Glory of the Einhar

The three DMs enacted the beginning of the scenario which describes the setting. The scene is the plane of Asgard, belonging to the Norse gods. Thor and the giant Volgoth engage in a fight, more verbally than in the flesh. Later, the shifty god Loki taunts Thor into going after the giant again to restore his honor. Some sort of trouble occurred and now neither Thor nor Loki have been seen. The giants are rallying and it is imperative that Thor be found, so the Norns are consulted. A group of heroes is assembled, partially comprised of the Einhar (souls of slain heroes) and partially of other-planar beings. The Norns see Thor in 3 different places, so three groups are dispatched.

The "Glory of the Einhar" has 14 separate characters and 3 different, but related adventures. The characters were allowed to break themselves into teams, which they did with speed.

Group 1

Adventure - Body of a Dying god on the Astral Plane (where lies Thor's Body)

Group 2

Adventure - The Keep of the 4th Root (where lies Thor's Hammer)

Group 3

Adventure - Twigman (where lies Thor's spirit) What the players didn't know was that Thor was not just missing, he had been split into three parts: body, mind, and hammer. The adventure was planned to run until 6pm, and the groups finished between 6:30 and 9:30, at which time we came together to tell the stories...

Body

The group was ferried to the body of a dying god by a boat that can plow the waves of Astral plane. They went in through the ear, wiggled their way through the cochlea, and found themselves in an infinite hallway full of doors. Quickly exploring a few, they found an old man still carrying out the brain's function... pulling out files and trying to tell the party something. They were told about a problem in "Sector G", but could learn no more before the old brain worker died to join his comrades. They went on to find some maps of the body, and soon leaped on the circulatory system for a wild ride.

Upon reaching the heart, they found "shepherds" were prodding the cells through the valves. The stubborn Cinder Firefist, doing what he was told and only that, stalled and the kind devil Dolamadeus braved the whips to get him moving. Navigating the veins with amazing luck, they found their way to the stomach.

The fields of the stomach were still grassy and green, and inhabited by a peaceful folk. They told the party that they had seen a stranger that met the description of Thor, but that he'd gone off to fight the Midgard serpent, and that only the village elder would know where to find him. Problem was that the "Dark Riders" had captured several of the villagers, the elder amongst them. Crossing the river of stomach acid proved to be difficult and frustrating, made worse by inter-party bickering. Finally, they just forded the thing and soon found themselves in a big battle with Disease.

Cinder let loose a fireball that set the prairie on fire, and while they managed to dispatch the enemy, with the near death of the Berserker, the fire endangered the trapped villagers. Completing the rescue, they learned of Thor's whereabouts and soon found him about to engage the Midgard serpent (a tapeworm) in a dangerous battle. They tried to stop the mindless god, but had to subdue him and knock him unconscious. Carrying him back, they ran from hordes of Disease up through the stomach and into the nose to the music of Flight of the Valkyrie. At the last minute before the enemy would have caught them, the astral boat and its crew appeared to save the day and they jumped into it as the last note of the song ended.

They briefly toured the rest of the body, spoke with a stranded demonic centaur, and soon headed back to Valhalla with the body of Thor.

Hammer

Climbing down Yggdrasil, the World Tree, the characters came to see the 4th Root and an ancient Keep built near it... the place the Norns instructed them to go. They chose to travel along the spine of root, and came across an ancient and decaying lookout post. A path led down to the Keep, and on the way down, they explored the holes of the Yggwyrms, finding dirt mixed into the residue of wood and slime. Braving the holes, they decided to travel underground to the Keep.

They passed through a twisty maze of slimy wood tunnels into dirt tunnels and happened to head in the right direction. Abruptly, they found the slime gone from the walls, and scuff marks indicating the passage of a humanoid. They wandered about some more, eventually catching on the scuff marks and finding a hole in the ceiling over a depression in the floor. (They did not realize that Thor's hammer came crashing down here).

The lightning elemental climbed up through the hole and was immediately attacked by a huge muscular human with a dog's head. The hapless Vortume was nearly killed before help could come up through the hole, the close encounter shook them all.

They explored the empty Keep for some time, finding signs of recent habitation. In the master bedroom, they found a silver key that would soon come in handy. In a sort of trophy room, the party found many objects belonging to slain wizards. Across the hall, they found a door that had mold around the edges. Opening it nonetheless, mushrooms that let off a sleeping gas fell out. The paladin fell asleep immediately, soon followed by the werebear, which left the lightning elemental and the genie to fight the clay golem that came out of the room. Nearly dead from the first combat, Vortume saved himself by morphing into a lightning bolt to strike the golem dead.

While the two fighters were sleeping off the mushroom gas, Sorven, the Loki spy, went into action. Having secretly slipped some poison into Vortume's belongings, he now pretended to get sick, as if from the poison. This caused concern amongst the party, but its cause could not be determined, and Sorven only hinted that a poison packet had been stolen.

The vault was next. Vortume opened the thick door, but set off the alarm and caused a trapdoor to open in the floor behind them. The golem had already been dispatched, but the noise of the alarm generated concern that the owners would be back soon. Inside the vault they found tons of treasure and, most importantly, Thor's Hammer.

The paladin, being a mortal grandson of Thor, tried to move it, but to no avail. They found the mechanism to close the trap door and continued searching for the missing God so he could move his hammer. Almost immediately, though, they heard shouts from the courtyard, and opened a door to the five Githyanki pirates that inhabited the place. Resisting their psionic attacks, the party quickly dispatched them and found that the leader was wearing the Nullifier around his neck.

In a flash of inspiration they realized that they could move the hammer with the anti-magic artifact. The party continued searching the Keep for Thor, but found nothing and eventually decided to head back to Valhalla, the huge Hammer in their grasp.

The Spirit

The third group traveled the Bifrost bridge to the Prime Material plan following the words of the Norns to a haunted house. After a brief episode in a nearby village, they entered the house and a strange tale began to unfold through visions that they triggered in each room.

The house had been owned by an adventuring party many years ago. The group's wizard set up a scavenger hunt for one of their reunions, but the house had become haunted by the spirit of a druid in the fireplace, and the fun event turned into a nightmare.

In each room, the party searched for ways to trigger the shades of the past, and pieced together the gruesome story of the hunt for a wish ring that was never found. Each of the ancient adventurers died in a way that illustrated things the modern characters should not do. Finally, they found the wish ring and pieced together the fact that Thor was trapped in a mirror of life stealing set into the great wooden fireplace that also housed the spirit of the druid.

During a climactic battle with the "twigman" form of the druid, the players called forth the spirit of Thor from the mirror, who was glad to be free and aided in the destruction of the fireplace.

The group left the house, found the Bifrost, and headed for Valhalla.

The End

All three groups brought back the pieces of Thor, which were reunited in a thunderclap. The giants were storming Valhalla, so the Einhar, with help from Thor, engaged in an epic battle (dice and all), droving off the foes, and freeing Asgard from their evil.
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