Session 5 centered on the party's captivity while being escorted back to Valencia by:
The session built tension through social manipulation and supernatural bargaining, culminating in Axel making a deal with Anansi that resulted in Halfdan the Red's death and Mustafah's liberation from his binding.
The party marched under guard back toward Valencia, loosely shackled and accompanied by their two captors. Bjorn spent hours attempting to befriend Mustafah through endless storytelling, regaling the djinn with tales from Norse mythology and attempting to build rapport despite being repeatedly rebuffed. Meanwhile, Mustafah remained magically bound to obey Halfdan the Red's commands, though the exact nature of his binding remained unclear. Unknown to the captors, Askeladd had been retconned back into the woods and stayed hidden, following the group and waiting for an opportunity to strike.
During the march, Jean-Luc engaged Halfdan the Red in conversation and successfully extracted crucial information. He learned that Halfdan the Red possessed a trinket that commanded Mustafah, giving the Norse soldier control over the powerful djinn. More importantly, Jean-Luc discovered that the djinn was bound by both magical and religious obligations to the Emir of Valencia, creating a complex web of loyalties and restrictions. Jean-Luc attempted to manipulate Halfdan the Red for additional details about the bargain, though the soldier remained guarded about the full extent of his arrangement with Mustafah.
When the group made camp for the night, Mustafah and Bjorn both appeared to fall asleep, leaving Halfdan the Red on watch with Jean-Luc nearby. During this time, Anansi contacted Axel directly for the first time, manifesting as a fly buzzing in his ear. The spider god proposed a dangerous bargain: if Axel could steal the command trinket from Halfdan the Red, Anansi would help free them from captivity.
Axel engaged Halfdan the Red in conversation about the djinn and distracted him with questions, while Jean-Luc considered whether drowning Mustafah in the nearby river might be feasible if the djinn truly had a weakness to water.
The situation escalated when Mustafah revealed he had been awake the entire time. Askeladd, observing from the woods and noticing the change in Mustafah's breathing, threw sticks near the djinn to alert the party that their situation had changed. Mustafah sat up and began glowing with divine fire.
Jean-Luc attempted to talk Mustafah down and get a better read on his motivations, but this only enraged the djinn. Mustafah snapped, reached over, and smacked Bjorn (who was still mostly asleep) in the head, sending him tumbling against a tree and knocking him unconscious.
Halfdan the Red panicked at the djinn's display of anger and reached desperately for the command trinket in his vest pocket. Axel attempted to pickpocket it in the moment of chaos but failed. Mustafah explained that his binding prevented him from directly confronting Halfdan the Red—he needed someone else to act. The djinn stood there flexing his hands, clearly restrained by magical compulsion while Halfdan the Red stammered in fear, clutching the trinket.
Askeladd burst from the woods and stabbed Halfdan the Red with his sword, driving the blade between the soldier's ribs. Together, Axel and Askeladd wrestled the trinket away from the wounded Halfdan the Red.
In that moment, time seemed to slow. Anansi manifested fully to Axel, making his bargain explicit: give the trinket to the spider god, and he would break its binding. Axel agreed, and Anansi shattered the magical compulsion that had held Mustafah.
Now freed to act, Mustafah walked across the clearing, crouched down beside the bleeding Halfdan the Red, pinned him to the ground, and leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Halfdan the Red stopped screaming and simply collapsed—his eyes empty, nothing remaining of the person he had been. Askeladd pulled his sword free, and Mustafah stood, now completely liberated from his binding.
After killing Halfdan the Red, Mustafah turned to Axel and asked which of the Norse gods he should thank for his liberty. When Axel revealed it was Anansi (the Spider God) who orchestrated his freedom, Mustafah stared deeply into Axel's eyes in disbelief.
For a brief moment, time seemed to slow, and a massive spectral spider manifested above the trees—Anansi revealing his presence to all. The trickster god's haunting cackling echoed through the woods on the breeze. The session ended with Mustafah sitting down hard on a rock, all color drained from his face, staring in shocked silence at the realization that Anansi was not only alive but had manipulated events to free him.
Jean-Luc (multiple fate points):
Axel (fate points):
Askeladd:
"And how do you propose we do that?"
"A man chooses, a slave obeys."
"No one here did anything wrong. No one did anything particularly stupid this time."
"Fuck you and fuck the horse you rode in on and fuck the horse your mom rode in on."
"You're up, bud."
"What you need to do is get the trinket. Then Anansi can help you."
"I have stayed in this land because I enjoy their culture and their food... but I haven't seen anything quite like this djinn before."
"The terms of my binding do not allow me to directly confront Halfdan. Unfortunately."
"Which of your strange northern gods do I have to thank for my liberty?"
"You're serious. The Spider God did this."