Ava reaches the valley of Valhalla weary but energised by the sight of the great waterfalls and towering statues, she is home.
Rounding the bend in the path she sees the waterfall in it’s full glory and the platform at that top which is her destination.
Her destination awaitsGlad to be home
She scales the mighty steps for the first time in a long time and enters one of the great halls.
She takes a moment to refresh herself and change out of her travelling clothes before taking a seat in the hall.
She doesn’t intend to spend long there, she knows she has a ritual to prepare for! Once she feels rested somewhat she leaves the hall and makes her way to high platform of the tree.
On her way down she pauses to admire the valley in all it’s glory.
The Valkyrie stands guard at the portal to the Mortal Realm. Not the most exciting of jobs, since the chances of Mortals finding the path that their winged mounts take to bring the souls of dead warriors to Valhallah is pretty slim. But Mortals have now developed their airships, which at least making it a possibility to be guarded against.
At the end of my last post about Golgothica I mentioned returning to check out the chapel and the windmill. Well..I’ve done that and wow there was so much I missed out!
First I had a glance inside the suspected tavern, lovely little place, more on that later..first the chapel.
You have to head down the side of the tavern that lets you reach a bridge across to the rather spooky-looking place.
Crooked headstones are all around as you enter, a brief glance at a few before finding the entrance to the building at the near end.
Entering the Chapel the roof as fallen in which lets in beautiful shafts of light, making it feel quite serene.
Heading back the way I came between the houses I come across what would appear to be the front entrance to the tavern and take a better look. It’s small but ideally cozy for a small community to socialize in the warm together.
I come to the front of the tavern
Very cozy, just what you need with all the horrors outside.
Carrying on through the town I come across some wagons, it appears there are gypsies are in town, or is it maybe a permanent arrangement?
In the distance I’m expecting to see the windmill that I’d seen from walls of the castle on my last visit, but no. What I see instead is the entrance pillars of a stone circle!
I hasten along and something else catches my eye beyond the stones on the coast side, which is the appropriate place for a Wickerman.
The reason I’m so excited? One of my favourite films is The Wickerman (1973 original obviously,not that crap remake that doesn’t even deserve the name from 2006.)
I re-enter the stone circle to try out the ritual animations the altar there has to offer, before heading out the far side in search of the windmill.
Nice ritual pose
Lots of detailed props
A Sense of forboding
When I found it though it was a little bit of a shock inside. It’s suitably atmospheric, with some great props, enough to give me an uneasy feeling to get out.
Atmospheric props
The fact you can’t avoid stepping inside a circle might bother some people.
I’m no stranger to folks putting pentagrams upside down and stuff, they think it’s cool and scary (this is no criticism of the place,but of a stereotype portrayed in films), it’s fitting for a build like this and plays to the horror movie stereotype well. I stepped into the windmill and realised I’d inadvertently stepped right into the middle of a chalked circle on the floor. Something never to be taken lightly, so I made a prompt exit.
As I emerge I see a large statue of a werewolf attacking its victim. This feels a little out of place for some reason, not seeing any other references to such so far. Passing the statue I step into the light of a fire, in the middle of the gypsy camp from the opposite side.
Statue of a werewolf with it’s prey
I enter the camp and it feels very cozy
While I look around I again realise I’m in the middle of something, this time a massive pentagram. Not so worrying as a circle, provided its oriented correctly and I didn’t get any bad vibes off this one.
There’s also some fun things in the tents, including a gypsy dance one..
After my trekking around I felt in need of a brief rest so I headed to the windswept beach and walked for a short distance before I found a cozy campfire and a lovely view of the sea.
Taking a walk up onto the snowy hilltop and doing some training exercises was very relaxing for her, helped clear her head. The setting sun and moonrise gave such a beautiful light to move gracefully in, the brisk wind chill, but refreshing. Although little did she know her exercise would have a more brutal ending than usual.
As she descended the slope toward the village she heard snarling and animal cries of distress. She drew her knives again wishing perhaps she should have brought something more substantial, but hadn’t expected to need it.
She followed the sounds into the undergrowth to find a pair of wolves attacking a stag, one already down. She curses, the wolves shouldn’t be getting so close to the village.
A brief scuffle left one dead wolf and the other on the run. She turns to check on the stag and is relieved to finds it gone. There’s no blood trail on the ground, so thankfully it can’t have been badly injured.
She glances at the bodies on the ground, she’d need some help shifting the deer carcass, so for now she picks up the wolf and heads back to the village. They’d have to have to gather a hunting party to track down the pack before fresh snow buried the tracks.
Rounding the bend in the path she sees the waterfall in it’s full glory and the platform at that top which is her destination.
She takes a moment to refresh herself and change out of her travelling clothes before taking a seat in the hall.
She doesn’t intend to spend long there, she knows she has a ritual to prepare for! Once she feels rested somewhat she leaves the hall and makes her way to high platform of the tree.
On her way down she pauses to admire the valley in all it’s glory.
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