The Final Seal (Wintertusk; Nordrilund)

(I apologize for making many many mis-spellings of names. I don't think to double-check. I will fix the names of Henrek in the part his name first appears and the ice troll gate warden in this part.)

(I got a little impatient and played ahead, clearing out Nastrond and finishing Wintertusk last night at 11:00 PM. Now the girls are in Celestia and are all Legendary wizards at Level 61. I don't intend to do the two optional dungeons right now but I do intend to farm for Waterworks gear with Chris Storycrafter and Amy Mistcloud to get some good stuff - and hopefully Mastery Amulets!)
  
(Expect to see the "secretaries" replaced with decent pets once I get Amy's @rse out of storage and have her hatch with her pets so we can hopefully get pets with healing talents. Anyways, enjoy this part. I can't wait to go to the rest of the worlds with this team I play! ^_^)

 

If Sudrilund was cold, Nordrilund was absolutely freezing. The place was carved out of a glacier and I felt a deep chill. This looked as close to the Everwinter as I wanted to get. Miss Chloe was griping.

"Geez, like, I'm cold-blooded, ya know?" she griped. "Get me a JACKET!"

We met a bear who was from Hrundle and studying the ice. He asked us for a few samples and we promised to provide them to him. (We eventually did give him some ice samples.)

 

We also found some bear merchants eager to trade with the Giant Nordri, but one of the merchants broke the bridge. He was okay and I was glad - the river that flowed under the bridge was LAVA! The icy air wasn't stopped by the heat boiling up from the river.

We grabbed some wood and avoided the skeletal warriors. They looked tougher than anything we had to face before. (Winter Skulls are the third and final tier of skeletons you'll find in Wintertusk and they show up in Nastrond as well - they have a whopping 2110 HP!)

As we crossed the bridge, Grace found that the merchant who broke the bridge on the other side was the one who had the Kraken egg, or used to have it before Grendels stole it and dragged it into a cave deeper into the land. Grace nodded.

"We'll exterminate the pests," I said. "Let's go drive the jerks out!"

"Ah!" cried Christina. "NO WAY!"

 

"All talk," we muttered once Penny's sisters and the Dog took them out. ;6

 

 

 

As a reward, we got a nice athame from Conal once we helped him work the forge. Conal smiled. "You know your way around a forge, Wizard Woman."

"I forged a house from the Hall of the Ice Forge," I said, puffing up with pride."

"I see, you are skilled," said Conal, patting my shoulder. "I will remember your work."

(You get the Ethereal Athame for this side-quest... which is not as great as what you get at Level 58. Christina uses it for a little bit due to it having more Power Pip chance. Sierra's Star Blade is far superior to this.)

We found a Valkyrie whose fellow warrior had perished after losing a fair fight with Nordri and had lost his axe to a thief. We found more skeletons and they were getting too close for comfort! (In the words of the immortal Zenmaster Blue, THE PULLS ARE REAL!)

 

 

We found the thief, who sicced his men against us. It was a nasty fight but Grace and Christina took out the goons. (I think the group took a lot of damage as we run into our first enemy Fire Dragon!)

"Urgh!" growled Hammar. "Looks like I'll have to take you girls out myself!"

"No way, we're gonna punish you!" I said, striking a pose.

Sorry for the HUD here, I didn't press Ctrl-G. :(

The Medusa appeared again and I saw it as a sign. We had to put Ymir to sleep so we could get to Celestia as soon as possible.

We got the axe... and another rune stone. It spoke:

Grandmother Raven watches Grizzleheim.

Perched upon the World Tree,

Guarding against the day YMIR awakens.

Nothing we didn't already know, but it was good to know.

Ursa Battlesworn put the axe into the coffin. "Sierra, I will give you an honor few ever have - I will allow you to send my comrade to the Hall of the Mighty."

I bowed in reverence. "Thank you for such an honor, Ursa."

"Blow the horn to signal the beginning of the journey," said Ursa.

 

 

This was one memory I will hold in my heart forever. :)





I just hope I didn't have to buried this way by dying here. :(

And I prayed to the Immortals when Grace tore off from our group and explored a cave that I wouldn't end up like Ursa and send my friend to the Hall of the Mighty.

I was studying the frozen bear captain whose ship was locked in ice. This place was giving me all sorts of chills as I heard screams. "Grace!" I cried, rushing to the cave.

Grace came out, shaken and stirred but alive. "I made the Madlings late and took the Kraken egg." She showed it off. "It will take many hours to hatch..."

"Don't bother waiting!" said Christina.

She handed Grace a elixir. "This is a gift from me to you. You helped us so many times we would be dead without you! Now you can hatch the eggs you got." She pointed to the second Stormzilla egg in Grace's backpack. "I know you hatched with carrot fairy."

She did, and I got a nice pet - a Tempest Hound, a two-headed dog with lightning fur. It's a shame Grace didn't get a Mythzilla but she didn't mind. Grace poured the elixir and the eggs hatched.

(Dang! Missed the idle animation!)

The Kraken baby sneezed loudly. "This place isn't suitable for it," said Penny.

Grace nodded and put the beast away. "I'll send it to my house later. Let's continue. I think we are close to our destination."

We dodged some more skeletons and finally... we reached the gate.

"You must be Wizards," said the ice troll.

"We don't want to fight, Rra," said Grace.

"Well, you won't get past me to meet my master Nordri without testing wits against me!" said Stengar. "I am an undisputed riddle-master!"

"Great, more riddles," I muttered, recalling Grond. "I hope you have more challenging riddles."

"Hmph," said Stengar. "Very well, here is how we will do this. I will give you two riddles and you must find out the answers. However, you can't just answer - you have to find the item which answers the riddle and show me that you found them."

"Well, I asked for it," I said. "Bring it."

Stengar nodded. "Here is your first riddle: I go round in circles but always straight ahead. Never complain, no matter where I am led. What am I?"

Grace smirked. "Rra Wordwise, you have met your match. I am quite the intelligent lady." She motioned to me to follow her.

We trekked all the way back to the merchants and weaved a spell over the broken wagon. The wheels glowed and I grinned. "A wheel! It spins around in circles but that motion moves whatever it's attached to forward and it can't complain, it's not alive."

Stengar approved our answer and gave his second riddle. "Weight in my belly, a tree on my back, nails in my ribs, feet do I lack. What am I?"

 
Grace smirked and showed us the answer. "I would have never guessed that the 'tree' was a ship's mast," muttered Christina. "You're good at this."

"I have to be perceptive, that is what any good private detective would do," said Grace.

"Be warned," said Stengar. "My master Nordri demands respect."

So once we passed the gate and saw the great giant, we bowed to him. He was the biggest of the four brothers and looked like a true Viking. His skin was ice-blue and his beard snow-white. (You can find the Trogg for this land to your left as you enter this final area.)

We bowed again but my hand twitched, ready to unleash death if he tried to attack...

"Although the icy blood in my veins demands of me to send you back to Grandmother Raven in defeat," said the Giant. "My common senses warns otherwise. I know you have the Golden Seals from my brothers, and need mine to complete the set and ensure our father never awakens. But I despise dealing with folk so I will make this quick - a fair trade." He nodded. "In a cave below the World Tree lies Nithogg, a fierce ice dragon, who chews on the roots of Yggdrasil. Bring me a tooth from its maw and I will trade it for my Golden Seal."

"Deal," I said. "We will be back before you can say..."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?!"

I facepalmed. I did fight an ice dragon long ago with Christina and only her, and we defeated Eikrun Axebreaker with some difficulty at lower experience... but THIS looked like Eikrun's grandfather! There was NO way we could defeat it! Time to regroup and try a new strat.

"Now what?" I said. "Fail city?"

"I think we can resolve this problem without violence," said Grace. "Let's look at the facts - that thing is huge and we couldn't succeed in fighting it. We might be able to put it to sleep and extract the tooth that Nordri needs..."

"Great, but how?" asked Christina. "We can't use sleep magic!"

"Maybe a potion---" I lit up. "I know who we can ask!"

Regin Wildleaf didn't have any sleeping elixirs, but he did have something better - he had been studying the condition which we helped him with when we first met and had a potion that could cause it, making the dragon chip off a tooth!

 

The ingredients were tricky to get - we got more hemlock from the Boar Camp in Austrilund(I was holding my breath) and had to defeat a few treants to get some icy bark, but all in good questing!

 

We also helped Regin cure the Thane of his illness and planted some more herbs in Vestrilund.

"Thank you, I will not forget our rapport," I said, grinning. I turned to my friends. "Let's get that tooth." We went back to the dragon and splattered the salve on a root and hoped he'd chew it.

I admit, I was holding my breath here too, but luckily we grabbed the broken tooth and fled.

Nordri caught our glares and laughed. "Here you go, the final Seal." He handed the Golden Seal and it shrank. "Now please, leave me alone."

"Gladly," I said. We turned to leave and I heard him whisper.

That... was ominous...

[To be continued...]