with a look that says, this is kind of your fault for bringing these guys.
I think Alma would just cover the eyes of the little bear cubs.
The sirens that begin to wail across the barracks and echo out over the fjord are deafening.
I think I had a comment earlier about doorbells and ringing them and yeah.
Can we get that ship back? Like now?
Now would be great.
And I think we should use our guns to shoot the ship that's sitting on the runway before we leave
unless we just vanish with the thought and memory drive.
Are we back up on the roof now at this point with the bear cubs?
The two of you can clamber to the roof, but Kol you'll be able to climb up first
and Annina, Alma is going to have to remain behind and pass the bear cubs up.
The firemen's lift up, yep.
It's at that moment that with an earth quaking rumble below, the sleek North ship roars into life.
It abruptly rockets into the sky, ascending into the atmosphere with fearsome speed
and then pivoting in a smooth calculated arc, the ship aligns its trajectory towards you,
its intimidating array of precisely calibrated guns glinting ominously.
I did say.
I think we all knew it would end here.
Hey, but our ship's ready to pick us up right now though, right?
Yep, the Falkr is lurking covered with snow to be as undetectable as an ísbjörn den,
buying you some time before it flits away.
It could come and collect you, where you to send a flare up and then power up thought and memory drive,
but the very act of using the oblivion link takes a minute to power up, creating the requisite magnetic field.
And first of all, you have to actually get aboard your ship.
Are we assuming it kind of parked on the far side of the mountain that we were originally going to escape from?
Yeah, okay.
The good news is that the observatory on the mountaintop acts as a barrier,
at least a visibility between the enemy ship and yours.
Anyone got any sleds?
Could I carve wave runes and then turn the shield upside down?
And we could ride in it?
No, because it's kind of an immobile protective barrier.
It's a kind of force field, not necessarily something you can ride.
Certainly not down there on mountaintop.
Now are we in two groups at this point because Gigi and Steve go off to the cable car and now it's on the roof?
It's on the roof, okay.
You're on different parts of the roof.
Alma and Kol, you are on the north side.
The other three on the south side.
And Eir, you were going to do something to revive your stalwart friend, the Lawspeaker.
Ljomi was, I think.
Yes, yes, yes.
I'm going to cast the Yggdrasil's gift, I think should do the trick.
So, Ljomi, you reach out a leafy branch and caress the Lawspeaker back to consciousness.
Holy crapti, it worked.
I'm going to keep hitting that joke till it works.
Thorfredsen is very relieved to see and he embraces you like a bosom chum and is profuse in his thanks for his rescue.
Excellent.
You're safe.
Am I?
Because it does appear that we are on top of a roof in the middle of New Koenugardr
Well, by our measures, you're safe.
I presume you do have an escape mechanism for us all.
Sure, yes, absolutely.
Any moment now.
Just waiting on these other fine fellows to work out the tiny little details.
I have much to share with you, my friends.
Let us do so in the comfort of safety.
Alma's going to try and join the rest of the group.
Mm-hmm, let's all join up.
The only challenge with that, Alma, is that the searchlights on the incoming vessel are trained directly on you.
OK.
She does the freeze.
If I don't move, he can't see me during the whole thing.
You can certainly use your duck and cover to quickly retreat and hide, but it would mean going back into the building.
Deepfake? Can I use Deepfake? That's hide.
You can, give it a roll.
OK, it's with one weal.
Remember not to look at the dice, too.
Just enough so I don't miss the dice tray.
There you go.
That was...
Oh dear.
That's sounding excellent.
For such a stealthy wolf's head and assassin, that's not the best of rolls.
No.
From where I'm standing, I can see that the searchlights are on her, right?
Because I'm right in front of it.
The ship is effectively using its searchlights to scan the building, and you can hear the excited chatter of a communicator go off in the office below.
And hectic commentary muffled by the building's framework.
You can still hear that there's clearly some kind of interchange between the ship and the custodians within.
Can I use Guardian Tree on Alma?
Oh, thank you.
Unfortunately not, because she's now effectively just immediately below you, having tried to find.
She's in that storage room below, and you are on the roof above, holding the two bear cubs.
Take the cubs.
I'll be fine.
The challenge we're having is we're all stuck on a roof, and we're waiting for pickup.
If we shoot a flare, the ship's going to shoot us.
It feels that way.
So Gigi's going to carve wave rooms into the roof to protect everybody.
That means we can shoot out, but they can't shoot in.
Somebody needs to shoot a flare to signal the ship, and it's got a minute to pick us up, and then we run like hell.
Takes a minute to fire up, yeah, okay.
I guess I'd pull a flare out. I imagine as a ship captain I would have a flare.
We have one.
She can have one of ours.
Okay.
Ljomi is down to 76 flares.
That's disgusting.
We've got it.
You're a flare trust one, baby. Got it.
Yeah.
Well, one time we needed one, and we didn't have one.
Just one.
It went quite badly.
So yeah.
It's like Lockpicks in Skyrim. Got it.
Gigi, you etch the runes into the roof, creating a protective barrier against the fearsome and menacing dragon guns
and howling dogs that bristle from the Norse ship that looms just beyond the observatory.
And you feel quite secure that you are protected, and you may, if you wish, fire your own volleys back against the ship.
How far does a shaker shoot? A shaker that would have been acquired in our armory.
You have up to extreme range with that, so you could certainly blast away.
This thing is not quite within touching distance, but you could even run at it with Bear Paw and strike it a blow.
You would have to jump, but it's that kind of distance.
Right. That would be really cool.
Very much in your milieu.
Could the ship be considered a creature that could climb on it and put it at disadvantage?
No.
But you tried this angle already.
I could climb on it? Gigi is going to draw Bear Paw and charge at this thing and jump on it.
That's so crazy.
Don't wait up for me!
Err would like to fire a gandfly at the searchlight because it doesn't have to roll to hit.
I feel like we're hitting our stride. I have an idea, guys.
We should start the whole thing again from the beginning. We know what we're doing.
Why?
We've done that, and that worked.
Just in case. Just in case.
Like, all the way back to the very beginning.
So if that works, then that would be two points of damage to the searchlight.
Your gandfly plinks against the glass of the searchlight.
It doesn't reach the bulb and perhaps scratches the surface.
Negligible impact.
Meanwhile, a bit like that scene from Doctor Strangelove, Gigi is riding the ship and presumably waving him.
Waving his hat with wild abandon as it does pirouettes off into the night sky again in this kind of smooth, calculated arc taking you with it.
The protective runes that you carved in the rooftop remain behind, protecting your comrades while you wheel off into the night.
Oh, yeah. That's fine.
I'm trying to open the cockpit like an oyster with Bear Paw.
I get the kind of, you know, using the ornate heirloom sword as a can opener.
And you can still hear him in the distance shouting.
The dragon gun rains on the observatory and some of you are protected by the wave runes, which encompasses a large chunk, but the building itself and the whole edifice shudders as it takes a colossal amount of damage.
Explodes in bright white light.
You find yourself still protected by the wave runes, but standing in a smoking charred ruin.
And loving it
So far so good.
Give me a sleight roll Gigi with five points.
Just subtract six.
Just subtract six..
No, not yet.
Total 12.
Okay, you may have to hold on with one hand, tautly gripping the ship's carapace, trying to hang on for dear life as it tries to shake you loose.
It rockets higher into the atmosphere.
Is the building still standing or?
Charred remnants of it are.
It was hit by a dragon gun shell.
While you were fortunately protected by those wave runes, you can see bits of charred paper smoldering wood within an instant the whole thing was demolished around you.
So are we just Looney Tunes style floating in the air, supported by the runes?
No, you kind of descended a little bit too to be part of the rubble, because wave runes doesn't give you levitation.
But you were it not for that, you would have suffered significant damage.
Flare has done the job of alerting Ragny and your crew to bring the Falkr to start its engines and it is using its thrusters to emerge from the ice and power towards you.
It will within a few minutes give you a platform on which to alight.
Can we see Gigi at this point?
You can see a rapidly vanishing ship ascending into the heavens with a bulky figure in peacock finery fluttering around him as he ascends ever higher into the thinning atmosphere.
Can we hear the echo of his shouts of glee?
They echo off the mountains.
I was waiting for the ship to come back down because you'd hear him fighting with it.
What would he need to roll in order to crack that thing open and come into the ship?
It's made of ironwood, that miracle material.
Don't start thinking small.
But there's a chance, right?
It's made of what? Ironwood, you said?
Made of ironwood, the kind of impervious material that enables these ships to traverse the Ginnungagap .
So like a natural 20, then?
You need 32 woes, C.J.
Yeah, that wouldn't work.
They can't breathe in space either.
Ljomi looks sadly up into the sky and says, what will we ever do without the giant to run blindly and first?
I will wave to C.J.
Possibly obvious question, but if the building's gone, I'm assuming Alma's gone too.
Oh.
It is impossible to tell where Alma is.
She remained behind, hiding in the building below.
It may well be that she is trapped in the rubble.
It may well be that she has been blasted to smithereens.
Only time will tell.
I think I would turn to the rest of the group and say, she told us to get out of here.
If she survived that, she will be able to find us.
We need to leave now.
Yes, absolutely.
Yes, let's get the big man and go get him some breakfast.
That's what we usually do in these situations.
With a thunderous ripple in the fabric of space time, another void ship materializes, pulsating with energy that slowly dissipates into the night sky.
A monolithic entity, a vessel that has cut through the cosmos like a seafarer through the northern seas.
You are now faced with two ships against your Falkir.
I thought it was our ship.
No, there's no way it was our ship.
Yeah, time to go.
Eir, jump on the other one.
Steve, Taylor and Bill, if you can all give me a slight roll.
Ragny, the pilot, positions the falcon close enough for you to be able to leap into the extravehicular pool.
And there are crew members on hand to try and hoist you aboard should you fail.
I rolled a 10 plus two, so I got a 12.
Okay, so like you said, I'm going to use Boon to roll twice and take the best.
I think that's 14.
And I'm also 14.
Okay, the trio of alpha either reach their leafy limbs or their stony appendages and clamber aboard the extravehicular pool.
The bear cubs tossed ahead of you, Krapti, holds desperately onto Ljomi's long roots and hauls himself up and over the top of you, breathing a sigh of relief that he has made it to safety.
Ragny then looks for instructions from you, Kol.
I would take just a beat to look at the other two and then I turn and say, get us out of here now.
She says to you, to be clear, I'm activating thought and memory drive and flitting to safety.
We have to get the lunatic.
Yeah, how close is that ship?
The new arrival, a Drakkar, is incredibly close.
And like I said, it has an impressive arsenal.
It's the Imperial fleet's finest.
And you have, after all, just invaded their military base.
Let's not quibble over who invaded who.
Oh, you guys can see me?
He'll be fine.
Has a dimly receding figure entering the atmosphere.
I'm still stabbing at it.
Open up, you tin can.
I've ridden wild boars with more gusto than you.
Kol, such is the weight of command.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
You will have to give the order to flit into orbit.
Make it so.
Flit.
The ship vanishes in a thick sea of black mystery.
And you suddenly find yourself gazing at the immensity of stars above a blue and white sparkling jewel, a delicate sky blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white.
You realize you are high in orbit, high above Mother Jord.
Are we still seeing?
Are we now above it?
I think it's coming towards us.
Jump, Gigi.
Yes, fly, my friends.
And remember, Gryotgarth, the magnificent in the Skalds song, the madman who laughed in the face of death.
The Vikings and Valkyries podcast is hammered together by a dedicated team of Skalds and Smiths.
Please don't forget to like, share and sacrifice to the old gods.
The rubble moves around.
And first one paw comes out, then another one.
And then it shakes off.
She shakes off rubble and debris.
We did it.
Guys.
Guys?
They did it again...