...Maybe I should think twice before waking him, the Lunar Oracle thinks to herself as she throws up an Air Walk spell, steps off the ground, and begins to carefully "tip-toe" around the platform. However, she takes care to never step anywhere that doesn't have solid ground underneath it.
From there, Yulia decides to have a look around for anything else of note.
There is nothing else on the platform.
Are there other paths, or does the road seem to end here?
Not quite sure what else to do, Yulia sighs and decides to try to awaken the giant again. However, she first shifts to her Four-Armed Gargoyle form to downplay the height disparity. With most of her longer term buffs in place, she feels comfortable enough to address the big sleeper.
There is a deep rumbling sound as the titanic man draws in a sharp breath. This is followed by his eyelids snapping open to reveal baleful red orbs the size of small boulders. The eyes register Yulia, and a look of confusion passes over them. There is a horribly loud grinding sound from his armor as the man moves quickly into a crouch. He snaps down the visor of his helm, and says, in giant.
"I am King Yulia Rockne of Southmoor," the Half-Elf replies in Giant without missing a beat. "Might I ask your name?"
the massive man says.
"I came through a portal opened by an artifact; I am not entire surely why it took me here either," Yulia explains as she stretches her lower pair of arms. The Lunar Oracle figures that humoring this "Godslayer" will be the best way to get some information about her task. "I've never met someone who killed a god. That is quite amazing. Which deity did you slay, Great Godslayer?"
Bokragg says. His eyes narrow.
"Before I change my religious affiliation or join the choir invisible, might I ask who imprisoned you here?" Yulia says with a pleasant smile. "Or for that matter, what exactly is 'here'?"
the Titan roars at the impertinent humanoid below it. He holds his hand out and the axe flies up from the floor and into his hand.
Bokragg 19
Yulia 18
Bokragg raises his axe, pointing it at Yulia and channels a burst of power down it. Four meteors the diameter of wagon wheels shoot out of the weapon, headed right for the lunar oracle. Two of the boulders slam into her, while the other two impact the platform beside her. All four boulders explode simultaneously in the strongest explosion Yulia has ever experienced.
Hit, Miss, Miss, Hit
Fail, Pass, Fail, Fail
Yulia lets out a roar of agony as the world around her erupts in fire and pain, causing her to drop her morningstar to the ground. Still, somehow, even with most of the life burned out of her, the King of Southmoor manages to endure and even dodge of some the godly explosions. As a natural reflex, she immediately uses her Ring of Invisibility, and the power of Desna sealed within Starry Heavens shields her from all known forms of vision and divination. With a flap of her mighty Gargoyle wings, Yulia quickly relocates herself to a safer location.
With her tracks hopefully covered for the time being, Yulia wastes no time in Healing herself. Her terrible burns quickly vanish. From there, she begins empowering herself with every single buff spell she knows while flying around the circle to avoid any possible area of effect retaliation. Once ready, she quickly breaks her invisibility and tosses a spell at Bokragg that will hopefully crater his damage output.
As Yulia cast her spell and appears, she feels fear grip her heart as her magic simply fizzles out against the Titan. He roars and steps forward. Bokragg swings his humongous axe at gargoyle-Yulia with four lightning fast slashes.
Hit, Miss, Miss, Miss
The first and most powerful of his attacks manages to penetrate Yulia's mythic defenses. Pain fills her as she is cut in a long arc. Do not fail us daughter of Aroden, she hears a feminine voice say in her head. As she does she can feel her well of mythic power refilling itself, as if some outside source were filling her with strength.
Still not ready, Yulia hurriedly thinks. Her Ulfen side compels her to just ignore that pain and start fighting her foe, but her inner Snowcaster is currently in control and tells Yulia to hide, heal, buff further, and then attack. It emphasizes that one or two more of that titan's swings will kill her outright and that this guy probably falls under that category of Jörmungandr; in short, he is an enemy who will not give her an honorable fight, so there is no point in pulling her punches.
With a sigh, Yulia activates her ring and fades from the mortal world's senses. Using her powerful wings and hasted speed, she quickly relocates herself to avoid any possible area attacks. Yulia then spends the next twelve seconds patching herself up and moving around randomly to keep Bokragg guessing her location.
Afterward, she begins looking through her mythic well for more options. The Lunar Oracle finds a good one soon enough and smiles as she realizes that it is a new one. Yulia quickly casts it upon herself and feels her stone skin harden into mighty iron.
Yulia frowns as she finds nothing else. If this guy had been undead, then the King of Southmoor could have tried smiting him Paladin-style with one of the spells she located, but as far as she knows, he is some sort of outsider. With little else to do, she closes her eyes and asks Desna for help.
I humbly request any assistance that you can give me, Great Song of the Spheres, Yulia prays as calmly as she can manage.
Desna readily answers her chosen Oracle. Yulia instantly feels a portion of the goddess' power flow through her soul, causing her muscles to swell slightly and adding yet another layer to her mythic defenses. Yulia's eyes snap open, and she quickly moves into position to strike at Bokragg's large torso.
Now at the apex of her power, Yulia utters her own mighty roar, shatters her invisibility, and attacks Bokragg with everything she has.
______________________________________________________
Yulia, swollen with power, thunders into the titan's chest. Her teeth tear open the monster's enchanted platemail, shredding the flesh beneath. She then uses her claws to begin tearing deep bloody furrows into the muscles, and then bone, of the titan's massive body. Finally she digs her horns under one of the Bokragg's ribs, and with a buck of her corded neck muscles, shatters the bone free from the dark titan's sternum. He is shocked at the ferocity of her assault for a moment before a flex of his body repulses her.
the titan roars, wasting no time in attacking the Linnorm King. His axe returns her fury with a speed that defies mortal comprehension. If any normal people were watching the two of them battle, they would see only blurry motion whirling back and forth above the smoky platform.
Hit, miss, poss crit, not confirmed, miss, miss
His gianormous axe impacts the Linnorm King twice, shattering even her formidable defenses to cut at the flesh beneath.
How am I still alive? Yulia mentally wonder as blood pours in torrents from her wounds. Still, the Lunar Oracle endures the blows.
She reviews her options and finds that they are not many. A quick search of her mythic well shows no new buffs hiding away like last time. Yulia quickly concludes that the smart option is to just Heal herself. Turning invisible again would be even better. She could Heal herself and then engage on her terms. Her Elven pragmatism even cooks up a better idea to tops those two.
However, her Ulfen side (probably the blood loss) clamors for Yulia to prove herself without resorting to "cheap" tricks.
The Half-Elf compromises between her conflicting thoughts. She quickly but carefully belts herself with a powerful pulse of positive energy, and thankfully, years of practice and her Gloves of Elvenkind allow her to do it without breaking her guard. In an instant, her wounds vanish entirely.
Yulia then casts her newest spell, which makes her movements extremely agile and graceful. Without lowering her guard, she moves away from Bokragg and gets ready for the next round of combat. Hopefully, his only ranged attack is the big explosion barrage, which she is quite ready for this time.
Bokragg points his finger at Yulia, and a thin green ray shoots out of it.
The ray deflects off the auras of power surrounding Yulia. shouts Bokragg. He rushes towards her, to put the nimble King back within reach of his axe.
Yulia once again enhances her movements with a quick charge of magic. Not wanting to take another hit or two from Bokragg's terrible axe, she flies away from his reach once more. Her supernatural Grace ensures that she dodges another attacks of opportunity that her titanic foe might take.
Once in position, Yulia claps her upper set of hands together. An instant later, several powerful shining chains shoot out of them and begin to bind Bokragg...
The Godslayer struggles against the golden chains, but he is not fast enough to resist their solid grasp. In moments the Titan is bound up and unable to move. He is held helpless before her.
Yulia says nothing as one of her arms draws her cold iron sickle. Once the weapon is securely in hand, she gives it a swift charge of mythic power and then quickly closes the distance between herself and Bokragg. With a few flaps her her wings, Yulia levels herself with the giant's head and aims her weapons
The King of Southmoor contemplates gloating, but after nearly dying several times, doing so would feel a bit hollow. Besides, there is always the chance that the titan might survive this next attack. As such, Yulia simply slashes her sickle across Bokragg's exposed throat with all her might.
Bokragg's eyes go wide in paralyzed disbelief as Yulia cuts his head off with one clean blow. The gigantic titan's body falls to its knees on the smokey red platform, before slumping forward onto its chest. The rune inscribed manacles around his wrists and ankles begin to glow a soft golden yellow color. As Bokragg's lifeblood leaks out into the clouds, the light from the manacles projects itself into a single place and forms a floating image. The golden light-image is of a female titan, resplendent in a white silk dress. She speaks with the same voice Yulia heard in her mind during her fight with the Thanatonic titan moments earlier. "Thank you, King Rockne. Bokragg had escaped execution for far too long. We're pleased that we're finally meeting. We are the spirit of the Book. A sliver of the consciousnesses of the titans who created the Book, and whose power you wield. You must have questions."
Yulia holds a claw up to gesture that she will speak momentarily; the Lunar Oracle suddenly realizes how short of breath she is after such a titanic fight. Once Yulia collects herself, she begins to talk.
"Feeling's mutual, Book Spirit," Yulia replies with a small smile. "I've always wondered who 'The Titan' was. By the way, thanks for the assist. It is much appreciated. Questions? Let me think..."
Yulia taps one of her four hands against her Gargoyle chin.
"Will Elgigas be alright?" the King of Southmoor inquires, recalling how pained the fire giant seemed. "He's the giant wizard who brought me here. Speaking of here, are we inside the Book?"
"In a manner of speaking. We are in a demi-plane constructed to hold Bokragg during the Titan-Gods War. His power was such that we could not kill him at the time, merely bind him with a portion of our power. We have waited millennia for one strong enough to finish the deed. Ever since the you found the Book we've been investing you with as much of our power as we thought you could handle. Now that Bokgragg is dead, we will give you the power that was used to bind him." The hologram of the Titan woman raises her hand, and a stream of golden light flows across the distance between her and Yulia. The energy flows into Yulia's chest, and she can feel the well of mythic power in her core expanding dramatically.
"The giant who opened the way for you will be fine. He's just serving as a channel for our power. Your human blood is too distant from ours to handle the kind of flow that was necessary. Also, had we used you to open the gate, you would not have been able to enter. Now that there is no power to support it, this place will not last long. You should return to your world, and quickly. Know that we will be here, waiting for you to unite the peoples of the Titans." With those words, the woman smiles and flickers, then fades from sight. As she does, Yulia can see the smokey floor start to slowly disperse. Whatever mystical force was holding the platform in place is gone, and it is slowly dissolving.
As her mythic might increases, Yulia sees several new choices before her. Immediately seeing finding something very useful, she quickly grasps one of the powers: a split second teleportation move away from danger. The Lunar Oracle has no qualms in fighting facing someone like Left-Eye in direct combat, but experience has taught her that brute monsters like Bokragg and Jörmungandr do not play by the rules.
The next selection is much more difficult to make. There are so many awesome choices[/i]. She even finds the delicious option of immortality! The good eternal youth variant too! However, Yulia finds something
Her Curse has always been something of a sticking point for the Lunar Oracle. Unlike many of her kind, since they came directly from a benevolent deity, her original powers had not come with a curse. However, that had not lasted long. One night shortly after her powers had manifested, some jerk imp had teleported into the Desnan Guardian camp. He seemed to have some mission ahead of time. Someone in Hell had decided that little Yuyu had it too good, and they used the imp as proxy to give her a crippling disability via the power of Asmodeus himself.
In hindsight, it has not been the worst curse an Oracle could have; Hilda Rockne stumbled upon the little infernal pest cursing her sleeping daughter and killed the devil before he could finish with the ritual. Yulia had not been rendered deaf. She could walk just fine. Her body was not wasting away. She did not speak in Tongues when stressed out. All Yulia has to do is keep her word, and if she fails, she gets a slightly sick. It was admittedly bad when she was little, but nowadays, she could usually shrug off the sickness.
However, as a matter of pride, receiving the curse had always disgruntled her. Lady Desna had given her a great gift, and some Infernal jackass had decided to ruin it. As such, when she finds an option to suppress it, Yulia seizes it.
When she snaps back to reality, Yulia realizes what the titaness just told her, throws up another Haste spell, and begins to book it for the portal.
The way back is the same as it was on the way in, just much more hurried. Yulia darts along the pathway at high speed, as it slowly dissolves behind her. She covers the last couple of meters at a full sprint, aided by her spell, and leaps through the portal back into Verakas's keep just in time for it to snap shut behind her. Elgigas sinks back to the floor, and the power filling him withdraws into the book. Verakas is still in the room, now joined by her two cloud giantess guards, and in her armor. She looks relieved to see Yulia. Elgigas seems to be confused. He blinks several times, looking around and then down at the book. "What just happened?" he asks.
Just before she makes a mad dash to the portal, Yulia quickly turns around, grabs her fallen morningstar, and then bolts for the exit.
~~Linnorm King: The Slayer of Fafnheir~~
A bit winded by the run, Yulia holds up a finger to ask for a moment to collect herself.
"It's a long story, but I'm happy to tell you all," Yulia remarks after catching her breath. "This'll sound hard to believe, but..."
Yulia repeats the entire story, though she omits a few details. Despite their less than pleasant initial history, the King of Southmoor does trust Verakas quite a bit, but there are some things that she felt were just better left unsaid.
"So in short, the book used Elgigas as a channel to open a portal. It went to an evil Titan's prison. He decided to kill me, but I turned the tables on him. The power binding him went elsewhere, causing the pocket dimension to collapse. I barely made it back. Wow that sounds insane when repeated out loud."
Yulia ponders something for a moment.
"The Book Spirit said that my 'human blood' was 'too distant' from hers 'to handle the kind of flow' of power necessary for the portal. She also mentioned something about 'the peoples of the Titans' at the end. Any idea what she was talking about? That former seems to imply that I'm distantly related to the Titans, but that seems a bit... outlandish."
Elgigas looks thunderstruck by the tale. He speaks up after blinking many times. "Fascinating! Long ago during their war with the gods the titans created the gigas, who in turn became the giants. Some tales claim that men were made from giants as well, but there has never been any proof. Nor are such wild speculations given much merit amongst scholars. But if what you say is true..."
Verakas just looks impressed. "Glad I decided not to fight you. 'Oh I just slew an evil titan single handedly..it was nothing,'" she mocks Yulia with a playful grin.
Yulia chuckles somewhat uneasily at Verakas' remarks. "It wasn't quite nothing. He pushed me to my limits. I used every buff I could, and even then, it would've been suicide to engage him in a straight fight. You were also willing to talk. He basically decided to kill me for asking his name."
The Lunar Oracle looks over at Elgigas' curiously. "I do wish that I could've asked her more. It sounds like we've stumbled upon something big."
"Indeed," says Elgigas. He appears to be deep in thought about what he's just learned.
Verakas says, "Well, I take it that was the ritual that you needed help with. Is there anything else I can do for you, King Rockne?"
Yulia nods at Verakas' remarks. "It was. Both of your help was greatly appreciated. I don't need anything else right now, so just keep up the good work with building your kingdom. If you need anything, Queen Verakas, please feel free to contact me."
As much as part of Yulia wants to charge out into the Wilds and hunt a certain Linnorm right now, the King of Southmoor figures that she needs to build her strength first. She has only sat on Jol's throne for a little over a month, and while she has done much good already, the Lunar Oracle has a military to build, a border to secure, walls to construct, farms to plant, and so forth before any of her personal plans should be initiated.
...Additionally, she would like to gather funds for some new gear. True, Yulia could probably make due with what she has now, but she always wants every advantage she can get on the second most powerful Linnorm on Golarion. She also needs to locate his general wandering area. Unlike his father, the legends say that Jörmungandr has never been keen to stay in one lair.
"I suppose I will see myself out then. Take care, everyone!" Yulia chirps as she shifts herself to the safest, most boring part of Nirvana that she can imagine. Once there, she quickly charges the same spell with Mythic Power and warps herself to the front doors of her meadhall.
Yulia enters the building and quickly locates Imperia.
"Hey, Imp," the King whispers quietly. "Yeah, I know that was quick. Let's relocate somewhere more... private. I have something to yell you."
Once she gets the chance, Yulia tells Imperia the entire story, this time sparing no details.
"So what exactly are the theories of humanity's origin? I know that we're called Sons and Daughters of Aroden, but I'm pretty sure that we predate his rise to godhood."
"Well, no one really knows actually. It's all lost to the mists of time, as they often say. I think based off of magical theory alone it's plausible. There are certain spells which only function on humanoids, giants fall within that category. It wouldn't seem beyond reason that humans and giants share the same ancestors. They can interbreed afterall," Imperia muses. She then shrugs.
Yulia nods at Imperia's thoughts; they make a lot of sense, especially her point about humanoid-targeting spells working on giants as well. Yuyu finds it amusing that something so obvious was hiding in plain sight. She wonders what Elgigas plans to do about the discovery; he seemed very fascinated it all.
"I think I'm gonna retire for the day," Yulia says with a yawn. "Negotiations and slaying evil titans sure tire a girl out. Tomorrow, we can start on all those other plans we have. Also, I think it is time that we start planning our Linnorm Hunt. With these latest powers from the Book, I feel... ready for our fated fight."
The months and seasons pass quickly with the duties of ruling a nation. It is slow work, but Yulia is able to eventually realize all her goals. Rockne's Rangers do the hard work of taming Southmoor, and her empowered people build roads to connect her villages and towns. Verakas tames most of the giants in the Kodor Mountains to the south, and trade begins between the giants and men. Elgigas is sent to Jol as Vera's representative and ambassador. Several of the larger towns are fortified with walls, and the country flourishes under Yulia (and Imperia)'s wise rulership. In the meantime Yulia begins to plan her hunt of Jormungandr.
While not as much as before, Yulia remains quite active to stay in fighting form. She regularly spars with her Rangers and patrols the city of Jol to make sure everything is in order. She exercises Trigva at least once a day to keep the tiger in good shape and generally feeds him the healthiest food she can get. Additionally, some problems occasionally crop up that are a bit much for Rockne's Rangers to handle, so the Lunar Oracle finds herself going on mini-adventures every so often to deal with them.
Meanwhile, King Rockne gathers intelligence on the location of her nemesis. Most of it is done in secret via her Communion with Desna, but she has noticed that the Song of the Spheres gives more definitive answers if Yulia already has outside intel. After many months of diligent study, Yulia begins to go over her leads.
"Our first objective is to nail down his lair. I know that he's probably in the Grungir Forest, but that's still a big area. I'd rather not march everyone into Fafnheir's den and gets us all killed," Yulia explains to her assembled advisers.
Thanks to her many years of preparations, Yulia feels confident that she could handle the Killer of Heroes, but his father is another story.
Yulia's months of painstaking research have lead her to believe that Jormungandr does not actually lair on Golarion. That is why finding him has been so challenging. He lairs in the First World. By interrogating various fey from Grungir forest, she has put together the general picture of his home and habits. She has was even able to obtain the location of a permanent toadstool circle that functions as a portal to the First World on the night of every full moon. Her fey informants tell of an ancient volcano shrouded in a primordial fey forest. Fafnheir's son makes his home in one of the lava vents on the side of the mountain. They said it is not far from the portal, and have provided a map. While some few evil fey are aligned with the linnorm, most of the good fey of the Grungir hate him, and would gladly see him gone. Armed with this information, the King is ready to undertake her great hunt.
"Can someone remind me how these Hunts traditionally work?" Yulia asks her war council. The King of Southmoor shifts in her chair as she explains, "The last formal one I attended didn't exactly end like I expected. I'm pretty sure White befriending Boiltongue is a historical anomaly."
Yulia cannot help but finally notice how her diction has improved since she added the new intelligence function to her headband; those last two words are ones that she never thought she would use in her lifetime.
Imperia steps forward. "Certainly, your majesty," she replies. "Traditionally a public declaration of intent is made before appropriate witnesses. You situation is somewhat unique in that you already control a kingdom. This hunt will not be a test of your merit to rule, but rather a service for all the Lands of the Linnorm Kings. Therefore I suggest that you simply leave your formal preparations for the hunt at a public announcement. If you manage to succeed in your goal, the skalds will sing of it for generations to come and all the Lands will know."
Elgigas nods. "Queen Verakas stands ready to ward Southmoor should the worst occur. Your influence on her over the years has been great, and she swears to never allow the reign of peace and prosperity you've built together fall."
King Rockne's head Ranger and Steward likewise assure her that the day to day business of keeping the kingdom running will be in safe hands while she's gone.
Yulia patiently listens to everything that is told to her.
"That sounds like a good idea, Imperia," the King of Southmoor concludes. She has kept her agenda for Jörmungandr quiet for several years. Now would be a good time to make it known; even if the news travels fast enough to reach the Linnorm's earholes, his arrogance will keep him from running or hiding. "I suppose someone should start spreading the news that I am going to make an announcement."
Something occurs to Yulia as whoever plans to follow through with her suggestion does that.
"Will you be coming with me, Imperia? As my animal companion, I figure that Trigva would be allowed to fight by my side. After all, I've spent the better part of a decade training him. However, Jörmungandr is... definitely not your average Linnorm. He's bested entire armies. Also, I'm not sure how much assistance I'm technically supposed to get. I went on White's hunt mostly to serve as a witness and a medic; I mean, we couldn't have her slaying Boiltongue and then promptly keeling over during the night from untreated injuries. Otherwise, I just largely watched her fight from a distance."
"I believe it is entirely up to you my liege," interjects Halleck. "You would traditionally face the linnorm alone, but there may be challenges along the way that your companions could aid you in."
The Linnorm King of Southmoor ponders what to do next. Neither of her closest allies have seen any real action in the last few years. Admittedly, her last major enemy would have been problematic for them both to defeat. Thanks to her mythic toughness, Yulia could tank a few blows from Bokragg and live; one would probably have squashed Imperia like a bug. Trigva could likely take a hit or two, but he lacked a way to patch his wounds in a pinch.
There was also the fact that they would both be hard pressed to fight the Killer of Heroes. Based on her battle against the crag, one of the weakest Linnorms, Yulia knew that they were resistant to magic and that Cold Iron was the only means to effectively hurt them and put them down. Those facts would be problematic for a Sorceress and a tiger who relies on her spells and his claws and teeth respectively.
Most importantly, Yulia was expected (and honestly intended) to fight Jörmungandr by herself. It would not be fair to drag Imperia or Trigva through whatever grind the Linnorm rigged his lair to be and then ask them to sit out the final battle so that the Lunar Oracle could have all the glory. Also, Yulia knew that Jörmungandr liked to target people close to his main opponents to distract them. During their last encounter, he had used the other Desnan Guardians as temporary hostages to make things much harder for herself and her mother. If he got desperate, Jörmungandr would mostly likely attack them.
"Very well. Imperia, as we have sometimes done in the past, I will leave you in charge as regent. Trigva will remain here to protect you. If the worst happens, keep this place running until a good successor to my reign appears. I would rather not have Southmoor's new age of prosperity die with me."
Yulia taps her fingers on her chair's arm.
"Oh, someone should inform King Blood-Eagle of this Hunt as soon as possible. Something tells me that he would be quite interested in it. Now, I suppose we just wait until the city gathers to here my announcement."