Savage Vinland: War of the Gods

In late December we played our final D&D game for 2009. We're ending the Heroic tier, but before we start the Paragon tier, we skipped ahead to the night for Epic play! I asked all the players to bring a 30th-level character for a single night. Many players were able to do so, and others used the set of characters that I put together. (Thank you, Character Builder Auto-Build!)

Now D&D characters have a race, which can be a major part of the conception of the character. So I just hoped that no-one was too attached to the idea of playing a minotaur or a gnoll or something, because I was going to ask them to throw all that away (except for the rules, of course). Instead, they would play Norse gods! I sat everyone down and had them choose from a selection of HeroClix pieces, mostly from the new Hammer of Thor set. I asked them to select a god that fit the character that they had built.

Marcus played Heimdall, a Warden!

Anthony played Volstagg the Voluminous, a Monk!

Rebecca played Balder, a Swarm Druid!

Marcus played Sif, a Swordmage!

Zach played Beta Ray Bill, a Tempest Fighter! Yeah, in the campaign world, a robot horse from space is officially part of our pantheon.

As we opened, a ragtag group of the Asgardian gods are being besieged in some corner of Asgard. The realm itself is being torn apart and filled with invading armies of monsters. These five gods were hunkered down int the remains of a fortress, holding off the siege with no plan for escape. Then, suddenly, the fighting stops. A few hours later, two figures approach through the fog. The Norse gods looked up to see Pelor, the Shining One, and Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon!

The Asgardians had a tenuous relationship with the good D&D gods. The Norsemen regularly raid the people of these faiths, but the Asgardians could be counted on to stand with the gods of law and order against Orcus, Demogorgon, and the other powers of the Abyss. Now these two prominent gods were here to rescue their occasional allies from the wreckage of Asgard.

The party set off towards the wreckage of the Rainbow Bridge. Bahamut reported that the skeleton of the bridge still stood, and that with their godly power, it was possible to reach Midgard, and from there some godly sanctuary. They traveled for hours through the ruined landscape of their homelands. But up ahead was an ambush!

We started combat with the gods on one end of the map, and a few creatures on the other hand. I deployed an additional lurker once I got the gods to commit. I put out two Gullyworgs, a Millennium Worm, a beefed-up Runespiral demon, a Shadow Demon, and an Immolith. They varied between level 27 and 30.

We played this fight for most of the night. Nobody really knew their powers, and there was a lot of complexity on the board. I will say that the players really spread the damage around, so that all the creatures were pretty much bloodied at once. Concentrate!

There's a bit of awesomeness that I remember from the pictures. Beta Ray Bill used the terrain powers to pick up a boulder and throw it at the Purple Worm. He rolled a 20, doing lots of damage and blocking the worm's mouth for a turn! Now that's horsepower!

With the ambush survived, the seven gods proceeded towards their goal. They reached the hulking remains of the Rainbow Bridge, where giant slats of mutli-colored glass littered the landscape. Despite what Bahamut had said, passage did not seem to be possible. Then, from among the wreckage, stepped a hulking figure, with a smaller rolling form in tow. Uh, wasn't that Orcus? Bahamut looked solemnly at the Asgardians and said only, "You have our deepest apologies." Both gods took flight, leaving the five Norse gods staring down an arch-demon!

"So fate finds us here!" Orcus said, sneering. "My only regret is that I've already traded away the meat from your bones to my associate here. Otherwise, this is going to be a delicious revenge!" The gods leapt into combat against their hulking foe.

The first combat had taken three hours, and we didn't have much time. I let Orcus recharge his Death Touch for free, which took down two of the gods, although they survived. Too many powers reading something like, "Once per day, when you die..." Given time, they might have done it. We didn't have time, and just did a freeze frame, the viking gods leaping into the demonic void.