I was at Gefndene enjoying the hospitality of Lytelman, now Thegn Osgar, during the last week of Winterfell. Looking in a magical device during the evening, Lytelman noticed something unusual to the south of Gethenhame. By dawn the anomaly was no longer visible, but Lytelman accompanied by the Atheling Wistan and myself, set out to investigate taking a few provisions and some torches with us.
We headed south, up the valley side towards the edge of woodland where Lytelman thought we needed to explore. It had been raining yesterday and this morning it was drizzly with fog in any lower areas. The ground was going steadily upwards and it became a scramble to keep going up, when I spotted a counterscarp going down and further in to the valley side. Thegn Osgar led us along it through some scrubby trees and gorse bushes, into a small, fog filled valley. We weren’t sure whether there might be a way out of the valley, but it came to an end abruptly in a scrambly cliff face with a mound towards the end. On top of the mound were signs of a recent fire, from the last night.
We explored the end of the quarry and spotted a patch of bare cliff face; it was surprisingly smooth with what looked like the shape of a very large door on it, but we couldn’t open it. The Thegn decided we should camp on the mound for the night and so we lit a fire and while two slept the third was on watch.
During his watch Wistan heard the howling of wolves, but nothing approached and he handed the watch over to Lytelman. The Thegn was surprised during his watch and attacked by a lych that seemed to appear out of the ground beside him. It had a shield and a spear and was clad in rags. Thegn Osgar shouted a warning and Wistan and I awoke as two more lych appeared and formed a shield wall. Lytelman was knocked back into the fire, but fortunately seemed to be protected against the flames. I struck one of the wights with my spear but it was though my spear was made of rubber; it just bounced off. Instead I grappled the wight’s spear arm instead – thinking that even if I could do no damage that this would at least prevent it from harming myself. Fortunately, the Thegn and the atheling were armed with magic weapons that did seem able to bite. I continued to grapple with a lich, which was horrific and had the stench of the grave, but after a while it managed to escape my grasp and I was forced to dodge its attacks.
Lytelman’s opponent started to sink into the ground but he struck it heavily and it stopped moving, leaving the top part of a broken skeleton above the ground. However two more lych appeared out of the ground to attack him; he was now wounded and exhausted.
Four more lych appeared and it looked like we would be overwhelmed when a deep voice said “enough”. I sensed a fire behind me and all the lych disappeared. A very large one-eyed figure appeared by the fire holding a spear. “I suppose you will have to do” he muttered.
He allowed us a short break to patch up our wounds and then ordered us to follow him. He was wearing a cloak, but was not warmly clothed and told us we could call him Grimm. He went up to the outline of the door, tapped on the door it with his spear and said something and there was a crack and it opened. “Follow me and be quick about it”, he snapped and we followed him through.
We were now somewhere completely different. It was very warm, sunny and dazzlingly bright. There were lots of what appeared to be reeds around them, but soon Lytelman realised that this was just very large grass up to our waists. We were at the head of a valley, with very large trees around. Down the valley was the biggest hall any of us had ever seen. It wasn’t made of wood, but seemed to be constructed from blocks of stone. We were allowed another small break and then Grimm led them down to the great stone hall, where there were many other buildings and a stone wall around them. The sentries, who were even taller than Grimm, seemed to know him. Our guide told the guards to let Lord Skulmar know that he was there. One guard headed off, returning shortly and the gate was opened and we were ushered in, up some very large steps and into a huge hall. Everyone therein turned to look at us. At t the end was a giant in a chair, with a giantess standing beside him. We seemed to be in the lands of the Eotan.
Sitting in one corner was a red-haired man; he was only as tall as Grimm, and was scowling ferociously, with his mouth sewed up. King Skulmar greeted Grimm – “what are you calling yourself today? You’ve brought them then, they don’t look much good”. Grimm told him that they had been tested and were acceptable. “Shall I send for the Bee ward? He is out with the bees”, Skulmar asked. Grimm nodded, so Skulmar asked his wife, Iduma, to deal with the little folk and make them comfortable. She bowed and the men bowed back and followed her.
We were led through a door in the back of the hall, across to a kitchen, where there was a huge ox roasting on a fire, deposited on a ledge and warned not to wander. There was a giant cat poised to pounce, and we formed a shield wall ready to repulse it, concerned that it might make the wrong impression if we wounded the household pet, but fortunately a hand slapped it off the ledge. Huge drinks and cakes were provided for our refreshment. We ate and sipped a little mead; we all agreed it was the best mead we had ever tasted and the honey cakes were delicious.
After an hour or two a smaller, bearded giant came in, only a little bigger than Grimm. He had a cloak and a carved staff with a scrip by his side. He introduced himself as Beoward and carefully lifted is down from the ledge. He informed us that the bees were under attack from hornets that lay in wait and attacked the bees when they return to their skep. The skep was a hanging basket of cords around a frame, with a bag underneath to collect the honey.
Beoward put a mark on each of our foreheads and muttered a few words and then we saw the bees as pretty and friendly female faces and we could understand them. A hyrnetin or hornet appeared and Beoward struck it down with his staff and stamped on it, saying that is your enemy.
We were each borne aloft by furry bodies – 4 to 6 bees each and taken up to a skep, over 100 feet up in one of the giant trees. The skep looked like a curly spiral of rope. Our entry into the skep was undignified and uncomfortable as there was no opening large enough and the bees just pushed us in between the ropes. Inside were hexagonal passages full of sticky honey. Our weapons and armour were brought up separately and then we were brought into a large chamber with a beautiful woman lying on a couch. “Welcome warriors, we are so pleased to see you” she greeted us. She told us that we needed to kill the hyrnetu queen or she would eat all her babies. She told us that the hyrnetu queen as in her realm and the longer she was left the more of her young would mature. The queen sent some of her worker bees to locate the hyrnetu queen and offered us refreshment – honey bread, and a honey nectar drink.
The worker bees let the queen know they had located the hyrnetu queen and were returning to guide us when suddenly a hyrnetu burst through the entrance to the chamber, widening it as it came through. The workers mobbed it and we formed a shield wall to protect the queen, then advanced to attack the hyrnetu. The workers stung it but immediately died, whereas the hyrnetu could sting multiple times. Thegn Osgar struck at the hyrnetu his axe, while Wistan and I supported him with our spears. It closed with the Thegn and grabbed him with its pincer-like, serrated claws around the shoulder and bit him with its mandibles and tried to bring its sting to bear, but we managed to finish it off as another hyrnetu burst through the chamber wall. With assistance from the worker bees, this one was also dispatched and the three of us headed off in the direction from whence the hornets had come.
Lytelman saw a flash of black and gold ahead, going away, so we set off in pursuit and were soon attacked by another hyrnetu. More hyrnetin appeared from the passages behind Wistan so he formed rearguard, while the Thegn attacked those ahead with his axe, while I lent support striking over him with my spear. Lytelman and I managed to press forward killing the hyrnetin while Wistan held off and slew those attacking from behind. Fortunately, the small space meant that the hyrnetin found it difficult to deploy their stings, but there were large number of them and they were able to grapple and bite Thegn Osgar and occasionally stung him too and eventually he was wounded and exhausted. He took evasive action and I stepped forward to cover him so that he was able to drink a potion. Now reinvigorated, he and I locked shields and pressed on our attack. We were both grappled by hyrnetin, but managed to break free and we could now see space opening out ahead with the hyrnetu queen on a couch.
Behind us Wistan finished off another hyrnetu, but there were still more following up. I was still fighting another hyrnetu, but Thegn Osgar was able to move forward towards the queen but was intercepted by two hyrnetin – he killed one and I stepped up to engage the other so he was able to move against the queen, but I was confused by a spell and initially thought he was attacking a beautiful lady, he was also affected by the same spell and hesitated, but we quickly shook off the enchantment and he attached the queen and I was able to join him after despatching the last of the hyrnetin. The queen was able to grapple and bite me but I escaped her clutches and between us we cut her down. As soon as she died the last remaining hyrnetu ceased fighting Wistan and he put an end to its struggles.
The three of us rested a short while and I took a potion. A bee arrived and guided us back to the queen bee. She congratulated us on our exploits and gave us each a hardened wax flask of honey. We were then flown back down to the ground.
Beoward soon arrived and was very happy to see us. He led us back to the hall, but as we were covered with honey and very sticky from our time in the skeps, Wistan requested the opportunity to clean so we were given time in the steam house, where a small tub was found for us and our clothes were also laundered.
We were then led into the presence of Lord Skulmar, who was surprised to find our task already completed successfully – a much better outcome than he seemed to have expected. Grimm and his scowling brother Lothar were summoned. Grimm was told that he could go and take his brother, but Queen Iduma chided him for giving no gift to the heroes, and the King suggested that she should see to it. She bad us men wait and returned with three very small, by their standards, flasks of mead and told us that they would do us good.
Grimm led us back the way we had come. He denied intending not to reward us. We came to our previous entry point and Grimm traced the lines of the door and a space appeared and we went through after bowing to Grimm, finding ourselves back where we had started, near the mound. It was an hour before dawn and we heading home arriving home without further adventure.
Thegn Osgar drank his potion. It was in a very nice flask, but I awaited the effects of his potion before drinking my own. In the nights immediately after his return from Eotanhame, I was troubled by strange dreams of the grave and of the unquiet dead. Oddly enough these were not dreams of fear – the dead held no terror for me.