Journal - The Lands of the Gods
Asgard, or How Visiting the Gods is Never Simple
Entering the ethereal greyness caused us to hallucinate and see visions, something that I was more used to than the others. These were particularly vivid, though, and again we saw visions of the White Council and how the monk Hintzu in particular was in danger in the old Dwarven halls of the far east. We also gained an insight into how we might deal with the particular predicament we found ourselves in, namely not knowing where the fuck to go or how to get there. Apparently the old songs that Baldir, with his Elven heritage and faith in Odin, had sung to memorise legends also had some power in places between worlds. Of those he knew, he most wanted to journey to Asgard to meet his Gods, and Odin in particular. This was unsettling, but at least I knew he wouldn't intend to stay as only those killed in battle could stay in the halls of Valhalla (which is why he is so keen to die all the time).
As he was the only one who could sing the right ballad, we roped ourselves together so that we would not get separated. It was a good job we did, as the pace of travel picked up rapidly and we would have soon been lost if left to our own devices. Takeda beat a tempo for Baldir to follow and his voice was surprisingly musical in the way that only Elves and the fey folk seem to be capable of. As the song progressed we travelled rapidly but without any wind in our hair, visions of strange places flashing past, not from our world. Some were brilliant and others terrifying, and then we passed through a great tube and suddenly stopped as if we had never started moving in the first place.
It was clear that we were no longer in the same place, though, as huge clumps of earth smashed into each other far above our heads and magma rained down in gouts around us. We descended, again with no feeling of movement, to land softly on a world in the depths of winter, with snow all around us. Sensations returned as I felt the earth beneath our feet and a biting cold wind whipping at my exposed skin. A fierce, thunderous noise echoed above us, although the sky was now obscured with grey cloud and snow was blown into our eyes with the wind. We quickly pulled out the furs we had set out in from Fontainver, wrapping up as best we could against the elements.
Squinting against the snow we started to make sense of the landscape. We stood on a snow-covered path running across a steep slope, with rocky outcrops on one side and a drop to an ice covered lake on the other. Baldir called on Odin to protect us, and we were at once warmed as if standing in a brisk summer breeze, relaxing a little and removing the rope we had depended on to get here as one party. We set off along the path, with no other obvious way to travel.
After a short while we saw, to our left, the head and shoulders of a huge humanoid, ape-like, giant cresting the rise. He saw us at about the same time and started to run towards us. He was wearing furs and a backpack, and carrying a large battleaxe that he obviously intended to put to use. I quickly conjured some magic missiles, sending two into his bulk and then moving to put the fighters between him and me. I need not have worried, as Rhion and Takeda killed the thing with arrow fire before he could reach us. They rolled the corpse over to look in the backpack, finding swords, gems and a cloak. The brief encounter over, we continued our journey along the single path, first moving up the slope and then zig-zagging steeply down. Despite the constantly falling snow, we were not impeded by it as long as we kept to the path, which I found curious and suggested that a kind of dweomer was in place.
An ice river, flowing down towards the lake, crossed our path ahead. Spanning this was a beautifully carved gemstone bridge, about twenty feet or so in length. Looking up there seemed to be a glacier far above us, making this the only sound crossing point. Unfortunately a massive dog, as tall as a human at the shoulder, stood in the centre of the bridge, and as we approached a howling of wolves arose from around us. This was all very symbolic, with a 'wolf' (Fenrir?) and a bridge (Bifrost?) on the path to Asgard!