The ongoing playtest of Bodil’s Gap continues! In the previous installment, the party launched their assault on the island lair of Kettil Sea-Strider, the notorious raider responsible for the deaths of their Þejn, Arnolf, and his son Steinar. Climbing through the ruined elven tower, they suffered the curse of the war goddess and slaughtered their own men and allies in a berserk fit. Now they stand before the door of Kettil's temple to the goddess, prepared to enter and face him once and for all.
The Cast
Ingvild Scoreslayer, Dýrsark - Ingvild is an old and bitter warrior, cunning but prone to the rage of a berserker. Having fallen in combat with the ancient ghost of a long-dead giant, Ingvild now lives only by the grace of his bargain with that giant's spectral kin, and his soul bears the giant's mark as evidence of the deal they struck.
Mundr Ivaldisson, Óttimaðr - Mundr is a promising but untested young man endowed with the strength of giants by a mysterious incident during his travels abroad. A Laxbrynjung by birth, Mundr is the only child of the late Ivaldi, the youngest of Arnolf's brothers.
Ylva Blood-Cup, Seiðkona - Ylva is a sorceress endowed with the power to see and speak with spirits, and uses her magic to curse her enemies with great misfortune. Though dwelling apart from the clan in the woods, Ylva is an ally of the Laxbrynjungs, having been a close friend and confidant of Arnolf's murderd heir, Steinar.
Hrafn, Skald - Hrafn is a travelling merchant blessed by a drop of the Mead of Poetry. Left with neither trade goods nor coin by an accident on the road that destroyed his cart and belongings, Hrafn has joined the Laxbrynjung raiders to avenge their Þejn and enrich himself.
The Game
Kettil's temple is a squat, square structure built of the same glowing white stone as the ruined tower, its shingled wooden roof a clear addition by a later—and human—hand. Within, a painted statue of the Bolgmót stands at the back of the chamber, sword and shield in hand, her arms and neck draped in gold and silver arm rings, torcs, and pendants. Below, a small box bound with silver wire rests at the statue's base—and the party recognizes it as a vessel for the ashes of one of Kettil's honoured dead. The floor is likewise heaped with a mound of glittering treasure, atop which Kettil stands, sword and shield held in mirror of the goddess' statue. He gazes down at the party before inviting them to enter—although he agreed to a duel, he has no objection to fighting them all at once.
Ingvild hurls himself forward, working himself into a berserk rage, and grows to the size of a troll as his body swells with the uncontained force of his fury. Reaching up the gleaming slope of the hoard—which remains firm under Kettil's feet even as it shifts and slides beneath Ingvild's single step—he brings his massive steel sword down on the Sea-Strider's shield, shattering it and hurling the man backwards into the wall.
Shaking his battered arm, Kettil tears a silver ring from the arm of Bolgmót's statue and hurls it like a discus at Ingvild. Though not intended as a weapon, the ring whistles through the air, and Mundr steps in front of Ingvild to take it on his shield—only to be gouged across the cheek as it deflects off and past his face.
Ylva, meanwhile, invokes her seiðr to conjure a waking dream to plague Kettil, calling up an illusion of the Sea-Strider's dead wife rising from the box of ashes to distract him. Kettil reels back a moment in surprise, but then his empty hand goes to his opposite shoulder, and he shakes his head, declaring that such illusions will not fool him—for that is not his wife. Peering at him with her spirit sight, Ylva spots on his shoulder the same pale hand that drew away the spirit of the crone who cursed the party—the hand of a valkyrie. Before her eyes, the valkyrie's shape is revealed as a shimmering figure cut from the cold flames of the aurora, and the mere sight of it seers her with those agonizing flames.
As Ylva drops shuddering to her knees for a moment, Kettil surges forward to slide down the slope of his hoard, slipping under Ingvild's long reach to press the attack. While the warriors of the party are engaged with the Sea-Strider, Hrafn slips around the chamber's edge to reach the statue, concealed by his seiðr-wrought cloak and taking care lest his steps disturb the hoard and draw attention to himself. Attaining the statue's base, he speaks softly to it while invoking the magic of his galdr, and with a groan of straining wood it rips itself from its base and steps forward to carry out his command: kill Kettil Sea-Strider. The statue's wooden sword comes down across Kettil's back, but fails to penetrate his chainmail shirt. Nevertheless, it distracts him sufficiently to buy Mundr and Ingvild a moment to breathe.
Regaining her own breath, Ylva conjures her illusions once more, seeking to distract the valkyrie from aiding Kettil. The power of the valkyrie is great, however, and she must close to bring her own strength to bear. Even as the spirit's senses are assailed by a waking dream of furious dead warriors abandoned on the battlefield by a valkyrie that did not come, Kettil wheels about to strike at Ylva. His sword lances down to strike at her head, cleaving a flap of scalp and nearly chipping her skull. Blood runs down her brow and into her eyes, momentarily blinding her.
To save Ylva, Ingvild and Mundr renew their assault on Kettil, and deal serious wounds to him even as his retaliation draws their own blood with deep slices and wounds. Ingvild's grip grows slick with his own blood, and his sword nearly slips from his hands as it is jerked about. Hrafn, meanwhile, commands his statue to continue its assault, and it continues to attack Kettil with its sword even as it tears itself apart with every motion.
At Kettil's grunt of pain from his wounding at Ingvild and Mundr's hands, the valkyrie breaks free of Ylva's distraction and begins shouldering her way through the illusory phantoms to reach him. Eager to prevent the spirit from aiding the Sea-Strider, Ylva slips free of her body to confront it in her own spirit form. Wielding her claw-tipped staff she strikes out at the valkyrie, and the aurora surrounding its form parts under her blow to reveal glimmering chainmail. Though the valkyrie is barely harmed by Ylva's blow, the claw of her staff seizes the spirit, and the two begin to struggle against one another.
While the valkyrie is seized, Ingvild gathers his strength for another titanic blow. Bringing his massive sword down on Kettil, the steel blade parts the rings of the Sea-Strider's mail shirt and cleaves his arm from his shoulder. Kettil's sword drops to the ground followed by his arm, the sleeve of his shirt hanging from a few intact rings.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Kettil draws from his belt a short steel blade that reveals itself to be all that remains of a longer sword whose point has snapped off—the self-same sword that slew Arnolf, the point of which forms Mundr's cursed compass. The jagged tip of the shortened weapon slashes across Ingvild's flesh, and the omen of doom that is Kettil's weapon saps his luck even as it badly wounds him. Mundr brings his fiery axe to bear, and his blow lays Kettil out despite the wound Kettil's ill-omened blade deals him in turn. As the valkyrie struggles in the grip of Ylva's staff, Hrafn's statue places the point of its wooden sword against Kettil's neck and leans in, killing him.
The valkyrie casts a venomous glance at Ylva, and the seiðkona releases her, not wanting to test herself further against one of the choosers of the slain. The spirit lunges for Kettil's corpse, her hands dipping into his chest to draw his phantom forth, and then mounts a black horse that forms out her shimmering aurora cloak and rides up through the roof of the temple, Kettil's ghost thrown over the back of her saddle.
And as she goes, the sound of a terrible wind rises all around, and the glowing stones of the temple and tower erupt into a cloud of snow and ash shot with the coppery tang of blood—for the stones of the tower, taken from Alfheim, are not the base matter of giant's flesh, but snow and ash granted form and vitality by the shed blood of the gods. With the valkyrie departing and the temple to Bolgmót defiled, that divine power is being withdrawn. And with it, the wooden roof of the temple comes crashing on the PCs, scattering Kettil's massed treasures across the cliffside.
Behind the Scenes
The fight with Kettil was a lot of fun to run. Even though no one came as close to death's door as during the battle with the phantom giant, it was still a pretty tense affair at the table, and it was only through some canny tactics that many of Kettil's advantages were negated—the valkyrie's aid, and his use of the hoard to impair his enemies' footing. This could easily have gone much more poorly for the party!
With Kettil dead, all that remains is for the party to figure out who is Þejn of the Laxbrynjungs—and deal their erstwhile allies, who fled from the curse-induced slaughter in the tower. Although the party is theoretically wealthy now that Kettil's hoard is free for the taking, it may take quite a bit of weregild to settle affairs with Arvid the Younger, and with their own men.
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