A Bloody Welcome

A Bloody Welcome was a virtual representation of one of Eivor Varinsdottir's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan in 2020 through the Portable Animus HR-8.5.

Description

Eivor met with Cynebert and Basim to discover Fulke's location.

Dialogue

Eivor traveled to Saint Hadrian's Priory to meet with Basim. Eivor spotted Basim and talked with him.

• Eivor: I would say, well met, brother, but I cannot shake off the needle-itch of dread. Is something wrong?
• Basim: I followed the abbot here, kept him in my sight. But the monks, his servants, I have seen nothing of them.
• Eivor: Dead?
• Basim: I do not think so. But there is no good here in this grave-hush.
• Eivor: And where is the abbot now?
• Basim: In his quarters. Come, and be on your guard.

Eivor and Basim heading to Cynebert's quarters

Eivor and Basim left to meet with the abbot.

• Eivor: Does this have the stench of betrayal to you, brother?
• Basim: Why would the godly shepherd ally with the heretic?
• Eivor: Cynebert is a man who craves power and position. With Tedmund dead, he must find it somewhere else.
• Basim: There is truth in that. Keeps your eye and blade sharp.

Eivor opened the door to Cynebert's chambers. Fulke waited and stood as Basim and Eivor came inside.

• Fulke: Cynebert, your guests have arrived.

Eivor stared Fulke down.

• Fulke: Come. Supper's ready. The dear abbot sent me an invitation. Said my friends were eager to meet with me. It's early for supper, I know. But Cynebert's ale goes so well with roasted lamb and cinammon-blueberry-peas. I couldn't resist!
• Eivor: Where is my brother?
• Fulke: Is he... is he not here? Mon Dieu (My God). I never told him.

Basim cautioning Eivor against Fulke

Eivor tried to go forward but Basim cautioned her.

• Basim: Kill her, and we'll never find Sigurd.
• Fulke: Sit, Eivor. Eat. And let me tell you the tale of a man who talks with gods.
• Eivor: You mock me. I have killed for much less.
• Fulke: Of course you have. Isn't that the way of this ugly world? We cull the sheep and thin the flock as we see fit, you and I. Most who walk the earth are little more than talking blood-bladders. Wasted flesh. But not Sigurd. Sigurd is something else. Sigurd has been touched. He is deified. The gods, they speak through him.
• Eivor: You lured him with that lie. Your words are bile and blight.
• Fulke: You should have listened, Eivor. I tried to tell you. The gods are real. And their power is within our grasp.

Fulke dodging Eivor's axe with a wooden fixture

Eivor threw an axe immediately at Fulke, who blocked it with a wooden fixture.

• Fulke: You will never find him. Not 'til I have had my fill. To old friends.

Fulke drank the rest of the ale from her chalice.

• Fulke: This really is delicious, Cynebert. Is it cloves I taste?

Cynebert's lifeless body fell on his plate.

• Fulke: Well that concludes supper.

Fulke left the room and locked the door as Eivor overheard her conversation outside.

• Fulke: Kill them. And bring their bodies to my sanctum in Canterbury.

Basim and Eivor stranded in the quarters

Basim walked to Eivor.

• Basim: They will be upon us soon. Maybe there is another way out?

Sneaked outFought out

Looking around, Eivor and Basim noticed a nearby ladder and climbed it. After Eivor freed a shelf blocking the window, they crept out, down the roof, and ran from their ambushers. Eivor spoke to Basim again once they were safely away from the priory.

Infuriated by Fulke, Eivor pulled the door open and confronted the ambushers directly.

• Basim: Steel yourself Eivor. Or Sigurd is lost to us.
• Eivor: Your god waits on the edge of my axe, Saxons!
• Anglo-Saxon Soldier: You heard the lady! Leave no one alive.

Eivor and Basim killed the ambushers and spoke to each other once more.

• Eivor: Fulke let slip that her sanctum is at Canterbury.
• Basim: She did, and with no cause. I'd approach the place with caution. It may be a lie.
• Eivor: It may be, but it's the only lead we have.
• Basim: I hope all of this innocent sacrifice is worth the trouble.
• Eivor: It's Sigurd. My brother. Of course it is.
• Basim: Then come, let us dive into the maw of death. I was never keen on seeing my winter years.

Basim and Eivor escaped from the grounds of the priory.

• Basim: This will not be for nothing, Eivor. We will find Sigurd.
• Eivor: It's not just him. I want Fulke to suffer!

They mounted horses and made their way on the long road to Canterbury.

• Basim: This land of summer, mists, and forests dreaming darkly. I see secret, and I want to know England. All of it.
• Eivor: And yet it rounds on us at every turn, snarling like a cornered dog. I begin to despair of ever settling here.
• Basim: Perhaps the stars write your path, and you will never have a home here.
• Eivor: Do you miss the land of your birth?
• Basim: I have long been away. But it is fiercely beautiful beneath the vanity, arrogance, and pettiness of men.
• Eivor: I should like to see it.
• Basim: You could if you wish. My father was an architect, a builder of wonders. The Great Mosque of Samarra, his masterpiece. Another man, who played the caliphate's game better took the credit. He was exiled and died in poverty.
• Eivor: Your faith sours. What of loyalty, shared stories around the hearth? Warm nights, bodies, and the tender love of another?
• Basim: There are some who are worthy, a scant few that tower above the sullied mass. Men and women of vision and valor.
• Eivor: Sigurd is one such man?
• Basim: He is. Fulke isn't wrong on that score.
• Eivor: I fear for him, Basim. I cannot rest until he is free.
• Basim: Nor will I, my friend.

As they continued through Cent, Basim commented further on what he had observed about England.

• Basim: The practice of learning has waned considerably in England since the days of the Romans. What books they still have, they keep locked away in their churches, hidden from the eyes of common folk.
• Eivor: Thralls and ceorls cannot read. What would be the point?
• Basim: They could learn. The Church could teach them. So much of human history would be opened to them. Aristotle, Pythagoras, Euclid... ancient knowledge lost to all but a few hard-headed men of the cloth.
• Eivor: You have studied these works yourself?
• Basim: In my youth, I was consumed with a passion for understanding. I spent many hours a day in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
• Eivor: A seminary?
• Basim: A great library, full of the greatest learning on mankind. For a boy seeking answers, it holds many riches. One day, I was sitting cross-legged, devouring a study by the great astronomer al-Khwarizmi. With a swiftness belying his years, the papers were plucked from my grasp by the great man himself. His presence stole my voice. He was kind and openhearted. He showed me such scientific wonders.
• Eivor: And what did you learn there?
• Basim: Calendars and calculations placing the sun, moon, and five planets. Equations that crackled and sparkled with divine intelligence. I asked the great man, "Is this what it is to know God?
• Eivor: You saw your God's hands in the runes?
• Basim: I found wisdom. And I have been searching for more ever since. There is great vastness outside ourselves, Eivor. Most only notice a few grains of the sand. But some, like Sigurd, I believe, see the endless flow of the hourglass.
• Eivor: What you see in Sigurd... is that what Fulke sees as well?
• Basim: I believe it is.

In the distance, Canterbury came into view.

• Basim: We will find no friends in Canterbury, so try not to draw attention.
• Eivor: This place reeks of the piety of priests.

Eivor and Basim arrived at Canterbury.

• Basim: This place swarms of Fulke's people. Sigurd will be well-guarded. Caution, and subtlety should be our path.
• Eivor: Ready? Follow me.

Eivor and Basim infiltrating the cathedral

Eivor and Basim infiltrated Canterbury's walls and made their way towards Canterbury Cathedral.

• Basim: This is a trap. Why would Fulke give us her sanctum?
• Eivor: She baits us. Cocksure and arrogant. But she cannot see failure in her path.
• Basim: Her fearful wit would say otherwise.

Eivor and Basim reached the cathedral grounds.

• Basim: Whatever we find there, keep your head.
• Eivor: You chastise me like a child, Basim.
• Basim: I guard you like a father. Nothing is served with your brutal end. You have much to do in this life, I know it.
• Eivor: More riddles, sly tongue
• Basim: No riddles. I sense a greatness within you both. Your destiny is not to stain the stones of this God-house with your blood.

Eivor may have started a fight or otherwise was discovered while sleuthing around the grounds.

• Eivor: To arms, Basim!
• Basim: So we are to blunder in like an ox?

Eivor and Basim entered the cathedral.

• Eivor: If she is still here, I will burn this Christ-house to the ground.
• Anglo-Saxon Soldier 1: For the Order! For the Glory of the Ancients! Do not let these infidels find its secrets.

Eivor and Basim looked around and found an underground passage.

• Eivor: This must be the way to Fulke's sanctum.
• Basim: Then let us go.

Eivor and Basim fighting the guard

Eivor and Basim enter the passage.

Eivor might have startled the guard in the passage.

• Anglo-Saxon Soldier 2: Guards! To arms!
  
• Anglo-Saxon Soldier 3: They have entered the cathedral! To arms!

Eivor obtained the key from the guard and entered the locked door she found. Eivor and Basim went down its path.

• Eivor: Fulke! I'm here! Face me!
• Basim: Have a care, Eivor. You will play into her hands.

Eivor and Basim investigating the room

Eivor and Basim looked around the room. Eivor noticed the Saga Stone again.

Strange Writing

Saga Stone inscription as read by Sigurd:

zrhwachày nàgkwat nsmæ br trrhwndi kwardæ
l sorhwlàs vras chnàkòdi de nsm huchràs rèyzdéràæ chaz zàwomsi

Eivor inspected a pile of scrolls on the table.

• Eivor: What does it mean, these word-tangles that speak of elves and demons?

Eivor saw and read a part of Fulke's journal.

Fulke's Journal

I throw myself at the strange language that Emperor Louis bade me decipher. Yet all my knowledge of the Ancient Ones and their artifacts falls short of shedding even the thinnest ray of light upon this beautiful script.

Louis tells me these words come from an etching seen and transcribed by a young Palatinus in the days of Charlemagne's oversight. But Louis does not know where in the world the original inscription was discovered. On a temple? A tomb? A slab of rock? Impossible to say.

−

Again and again, I consult the keystone in my possession, searching for correlations between it and the words copied from the etching. Yet nothing obtains. This should not be a surprise. The keystone itself is a mere fragment, brought, I am told, from Norway by the invader Ragnar Lothbrok. For that reason, I call it the Saga Stone. Did he know the true value of the object he carried?

−

A fortuitous discovery! I have come into the possession of a man bearing the mark of the Ancient Ones upon his neck. I tremble at what this could mean. Could he be an Ancient One reborn? Or a child of such a one, designed to make his appearance after so many centuries? I have heard stories of one called Aita reborn. But this man does not have the telltale eyes.

I will do all I can to probe this man for hidden mysteries. And with luck, the language of the ancient ones will open to me.

• Eivor: By Odin, this is a sick tapestry she wove. For every drop of his blood she spilled, I will take a mead-horn more.

Eivor read another paper right besides Fulke's journal.

Liber Antiquae Deorum

Let our wretched origins be known...

We are the instruments of the ancient gods. We are the refuse of the ancient world. Yet we are the hope of an era reborn.

Let our great task be stated...

We are the shepherds of our creators' will. We are the curators of our creators' tools. We are the new masters of the world they made.

Let our loyalties be clear...

The Father of Understanding guides us. The Mother of Wisdom inspires us. The Sacred Voice fills our hearts with boldness.

Let it be known...

We men and women of the Order of the Ancients are the natural arbiters of the world. Let all those who oppose us perish in pain. We are everywhere, and we are eternal.

In the name of Mithras, the Last Warrior, go forth and dominate. Reclaim the world that is ours by will.

• Eivor: Details on The Order of the Ancients. Fulke ranks high among them, but is not their head.

Eivor looked over to the scrolls on the floor, left of Fulke's journal.

• Eivor: The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Hm.

Eivor saw scrolls near a map of England.

• Eivor: The plans to the great fortress in Wessex. Is there something here we can use to breach it?

Eivor headed down another path to a closed red door.

• Eivor: Sigurd...

Eivor searched for Sigurd in Fulke's sanctum

Eivor opened the door and took out her axe. Using a torch, Eivor put the light to the room to see her path. Eivor looked around to see blood all over the room and saw a bloodied torture chair in its center. Eivor took a closer look and saw a closed box on the seat. Opening the box, Eivor discovered Sigurd's severed right arm as a ghostly Odin appeared behind her. Eivor screamed in horror.

• Eivor: No!
• Basim: Eivor, what is it?
• Eivor: Tell me that you found something. Anything we can use.
• Basim: I may have. A fortress in Suthesexe. The Order trains soldiers there.
• Eivor: We must be sure. Sigurd is running out of time.

Eivor waiting impatiently as Basim searched for information

Eivor left to calm down as Basim looked over to the chair. Time passed as Basim looked over the contents of the room.

• Eivor: Anything else?
• Basim: Documents of interest to the Hidden Ones. Hytham will surely want a look. But for Sigurd, Portcestre is our only lead.
• Eivor: Hm.
• Basim: If he is in Portcestre castle, we'll need a massive army to crack its walls.
• Eivor: I have many friends in England now. If I call on them, they will come.
• Basim: They will.

Basim began to leave.

• Eivor: Basim... she severed his arm clean off. Can a man survive such a loss?
• Basim: Physically, he can. Mentally, it's hard to say. So much stress can drive a man to despair.

Basim informing Eivor of his departure to Portcestre

• Eivor: If you suggest that he might take his own life as Tedmund did, banish that idea.

She paused and looked aside.

• Eivor: I must tell my people at the settlement that their jarl remains a captive. They will not take it well.
• Basim: We will not fail again, Eivor. I'll scout ahead, and send word to the settlement when I know more of Portcestre. Be ready.

Eivor nodded as Basim left.

Before leaving, Eivor returned to the lowermost room to read the journal detailing Sigurd's imprisonment.

Notes on Sigurd's Progress

–Isolation. I begin with sensory deprivation. No light, no touch, no warmth, no voices. To unlock the god within, the man called Sigurd must retreat into the shadows. His true self may emerge in time.

–Water and bread. That is all I have allowed this beautiful man. He is something to behold. When he curses my name, I feel the power in his voice. When he struggles against his bonds, I hear the squeal of the leather straps and the grind of iron on iron. He has fight in him. But to win this war against himself, he must relent.

–Sigurd does not yet accept that I have his best interests in mind. That I have taken him so that he may become his best self. He fights this idea, balks at it. And yet, I note a certain hesitation in his voice when he speaks. He talks as if a man being talked over, as if voices interrupt the river of his thoughts. It is working.

–Blood flows slowly from the forearms. A few small cuts produce a steady but manageable stream.

–Weeks upon weeks, and very little progress. Sigurd has lost weight and physical strength, but his will is strong. And though he is beset by visions, he has not allowed them to take him over. It is time for a different approach.

–Sigurd withstands heat and pressure quite well. I have made no permanent alterations as yet, but that may have to change.

–An insight! A phrase he screamed as the vice tightened around his head—"I am the Lord of Justice! You will answer to me or die!" This puts me on a better path. I know what I must do. I know what he must lose.

Outcome

Fulke killed Cynebert. Eivor and Basim travelled to Canterbury and infiltrated her hideout where they found information on her and Sigurd's severed right arm.

Behind the scenes

After "meeting" with Cynebert at St. Hadrian's Priory, reloading the save may allow the player to encounter his NPC actor walking along the road into the priory grounds, despite the fact that he is dead as of this moment in the narrative.

As is the case with several previous "ride-and-talks" in the main story arcs, the dialogue with Basim is perfectly timed to following the road from the starting point to the destination, ending the dialogue at arrival. In this scenario, the player has a bit more freedom in that it is entirely optional, the game does not lock them to a particular horse speed that best suits the script, and it is paced for traveling at conventional horseback speed. However, this ride does not account for random encounters that load along the road, such as bandit ambushes scripted in revenge for Eivor killing some of them. If the player ends up in combat, Basim's dialogue will cut off until returning to anonymity, but he will continue advancing towards Canterbury. This will cause his remaining dialogue to be skipped upon reaching Canterbury's outskirts. Arrows can interrupt his horse's movement without interrupting his speech, and in this scenario, the dialogue will loop back to the very start after Eivor says "This place reeks of the piety of priests," whether or not they are near Canterbury.

Just like in Beamasfield during Puppets and Prisoners, Basim may not use his hood once he starts following Eivor after the horse ride. This means all guards will attack him on sight, but the player will only be "discovered" if they join the fighting or an aggressive soldier trips over them while hiding. Saving and reloading after reaching Canterbury should fix Basim's disguise.

It is possible to re-enter Fulke's torture room only immediately after the final cutscene with Basim. After reloading the area, the door is once again sealed, and her journal therein can no longer be read.

Gallery

• 
  Eivor meeting Basim outside the priory
• 
  Fulke inside the quarters along with Cynebert
• 
  Eivor discovering Sigurd's severed right arm