What You Missed- Echoes of Ragnarok IV by Adrian "Cronin Barbaria" Cronin
We arrived in Alvheim on Saturday morning. Heroes of the realms readied their equipment and made small talk before being escorted into a room full of puzzles that rewarded us with gems which we then used to power “float stones.” These we would be using to activate our airship. Some of the gems were protected by some Kobolds outside, so those of us with more of a mind for steel took to laying them out. High Priestess Kindrianna and Templar Vawn did make sure the Kobolds were evil before we put them down.
After a fun scrap with those pesky dragonkin, we brought the gems back inside where the puzzles were completed and yielding of other colored gems. At this point, we boarded the airship and began to take stock of how it would operate. There were multiple stations with advanced controls, as well as oars for rowing, and shields which hung over the side. The shields all had special properties which empowered the wielder and also protected the ship. Best of all was a ballista which Mogar promptly attached himself too, much to our gain for he rarely missed his mark all day.
We elected Captain Nhadala of Grimloch to lead in the expedition and bind her soul to the ship. A… screen, I believe they called it, directed the various stations on how to set the ship up in various maneuvers as well as signaling the rowers and warning us of imminent danger. With a basic understanding of how to operate the ship, we were off.
Our first stop was to grab supplies at a dock, but we were promptly ambushed by raiders in less sophisticated vessels. Mogar blasted them with ballista shots, and our shield wielders did a fine job of blocking the assault from the rival’s ship. Once docked, and still fighting, we were clued in that there were bomb-making supplies scattered on the docks. How fortuitous! So without a station of my own, I ran onto the docks and began grabbing as many bomb reagents as possible and bringing them to the ship for assembly. We used the bombs to blast the ships into oblivion.
With the supplies in hand and our enemies plummeted and destroyed, we took off and began the tedious yet interesting task of operating the ship. The crew did fantastically. But of course, flying through the air in a magical longship is bound to attract attention.
Our ship came under attack by dragons and giant birds. I tried very hard to shoo the birds away but admittedly took pleasure in felling the dragons, call me old-fashioned. Kara of Blackwood was my direct competitor in dragon slaying and I have to admit she smote twice my number at least.
Beginning to near… space? We found the ship bound by vines and vine monsters. We used grappling hooks to hang from the ship and begin the slow process of untethering the ship. Once completed we pulled everyone into the ship and untangled the ropes. In this process, Tempest almost fell to her final death but I was able to catch her with Azurewrath and swing her back on board. At this point, we sailed on into the darkness of space.
Space was weird. A giant... amoeba, ameebah? A me buh… Well, some giant green space monster took half our number and absorbed it into itself. We used steel wings called jetpacks and missiles to untether and rescue our friends. They were covered in goo and nauseous but overall ready to sally forth in our space Viking adventure.
This was followed by even more complicated but interesting maneuvers. The ship’s crew worked as a tight unit to get their stations set correctly and the rowers didn’t make a single mistake the entire voyage.
Just before reaching the moon, the danger warning began to go off on the screen. A vast army of space invaders began to approach our ship. From the supplies we picked up earlier in the voyage we found missiles of various colors which could be hurled at the enemy. So the messy onslaught began and after a short time we finished off the enemy and did our final landing maneuver to the moon.
Once we landed, we met a half-crazed elf who offered us food and respite from our journey. The meatballs and mac’n cheese were delicious. We ate and then the curious elf explained that we would have multiple pieces of equipment to restore in order to get the moon and its portals working again. He also told us that a penal colony of dark elves would be fighting to stop us and seize the portals for themselves. At this point, all of us warriors began cracking our knuckles in delight, for space was confusing and we longed for the serenity of battle.
The various stages may be out of order in my head, but that is ok. Moon rules.
The first stage of battle required us to conquer barriers by flipping and maintaining cubes at their respective gates, all the while dark elves poked at us from the other side. Once completed we were able to storm through and decimate them.
The second stage involved us repairing power conductors while redirecting dwarven automatons. Again, I don’t know what half the words I’m saying are.
After this, we battled the dark elves openly, and as they died they sprayed small stones into the air which we stored in cups of different colors and sorted them… I say we but I was of little help in the tiny rock department. Instead, I took to laying waste to the dark elves of the moon.
Our final push was to build a bridge over a cavern to reach the lunar activation console. All while dark elves rode dragons and flew around on jetpacks while throwing ice balls and fireballs at us. I pinched myself multiple times and I assure you this wasn’t a dream… I think.
We finally completed the bridge and started the lunar console which activated the portal home. Our Voranians took a bit of time to say goodbye to one of our own before sending him back to his homeland. Helkias the Blackraven may grace the realms with his presence again one day, but for now, he is needed elsewhere.
With the moon secured, an exhausted, confused, and satisfied adventuring party went home with the thanks of the Jomsvikings in their wake. The road is clear to Asgard.
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OOC: This event had some of the greatest mechanics I have seen. We spent most of the day huddled in close quarters between ropes that very much felt like a longship. Though the tone of the event was quite light-hearted and silly compared to its predecessors in the event series, it felt like the perfect stage to playtest some really fun ship mechanics that I hope get repeated.