Nevernever+Location+The+Gate+To+Muspelheim

=__The Gate To Muspelheim__=

The land of Muspelheim is not very well-understood. Almost nothing is known about it save for the fact that it is home to the race of fire giants. Oh, and it's very hot there. But beyond that, the place is shrouded in mystery. The main reason for this mysteriousness is that the entire land is sealed off from the rest of the Nevernever. An (almost) indestructible barrier prevents all travel into and out of Muspelheim, except at one point. That point is known as The Gate To Muspelheim.

The Gate To Muspelheim is an uncomplicated area. It consists primarily of a black stone wall with a single gate. Behind it is Muspelheim, and nobody's really sure what it's like there. A river of magma serves as a moat for the wall, and beyond that moat the land is nothing more than a perfectly flat slab of rock.

The most important thing to remember about The Gate is its sheer scale. The wall is almost a full kilometre tall, and about five hundred metres thick. Plus, the stone that it is made out of is stronger than anything known to mortal science. The river of magma is about a kilometre wide, and an entire mountain's worth of molten rock flows through it every few minutes. This gate was built to hold off the attack of an entire pantheon of gods, and it lives up to that grandiose purpose.

On another note, the sky ends at the top of the wall. That's just the border of this particular universe. So nothing except an Outsider can possibly go over the wall.

Tunnelling won't work either, since there's actually nothing beneath the ground except an endless empty void.

To top it off, the wall is a threshold. And that threshold has been enhanced with a ward of truly absurd power.

But The Gate To Muspelheim is in fact a gate. People (and other things) are supposed to go through it sometimes. So the gate can be opened, and a drawbridge can be let down over the magma moat.

The wall is hollow in places, and almost two hundred fire giants live inside of it along with an army of Summer fey servants. They have plenty of room to spare, and guests are usually welcome.

The Gate To Muspelheim is the face that Muspelheim presents to the world as well as its first line of defence. So all diplomats who wish to bargain with fire giant-kind are invited here. If they survive the journey, they are greeted warmly (pun intended). But those who abuse the giants' hospitality are generally killed in very unpleasant ways.

Ironically, the incredible defences of The Gate are rarely used. The giants who live here love to fight, and when attacked they will usually let down the drawbridge so as to join the enemy in battle. This frankly stupid strategy has worked well in the past due to the great power of the fire giants, but it presents a hole in an otherwise (almost) impenetrable defence.

The Gate To Muspelheim is currently ruled by the fire giant Prince Urt and his Sidhe advisor Sir Lepid. Unlike most fire giants, Urt wants to change the world now instead of waiting for Ragnarok. He's gathered fire giants who either agree with him or simply want to kill things, and he's almost certainly preparing for a full-scale war.

__**Muspelheim Politics:**__

The race of fire giants currently works for Summer. The nature of the relationship between the two powers is unclear.

The majority of the race, including their King-God Surt, is totally isolationist. They acknowledge the Aesir and the Jotun as their enemies, but they never do anything about them.

Prince Urt is the only major exception. He advocates direct involvement in the world at large, so he's been placed in charge of the gate. Any fire giant involvement in the world today is probably directly thanks to him.

__**Game Info:**__

The Gate To Muspelheim is hot, but not as much so as the rest of Muspelheim. Its heat makes a Good attack against Endurance (modified by Survival) every hour or so. The intensity of the attack increases and the duration decreases as one gets closer to the magma moat.

The drawbridge is enchanted to protect against the heat of the magma. Characters suffer no environmental attacks while on it.

The wall is indestructible and impassable for all practical intents and purposes.

The entire area has the aspects GIANT-SIZED and MASTERWORK OF A TITAN. The interior of the wall also has the aspect RULES OF HOSPITALITY.

Generally, The Gate is intended as a social challenge. The physical power here is so vast as to be essentially unbeatable (even high-refresh players will need an actual army of supernatural beings to fight their way through the fire giants), but social combat with the fire giants is very winnable.

__**Inhabitants:**__

Here's your average Fire Giant. The Gate contains about 150 of these, plus about 600 faeries (mostly gruffs), 40 fire giant warriors, and 10 fire giant elders. Fire giant warriors are like normal fire giants with altered aspects and 2 refresh worth of combat stunts or physical powers. Elders have much better mental and social skills, plus one of True Shapeshifting, Summer Magic, and Greater Glamours.

Normal fire giants go unarmed and unarmoured, as do elders. Warriors have weapon 4 swords, weapon 2 javelins, and armour 3 runeforged plate armour that protects against physical attacks and cold.


 * Fire Giant** (Submerged)

__High Concept:__ Fire Giant Other Aspects: Breathes Fire, Walking Cataclysm, Kinda Stupid __Skills:__ Superb: Weapons, Endurance Great: Might, Fists Good: Conviction, Intimidation Fair: Athletics, Awareness, Lore Average: Presence, Survival, Discipline, Empathy __Powers:__ World Burner [-1] Take a -2 penalty to hit an entire zone. Breath Weapon [-2] Hulking Size [-2] Mythic Strength [-6] Supernatural Toughness [-4] Inhuman Recovery [-2] The Catch (Cold) [+2] Physical Immunity [-8] The Catch (only immune to fire) [+6] __Total Refresh Cost:__ -17 __Refresh Total:__ -7

Prince Urt is the son of Surt, the God-King of Muspelheim. He's well known for not following the isolationist mindset of most fire giants. He wields a sword made out of sunfire by his father. He's widely considered to be an easily-manipulated moron. He claims that he once killed five hundred Black Court Vampires in a single night, and most people believe him. His subordinates think he's awesome. His need to follow the orders of both Titania and Surt causes him a great deal of trouble.

Sir Lepid is the former-changeling son of The Butterfly King, who is Titania's personal Master Of Assassins, Spies, And Dance Music. He was female back in his human days. He's a skilled illusionist and swordsman. He likes to do everything elegantly. He looks beautiful only because he wears a Glamour at all times.