ic How to Build a Better Scythe

[Gizmo]

July 11, 2015

Kimber finished etching the last rune into the surface of the ice with a telekinetically controlled chisel before floating a few meters into the air to survey her work critically. After the better part of two years of preparation and careful work she wasn't going to let the arcane ritual equivalent of a typo ruin everything now, especially now with so many of her friends on the way to help pull off her plan. Indira and Eve were already waiting on the bleachers on the other side of the plexiglass, the latter having been convinced to rent out the indoor ice rink for the day with only a minimum of pleading. Kimber had asked Tarva to head up to the announcer's booth so that she could double check the complex circles of inscribed sigils that made up the first step of the day's undertaking.

Satisfied with the results, the poltergeist nodded and turned to her friends, hands on her hips. "Good to go! Just in time, too! Everybody should be getting here pretty soon!"

[trollthumper]

Nick Cimitiere arrived at the ice rink, a little glad that this necromantic ritual was being performed somewhere cool and indoors. The process that had tempered his trademark leather jacket into something as resilient as steel had also given it a measure of cooling, meaning he didn't sweat to death when he went on patrol on humid summer days - but some days, it got quite a workout. Plus, it didn't exactly keep the makeup from running or the pomade from quitting. So he was happy to get out of the heat and onto the ice.

When he thought of places for necromantic rituals, he didn't think of skating rinks. Graveyards, sure. Morgues, right. Church crypts, potters' fields, maybe even the occasional auction house or evidence locker - but skating rinks? Not really high on the list. But Kimber had told him some of the details of the ritual, and he had to admit, they seemed fairly sound. It was just a matter of seeing how they all came together. 

"Hey," he said, taking a look around. "Ready to make some magic happen." 

[Avenger Assembled]

Comrade Frost had actually spat out his 'tea' when Kimber had told him the full details of her plan, resulting in an unpleasant mess of frozen red crystals near the chair where she'd been hovering. But when he'd figured out she was serious, he'd nodded and gravely promised her his full support.

"Greetings, dimensional travelers!" he boomed as he pushed open the gate from the visitor's bench, slowly and deliberately walking out onto the ice. He didn't seem very grave now, though, not with a giant thermos in his hand and a fluffy red scarf wrapped around his parka, and a big smile on his face. "Ah, Bartlett Arena! Scene of famous victory of Soviet Red Army hockey team over Freedom City Blades in 1987 exhibition game! Ah, such a time that was. Hello, lovely ladies," he added, waving over at the direction of Indira and Eve. The sight of Eve always sobered him just a little - at least for a moment. He clapped Nick Cimitiere on the back as he passed him. "Nick! You old son of gun! How is that mother of yours?"  He winked. "Kimber! My favorite Canadian girl, are you ready for the chilly embrace of Jotunheim?" 

[Electra]

A little way behind Frost, the doors opened again, and this time a rush of fluttering, flapping wings announced the new arrival. Thousands of paper cranes poured through the door like a mad flock of tiny migrating birds, all different colors and textures. They formed a brief cyclone, then a column, then scattered to the winds to reveal a good-looking young man with dark hair and a black leather jacket. Koshiro McMillan, sometimes better known as Papercut, had definitely done a little filling out since his days at Claremont Academy, getting a bit broader in the chest and shoulders, a little taller, and losing most of the habitual slouch. And though it might have seemed impossible, he looked to have lost some of the sullen attitude as well. He grinned broadly in Kimber, Eve, and Indira's direction. "Hey, Young Freedom! You miss me?" 

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy couldn’t help but be fascinated by Kimbers invitation, as much by what she hadn’t told the undead lawyer. Luckily her cases had been going pretty well and she managed to clear her workload for the day, beside Erica was more than capable of handling most of the work.

She slipped in almost unnoticed behind a much more creative entrance and scanned the room for anyone she knew.

“Nick’s how are you, it’s been a while.” she gave the Necromancer a hug and a friendly peck on the cheek “Nora’s been asking about you, I think she’d give you the choice of any cut’s of meats you want for no charge.” she gave one of her broad smiles.

As she spoke she brain was whirling away trying to work out why she’d been asked to help, NIck was a specialist you tended to ask to deal with very specific problems.

“I don’t suppose you’d like to share why we’ve been invited here? I doubt we’ve all be asked here for a fun day skating...”

[Fox]

"Koshiro!"

The metal sculpture that had been over by Eve turned its head, barren of any features except for three solid-black eyes, and where the head looked the rest followed - something grew several new legs to more easily crawl over the seats toward the rink, and then form spike tips at their ends to casually stride across the ice to one of the new arrivals.

Then, at least, she returned to being humanoid - silver, nigh-featureless, but humanoid enough. "You," she accused, though the humming voice was entirely too friendly to back up the ire in the words, "are very bad at staying in touch."

[Gizmo]

"Probably readier that you, Uncle," Kimber teased Dimitri fondly, a mirror of his scarf in blue snaking itself around her neck before disappearing with as little explanation as it had appeared. Unlike her the jovial draugr took no comfort in the cold and she appreciated the sacrifice helping with this particular errand represented for him. "I set up the runes like you showed me, just scaled up a little bit! If you wanted to double check it all, though, that probably wouldn't hurt?" She gave him the sheepish smile of a student embarrassed to be colouring outside the lines in front of a teacher.

She gave Eric and Lucy a big wave when she spotted them near the doors from the rink's lobby but like Indira most of her excitement was directed toward the dark haired young man and his multicoloured entrance. "You made it!" she cheered, zooming over just behind the Kinigosi warrior and bouncing up and down in the air in lieu of being able to wrap their classmate in a hug. "And you're all respectable now! Handsome, even! ...pretend I didn't sound so surprised." Her deadpan didn't make it through more than a syllable or two before it was replaced with a cheeky ear-to-ear grin.

[Electra]

Koshiro gave Indira a grin that was entirely unrepentant. "Well I meant to write, but I kept using up all my stationery saving the city from disaster and doom." He flicked a finger and a handful of cranes came spiraling down like snowflakes to land on the Kinigosi. "Detroit's not like Freedom City, you haven't got a hero on every block to keep things from getting crazy. It's all on the brave and severely overworked municipal defenders! Though it sounds like you've had plenty of crazy going down the past couple years here. I'm glad to see you're all okay," he added in a quick moment of perfect seriousness. 

He waved to Kimber at her approach, rolling his eyes at the cheerful slam to his appearance. "Typical, I fly across three states to help you out with... I am honestly not even sure what you're doing except that because it's Young Freedom and Freedom City, it's probably ungodly dangerous, but I come anyway, and all I get is abuse!" He shook his head with great sadness. "I don't think I even recognize most of these people. Where's Sharl?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Sharl had to catch his own ride!" called a voice at once familiar and unfamiliar. Sharl hadn't had a robotic body back in Young Freedom days - but the figure that was just walking out through those doors was clearly Sharl. The chest symbol was the same and the lines of the body matched Citizen in costume, but the big, bulky robot only looked somewhat human with his rounded belly, heavy limbs, and glowing red eyes. "I figured there aren't going to be a lot of computer networks in Earth-Jotunheim, so it was time to take this body out for another spin." He grinned at the sight of Koshiro, flexible robot mouth twitching. "Hey, man, good to see you!" Reaching over, he clapped him on the back with a big robot hand, careful not to knock him over. "I saw that thing you did with that Ironweaver girl on Youtube, nice!" 

He nodded a friendly hello to Kimber and Indira, still a little surprised the former had called on him. Kimber had been...different around him since the fight with the Curator, even before they'd all gone their separate ways. "Hey, you guys look great. How's things with Blue Fox?" Not knowing how much people there knew about the secret IDs of his friends, he took no chances. It really had been a long time. As they talked, he shot a glance up towards the sportscaster's booth, accessing its internal cameras to get a good, quick look at the occupant. "Temperance is on her way; she just ran into some things."

 

Edited July 12, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Ecalsneerg]

 "I set up the runes like you showed me, just scaled up a little bit! If you wanted to double check it all, though, that probably wouldn't hurt?" She gave him the sheepish smile of a student embarrassed to be colouring outside the lines in front of a teacher.

"The runes look perfectly fine," said Siobhan, sweeping into the room. She had her long coat fastened across her front, trailing down to her ankles, where she was wearing bigger, clumpier boots than usual. She was used to under-heated tiny offices, but this was a little colder than that. A nicotine patch poked out from under the collar of her coat, so she wouldn't drop ash on the delicate inscribing. Atop her hair was a large Davy Crockett hat, tail dangling to her shoulder. "You've come on a lot, I think this should work out just fine." She gave the ghost a reassuring smile, and inclined her head to those among the group she actually knew. "Frost. Wraith. Nick." At the mention of Nick's name, her hat reared up, the raccoon on her head chittering and wiggling a paw at him. 

She cast an eye around the large group of very disparate people. "Looks like this is going to get elaborate," she commented wrily.

[trollthumper]

Ice was always a comfort to Temperance, especially during the height of the summer. She was immune to the vagaries of winter, but summer was another matter entirely. Trying to keep the mask together was half the job, and she could just forget about the pea coat. Still, it meant a time to try and fashion together new costumes, new ensembles, usually made of flowing ice that could be kept together with a little spritz of bottled water (like the bottles she carried within her sidebag). Today, she was wearing something like chain made out of snowflakes with her usual icy carnival mask. It was lightweight, it was eyecatching, and it would be relatively easy to maintain until they got to Jotunheim - at which point, hopefully, she wouldn't have to devote any attention.

"Sorry for the delay," she said. "Slight matters with traffic." She gave Sharl's robot body a quick peck on what she approximated to be the cheek, gave Kimber a big friendly wave, and then turned her attention to the others. She gave a brief wave to those she hadn't seen before - at least, in person; she'd seen photos of them at one time or another in Freedom's trades - and a polite nod to Nick Cimitiere, who she hadn't seen for some time. "Looking forward to seeing another plane. Been a while since I've been to one of those."

[Gizmo]

"Oh my jams, you're like a big metal teddy bear!" Kimber gaped at Sharl's robotic body, floating around in a wide circle to get a better look at the rotund frame. After what she'd seen during the Curator's attack on Tronik is was hard not to think of this as just a copy of her Sharl, a clone at best, an imposter at worst. But this Sharl had come to help when she'd asked, this Sharl was still her friend and she had to admit that she hadn't been holding up her end of that friendship. This Sharl was also still clearly a huge dork, based on his 'outfit'. As Equinox and Temperance arrived she took a moment to give the computerized hero a mischievous grin. "Bet you my corporeal plan is better, though, even if it does use magic." She looked from Sharl to Koshiro, beaming. "It's so totally great to see you guys again, truly. Thanks for coming."

Floating back a few paces and rising into the air overhead she shot Siobhan a grateful look at the encouragement and waved back to Eliza. "I called ahead and asked Velkr to meet us on the other side! The thing with Heimdall and Ymir's heart was kind of a big deal in Jotunheim, I guess!" Looking over the assembled group, she clapped her hands. "Okay, that's everybody who said they could make it! Thank you all so much, everybody, seriously! Not everybody's heard the whole plan yet so I'll go over that real quick but first maybe some introductions? I don't think everybody knows everybody yet!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Is fine," said Frost with an easy wave as he walked the paths Kimber had carved in the ice of the skating rink. "Looks like straightforward runic dimensional gateway, and without even usual blood sacrifice. Not sure what I am going to do with this, hah-hah-hah!" he added, waving his thermos around cheerfully. "Have to find some place to store it." He winked at Kimber like her least trustworthy uncle and unscrewed the lid before taking a long swig. "Hello, friends of Kimber Storm and former Young Freedom." He practically lit up at the sight of Equinox - assuming he wasn't a little lit already. "Equinox, my witch of war, I promise you delights in courts of Jotunheim! Steins of meads as big as your body!" He held his hand up till it reached the level of her head. "Hunks of lamb as big giant robot fellow over there!" 

As he spoke, Tarva the Black made her appearance in a faint curl of shadow right in the middle of the arena. Usually melodramatic, she was all-business here, well, mostly. Appearing behind Kimber, she stage-whispered, "The spells closing the gateway behind us are all prepared, Kimber! No ravening beasts will be able to make their way through the great bleeding hole in reality we are about to carve together!" 

"Together, eh?" Frost snapped his fingers. "If you are so fancy, woman, come and tell me what you have done." He was far more schoolmaster than paternal uncle now; and it was enough to make Tarva glide over to the ice vampire to have a brief, sotto voice conversation about shadow magic. 

"I'm glad I could make it," said Citizen truthfully. "And I'll have to tell Miss A you like the body, I-" His red photoreceptors flickered towards Tarva as she appeared, then back to Kimber. "I took this thing into space a couple months ago and it kicked some serious ass. I threw a Communion probe halfway to your Moon. I heard you guys did pretty well yourselves! I was, uh, actually at the battle in Kestevan." 

Edited July 13, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Electra]

"Hey Sharl, long time no see! Looks like you've been eating pretty good in Computerland," Koshiro joked, raising one hand for a fist bump. "Careful now, I'm going to need that hand later." He nodded to Kimber when she spoke. "You know we wouldn't leave you hanging. Though it's a good thing Eve sent a plane ticket, or I'd probably still be looking for updrafts over Philly." He was distracted for a moment by his phone playing a bar of "Mr. Roboto," digging it out of his pants and checking his texts. He glanced at Sharl, then over in Tarva's direction. 

"Anyway, I'm Papercut!" he called out to all and sundry. "I don't know most of you because I work in Detroit now, but I control paper. It's a lot cooler than it sounds," he assured them. 

[Tiffany Korta]

“Hi all I’m Lucy Harker, undead lawyer sometime goes by the name of Revenant etc. etc.” she stepped forward and  gave the assembled heroes smile and a little wave

“I hate to be the responsible one, but as I’m probably the oldest in the room I’ve got to say something so here goes. I’m not sure what you have in mind Kimber but it’s probably a really bad idea and is it something you really need to be doing?” she gave a little shrug

“Now that’s out of the way whatever you need me to do I’m here for you, here for all of you.”

[Fox]

"I believe you when you say it is quite powerful," Wraith pondered, looking Sharl's 'suit' over. "I do appreciate you ensuring I have a snack on hand in case I get hurt, as well. Not that I plan to allow that to happen, of course, but...."

She glanced up at the others as they made their introductions, standing up straight as she was distracted away from long-unseen friends. "Ah - of course. I am called Wraith," she introduced, bobbing her head in something like a polite nod. "I am afraid I will not be contributing much to the magic today, as it is...not something I can say I know much about. I am here mostly to support Ghost Girl, and if there is physical work to be done or something to fight, I provide...." She paused, three eyes unfocusing a bit as she tried to efficiently articulate what she was trying to say...and, apparently, decided it was best to show rather than tell. She raised an arm, hand melting and lengthening into several feet of simple, razor-sharp blade. "....other talents."

[Ecalsneerg]

He practically lit up at the sight of Equinox - assuming he wasn't a little lit already. "Equinox, my witch of war, I promise you delights in courts of Jotunheim! Steins of meads as big as your body!" He held his hand up till it reached the level of her head. "Hunks of lamb as big giant robot fellow over there!" 

"I'm not sure it's entirely possible to do magic after a human-sized stein of mead," said Equinox drily. Dimitri always unnerved her. She knew he presumably meant well, but still. "Certainly nothing of the complexity Kimber is suggesting here."

The raccoon atop her head chittered merrily. <But lamb!> 

<No lamb. You ate, like, ten minutes ago. Seriously, where does it all go?>

She turned to Revenant and grinned a little wider than she had with Dimitri. "Well," she drawled, gesturing at ther assembled mystics and mages and aliens and assorted strange people. "Do we at all look like a group of people who decide, every morning, to act in line with sensible ideas? I'm Dr Siobhan Drake, by the way." She turned to address the group as a whole at this last part. "You might know me as Equinox. Kimber asked me here along with our other colleagues to help out with the hoodoo. The raccoon is my familiar. She is not helping." She swatted at the ball of fur as it continued begging for lamb and booze.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Ecalsneerg

[trollthumper]

"Yeah, I think the mead should wait until after what needs to be done is done," said Nick. "I've managed to work necromancy under many unfavorable conditions, but I usually like to keep my wits about before I invoke the restless dead." After realizing that may not have been the best line to introduce himself to the group with, he flashed as friendly a smile as he could. "That bit aside... my name's Nick Cimitiere. Necromancy's my particular skill set - not in the 'binding' sense, but in the sense of picking up a few tricks from ghosts, ghouls, and the occasional death god." He scanned the crowd, his senses picking up the magic of those who were attuned - and going wild around the woman in black who'd just appeared, pinpricks of darkness stabbing at the corners of his eyes. So... that must be the Tarva that Kimber was talking about. If she's here, hopefully they've worked that stuff out... or at least reached an arrangement.

Temperance turned her eyes towards the ritual space, trying to see if any spirits were being invoked to bridge the gap between here and Jotunheim. She didn't expect as such - this sort of magic didn't exactly go for beckoning the entities responsible for keeping a plane of existence together, as it was all about punching a hole clean through - but given how Kimber's friend, the one Sharl had said a lot of... things about, was involved in the ritual, it couldn't hurt to make sure. Once she got the lay of the construction, she turned her eyes back to the group.

"I myself am Temperance," she said. "Some of you know me, some more than others--" She winked to Sharl. "--but for those who don't, my areas of specialty are animistic embodiments of the key precepts of reality - 'spirits,' in short hand - water, and ice. The latter of which will likely be getting a good workout on Jotunheim." 

Edited July 14, 2015 by trollthumper

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm Citizen. I fought in the Incursion and I work with Miss Americana." 

Here we go. 

Sharl understood where everyone was coming from. The dimensional axes known as the "Nine Realms", the homes of the beings who called themselves the Aesir, had been most frequently accessed by Terrans by the use of the psionic-mathematical construct dubbed 'magic' by the average Terran in the know, the marks of which he could make out all over the ice. Between Eliza, Nick, Kimber, Comrade Frost (who he recognized from Wikipedia), and the shadow-witch...I'm probably going to hear a lot about magic on this trip. Well, no use getting into a fight with everybody before we leave. He wondered if the primitives of Jotunheim lived as roughly as he'd heard. "Yeah, Kimber, what's the plan?" he asked cheerfully, putting one giant arm around Temperance. 

Meanwhile, Tarva (who had finished her inspection alongside Comrade Frost) was whispering to Kimber, "I...I don't understand. What is that? Is your friend controlling it from afar, or...?" 

Edited July 14, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Gizmo]

"Eh? Oh! No, no, Citizen just, er..." Kimber blinked as it occurred to her that Sharl was going to read very strangely to some of the magic practitioners present. She'd been a bit worried about the hero of Tronik putting his holographic foot in his mouth over 'primitive superstition' but it hadn't occurred to her that it worked both ways to some degree. She turned her head and did her best not to react to how close Tarva had leaned in to whisper to her. "He doesn't really have... a soul, strictly speaking. And you're going to be nice about that, okay? Promise me?" She scooted back just enough in the air to point a finger at the shadow priestess that was aiming for stern and came across more affectionate than anything. "This is our chance to prove to everybody that you're better than whatever they've heard. Yeah? Yeah." She knew Dimitri would have read a thing or two in the Freedom League's files and Eric's death senses were even more acute than her own, but she was hoping they'd wait to draw any conclusions. The last thing Tarva needed was anyone reenforcing her self-loathing like that 'freedrone' from the park. "Okay, big speech time!"

Looking from face to face she started by addressing Lucy's entirely reasonable concerns. "It's not not dangerous," she admitted, trying and failing not to grin in Siobhan's direction for the dry assessment of their overall sensibleness. "But that's why I asked so many people to come! With everybody working together I'm sure it's going to be fine, for sure! And... and it is something I need to do." She took a deep breath, or at least went through the motions for the sake of the affectation and pushed on. "Everybody here knows I'm way to one end of the incorporeal spectrum for undead. If I weren't a poltergeist I wouldn't even be able to move stuff with my mind and I try not to make a thing about it all the time but, well, it's pretty garbage." The translucent blue woman folded her arms over her chest, serious now. "There's all sorts of temporary fixes, like, ahem, shadow magic or the way Avro's innate abilities work but that's more about other people being able to interact with me than the other way around and the other options are mostly walking around in a meat suit and just ew. Seriously. Not everybody's corpse gets to stay all fresh, you know!" She mustered up a grin for Dimitri and Lucy but her expression became sober again soon enough. "So I've been doing a lot of research and then a lot of other work and now I've finally got a plan I'm happy with. That's why I need everybody's help: to forge a soul scythe."

[Electra]

During the introductions, Koshiro had relaxed and leaned back against the half-wall that separated rink from lobby to look at his phone. Only the occasional glimpse of a crane swooping past in a patrol route proved he was paying attention to the goings-on at all. He grinned at whatever he was seeing on his screen, thumbed a quick text message and sent it, then looked back up just in time to hear Kimber describing exactly why she wanted to do whatever it was she wanted to do. He raised a hand. "So what's a soul scythe?" he asked. "Did I miss that part?" 

[Gizmo]

"Well I'm glad somebody asked!" Kimber enthused, bobbing a little higher into the air. "A soul scythe is an object of power. Remember Cor-- er, Cobalt Templar's ring? Kinda like that! Only not a ring. And also no blue fire or armor or energy constructs or-- Actually, forget that part. The main thing is that it's really strong and really hard to make! It's a piece of the barrier between life and death fashioned into, well, into a weapon, really." She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, an odd motion for someone hanging weightless in the air. This was the part that she was less comfortable talking about. She probably could have figured out a solution for her condition that didn't come with the dangerous potential of the scythe but that wouldn't have done anything to help her protect her friends. It wasn't enough to just clean up after uncaring fate, she wanted the strength to take control of that destiny.

Clearing her throat, she nodded toward the nondescript duffel bag Eve was keeping an eye on over by the rink's bleachers. "Normally that means either getting one as a gift from a god or some other big deal type or, um... 'Plan B' is pretty gross. But that's fine because I figured out a better way! See, if you set up a resonance between minor artifacts of relevant quintessence in an intersection of harmonic--" Realizing that half of the room already knew this stuff and the other half didn't actually care about the specifics, she stopped short of launching into a dissertation length elucidation. "We're going to use some stuff I collected in a special spot in Jotunheim to cheat it, basically. And, um, that's where the 'maybe a bad idea' part comes in because there are some... beings that don't really like it when you cheat." Biting her lower lip she looked about the room to gauge how the explanation was going over.

[trollthumper]

Well. Nick had an idea that Kimber had been expressing an interest in something like this for some time. He couldn't really say he objected. He'd dragged a leather jacket down into the bowels of Tartarus, drenched it in the River Styx, and still wore it to this day. It had saved him from bullets, spear points, talons, fireballs, and the occasional death curse. To object on those grounds would be hypocrisy at its finest. So, he just had to consider technical grounds. The construction on the first part of the spell looked solid - very little chance of going wrong and summoning Nidhogg or something that would eat everyone's heads. So that just left keeping an eye on matters on the second half of the journey. Not that he doubted Kimber at all - he just wanted to make sure her grand quest held together to the end. 

Temperance, meanwhile, wasn't so sure. She had heard of such bequests before, usually granted by gods or powerful spirits. But that was what they were - granted. Given by those of high office unto those who had accomplished much. To make one of your own and push against the boundaries... then again, that was her talking. She wasn't a willworker, she wasn't attuned to this realm of magic, and - most importantly - she was of the flesh. She'd seen some of the stuff Kimber was capable of pulling off, but, as she said, that was telekinesis. There was no touch. Even spirits had a sense of touch - or more like communion - when they affected their realms. To be without that connection...

"What sort of beings would we need to look out for?" she asked. 

[April]

Blue Fox turned away from the group of heroes, removing her mask and letting it float by her side before pushing her hood back to reveal long white hair, and holding what appeared to be a phone next to her ear.  The acoustics for the rink allowed some of her conversation to carry but she was speaking in French and she was speaking in a mirthful tone those that knew her rarely heard in the field.  She even giggled once, and then suddenly looked embarrassed for doing so.

Eventually she hung up and joined the others, her hood down and the mask floating by her side was joined by the duffel bag she was guarding.  She gave a slight nod of greeting to the ones she didn't really know, but smiled upon seeing Papercut and Citizen.

"You look well, Papercut," Eve said, a note of pride in her voice on seeing Koshiro.  "Though you really should keep in touch more.  Same goes for you, Citizen."  Eve shot Sharl a look that was slightly reproachful before breaking out into a grin.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, all sorts of beings!" declared Comrade Frost cheerfully. "Jotunheim is Útgarðr, or as you say, 'beyond the fence'". Animatedly, he walked around the wards and signs made by Kimber before his arrival, deftly avoiding smudging so much as a line. "Is primordial wilderness of Norse tales, beyond the laws of men and gods, home to all the great beasts of Norse legend!" He gestured in the air. "Brunnmigi, the fox who defiles wells, in ways too foul for the ears of ladies to hear! Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór, four stout deer with unnatural hungers for the very flesh of the world, giant squirrels who are father and mother of all lies, all stalking deep, dark forests and frozen mountain peaks where winter never does break!" He grinned and gestured expansively to the young heroes "But is not so bad, eh? There is also goat that gives mead from udders, and cow that brings life with her milk. And jotun themselves, who are kind folks despite what you have heard." He hmmed, and went on. "Jotun have been game in Aesir hunts for uncounted years. This has made them...occasionally cranky with outsiders. But all will go well, I am sure." He winked at Kimber. 

"