Flight of the Valkyrie - The Wolfpack
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xp_logsMarie-Ange, Doug and Angelo meet the minions of Garm
It felt like they'd been walking for ages, only to be told that their journey wasn't even half over. The stone earth beneath their feet began to darken as they could see fleck of black sand starting to appears in the mix. It continued so, marking the true beginning of the Helway; the path souls would take into Hela's realm. They entered into a forest of twisted and gnarled tree, leafless and dead, pointing their clawed branches up towards an increasingly dark sky. The path continued on, winding through the forest and closer to a mountain range ahead. It loomed dark and ominous as they approached and when the forest was cleared, they found themselves at the base, looking up at the sheer outcroppings and crags.
Ahead, the path continued straight towards a cave. It looked more like a wound in the rock; a slash of black against the already dark stone. It was the Gnipa Cave. The first boundary to the heart of Hel, and the site of the first Guardian: Garm. As they got closer, a monstrous wolf slowly got up from its bed of scraps and bones, the detritus of a thousand warriors who failed in their challenge. The wolf was twice even Valkyrie's height at the shoulder and a head the size of a car regarded them as it licked its jaws with a deep red tongue, yellow eyes narrowing as it took in the group. They lingered longest on Valkyrie before it turned and moved deeper into the cave, disappearing from view. Before they could celebrate the passage of Garm, howls broke loose at its heels, and a half dozen wolves the size of horses raced out of the cave, snarling and howling as they raced towards their prey.
Angelo almost smiled as he lifted his sword, studying the wolves' gait for weaknesses and paths to the heart. "Guess Garm doesn't think we're worth his own effort yet."
Doug hoisted his own sword and chuckled. "Doesn't he know that sending in mooks to soften up the heroes never works out?" He was still somewhat ginger on his injured knee, but he'd wrapped it and taken some painkillers, so he could still move fairly well. "Although I suppose it's a bit much to expect genre savvy from a wolf, even a mythical one."
"If you start quoting Baldr's Draumar at us, I am going to stab you, not the hell wolves." Marie-Ange said, wearily. Before she was done speaking, she had a pair of cards out, and a great hedge of vine and thrones was weaving itself around them tightly. "Let us slow them down, yes? Funnel them through a single path and avoid being flanked."
"Good plan", Angelo agreed, watching the barrier spring up. "And the more we kill, the way in gets narrower."
"Use the bodies to our advantage," Doug said with a nod. "Bad doggos, negative eleven out of ten!" he yelled at the wolves. "Would not pet!" The wolves howled even louder, though it was difficult to say whether they comprehended Doug's insulting memes or just hungered for prey. Shoulder to shoulder, the two young men brought swords up and slashed in tandem as the wolves came into their reach.
"Your priority is to keep them away from me, if I lose concentration it becomes a free for all." Marie-Ange had climbed atop a rock to direct her unnatural hedge maze, but it was nowhere near tall enough to keep her safe from horse-sized wolves. The vines and hedge split and joined around each of the wolves, until they were penned in.
Angelo turned towards the nearest newly-made enclosure and the snarling wolf inside, and experimentally stabbed his sword into the hedge to see if it would go all the way through.
The hedge, like a normal one, yielded to the sword thrust and the wolf yelped in pain and frustration. Doug took another wolf, which had wriggled loose enough to swipe a paw at him. He rolled beneath the blow and slashed upward. "Bad dog! Bad!" He spared the briefest moment to wonder about where Frankenberrycat Cain Marko might be, even as he skipped back from snapping jaws and kept his sword darting in front of him.
The hedge - like all of Marie-Ange's images, gave way all too quickly against the destructive capabilities of one single dire wolf. It buckled and reformed and buckled again, and sprung back up, reconfigured and twisted. Darker, black, covered in thorns that jutted out like knives.
One of the wolves flung itself at the hedge and quickly learned its error, recoiling with a yelp.The others, also learning, hung back and watched the three balefully.
Angelo turned to help Doug, aiming his strike for the wolf's throat.
Doug and Angelo's blades worked almost like scissors, cutting in opposite direction and hewing the wolf's head nearly off of its body. As the first of their foes fell, Doug looked to Marie-Ange to see if she could release its body from the hedge.Hopefully it would fall in the path of others - not like you could easily muscle a corpse that size around.
The hedge was already wobbling like oversized jell-o salad. Marie-Ange gripped the card in her hand so tightly that it wrinkled, and the vines stabilized everywhere except the corpse."I do not have much more I can do this." She called."You both know my images do not last when damaged, stop stabbing them."
Angelo shot her an apologetic look, trying to use his sword as a lever to tip the huge body where he wanted it to go, as the other wolves paced in their cages."Got a bit carried away."
Doug managed an embarrassed shrug, and as a result his attention strayed a bit from the wolves.Not much, but just enough for one of them to get through the line he and Angelo had held.It darted around to one side, quicker than anything that size had a right to be, and a paw the size of a bowling ball smashed into Doug's back, sending him staggering even farther away from the choke point.Its companions howled and pressed forward.
The hedge was keeping the wolves from attacking, but also keeping Angelo and Marie-Ange from rescuing Doug from the wolf that had leapt atop him and was growling furiously almost - no exactly - like a dog protecting it's next meal.
The hedge was the problem and the solution, and for a few terrifying seconds, it was nearly gone, shrunk down to a single ring surrounding the rock that Marie-Ange had climbed on, and giant wolves came at the trio from every direction. Then it grew, wrapping up and around the rock and splitting in two, and expanding until it was a thirty-foot-tall man-hedge.
The hedgemonster batted away one wolf, and stomped upon another, trapping it under a thorny foot. It then bent and gently picked up Doug in one giant green claw and set him down on the rock next to Marie-Ange.
Angelo braced as a wolf flung itself at him, focused entirely on pushing its head back so it couldn't actually bite him, and then spared a little attention to stretch out his fingers.
Those wrapped around the wolf's neck, tightening and tightening until it went limp and fell.
Doug's head was still ringing like someone had used it as the replacement clapper for Big Ben, but he recognized the signs of exertion in Marie-Ange's body, and how close she was to passing out.And the giant plant golem was turning the tide.He staggered to Marie-Ange, pulling her arm over his shoulders so that she could spend less energy supporting her own body and give that much more to the image she had made.
The golem swung a fist and knocked a wolf several dozen feet away."Fetch, Planty!" Doug called somewhat drunkenly - he'd blame Wade's influence for the ridiculous nicknaming."Not so funny when the shoe's on the other foot, is it?" he called at the wolves."Who's next?"He pushed every bit of confidence and intimidation into his voice and body language.
It was enough, combined with the rampaging topiary, to break the tide of battle, and the wolves scurried backward, whimpering and pawing at the ground, no longer willing to brave the Midgardians' blades and strange magic.
It felt like they'd been walking for ages, only to be told that their journey wasn't even half over. The stone earth beneath their feet began to darken as they could see fleck of black sand starting to appears in the mix. It continued so, marking the true beginning of the Helway; the path souls would take into Hela's realm. They entered into a forest of twisted and gnarled tree, leafless and dead, pointing their clawed branches up towards an increasingly dark sky. The path continued on, winding through the forest and closer to a mountain range ahead. It loomed dark and ominous as they approached and when the forest was cleared, they found themselves at the base, looking up at the sheer outcroppings and crags.
Ahead, the path continued straight towards a cave. It looked more like a wound in the rock; a slash of black against the already dark stone. It was the Gnipa Cave. The first boundary to the heart of Hel, and the site of the first Guardian: Garm. As they got closer, a monstrous wolf slowly got up from its bed of scraps and bones, the detritus of a thousand warriors who failed in their challenge. The wolf was twice even Valkyrie's height at the shoulder and a head the size of a car regarded them as it licked its jaws with a deep red tongue, yellow eyes narrowing as it took in the group. They lingered longest on Valkyrie before it turned and moved deeper into the cave, disappearing from view. Before they could celebrate the passage of Garm, howls broke loose at its heels, and a half dozen wolves the size of horses raced out of the cave, snarling and howling as they raced towards their prey.
Angelo almost smiled as he lifted his sword, studying the wolves' gait for weaknesses and paths to the heart. "Guess Garm doesn't think we're worth his own effort yet."
Doug hoisted his own sword and chuckled. "Doesn't he know that sending in mooks to soften up the heroes never works out?" He was still somewhat ginger on his injured knee, but he'd wrapped it and taken some painkillers, so he could still move fairly well. "Although I suppose it's a bit much to expect genre savvy from a wolf, even a mythical one."
"If you start quoting Baldr's Draumar at us, I am going to stab you, not the hell wolves." Marie-Ange said, wearily. Before she was done speaking, she had a pair of cards out, and a great hedge of vine and thrones was weaving itself around them tightly. "Let us slow them down, yes? Funnel them through a single path and avoid being flanked."
"Good plan", Angelo agreed, watching the barrier spring up. "And the more we kill, the way in gets narrower."
"Use the bodies to our advantage," Doug said with a nod. "Bad doggos, negative eleven out of ten!" he yelled at the wolves. "Would not pet!" The wolves howled even louder, though it was difficult to say whether they comprehended Doug's insulting memes or just hungered for prey. Shoulder to shoulder, the two young men brought swords up and slashed in tandem as the wolves came into their reach.
"Your priority is to keep them away from me, if I lose concentration it becomes a free for all." Marie-Ange had climbed atop a rock to direct her unnatural hedge maze, but it was nowhere near tall enough to keep her safe from horse-sized wolves. The vines and hedge split and joined around each of the wolves, until they were penned in.
Angelo turned towards the nearest newly-made enclosure and the snarling wolf inside, and experimentally stabbed his sword into the hedge to see if it would go all the way through.
The hedge, like a normal one, yielded to the sword thrust and the wolf yelped in pain and frustration. Doug took another wolf, which had wriggled loose enough to swipe a paw at him. He rolled beneath the blow and slashed upward. "Bad dog! Bad!" He spared the briefest moment to wonder about where Frankenberrycat Cain Marko might be, even as he skipped back from snapping jaws and kept his sword darting in front of him.
The hedge - like all of Marie-Ange's images, gave way all too quickly against the destructive capabilities of one single dire wolf. It buckled and reformed and buckled again, and sprung back up, reconfigured and twisted. Darker, black, covered in thorns that jutted out like knives.
One of the wolves flung itself at the hedge and quickly learned its error, recoiling with a yelp.The others, also learning, hung back and watched the three balefully.
Angelo turned to help Doug, aiming his strike for the wolf's throat.
Doug and Angelo's blades worked almost like scissors, cutting in opposite direction and hewing the wolf's head nearly off of its body. As the first of their foes fell, Doug looked to Marie-Ange to see if she could release its body from the hedge.Hopefully it would fall in the path of others - not like you could easily muscle a corpse that size around.
The hedge was already wobbling like oversized jell-o salad. Marie-Ange gripped the card in her hand so tightly that it wrinkled, and the vines stabilized everywhere except the corpse."I do not have much more I can do this." She called."You both know my images do not last when damaged, stop stabbing them."
Angelo shot her an apologetic look, trying to use his sword as a lever to tip the huge body where he wanted it to go, as the other wolves paced in their cages."Got a bit carried away."
Doug managed an embarrassed shrug, and as a result his attention strayed a bit from the wolves.Not much, but just enough for one of them to get through the line he and Angelo had held.It darted around to one side, quicker than anything that size had a right to be, and a paw the size of a bowling ball smashed into Doug's back, sending him staggering even farther away from the choke point.Its companions howled and pressed forward.
The hedge was keeping the wolves from attacking, but also keeping Angelo and Marie-Ange from rescuing Doug from the wolf that had leapt atop him and was growling furiously almost - no exactly - like a dog protecting it's next meal.
The hedge was the problem and the solution, and for a few terrifying seconds, it was nearly gone, shrunk down to a single ring surrounding the rock that Marie-Ange had climbed on, and giant wolves came at the trio from every direction. Then it grew, wrapping up and around the rock and splitting in two, and expanding until it was a thirty-foot-tall man-hedge.
The hedgemonster batted away one wolf, and stomped upon another, trapping it under a thorny foot. It then bent and gently picked up Doug in one giant green claw and set him down on the rock next to Marie-Ange.
Angelo braced as a wolf flung itself at him, focused entirely on pushing its head back so it couldn't actually bite him, and then spared a little attention to stretch out his fingers.
Those wrapped around the wolf's neck, tightening and tightening until it went limp and fell.
Doug's head was still ringing like someone had used it as the replacement clapper for Big Ben, but he recognized the signs of exertion in Marie-Ange's body, and how close she was to passing out.And the giant plant golem was turning the tide.He staggered to Marie-Ange, pulling her arm over his shoulders so that she could spend less energy supporting her own body and give that much more to the image she had made.
The golem swung a fist and knocked a wolf several dozen feet away."Fetch, Planty!" Doug called somewhat drunkenly - he'd blame Wade's influence for the ridiculous nicknaming."Not so funny when the shoe's on the other foot, is it?" he called at the wolves."Who's next?"He pushed every bit of confidence and intimidation into his voice and body language.
It was enough, combined with the rampaging topiary, to break the tide of battle, and the wolves scurried backward, whimpering and pawing at the ground, no longer willing to brave the Midgardians' blades and strange magic.
