The Ginngugagap, the Yawning Void. These are the voyages of the Stjornuskip Falkir, its
continuing mission to explore the Nine Homeworlds to seek out Old Gods and new mysteries. Welcome
to episode 16 of the Vikings and Valkyries podcast, going boldly where no one has gone
before are Thilde, Steve, Bill, CJ and Taylor. Welcome to you, Benchwarmers.
Hi.
You can't prove a thing.
Hi, thanks for having us.
Well, Thilde, thank you for staying up into the wee small hours to join us. We are delighted
to have you as the pilot Ragny aboard the podcast today. And just by way of introductions,
Thilde Kold Holt is the author of the Hanged God trilogy of novels, which includes Northern
Wrath, Shackled Fates and Slaughtered Gods. So Thilde, the question for you is, you clearly
are no stranger to Ragnarok. What are your perspectives on the past few episodes and how these guys
are single-handedly destroying the universe?
I think that they're in for a surprise and they have no idea what's ahead. So we will
see. We will see. It's looking slightly dire.
Don't you write a chapter from the point of view of Muninn, one of Odin's ravens?
I do indeed.
Can you tell us a little bit about that? Because that's a fascinating perspective, especially
considering that these guys have found the raven skull.
Yes. So Muninn is one of the two ravens that follow Odin, the Allfather, around. And Muninn
is in charge of memory, whereas Huginn is thought. And the way that I see it, Muninn remembers
everything that goes on in the universe. So we'll see if that's true in the Vikingverse
as well.
Let's hope he doesn't hold grudge. Now, one of the reasons I was keen to get you onto
this particular episode is in addition to writing your epic Norse series, you've also
sailed a reconstructed Viking ship, the Sea Stallion. You've become part of that crew
for many years. What was the best and worst part of being a Viking sailor?
I think the best and worst are probably the same. It's that there is no privacy whatsoever
in a white warship. So if you're out to sea for a week, everyone smells the same and it's
not very pleasant. If it rains, you get wet. If it's sunny, you get sunburned. And that's
just the way of it. There is no indoors. There is no privacy. Even when you go to the bathroom,
there is nowhere to be on your own.
Well, let's hope again that it's not quite the same on the Falkir and that they give
you some privacy when you go to the bathroom. It's interesting because as you've obviously
written your book, Steve as well is the author of a series of books about spaceships. So
hopefully between the two of you, we're going to expect great things. You should know how
to sail this Falkr.
It should work out.
Yeah, I think your expectations, while low, are still far too high. We're going to reach
rock bottom and then we're going to show you how to dig.
Perhaps we can channel CJ because having read CJ's latest, I'm fairly sure that Hasteinn
sank a couple of ships.
I mean, he goes through ships like socks. He's a very powerful warlord, so he's, you
know, ships and people are expendable.
Right. Let's go straight on to the question for this week for your inspiration points.
So we're playing the second part of the Scar in the Sky adventure. The question I have
for you today to earn that inspiration point is suitably nautical. And don't worry, Bill,
I'm not going to just...
Rooster.
Can you as a collective name me five types of Viking ship, but list them in the order
of the number of ores that they boast?
Okay. Skuldelev one, three, two, four, and five.
All of the reconstructions at the Roskilde Museum.
Oh, is it? Is that the... Oh, shoot. I got backwards.
Yes, it is. That's the reconstruction that I sailed, so I should know that one.
Two should have been later, yeah.
Longship would probably be the longest one. We also have the Knar, which would be a freighter
ship.
Is that right?
There's the longship and then the not-quite-too-longship, and then the somewhat shorter ship.
I was thinking that, Steve. Yeah, exactly.
There's a Snekkja, which I think is 15 ores or something like that. So there's also the
snook, which I think is smaller than the Snekkia. Is it the fishing ship?
Yeah, that's the smallest one, I think. Or is there one that's smaller as well? I don't
know what it's called.
Isn't drakkar... That's the French word for longship, so I'm always suspicious of that
one. I feel like that's a French word. But is that one of the...
It's not technically a Norse word.
Right. So I don't think that counts in our classification. So how many do we have right
now? We want five, right?
Longship, Snekkja, Knarr, and we have three. Four.
And then there's the mythical Harald Hårfagr, the reconstruction of the mythical ship. That
I think should count because it's in a class of its own, and it's massive and huge.
And it's called Long One.
And it's sailed to New York. And it's called the Long One, right?
So in order, I would say that you would have a Bearding, which is a kind of rowboat. And
then you would move on to the Knorr. The types of longships would be the Karve, the Snekkja,
the Skeid, and the Dreki. I think between you all, you've earned your inspiration point.
It will be something to put as a feather in your cap. Not a raven's feather, I should
say. But you should make sure to remember to use it because there are going to be a
lot of dice rolls ahead.
Haven't we always remembered to use it? That's my sense is that we've been really excellent
while using all that inspiration.
Yeah, my understanding is you three in particular have a masterful grasp of the mechanics of
the game. It's just been flawless. It's fantastic.
Absolutely. I could tell how impressed Taylor was last week. And that's why he's back, I
figure. This is a stellar performance.
Staggering irony of being called the Thought and Memory Campaign is that everyone can remember
what happened last week.
Very little of either. Yeah.
Cognitive Decline Campaign just doesn't sound right.
Let us begin our adventure on the Falkr, the storied vessel that you have salvaged
and sailed into orbit. You have been recently rescued, whisked to safety by the quick thinking
and superb piloting of Ragny. As you return to the Raven's Nest with the law speaker
and the two bear cubs in tow, you can take a moment to catch your breath and to thank
her.
Well piloted. That was close timing.
Thank you.
I don't think I can take a breath because I'm in the vacuum.
You're holding yours.
Yeah. I think we should do something about the giant, the giant that's riding the other
ship in a way.
Yeah, that is true. And as an aside and perhaps a little insight into the way the podcast
is run for the people at home, for our listener, we did have a little bit of a debate about
whether and how we could restore CJ to his rightful place in the podcast, having him
jetting off into the atmosphere was an unenviable way to realign the narrative. So, Bill, what
did we decide?
We're going to make use of the Raven's Nest, initiate a time loop and get in the way of
Gigi just before he commits the bravest and most foolish act of his unbelievably long
life given his approach to the world.
In his defense, he is trying to maintain an honor plus nine.
Right, right. Right. And I think the other thing that's at play here is the more he mentions
coming in second at the tug of war, it seems to be hitting less well. So he needed, he
needs something like, I'm the guy who rode a spaceship of the atmosphere, you know.
So we will allow the Raven skull to turn back time for you to perhaps trip up Gigi by tying
his shoelaces at a critical moment. And so when Thilde as Ragny swoops down in the Falkr
to present you with an escape hatch that you can clamber onto, it's actually all of
you that managed to do so, with the exception of poor Alma, who is left behind in the rubble.
But all of the rest of you are able to clamber into the Raven's Nest as if the episode of
attacking the enemy carver with an heirloom sword didn't happen. Heroic as it was.
Let's just take a moment to introduce Ragny. She's piloted a ship with great skill over
the past episode and given you guidance. But now Thilde is here to really showcase her skills.
Thilde, what do, what do they see when they look at Ragny?
You'll probably see a very familiar face, an ageless face and a lot of tech because
Ragny is a daughter of Ivaldi. She is in her thirties, just about, and she is wearing
grey robes. And just in case anyone had any reservations or compunctions about sailing
with a daughter of Ivaldi, Gigi, I'm going to let you into it for a little bit of insight
here because you notice that she is shadowed by a swan-like spirit, her animal alter ego
or fylga. Now, with your high honor and your sense enemy's talent, you will start to get
these occasional glimpses of these otherwise invisible guardian spirits. But this swan-like
fylgja represents to you the fact that she is an honorable and noble spirit.
I mean, it is Gigi, so he notices, he goes, oh, that's interesting. And then, you know,
that's, you know, he's still thinking about not breathing in space.
Glad you came back for me. You love me. You really love me.
You're on board now with the Law Speaker, Krapti Thorfridsen, who again profusely thanks you for
his rescue and says, my friends, I am so glad that you have rescued me. I must now convince you to
complete your mission for all of the time that you were away in Kongstein. I was keeping an eye on
that rippling red cross in the sky. I have hacked the Firefox Institute's database to validate my
theories. And it's that for being that nosy parker that they then arrested me and took me all the
way to New Koenugard. Outrageous to lay hands on the town's Law Speaker. However, my friends, the
data I found conclusively proves that the cross is not the Northern Lights. And more to the point,
the Winterwise have been discussing Dagaz points and Tipler cylinders and Lorens
manifolds. It's time travel. And there you see you use that device yourself to change time. I swear
I saw the jarl ride off on a star chariot, but here he is. We must investigate the glowing scar
in the sky. You have the Falkyr. What better opportunity than to probe it up close? To be
within touching distance of this rent in existence. Captain Kol, do you not think will you not take
your ship to the anomaly? Yes, to the stars and beyond will make the impossible possible.
That's a good one. You should keep that one. I like that one. You would have me risk my metal
comets on an adventure of such danger. To what end? Look, it's quite simple, isn't it? My Lord
Kol, when you first flew the Valkyr during the cleansing of Utgard under Marshall Thunder, you
were among the first to use thought and memory drive, were you not? I understand that war is the
father of invention, but have you not wondered how it came to be at the very same time as you hold
the skull of Muninn in one hand? What do you think the Allfather will say when he realizes you have
captured and killed one of his spies? Indeed, indeed. If answers are to be found there, I suppose
it would be worth a little bit of an adventure. What say you, friends? They killed Oldunger,
my only true friend. They destroyed the Temple of the Bear. I need to pay. So if I get a vote,
I can tell you that while I was waiting for you all to kind of get on with it, I was looking into
the ship computer and there are a few anomalies. The first thing that I noticed is that the scar
in the sky, it looks like a thought memory incision point, but it's still here, even though
an incision point like that should have disappeared within hours. And when I looked into the ship's
computer, it looks like the Falkr arrived on the same day as the scar, months ago. I can't see
anything before then. Nothing is making sense before then, though there's definitely something
going on and I think it's an opportunity to go and have a look. Did we not all discover that at
the very instant the scar loomed above our heads in the sky, that the dead began to return to life?
There is a thread at work here and I urge you to investigate. Who is behind this? Who benefits?
That is what you must ask, my friends. Real quick, Ian, how far back does Kol and
Ragny's experience go together? I think you have a long-standing acquaintance.
You've worked together across many ships. However, back in the cleansing of Utgard during the
Jotun War under Marshall Thunder, that was probably a little bit before her time and so she's
not as familiar as the Falkir as you. And again, just to restate for the record, the Falkir as
far as you're concerned disappeared in the Doom in the Swordfall five years ago, destroyed at
Mimisbrunner by a cataclysmic supernova, the equivalent of Surt's sword falling. According to
what Thilde has just told you there, the ship has reappeared. Around the time of the first adventure,
nobody dies in Hjalpmakaar when at least some of the group were off escorting Bjarne Bjarnesson to
the Trolls Tongue
Or parts thereof.
So Master Kol, I have a question. You are familiar with this ship.
You speak as if you served on it before long ago.
How long ago was that?
Well, the last time I saw this ship in its ironwood glory was, well, nigh five years ago and
never thought to look upon her again.
You thought her destroyed?
I thought her destroyed. I was quite certain destroyed in the cataclysms.
What if the ship came here instead and the ship caused the scar in the sky?
Can a ship like this travel through time, even unintentionally?
I suppose it's possible.
Thought and memory are always...
They definitely connect as they arrive at the same time.
Aye, yeah.
The timing is too much of a coincidence to not have some importance.
I would hazard a guess that the two are related, however, if it jumped five years in the future,
as we perceive it, or if it has been lost for five years and now chooses this time to
reappear, I cannot say.
But we must find out what the connection is between the scar and the reappearance of
the ship.
Gigi has, over the past couple of episodes, been quite astute in pointing out that the
Orcneas had parachuted from the ship and certainly he tussled with one of the faceless, the
leader of the Orcneas in a previous episode as well.
And so you might be able to put some of those facts together in a convincing timeline.
Pray tell, what was the circumstances upon you discovering the ship before we met you?
We found it in the snow, well, where it was when you found us.
Before we arrived, it appeared to have been populated by Orcneas, who I think they'd been
on the ship for some time.
They'd redecorated it according to their preferences.
Are you saying the Orcneas commandeered the ship or used the ship themselves before crash
landing?
We believe they jumped from it.
They came from the sky.
On top of us.
Yeah.
A couple of times.
Three times?
Four times?
Yes, quite a lot.
Repeatedly.
The one who took a rubber ducky to the face looked absolutely surprised.
So, yes, they were using it.
I wonder, do you know any more of their attack, of what their mission was with the ship before
arriving here?
They said hello with bullets.
It seemed to be they wished to kill.
There's been a lot of killing I need to pay.
Just to remind you that you are in orbit within a planetary system.
Norse vessels use the reflective outer leaves as a kind of organic solar sails.
The light from Sol would exhort a force on the leaves.
It's akin to a sail being blown by the wind.
And whilst within atmosphere, they will use thrusters to maneuver the ship.
Especially while docking or mooring when you're in orbit here.
And if you want to traverse the several hundred kilometers to the scar in the sky that hangs
in orbit, then you need to unfurl your sails, each about 30 yards long, and glide.
You might consider carrying up thought and memory drive.
But just a reminder that it is a spell and Ragny has actually used it twice, once to
rescue the law speaker and then once to rescue you.
So her skills are going to be reliant on thrusters and good old fashioned sails.
Or should I say newfangled sailing, since I'm sure Thilde, whilst you've wrestled with sea
spray and sails, you haven't wrangled a solar sail before.
Would be my first.
Perhaps the last, we'll see, depends if it's going to sound.
So back to the Orcneas, the sons of Ivaldi, the Institute, seem to know everything there
was to know about them.
They swore us to secrecy, even though we know nothing.
But since we have one of them here, over there, she looks quite nice, trustworthy.
Perhaps she can clue us in as to what the Institute knows about why the Orcneas had
this ship and why they decided to target us.
I mean, I'm quite the target and I can understand, but why so specifically?
And why kill all my friends?
And Krapti also was looking in the Institute's files, so perhaps he knows something
specifically.
Does Ragny know anything specifically about the Institute, apart from what our fellow
child is now?
I think to be fair to Thilde, you know, she's been in imperial service and there is a
distinction between the Empire forces and the sons of Ivaldi, but she has been
diligently doing her job in the post-war reclamation and is perhaps the equivalent of
the good German as opposed to an evil baddie.
The law speaker, Krapti, does chime in though, and he says, I was focused very much on
the insights into the Scar in the Sky.
I do not know what they were keeping in Sokkvabekkr
That remains top secret and beyond my ability to decrypt.
I have noticed, though, that you have both dogs and bears on board.
Dogs and bears living together is a mass hysteria.
It's a big twinkie.
If you excuse me, I must go and lie down.
The exertion of the past few days has rather addled my brain.
Is there somewhere where I might find quarters and rest for a moment?
Indeed, you may find birthing in the crew quarters.
Oh, well, thank you.
I will take my leave and a little slumber and I will be right as rain.
We should investigate the Scar.
We should set sail.
Sounds like answers are to be found there.
Very well. Let us set sail.
Let us chart a course for the Scar in the Sky.
Let's hope there are answers to be found there that don't cost too much in blood.
When we get there, perhaps Gigi can leap into it and see what he might discover.
The only limits are the ones we refuse to push past.
The only thing I'm going to suggest this time is perhaps use a bungee cord first so that someone can pull you back.
That's a lack of commitment. That's what that is.
I can't see Gigi going for it.
You can imagine the scene now as you all stand in the Raven's Nest, the bridge of the Falkr with Ragny at the helm,
the solar sails are unfurled and they glisten as they catch the rays of sun and plough you inextricably towards the glowing scar in the sky.
As you grow closer towards it, you see it really is like a tear in fabric.
It's as if the void itself has been rent asunder and is indeed a thought and memory incision point where a ship materialised from another area,
which are common, but it should have healed many months ago.
But it is still there, exuding this malevolent light.
However, as soon as you are all looking out of the hollows at that glowing, coruscating rift, you see two carvers immediately flit to either side of your ship.
And you hear the comms crackle with the following.
You have entered prohibited space, stow your sails and prepare for boarding.
Tweaky, we have a problem.
Captain, should I follow up the sails?
Hold one moment.
Air is going to hold on to something.
He anticipates trouble.
And you know, Steve, that is a very good point, because one thing to emphasise here is that you are in microgravity.
So this is an environment where you are able to stomp around.
This is much more like the International Space Station rather than the Enterprise.
And you do need to use handholds to propel and manoeuvre yourself around.
You get the sense of weakness, but it really is microgravity.
And that will affect your movement, whether you will slam into a bulkhead if something goes awry.
Just bear that in mind.
The normal laws of earthbound physics or mid-guard based physics are not in play here.
Well, if it affects our aim, it will probably be for the better.
Just as a point of clarification, the process of raising and lowering the sails, is that simply a mechanical operation that Ragny does with the button?
Or does it require the crew to execute on a historical ship?
Much more like a historical ship.
It is not just a case of pressing a button.
It is a much more labour intensive process of effectively winching them in.
It is a combination of the two, but not just as simple as pressing the open the door button.
Copy.
So Cole will walk up and just kind of lean down next to Ragny and say, slowly begin to retract the sails, but do it in a very unprofessional and sloppy way.
Keep it drawn out.
We don't want to do it too fast or too efficiently.
We might need to jettison out of here quite quickly.
Keep us moving forward on light thrusters until I give the word.
Perfect. Can I come with a suggestion?
Perhaps we might turn the sails back and forth as they used to do on the old ships in order to just slow down.
So we're not going fast.
It looks like we're taking the sails down, but we're not going to do it.
We're just going to slowly shift back and forth from starboard to port in order to slow our speed.
Make it so. And then he's going to go up to the comms and hail the ship that hailed back.
Greetings.
Which restricted space have we strayed into?
Forgive me.
The crew of the opposing carver merely reiterates their statement.
Stow your sails and prepare for boarding.
I see they're not going to play nice.
Perhaps I can try.
Gigi goes over to the to the mic and pushes the button.
Hello, enemy ship. We are transporting a very important person.
It's a top secret endeavor. Do not pursue.
We have permission to sail through here.
Bugger off. What do you think?
Worth a try?
There is a brief and hopeful silence before each carver begins to turn their dragon guns
and howling dogs to target lock on the falcon.
Eir holds on tighter.
I suggest those who do not know how to operate a dragon gun strap up at this point.
It might get bumpy.
Now, one of the good things about Thilde joining is not only like most of our guests,
that she brought a kind of level of expertise to this,
but her character Ragny has also got a couple of traits that improve the maneuverability
and the durability of this ship.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
So for Star Chariot, my shipmates will make rolls to maneuver with one wheel.
That might be useful in this situation.
Or great ship might be even better because that reinforces our ship hull by 25%.
Both will be valuable.
So, against cannons, that might be it.
And we're going to test that now as the Sons of Ivaldi carvers without any hesitation,
unleash their dragon guns.
They blast with shells and their howling dogs, which were equivalent of point defense guns
or machine guns, also begin to blaze a barrage out into the yawning void.
And the ironwood hull of the Falkyr is peppered with shrapnel.
Thilde, let's do your first roll of the evening because you are able to perform some maneuvers
in order to potentially dodge these incoming munitions.
So what I'm going to ask you to do is to avoid the dragon gun, roll a dice 20,
add two, which is your slight modifier, and then roll a dice six and subtract that from the roll.
Okay, we're at 10.
Very good.
And give me one more of exactly that scenario.
Same.
Okay.
13.
Splendid.
Well, whilst the dragon guns of the opposing carvers fire their shells to try and penetrate
your thick ironwood hull, you maneuver very quickly with your sails.
And in both cases, you avoid the barrage.
Perhaps with a tight spin, the shells sail off into the Ginnungagap.
What range are the enemy ships at at this point?
Close.
Close, okay.
You can jump on them, Gigi
He's thinking that.
He's like, how do I get into one of these?
Wasn't there a way that it's possible, right?
One of the ways in which these Norse ships engage beyond these kind of slug fests,
because the shells are so impervious, is to launch whirlers, the drop ships that I've talked about.
So effectively, you take a whirler and you punch through the armor of the ship in a boarding action.
Generally speaking, you've done so whilst you've got that ship controlled and grappled
using something called a fang, which is effectively a kind of hydraulic arm to hold an
opposing ship in place.
But it really does mirror those ancient Viking Age battles.
This is not a duel of modern battleships with lasers.
This is a slug fest between ships coming into close range and trying to
batter each other into submission before a boarding action is launched.
So Gigi will wait.
How many people does a whirler hold?
Generally speaking, three.
Or just Gigi.
Do we have a fang on the Falkr here?
Because I know the snake, but I don't see it on the map.
You do not have a fang.
They tend to be reserved for the larger kind of dreadnought capital ships like the Dreki, the drakkar.
Copy.
Should we just dash for the scar, ignore these ships and make our move?
That would probably be wisest.
We have no means to grapple with the enemy and board them in a good way.
I think the best thing would be to press forward.
Okay, I'm going to release the sails completely then and we're just going to go for it.
Release the sails and then I would recommend, when you're able to make a maneuver, to do a dead run
and see if we can shoot past them.
And if we just keep flying as fast as we can past them, we can have the crew man our dragon guns
and potentially take the fight back to them to either slow them down or just let them go.
Either slow them down or keep them at least off our tail.
Tell me about how you're going to arrange your crew then, Taylor.
Are you going to send anyone to any particular station?
For example, is Gigi off to repel boarders at the dragon guns?
Is Steve off to the mess hall to prepare a light lunch?
No, I'm interested.
Doesn't mean you can't contribute to the cooking.
Big lump of stone.
This is 500 years since I made a sandwich.
Having little knowledge of our new companion's skill on a spaceship, I would guess that Gigi has
the most combat experience from what I saw down on the planet.
So perhaps you would like to man a dragon gun with one of our crews to assist you.
He's always shooting.
It seems an apt place.
I would then say maybe two other of the Falkir's crew would take the other gun and at least have
one crewman.
It could be probably another Falkir crew member stationed in the workshop preparing any repair
needs we need and on standby.
Everyone else would most likely be best served finding a place away from high impact zones of damage.
To buckle in and prepare for some hopefully pretty extreme G-Force if we can execute this
dead run correctly.
I will go to the sick bay in case anyone needs.
Wonderful.
And whilst that is a valid place being, Bill as a healer, just a reminder that in the previous
episode, Ragny had requested your assistance as pilot because the Falkr crewman was a bit
scared because the Raven skull was apparently a boon to her thought and memory escapade.
Right.
So what I meant to say is once we've finished maneuvering, I will go to the sick bay.
Well, that means by all means ask, because now that she's actually met you, she might
just say, no, I don't go.
Yeah.
No.
No, please stay close with the skull.
I mean, you can leave the skull and go if you prefer.
I stay with the skull, I think.
We must make them pay.
The dragon gun sounds fun.
This is probably purely cosmetic, but have orders that to grab supplies from the sick
bay and move them up to my ready room because judging by the map, the sick bay is at the
rear of the ship, which is going to be exposed to the enemies as we're fleeing.
So I'd like that moved up to my ready room in the front of the ship.
So we actually have a place that's a little less, you know, shot at.
She puts his big paw on your shoulder and says, Twiki, sometimes I think you're the
smartest person in the room.
Sometimes.
Tilda, you want to perform the dead run maneuver, which is an attempt to get far away from
your assailants.
Now, to do that, you need to give me a wits role and you're going to add the best of to
dissect to that.
I'd like to suggest any of these attempts that go badly.
We use that inspiration.
Unfortunately, I only got a seven.
I'm glad I raised the issue.
So you may use the inspiration point to make that a success if you wish.
Yes, I think that's probably a good idea in this case.
All right.
Well, then you deploy a laser to accelerate the ship and in doing so, your vessel may move
to range bands further relative to the enemy vessels.
However, there is intense G-Force as Captain Kol referenced during the intense acceleration
that can induce a loss of consciousness.
So can everybody here give me a might challenge role, please?
Does Air get a bonus because he has an extra consciousness in his head?
Well, no internal organs as far as I know.
Yeah, I'm trying everything I can think of.
No, I appreciate it.
We have an issue because your pilot just got a natural one.
So I just rolled a two plus one.
So I've got a three.
Welcome aboard, Thilde
Welcome aboard, Thilde, you are fitting right the heck in and it's fantastic.
Might I suggest if you have another D20 to swap to that one.
I have.
Tilda at the helm instantly blacks out because of the G-Force and for the next two rounds,
you are unconscious slumped over the controls.
Did anyone else make their roles or just on that particular bombshell?
I lost focus on what everyone else was rolling.
I rolled three altogether, so I don't think I did much better.
What's interesting then is that you, Ljomi, just topple.
Perhaps someone can shout timber as you land on top of Thilde in the pilot seat.
Welcome to the team.
I was 13.
Kol stays conscious enough to curse as he watches his crew fall all around him.
CJ, what's your again?
18 plus three, so 21.
He's just having a great time.
Eir, how did it go for you?
So Eir's first impulse was to cast Ancestral Wisdom because it keeps him from being frightened
or from gaining trauma, which I think are foremost in his mind at the moment.
If he has the opportunity to do so, then great.
And then he'll follow it up by rolling a three.
But he's not frightened.
Or traumatized.
Yeah, the ancestral spirits that swirl around you coming to your aid and your command
merely scold you as you slump into unconsciousness.
Now's not the time for scolding.
So to understand the scene, our ship leapt into action and 60 percent of the crew passed out.
I feel like this is a new record.
CJ, you should go jump on one of those ships because.
At this point, that might be our best option.
You can't pilot, right?
So it's like, well, should I stay and try to steer the ship?
Should I go to the dragon gun and pray that we don't crash into something?
I'm having a vision of you with Bear Paw between your teeth and a dragon gun in each hand somehow.
And I understand they're very large.
And on opposite wings of the Falkr.
He's very big, though, as we keep saying.
He's a very big guy.
Can you?
Can you move our comrades away from the controls and I can hop on them temporarily till they come back?
Back to the body, in the corner.
Yes, yes, I could move bodies.
It's light gravity.
In fact, look, they're moving by themselves.
Yes, because of microgravity, you don't actually have to haul them.
You could just nudge them.
It's just such a heroic vista.
Oh, my God.
So then Kol rush for it.
Just kind of like pass the bodies to easy to float them to the back of the Raven's Nest.
But yeah, I'll jump on the controls, at least stabilize it.
OK, you will be able to maneuver the next round while the unconscious Ragny.
That's what I'm so proud of my crew.
Perhaps you're trying to rouse her with smelling salts or a.
She wake them up.
As you do so, you gaze out of the forward viewing hole and there is a blinding flash
where you see a black form of a Norse Drekki silhouetted against the red streak in the sky,
looming out of the eternal darkness and with a kind of silent resolve and a hint of menace,
this Drakkar is glinted into existence and now stands between you and the rift.
It also has quite an impressive arsenal.
And at what range right now?
It is ahead of you and would be effectively extreme range.
So like I said, with the lasers driving the unfilled, so the sails, the Falkir really is able
to harness the celestial winds and gains momentum and glides effortlessly past its rivals and towards
the Drakkar, one of the carvers begins this breathtaking chase though it almost catches up
its own sails gleaming fiercely as they harness the sun's energy to pursue you.
They again begin a barrage of howling dogs, spraying you and spraying the cosmos with
glinting shining shards of lead. Taylor, since you're now at the helm, please give me a whips roll.
Okay, let's roll plus a weal for...
Star Chariot.
And plus a weal for your wisdom. So two weals if you wish.
I will. 14.
14 is enough to take half damage from the howling dogs and so the broadside peppers the hull and
make their presence very well felt.
Perhaps today is a good day to die.
Prepare to die.
Glorious.
So Gigi's going to go to the guns and start shooting.
I'm going to require you to rush and you will spend this round at full pelt hurtling through
the ship towards the dragon guns. You can fire them next round.
Would my other crew on the other guns already be there? Are they traveling to...
Uh, similar because let's assume that they didn't black out. They've still got to make their way
across the other side of the ship.
Let's assume they didn't.
Okay, that's enough of us.
All right, um, then so we have... So the ship in front of us is probably at extreme range.
We have close range for the one that followed us or is it short range?
One at short, one at medium because you've got two range.
And they only caught up by one. Copy.
Okay, um, I think... In for a penny, in for a pound.
Let's...
The sled dogs that you brought aboard, obviously with the cacophony of shots
echoing through the hull are adding to the noise, the din by howling across the ship.
But they're wakeups.
The bear cubs are not too pleased either.
Ironic that these are the howling dogs we have on our ship.
I would like to do... Let's do an evade maneuver
and keep pressing away from the pursuing carver.
Give me a roll against the wits of the strife hawks, the enemy pilots.
Thank God for wealls.
14.
Wow.
Nice.
It's like five good rolls in a row or something.
I mean, that's really... I shouldn't have said anything.
Oh my goodness.
No, it's great. These weals are helping.
The sunlight shimmers on your solar sails propelling you forward and you rapidly outpace
the competing vessels whose dragon guns are now...
You're now just slightly beyond the range of their shots, their shells.
Very good. All right.
Now, in front of you, however, the huge dreki unleashes two fireflies.
Fireflies being the cosmic Viking-verse equivalent of torpedoes,
and they fly towards you with impressive speed.
Do you want to give me again some sleight rolls to see if you can take half damage?
Two sleight rolls?
Two sleight rolls.
First one is a five. That's a nat one.
Yeah, so five and a seven.
Oh dear.
Well, the luminous trail of these firefly torpedoes
dance across the Ginnungagap and they fall upon your ship.
Unable to avoid them, they do significant damage.
That comes to a total of 135 damage.
The Falkr boasts a health of 250,
of 250 what with the great ship ability that Ragny brings to it.
But you have still taken more than half the health of the vessel,
and so you now suffer hull stress.
Any of the rolls that you make subsequently are with two woes added to them,
as the vessel is effectively holed and unable to maneuver quite so deftly.
Still unconscious, Ljomi mutters, this is fine.
This is fine.
We will have everyone wake up at this point,
and we will have Gigi leap into the Dragon Gun area,
and with one of the technicians to your side,
you can begin to load the gun.
They are breach loading devices,
and you have to wedge the shell in before you can launch it at the enemy.
So I still can't shoot?
Sometimes I feel like the line between CJ and Gigi is...
Oh, it's non-existent.
Next round, this is all about loading.
Next round, you can.
You do notice before you move on that one of your whirlers, one of the three,
is effectively behaving like an escape pod and has left the ship,
pirouetting down towards Mother York.
Say goodbye to Krapti, I'm guessing.
Can I order the crewmen I have in the workshop to start damage control?
You can indeed, and they will have automatically been doing that to the best of their ability,
finding their way by hauling themselves through the microgravity as good as possible
with toolkits in an attempt to stem the damage.
From what you can tell from your readouts, Ragny, you can relay this to your captain,
it looked like there is a rupture in the hydrogen fuel tanks.
Oh, and I would cede her seat back to her, rightfully taking the pilot's chair back.
I can expedite the repairs if you're interested, captain.
Very interested, please make it so.
Okay, I will repair as best as I can with an action.
Very good, do you want to give me a roll then, Thilde, because you, again,
you are a shipwright of some renown having helped to probably design and fashion these ships,
and so your repair skills are better than most.
I think I would like to use Beneficent Spirit to give an extra edge to Ragny's rolls for the next one minute.
You don't trust me to not roll up that one?
Well, I just think I have this ability, and on occasion, off recording, I have been called
to task for forgetting to do anything, so I think I'll do something.
Beneficent Spirit requires that you cast a healing spell, which you're welcome to do, you do, you know.
Oh, I'll do, I'll do, yeah.
I don't think that Thilde has taken any damage, but, you know, that doesn't stop you giving her
your loving care and attention.
Exactly, that's what I shall do.
Okay, Thilde, give me your wits roll and I think you're gonna get three wills on that token, though.
Three wills on that token, though. Okay, so that's a 12 plus 4, 16.
You can begin your expedited repairs to try and deal with the ruptured hydrogen tank
before, obviously, the volatile gas immolates everybody in an explosion.
Tilda, what else do you want to do? You are watching this, this, the whirler, the drop pod,
like an airborne cauldron, gyring through the skies down into orbit.
Someone, obviously, has got the idea to abandon ship.
Do I have any kind of readouts on the ship's controls that can, like, tell me who's on board,
or who, or how many people are on board, like, you know, any kind of scanner?
Well, again, such is the essential nature of Ragny. She kind of is plugged into the systems
with her spacraft. Thilde, you do have a level 4 spell there that enables you to pretty much sense
anyone on the ship. Sight Throw.
Yep. I was wondering if there are two droids on the pod that just, you know, jettisoned itself
during the fighting. I know how that goes. There's no lifeforms, so don't shoot it,
because we're paying by the laser. There's cutbacks all over.
Did you want to use sightthrow, Thilde, and explore the ship? It will, for the next hour,
you will be able to see through disguises, spells, illusions. You'll be able to see any enemies or
people on the ship, and you'll be able to give a report back to the captain as to what's going on.
If it doesn't hinder our repairs, let's do it.
Agreed.
All right, so you cast your mind about the ship, channeling your hugr, your immense mental
talents, and get a sense from the bioship around you. It gets the feedback from the vessel itself,
so in tune with it, are you? And you can tell that the full complement of people are actually on board.
The law speaker, Bill had talked about the fact that he might have jettisoned himself or sought
escape, but the law speaker is on the ship. Although peering deeper, you see that it's not
the law speaker at all, and in actual fact, someone under the guise of the law speaker,
a shapeshifter, using their talents to infiltrate your ship.
I relay this to the captain. I have bad news. I think we have a shapeshifter and not a law
speaker on board. A shapeshifter?
I'm in tune with the ship, and I can sense that something is completely off. I thought it was a
law speaker at first, but it's not. So is the real law speaker on that pod, is the question,
and the shapeshifter, did he return to the other, to the Bill and Gigi character, and just,
didn't you speak of a shapeshifter when we first met?
Yes, we had some problems with the shapeshifter when we came on board. It briefly took on the guise
of Ljomi. It actually was better being Ljomi than Ljomi was, so it tricked us, but we thought that
it left the ship. CJ, the notion that there is a saboteur
aboard, has come a little bit late for you at the dragon gun. Can you give me a slight roll, please?
13 plus 2. 15.
You realize just in time that the dragon gun that you are manning is rigged to backfire, and
triggered the trap by loading it. You manage to duck out of the way in time and avoid the brunt of
the explosion and just take 6 damage. The room erupts into flames, however, and the dragon gun
is disabled. That's okay, I'm not afraid.
Is the other dragon gun firing? The other dragon gun looks like it has suffered the same misfortune
with a shapeshifting saboteur on board. Both were rigged to explode the moment that they were fired.
So we don't have any way to shoot back at these things.
And is it fair to say that we would be aware of those guns malfunctioning up in comms once they
do essentially break down? Correct.
That trigger alarm? Okay.
Sadly, Ragny would be instantly aware with her shipwide sense.
As you get ready to jump, put a bear under one arm and a dog under the other, you'll be fine.
We're still not in the same room, so Gigi's gonna float back over to the Raven's Nest,
and burst through the door and scream, we've been sabotaged! Again!
Well, well, thank you. Who could have done this? Tell me who!
You guys kinda need to tell Gigi what's going on. He has no clue. He just got a bunch of fire in
the face, so his eyebrows are singed and he's kinda pissed.
The shape changer's still on the ship. It's in the sick bay, looking like the law speaker.
The real law speaker has left the ship. The one that displayed its loins at us?
Yeah, that one. Yeah, it's that one.
Yeah, that's how you'll recognize it. I should have killed him then!
So Gigi's gonna run out into the ship and go look for the law speaker.
Very good. What's the rest of the gang doing in the Raven's Nest? Thilde you're helping
prepare the thing to avoid the hydrogen rupture. Can you give me another wits roll to see whether
you can stem the flow of the fuel to the engineering systems?
With the weal, because of the Spirit, I'm contributing everyone.
Oh, nice! So 12 without the weal?
Yeah. No, you don't need that. As long as you
get 10 or higher, the wheel would just make it even better. So...
Bill's finally contributing and you're rolling well enough that you don't need his help. It's great.
The guards mock me, still.
The crisis in engineering with the fuel tanks is averted as Ragny quickly attends to the problem.
I was going to go with Gigi because no one should be alone in a room with a shapeshifter or else
we're going to have a second Gigi and as tremendous as that would be, we shouldn't do that.
One is enough. I feel like Kol would wrap up the whole thing.
I feel like Kolwould rapidly be coming to the conclusion that options are not on his side.
I think he would probably turn to... Well, who's left in the Raven's Lodge?
You, yourself, and I are the ones. You and your shadow are in the Raven's Lodge.
I mean, my shadow. They often talk to it.
I wonder if the best course of action might not be to let them board and see if we can offload this
shapeshifter onto them, make it their problem. Oh, an interesting idea.
We have no talons on this bird to fight back with, so our only recourse is to continuously
outrun them until we have all been fall victim to this sabotage or shone out of the sky where we let
them come aboard and let your magnificent friend over there do what he seems to do best and fight
back. Can I go to the throne?
Yeah. How far to the scar?
Oh, that's a... I'm not going to use my... That's an 18.
Steve, I'm going to let you see whether you can follow that line of thought, you know, as an author
of sci-fi material, and if you can't get it, then I'll go to Taylor with you.
What would you do if you were the captain of the HMCS Borealis?
Yeah, does he have any hope of making it to the scar? He would probably do that. Focus on the
mission. If the ship takes a beating, well, we'll fix it later and try and get to the scar,
unless it's absolutely impossible because it's too far away.
Good thought and Taylor, your wits role reveals to you that weighing the evidence,
the scar is probably a tear in reality known colloquially and mythologically as a hel road.
The hel roads are not designed for gentle excursions, but Ragny,
using thought and memory drive, could, perhaps with the assistance of the Raven Skull,
travel the hell road and pass through the rift to whatever lies on the other side.
I think...
Do it.
It seems like our choices are to stay here and get blown to bits, but...
It seems like our choices are to stay here and get blown to bits by the sons of Ivaldi or to
test our luck with the hell roads. Or to get eaten by the shapeshifter.
Well, there's that. It seems like he's part of every plan. He'll kind of just turn to everyone
with a kind of rice mild say, what do you think? Fancy testing our luck?
Again, remember no one's in the room, so you have a nice little chat to yourself.
Oh, that's right. That's right. I thought she was still on the cons. I thought Ljomi was still there.
Well, nice looking shadow I'm talking to.
Lonely is command.
Lonely is command. Lonely and heavy is the burden.
How the hell is it? It seems like that's probably the best choice. Let's take the risk. So I would
say... And the repairs are done now, so I could have... Ragny would be making her way back up,
I'd assume.
Yeah, and Ragny, just so that you know, this is a kind of...
This is a kind of maneuver, a kind of ability that is only something you've heard of. This is beyond
your normal ability. If you're going to try this thing, it's going to require an
extreme amount of luck, skill, and fortitude. You're going to have to give it everything you've got.
I'll describe to you the mechanic of taking the hel road, just so that you know.
Generally reserved for level 10 characters. It's a level five spell, a little bit out of reach of
Thilde a right now. But what you need to do is this. You're going to use the same thought memory drive.
You're going to use the flight visors to create the oblivion link. And you're going to link
minds with a co-pilot of your choice. And during that time, you're going to focus your mind on
the rift. At the end of each round, and you're going to need to complete six consecutive
rolls to make the minute, you must make my challenge roll. And if you fail that challenge
roll, you're going to take damage and potentially trauma. However, you concentrate for the full
minute, six rounds, the ship that you are piloting, the Falkr will be able to traverse
the Hel Road. It's a daunting undertaking. And in the meantime, all around you have
a battle with the shapeshifter, you have barrages of incoming artillery, you have a potential boarding
action. And so you're going to need to plan very carefully in order to focus your mental energy
to be able to complete this successfully. If you lose concentration, you will have to start again.
Does, since it's the thought memory drive powering this, does it need the sails?
It does not.
Does not. Might I recommend that we pull in this, have the crew pull in the sails while we begin
this process so that we at least look like we are surrendering to the ships and they may possibly
stop firing on us as they close in. That buys us some time to not take more damage. We let our fine
crew here deal with the shapeshifter as long as they can and the rest of the crew to repel the
boarders as long as they can, buying us as many seconds as we possibly can to execute this maneuver.
And maybe you and I should take the helm together to focus on it.
Let's do that. Let's do that. We might all die from it, but let's try.
We might all die no matter what we do.
This is one of those scenarios where because Ragny's might is 10 and she's making a straight
roll right now with one woe, while she does have a neural interface that will help her concentrate
should she fail the roll, she will need as many weals heaped upon her as is possible in order to
not take damage and survive those rounds. If you have things up your sleeve or up your leafy
branches, then unfurl them now. Can I, so I'm assuming beneficent spirit would have worn off
at this point? Easy for you to re-engage with another hack. And can I do beneficent spirit
and also offer guidance at some point? You can. I think guidance is a triggered action, is it?
Yes. If you use the two of those in combination, you would offset the one woe and enable the roll
to be made with two weals instead. Yes, let's do that. I'm helping everyone. I'm helping.
So that is actually going to require you to then be the co-pilot. So freeze up Cole perhaps with
your mighty two-handed sword. You could go and assist. That sounds great. But you, and in actual
fact, I'm going to let you roll with an extra three wheels because of the skull of Muninn plugged
into the thought memory drive. Each round till then, you're going to be rolling dice 20. You're
going to roll five dice six and choose the best of them. And you need to try and make sure that
you get above 10 on each one. And that will be what's going on in the Raven's Nest. You
sweating profusely as you bring all of your mental energy to channel thought memory drive to approach
that reality tear and enter into the hel roads. Bill, you're offering guidance, words of
encouragement, I presume. Do you want to give us some examples of what they might be? This is the
moment for you. This is the moment that your life has been leading to, the moment to save all of us
and to save all of reality. Do you feel inspired there, Thilde? I feel very inspired. I feel
it's going to be my best roll ever. So let's start off with roll number one and then I'm going to go
into the rest of the characters. So roll number one in round one, you are approaching the hell room.
Natural one.
Perfect. Am I too far away to be able to do anything about that? I can turn that around for
other people, right? You can. Look at you. So Dispenser of Fate. So if you roll in that one,
I should be able to overturn it. But do I have to be in the room? No, no, you don't. Pretty sure.
Can I just sense it? Someone's rolled a one.
So the Dispenser of Fate is your hamingja, your avatar of luck, your spirit of familial destiny.
And technically it's meant to be within short range. But since you have a premonition of things
going wrong, I'll let you just this once go back and help turn that roll into something else.
Yes, yes. He said, you know, she did pass out the first second we started flying. I should hang
around just in case. So that means you get to roll again. The magnificent, the hamingja of his family
line has come to your rescue. It's almost as if a shield maiden is at your side, giving you the
verve and vigor to continue and roll again. Thanks the Ravens, because that was a 13. Round one
is collectively passed and you hum with energy and excitement as you begin to move towards the
tear in reality. Go then to Taylor. So Cole presumably passes Gigi as you rush past each other
in the mess hall and cast each other glances as you both look and wonder where the other one is going.
Did you find the shapeshifter? I'm going to kill him.
Right. And he's that way? Or is he that way? Stop, stop. What's your name?
I'm Old King Kol. What is yours? Gryotgarth the Magnificent. What's your favorite color?
Green. What is the average airspeed of a windmouth swallow? All right, you're not him. I'm going.
Isn't air with Gigi as well? Well, kind of. So what we're saying is that the two of these
these two guys have kind of crossed paths as they've been zigzagging, backwards and forwards,
leaving Eir to advance on his own through the mess hall back through the crew quarters,
where he once took a nice nap and into the workshop. So I'm in the workshop. So Gigi just
suddenly turns around and heads back towards the Raven's Nest, abandoning his pursuit of the
shapeshifter. Is that what he was doing? Exactly. Uncompelled by his hamingja, his spirit of destiny,
he returned to the Raven's Nest to make that crucial intervention.
Now, I want to make clear that air isn't afraid of the shapeshifter or of anything at the moment
until the spell wears off. But yeah, no, there's no way he's going to be alone in the room with
the shapeshifter. Like, I mean, it could be anything. He's going to follow Gigi back up to
the back towards the Raven's Nest and hopefully he hasn't fallen too far behind. Over your shoulder,
you do see Krapti Thorfridsen, the law speaker. He strides, following you through the workshop,
back into the Crew Quarters and he says, do hold up, dear fellow, I would have a word with you.
Well, first of all, he's he would be floating, right? Or is he actually striding?
He's kind of using his arms to propel him forward with vigor. He's not floating, but also you notice
that his feet aren't booted, but more tentacle. Oh, good. OK, we will. This is great. We will use
Wise Council because that will allow him to cast Wounding Wand twice. He's within medium range,
will direct shock waves at him because, yeah, no way. Because he is aware, because Eir is aware
that the real law speaker has left the ship, right? He was privy to that information.
Even if you weren't directly, we will say that the whispers of the ancestral spirits warn you
that that is the case. And the tentacle feet are a pretty good hint.
Yeah, tentacle feet are actually a giveaway. Yeah. One weal, and then that would be
two weals. So that's going to be each attack will be a wits roll with two weals against the targets might.
That makes a total of ten on the first one.
Did you want to try your potent spell ability and take the strain?
Ah, empowered spell cast. If you cast attack spell you have two weals and your attack roll.
That's the one. All right. Yes, we shall empower it. And we shall roll another.
Seven dice.
We shall roll another dice. Right. So that makes a new total of twelve.
Very good. So that was for one of them, right?
OK, hold on. We're going to use we rolled a one. So that's great.
Tim, I'm going to use the yes, we're going to use the cigarette case to try it again next round.
Right. Because it has to be next round.
Give me the will roll for your strain.
That is twenty, thirty twenty.
Reality does not fracture around you. You do not detonate. And also because you have got the benefit of ancestral spirits in your new build, you don't gain the trauma nor go to sleep. So it's almost as if you're exuding competence.
It's merely an illusion. He knows that perfectly well.
I say almost because the shapeshifter using its iron sides ability simply shrugs off your wounding one and hisses at you.
Once already have I made your crew into sword cloven slaughter food. Too long have I been kept from the Hall of the Sun. I shall claim the last piece of mischief Mimir.
Can Eir, Eir would like to communicate, like accepting that he's probably going to be eaten now. He'd like to get information on that to the Raven's Nest. Is there like a communication device on the wall or something?
Normally, that communication device is referred to as Gigi shouting loudly.
Well, maybe I should try his hand at shouting loudly. It's got me and it wants the the was it? What did it call it? The mischief device, the mischief maker.
The last piece of mischief.
Mimir, I was close. Eir will scream that at the top of his way, doesn't have lungs. He will scream that at the top of his diamonds and hope that someone on the crow's nest hears it.
Thilde, just out of interest, because you know, you've written your epic mythic saga and you've woven all of these magical and mystical figures in. You very familiar with Mimir in the mythological incarnation?
Yes, just a head, a severed head by the well. Very, very wise man. So beware what you say or what you do. And he took Odin's eye. So might be up for a trade.
And in this universe, the mythological memory is represented by MIM, the great supercomputer that sits in Mímisbrunnr at the heart of the Well of Fate.
And actually the place where the doom occurred five years ago, the very same place the Falkir was stationed when the supernova detonated and destroyed said supercomputer. But apparently there's a bit left.
Now, in the mythology, would that be at the at the base of Yggdrasil, at the base of the tree?
Yggdrasil represents in this, in the Vikingverse, is an arboreal sentience that stretches literally across the nine home worlds and the death of Yggdrasil.
Yggdrasil doesn't endure like it does in your trilogy. In this universe, Yggdrasil was shattered and from her scream arose avenging alfar like Bill and Taylor in Alfheim
So in this universe, the avengers are Thor and Iron Man. They're Bill and Taylor.
Bill and Taylor.
Obviously.
Am I correct in understanding this thing's after the that thing that Gigi says is nobody else's business?
That's what I think.
You may be correct in that understanding. You in order to test that theory, I don't know, you'd have to dangle it in front of the shape shifter's face. Up to you.
Let's go to the top of the next round and back to Thilde's roll to see whether the second of six she can progress further towards.
It's going to be fine.
It's going to be fine, yeah.
Oh yeah, 18. Fine.
You've rolled all your natural ones for the evening.
It's done.
Okay.
Until the sixth round.
Adrenaline is fueling your every move, but you carefully plot the course and continue to move towards the rift in space.
One thing that you do notice though, again, I mean, Ljomi, you're the only one who's casting an eye out of the window into the Ginnungagap, but you see an enemy whirler leave the Dreki outside your starboard portal.
And you see this whirler hurtling towards you again. It's kind of an airborne cauldron. It is a drop ship and it looks like it will impact very soon.
It is on a trajectory that will have it collide with the missile.
Can I shout to the others or am I completely locked into the maneuver?
You are completely locked into the neural interface, the flight visor. It's a bit like a virtual reality headset.
You can't see anything beyond your destination.
Can Ljomi use the Gigi intercom or am I also similarly locked?
Are you thinking of him as a ventriloquist dummy where you just insert yourself and use him to...
I just thought that's what we're calling it now. Anytime somebody shouts on board the ship.
OK, sure.
Like a kenning for... yeah, shouting.
You can just shout down the arboreal bioship corridors through the gated membranes as loud as you can. What are you shouting?
Borders incoming.
Taylor, Gigi, are you headed back or are you going to stay around to dispense more fate?
So Gigi is going to go sprint or sorry, what is it? Tumble? Float?
Move quickly.
Is there a word for that?
It's free falling and Taylor has the ability. It's a good reminder. I'm going to ask you to both...
Falling with style, I believe.
He's going to torpedo his way back. He heard Err. He knows Err is engaged in battle.
And he's heading that way screaming, I won't let you have all the fun, you rocky bastard.
So both Taylor, Steve and CJ, if you'll give me a sleight roll, Taylor, you get to do so with one wheel because you are an accustomed space farer
Special.
18 plus 2, 20.
19.
Nice.
Steve, what did he get?
It's like 10.
10?
10.
Did you roll any woes?
Err, nope, should I have?
You should, yes.
That changes it to a 7.
So, not altogether calamitous, but whilst everyone else can move at speed, propelling themselves through the ship by means of handholds, you can only move at half speed.
You aren't quite as nimble and perhaps you don't get enough purchase and so you're a little bit slow to escape the shape-shifters clutches.
Taylor and CJ, what did you want to do with your... now that you've propelled yourself?
I'm going to say that those were slow turns, so that was your move and now you may take an action, should you wish.
Do I see Krapti with tentacles Krapti in front of me?
What once looked like Krapti has now opened up into a kind of multi-headed fanged beast with tendrils that whip out of its body and clutch onto the walls of the ship, and be able to easily impel it forward.
Okay, so I'm going to do... what is that thing I can do with my pistol where it's like that really accurate shot where I blew up the dude with the fart runes?
You can do a called shot.
A called shot. I'm going to do a called shot, but I'm going to do it in style so I'm like floating through the air and I'm doing like a 360 at the same time.
I'm going to pull out the gun and be like, I'm going to aim for his crotch.
I just need to hit it because it's just going to do ironsides anyway. That's why I'm using the pistol.
Okay.
Roll a dice 20 with two woes. Add your sleight modifier.
There we go. Lovely. Nine minus two, so seven plus two.
Your bullet flies wide and crashes somewhere into the sick bay beyond.
I'm going to, as I follow Gryogarth, I'm going to use Warden Tree and designate him as my ward.
Okay. Can you do that as a triggered action?
Oh, I can do that as a triggered action. Yes, I can. So I will do that.
And then... yeah, I don't really know anything about the shapeshifter other than he's a bad guy, so I'm just going to pull off my horse fetter and take a shot at him.
Okay, give me the roll.
Oh, I can do a weal for weapons handling. That'd be a 14.
We won't roll for damage because again, the shot hammers into the creature's iron sides and it takes no damage.
In return, what's your will, please?
Ten.
Okay, the shapeshifter twists its features and with one eye squinting underneath one of its legs, it casts War Fetters on you, a Seidr spell that immobilizes you.
Give me another will roll, please.
If you give me a will roll.
Eighteen, natural.
You are not frightened, but you are immobilized and you spin in the microgravity, just slowly pirouetting in midair.
Steve?
Okay, Eir saw that attacking it with weapons has done nothing so far, so he moves to plan B. He's going to use Evil Eye on it instead.
He's going to use Boon to improve his chances, but then he's going to try and charm it.
He's long and short of it.
What's the attack roll against the target's will?
You're going to do so with three woes.
Uh-huh, that's five.
I'm sure it's going to be fine.
It's going to be fine.
After all that, including the reroll, we're at seven, so yeah, so that didn't work.
We will go to the top of round three, which is Ragni, again making her crucial roll for piloting the hel roads.
Ten, that's a ten right out.
Yep, you'd need to just add those weals, but they're only going to just make you succeed even better.
Bill, do you want to just give us any more lines of encouragement?
I was going to say the same thing, just hang on.
It's now, it's this moment, the time has come. Continue, continue.
Yeah, that is the same thing, but see, a good coach goes to his...
Got this.
Yeah, you've got this.
You can go into the locker room and change things up at halftime too much.
All right, fast turn or slow turn for our combative trio.
Taylor, give me a will roll.
Okay, that'd be 11.
You can remove the immobilized affliction this round, and so next round you can normally.
CJ.
Where is Eir in relation to the creature?
He is slightly behind you.
Oh, I've moved in front of him.
He was very slow because he failed his sleight roll for maneuvering in microgravity and you sped up.
Okay, so in the spirit of breaking down this thing's iron sides spell slots,
and seeing as I'm incapable of aiming in light gravity or any gravity,
then Gigi is going to pull up his storm shooter and just fire off a round, 10 rounds actually.
I'll do whichever one I don't need to roll.
Yeah, that's full auto because burst fire you have to roll and you just add another dice six.
Okay, now you spray the whole workshop with blitz.
And again, it uses its iron sides to bend off the hail of shrapnel that pummels it,
chipping away at its resilience.
So that's its third casting of that spell.
So it must have at most five.
So let's keep hitting it.
Keep hitting it, fools.
Now behind you, there is a massive crash.
As the whirler from the enemy ship hurtles into the mess hall,
behind you splintering the ironwood and sending the whole ship into a violent roll.
The great hall is suddenly full of floating debris, loose weapons and drifting chairs.
Now, none of you were in it, so you're not directly impacted.
But lumbering from the enemy whirler are free powered work loaders that clutch and grab their way into the room.
These are mechanized exoskeletons with hydraulic claws used for lifting heavy materials and objects.
Each is manned by a son of Ivaldi
Can Eir cast a spell?
Sure.
At this point, he would like to cast Great Wrath.
He's going to use Boon to give an extra choice for an extra roll.
The plan is to charm the shapeshifter and force it to have an incandescent rage at a target of his choice,
which in this case is one of the load lifter in front.
Understood.
So you are going to make a wits attack roll against the target's will.
Tell me, yeah.
Roll the...
OK, so the roll, the base roll is dirty 20.
Are there any woes or wills I need to contend with?
20 will be enough to circumvent his defenses and turn its fury on the raiders from the sons of Ivaldi ship.
Nice.
Perfect.
Go kill them.
You freak.
The creature is incandescent with rage and scuttles around the walls, its tentacles giving it purchase as it advances.
On the horrified sons of Ivaldi in their mechanized suits, they tumble backwards in an effort to get away from the shapeshifting monstrosity,
one of the orcneas that is launched towards them, and it screams,
It makes me laugh to know that the benches of the father of Baldur are prepared for banquets.
We'll soon all be drinking beer out of the curved trees of skulls.
Round four.
Four.
Good luck.
Ten.
Okay. Oh, okay, nine.
All right. Now you need to make me two more rolls.
So you're going to take six damage as the strain gets to you and your body starts to convulse with the effort.
Also give me a will roll to see whether you take trauma from the devastating effort of holding this together.
Okay. Nine.
Okay. You do get to roll a will with that because of the beneficent spirits that Ljomi has brought together.
So you will not gain any trauma, but the damage means that I need one more roll for you, please, to retain concentration.
And so you're going to roll once more and give me two weals on that.
If it's indeed the D20, it's a nat 20. So finally.
Nice.
Bravo.
So I'm going to do this in honor of that roll. I'm going to say that you are imbued with extra determination and courage, and you focus all of your efforts.
You short circuit the process here, gaining one extra round.
If you can make one more roll, you will commence the drift onto the Hel Roads. Next round.
That will be when we do that. So we have one more round of combat. At least the shapeshifter puts on, takes a fast turn and puts on its dread helm.
High level spell that fills everyone with fear. Sorry, Thilde?
I'm sorry to say that was an eight.
Oh, no, no, no. Roll that next time. Next round.
Okay.
Let me just do it. Yeah.
That was some practice.
Okay. So campaign's over. Thilde, thank you.
Explosive decompression. The ship blows up. It's all over.
I'll tell it. Here we come.
The dread Aegis Hjamr. So can I get from everyone apart from Gigi, who is immune to the fighting condition, can I get a will roll with five woes?
Would ancestral wisdom still be up?
It would, so you cannot be frightened.
That's right.
Yeah.
Look at you with your abilities. It's not as much fright as it is infinite concern.
Are Ragny and Ljomi subject to this roll?
No, you're too far away. This needs to be within medium range. So this would affect the steel cars, the people in the robotic suits, and it will affect four cold.
It's like a negative four.
Not only are you now terrified by the dread helm you are frightened, cannot stand up, but also the shock on it is enough that you take 17 damage.
I'm having a Gigi style response to the stress.
Unfortunately, Kol that puts you out of contention this round, but it does mean that Steve and CJ, you can do something if you wish.
Are the all the sons of Ivaldi frightened?
Yep, their mechanized suits are whirring in a flurry of panic.
And they're not, so they haven't tried to hit this thing. So we're still just at three hits.
They have, but they've all been unsuccessful because the frightened condition means that not only are they attacking three woes, some of them will be immobilized because of the dread helm.
I'm just trying to figure out how many how many more castings of iron sides it has.
Is is the shape shifter larger than Gigi?
No, I know you wanted to ride the shape shifter just like you did.
Gigi's new habit of riding everything is like I can I can I can grapple it and then at least hold it and just keep stabbing it until it's cast anymore.
You know something I might I might blow this, but I'm going to cast sharp runes therefore on my storm shooter.
That's your action this round then?
Yep. And do I get a bonus action of throwing a rubber ducky at it?
No, probably not.
Oh, Steve, are the street loaders carrying anything?
Do the suits count as being a carried hydraulic floors?
Is the thing they could conceivably drop if yeah, drop whatever it's holding.
I don't suppose it counts if you're wearing it, does it?
No, they're never in the street.
Does being in space count as outdoors?
I'm guessing no.
OK, we're kind of digging deep here.
Oh, Steve, go!
Then we you know what we will just chuck gandfly at it just to get rid of one more of its iron sides.
Yes, so he Eir will cast gandfly at it.
It hits automatically, but I'm assuming does no damage.
In this case, because it's relatively low damage, the slow blade will penetrate the shields and it will accept the damage.
And what was it doing?
Three.
It does.
Wait for five.
Mm hmm.
I'm contributing.
We both are.
I know.
Feels weird.
It turns to you and says, I do not come with words of fear to the hall of Vithrir.
Top of the next round.
I'm going to roll for explosive decompression, though, because this was a situation.
Yeah, I mean, why not?
Steve, you're closest. Can you give me a sleight roll, please?
I can, but it'll it won't go well.
It is.
Bill, do you see that?
That would be a natural 20 for a total of 18.
It is a natural 20.
Yep.
Instead of being sucked out into the gap, luckily, the mead hall table that is in the mess hall comes between you and the gandfly.
The vacuum at the same time and blocks the hole that had emerged.
And you, while you're sucked towards the area, you get a reprieve as the table gets there first.
Thank you, random chance.
Thilde, the all-important roll to commence the descent into the hel.
Just want to tell you both good luck.
We're all counting on you.
Is there any way we can reroll?
Just it didn't happen.
No, no, no, no.
I think what you need to say is you drop the dice off the table and.
Inspiration.
We used that already.
I said we have inspiration,
We have several left over from previous adventures.
They don't.
They carry over.
I'm pretty sure I just heard Ian was breaking out a little there.
Because I rolled extreme nat one
So.
Nat one.
That's three in this adventure.
When you were on the sea stallion, did you crash it a lot?
No, it was a charm.
Did you crash it a lot?
It's not the end of the world.
It just means that you have to potentially.
You take another four damage.
This is the actual critical role because you need to pass this one to keep concentration.
So dice 20 with two weals and it's your will roll to keep concentration.
OK.
Oh, that's for all the marbles.
Not that, but winning.
Then.
Good, good, good.
Despite.
You operate extremes.
Exactly.
Either or.
Despite the extreme pressure that is almost overloading your neural interface, your heart
is pounding as the ship begins to spin around, skirting the edge of the Drakkar that was trying
to block you from advancing into the rift and you enter the ship.
And you enter this cascading cloud, the scar in the sky, this bright red glowing magnificence
that suddenly changes the whole nature of the ship from this muddy brown and green to
a glowing ethereal red.
Now there is an after effect to this role.
Such is the perils of entering onto the Hel Roads that may yet succumb as previous companion
of this group did.
So now you must give me a D20 roll, but this one is going to be with five wheels.
It would be five.
So minus six.
18.
So not too bad.
So you don't gain the massive surge of trauma.
You remain resolute in the face of this flood of thought and memory, a burst of reverse
time as you enter the Hell Roads and you float into the past.
Uh oh.
How far into the past?
The past's okay.
I've been there before.
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