Last time around I took down Ivarr the Boneless. This time I wanted to tackle AC Valhalla’s Cent, Asgard, Jotunheim and Vinland. The latter three were completely separate maps, so I wanted to cross those off my list. Artwork in these maps is outstanding. The quality is great from the coastlines of Cent, heavenly city of Asgard, icy vistas of Jotunheim and tree line mountains of Vinland.
Enjoying the Coastline of Cent
The coastline of Cent was truly beautiful, but it was not a vacation trip. We were there for an alliance, but primarily to chase down that witch Fulke. Basim setup a deal with Cynebert, a holy man there, to help him gain influence with the next leader in exchange for info on Fulke. Fulke still held Eivor’s BFF Sigurd hostage.
What followed was an adventure of finding info on the abbot, Tedmund, who was next in line to lead Cent. The plan was to kidnap him, then let Cynebert take credit for his rescue to gain favor. It went south quick. Our kidnap attempt nabbed a body double who agreed to help to spare his life.
Things went further south when we had to lay seige to Tedmund’s castle to get to him. In the end, our kidnap attempt failed. Tedmund died of poison (forget if he did it to himself). Even then, things got worse. Fulke poisoned Cynebert before he could keep our deal.
Bad went to worst with Fulke getting away. She did leave a present, Sigurd’s severed arm. Continuing the bad things getting worse theme, the end of this mission triggered a fight to the death with Dag, Sigurd’s main guy (behind Eivor of course).
He never liked that Sigurd trusted Eivor to lead, so the fight was inevitable. I made quick work of him and almost felt bad. His death was inevitable, but I could choose to let him die like a Viking or not. He was loyal to Sigurd the whole time, so I opted to let him die with his axe like a true Viking.
As you can imagine, that caused a bit of drama. I decided to take a bit of break and take another dream quest.
Getting a Cold Drink in Jotunheim
After the intense story mission in Cent and verifying there’s no time limit to save Sigurd, I decided to wrap up the Asgard/Jotunheim mission set. It helped that Cent was the location of the ingredients I needed for the special Volka brew to fuel my next dream trip. The perfect transition.
Jotunheim was great. An icy kingdom, land of the Jotnar (blue giants). It’s also a realm of illusion (think of Loki from the Avenger movies). Plenty of puzzles and locations were hidden until viewing them from a specific spot or angle. It was a great mechanic fit for the theme of the world.
This perspective trick came in handy when capturing a giant cauldron by viewing at an angle where it appears small. In Jotunheim, seeing is reality. That trick helped me deliver the cauldron to King Suttungr (a blue giant that towered above other giants). The gift was meant to inspire a feast big enough for the King to open up the special mead for a special potion.
The whole aim of the Jotunheim trip was to find a way to outlive Ragnarok, but Loki, with his wifey Angrboda, tried to trick me out of it. Typical Loki misdirection, but Hyrrokin saved me. With her help, the special mead, a talk to a weird giant, talking head (Mimir) and the sacrifice of my eye, the potion to survive Ragnarok was in hand.
My special drink in had, it was time to go back to Asgard to finish up the storyline.
Drinking to the Asgard Ragnarok Ending
After all my adventures in Asgard and Jotunheim, there was one last task to complete the thread. Installing the magical leash to bind Loki’s son, the wolf Fenrir, was guaranteed to be difficult. By the time it was ready, Fenrir was enormous. No surprise the whole ordeal turned into a fight. My skill was high enough to take him down and bind him.
With that boss fight done, I finally ended the Asgard/Jotunhiem arc. For my hard work, I was treated to a cutscene of Ragnarok. Havi (Odin aka Eivor) consumed the potion to survive Ragnarok to pass the genetic memories onto future generations (basically the whole premise of the Assassin’s Creed games).
From there, all the gods of Asgard accepted their fate as the world burned, secure in the knowledge their genetic memory lives on. I really liked that the whole dream arcs tied into the overall Assassin’s Creed science.
Meeting the Natives Amongst the Waterfalls of Vinland
After closing my Asgard thread, I decided to work on another completely separate map before focusing solely on England. Vinland, I assumed was Finland, but I was surprised. Story wise I was supposed to focus on rescuing Sigurd, but there was no time penalty on waiting. No harm no foul.
Views on the mountain tops and on the ground, staring at waterfalls, were equally beautiful. It’s a map used just for one story arc, but the artist still put a lot of love and care in. It almost felt like a whole DLC.
The purpose of my long voyage to Vinland was to assassinate Gorm, the son of the man who killed Eivor’s father (who I already killed in the beginning). When I reached Vinland, it was not long before I realized it was not Finland. The local tribe appeared to be Native Americans. Gear they sold further cemented the fact. I knew then, I was in America.
After some investigations of where Gorm was located, I assassinated him to complete my revenge and took his prize. That prize was an alien orb that fit into a giant door at Gorm’s dig site. Unfortunately, Eivor wanted no part of that door and left it for the natives to care for.
I want to know what’s behind that door, so I’m wondering how that plays into the end game. Next time, I’ll get back to building alliances and tracking down Sigurd.