The Dawn of A New Day

“So, please explain to me why you made a deal with a plague worshiping, elf killing, cannibalistic rat person. And please explain slowly, ‘cause I wanna pinpoint exactly where you move from sensible to INSANE!”

John rolled his eyes as he washed his hands off in the pool after breakfast. Talia hadn’t been the calmest when she awoke later that morning to find Skriskrueel eating a leg of something roasted by the fire, and after a quick explanation (along with holding back Talia who had decided the best reaction was to swing Firebite first and ask questions later), she had managed to calm down enough for John to try to explain his thought process on making a deal with the skaven. Talia had at least remained quiet and attentive during the explanation, but then quickly berated John for his decision.

“You understand that’s a skaven, right? You know what skavens do, right?”

“He’s seeking to take charge of his clan and help us explore the barrow.”

“John, they EAT people! They eat EACH OTHER! Hundreds of years ago they went to war against the Ljósálfr and were famed for the plagues they spread, their viciousness on the battlefield, and the fact that the captured would either become food or slaves, only to eventually end up as food either way! They are the most brutal and dangerous species on all of Yggdrasil, and we would be better to burn down their warren than EVER make friends with them!”

“Talia-”

“No, John. Listen to me. You are playing with fire making a deal with this guy. It would be best to extinguish it now and just rely on our own skills to explore the barrow.”

“And what, deal with a boss battle like yesterday every day? We barely made it out of that battle alive, and I doubt that we can really afford to take a single day to do one boss battle and sleep afterwards. Plus, who knows what other dangers are in the tomb?! If it weren’t for Frida, we would have died in the puzzle room before you two had your fight, and that solution wasn’t even in this journal she gave us! Face it, Talia, this is our best chance to survive the barrow and find what we need.”

Talia remained quiet for the rest of the time they took to break down camp, and as John was putting his stuff into his inventory, Talia placed a hand on his shoulder.

“... I trust you, John. I won’t trust him, but I trust you.”

John sighed, rolling his shoulders and slowly standing to face her.

“I know. Trust me, I know of the skaven tendency to be backstabbers and vicious opponents. But frankly, I am scared about this barrow. It’s a lot more dangerous than we anticipated, and we stared a possible **** in the face last night. If allying with him, even if it’s for a short time, is going to keep us alive longer, then we gotta take that chance.”

She sighed, turning away from John and biting her bottom lip. “I just… I’ve heard stories about them. Even my parents would tell me about when Granddad and Grandma had to fight off the skaven threat, and the wave of corruption they brought. They nearly caused Yggdrasil to catch the plague they spread to the plant life here, and if it weren’t for the fact that we were able to negotiate peace and make them understand what they were doing to the world tree, they may have very well caused our branch of Yggdrasil to wither and die.”

John winced. “That… does not sound good.”

She shook her head. “If a branch of Yggdrasil dies, the world it was supporting will die as well. The Vikings of your Midgard talked of the 9 realms, but in all honesty those were the 9 they knew of. Every branch, every stick, every TWIG is another world that can be explored. Some are as small as a room, some as big as Helhiem. Imagine the amount of worlds that could have been destroyed if Alfheim, which is a pretty big branch of Yggdrasil, got sick and died? It would have been catastrophic, and all because of those rats.”

John opened his mouth, but before he could start talking, Talia put a single finger on his lips. “Look, I understand. We need him if we are going to survive this barrow. I just want you to understand he is not to be trusted, and what his kind have tried to do in the past. I wouldn’t put it past him to get a decree from his rat-god that would be “now eat the adventurers that helped you.”

With that, Talia turned from John and walked over to where Skriskrueel was awaiting them. John had to admit that he had no idea what he was getting into when he made the deal with the skaven last night. He knew they were not exactly the kindest of races based on what he knew from Warhammer, but the destruction of Yggdrasil? The collapse of the multiverse?

John looked over to Skriskrueel who was chittering exitectly while Talia ignored him. Was John getting in too deep? Was this deal going to backfire?

Was a deal with someone he didn’t know going to get him killed?

“No go down that passage. Many large spider-things, yes. Eat many skaven when explored.”

Skriskrueel had been leading them down the various halls and tunnels in the barrow for about half an hour, and was proving his value with each step they took. Sometimes it was something as simple as telling them which rooms to avoid, such as one that was a giant spiky **** trap, but sometimes it was showing them a hidden tunnel the skaven had dug to avoid having to deal with a puzzle or group of draugr. They couldn’t take every tunnel, as some of them were simply too small for Talia or John (skaven could fit through any hole big enough for their heads), but all in all, they were doing much better now than if Talia and John had been left to their own devices.

Plus, there was the fighting. The two rooms they couldn’t avoid, because John and Talia were not skaven, only had a few draugr. Talia had adapted very well to using Firebite, switching from a more dodge-centric to a more conventional fighting style. John never got a moment to really admire the muscles that girl had, but when he watched her cleave an undead warrior in two with a single swing, he had to admit his mind drifted to the night before, and now he looked forward to feeling those muscles during a round or two of sex.

John missed not having a sword in his hands, but he would admit that he was still a powerhouse without a blade. One room he solely used Thurisaz, needing the most damage he could against the heavily armored foes, but the other room had been pitch black and thus led way to Kenaz being his rune of choice. He did have to admit that he noticed something odd in one of his uses of a rune, in that his hand had a bit of a shake to it. He chalked it up to needing a good meal, as they were relying on dried food and trail mix as the sole nourishment (Skriskrueel had offered him some of the cooked meat that he had, but John had declined).

Speaking of Skriskrueel, John had to admit that the skaven was starting to grow on him. He was rather funny and inquisitive, always peppering John and Talia with questions about the world above. Plus, John had not expected the skaven to be such a good fighter. He used his spear, which he grabbed before they got too far from camp, in the more traditional sense, sure. However, he also used it as a pole for spinning around. John remembered when a draugr had been late to awaken and got rather close to John, Skriskrueel had saved his ass, slamming his spear into the ground before using the momentum of his movement to spin around and kick the draugr dead square in the head, knocking it off. Skriskrueel was impressed with John’s magic, especially after feeling what it was like to have Uruz cast on him. He said that he could feel the power of the gods flowing through him, and wondered if John would learn a rune from his god as well.

Just as John was trying to imagine what rune the Horned One would even have at his disposal, John felt a hand on his chest stop his movement. He looked down to see the soft hand of Talia, before looking forward to see Skriskrueel making a shushing noise. “Clan patrol ahead. Make quiet. Wait till they leave-past.”

They crouched down behind Skriskrueel, quietly waiting and listening to the chitter of the other skaven. They weren’t talking about much, as much as John could tell. However, after a few moments a particular set of statements stood out to John.

“Did you hear hear about Qakzik? Went to sword chamber. Got gutted.”

“Idiot. Should have known about strange man-thing in chamber killing all who dare walk-approach.”

“What you expect of skaven-****?”

The skavens laughed at that before continuing forward. John looked to Skriskrueel who looked a touch sheepish about what had just been said.

“You didn’t tell us about a boss in the sword room,” he said quietly, but with a slight undertone of anger.

Skriskrueel sniffed and snorted a bit. “Trust Skriskrueel. She will not hurt-stab you two. Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Talia asked, crossing her arms. “You’re just taking us to this sword to eliminate the boss as a problem, aren’t you?”

“No! I talk many times with man-thing in chamber! She hate skaven, but might talk better to other man-things!”

John and Talia looked at each other, a look of nervousness and fear passing between them. They weren’t sure about this sword now, and the skaven patrol from earlier made it seem like going into that chamber was a **** trap.

John turned to Skriskrueel. “You’re sure she will talk to us and not just fight?”

“Much sure! She talk many time to Skriskrueel, and is quite friendly to him. Probably because he so smart.”

John rolled his eyes before turning to Talia.

“If we do fight, I still have the potions from yesterday. We can use those before we fight off Thrueetch. Maybe we will get lucky and not even have to fight her.”

With that, they set out again, but with an air of nervousness surrounding them. John was now a bit more conservitive with his spells, relying more on Kenaz than Thurisaz, due to it costing less. Talia hit with less ****, now focusing more on dodging strikes again as she needed to keep her energy up. After a few more chambers and a few tunnel crawls, the three of them found themselves standing in front of a very ornate door. It was carved from stone, images of the Nordic gods intricately etched into it. John could see some familiar myths, such as Thor destroying a whole mead hall of jotun, Freya flying with her feather cloak, Odin sitting on his throne with his ravens and wolves at his side.

And directly in the center was a carving of a male figure holding aloft a mighty blade that seemed to shine so brightly that it scared the monsters that dared to try and attack him. John could read a small caption beneath said picture, his glasses instantly translating the runes.

“The Sword of Souls”

Skriskrueel smiled at the two of them. “It and she in here. Ready?”

John rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. Talia lifted her blade and shook her body, loosening herself up. “Ready,” they said in unison.

Skriskrueel smiled and pushed against the door which after a moment or two slowly began to open.

Inside was a rather plain looking room, all things considered. John was half expecting a room full of loot and gold with a sword sitting atop a massive pedestal, kind of like the lamp in Disney’s Aladdin. He also was expecting to see a woman warrior awaiting them akin to King Agviðr from yesterday. Instead, the room ahead was rather empty. The room was a circle, with more carvings along the walls and a door opposite of the party. The center had a sword sitting on a stone table, with a few skaven corpses around it. John could see that the corpses all had stab wounds, but those weren’t the only forms of damage. Some had burn marks across their bodies, others were covered in ice, some had strange roots, and the freshest one still had sparks jumping across his fur.

John slowly walked forward, keeping his hands at the ready as he approached the sword. He kept looking around, **** to see if he could spot the boss before he met the same fate as the skaven. Then he noticed that all of the stab wounds were on the front of the skaven, indicating the enemy had approached them from the front. He shouted this to Talia, who nodded and walked around the table so that any boss would hopefully be intercepted by her and her blade before John could get stabbed. She readied her blade to parry as John took a few more careful steps, walking over one of the corpses before arriving at the table.

The sword itself was beautiful. It was about half as tall as John, with ornate runic carvings on the hilt and handle. The blade was in a black sheath, with images of the gods and monsters on said covering. It was clearly meant to be held across the back, with a strap that would go over John’s shoulder.

He slowly reached down to touch the sword. Just as he was about to wrap his fingers around the hilt, John looked up to see a blade pointed directly at his nose. Talia yelped in surprise, and John jumped back.

Then, he understood why Talia did not intercept the boss. Emerging from the sword was a young, human-looking girl, one of her arms transformed into a blackened sword point. She glared at John, her other arm also turning into a blade and pointing at Talia.

There was no boss and sword. The boss was the sword.