Storming the Walls was a virtual representation of one of Eivor Varinsdottir's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan through the Portable Animus HR-8.5.
Description[]
Eivor met with her allies at the Forward Camp to finally assault Portcestre.
Dialogue[]
Eivor arrived at the forward camp to regroup with her allies. Depending on who Eivor had helped, the more allies she had.
- Norse Warrior 1: Eivor has returned! Hail, Wolf-Kissed!
Eivor could speak to Hunwald.
- Eivor: Ealdorman Hunwald, you honor your father by answering my call. Swanburrow sends her regards.
- Hunwald: My ladylove! Let her name be my flame of hope, for I confess the thought of this battle turns my guts to water.
- Eivor: Fighting is easy. Just look your opponents in the eyes, then put an axe between them.
- Hunwald: Yes, I remember. Well, I have brought the best archers in Lincolnscire to lend their bows to your cause.
Eivor spoke to Stowe and Erke.
- Stowe: I appreciate your efforts to spare the innocent, Eivor. At least we saved some lives here.
- Eivor: One day, Saxon and Dane, Norse and Briton, will live as brothers ans sisters, as they do in Lunden.
- Stowe: I only wish the path to peace were not paved with so many skulls.
- Eivor: We cannot choose the way the world is. Our only choice is how to face it.
Eivor grasped arms with Erke, while Stowe put his arm on her shoulder.
- Stowe: Godspeed, Eivor. I pray you come back safe.
Eivor could speak to Ljufvina.
- Eivor: Ever my staunch ally, Ljufvina. Are your men ready?
- Ljufvina: They are. Bows strung and arrows fletched. We will harry the enemy from the flanks to keep them off your back. They will not have a moment's peace from us.
- Eivor: I know I can count on you, Ljufvina.
- Ljufvina: What are friends for?
Eivor could talk to Birstan.
- Eivor: Birstan. I'm glad to see you again. How is your family?
- Birstan: Alfida keeps my house and heart in order. She has even charmed that old shrew Eadred.
- Eivor: And Eluric? He has not returned?
- Birstan: I hear stories of a man full of tempests, picking fights in taverns. We must hope, when hope is all we have.
- Eivor: I am sorry for your troubles but glad for your help.
- Birstan: I have brought for you a ram of unsurpassed craftsmanship. Their gates will not hold long against it.
- Eivor: That is a fine gift indeed. I will make good use of it.
- Birstan: Fight hard, Eivor.
- Eivor: When have I done otherwise?
Eivor could talk to Soma.
- Eivor: Soma Jarlskona. You seem grave.
- Soma: I am thinking on the battle to come. Every conflict has a cost. I wonder who will pay this time?
- Eivor: We are no strangers to loss, you and I.
- Soma: The ache of absent souls is a wound that never heals. But we may return your brother to your side. There is that.
- Eivor: Fulke and her men will bear the cost today, not us.
- Eivor: I wish I were as sure of it as you.
Eivor could talk to Vili.
- Eivor: Vili, you stiff old arse-stick! How are you?
- Vili: That's Vili Jarl to you, peasant. Now take a knee and kiss my ring.
- Eivor: The power of jarldom has gone to your head, I see. Has Snotinghamscire fallen to ruin yet?
- Vili: The land thrives under my guidance, I believe. But gods, I am itching to kill something, and so are my berserkers.
- 'Eivor: You have come to the right place for that.
Eivor climbed up the hill to find more allies. Eivor could talk to Ubba.
- Eivor: Ubba. Any advice before we begin?
- Ubba: Advise? You need none of that now. You stand in no one's shadow, Eivor.
- Eivor: Lofty praise from the son of Ragnar Lothbrok.
- Ubba: It may be that one day our paths leads us to doom, Eivor. But at least we can say the footprints we left were our own.
Eivor could talk to Bishop Deorlaf.
- Eivor: Bishop Deorlaf. Strange to see a man of God on the battle lines.
- Bishop Deorlaf: It may surprise you, but I was no stranger to horse and hunt in my younger days.
- Eivor: It is Saxons we might this day, Deorlaf. Not Britons, and not in Mercia.
- Bishop Deorlaf: It is Fulke I fight. A false Christian, preaching a corruption of God's word. If I can assist in her downfall, I will.
- Eivor: Then you are welcome here, friend.
Eivor spoke to Basim.
- Basim: You are quite the agent of chaos. Fulke's men are chasing their tails, not knowing where you will strike next.
- Ubba: Portcestre has neither the supplies nor the forces to keep us out now.
- Basim: And you have bought time for your allies to arrive. Many have come, not least the bishop here.
- Bishop Deorlaf: As I promised. As a keeper of God's word, it would be poor form if I did not keep my own.
- Ubba: Now, if the talking is done, there's blood to be spilled!
Soma approached.
- Soma: Eivor. Dark news. We have found a letter on one of the dead. Fulks has called for aid.
- Eivor: Reinforcements?
- Soma: A Saxon army marches from Wincestre.
- Bishop Deorlaf: Then my men and I will ride to meet them. We will harry them every step of the way, to buy you time.
- Basim: We may begin the assault at once. Or you might wish to speak with your allies if you have not done so already?
- Ubba: Warm words do that the chill of battle-fear.
- Eivor: I will not be long.
- Basim: Return when you are ready.
After talking to anyone she had not already spoken to, Eivor returned to Basim.
- Basim: Your warriors are eager for battle. Are you?
Everyone prepares for battle. Eivor, Soma and Ubba approach Portcestre, where Fulke stood on the wall to meet them.
- Fulke: Eivor! Did you enjoy the gift I left you in Canterbury?
- Eivor: You will die today, Fulke. But your men may live if you come here, to me, and settle this alone.
- Fulke: We have nothing to settle. Die on these walls if you will. It is your choice.
- Eivor: No wall is high enough to keep me from you.
- Fulke: Then come. Claim your brother, if you can. I shall wait with him. If you would find us, you need only follow his screams.
- Eivor: Fulke!
Eivor stormed off angrily. Eivor stood in front of her friends and allies.
- Eivor: What will the skalds say when they speak of this day? They will say we unleashed such rampant slaughter that Odin himself stirred on his throne to watch! They will say that ravens blacked the sky to feast on Saxon dead! So raise your sword with me now, brothers and sisters. For today is the day we carve our names into legend!
Everyone cheered, clapped or raised their fists in the air. Eivor turned to face Portchestre and the upcoming battle.
- Eivor: I'm coming for you, Brother.
Eivor an her army began to attack.
- Ubba: So many battles and so few scars, Basim! What's your secret?
- Basim: I don't get hit.
- Ubba: Aha! The simplest strategies are the best!
The ram made it's way to the gate, destroying small palisades along the way.
- Vili: Ravens will tear your flesh.
Another palisade stood in the way of the main gate.
- Eivor: Another palisade! We have to knock it down!
If any of Eivor's friends went down, they would comment.
- Villi: I will die with an axe in my fist!"
- Soma: No! Valhalla calls to me.
- Ubba: You will not break me, Saxon shit-fly.
- Basim: I will fall if I take more blows.
If Eivor fell to low health, her allies could comment.
- Soma: Do not fall, Eivor. We need your axe-arm!
- Vili: Eivor! Pull back, you cannot fall here!
- Basim: Guard yourself, Wolf-Kissed. You are Sigurd's last hope.
Sometimes when Eivor would kill an enemy, her allies could comment.
- Soma: Well done, Eivor. All fall in your wake.
- Vili: That ugly bastard didn't stand a chance!
- Basim: Your strength is unmatched, Eivor!
- Ubba: There, Eivor! You are our champion.
The ram destroyed the final palisade.
- Soma: Do not let your swords fall, onward, onward!
- Vili: Rip their spines out, spill their guts!
The ram approached the gate.
- Eivor: Break open that gate! Watch out for the oil! Courage, men! Let the ravens gorge on Saxon meat!
With or without Eivor's help, the ram breached the gate.
- Ubba: You all die here today!
- Basim: Push forward, we have them on the run.
Eivor could hear an exchange between Basim and Vili.
- Basim: Watch your left!
- Vili: You watch YOUR left!
- Basim: I'm trying to help!
Eivor could hear an exchange between Ubba and Soma.
- Ubba: Soma! You fight like Vidarr, hungry for revenge!
- Soma: I would say the same of you, Ubba Ragnarsson!
Eivor could hear an exchange between Vili and Ubba.
- Vili: Ubba! Do you have sight of Eivor!
- Ubba: Are you her nursemaid? Why do you ask?
- Vili: Old habits. Pay me no mind.
Eivor could hear an exchange between Soma and Basim.
- Soma: What waits for you on the other side of death, Basim?
- Basim: I thought I knew once. Now I think otherwise.
- Soma: A bad day to be uncertain.
Eivor could hear an exchange between Vili and Soma
- Vili: I've killed twenty Saxons already!
- Soma: I lost count around thirty.
- Vili: Hmph...well...I wasn't counting the short ones!
There were two palisades in the way.
- Vili: They can't keep us back!
- Eivor: The men cannot get through! We need to get them away from those archers!
Eivor destroyed one or both palisades.
- Ubba: We fight as brothers and sisters, we fight for blood!
Eivor could hear an exchange between Vili and Ubba.
- Vili: Ubba! Do you have sight of Eivor!
- Ubba: Are you her nursemaid? Why do you ask?
- Vili: Old habits. Pay me no mind.
- Vili: Fight beside me! Lest I fall.
A portcullis stood in the way of many warriors. Eivor climbed up to lift it.
- Eivor: Keep fighting, men! I will take care of the gate.
Eivor lifted the gate, breaking the mechanism.
- Basim: For Sigurd!
- Eivor: Springalds! Damn these Saxons! I will make a path.'
Another palisade stood in their way.
- Eivor: They cannot hold us back! Make your ancestors proud!
- Basim: Aid me!
- Vili: You Saxon sheep-fuckers die here.
Eivor destroyed the final palisade.
- Soma: Your blood will stain this place for eternity.
- Eivor: Onward! Let nothing stand in your way!
Eivor made her way to the keep.
- Eivor: The keep is in sight! We must fight our way to it!
- Ubba: Your Hell has come to claim you.
- Eivor: Fight hard! Odin's eyes are upon you this day!
Eivor arrived at the locked keep gate, which was guarded by an enemy with the key.
- Fulke's Champion: We meet again, heathen! You should have killed me when you had the chance.
- Eivor: A mistake I will not make twice.
Eivor killed him and looted the key off of him.
- Eivor: These Saxon slack-bladders are no match for Norse steel!
- Soma: For Eivor! For Sigurd!
Eivor unlocked the gate and entered the keep.
- Eivor: Sigurd must be close. Up these stairs!
Eivor climbed, killing some soldiers who were inside until she came across a room.
- Eivor: Sigurd was here once, but no longer. Where has Fulke taken him?
Eivor examined a chair with shackles and covered in blood.
- Eivor: Is this Sigurd's blood?
- Basim: Still fresh.
Eivor examined restraints in the wall with blood.
- Eivor: Sigurd. Every instant of your torment, Fulke will suffer tenfold.
Eivor stepped outside to a ledge where a horn sounded. Eivor saw Fulke walking to a bridge where she taunted Eivor and ran to a small church nearby.
- Eivor: The church! Fulke must have taken him there. Come on, Basim!
- Basim: Face us, Fulke! Your cowardice betrays you.
Eivor made her way to the church across the bridge, fighting or ignoring attacking soldiers. Eivor entered the church and came across a large door.
- Eivor: This door will need the strength of two!
Eivor and Basim forced the door open. Fulke stood over the alter, with Sigurd unconscious on the floor, holding the stump where his arm once was.
- Eivor: Fulke!
Fulke smiled.
- Fulke: I have done all I could to help him, Eivor. The rest is up to you.
- Eivor: Nooo! No!
Eivor ran toward Fulke who ran to a trap door and climbed inside. Eivor turned back to Sigurd, checking on him.
- Eivor: Brother! Brother! I'm here for you. I have you.
Sigurd weakly looked at Eivor.
- Basim: Let me stay with him. You deal with Fulke.
Eivor sighed.
- Eivor: I'll come back for you, I promise.
Eivor stood up and headed toward the trap door, patting Basim on the shoulder. Basim knelt down but kept his eye on Eivor. Eivor landed in the catacombs underneath the church. She walked deeper into the catacombs, with only a few torches to light the way. Eivor ended up in a dark room with only floor lanterns. Eivor peered through the dark.
- Eivor: You cower from me, Fulke? Like a rat in the dark?
Fulke stepped into the edge of the light.
- Fulke: We are all in the dark, Eivor. It is the search for the light that brings us closer to the gods.
- Eivor: Save your babble. Death is our language now.
- Fulke: You fight beneath a banner of ignorance, Eivor. I could pull back the curtain for you. Give you a glimpse of what lies beyond.
- Eivor: I need nothing from you.
Eivor and Fulke fought. Sometimes Fulke hid in the shadows to catch Eivor unaware.
- Eivor: This ends here.
- Fulke: A pity to kill one with such...potential.
- Eivor: Where are your fine words now, paladin?
Fulke could also put the floor lanterns out to make the area pitch black.
- Fulke: If you will not raise your eyes to the light, I'll bury you in the dark.
- Eivor: So you can fight after all.
- Fulke: You are more like Sigurd than you know.
After some fighting, Fulke stopped.
- Fulke: Do you not wonder, Eivor, at the things I have learned?
- Eivor: Every word you say is madness.
- Fulke: Sigurd is an Ancient One! An archon, Nephilim, Isu, call him what you will. He is reborn!
- Eivor: He is my brother and my jarl. And you are mind-sick.
- Fulke: He is everything we should hope to be!
Fulke threw a smoke bomb to escape.
- Eivor: Fulke! Damn you to Hel!
Eivor chased her through the dark reaching a set of steps going up into the light.
- Eivor: Fulke! you can't run from me forever!
Eivor climbed out of the catacombs. Fulke tried to make her escape before being blocked by a group of Norse, in a graveyard.
- Eivor: Nobody touch her. She's mine.
Fulke turned back to Eivor.
- Fulke: You are too late, Eivor. I have opened your brother's mind to the truth. That is my victory.
Fulke turned to pull a large, cross gravestone out of the ground.
- Fulke: And you will go with me to the grave.
Eivor and Fulke fought again.
- Fulke: You can wound my flesh, but my work will live on for all time! You are more like your brother than I realized, Eivor.
Eventually, Eivor bested and killed Fulke. In the dark corridor, Eivor repeatedly punch Fulke who laughed.
- Eivor: (scream) Burn in your Hell!
Eivor was suddenly thrown from Fulke by Odin.
- Odin: Stop!
- Fulke: (laughing, coughing)
- Odin: You misunderstand, Eivor.
Eivor got up to one knee and drew an axe from her belt and ran toward Fulke.
- Eivor: I'll eat your heart!
Eivor was once again pulled back by Odin's power.
- Odin: She has saved your brother!
Eivor struggled against Odin's power.
- Fulke: Animals, we are. Spit and vomit, shit and soil.
Fulke turned before a giant version of Sigurd with ropes reaching from his head to the ground.
- Fulke: But Sigurd is so much more. I gave him that understanding, that gift.
On the floor was a pully. Fulke placed her hand on it.
- Eivor: You gave him pain!
Fulke pulled on the pully wheel.
- Fulke: Yes! To awaken him!
As Fulke pulled the wheel, Sigurd screamed. Sigurds eyes glowed a bright white.
- Fulke: All that power! All that potential, locked away.
The giant Sigurd looked down at Fulke angrily and the ropes ripped away. Sigurd yelled in pain.
- Fulke: A god trapped in a prison on bones! The pain was necessary to free him!
Sigurds shackles broke away and he stood.
- Fulke: Behold his terrible beauty!
The giant Sigurd reached down and grabbed Fulke.
- Fulke: The beauty of the divine!
Sigurd crushed Fulke in his hand as she screamed, and disappeared in a flash of light and dust.
- Odin: Hers was the great work, the highest achievement of humankind. Now you, Eivor-you must carry it forward.
Sigured reached down to grab Eivor.
- Eivor: Sigurd...
The dark corridor faded. Back in the graveyard, Eivor knelt over Fulke's body, grabbing her Order medallion.
- Sigurd: I can walk. Let me...let me walk.
Eivor turned to see Sigurd being guided by Basim. Sigurd stumbled as Basim released him.
- Eivor: Sigurd?
- Sigurd: Eivor...I will...I will fight...as a thresher through a field of wheat, Mad One.
- Eivor: What has she done to you?
Bishop Deorlaf arrived with Ubba.
- Bishop Deorlaf: Eivor! We delayed them as long as we could.
- Ubba: Reinforcements from Wincestre have come.
Eivor turned to Basim.
- Eivor: Get Sigurd to a boat. I will hold them off until you are safely away.
- Basim: Fight well, Eivor. Find us at the settlement when you can.
Basim led Sigurd away.
- Soma: Archers! To the walls!
Eivor, Deorlaf and Ubba turned to hold off the Saxons.
- Ubba: Damn these Saxon dogs! Don't they give up?
- Eivor: Stand with me, Ubba. We'll turn the tide.
- Soma: Stay strong! Victory is close at hand!
- Eivor: Keep your wits about you, Soma. Don't get careless now.
- Soma: Never!
- Eivor: One last effort! Drive them back!
- Ubba: by Thor, we're not done yet!
- Eivor: Do not falter now, men1 For Odin, and for glory!
After much fighting, the Saxons retreated. Eivor ran to meet with Ubba and Soma.
- Eivor: Is that the last of them?
- Soma: We have beaten them back for now, but without Guthrum's army, we do not have the numbers to hold this fort.
- Eivor: We found Sigurd. That is what matters.
Eivor turned to see the cheers of her forces, including Deorlaf. Eivor smiled as Ubba stood beside her.
- Ubba: Guthrum has hasty in his judgement, Eivor. You are fit to stand with the best of us. Go to your brother. The words of one beloved will heal him faster than herbs. I will see to matters here.
- Eivor: May the gods guide you, Ubba. Until we meet again.
Eivor could speak to Soma.
- Eivor: Soma Jarlskona. It seems we have won.
- Soma: A great victory. Not even these walls could stand against us.
- Eivor: This land will be ours, in time. What now for you?
- Soma: Ubba and I will go west, driving the Saxons before us. Aelfred will not hold the crown much longer.
- Eivor: I hope one day to see you both there.
- Soma: I would like that.
Eivor could speak to Ubba again.
- Eivor: There's one more thing...
- Ubba: What are you doing still talking to me? Enough goodbyes. Go to Sigurd!
- Eivor: Yes. Be well, Ubba.
Eivor could talk to Deorlaf.
- Eivor: Howe did you like the taste of battle?
- Bishop Deorlaf: That was...exhilarating! Reminds me of my younger days.
- Eivor: Had you not delayed those reinforcements, we might never have succeeded. You are brave for a priest.
- Bishop Deorlaf: Do not underestimate the faithful. We give out lives to a God we cannot see or touch. There is no greater bravery than that.
Eivor could speak to Hunwald.
- Eivor: We could not have taken this fort without your archers, Hunwald. My thanks.
- Hunwald: O, it was nothing, you know! All in a day's work.
- Eivor: I may need call on them again one day.
- Hunwald: Ah. Was this not the only...? Right, because I was hoping... Well, never mind.
Eivor could speak to Birstan.
- Eivor: Birstan. Your ram was invaluable in breaching this fortress.
- Birstan: A trifle in comparison to the great service you have rendered me.
- Eivor: You will have a good story to tell Alfida upon your return.
- Birstan: There is that. But battle is not so thrilling and glamorous as the stories tell. I shall have to spruce it up a little.
Eivor could talk to Villi.
- Eivor: You look pleased with yourself.
- Vili: Smell that air! Smells like victory!
- Eivor: Smells like blood and brains and the soiled underclothes of dead men.
- Vili: Aye, isn't that what victory smells like?
- Eivor: Perhaps to you, arse-stick. I'll take roasting meat, warm mead, and a fire.
- Vili: Ah, you always were soft. Get on with you!
Eivor could talk to Ljufvina.
- Eivor: Ljufvina. I am glad to see you made it through.
- Ljufvina: Be proud, Eivor. You found Sigurd, against the odds.
- Eivor: I found his shadow. But I must hope that the scars Fulke has inflicted on his mind will heal.
- Ljufvina: Sigurd is strong. It will take more than pain to break him.
- Eivor: You did not see him, Ljufvina. There was an emptiness in his eyes.
- Ljufvina: I am sorry to hear that. Let us hope for the best.
Eivor returned to Ravensthorpe.
Outcome[]
Eivor and her allies assaulted Portcestre and killed Fulke.
Trivia[]
- Which allies show up depends on what story arcs were completed before this memory.
- Although the appearence of the jarl of Snotinghamscire is possible in this memory if their arc has been completed, chronologically the arc takes place in January 876 CE whilst Eivor's rescue of Sigurd took place in 875 CE, being potentially non-canon.
Gallery[]
