Last time, I helped Oswald become king of East Anglia. This time it was an AC Valhalla Asgard dream induced by special herbs. It was great to see Asgard, home of the Norse gods, in full detail. This actually felt like a mini DLC.
Waking up in AC Valhalla’s Asgard
The mini stories in side missions have been pretty good so far, but this Asgard section really felt like a mini DLC. It all started after upgrading my settlement to include a proper hut for the Seer, Valka. With herbs I gathered, she created a special dream cocktail where one sip to Asgard.
AC Valhalla’s version of Asgard is beautiful. All the buildings and courtyards were ornate. Norse style glyphs trimmed in gold added to the details. The country side was filled with green fields and colorful flowers. All with Yggdrasill, the giant Norse tree, in the background. It seemed worthy as kingdom of the gods.
My dream journey started with creepy Norse priestesses telling Eivor of the story of Ragnarok, the Norse version of Armageddon. The short version: a Giant Wolf kills everyone and only a few gods survive. I did notice everyone called Eivor by the name Havi in the dream (an alternate name for Odin).
In the first few minutes, I met the other gods Loki, Freyja, Thor and Tyr. We met in the great hall and all of them had larger than life personalities. They argued like children until the invaders from Jotunheim broke up the party. It was a fun, but easy fight.
The Jotnar we fought were giant muscular and blue. They looked a lot tougher than they were. My power level was high enough to take them on easily. We fought on the Bifrost (rainbow bridge) before I was able to close the door to Jotunheim.
On a Mission to Build up Asgard Defenses
After the battle, we found a Builder willing to help us build defenses around Asgard. He seemed shady right from the start, but we all agreed to a demonstration of his defenses. It was soon after, I called my mount in Asgard. It was a large moose with full antlers.
For his shield, the builder required water from the Well of Udr. That was a bit of Tomb Raider like action to get there. To open the well, a light refraction puzzle. Upon gathering that water, a wolf revealed itself. It was the size of a small puppy, but Havi wanted to kill it. The whole Ragnarok thing sparked his paranoia for any wolves.
Luckily, Tyr was there to prevent the animal from being killed (thumbs up to games that prevent murder of dogs or cats). Havi tasked Tyr with caging the “beast” due to Havi/Odin’s paranoia of even the smallest wolves. With that resolved, it was back to the Asgard builder.
With the magical water from the well, the builder created a special paint to write runes onto stone. Those runes generated a magical shield around the perimeter. To test it’s effectiveness, I lured some Jotnar to it and watched them die passing through the shield.
Of course, that shield started failing as Jotnar started to swarm the site. I was almost overwhelmed right before the builder fixed that shield. It was an effective weapon, but required a steep price. The builder wanted Freyja.
In exchange for building a shield to cover all of Asgard, he wanted to marry her. Freyja happened to be Havi’s wife and no, she was not happy about the deal. The plan was to make the deal, but give him an impossible timeline.
The Wolf and Ivaldi the Blacksmith
Before I went about finding a way around the builders impossible deal, I checked on the wolf from before. It was huge. Havi’s wolf paranoia seemed warranted at the sight of the thing. It was no surprise it broke lose. I chased it down.
The fight with the wolf was interesting. It threw rocks and dug underground to get around me. I hoped there was a choice to spare it, but a AC Valhalla Asgard cutscene took over. Luckily, Loki revealed the wolf was his son before Havi could kill it. It makes sense that Loki likely fathered the wolf that could bring about Ragnarok.
In order to keep the wolf contained, we needed a magical chain. That took me to Ivaldi, the dwarven blacksmith. To build that chain, he sent me on riddle quest for a cat’s footfall and the root of a mountain. With the hints he gave, I found a seed on the highest mountain top. To complete the riddle, I set it on fire, then threw it to the water below.
For the cat’s footfall, it was actually something like a ghost cat. I followed it on the roof tops, until diving into a pile of hay. Apparently, that was all it took to “capture” the footfall sound of the ghost cat. It was weird, but the last piece solved. There was even a flesh and blood cat to pet outside of the hay (10/10 for the cat petting animation).
Ivaldi started building the magical chain with those ingredients, while I dealt with the builder.
Dealing with the Shady Builder in AC Valhalla Asgard
The builder’s tower was huge and completed in the impossible timeline. With our deal made, and against Freyja’s wishes, we gave her to him. He even demanded a kiss to seal the deal, but the joke was on him. Loki was disguised as Freyja. If you’ve seen the Marvel movies, you know what he’s capable of.
The builder refused to help without his bride, so we found his stash of magical paint and the Jotnar guarding it. It was obvious the builder was working with them. It seemed Loki was likely behind everything. He is the trickster, after all.
With that magic paint in hand, Havi (reminder that’s Eivor in the dream) finished the final rune to complete the tower. Now the joke was on Havi, because the tower was not meant to keep the Jotnar out. It was meant to keep him in. The builder revealed himself as a giant Jotnar.
Battling him was actually fun, but I ran out of arrows the first time around (I died). There were a variety of attacks I avoided on the ground, but the real fun was when he launched me in the air. It was then I took slow motion shots with the bow at his head.
Those shots stunned him enough to land powerful melee hits. Upon defeating him, Havi impaled him with his own war hammer, then pulled him farther down onto it. Loved the brutality. That lifted the shield around the tower. All the gods then talked about the coming of Ragnarok and the Loki’s son, the wolf.
In the end, I walked through the giant door to Jotunheim to take the fight to them, but that’s where the dream ended. Upon awakening, Eivor told the Seer all about his dream and it made me wonder if more AC Valhalla Asgard dreams are to come later in the game.