After Action Report
Events of 4 November 1017 (B.M.R.)
Journey Into Helheim
Following the request from Urlic of the Jomsvikings, the adventurers of the Realms met again in Rhiassa to further the process of restarting Ragnarok in his world. This time we were to enter Helheim, the world of the dead, where the beings that had once helped Hel marshal the dead had now betrayed her and declared themselves Generals for another master. They were now rallying the dishonored souls to their banner so that they could overthrow Hel and claim her world for their own. The armies of the dishonored were so vast that we could not hope to reduce them by any appreciable degree in direct combat, however, there were a number of wellsprings across the world of Helheim that were providing power to the enemy, and Ulric told us that destroying those would have a significant impact on Hel’s defense. There were some questions as to why we, heros from a different plane, should take the side of the ruler of Helheim when she was unlikely to reward our efforts with free passage from her land of souls; but given that the stalling of Ragnarok was caused by Bedlam (which we did release), we began our mission.
Immediately upon passing into Helheim, we all felt weakened. I was unable to effectively wield my longblade, so I switched to a shortsword and dagger until I could recover my power. Ulric had warned us that this would happen; Honor was power in this world, and in order to regain our strength, we would need to take Honor from our enemies. As individuals collected Honor, they would find themselves stronger and able to wield heavier weapons and shields, or more focused and better able to make use of their armor or magic. It did not take long before my longblade was back in my hands.
The dishonored dead that opposed our progress were almost trivial to defeat. As most of their number were on the front lines of their civil war, the reserves that guarded each wellspring were small and easily engaged in combat. I believe that more attention was paid to the deep pits that scoured the passageways than to the enemies around them. And as if we needed more reasons to not want to fall into a deep dark pit in a world of death, we quickly discovered that they were full of deadly disease and debilitated the senses of their mortal victims, causing them to be deaf, blind, mute, and unmotivated until a good deal of Honor-power could be given to them.
Occasionally our advance was blocked by doors that could only be opened by performing a certain sequence of hand claps, food stomps, and…. tones created by the colorful bones of particularly musical skeletons? Luckily, the required pattern was engraved on each door and Cressida, the Royal Bard of Chimeron, did a good job of organizing groups of people to unlock these doors while the rest of us kept the dishonored dead at bay.
The first wellspring was down a long passage in which a strong wind was blowing so hard it was almost impossible to walk against; we had to make chains of people with arms linked to move between anchoring points. Thankfully, the dishonored dead must have believed the wind to be a sufficient defense on its own and did not personally guard this wellspring, which we discovered to be a glass goblet filled with black liquid atop a stone pillar. A couple of adventurers who were under the effects of necromancy wanted to drink the elixir, believing that it could bring them more power, but we smashed the goblet before that could happen as it was our mission to do so.
We returned to our staging area for a brief respite before setting out for the next wellspring. As before, we fought our way through pitted passageways and clap-stomped our way through doors until we came to a large room guarded by two long earthen snakes. In the middle of the room, there was a pile of dirt and rocks, and in a corner was the wellspring, identical to the first, but this time bound with chains connected to weighing scales. Each scale had a bowl with a few rocks of a color unique to that scale. We noticed that the dirt pile also contained color rocks, so we set about sifting through it and sorting the rocks to their respective bowls. While this was happening, Crispin of House Griffindor successfully conducted a ritual to empower the newest adventurers among us with more Honor-power. When all of the scales had enough rocks as to be balanced, the chains around the wellspring fell away. Rox of Saurabia had been eagerly standing by the pillar and immediately drank the potion. He did not report any ill effects, but we remained cautious of him nonetheless.
The third wellspring was in a more open area of Helheim. This time instead of trooping through dark passageways, we needed to cross a bridge across which streamed dishonored dead armed with a deluge of magical missiles. First we needed to conquer the bridge, section by section, in what has been the strangest bridge-battle of my career. We needed to freeze a few of the dishonored dead in certain positions in each segment of the bridge before we could advance, and this was done by blasting them with icy missiles which we crafted from water from the Well of Souls, salt from Hel’s tears, and powdered bones from the dead. Yay alchemy!
The fourth and final wellspring was in the Well of Souls itself. We were back to narrow passages, this time even darker than before. After cutting a path through this group of reserves, we arrived at the location of the wellspring. It was bound by chains in a fashion similar to the second wellspring, but instead of colored rocks, we needed move bubbling souls across the large room (and around pits) to achieve an equilibrium that unlocked the chains. As before, Rox drank the black liquid, but this time his form mutated and he turned into something that looked like the dishonored dead which we had been fighting this whole time. He appeared to retain his own free will, although he was left behind somewhat unintentionally as we were going back through the passages when one of the doors closed between him and the rest of the party. When we encountered him again later, he seemed to have been taken by the same force that was empowering our enemies, and Sir Vawn of Eagle’s Rook smited him.
We returned to our staging area once again where food from Rhiassa was sent to us. We ate macaroni and cheese with Rhiassan pork while we designed dolls that we would use to escape Helheim. Before we had begun our mission, Ulric told us about a legend wherein an ancient hero escaped from the land of the dead by distracting the Son of Fenrir (who guarded the way out) with an imitation of his real self. We found this imitation doll shortly after entering Helheim, and had been collecting blank dolls and materials left by an advance group of Jomsvikings for ourselves ever since. We also found a small chest that was locked with a very complex sequence of bone-pitches, stomps, claps, and finger-snaps. As she had been doing through the mission, Cressida skillfully unlocked the box, revealing a collection of alchemical components that we would need to destroy the experiments in the Dark Lab.
Having replenished ourselves with food and created an army of dolls in our own image, we set out for the Dark Lab, where we would destroy the last remnants of the power supplying the traitorous Generals and their dishonored dead. The approach to the Lab was of course guarded, although we had amassed enough Honor-power that the fighting was easy. But nothing could have prepared us for the terrible sight we found in the lab. The source of the black liquid that had been controlling the dishonored dead was nothing less than a Bedlam Bois trapped in stasis by a complex chamber and impaled upon a magic dagger. Even writing of it now makes the light in my quarters where I am writing this report seem darker. We carefully coordinated ourselves, as the destruction of everything in the Lab had to be nearly simultaneous. The alchemical experiments were made inert with the components from the chest I previously mentioned, the tables upon which they were conducted were burned, and everything was smashed to pieces. All of this caused the stasis chamber to fail, and as we ripped the dagger from the creature, it caught up to the current timeline and vanished from existence.
Our mission as given by Ulric was complete, and we fled from Helheim. The legend of the mimic-doll turned out to be truth, and we all snuck past the Son of Fenrir. But even though we were back in Rhiassa, our work was not yet done. The dagger we pulled from the stasis chamber belonged to Hel herself, and there was a great deal of debate about what was to be done with it. At the suggestion of Sir Tao, a lottery was finally decided on, and we all drew cards from a deck. Tulli’s child won this lottery, although I do not know what they intend to do with the blade. Additionally, we had a Saurabian goblin in desperate need of strong healing, having consumed a great deal of what we now knew to be condensed Bedlam. And then on top of that, we had a number of strategic questions: Why was a Bois being used to power a rebellion in Hel? Are there any other Bois in stasis? And most importantly, who is behind all of this?
Conclusions:
The Bedlam War seems to have had greater consequences in the lands of the Jomsvikings than we initially thought. There are truly evil forces at work here.
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Captain Orion Mars, Chimeron Militia
Squire to the Knight Protectors of Faerie
Sworn Member of the Azure Guard
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