Witchers of Nifelheim - Part 3

"A single set of footprints might suggest a Rogue Witcher going Berserk" Ursula nodded: "It would explain the carnage"

She looked at Rain: "That's true, a lot of the local wild life don't have the ability to eat souls, like Hadedashi"


"But I mean, there's no ultra-bears here on Nifelheim right" Kaylee nervously smiled: "I mean, there's no way something that big could evolve on this planet, that's just ridiculous, hahaa.. right.. Ursula?... Ursula... Ursula why are you quiet?"


"Um" Ursula quietly looked at Kaylee with a deadpan expression that slowly shifted to pity.


"Why are you making that face?" Kaylee nervously scratched the back of her head: "Its a joke, I get it, haha, you're pretending like there's actually ultra-bears here, you-you can stop now... s-seriously... stop... stop! Stop it!"


Ursula giggled.

"Maybe we really should pocket this mystery for the time being" Johan said, thinking.

"Rain and Johan are right. Trying to force an answer with out more evidence is going to end up bad. The best, if that is the right phrase, thing we can hope for is to find similar events and gather more evidence."

Radiance opens his mouth and raises a finger slightly, closes it then slightly scrunches his mouth before returning it to his neutral position

"Call it a crazy idea but would there be any evidence of the events like that in books? History, Science, and Legends seem to in some part hold faint threads back to each other."

"That would have been a nice part of nature to hear about before." Twilight says about the bears. "Especially when they're acidic."

She looks outside. "Perhaps we should rest for now, to have the energy for tomorrow."

"Evidence of events like this one?" Ursula said, thinking:
"I'm sure there are, this is Nifelheim afterall. Life here is often short and full of danger. A particularly vicious parasite or a band of Berserking Witchers tearing up the place is relatively common.

I'm afraid its too broad a criteria to look for, in the history records."




She apologetically looked at Twilight:
"I'm sorry, yes, there are native creatures here that may grow anywhere from 2 to 20 meters in size."


"No, don't tell me that, don't tell me that" Kaylee nervously covered her eyes with one hand.


"C-come on guys, we've already fought creatures like that before" Ursula said: "The giant paratise lizard in the mines, I just assumed.." she looked down: "I'm sorry"



"Its okay. Lets, wrap up for today" Johan said: "Unpack, settle in"

"Mm" Ursula nodded: "I'll take the calibration stone back to the captain, before he accuses us of laying permanent claim to it" she slowly walked towards the cart with the stone inside and began rolling it toward the door.




The next two hours flew by in relative quiet, you heard the other passangers slowy board the ship, walk down the creaky halls and settle in other cabins.
Their voices hushed, void of color. You once again realized that all of them were leaving their homes behind, never to return, setting off into the hostile unknown.



You then heard a metalic screech from the outside, like a massive chain being dragged, then the ship started rocking, back and forth, back and forth.

"ALL WITCHERS, TO THE TOP DECK" a voice barked on Nifelheim, from somewhere above:
"ALL WITCHERS, TO THE TOP DECK" the voice became accompanied by an annoyingly loud ringing of a metal bell.

Radiance dozed off from his position sitting on the floor. The alarm jolting him awake and causing him to leap to his feet.

"Ah fuck that's loud" he winces then slings his cold weapons over his shoulder then eyes the group with a new found vigor. The nap seemed to have cured his shitty mood though his hatred for Echo still remains and the glystetia feels that same vigor but a2d menace. "This is exactly what we need. Now we can further prove we are here to help"

Kaylee Brown wrote:


The next two hours flew by in relative quiet, you heard the other passangers slowy board the ship, walk down the creaky halls and settle in other cabins.
Their voices hushed, void of color. You once again realized that all of them were leaving their homes behind, never to return, setting off into the hostile unknown.



You then heard a metalic screech from the outside, like a massive chain being dragged, then the ship started rocking, back and forth, back and forth.

"ALL WITCHERS, TO THE TOP DECK" a voice barked on Nifelheim, from somewhere above:
"ALL WITCHERS, TO THE TOP DECK" the voice became accompanied by an annoyingly loud ringing of a metal bell.

"I hope this's just a naval tradition they're observing, and not an actual problem" Rogue says, "I still haven't had my shield looked at."

Rain rushes to get herself prepared. She straps her now to her back and tightens her belt around her waist. The sound of her blades falling into their sheaths is audible. She waits for the rest of the group to prepare before going up, that doesn't stop her from throwing on her commander act, "Come on lady's! Let's move! We should have been up there by now let's move!" Her voice is loud and booming, judging by the tone she's said the exact same line a billion times before.

C̷O̴N̴S̶U̸M̵E̵ wrote:Rain rushes to get herself prepared. She straps her now to her back and tightens her belt around her waist. The sound of her blades falling into their sheaths is audible. She waits for the rest of the group to prepare before going up, that doesn't stop her from throwing on her commander act, "Come on lady's! Let's move! We should have been up there by now let's move!" Her voice is loud and booming, judging by the tone she's said the exact same line a billion times before.

"Alright, Captain Equestria, take it down a notch or two" Rogue says to Rain, "Besides, if people see us lot running about shouting in another language, they might think the worst. We don't want to give people anymore reason to panic."

"it's out of habit at this point Rogue. Just make it quick." She says with a deadpan as she begins moving to the top of the deck, "Also I'm not Captain Equestria I'm Commander Nyx!" She says as she begins her way up.

C̷O̴N̴S̶U̸M̵E̵ wrote:"it's out of habit at this point Rogue. Just make it quick." She says with a deadpan as she begins moving to the top of the deck, "Also I'm not Captain Equestria I'm Commander Nyx!" She says as she begins her way up.

"Oh, I thought the costume looked a little lackluster" Rogue replied to Rain sarcastically and shruged as he followed her towards the exit.

Having been staring quietly out of the window for some time, just thinking as sleep had not grasped her, Twilight gets up without much effort.

"We better hurry and find the right spot there to listen. Not too isolated to be suspicious but also close enough to an escape route."

She looks around the room for pen and paper, knowing they need to give it to a specific party member.

You remember seeing a few quills in the drawer, where Ursula found the chalk earlier. There might've been an old parchment too.

Everyone slowly piled out of the cabin and followed a thin line of Witchers, up a few flights of stairs and onto the main deck. The ocean breeze became more vivid here, you could smell the salt in the wind.


Looking around, it seems the evacuation of the island was finally complete. The ships had just risen their anchors and began slowly maneuvering out of the harbor. The port town behind you seemed eerily empty and quiet. Houses left with open windows, carts and market stalls left unattended, unneeded belongings scattered over the streets. A ghost town.



There was no threat in sight however, the snowy hills of Ashra were barren and empty of life. And judging by how slowly the other Witchers shuffled onto the top deck, the earlier alarm wasn't life threatening.


The Witchers slowly formed up in a crowded half circle, on the top deck. A few moments later, an old Witcher emerged from a large cabin and slowly marched towards the crowd.
His expression was extremely eerie, not just because of the thousand mile death stare he had in his eyes, but because of the scars over his face.

It looked like something massive tried to bite off half of his head. The right part of his face was covered with long, deep, messy scars that vaguely resembled jagged teeth. His right eye was completely murky, white. The left one seemed fine, the iris shining a bright blue.


"..is that the captain of the ship?" Kaylee quietly whispered and immediately shriveled up, as one of the local Witchers in the crowd, gave her a death stare and shushed her to silence.



The scarred Witcher stood in front of the half circle, then began to speak. His gravely voice boomed over the deck, overcoming the sound of splashing waves below.
He spoke Nifel and you couldn't catch everything he was saying, but you believe he was riling up the crowd, speaking about honor and self sacrifice. Speaking about the Witchers being the last line of defense and the last hope of humanity.
And should any Witcher fail to do what is expected of him when the time is right, humanity may very well face extinction.


He finally paused to take a breath and slowly scanned every face in the crowd. Trying to remember it perhaps, searing it into his memory, it was hard to tell what he was thinking about. Everyone stood quietly and waited.


The scarred Witcher finally began moving along the half circle and barked:

"WITCHEEERS, CATEGORY 2 AND UP, PICK A SPOT AND START DRAWING PENTAGRAMS ALONG THE PERIMETER! CHOP CHOP!" He loudly clapped his hands together, twice, seemingly just to make a loud noise and the crowd dispersed.


The other Witchers all pulled out a piece of chalk from their belts and began taking positions around the edge of the ship. After a few moments of watching them, it seems they're beginning to set up Area of Effect spells around the ships perimeter.
Once a pentagram was complete, a Witcher would sit in the middle, close his eyes and start meditating.



"IT MEANS YOU TOO GREENHORNS! MOVE IT!" the scarred Witcher barked, impatiently pointing in your direction.



"Oh, that's right.." Ursula quietly whispered to you: "They must be setting up spells as a defense line, if the ship is ever attacked"
She looked at you: "Twilight, Kaylee, pick a Level 2 Spell and prepare it in an Area of Effect. Just follow my lead, I'll walk you through it."


Ursula looked at Rain, Rogue, Radiance and Johan: "You should probably watch how we set this up too, you'll probably be advancing to Category 2 in the future.

Alternatively you guys could look for our blacksmith from the convoy. He might be on one of the other ships though, you may have to fly around to other ships for a bit."


Tim looked around the deck in excitement: "I think I'll stay and watch as well, I don't believe I've ever seen battle preparations on such a large scale before. Might make a good topic to right in a book someday, hoho"

Kaylee Brown wrote:"Oh, that's right.." Ursula quietly whispered to you: "They must be setting up spells as a defense line, if the ship is ever attacked"
She looked at you: "Twilight, Kaylee, pick a Level 2 Spell and prepare it in an Area of Effect. Just follow my lead, I'll walk you through it."


Ursula looked at Rain, Rogue, Radiance and Johan: "You should probably watch how we set this up too, you'll probably be advancing to Category 2 in the future.

Alternatively you guys could look for our blacksmith from the convoy. He might be on one of the other ships though, you may have to fly around to other ships for a bit."

"Does this mean you guys're going to be up here meditating for the whole week-long trip?" Rogue asks Ursula.

Kaylee Brown wrote:Tim looked around the deck in excitement: "I think I'll stay and watch as well, I don't believe I've ever seen battle preparations on such a large scale before. Might make a good topic to right in a book someday, hoho"

"Trust me, war isn't a fun topic to write about" Rogue says to Tim.

Twilight carried the quills and parchment along to give to Ursula.
she gave her a nod.
"Please write down what he says, since most of us won't get it." She whispers.

After the command, she rubs her chin. "Perhaps we should let our attacks work together somewhat. Kaylee, Ursula, I have the fire and ice spell. I think the fire spell has a better chance to synchronize with one of yours."

Radiance takes one last "look" at the set up commenting with a feint smile "You all have fun, I'm going to find the blacksmith. Going to be a long time before my magic is this good."

Without waiting for anyone else he turns on his heels and walks off in search of the smith. He tries to recall if they ever were given a name.

Rain looks to Radiance, "I'll be coming along." She says as she adjusts her wings. She preens her feathers as they look for the blacksmith, brushing off loose feathers and checking her primarys for any long term damage, "Let's get a bird's eye view shall we?" With a big flap of her wings she takes to the sky. She doesn't fly very fast, quitely scanning the top decks of the ships.

Rogue wrote:"Trust me, war isn't a fun topic to write about" Rogue says to Tim.

Tim nodded: "That is exactly why we must record history for posterity. I want the future generations to know, how their ancestors bravely fought for mankind, what their struggles looked like, how they experienced it.
Its important, I believe, its very important" Tim wistfully looked at the horizon.

Rogue wrote:"Does this mean you guys're going to be up here meditating for the whole week-long trip?" Rogue asks Ursula.

"No, only an hour" Ursula smiled and waved her hand: "High level spells are unique in that, they can be set up as a pentagram and later used at a seconds notice, whenever the need arises.

The preparation of a 2nd Level spell takes about an hour, the preparation itself doesn't consume any Mana.
Once complete, the pentagram will become Active. Which means, any Category 2 mage and above can activate it, at any time. You will need to spend Mana only at the moment of activation.

Which means" Ursula slightly tilted her head towards the other pentagrams the Witchers were drawing:



"If you ever see an active, unattended pentagram in the field, you can use it to instantly fire its spell. It doesn't really matter who prepared it, another Witcher or parasite.
Every active pentagram is fair game.

In our case, if our ship gets attacked, you can utilize any pentagram you find on the deck. As long as your Category fits the spells level, you'll be able to instantly cast it.
You can rain down hellfire without any 'cooking time' during combat. Pretty cool right?" She brightly smiled.





"Eeeehh.." Kaylee uneasily scratched the back of her head: "I remember seeing the Level 4 spells needing 12 hours to prepare. Do you guys really need to sit in place for 12 hours? What if you need to use the bathroom? Or get really bored or hungry?"


Ursula giggled: "You don't have to sit there the whole time straight, you can switch places with a partner. While you take a break, someone needs to remain in the pentagram to maintain the preparation time. Otherwise the spell will break and you'll have to start over"


"It feels like a pretty long work shift, any way you cut it" Kaylee thought, scratching her ear: "Do you really need to sit with your eyes closed? How do you pass the time?"


"No, no, you don't need to keep your eyes closed the whole time" Ursula waved off the idea with a smile: "Its only to help you concentrate at the beginning.
While you're preparing your pentagram, you can chat with friends. Also, to pass the time we sometimes play chess"


"You play chess" Johan asked in surprise.


"Yup" Ursula beamed: "Even have an annual chess tournament in each castle city. Its pretty fun"

Twilight wrote:"Perhaps we should let our attacks work together somewhat. Kaylee, Ursula, I have the fire and ice spell. I think the fire spell has a better chance to synchronize with one of yours.

"I was thinking of a Blind spell" Kaylee said in thought, poking her chin: "What do you think?"

"I could cast a Strength Sap, in an area of effect if you want" Ursula nodded, looking at Twilight: "In terms of offense, I only have Strength Sap and Fire"

Twilight wrote:"Please write down what he says, since most of us won't get it."

"Oh, he.. pretty much just tried to rile the troops up, to raise morale, you know" Ursula said, then fell into thought:
"I guess he did specify a few rules about his ship though.

He ordered each Witcher to sacrifice his life for a civilian, if the need arises, but that's a standard order, its given in every combat engagement.
He also mentioned not to take food from the storage and only eat in the mess hall during scheduled lunch times, I guess they're a bit short on rations, with so many people here.
In combat, use any resource available to protect the ships and the squad leaders were ordered to have a Flare spell equipped, to signal if anything happens"



Her face became dark for a moment: "...there was also one other thing.
Almost all Nifelheim folk are sea ponies. Pegasi and unicorns are born sometimes, but its very rare, maybe one or two in a generation."

She looked up at you: "The number of pegasi in this entire fleet can be counted on one hand.
The captain basically ordered every pegasi Witcher to act as a carrier, if the worst happens."



"Worst?.." Kaylee uneasily asked.

"If the entire fleet will be sunk, the pegasi Witchers are ordered to leave combat and fly to the nearest castle town, to report the loss of the entire Ashra population at sea. If the fleet will be lost, the kings will have to be notified, so they can make adjustments to their defense strategy against the horde"


"Wait.. there's like... 6 pegasi, only in our group" Johan said.


Ursula grimly nodded: "...the captain was speaking directly to us. We are the only ones in the fleet.
Should the fleet be sunk, you were ordered to leave combat and fly directly to mainland.
That's... that's about it" she uneasily looked away.

Radiance wrote:Without waiting for anyone else he turns on his heels and walks off in search of the smith. He tries to recall if they ever were given a name.

Rain wrote:"Let's get a bird's eye view shall we?" With a big flap of her wings she takes to the sky. She doesn't fly very fast, quitely scanning the top decks of the ships.

You believe the blacksmiths name was Jorgen. You didn't spot him on the top deck of your ship, but you did notice a faint trail of smoke, rising up from a neighboring ship, two hundred meters away. It almost looks like a makeshift forge was set up on the deck there.


"Aaaaah wait for mee!" Johan anxiously started batting his giant bat wings and followed suit. The wind blew him off course and he almost collided with a meditating Witcher on the top deck, before gaining altitude and falling in formation behind you.

The Witcher down below started shrieking something at Johan, shaking his fist. You don't understand what he's saying but you're pretty sure he mentioned Johan's ancestors several times.

Kaylee Brown wrote:

Radiance wrote:Without waiting for anyone else he turns on his heels and walks off in search of the smith. He tries to recall if they ever were given a name.

Rain wrote:"Let's get a bird's eye view shall we?" With a big flap of her wings she takes to the sky. She doesn't fly very fast, quitely scanning the top decks of the ships.

You believe the blacksmiths name was Jorgen. You didn't spot him on the top deck of your ship, but you did notice a faint trail of smoke, rising up from a neighboring ship, two hundred meters away. It almost looks like a makeshift forge was set up on the deck there.


"Aaaaah wait for mee!" Johan anxiously started batting his giant bat wings and followed suit. The wind blew him off course and he almost collided with a meditating Witcher on the top deck, before gaining altitude and falling in formation behind you.

The Witcher down below started shrieking something at Johan, shaking his fist. You don't understand what he's saying but you're pretty sure he mentioned Johan's ancestors several times.

"If you find him, come back and give me a lift, will you?" Rogue shouts out to Johan as he flies off, before shaking his head, "I'm so used to just levitating myself everywhere, it's like I'm disabled now..."

"Looks like that's our man." He points to where the smoke is. Then makes a sharp turn and flies back down to Rogue. Before the shield wielding mercenary can react he his grabbed off the deck by Radiance. "Found the smith" he says in Nifel as he grabs Rogue. He returns to Rain and Johan with a slight smile playing across his lips.

Radiance wrote:"Looks like that's our man." He points to where the smoke is. Then makes a sharp turn and flies back down to Rogue. Before the shield wielding mercenary can react he his grabbed off the deck by Radiance. "Found the smith" he says in Nifel as he grabs Rogue. He returns to Rain and Johan with a slight smile playing across his lips.

"Watch it" Rogue chastises Radiance, "Though in saying that, you still have a better boarding procedure than Ryanair.

Kaylee knelt down and extracted her own piece of chalk from her pocket. Very meticulously, she began drawing a large pentagram by the ships guard rail. She was either paying too much unnecessary attention to detail, or scetching it with a notably untrained hand, because she began drawing looks from a number of local Witchers nearby.

From what you learned in the theory books, you recognized her pentagram as a Blindness spell, to be cast in a large area of effect.



Ursula thought for a moment, seemingly weighing her choices, then looked at Twilight again:

"Lets decide on our spells and prepare 'em real quick. I'm kinda hungry to be honest, if we hurry, we can still make it to the ships dinner and hit the beds. Gonna be a bit of a journey ahead, we should get some rest while we can"








Off in the air, Johan tried to fly in a triangle formation with you, but the wind kept sending him way off course. It seems like he really hasn't flown for a while and now struggled a bit in the air.

The nearby ship drew rapidly closer, until the small dots on its top deck grew large enough to become humans. Quite a crowd of Witchers was gathering somewhere close to your intended landing spot and they were all seemingly looking right at you.


A few seconds before you touched down, one of the more seasoned Witchers already began speaking to you:

"Your captain sent couriers? What is wrong, what news do you bring?" he asked in Nifel, seeming rather worried.

"Roger." Twilight said. When Kaylee was done, she took the chalk and drew a pentagram for the ice spell. Her motions were a little morre fluid due to her experience with magic. After that she gave it back and sat down in the circle.

"Perhaps later during this journey I'll try to plant some healing spells on the ship, or dispel to cleanse them from negative effects. That should be fairly helpful if we hold the line."

She looks at the two she could speak with. "Any topics to talk about?"

"We came for Jorgen, the smith. Our weapons are...lacking. All is fine in the ship" he nods to the witcher. He speaks slightly slower making sure to speak nifel as best he can. "our captain has our, comrades, setting up runes incase of issues. I assume the same is true here."

Rain lands, her boots thumping against the ships deck. She lets radiance speak, her eyes flicking across the witcher's before brushing past to find Jörgen, "Wonder if he has an apprentice named Sven." She thinks to herself as she works her way through the crowd to the smokes source, a weapon design burned into her thoughts as she gets more eager to change out her gear.

(Sorry about disappearing! I got friends from up North over so my times been spent outside :3)

// No worries mate, have fun ^^



(Twilight)

"Hey that's a good idea!" Ursula excitedly said: "We can prepare as many spells as we want, since the preparation doesn't cost any Mana.
If a fight ever happens we can just choose the spell we want to cast"



"Topics to talk about hmmm" Kaylee said with a smirk, sitting in her pentagram with her eyes closed:
"If today was just an average day in Equestria, and you were at home right now with your whole family, what would you be doing around this time of day?"

She opened her eye slightly and looked at the sunset.









(Rain, Rogue, Radiance)

The Witchers looked slightly confused by your accent but nodded and began to slowly disperse. Most of them were openly staring at your wings, even as they moved away.

You suddenly became keenly aware that everyone around you were sea ponies. The gills on their necks somewhat stood out, if their shirts collar was low.
Some of them were looking at you as if they've never seen pegasi before.



The smith Jorgen was hard at work, by the stern of the ship. After living side by side with him in the spirit village, you recognized him almost immediately.

The smith was loudly hammering a piece of glowing green metal, that was destined to become a blade. Each strike was accompanied by a bizarre, hexagon shaped spark, that emanated from the depths of the metal.

Jorgen wiped his forehead and looked at you:
"...more work? By the Shimmer.." he released a tired sigh:
"Alright, tell me what you need quick, I'm already full with orders" he sounded grumpy, though you can't seem to remember a time when he was in a good mood.


Jorgen took a closer look at you and squinted:
"Ah. I remember you" he meaningfully said, leaning back in his chair:

"Have my weapons served you well?"