"History Repeating" is the thirteenth mission of Season 4.
Following the footsteps of the Viking warriors with The Builder.
Cast[]
Plot[]
Go To The Wizard Loki[]
You and The Builder begin at a sunken village near Kirkthwaite to search for clues about where the Vikings mentioned in the Edda might have travelled.
Our Enemies Are Ahead[]
You're doing your best to follow the ages old directions from the Edda, while Sam and Ellie enjoy doing 'ye olde voices' a bit too much.
That's The Way To Go[]
Once Ellie manages to decipher the Edda's next directions, you head towards a verdant hillock and avoid a pack of shamblers.
Coming In From The Left[]
You discover the same blue flowers from Veronica's base. From there, the Edda directs you East towards a cliff.
Into The Earth[]
The descriptions in the Edda of the 'wakened warriors' definitely sound like zombies. You follow the path outlined in the tale to a cave.
Not Giving Up Now[]
Upon entering the cave you're descended on by zombies. The Builder doesn't hear more ahead, so you go deeper into the cave.
Tell You What I Think[]
Sam and Ellie continue the story from the Edda; the wakened warriors turned on the Vikings, trapping them in the cave. Unfortunately The Builder missed a few overhead caves and now you're trapped by zombies too. The cave is blocking the comms signal, but suddenly another comes though... from Moonchild.
Transcript []
STEVE SISSAY: Yup, I see it. Should be coming through on headcams now.
SAM YAO: Seriously?
STEVE SISSAY: Don’t sound so shocked! You sent us here.
ELLIE MAXTED: Well, yes, you’re at our best guess for the location of the actions described in the Edda of the Wakened Warriors. Pocket of sufferers of Roudette’s disease five miles from here, which we know we’re looking for because of that Viking arm you dragged back to Abel, Five. Known Viking settlements to the south and north, and the geographical features mentioned in the extra verses match up. There aren’t many five hundred foot long causeways on this section of coast. But we had no idea if that story was true, or related to any real world events.
STEVE SISSAY: Well, now we know. Sea’s so calm, you can see all the way down to the bottom.
SAM YAO: And the village is down there? The village they talk about in the Edda, Kirkthwaite?
STEVE SISSAY: Well, there isn’t a “Welcome to Kirkthwaite, please drive carefully through our underwater Norse village” sign, but yeah. Do you see that, Five? Seaweed waving in the current, coming out of that chimney like green smoke. It’s kind of beautiful. So what now, Ellie? Ministry sent me here to support you any way you need. Dive down there right now and check it out? Quick refreshing ice bath, blow the cobwebs away.
ELLIE MAXTED: No, you’ll be heading inland. We just had to get you to where the whole thing begins, to Kirkthwaite. Then we can use the narrative to retrace the path those Viking warriors took. The route that ended in the Cave of Miracles, where they found a cure for their wakened warriors. I don’t need to tell you how important that could be.
STEVE SISSAY: If it’s true.
ELLIE MAXTED: Yes, if. That’s exactly what we’re hoping to find out.
STEVE SISSAY: I’m always up for a wild goose chase. Enjoy the exercise. So where now?
ELLIE MAXTED: Well, the Edda says, “And on that day, the battle raged full force, and King Thorsten did look about his outmatched forces and know despair, saying - ”
SAM YAO: [deepens voice] “‘Go, my warriors, my bravest - ’”
ELLIE MAXTED: Seriously? We’re seriously going to do voices?
SAM YAO: Well, of course we’re doing the voices! It’s not fun without the voices, right, Builder?
STEVE SISSAY: Oh, if you say so, love.
SAM YAO: Oh, come on. “King Thorsten said, 'Go, my warriors, my bravest. Help is needed that only the wizard Loki may provide. Run to her with all haste, my champions. Run!’”
[memory of swords clashing and warriors shouting in background]
ELLIE MAXTED: “Glad were they to find themselves upon the cliff path.”
SAM YAO: You are on the cliff path, right, guys?
STEVE SISSAY: We’re on a path beneath the cliff.
SAM YAO: Ellie, are they going the right way?
ELLIE MAXTED: Strangely, Sam, what I have here is an ancient Nordic manuscript, not a satnav. They’ve done everything the manuscript said the warriors did. That’s the best we can manage. “Glad were they to find themselves upon the cliff path, and Fimm said unto his comrade, 'Bold - ”
SAM YAO: Oh man, I love Fimm! Fimm is so cool. Fimm is my man.
ELLIE MAXTED: “Fimm said unto his comrade - ”
SAM YAO: But you’re going to do the voice, right? You have to do the voice.
ELLIE MAXTED: Sam. ...Fine. “Fimm said unto his comrade, [deepens voice] 'Bold companions, see you what lies ahead?’”
SAM YAO: [deepens voice] “'I see two warriors of surpassing size, and each an ax in hand, and each ax dripping blood as red as berries.’”
ELLIE MAXTED: [deepens voice] “'But our axes are sharper, our blood hotter. We fear them not.’ [returns to usual voice pitch] Axes clashed, swords rang like bells, and so did they defeat the enemy at the fingers.”
STEVE SISSAY: Look, Five. Do you see that? Those four standing stones up ahead. Got to be fingers, right?
SAM YAO: Yeah, they must be. You’re still on track.
ELLIE MAXTED: “But the sound of further battle rose with the sun, and they knew that only the vanguard had they faced, and the greater danger lay ahead.”
SAM YAO: Rising with the sun… that’s got to mean east. Head east, guys.
ELLIE MAXTED: “And Fimm said, 'Make haste, oh my companions, for our families lie behind us, our enemies ahead, and only the wizard Loki might save them now. Make haste!’”
STEVE SISSAY: This is great, isn’t it, Five? I was never any good at school. If we’d had lessons like this, I’d have paid more attention.
SAM YAO: Yeah, although those shamblers coming out of that cornfield might have got them quite a low mark on their Ofsted report. You know, for student safety. Hey, so, Builder – you and Lobatse. I’ve been hearing some uh, interesting things.
STEVE SISSAY: Jealous, love?
SAM YAO: [scoffs] What? No! I just really like gossip.
STEVE SISSAY: Yeah, well, sorry to say there’s nothing worth gossiping about. I keep trying. She keeps saying no. She thinks I’m uh, a little disreputable. Don’t know where she got that idea.
SAM YAO: You’ve got your explosives with you right now, haven’t you?
STEVE SISSAY: Always. Alright, the path splits in three here, Sam. Which way now?
ELLIE MAXTED: “And Fimm said, 'This way, my comrades, for the hound – [SAM YAO protests, ELLIE MAXTED sighs, deepens voice] This way, my comrades, for the hounds bay for our blood, and the stench upon this place might hide our trail.’”
SAM YAO: Ah, well, that’s bloody useless. How are we supposed to find a thousand year old smell?
STEVE SISSAY: I don’t know, but you’ll have to tell us a direction quick. Those shamblers are nearly on us.
ELLIE MAXTED: “And the old man frowned down as the warriors strode through the filth.”
SAM YAO: Yeah, I don’t think that same old man is still around either.
ELLIE MAXTED: Hang on. The muck, the smell. They’re talking about a midden heap!
SAM YAO: And that’s helpful, because - ?
ELLIE MAXTED: A midden. It’s decades of human manure, basically. You often get extremely verdant growth over ancient middens. It’s one of the ways archaeologists are able to locate them.
STEVE SISSAY: Look, Five. Can you see, down the left hand path? That patch where the poppies are a foot tall and the grass is proper emerald, like in the bloody Wizard of Oz! And the headland above it, the rock formation. It does kind of look like an old man’s face.
SAM YAO: That’s it, guys! That’s the way to go. But hurry, those zoms are right on your heels.
SAM YAO: Bloody hell. Those are just like the trees at Veronica’s Treetop Base. The ones where the blue flowers grew.
ELLIE MAXTED: Makes sense. Listen to this: “At last to the wizard Loki’s house they came, breath gasping, blood flowing, enemies advancing. But the enemies came no further, for they saw the sky blue flowers that grew only around the wizard’s hall, and they feared her power.”
STEVE SISSAY: There’s no blue flowers here, but this has got to be the place.
SAM YAO: Yeah, it is. The long-distance cams are giving me an aerial view, and I can see an outline in the grass, sort of greener in the green, you know. That must be where the hall was. Isn’t archeology like, amazing?
ELLIE MAXTED: It really is! “And the wizard Loki gave them comfort, saying, 'Fear - ’”
STEVE SISSAY: Wait, wait, I love this bit. I learned it off by heart when I had a quick gander at the Edda. [clears throat, recites in a high-pitched voice] “Fear not, warriors of Thorsten, for I will give you a weapon greater than any sword, sharper than any ax, more deadly than any bow. Abide here among my flowers for three days and three nights, and on the fourth night, a dawn will come that is doom to thy enemies!’”
SAM YAO: Wow. That was -
STEVE SISSAY: Love a bit of am-dram, darling. You should have seen my Coriolanus. Not a dry eye in the -
SAM YAO: Right, okay. So they stayed here for three days, and then - ?
ELLIE MAXTED: Then it gets interesting. “And on the bloodred dawn of that third day, the warriors awoke and joined with Fimm’s companions, and onwards they went, east where shelter could be found among the gray rocks.” Scholars always thought it was Fimm and co who were waking, but – well, the wakened warriors might have been something else entirely.
SAM YAO: Only one way to find out. East towards that gray cliff. And uh, try and shake off those shamblers coming in from your left. Run.
STEVE SISSAY: So we’re thinking these wakened warriors were zoms, right?
ELLIE MAXTED: If you’d asked me that question five years ago, I’d have pegged you for some kind of Netrophil conspiracy theory loony. But now, well, what do you think this sounds like? “Gray were the warriors. Gray of face and gray of mind. Unsmiling, unstopping.”
STEVE SISSAY: Mm, could have been zoms. Or they could have just had a really bad hangover. You know what those Scandinavians are like with the booze.
SAM YAO: No, but look, this is the really interesting part. This is one of the bits that was cut out of the original version. Fimm talks to the warriors. He says, “Greetings to you, you friends who once were enemies, whose blood was on my blade not four days gone by.”
ELLIE MAXTED: “But the tongues of the wakened warriors had been stilled by steel.”
STEVE SISSAY: Yeah, I see what you’re getting at. Those wakened warriors, they were the same big bruisers they’d just fought. The wizard did something to them. She turned them into zoms?
ELLIE MAXTED: It would really help if we could find their bodies.
SAM YAO: [laughs] Yeah, Veronica would give her eye teeth for that. If, you know, eyes had teeth. What the hell are eye teeth anyway?
STEVE SISSAY: Eye teeth are the upper canines.
SAM YAO: Oh, right. How the hell do you know that?
STEVE SISSAY: When I was a kid, every time I asked a question, my dad would be like, “Don’t be daft. What do you need to know that for?” As soon as I was out on my own, I promised myself anything I wanted to know – didn’t matter how stupid or useless it was – I’d find it out.
ELLIE MAXTED: Look up ahead. See that cave entrance with the sort of jagged lip? “The earth’s mouth gaped open for them, teeth sharp.” That must be where they went!
STEVE SISSAY: Right you are. Into the bowels of the earth it is. Come on, Five. Race you!
SAM YAO: I don’t like the look of that. I don’t like the look of that at all.
STEVE SISSAY: It’s a cave, Sam! It’s fine.
SAM YAO: It’s a dead end, is what it is.
ELLIE MAXTED: Well, Fimm and his friends went in there and at least one of them got out to write the Edda, so…
STEVE SISSAY: After you, Five.
SAM YAO: You’re out of camera coverage, guys. Time to put the headcams on.
STEVE SISSAY: Can you see that? There’s this sort of white deposit everywhere. I think it’s salt.
[zombies moan]
ELLIE MAXTED: Um, was that - ?
STEVE SISSAY: Yeah, it was. Zoms. Zombie potholers, by the look of them. Bastards are coming down from ledges on either side of us.
SAM YAO: You’d better get out of there.
STEVE SISSAY: Nah, tunnel ahead looks clear, and I can’t hear any groaning coming from up there. We’re not giving up now. Come on, Five. Run!
STEVE SISSAY: Looks like we’ve given them the slip for now. So what did our old Viking mates have to say about this place, Ellie?
ELLIE MAXTED: This is where it gets exciting.
SAM YAO: What, a massive great battle followed by a corpse reanimating wizard wasn’t exciting enough already? Tough crowd!
ELLIE MAXTED: Yeah, but listen to this: “Down they plunged into the salt-rimed earth.” [laughs] You were right, Steve. “Their enemies far behind, escape ahead, victory in their eyes.”
SAM YAO: [deepens voice] “Through the earth we’ll go, and then to freedom. We’ll bring these wakened warriors to our cause, and none may stand before us!”
ELLIE MAXTED: That was Fimm talking.
SAM YAO: They know it was Fimm. I did the Fimm voice.
ELLIE MAXTED: “Fimm ran his hand upon his ax’s blade to try its edge, and as the blood welled, the wakened warriors stirred, and when the blood dripped upon the ground, they smiled, white teeth in their gray mouths, and they roared and turned upon their companions with blood their only thought.” [SAM YAO imitates a zombie moan] Thank you, Sam.
SAM YAO: Just getting everyone in the mood.
ELLIE MAXTED: “A bite, a slash, and one bold warrior fell. The wakened one fell after, teeth biting, flesh ripping, gore spilling.”
SAM YAO: [deepens voice] “To me, my companions. We’ll stand together, not fall alone.”
ELLIE MAXTED: “Fimm stood astride his fallen comrade, pushing back the wakened warriors.”
SAM YAO: [deepens voice] “Arise, my friend, and come with us. We shall not leave a one behind.”
ELLIE MAXTED: “And as Fimm watched, his boon companion stirred. His boon companion rose. And then his boon companion bared his teeth, blood upon his breath, and turned upon his brothers.” [SAM YAO imitates zombie growl]
STEVE SISSAY: The Vikings that got bit turned into more of these wakened warriors? Poor buggers, trapped in these caves with the -
[zombie growls]
SAM YAO: What was that? That wasn’t me?
STEVE SISSAY: Damn. They weren’t the only ones surrounded by zoms. I didn’t see those tunnels up there, fifty feet in the air. There’s dozens of them, and they’re all full of zoms.
ELLIE MAXTED: You’ve got to get out of there.
STEVE SISSAY: Our exit’s blocked. All exits are blocked. We’ve got to go deeper in.
SAM YAO: But you’ll be trapped! You need to try and go southwest – [cut off by audio distortion]
STEVE SISSAY: You getting that, Five? [ELLIE MAXTED attempts communication; audio distortion] Lost them. Must be an effect of the cave depth. We’re on our own, Five.
MOONCHILD: I wouldn’t say that. You do get yourselves into some scrapes. I wonder how you’re going to get out of this one, Five? I’ll tell you what I think. Run!
Codex[]
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
Axe
Bandages
Baseball Bat
Batteries
Boots
Box of Lightbulbs
Candles
Cooking knife
Disposable camera
Dress
Hearing Aid
Matches
Mobile Phone
Network Cable
Playing cards
Power Cable
Radio
Rope
Shorts
Tinned Food
Toy car
Trousers
Underwear
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