Hotel Hel

As the Guardians, Zeus, Doctor Strange and Angela sailed once again across the sea of space they saw Asgard in the distance. Apparently, the Olympians had not yet attacked. Asgard appeared tranquil. However, a small group of Frost Giants was seen spying on the retracted Rainbow bridge where Thor flew ready for battle. Angela moved quickly and captured one of the Giants for interrogation. She learned that at that very moment, a host of 10,000 Frost Giants prepared to attack. The Giant host included iver a thousand wizards and sorcerors. The Frost Giant Ymir was conjuring a spell to mend the rainbow bridge for his army to storm once it was repaired. But, The Frost Giant also revealed he was a group of Scouts sent to search the realms for the being Tus by request of Lady Hela.

Wishing to parley with her half-sister Hela, and plead for her neutrality in the coming battle, Angela veered their course towards the Caverns of Gnipa to venture into Hel.

After docking their vessel on a small isle below Asgard in space, the Heroes ventured forth. A rarely used path ran through a virgin forest of Evergreens. The trees rose so high that one could not see their tops. It would take five men to encircle a tree by joining hands. The path stopped at a cave hidden beneath a granite ledge. The mouth was perhaps 50 yards wide, and black as a moonless night. A thousand bones laid piled atop the forest floor outside the cave. A rotten stench drifted from within. It easily overpowered the pine scent lingering elsewhere in the forest.

As they entered the cavern, they heard chains rattling. Using a short cantrip Doctor Strange magically illuminated the cavern and revealed an immense white hound with ice-blue eyes. Its breath formed snow as it left the beast's nostrils. This was Garm, the guardian of Gnipa Cavern. The mighty hellhound was chained to the ceiling of the cavern with enough slack to attack anything sneaking along the walls, but could not range more than a step outside the entrance. When spoken to by Doctor Strange, Garm responded in the english language. He told the heroes they had nothing to fear from him, they were free to enter the cavern as they wished. Garm freely mentions that the cave leads to Hel, and his duties to prevent anyone from leaving without the consent of Hela as ruler of Hel.

A short distance past Garm, a road paved with skeletal fingers descended into darkness. Even Doctor Strange's magical illumination dimmed considerably in the opaque cavern. The road continued deeper and deeper into the ground, winding and twisting over such a serpentine course that none of them could discern the direction in which they traveled. 30 miles later, the cavern abruptly ended at the edge of a black abyss. The road continued on through void, twisting and winding as though perched along a mountain ledge. Doctor Strange explicated that the only way to cross the chasm was to adhere to the road. If one were to stray from the path they would disappear into eternal nothingness, fade into the darkness.

A hundred miles later, the group finally came to a bridge. the bridge Gjallerbru. The bridge spanned the river Gjoll. Gjoll was a body of foul-smelling,  viscous red liquid which seperated a barren wasteland from the void. A viking long-boat with a sail made from human flesh sat at it's shore. The ship radiated strange cosmic energy. At the head of the bridge stood a goddess. Half of her face was of a beautiful woman, the other half featureless. This was Modgud, guardian of the bridge. "The great Hela will receive you in the palace Eljudnir." the goddess pointed to a majestic hall at the other end of the bridge.

At the palace, a masked woman of statuesque proportions stood atop a tower, observing a vast host of zombies. A shrunken skull hung from a golden chain around her neck. She was clothed in a cape of shadows. The woman was Hela, goddess of death. As the guardians approached the hoat of zombies she looked at them and called, "Up here, my guests!" a banquet table of food and drink sat atop the tower. It was traditional for Hela to greet each new citizen of Hel in accordance to their station.

As the group filled their stomachs, Angela confronted her half-sister. Hela had no reason to keep any secrets from Angela, and so divulged much information. She had already amassed over 100,00 troops of the dead for Ragnarok. The time for which, was very soon. She pointed to a giant tree root that descended into her realm. A giant serpent had almost gnawed completely through the root. "See? Yggdrasil falls soon." as if confirming that Ragnarok was inevitable. She had made an alliance with Olympian god of death, Pluto, to divide the souls of all who died in Ragnarok.

Hela then questioned whether Angela had encountered a being called Tus. After relating having witnessed Tus' attack on Gaea, Angela watched Hela growl furiously with jealousy. The whole realm of Hel shook with her anger. Hela angrily explained that Tus was her lover. She demanded to know what happened to him. Angela told Hela of how Ac and Tus had merged to become a new being, and how the new being Actus had promised to wed Gaea.

Hela then angrily vowed to no longer ally with the Olympians. In a stupor of jealous rage she then attacked the Guardians of the galaxy who had relayed such horrible news to her. Angela solely squared off against Hela and defeated her handily, before stripping her of her crown and only bargaining to restore it with permission to leave Hel and return to Asgard.

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