Thread by @KnightErrant_JR

Did we stop with playing For the Queen. Oh, Hel no! We also wrapped up our game of @encodeddesigns & @TheOtherTracy's Iron Edda Accelerated game. We had to put this off last month, but we finally had a chance to finish the epic story.

Our characters ended last session on one of the roots of Yggdrasil, waiting for the Doomed Three, warriors sent into Hel to retrieve Surtur's bones to make the greatest bone bonded ever seen.

It turned out the Doomed Three also caught the attention of Garmr, the Hel-Hound, who didn't want them to escape Hel or take the bones. Before our heroes could act, Nidhoggr appeared at the far end of the root, and revealed herself to be our Seer's secret benefactor.

Nidhoggr wanted Surtur's bones to help sever the root of Yggdrasil. Kels, the Seer, decided they were indeed tempted by the power of the bones (compelled aspect), and tried to retrieve the bones for the dragon.

Thran, the Shieldbearer, decided that he would take the bones away from the Doomed Three and run them back into Hel, even if it meant his death, because it was what was best for the holdfast.

Gerd, our Runebound (Fehu/Luck), decided it would be great if this was the growing season for Yggdrasil, so that it's roots would make the portals between worlds harder to traverse, and as it turned out, it was the growing season for Yggdrasil, and the Doomed Three got tangled.

Garmr also ate one of the Doomed Three (at which point they became the Doomed Duo), and Thran knocked the sack of bones (magically shrunk by elf magic), out of their hands.

Kels ran over the entangled bodies of the Doomed Duo to "help" Thran, which actually entailed stealing the bones for Nidhoggr. Thran was seriously savaged by Garmr, but started checking "I can outlast you" boxes like a boss.

Gerd also thought it was be really fortuitous is the dwarves that they had previously encountered showed up to help with Nidhoggr and possibly negotiate. As it turned out, they WERE nearby. They were willing to help with Nidhoggr, but they were also working to collapse the caves.

If the caves on the Midgard side of things collapsed, the River of the Dead would collapse, and the lands would be flooded with undead spirits. This was a good news/bad news situation for Gerd.

When Nidhoggr proved more substantial then they would have hoped, the dwarves turned the destroyer into a portal to Svartalfheim to rally more dwarves to help with the excavation between worlds.

Gerd convinced Nidhoggr that more dwarves were bad for her domain, so she dove through the portal, and Gerd "luckily" pulled the right levers to shut down the portal, cutting off Nidhoggr's tail and trapping her in Svartalfheim.

Realizing that they could no longer negotiate with Nidhoggr for power, Kels decided to "save" Thran by distracting Garmr. Kels was prepared to "die" but was going to attempt to change their own fate if this happened. Thran was ready to die for real to save the holdfast.

Thran threw the bones far into Hel, past Garmr, and everyone ran for the portal. Garmr got tangled in the growing roots, and gave up to keep the bones safe.

I asked if the party would mind if I compelled the campaign aspect of "The Road to Hel is Paved with Good Intentions," to reflect that they were worn out by this journey and may take a bit longer to get home, as they rested at camp, and they accepted.

I also compelled each of their inter-party aspects to have them air their thoughts and concerns about one another in camp as they were recovering and to get any of their misgivings out publicly.

Since I knew we were heading to the final scene, I wanted them to have a whole lot of Fate points, and to also have some personal drama going, especially after Kels almost retrieved the bones for Nidhoggr.

When they returned home, they found that the jarl, the spymaster, and both of the faction leaders that had been causing trouble been killed by mercenaries hired by Gateway to seize the holdfast.

Gerd failed to disguise himself from Solveig, the mercenary captain, as Gerd is still an escaped Thrall from Gateway. Thran was impressed by Solveig, but launched in to attack her first.

Kels didn't see any good outcome to the fight, so they slinked off, after seeing the best outcomes for Gerd and Thran (creating aspects then leaving the scene). Thran faced off with Solveig, then took her into down upon her defeat to keep her from dying.

Gerd was facing legions of merceries, but they were uncannily causing harm to one another through various mishaps. He then switched to calling them out and asking them if this job was worth the money.

Gerd was causing stress and lowering their numbers by getting them to desert when they saw that the holdfast was more trouble than it was worth, and as Gerd was nearly subdued, Thran returned to the fight. Thran reduced many of the mercenary ranks, but Gerd struck the final blow.

Instead of talking any of the mercenaries into deserting, his last act was to punch the final standing mercenary.

We identified our loose ends, and I had the remaining players narrate how they played out. They still had the Petruvian ambassador as a prisoner, there was still a traitor agitating Gateway against them, and they needed a new jarl.

Thran asked Solveig if she wanted to swear allegiance to the holdfast, and she agreed, and she went back to Gateway to convince the traitor to come home to claim the jarldom, at which point Thran challenged him to a duel and killed him.

Gerd negotiated with the Petruvian diplomat to blame as much as possible on the traitors in order to smooth over the previous jarl's betrayal of the Petruvians, but he also made her promise to bring a smaller force dedicated only to trade negotiation, which she did.

Gerd nominated Thran as jarl, which Thran hated, but realized had to be. The Petruvians established a profitable trade route, but this soon came to be threatened by Dwarven Destroyers, leading Thran to rethink his position on if the holdfast should have Bonebonded.

That's where we ended the campaign, and Thran's decision to rethink his position on Bonebonded made a nice full circle to how everything began.