M.I.S.T. Campaign: Downtime 4

I’d originally planned on spending the next period of free time away from all the heroic stuff I had to get out and get some more filming done.  Of course, there were a few other things involving that I’d been thinking of that aren’t going to come to light anyway.  But the main reason I didn’t is because, well, the chance to spend time in Asgard was too good to pass up.  We were invited to the ceremony there to forestall Ragnarok anyway, I just visited sooner.  Besides, I’ll get to some filming eventually.

Njord sent a Valkyrie down to pick me up.  So I didn’t get to try my hand at climbing Yggsdragsil, yet.  But man, you can try to tell yourself that the tree’s big.  I mean, to support the worlds the way it does it has to be.  But there’s absolutely nothing that can prepare you for seeing the sheer scale of it for the first time.  It was absolutely jaw-dropping.

As was Asgard itself.  The splendors of the city-fortress aside.  So much of the godrealm is yet untamed wilderness.  You just can’t find tracts like that in Midgard anymore.  And it’s just more…pure, wild, intense than any place in the mortal realm could ever hope to be.  Which just enthralls me on a fundamental level, of course.  My connection to the Elements only got stronger when I became a Demigod.

Though one of my first concerns in the city itself was all too mundane.  The Jotunblut thickened in my veins as well; I grew about four inches and put on even more muscle.  So I had to replace my wardrobe…again.  I swear I’ve had to buy more clothes in the past month…

It was easier this time around, at least.  I was recommended to an Alfar tailor.  He was able to fit a bunch of traditional Norse clothing, as well as more conventional modern wear, to me in fairly short order.  It’s also all by far the most comfortable clothing I’ve ever owned, even the formal wear.  Definitely going to have to try to get any more clothing I might need from mythic tailors from now on.

I spent most of the next month wandering the city, and the safer parts of the wilds.  I met Valkyries, Einherjar, other lesser immortals, many of the lesser gods; I saw vistas that nothing in Midgard compare to.  Altair’s Dreamwrack finally wore off; I was finally able to put Ken from my mind.  It was really the first extended period of time that the awakening of the ichor in my veins seemed more of a blessing than a burden.  And it was spectacular.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite all fun and games.  We never got any word from Hel, and all of Helheim was cut off.  Not even the gods gifted in Psychopomp could get in.  It’s…troubling. But at least it means Vayu probably wouldn’t be able to get there to her either.  Maybe it’s something she did to fend him off...hopefully.  Because something’s up and there’s nothing I can do about it.  That bothers me.

There was also the revelation of my parentage to dwell on.  But ultimately…it changes nothing.  Vayu was never a father to me.  He used my mother, then tried to tear me away from her.  No doubt so he could use me as well.  Njord is my father, Hel my mother.  Vayu is just a bitter foe for me to prevail against some day.

For the most part, though, despite all the time in Asgard I didn’t see much of the major Gods.  They were too busy planning just in case Filmbulwinter did come around.  The exceptions were Freyja and Njord.  Freyja took me out falconing one day, and while we were out she gave me a very useful relic cloak clasp.  Njord, I had a chance to talk to him while fishing.  A bit of father-son bonding for the first time in my life.  I was going to tell him the truth about Vayu and me.  But it turns out he already knew, figured it out way back when he was wooing her.  So that particular talk revolved mainly around the Yazata.  It gave me a lot to think about, and one big thing to worry about.

Njord thinks I may have fatebound myself as an enemy to the entire Yazata pantheon when I rejected Vayu.  Now that’s a sobering thought.  To say the very, very least.

Eventually the ceremony that we were all invited to came along, the one to forestall Fimbulwinter…it wasn’t what I expected.  Both Odin and Thoth became the Wyrd…and permanently forestalled Ragnarok by tying Thoth to the Titan Zvran as a Titan Avatar.  A sobering triumph, a selfless and courageous sacrifice; I’m just not sure I can express the tumult of emotions that followed.  Or how deeply you have to admire Thoth for being able to go through with it.  The Æsir will never forget it, I’m sure of that.

Andrew stopped by to visit me in Noatun afterwards.  He seemed a bit shaken by it all, definitely still needed to fully come to grips with it.  But it wasn’t what he’d dropped by to talk about.  He’d deduced that Vayu was my father, and he was concerned how I was handling that.  It really says a lot about him, even with what he’d just gone through the purpose of his visit seemed to be ensuring that I was handling a revelation from a month in the past.  Regardless, he seemed happy to know that I felt the way I did.  And he promised that no one else would hear about my origins from him.  You know, Andrew can be quiet and unassuming; especially by the standards of the rest of my five band mates.  But he might well be the most steadfast of all of them.

And now I’m getting ready to leave Asgard myself.  Going to hit some of the more remote wildernesses of Midgard, teach my Einherjar a thing or two about filming a documentary.  That’s something that’s fallen by the wayside these past two months, even when it was our cover story in Thuringia I don’t think I actually filmed something.  We’ll make some stops in cities, sure, and I’ll have my phone with me in case I’m needed for something.  But for the most part it’ll be me, my men, and untamed wilderness.

I can't wait.

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Session 22

The events that took place at Avalon, now truly Avalon once more, were…incredible.  I could try to explain what happened in detail, I’m sorely tempted to, but it’s not something I think I could ever hope to portray sufficiently in words.  In short, we freed Thoth from his bindings.  And the five of us that were there were all at our absolute best to do it.  And meanwhile Cindy killed the Avatar of Tishtrya that was in the temple.  Truly efforts worthy of songs and sagas.

The first thing Thoth did upon being released was to fly up and…well; I’m not sure what he did, exactly.  But it seemed to shatter whatever change the Yazata had placed over the island, and his moon outshone the Yazatan sun in the sky.  Then Thoth descended to speak to us, and Arthur was laid to rest in his tomb.

I was only half paying attention to all of that, though.  Once everything at the temple was sorted out I tried calling Hel to make sure she’d gotten my earlier warning.  There was no answer…which is worrying.  Thankfully the number she gave me to get a hold of Njord worked, and it was a direct line.  All my other family members were in Asgard.  And with the pantheon preparing in case Fimbulwinter comes Njord gave Vayu a snowball’s chance in hell of getting in there to snatch them.  So that’s comforting, at least.  And he said he’d send someone down to Helheim to see if they can find anything out.  Hopefully she just left her phone behind, or saw Vayu coming and pulled some trick to evade him…but I can’t help but feel as though things aren’t that simple.  Nothing has been, since my visitation.

After Arthur was laid to rest Thoth returned us to Manannan Mac Lir’s manor.  Which is a place I’m…not exactly thrilled to be. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no faulting his hospitality.  And I’m not ungrateful for it.  But my memories of this place are not pleasant ones.  Thankfully, I won’t be staying long.  Odin invited us to the ritual that will forestall Ragnarok.  And I’m leaving for where it will be held early, Asgard.

...a place I can call home.

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Session 21

Apparently during her temptation an image of Brynhildur told Cindy that she’d die if she passed through the gate, due to the corruption from Utgard-Loki.  Then Andrew mentioned that what she’d been told during her vision was true.  That caught my attention, to say the least.  And not just because I was worried that Vayu actually was my Father…there was the claim that he was hunting my family members as well.

Lexi and Andrew both consulted Fate.  Crossing the gate wouldn’t kill Cindy, as it turns out.  But it sure looked like it hurt.  One of the garden’s apples seemed to fix that, though.  Vayu’s claim about my parentage was also confirmed.  Which is…something I’ll have to think about later.  Because I just can’t deal with it now.

There were two things of immediate concern.  The part about Vayu hunting my family was also true, which meant he was after Hel right now.  I sent a text out to warn her, which I hope she got.  Given the apparent stakes, though, I can’t help but worry.  I’ll have to call her later, when I have the chance.  Until then, even as formidable as she is, knowing that Vayu’s after her is worrying…to say the very least.  But aside from warning her there’s not much I can do.  But having that weigh on my mind along with everything else is just wonderful.

Because the task at hand was still to free Thoth and forestall Fimbulwinter.  The temple he was held in was made of stone, so I was able to figure out its layout.  And a few others were able to pinpoint where the guards were by sound, so we were able to sneak all the way to the room where Thoth was being held…and that’s where our luck ran out.  Thoth was in the room…and Tishtrya as in there talking with him.

In short, times had just gotten desperate. So my plan was suitably desperate.  In short, use my power over earth and stone to hide them in the wall of the temple, then I could get Tishtrya’s attention to draw him away, and they could sneak in behind him.  The hope was he’d want to take me alive.  Not exactly something I wanted to stake my life on…but the stakes were bigger than any of us.

Then Andrew said it should be Cindy instead.  Something about her Titan taint and the role the Titanspawn had played in the decline of Tishtrya’s worship.  I wasn’t exactly thrilled with that.  I mean…loathe as I am to risk my life in such a manner I want to make someone else do it even less.  But it did seem to be a better solution than hoping Tishtrya wouldn’t decide to kill me.  And Gods know once Cindy gets that kind of idea put in her head you’ll have better luck moving heaven and earth than you will talking her out of it.   Which is why she acquired that Titan corruption in the first place.

But miraculously enough the plan seemed to work.  Cindy drew Tishtrya away into the temple; I blocked the hallway off with close to three-hundred cubic feet of stone.  Even if any of the other guards come back to check on Thoth I doubt they’ll be able to get through that easily.  And damn…I may have just orchestrated a trick that pulled the wool over the eyes of a god.

Now we just need to break the bindings placed on Thoth...

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Session 20

So to reach the Temple of the Sun we had to follow the Road of Initiates to the golden gate.  The road itself, a mist-enshrouded marble walkway arcing through the heavens with the world sprawled out below, might have been beautiful given better circumstances.  But that beauty was tempered by knowledge of what we would be facing upon it, temptation that would attempt to lead us from the path and from our mission.

It wasn’t hard to anticipate what form mine would take.  There’s still one issue that can rouse my temper more than anything else.  Temptation came to me before the stars of the Hydra wearing Vayu’s face.  Temptation accompanied by three figures, pale as death, whose faces I could not see.  And he said he would be collecting more of my family.

But I was forewarned against it.  I’d steeled myself against the torrent of emotions I knew would be coming.  And even if it truly was Vayu before me, I am hardly foolish enough to take anything a trickster god who bears me a grudge would say at face value.  I walked on.

Then he revealed the identity of the first of the figures to me.  My mother, but not as most would see her.  Gone was the rot that consumes half her form.  It left her beautiful, despite the pale pallor.  His first target, he said.  Whom he hunted even now while I moved to rescue Thoth.

But the deception was no more convincing simply because a face was still tacked onto it.  I checked the surge of anger, hate, again and walked on.

He must have realized that tactic wouldn’t work on me.  So next he tried to goad me by calling me a simple brute.  One who could solve problems only with his fists.

It was a tactic even easier to brush off than the first.  Were it true I’d have succumbed to the circumstances of my childhood instead of rising above it.  Still, I walked on.

His next tactic actually did halt my inexorable march forward; when he claimed to be my father, my biological father.

He claimed he’d posed as a man just like Baldur in order to catch her attention.  He claimed that she was so desperate for affection that she latched onto the first scrap he through at her, that he faked the death so she’d be left clinging to shreds of hope instead of being reduced to shattered pieces.  Why else was his ghost not at her side, he asked?  Why else would he try to adopt me?  I was born of a heritage I hated, he told me, growing closer to it even as I struggled against it.

Temptation or not, I was done listening to him talk.  Even if what he said was true, it changed nothing.  He’d still be the one who put me through close to two decades of torment, the one who by his own admission had attempted to sever ties between myself and my Mother.  His people would still destroy mine because that’s their blind self-righteousness had them convinced that it was the way things must be.

Even if he was a parent, he was no family of mine.

Even if he did sire me, there is no lack of myths where a father is overthrown by a son he’s wronged.

I was done listening to him talk, letting him try to rile me.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to leave the bridge to shut him up.  I struck a match, gazing into the purity of the flame.  Fire, and the sky around me, connections to the one I do call Father.  The solid presence of the stone walkway below me, a connection to my Mother.  I flicked the match towards him, and as it reached the phantom image I let the fire flare.  The image of Vayu, that source of torment and temptation, burned away into golden light as the sun appeared.

And I walked on.