WEBVTT

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Hello and welcome to this special bonus edition

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of Vikings and Valkyries, which is entirely designed

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to make your lives easy and distill the past

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20 episodes into one 5 minute long chunk of thought

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and memory. If you haven't had the time to listen

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to nearly 40 hours of Vikings and Valkyries episodes,

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then this is the synopsis for you. The story

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at the heart of our campaign, the Thought and

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Memory Saga, is a tragic tale of sacrifice and

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sorrow, involving the twilight of gods and men,

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as told partly in my novel The All -Father Paradox,

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and then continued in the role -playing game

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When the Wolf Comes. Now, we have been lucky

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enough on this podcast to have all kinds of Norse

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-minded academics, artists and authors enter

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the Vikingverse. And so we thank you for coming

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with us into this reimagined Ragnarok and exploring

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the world of When the Wolf Comes. And just a

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reminder not to get too attached to anyone around

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the gaming table. Thought, Amunim, Memory are

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Odin's ravens. They once perched on his shoulders

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and reconnoitered to the ends of the earth, returning

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each evening to whisper him news. That is, until

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the Skald Order captured the Raven God and stripped

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him of his spires. From the secrets they stole,

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they built the first thought and memory drive

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used for interplanetary travel. But as Odin might

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have warned the thieves, knowledge comes at a

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cost. Their unwise incisions also cut loose his

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wolves, Gerri and Recki, spreading greed and

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avarice across the nine homeworlds. The sons

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of Ivaldi, already covetous and deceitful, were

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driven mad at this moment. They contracted with

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tricksters to destroy the Skald and their base

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at Mimis Bruna, triggering the cataclysm known

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as the Swordfall. In an instant, the Mechanists

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and all of their hubris boiled away to nothingness.

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Now, five years after the Swordfall, the Sons

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of Ivaldi are as voracious as ever. They have

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seized the mantle of Mimis Bruna and gained control

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of the Skald's technologies. Still consumed by

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wolfish fervour, they crave even more wealth

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and wisdom, including the greatest prize of all,

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immortality. Huginn and Muninn, meanwhile, never

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rest. They still fly far and wide on their pointed

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wings, searching for instruments of their salvation.

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It just so happens the ravens have selected the

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player characters as their fated champions. Now,

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for those who want a little bit more detail,

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please listen on. After the sword fall, Midgard

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was left a frigid wasteland, prowled by nightmares

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and all but abandoned by the Empire. As the campaign

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begins in the far north, a new power has arisen

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amid the anarchy, under the pretense of studying

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the great sweeping Thimblewinter and Evaldian

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Magnet. named Bangsy has led a group of his kin

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to help the clan, a small town that has somehow

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survived in the shadow of the Marching Glacier.

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Goaded by Gery and Trekkie, Bangsy grasps for

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yet more power, the mantle of the gods themselves.

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The havoc wrought by the Swordfall has given

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his so -called Winterwise the cover they need,

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the source, the rare materials and minerals for

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their ascension. They have opened up exploratory

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mines across the polar ring worth trillions and

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preparing undersea exploration programs planning

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to exploit the untouched resources of the arctic

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under the cloak of this legitimacy the sons of

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avaldi have also sequestered the backup for the

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supercomputer min in cold storage within their

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secret facilities stolen under the very noses

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of the skull the machine is being regrown and

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reconnected in utmost secrecy. When it comes

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online, Bangzi's followers in the Church of the

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One -Zero hope to use its vast wisdom to accelerate

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their ascension to godhood. However, the Sons

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of Avaldi have no idea that Hugin and Munin are

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part of the consciousness of their new machine,

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the Viking -verse equivalent of CPU and RAM.

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or that the Ravens continue to whisper news across

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space and time. Given advance warning of its

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destruction and the treachery of the Sons of

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Ivaldi, the original Ming took a risk to attract

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the attention of saga -worthy heroes. Moments

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before the Swordfall, the machine opened a rift

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between past and present, catapulting a hijacked

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craft through and providing the pirates within

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with the coordinates for... In the present day,

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the rift appears to our heroes as a crimson scar,

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an unexplained aurora in the ionosphere. Mim

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has baited the heroes into the recent past to

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expose what truly happened on the orbital ring

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station of Mimis Bruna and prevent its future

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incarnation coming online. In the background,

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centuries ago, the original inhabitants of the

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Polar Wilds sold the land around Helmathar to

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a maritime explorer named Bjarnason. The land

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deed has been passed down through generations

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and over the course of the campaign has ended

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up in the possession of the player characters.

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Should the deed come to light, it could completely

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derail the Sons of Ivaldi's nefarious plan. So

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that about sums up where we've got to in 20 episodes.

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Thank you for listening. If you've listened this

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far and made sense of the mayhem and bedlam,

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there are only two more episodes to go until

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we reach our thrilling conclusion and work out

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exactly who is on the stairway.