Last time, I got back into AC Valhalla focusing on the alliances. Since then, I’ve been cruising through the AC Valhalla Alliances. Made my way through the a date with Sigurd’s wife Randvi, then onto Lunden and Sciropescire arcs. That is where the real meat of the game is. It’s a good idea to not get too distracted with the numerous bits of side content.
Going on a Date with Randvi
Sigurd and Eivor were not in a great place after last time, so it was a bit awkward spending quality time with Sigurd’s wife Randvi. She wanted out of the longhouse, but I previously found a note showing how fond of Eivor she was. I knew it would be trouble.
We took off to Grantebridge (first allliance location) and a nice day out quickly turned to a fight. Magni, the man Soma left in charge, had issues with some bandits. Our nice day out turned to dealing with them. After that, Randvi lured Eivor to the Sunken tower for a great view and alone time.
That was the point where players could choose to romance Randvi, but I chose a strategic option to keep it friendly. Any other choice would only further the issues with Sigurd. I also don’t imagine other Vikings would respect that move. Moving on someone’s wife is like a fight to the death type of insult for them.
Lunden the City of War Alliance
The city lived up to it’s name with the very beginning quest starting with fighting alongside Stowe a reeve (sheriff) of Lunden. He agreed to take me to the Governor, Tryggr, but things quickly went South. Guards were dead and we found the Governor dead, bloody and full of arrows. Oh and as the other reeve, Erke, point out, the killers took the head.
These dead ealdormen are a recurring theme in this game, I wonder if they ones I’m taking time to install will live long. At the very least, Lunden was a fantastic piece of art. The artist reallys nailed the deteriorating Roman architecture that littered the city.
I enjoyed searching for clues around the murder scene and the Odin’s sight reconstruction of what happened. Clues pointed me to the Order of the Ancients (aka Templars). My investigation led me to the 3 murders with nicknames the Compass (their leader), the Arrow and the Leech. We planned to take out the latter two to draw out the Compass.
Draining the Leech
The Leech was first. Bodies left by the dockside without their organs, were the Leech’s calling card. The clues that followed led me to Sister Frideswid, a nun with an appetite for medical experiments. She became the final experiment with my knife through her heart.
Piercing the Arrow
Next on our list, we hunted down the Arrow, a Dane with an archery competition to win. Stowe helped with directions, but seemed suspect. He or Erke could be involved. Seemed like either of them could get close enough to the Governor to kill him.
Putting my suspicions aside, I easily won the arrow’s competition and my prize was to share a stage with our target. He never saw my knife coming and his guards did not last much longer. It was a comically easy assassination and escape.
Breaking the Compass
When I met with Stowe and Erke to go over next steps, I startled them both. Looked like they were scheming. It’s possible they are framing other’s for Thyggr’s death, but then the church was lit on fire. Our plan was to draw out the Compass and that we did.
He was in the bay with his ships launching flaming arrows into Lunden. While Lunden was burning, I planned on swimming and sneaking around the back to easily assassinate the Compass. I screwed up and he saw me. It took dodging some flaming arrows and his attacks, but I defeated the Compass (aka Vicclin) without much trouble.
Glad Assassin’s Creed Valhalla allows me to make those mistakes without an instant fail. With that old guy defeated, I left the city in the hands of both Erke and Stowe who agreed to work together. Maybe they weren’t shady after all, but there’s still plenty of story left.
Fighting for Peace in Sciropescire
I kept the alliances rolling and agreed to meet up with Ceolbert, the son of one of the other leaders from a previous alliance. He was held up in Quatford of Sciropescired. While riding my way down to the location, I was reminded how good the game looks. The vistas are so good and it’s great to know you can ride to just about everything you see.
Ivarr the Boneless was training Ceolbert to fight. It was a prelude to the events of this mission set. They had a brotherly or possibly paternal relationship. That soon would be tested.
The plan was to broker a piece with a nearby king under the church’s protection with Bishop Deorlaf mediating for us. At the church, we met with King Rhodri to attempt to broker piece, but crazy Ivarr got in the way like usual. That king gave Ivarr his nasty scar and he was ready for revenge.
I made a choice of who to give a purse full of silver to help cool things down. I spent more than a few minutes deciding, tu found out later my choice did not matter (I chose to give the purse to the Queen, if you were curious). Crazy Ivarr wanted his revenge and killed the kings brother. No matter who I gave the silver to, that brother would die. That forced us to fight out of the church and dashed any hopes of peace.
Taking the Fight to King Rhodri
With our hand forced, the next few missions involved stolen supplies from King Rhodri at Wenlocan, destroyed supply carts at Dhustone quarry and burned cottages to draw out Rhodri’s captain, Ynyr. We killed Ynyr as the final piece to force Rhodri to pursue peace. It seemed to work when the Queen agreed to meet with us and leave our land in return for peace
At that point, It was suspect the game forced a small break to fish with Ceolbert and Ivarr after our battles. I soon found out why. Ceolbert planned game hunt to cheer Ivarr up, went bad. I had a feeling the little fishing trip was a move to force some quality time before something bad happened to Ceobert.
I found the poor guy in a den of wolves with a knife wound. He was still alive, but did not last long after I carried him back to the settlement. The knife had the dragon emblem of King Rhodri.
Caustow Castle Assault
In light of Ceobert’s death, everyone was more than ready to raid Caustow Castle to take revenge out on King Rhodri. The castle assault was pretty standard compared to others before. Ivarr did the honors of fighting King Rhodri. Even after Rhodri lit him on fire, Ivarr still bested him.
Ivarr was not content to just kill him, he wanted spectacle and forced me to go along. He decided to make an example of the King with a gruesome blood eagle. If you’ve never seen a proper Viking show, that’s when they cut the victims back open, sever the ribs from the spinal cord and pull out the lungs to form “wings”. He really hated the guy.
Satisfied with his cemented legacy as the king killer, Ivarr let slip that it was actually he that killed Ceolbert. He was like his kid, but he used his death as an excuse to seek revenge on Rhodri. He revealed this to finally die in battle at Eivor’s hands and go into Valhalla
Sending Ivarr the Boneless to Valhalla
I was more than happy to give him death, but he was a pain at fight in the beginning. He flicked away any arrows I shot his way. That was my tactic to wear opponents down, but I was forced to get in close. The problem there is he liked fighting dirty. Once I made great use of the Rage of Helheim ability.
That ability allowed me to run Ivarr into the ground and pounded him with my fists, alternating left and right. It really helped wear him down. Once I defeated, I had to choose whether to deny him a trip to Valhalla by keeping his axe away from him or hand it over.
Thinking of his murder of Ceolbert, I’m sure a lot of players chose not to give him that axe to basically send him to hell. I chose to give him the axe for a few reasons: his brother Ubba would want me to, he was a son of Ragnar, he was a true Viking and everyone in Valhalla will know what he did.
In the end, the important bit was Ubba was happy with my choice. Bishop Deorlaf would be able to keep the peace with Ivarr and King Rhodri both gone. Alliance complete. Next time, I’ll jump into the Cent Alliance missions.