Summary 283: The Challenges (2021-05-09)

Giraine Summaries


Ahappi won the myth of “The War Boat Goes to Hell”, and so the famed Luathan Avlor comes forth, says he led Lightbringers here, and Waertag too, so he knows the story:

“Once, in the Underworld, Waertag the Reaver rowed the War Boat upon the Black Ocean and down branches of the River Styx, beset by enemies and monsters and nightmares at every turn. He passed downriver through the frigid vales of the Mountains of Himil. Demons came to haunt him and the land of the Underworld itself revolted. Where he could, he called on his brave crew and allies for special aid. The river soon crossed through the sinister Nightwood, where Waertag aided allies in a vicious conflict. Next, the War Boat reached Kaldar's Gates and Waertag's crew had to send a champion against Kaldar and distract Sinjota to pass through. A special guide then joined the crew to aid them down the River of Swords, where Waertag himself quelled at the power of Death. This route flowed on to the River of Hate, whose seething waters showed Waertag baleful omens of his doom, yet also gave hope of deeper insight. And thence the War Boat and its crew sailed onto the Ocean of Despair, floating upon the corpses and souls of life's failures while reminded of their own. A frightful sea monster rose there and it took the whole crew to defeat it. At last, the War Boat reached the City of the Dead, on whose grey docks it moored, and where Waertag the Reaver's clever words challenged the familiar guardian of the Gate of Seven Doors to open those portals. And so Waertag gained audience with the Judge of the Dead inside the tower of Havan Vor's Court of Silence. The case he pleaded led to his most dangerous quest of all, but that is another tale.”

Ahappi recognises the themes here, again, as playing upon the Lightbringer's Quest, with the final audience in the Court of Silence being similar to your quest to resurrect Fraud Shaven long ago; otherwise this version (as so often happens with heroquests) is very different.


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