Total Skull: February, 2026

Things that delighted me in February, 2026:

T. D. Cloud, Ossuary

In T. D. Cloud's Ossuary, a group of government "Curse Breakers" venture into the Parisian Catacombs to rein in some errant magic, but little do they know that the burial chambers entrap a secret darker than they can imagine. This one takes a very unexpected, and terribly interesting, turn that I definitely didn't see coming; it transforms into a different sort of horror tale, the kind that should appeal to fans of Robert Egger's Nosferatu. This is a quick novella, perfect for when you want to read something short that still packs a punch. I'll definitely be adding Ossuary to my curated list of recommended short novels and novellas.

Volur, Death Cult

Released in 2020, Volur's Death Cult is by no means a new album, but it was new to me. The Runecairn game I've been running had me combing through my record collection for music with the right feel, and Volur had to be in there--and that's when I discovered that I had somehow missed this release. Volur's style is nothing if not unique: they play avant garde doom metal, heavy on the violin, light on vocals, and somehow jazzy in structure while still exuding an atmosphere of pagan occultism. Death Cult only consists of four tracks, but each song is lengthy and full of twists and turns that will defy your expectations. I am very happy to have caught up to this one.

Dracula

I was genuinely taken aback by how much I enjoyed Luc Besson's new Dracula movie. It is a prime cut of Grade-A Gothic Nonsense. It's fun to see a ridiculous b movie on the big screen; we used to have more kinds of movies in the theater other than "blockbusters" and "award-bait." Sure, it's built like Lego from pieces of previous Dracula adaptations, but it has its own charm too: the bizarre Dracula perfume! Dracula's little gargoyle pals! A truly dubious sense of how long it takes to travel across Europe! It is a strangely slobbery movie! Sight gags involving Dracula's suicide attempts! I'm also going to out on a limb here: despite the smaller budget, there are things this version of Dracula steals borrows from previous versions (mostly Francis Ford Coppola's) that it actually manages to execute better.

S. J. Shank, The Knave of Graves

In the Knave of Graves, the warden of a graveyard who failed out of magic amulet school finds himself at war with a black magician who wants the saintly bones he's charged with tending. Complicating matters is his ham-fisted attempt to gain the love of a wealthy widow, the visits of a precocious child, and his alliance with a terrifying night hag. S. J. Shank's style of fantasy is at once exotic, grounded, and seasoned with recognizable human failings and aspirations. If you're in the market for dark fantasy that colors way outside the lines, with none of the usual conventions, The Knave of Graves is a unique novel that will serve you well.

Lyndsey Croal, In This City, Where it Rains

Like Ossuary, In This City, Where it Rains is going to make an excellent addition to the list of great novellas and short novels I maintain. A girl who can see ghosts lives in a version of Edinburgh that is like a rainy purgatory; no one ever leaves, and no one remembers what year it is. Everything changes when she meets the handsome son of a family deeply connected to her own mysterious past. She's invited to their remote manor house to explore her heritage, but--yeah, it's a horror show over there. If I had to do a comparison, I'd say that Lyndsey Croal's novella felt a bit like Crimson Peak meets Silent Hill.

Worm, Necropalace

It feels unfair to release a potential Album of the Year in February, but nobody told Worm that. Necropalace is fuckin' amazing; it takes the basic formula of blackened doom and adds elements of dungeon synth, goth metal, and some truly ripping melodic leads. I had this on repeat for two weeks; nothing could shake its place as the only disc going on my stereo. This one is really going to be hard to top. Consider the gauntlet thrown.

Laura Purcell, House of Splinters

I finally read Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions last month in anticipation of the release of its prequel, House of Splinters. House of Splinters definitely did not disappoint. In this novel, a woman of the burgeoning middle class has married a man of status; they move to his ancestral seat upon the death of his father and find themselves within a house that may be haunted by the spirits of the past. This one has a laundry list of Gothic elements going on: an ancestral witch burned at the stake; a footman who cucked his master and either fell from a balcony or was pushed; sinister Dutch art that moves on its own; a kid who sees ghosts everyone else thinks are imaginary friends; a cursed hanging tree in the village green; an estranged brother recently returned from India; a crumbling manor, financial worries, and stained relations with the peasant villagers. The most amazing thing is that all those elements really do add up to a satisfying whole. If you have an interest in modern authors working in classic Gothic conventions, you owe it to yourself to check out both The Silent Companions and House of Splinters.

Godiva Ghoul

I actually got this fancy book of Godiva Ghoul's art last month from the fulfilled kickstarter, but I didn't have time to sit down with it and pore over its macabre pages until February. You may know Godiva Ghoul's work from social media if you follow Gothic or erotic artists; if you enjoy what you've seen of it, this collection is well worth picking up to have a lot of fantastic art all in one handy place. This one is definitely for the perverts, as you can see from the 18+ age warning on the slipcover; each page in the book is devoted to a naked monster girl or creepy chick. The amount of art in this collection is, frankly, pretty overwhelming. 

Anna Kovatcheva, She Made Herself a Monster

I thought I'd be getting some Gothic fantasy vampire hunting action in Anna Kovatcheva's She Made Herself a Monster, but actually this is a deft, quieter historical fiction about how the people of a Bulgarian village navigate the whims and preoccupations of their village leader. Their "Captain" has a young ward he's raised as his own daughter, and whom he plans on marrying against her will as soon as she gets her first period. There is also a widow he takes sexual advantage of because he knows her status as a "witch" makes her extremely vulnerable. Also in the mix is a young man he raised and sent away to learn the doctoring arts; that doesn't stop the Captain from physically abusing him, too. Everything gets complicated when a fraudulent vampire hunter comes to town and the doctor falls in love with the widow. I really loved this one; just a masterfully done Gothic drama with a sense of place and specificity outside the norm.

Tron, The Thirteenth Floor, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence

In February, I inadvertently watched a lot of sci fi movies about virtual realities and the nature of being. Tron was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, but I hadn't watched it for decades; I honestly still think it's pretty fun and original. I remember The Thirteenth Floor from my days working at a video store, but any chance it had at acclaim was immediately overshadowed by The Matrix; it's a solid sci fi noir about virtual reality, and I think it's actually a nice little film on its own merits. It's a bit amazing that I never saw the original Ghost in the Shell before (it was one of about ten anime movies you could get your hands on easily back in the day) and it totally lived up to its reputation. Ghost in the Shell: Innocence was also really, really good. I'll be definitely be watching the SAC series after all this.

Night of the Vampire, The Enchanting Winds of the Dreamweaving Masquerade

Night of the Vampire's The Enchanting Winds of the Dreamweaving Masquerade does black metal as Gothic synthwave. Straight away, you have to accept that there will be over-the-top cheese going into this project. But does the combination work? Surprisingly, it does! The Enchanting Winds of the Dreamweaving Masquerade sounds like the soundtrack to an Italian horror film you badly want to watch.

The Carpenter's Son

The Carpenter's Son does the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas as a horror film. Apparently this film was critically panned, but I think the unique premise and haunted atmosphere worked for me in a way that, say, exorcism movies generally don't. There are issues, of course; for example, Nicolas Cage is gonna Nicolas Cage as Joseph, and that's just something you've got to accept. I thought FKA Twigs did a fine job as Mary, and it was actually kind of inspired to give a young Jesus who is just learning of his role in the world a big dose of school shooter energy.

Muspelheim

A couple Fridays ago we finished our impromptu Runecairn mini-campaign. Here's how things wrapped up.

Characters

Gorm, a seer

Hallbera, a berserkr

Sigridur, a scout

Toki, a skald

Rezna, a pyre

Events

Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead, plunged into the sea, but under the auspices of some dark magic the characters were not swept away into the deep. They stood fast above deck as dead men rowed ever deeper into the fathomless sea. The cold of the water lanced them with pain, but then the water grew warmer, and then hotter still, until it seems to boil and burn at their flesh. 

The ship turned, then pitched upward, breaking the sea's skin. They emerged before a great tangle of enormous tree roots; fire rained from above, casting down embers bigger than a mead hall. The tree above burned. The air was sweltering, and the vikings were drenched in sweat. Upon the roots of the tree, a lonely bonfire blazed; beyond that, they spied a black gap in the roots leading inward.

Hel beckoned with her withered hand, urging them to approach. In her living hand she rattled five souls in her palm. Once they took the souls, she pointed a blackened finger toward the shore, urging them to leave the Ship of the Dead and approach the great tree.

After resting at the bonfire, the group climbed the roots and entered the shadowed gap. The fire raging above provided inconstant light to navigate by. However, there was enough light for them to tell that they had returned to the undead state they awoke to inside the sea cave at the beginning of their quest. Though weakened in undeath, they managed to defeat a fire giant sentry who tried to block their way.

As they explored, they found a giant egg wrapped in new, green roots. Revna tapped the top of the egg open with her blacksmith's hammer and reached inside the vitreous yolk. Within the yolk, she found a milky white gemstone with a glowing dot of color at its center. Holding the gem to her eye, Revna saw a vision of a woodland glen. The light in the gem then went out, and it provided no further visions. 

In another area within the tangle of roots, they found an old skald named Lofnar lounging among tables heaped with a feast's worth of food and drink. He invited the group to eat and drink their fill; a few members of the group did--and were immediately poisoned. At this point, Lofnar went mad, dropped his harp, and attacked the group with a dagger. As he died, Lofnar told them one last riddle. 

After a fight with bonewheel skeletons, the group found the skeletal remains of a giant strung together with wire; the bones were held in place by withered tree roots. The group freed the bones, which animated on the floor. The giant skeleton pushed past them, leaving the chamber in which they found it. When they followed, they watched as the giant skeleton knocked a living fire giant that had been preparing to ambush them to the ground and then ripped its head off. The skeleton then collapsed, inert.

In the areas they found next, they realized they could use the items they had collected inside the lindworm to re-enact the great deeds of the dead gods and restore themselves from unlife. Hallbera helped a hooded old man throw the mistletoe dart into a wooden statue of Baldr. Toki and Sigridur figured out how to bind an iron approximation of Fenrir with the silver chain. Revna stepped into the coils of a metal representation of the World Serpent and smashed it with the great hammer. Gorm cut out one of his eyes with the sharpened spoon, hung himself from an iron tree, and watched as a well within the chamber filled with water--he had a taste from Mimir's well. 

They also had another encounter with Loki, who was disappointed they had made it this far in their quest. Still, he assured them that Surtr, King of the Fire Giants, would be their doom. Once they crossed a barrier of mist, they knew their fight with Surtr had arrived. Surtr was the most massive giant they had encountered yet; he wielded an enormous flaming sword. Their usual tactic of dogpiling a big enemy proved to be ineffectual here; up close, Surtr could hit all of them with a single sweep of his sword. They changed their strategy by keeping some of the group up close with Surtr to do damage, but with some of the party backing off to strike from afar and rotate in when someone needed to drink their mead and heal. After a harrowingly close fight, Surtr fell to the gravesword. 

Once Surtr was vanquished, they were able to free Lif and Lifthrasir, the new woman and man meant to restart the new age after Ragnarok. The group guided them out of the tree, which was no longer burning, and once again blew their horn. Instead of summoning Hel and the Ship of the Dead, a craft made of silver feathers emerged to take them into the healed world.

The heroes felt the urge to return to their cairn and sleep, but Lif and Lifthrasir would not forget them. In time, their descendants would come to regard their saviors as gods worthy of worship. We hail Gorm, God of Wisdom and Prophecy! We hail Revna, Goddess of the Forge! We hail Toki, God of Song! We hail Sigridur, God of the Hunt! We hail Hallbera, Goddess of War!

All will be well, until the new cycle comes to its own apocalyptic end.

The Darkness at the Heart of My Love

As I posted here, it's my goal to make at least one mix a month for 2026. Of course, February's mix is Valentine-themed. Here's the tracklist:

The Ninja

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 91: The Ninja

The Ninja is a 1980 novel by prolific genre author Eric Van Lustbader, which would kick off not only an eight-book epic series but play a vital role in the ninja boom of the 1980s. Jack and Kate wander into this world of martial arts mysticism, murder mystery, and erotic romance.

Is it ever acceptable to slide a finger into your partner’s butt on a first date? What the hell is up with the murderous sex ninja trope? Just how easy is it to get a teaching gig at Columbia University? Are we too far past the ninja boom to have someone steal great ideas like “Nashville Ninja” and “Ninja Cruising?” All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People. 

The Lindworm

Our impromptu Runecairn game continued! If you want to read the first bit of our Vikings' adventures in a world broken by a failed Ragnarok, it's here.

Characters

Toki, a skald

Sigridur. a scout

Hallbera, a berserkr

Gorm, a seer

Revna, a pyre

Events

The world passes under the heroes in a blur as massive ravens carried them in their talons, yet they still got a sense of the Broken World that now existed after a failed Ragnarok. Farmsteads and great jarldoms alike were naught but ruins. Wide rivers of fire cut swaths through the sundered land. And corpses, of men and monsters, choked the soil with their blighted black blood. 

And still, there were signs of life. New settlements had appeared where forsaken people banded together for survival, eager to find the bonds of fellowship that would sustain them. Monsters, too, roamed the Broken World; they saw lonely giants in the mountains, bands of elves creeping through forests, and hordes of the walking dead riding forth from blood-soaked battlefields. 

At last, their destination came into view. At first, they mistook it for a citadel, but as it neared they saw that it was the corpse of a great lindworm rising from a crack in the earth, forever frozen in the moment of its demise. The ravens dropped them at the foot of the grand worm, where a bonfire burned bright. As they wheeled away, one of the corvids said, “If thou seekest justice, enter the unhallowed worm and findest the five treasures that will call forth an end to the world's misery.”

After scouting around the perimeter of the lindworm, they discovered a way to enter it--a large wound gaping in its side. They fashioned torches and lit them in the bonfire, then proceeded in. Inside the first chamber, they found a family of trolls sleeping. Their attempt to sneak past the trolls failed, but Revna was able to slip behind the trolls and take one of their children hostage. Using the child's life as leverage--so dishonorable!--they convinced the trolls to leave without further conflict. 

Further inside the lindworm, they found a "waterfall" of bile running from a pierced organ above. Behind the horrid fluid were handholds they could use to ascend further up the worm's decaying body. A few members of the party were cursed by the shower of bile as they traversed it, but they soon located a new bonfire that cleansed them of the evil. 

In another hollowed-out "chamber" within the lindworm, the reality of their situation fell away and they found themselves once more in one of Idis's orchards; as before, the mother-maiden-crone tended a massive apple tree basking in a shaft of pure sunlight. Idis was able to tell them that the treasures they sought were likely to be a mistletoe-wrapped dart, a silver chain, a great hammer, a horn, and an iron spoon. Idis also added another draught to their mead horns before they departed. 

Further exploration brought them to a pool of bubbling hot "mud," but when the substance proved corrosive they decided to return when they had a better idea of how to deal with it. They also encountered an ongoing spectral echo of Ragnarok in which Vikings allied with their jarl fought eternally against Norsemen allied to the jotunn. At another juncture leading upward, they battled a withered undead being who called himself "Hel's Champion.' After he was beheaded, he continued talking, warning them that death still awaited them.

Within the next "level" of the lindworm's body, they met a tall, thin man wearing a luxurious fur cloak and a horned helm. He offered them a hundred souls for the mistletoe dart they had found below. When they balked at his insanely generous offer--and his emphasis on the fact that they would be as powerful as gods with a hundred souls in their possession--he simply left, bewildering them. The heroes believed they had just met Loki, the trickster.

In another chamber, they found two monstrous wolves snarling at each other, apparently fighting over a horn that lay between them. Hallbera attempted to offer a meal of fish to one of the wolves to get it to be her friend, but it bit her viciously. Battle commenced! During the fight, two of the party were slain--Hallbera and Sigridur awoke at the last bonfire they had rested at and had to backtrack to where the others fought the Children of Fenrir. 

Continuing on after besting the wolves and taking the horn, they found a young jotunn chained to stone slab. Above him, a diseased organ dripped the corrosive "mud" substance onto him; whenever it touched his flesh, he thrashed wildly, causing the entire worm to shake. Revna smashed the chains that held him with her hammer; before he disappeared, the jotunn gave her a smile of thanks. When they retraced their steps back to the pool of "mud," they found that it had drained through holes in the lindworm's flesh and that they now had access to a single soul that sat at the bottom of the pool. 

Back above, Hallbera became entranced by an orb surrounded by hooded wraiths; Toki slapped her back to consciousness; Hallbera then shattered the orb, causing mist to flood the chamber. The group beat a hasty retreat. 

At last, they once again encountered Jarl Angraboldr. However, this time his specter begged them to forgive him for asking for their blood and souls in the cave. After forgiving him, they climbed higher, but were ambushed by an enormous serpent who tried to swallow Gorm as it slithered down from the ceiling. The battle was fraught, but once slain they were able to take the hammer roped around the serpent's neck. Realizing that they had probably missed one of the treasures on the first "level," they returned below and found the sharpened iron spoon in the possession of a dead, dismembered dwarf. 

Back up top, they at last emerged out onto the lindworm's wide-open mouth. A crazed, battlesorrowed valkyrie flew down from the heavens; around her waist was the silver chain they sought. The valkyrie summoned four undead warriors to join her in the fight, but ultimately the heroes were victorious and gained the last of the treasures the ravens sent them to gather. 

Once out of the decaying lindworm, they stood at the edge of the sea and blew a long, melancholy note from the horn that resounded over the sound of the crashing waves. The water stirred, becoming tumultuous, and then the dragon-headed prow of a warship broke the surface as it emerged from the frigid deep. Water poured from the ship. There was something strange about its construction. And then, they realized--the ship was made of the fingernails of the dead. 

The frozen waves bit at their skin as they swim to the ship. A rope ladder was tossed overboard by unseen hands. As they clambered aboard, they saw that a woman was watching them. She stood in profile. She was blonde, thin, and comely of face. When she turned, they were horrified to see that the other side of her body was withered and blackened. She smiled a grim smile. The ship lurched downward, taking them into the fathomless mystery of the sea.

To what realm do our Viking heroes now speed? We'll find out next time.

Total Skull: January, 2026

All the things the delighted me in January, 2026.

The Abandons

My yen for Westerns carried over from December into the New Year. Luckily, first season of The Abandons was there for me in my time of need. The Abandons is set in the Washington Territory and centers on the conflict between two powerful matriarchs, the wealthy mine owner Constance Van Ness (played by Gillian Anderson) and rancher Fiona Nolan (played by Lena Headey). The first episode was truly great; it's pedal to the metal right from the get-go. The episodes that follow slow the pace a little, but it's all just "pot coming to a boil" as a confrontation between the two central families becomes inevitable. My only complaint is that the cliffhanger ending of this first season felt a little cheap.

Josh Rountree, The Unkillable Frank Lightning

Imagine if Frankenstein's monster was working at a Wild West show and his wife was hunting him down to end his unnatural life. That's the starting premise of Josh Rountree's The Unkillable Frank Lightning, but this is a a novel where the situation definitely...evolves into something else. Said wife discovers that her reanimated husband is not the same person he was the last time they met, and the hired guns she's brought with her have their own unheralded issues to deal with. Strangely, and somewhat surprisingly, I think this is actually a book about learning to navigate regret.

Stephen Graham Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

I've had my copy of Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter for a long while now, but I was waiting for a weekend where I could read it straight through without interruption. I gotta tell you--it completely lives up to all the hype it got in 2025. Plus, it has one of my favorite fictional conventions--a frame narrative! A dissatisfied academic learns that one of her ancestors, a Lutheran priest, wrote his memoir of meeting a vampiric Native out to kill the men responsible for crimes against his people and for the decimation of the buffalo population. Man, Stephen Graham Jones has done it again. Essential reading.

Will Maclean, The Apparition Phase

In Will Maclean's The Apparition Phase, two weirdo twins obsessed with faking ghost photographs show their work to the wrong classmate; all hell breaks lose from there. Especially when one of the twin's therapists suggests he visit a remote grand house where a ghost investigation is already underway. Fans of classic British ghost stories and the 1970s spectral revival will love this; it reminded me, in places, of M. R. James, William Hope Hodgson, and Andrew Michael Hurley, but it very much stands on its own noteworthy merits. 

Eyes of Fire

Eyes of Fire is an incredibly strange American folk horror movie from 1983. A heretical preacher and his flock abscond from their community to settle a commune (read: cult) deep into the "unknown" frontier, but they encounter a "devil witch" and her clay-smeared minions in the territory. I really enjoyed how unapologetically weird it was--it feels like a made-for-tv movie that never would have been aired and the witch looked suitably freaky. 

Agatha Christie's The Seven Dials Mystery and Netflix's Seven Dials

I knew Netflix's adaptation of The Seven Dials Mystery was coming, so I got myself a second-hand copy of the novel to read first. There is a mystery in the novel, but this is a particularly madcap Agatha Christie book in which a plucky young heroine is encouraged by the police to stick her nose into a case of conspiracy and murder. Very fun. The Netflix adaptation is also pretty fun, but be aware that they put in some effort toward hammering it into a more conventional narrative structure with the expected plot beats. If possible, I recommend reading the book first because it's much weirder and more idiosyncratic. 

Laura Purcell, The Silent Companions

I'd been meaning to read this book for years, as it is always noted as being one of the best in its class, but with a prequel coming soon I decided it was time to get on with it. I read a lot of this sort of neo-Victorian Gothic novel, and you always want to find in them some special spice that allows the book you're reading to stand out among the other fiction in that genre. In Laura Purcell's The Silent Companion, that spice is the presence of "companions" in the haunted house: wooden cut-outs painted so cleverly that they can be mistaken for real people. (These are real things that exist; check it out.) Of course, these companions crop up where they're least expected, and no one will admit to moving them around the household. Excellent book, now I'm really looking forward to the new one!

The Devil Rides Out

Based on the classic occult nonsense book by Dennis Wheatley, with a screenplay adapted by Richard Matheson and directed by Terrence Fischer, it's hard not to love The Devil Rides Out. Christopher Lee is great as a priggish man out to foil a devil-worshiping cult's machinations, and the plot throws in everything from damsels in distress, occult rituals, psychic connections, spirit possession, the Angel of Death, and even...time travel? Okay, so maybe it's a trifle too "Christian" in its morality to satisfy in the long term, but consider the story's source. And just look at that movie poster! Isn't that one of the all-time greats?

The Initiation of Sarah

The Initiation of Sarah is one of the crop of "bullied teens with supernatural powers" made-for-tv flicks that sprang up in the wake of Carrie's success. This one skews slightly older than the usual, with its adopted protagonist heading off to college with her non-biological sister. You see, the sister is poised for success--all her life she has been primed to follow in her mother's footsteps and pledge to the "powerful" sorority. The bookish, classical music-loving adopted sister? Not so much; she only finds a place in the misfits sorority, which happens to be bullied by the popular sorority on campus. How will they push back against the mean girls? Psychic powers, baby. I thought this was pretty good for a made-for-tv movie, with a strong cast and some interesting turns. Honestly--I keep thinking about it.

Poppy, Empty Hands

Poppy's evolution into screaming metal valkyrie has been fascinating to watch. On previous outings, the mix between the heavy parts and the pop hasn't always felt balanced; sometimes it was even prone to give the listener whiplash from track to track. However, Empty Hands is Poppy's most seamless release to date--yes, the electropop elements are still present, but they're woven into the fabric of the heavy songs on offer. There's also some surprisingly crushing songs on this one; Poppy is convincingly unhinged. 

After Ragnarok

I ran my first game of the year last Friday: a session of Runecairn using a modified version of the introductory adventure in the game's core book.

Characters

A skald

A scout

A berserkr

A seer

A pyre

Events

The characters awoke in a stone chamber lit by a bonfire at the center of the room. They did not remember their names, nor how they had come to be in this cave. When the pyre examined the bonfire, she saw that a skeleton pierced through with a spear sat at its middle. She could feel the heat of the flames on her skin, but the sensation was muted--she realized then that they numbered all among the dead.

The sound of the sea could be heard from the mouth of a sea cave to the south. Looking out of the mouth revealed a sea choked with broken dragon-prowed ships, dead Vikings, and slain monsters. The scout dismantled the bonfire, which (in retrospect) could have been a disastrous mistake. The berserkr found a broken sword; this was their only weapon for the time being.

They could also hear the sound of metal scraping against stone coming from a corridor. They followed the sound and saw two viking specters uselessly dragging broken swords across the stone walls of the corridor. The wraiths ignored them as they passed through the tunnel into a wide-open chamber with a large crater at its center. When the berserkr examined the crater, a massive demon made of rock dropped from a ledge overhead. The party ran for the safety of another corridor, but they did see that a set of massive carved doors were also in that chamber.

The corridor led them to another bonfire. Nearby leaned five bundles of wolf fur held shut with leather straps. Inside each bundle was an item of power meant for each of the Vikings; touching their item caused them to remember their names. The skald was named Toki; the scout was named Sigridur; the seer was named Gorm; the berserkr was named Hallbera, and the pyre was named Revna. They also now remembered that they were blood-kin sworn to the service of Jarl Angraboldr.

In a cavern covered in mushrooms, they found a skeleton near a murky pool. Approaching the skeleton caused it to rise and attack; another skeletal warrior emerged from the murky pool to attack them from behind. Once the skeletons were destroyed, Gorm used his yew staff to check for anything strange or interesting in the pool. He ended up wading into the murk to retrieve a luminescent, palm-sized lump of glass. 

The presence of arrowheads along the next stretch of corridor alerted them to the skeleton archers waiting to ambush the group. As the rest of the group engaged the archers, Sigridur ducked into an alcove and found another five wolfskin bundles. These bundles contained the rest of the Vikings' gear. They were now well-armed for the confrontations ahead.

Following their path brought them to a huge grotto. A hole in the ceiling of this chamber brought a huge shaft of sunlight into the space; a massive apple tree dominated the room. Tending the tree was a woman whose form shifted between that of a maiden, a mother, and a crone. The woman's name was Idis; she referred to the members of the party as "the Fallen," and told them that to leave the cairn they'd need to kill the stone demon, gather the souls within it, then toss the souls into a bonfire so that they could become living once more. Before the Vikings departed from Idis's grotto, she gave them each a drinking horn containing a draught of healing mead.

After returning to the last bonfire and resting, the group pressed on. They found a set of natural stairs, at the top of which was a wraith making threatening gestures. They approached the wraith, but a boulder suddenly rolled at them from the top of their stairs, injuring most of them as it crashed to the back of the tunnel. Eventually, they emerged into a ledge that overlooked the cratered chamber in which the stone demon prowled. They did find an iron key hanging on the wall.

Sigridur plunged down on the stone demon from above with his hunting knives, doing massive damage to the creature. The rest of the party followed him into the chamber to do battle with the demon. Although the demon was once a formidable opponent when they were unarmed, they quickly destroyed it. Among the stone wreckage left behind were five glass souls and a bronze key.

Both keys were required to open the carved door. Inside was a mass of thick fog they were forced to press through. In the chamber beyond the mist, they saw the inverse of Idis's chamber: a massive dead tree loomed at its center. A gilded wooded throne sat beneath it; upon the throne was a desiccated, undead Jarl Angraboldr. Angraboldr called upon them as his oath-sworn to give him the blood he needed to live again. Figuring that their oaths were null and void since they had died in his service once before, they instead refused him, angering the Jarl and causing him to attack. The battle was brief, but fierce. 

When the Jarl fell, five ravens descended from an aperture far above. They asked the Vikings if they "wouldst seek justice in the Broken World." When the Vikings responded in the affirmative, each raven grabbed up one of characters and soared with them up and out of the cairn complex.

Where are the ravens taking them? We'll find out next time.