The Coveted Forge

Chapter 1 - Can One Feel the Heart

Between Ascalon and Kryta, there was a range of mountains that spanned from the valleys on the edge of the crystal desert all they way north, past Grothmar, past the Bay of Janthir and into the uninhabitable tundra at the foot of the northern ice cap. These mountains that extended past an entire continent were known as the Shiverpeaks. The region itself was hostile to most life and only one sentient race that was friendly to humans, Charr and others, was able to survive there: The Norn.

Norn society's basic structure was the polar opposite to that of the Charr. The Charr had strict chains of command where everyone was to follow orders from their superiors and every deviation was tantamount to questioning the superior's legitimacy. The Norn however rejected the concept of authority and authoritarian structures wholesale. No-one took orders from anyone. The only way to persuade groups of Norn to work together, was to lead by example and inspire them to join forces on their own volition.

The Norn were often aptly described as 'tall humans' with broader shoulders and generally more body mass. With them being the only race that bore similar faces, hair and the same beige skin tone as Krytan and Ascalonian humans, one might speculate that they were related to humans, but they were completely divorced from the folk religion that unified all human ethnic groups and worshiped a group of elusive animal spirits instead. Especially the physique of male Norn was more resembling to that of the pale grey Jotun.

The Commander sprinted through the Black Citadel. Straight to the Core and up the ramp. When he reached the guards in front of the iris, he commanded: "Open the door! I have urgent news for the Imperator!"

The guards, now Iron Legion Charr after the Sylvari from before had been burned, recognized him and flipped the switch to open the iris, allowing him to make the steep trek up to the Command Core.

When he finally arrived, out of breath from all the upward running, the Commander found Rytlock reading the top page of a stack of papers. "It was Grell!"

Rytlock looked up, confused as to what this was about. "What?"

"The assassination? Queen Jennah's murder, it was Grell and his warband! He all but confessed to it, I just didn't realize it when he did. He must know who gave the order, who arranged for everything that happened! I need to find him!"

"Got an idea where he went?"

"The Shiverpeaks! He's headed for the Shiverpeaks!"

"I hope you got something a little more specific, Commander. That could be anything from north of Grothmar, all the way down to Elona."

"He said they had allies there that were in 's got to be something happening up there that's big enough to leave some trail I can follow."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to look for Siegeblast?"

The Commander waived that notion without hesitation. "I have no idea where Varrock could be. With Grell we have a destination. If I could use a waypoint to teleport right to Hoelbrak, I could spend weeks figuring out where Blade Warband is going and still have enough of a head-start to intercept them. But I need to have a waypoint reserved so I can travel to Hoelbrak in one trip."

Rytlock walked around the table and joined the Commander at the entrance. "Makes sense. I'll have the one in the Core set up."

The Commander almost forgot: "Wait, make it two. Rox needs to come along as well." Waiting for the waypoint to accumulate power would take at least a week or two. Whatever caused the waypoints to lose power, it wasn't getting better.

Nevertheless, this gave the Commander time to stock up and prepare. He went to Canton Factorium, sought out the pod that contained Rox' quarters and knocked on the door. When she opened, she simply asked: "Yeah?"

"We need to go to Canton Factorium. I'm going to spend some gold today."

She was a little confused. "Why?"

"We're going to need new clothes."

"What for?"

He replied as if announcing it on a stage: "We're going to the Shiverpeaks. And it's going to be very, very cold."

She stared at him for a moment still taken aback by the sudden change in attitude, then simply said: "Okay…"

After a quick but expensive trip to the tailors and leatherworkers, they were decked out in heavy trimmed coats, cut in such a way that they didn't interfere with them wielding weapons or reaching for any bags they carried. In the days that followed, they decked themselves out with all kinds of supplies from arrows for Rox' shortbow, to incense and spices for some more niche rituals in the Commander's arsenal and just before the day of departure, provisions. Mostly thin slices of smoked meat, kept in well-isolated bags so they didn't spoil too fast.

He was however slowly running out of gold, at least for gold he had on-hand. He asked Rytlock to prepare another waypoint to send a courier to Divinity's Reach, to ask for a stash of gold to be sent to Hoelbrak for him to pick up.

Then came the time to depart. In a fashion similar to what the Piercing Spear had done in Divinity's Reach, Rytlock's Iron Legion had several waypoints relocated inside a bunker which was heavily guarded with soldiers being given shoot-to-kill orders against anyone sent by Lion's Arch.

Rytlock attended when the Commander and Rox were led into the bunker, with a scowling look on his face. "If you got any second thoughts about this whole thing, now's the time."

"I have to find him. This is personal. I have to make him answer for Jennah's murder and for what happened in Shaemoor."

Rytlock sighed. "You've been waiting a long time for this excuse, haven't you?"

The Commander stepped onto the designated area for his waypoint and watched Rox do the same with the other waypoint next to it. "It's an opportunity to get some answers and right some wrongs. You know I can't just pass this up."

Rytlock understood, nodded to the legionnaires manning the holographic consoles attached to the two waypoints, which they understood as an order to go forward. They dialed for an agreed-upon waypoint at the gates of Hoelbrak and not long later, rings and light enveloped both the Commander and Rox.

When the light faded, the damp breeze coming from the meager forests further down the valley behind the Commander was expected, but it hit him with enough suddenness to surprise him and make him straighten out his heavy coat anyway.

Rox was audibly shivering next to him, clasping onto the sleeves of her coat to try to close them further. "Sheesh…I knew it'd be cold, but this is…"

The Commander made the first step, leading the way between the fence lining the path to Hoelbrak's gates. Everything here was covered in a heavy layer of snow, whether it was the fences, the hills and mountains above, the buildings in the distance or even the gate in front of them. "Isn't Grothmar in the far north as well?"

"I told you…" she shouted, taking a moment in-between bearing the cold. "I told you I've never been to Grothmar before. I was in Ascalon my whole life!"

Considering the Norn's solitary nature and their refusal to form organized societies, the craftsmanship displayed at the homes of some of the wealthier among them was very impressive. The same applied to the actual gate to Hoelbrak. The wall barring the way to the narrow path up the mountain was fashioned in seamlessly interwoven beams of wood, with large pine pillars that had golden ornaments embedded, forged with emblems featuring the head of a raven and the head of a bear. The two animal spirits most popular among the Norn in this part of the Shiverpeaks.

The wooden gate had no locks, all it took to push it open was some force. The Commander pressed against the gate and Rox joined him when she saw how heavy it was. With a helping hand, it was much easier than the first time the Commander came here. When it was open, held in place by ankle-high snow, he shook the snow off his gloves. "There we go."

Closing the gate took much less force than opening it. And afterwards, they turned around to face the path to Hoelbrak. A narrow road had been carved into what must have been a mountain, allowing people to traverse comfortably, what would otherwise have been terrain steep and rough enough to require special tools to climb. What little of the road was paved, merely had a layer of hardened gravel embedded in the ground. Small burning lanterns hung off of dowels hammered into the stone walls. With flames so small, one couldn't even feel the warmth against the relentless assault of the freezing mountain winds.

"So…" the Commander said, trying to distract himself. "You're acting surprised. Are you telling me that all this time when the Asura gates were working, you never once used them to take a trip to the Shiverpeaks?"

"Never saw a reason to. Everything I needed was in Ascalon."

When the walls drew further apart, they stepped into the sunlight, passing under a wooden archway. Upon a wooden bridge spanning enough width to fit rows of ten dolyaks, with golden ornaments and beams of different shades built within just like the small gate, they walked past the giants that casually passed them by. Every Norn wore one shoulder piece forged or carved in the shape of an animal head, usually a raven or a bear. That was their way of announcing at first sight, which animal spirit they prayed to.

They wore clothes made from pelts and furs, the Commander figured that those were fashioned from animals each had hunted and killed themselves, as was custom among the Norn. And while the use of heavy coats carved from large beasts surely helped keep off the elements, they made no effort to do so consistently. The men walked around bare-chested, completely unfazed by the same cold that caused ice picks to form at the underside of every surface. And while the women at least covered their chests, they made just as little effort to shelter themselves from the elements.

It took a little walking further into Hoelbrak before the pillars and walls beside the bridge were no longer in the way and they could see Hoelbrak proper. Despite not being nearly the size of an actual city like Divinity's Reach or a fortress that could house armies like the Citadel, the Norn town often was regarded as a city by foreigners and was still a sight to behold.

"Woah…" burst out of Rox. She walked closer to the edge of the bridge to look at the enormous lodges built around the square far below. "They're all bigger than the Core…"

Hoelbrak was made up of five colossal buildings, each towering higher than the Imperator's Core in the Black Citadel did, with smooth, curved roofs that reached from the ground to each building's left and right all the way to the top, all made of perfectly cut and lined up wooden planks, reinforced with nailed-on plates crude metal on the outside. Such were the five lodges of Hoelbrak.

The four smaller lodges were built in combined efforts from other Norn families, each built by and for the adherents of one spirit. Bear, Raven, Wolf and Snow Leopard. The Commander pointed at them and explained: "All four of those, that's where the Norn worship their spirits. But what we're looking for, we'll probably find in the really big one right ahead."

The largest one among the lodges, attached to two layered wooden decks that the bridge led to, was twice the size of all the others. It was the original, eponymous Great Lodge of Hoelbrak, founded and built by a hunter of legend known by Asgeir Dragonrender, who earned his title and his wealth when he broke a fang from the maw of an elder dragon and led the Norn south when that same elder dragon's minions grew too strong to fend off.

While the Great Hunting Lodge belonged to Asgeir's family alone, it welcomed any visitors not hostile to the Norn. He expected to find shelter from the winds there, as well as hunters who could sell them supplies and most importantly, answers. "What are we even looking for here?" Rox asked.

"Clues. Grell Nightblade said that his warband has allies in the Shiverpeaks that need their help. Whatever he was referring to, if it's important enough to get Blade Warband's attention, it's bound to cause a ruckus of some sort. If we find out what's going on and who is in trouble, we'll know where Blade warband is headed as well."

The area was much more lively than any city the Commander had visited lately, not to mention relaxed. Crowds of Norn were gathered in the distance, from the upper terraces lining the outside of the Great Lodge, all the way down on the ground, where a wooden square in the middle between all the lodges, had been built carelessly around a large bonfire. And on the other side, the locals peddled goods to the many travelers passing by from within the little storage huts up the hills.

The great lodge and the attached structures were even more imposing. Just as a testament to its sheer scale, the balconies connecting the front door to the open fields below via ramps both spanned easily over a mile in width - if not two - and extended forwards far enough to have room for workshops for every form of craftsmanship conceivable within these mountains.

The view on the bridge was soon much more limited, as the Commander and Rox passed under the trade commons, the lower and larger one of the two layered balconies, and to their left was nothing more than the wall at the foot of the flattened rocky plateau that served as the foundation for the lodge and its balconies.

That was when the first sign of trouble began to rear its head. From right above them, muffled by the layers of wood and steel above, they heard a female voice make proclamations with a very serious tone, shouting with the deliberate force of a town crier. More importantly, her voice didn't have that faint drone embedded in it that the voices of female Norn had.

"That's a human talking…" the Commander remarked.

"Or a Sylvari, " Rox added.

When they made it to the giant ramps connecting these even bigger balconies, they began to pace up a little faster, eager to know what was going on up there. There indeed was a whole crowd of people who even at a distance looked completely out of place. A mishmash of humans, Sylvari and Charr, with a few Asura here and there. Their bodies were completely covered in thin armors from the shoulders down, all mantled in a thin layer of gold or messing, which was wearing off or turning green in many places. The soldiers' armors ranged in weight, but every soldier wore a visored helmet also thinly coated with a yellow metal.

"The Lionguard's here…" The Commander mumbled. From the looks of it, the military force of Lion's Arch had deployed a large amount of troops and sent them marching all the way up here from the port city.

Rox asked: "What do you think they're doing?"

"I'm not sure I want to know, there hasn't been a lot of good news coming from Lion's Arch lately. But we need to know just for sure."

They approached the crowd, carefully examining them more closely as they closed in on them. They all had weak stances, unsure looks on their faces. They didn't give the Commander the impression of someone convinced of a cause, more that of someone dragged through a heavy ordeal for reasons they didn't understand.

The Lionguard had set up a small and thin wooden platform, to give elevation to a human woman with short blond hair - the only one not wearing her helmet - who spoke to the crowd with a commanding tone. "...until further orders are issued, we are to remain steadfast, we will keep the patrols along the usual routes going and…by the gods, is this….You!"

She pointed down at the Commander with her index finger stretched out and shook her hand indignantly. "You're the Pact Commander, aren't you? The one that's been leaving nothing but ruin in his wake for the past one-and-a-half years!"

The Commander looked around. They weren't alone with the Lionguard. There were other Norn watching, some of them potentially listening. He couldn't let Scarlet's minions sour his reputation without pushing back. "You may frame me as the cause of many problems, " he began, never breaking the confidence in his stance and tone. "...but that may be rooted in either ignorance or malice. I would go as far as to say any and all problems you allude to, already existed without my involvement and that I was part of the solution."

"Liar!" broke out of the woman on the platform. She twisted her face into a performative grimace. "You sided with the Separatists and helped them take Kryta from the Shining Blade!"

"Kryta was suffering under the Shining Blade's rule. The people were deprived of their homes and livelihoods, doomed to poverty or death just to earn Anise a little more favor with the legions. The Separatists were the better option for a ruling party."

"Even if any of it were true! You made things worse in Ascalon as well! The moment you joined forces with the legions, their army was obliterated! You were there when Imperator Smodur - a forward-thinking man who appreciated modern ideals like unity and harmony - was overthrown and killed and almost all our representatives in the Citadel were executed as well. Don't think the surviving ones didn't have contingencies set up, they were able to contact Scarlet, and they told us all about what happened!"

The Commander replied with care not to give off the impression that any of this impressed him. Confidence and condescension, both in one. "The 'representatives' you speak of, kept Smodur addicted to some strange tea and prevented the Charr legions from mounting any meaningful offensive against the Flame Legion. Any efforts from the Tribunes to do so in Smodur's stead, were undermined by a Charr within their own ranks."

The Commander was deliberately borrowing from Lord Aldryn's playbook. He was starting to understand why the new Count had confronted him with as much brashness as he did when he first met him. He had dealt with people like the Lionguard and the Shining Blade as enemies for far longer than the Commander or Logan. When met with adversaries who spread half-truths about you, one had to face it with constant, unabashed defiance. Anything less would show insecurity and tip undecided onlookers towards thinking you were the one lying.

The soldier on the platform, startled by the Commander's unwillingness to just let her disingenuous omissions stand, shook her head and made a wide, cutting gesture to the side. "I care not one bit for how justified you think you were in meddling with Scarlet's work! We know everything you've done, she knows and she is not amused. As we speak, we have delegates talking to the craftsmen about the war crimes you and your accomplices committed against our assets in Kryta and Ascalon!"

"You mean you're harassing craftsmen about a conflict they aren't even party to?"

"Enough about your 'excuses'! If you don't want to provoke an all-out war with Lion's Arch, you better head into the Lodge, go up to Whitebear's loft and apologize to Scarlet. There's a holoprojector there with her office on speed-dial."

"Not so fast, you haven't even told me why you're here."

She shouted at him: "I'm not telling you ANYTHING until you've talked to Scarlet."

The Commander remained quiet for a few seconds, staring at her and weighing his options. At the end he simply shrugged. "All right, I'll see what she has to say." Without another word, he turned around and started making his way to the front entrance of the lodge.

Rox rushed after him with nervous steps and asked: "Wait, we're just agreeing?"

"We need answers. If that's contingent on talking to Scarlet, we'll talk to Scarlet. Besides, if we can talk to her directly, maybe she'll let slip something important."

The warmth of the lodge's interior was a welcome change, even the inside of the lodge had a stone square in the middle, with elevated floors to the left and right. The walls below those elevated floors were covered entirely in tiny vaults, presumably each holding a small piece of Knut Whitebear's riches. Giant steel bolts lined the massive pillars reaching from the floor all the way to the ceiling far above. And a tiny platform hanging off the roof within the lodge, at the very top of the building, that was their destination.

Groups of Norn sat together at tables, others ran small shops out in the open, with racks of armor crudely fashioned from the hides of wild animals behind them. In many places, the Norn simply kept brightly blazing braziers near the same wooden pillars that held up the roof over a hundred feet above. By what miracle this construction never caught fire, he didn't know. The Norn didn't appear to waste a thought on it, it just worked somehow.

On the side opposite from the entrance, two heavily armored Norn guarded both sides of a set of double doors even larger than necessary for two of these giants to fit through. Every inch of the wall not dedicated to the doors was covered with more small vaults for Whitebear's wealth.

Rox caught up with the Commander and asked: "How are we going to get up there?"

The Commander wasn't worried, the Norn's attitude towards authority figures worked in their favor here. "I don't think this will be a problem." Upon arriving at the doors on the other end, he announced to the men guarding the door: "This is the Pact Commander. I wish to visit Knut Whitebear's loft."

One of them gestured to the door behind him. "Whitebear is above as always and the doors are unlocked."

He turned to Rox. "See? Not a problem with the Norn."

While the Commander was left trying to push open the door, Rox stood behind him, confused. "That easy? They just let you walk up to the guy in charge?"

The Norn to the right of the door explained to her: "Nobody is 'in charge' here. Every Norn is his own man, free to make his own decisions. Whitebear is no different."

Rox was out of it for a moment. She visibly couldn't make sense of what she was hearing. "This is weird. Really weird."

The Commander needed her help opening this door though, it was even heavier than the gate to Hoelbrak. "The Norn don't have a command structure. Don't question it. All the Norn outside of Lion's Arch are like this. This door is really heavy."

"Oh right." With the force of an enormous Charr, pushing it open was much easier.

The doors opened up to an enormous, dark staircase. Its width spanned what a human would consider an entire building in of itself, and yet it was just a staircase following a squared pattern along the walls, far up all the way to the very the door slammed shut behind them, the only light left to make them see the stars were small windows far above and with a large distance between them. "Now begins our long and arduous trip up I guess."

While they slowly made their way up, Rox was still curious about the Norn. "So if the Norn don't have a command structure….if they're all free to do what they want…those two WERE guards, right? Why are they guarding that door if they don't have to?"

"They're probably volunteers of some kind. Or employees in Knut's pay. This whole lodge, all the vaults, even most of the city outside, it all belongs to Knut Whitebear and his family. The Norn have a vested interest in this place staying intact. It's the closest thing to a capital they have. Either way, this isn't relevant to what we're here for. We need to get up there and get some answers."