Chapter One: Below the Halls of Frost
Stealthily making his way ahead, the halfling thief Ephros came upon a small antechamber that was lit by oil lamps. The coldness down below the Halls of Frost was perceptible only to Argois and Waqsted, who had no items to combat the chill, so Angles cast Endure Cold on the both of them for the exploration ahead. Down a short hallway, the party came upon a locked door, behind which they could hear very faint whisperings. Ephros picked the lock and peeked in enough to discern a large chamber with a dwarven throne at one end, and hastily erected blockades (large wooden tables tipped on their sides) at different points of the room, behind which were shadowy figures. From the belongings scattered across the room, the party decided there were more barbarian warriors here.
Whispering a quick plan, the door was thrown open wide and a fireball from the necklace of missile was tossed to the far end of the room, engulfing several barbarians. The bard Korgaard used his newly found Bracers of Invisibility to sneak in one side as Ephros snuck in the other, Waqsted, Galgadayle’s wolverine, and Argois meeting the charge of several barbarians who rushed forward when the door was opened. Vaerlon also ran inside and leapt the nearest barrier to engage the six barbarians behind it…the battle was joined!
As the fighters battled the barbarians, the spellcasters turned the tide with judiciously cast spells. Galgadayle cast a Warp Wood spell that took out the weapons (spears and hand axes) from a small group, forcing the evil cultists to battle hth; Korgaard scouted out a side room that contained several barbarians including their leader, and Arcus used a Web spell to trap them all. Arcus also Charmed one fighter and he tried to hold back his brothers from the attack. Meanwhile, Galgadayle’s wolverine wreaked havoc as it tore three of the barbarians to pieces. Even Chester participated, setting several of the barbarian cultists aflame with his fiery breath. After only ten minutes, all the barbarian warriors lay dead except for the ones trapped in the web (who were quickly dispatched) and Arcus’ charmed companion. Questioning the barbarian led to several very interesting bits of information, including the fact that not only the half-giantess Enoki but another ice priestess and Enoki’s paramour Malachi (who it seemed was some sort of fighter/assassin) were in the caverns below. The charmed barbarian also helpfully led the party around the lower level, and they found a giant snow cat in the barbarian chief’s room (which they left for now, as Galgadayle wished to become friends with the beast after the explorations and battles were finished). However most enlightening of all the party found Malachi’s room, which yielded several magic items and a logbook detailing much useful information.
From skimming the last few pages of the logbook, the party found that a “General Ajani” had sent Malachi (a loyal member of the Cult of the White Wyrm) northwards to help Inoke and her father locate an artifact of past frost giant Jarls, the great battle Axe “Gore”, with which they would be able to unite all the frost giant tribes of the Thunderspire Mountains for the first time in five centuries. Knowledge of the location rested in the forgotten dwarven library here in the catacombs of the Halls of Frost, which Malachi, Inoke and Renata (the priestess of Rualt) searched diligently until the correct stone tablet was located. Malachi also indicated he had fallen in love with Inoke, and she was also indulging her passion with him, which threatened to disrupt the mission since they had overstayed in the Halls of Frost to dally with each other. Clearly Malachi had become smitten with the seven foot tall, white skinned half-giantess who he indicated was both a priestess and mage, a formidable foe when they would finally face her!
Further information gained told of sleeper agents of the Cult within all four main cities on Norvik and in several villages, all passing information and items to the cult itself. However, no names were given, only coded words that it would take a talented cryptologist to crack. Pocketing the logbook, Arcus and the rest decided this information must get into he hands of important people in Norvik when the party returned.
Also discovered was a dwarven short sword, covered with dwarven runes, that Malachi had apparently located in the catacombs, but had decided not to use. Arcus deciphered the runes on the hilt as reading “Giant Killer”, which indicated the sword was undoubtedly a giant slaying variety. Ephros claimed it as his own to use in the Halls. After this break, the party healed themselves and then got ready for whatever dangers awaited them below in the catacombs.
Chapter Two: Battle in the Catacombs
With even more care than before, the party started down into the lowest levels of the Halls of Frost. Not wanting to take the chance of waiting until the next day, they were very low on magical resources, but the fighters were for the most part healed of their wounds and ready to go. Coming to a large cavern, Ephros and Korgaard used their Cloak of Elvenkind and Bracers respectively to silently search all egresses from the chamber, finding a room with a pair of yetis and another with a pair of winter wolves. Not wishing to battle them and give away their position, the group quietly made their way through the passage to another twisting hallway. Galgadayle guarded their way with a Snare spell (that would activate when the first creature attempted to follow them) and set his wolverine on guard to come warn him when any creature emerged from it’s cave.
Going still farther into the heart of the catacombs, the party heard loud chanting ahead, and soon came to a gigantic chamber polished smooth with ice on the floor and walls. At the far end a large hole, which showed a swirling scene of ice, snow and cold, was faced by a beautiful 7 foot tall giantess (five of them actually, since she had Mirror Image on) with blue skin and long, white hair; and a horribly fire scarred priestess with twisted features in a leather thong. Both were obviously involved in some kind of ceremony, which stopped as soon as the party entered. No sign of Malachi was seen, and the party instinctively knew that whatever was going on in this chamber, it was responsible for the winter weather in the world above that had halted spring.
Turning around suddenly, Inoke began greeting the party members by name, saying she had followed their progress with great interest. Disconcerted by her smug knowledge of their names and specialties, the party still put their earlier discussed plan into action. Argois shouted “Enoki! Whatever evil you and the Cult have planned, it ends NOW!” and began sprinting across the ice (along with Vaerlon, Waqsted, the charmed barbarian warrior and Chester), ready for battle. Ephros and Korgaard began invisibly sneaking around the edges of the room from either side; Angles hit the pair of priestesses with Dispel Magic and then readied his sling, Galgadayle threw a fireball from the necklace of missiles (which sizzled harmlessly as it came within 10 feet of the pair), and Arcus cast Mirror Image and readied what few spells he still possessed.
Things of course didn’t go quite as planned, but that is the nature of such conflicts. Hurrying invisibly along the side of the cavern, Korgaard slammed into another invisible figure; Malachi! Turning visible briefly, Malachi struck the bard with a poisoned longsword. Feeling the poison burn like fire, the bard immediately turned back invisible realizing the longsword-armed warrior overmatched him. Now visible, Malachi began sprinting for the trio of Arcus, Angles and Galgadayle, presumably hoping to take out the spellcasters!
As the warriors approached the giantess and the frost priestess, Renata let loose Cone of Cold which turned the barbarian warrior into ice, causing him to shatter to pieces as he hit the floor! Chester was also caught in the blast but being immune to cold, he simply flew through it at the priestess. He flew at the priestesses face and breathed fire, which caused the scarred woman to visibly flinch and drop to the ground…..obviously traumatized! Vaerlon took the opportunity to strike her. On Enoki, Waqsted and Argois struck at her, and Ephros attempted to backstab from behind, but to no avail as her mirror images caught the blows. Enoki spoke a word of power and a long whip of frost appeared in her hand. She swung the magic construct and it went through all three of her attackers, damaging them and chilling them to the bone! Fortunately for the party, Renata (who was panicked by the flaming breath of Chester) cast her Ice Storm, which struck everyone in the vicinity. Although it injured not herself or Enoki, it did take away all her Mirror Images, leaving her slightly vulnerable! Renata then cast a Wall of Ice between herself and Vaerlon and Chester, giving her breathing room to escape the flames and heal herself.
On the other side of the chamber, Malachi sprinted straight for Arcus, obviously attempting to take out the party mage. Arcus used his Wand of Paralyzation, and the ray appeared to bounce off the fighter; Galgadayle cast Chill Metal and Hold Person to no effect; Angles stepped in front and engaged him, taking several savage blows from both longsword and dagger. Arcus threw a Color Spray which briefly stunned the fighter…Angles took advantage and slammed Malachi with his mace twice, and Galgadayle threw two handfuls of poisoned darts at the fighter. Shaking his head, Malachi screamed in pain and clutched the wounds the darts made, attesting to the strength of the poison on the weapons. However, enough fight remained in him to battle the trio efficiently for several more rounds as the poison took it’s toll, causing him to perspire, vomit and turn red during battle. Arcus cast a Burning Hands that did some damage as Galgadayle had to retreat in owl form when he was wounded several times, and down to his final spell, Arcus took over efficiently as he struck the staggering fighter with his staff. Finally, after several more mace blows from Angles, Malachi managed to run the cleric through with the longsword, dropping him to the ground near death. This was his last action, however, as he then dropped to the ground vomiting blood as the poison worked it’s way with him. Arcus then bandaged up the bleeding Angles before he died as Galgadayle cured himself in anticipation of joining the battle still going on with the priestesses. Malachi expired in a puddle of his own vomit and blood whispering the name of his lover Enoki…
That battle however had taken a bad turn….from the gaping hole in the wall (which the party realized was some sort of gate to another dimension or plane) came a 8 foot tall crackling figure made of blue ice…..Enoki laughed and said the gate was to the elemental plane of ice, and the creature was a Chraal, a monster of pure cold! Chester yelled “Let’s see what fire does vs ice!” and attacked the creature, buzzing around it’s head and breathing fire on it but taking several blows and another Cone of Cold which emerged from the monster’s mouth (but once again did not harm the magical Chester). Unfortunately, Chester finally got too close, and the Chraal batted the flying flaming skull away to smash against the far wall, and fall into pieces….he would be out of the battle until he regenerated!
However, the actions of the skull had given Vaerlon an opening. The priestess Renata had thrown up a Wall of Ice between her and the ranger, so he began attacking the creature of cold with his flaming sword, which seemed to hurt the creature immensely. Finally, a blow cut the creature from head to toe and it fell to the ground and melted as Vaerlon applied the heat of the blade. At the moment a self-cured Renata stabbed him from behind with an ice knife, and he turned his attention back to her.
Against Inoke, the others seemed to be having no luck at all. Using a hand axe seemingly made of ice and glowing, Inoke struck Argois again and again, almost killing him until he had to finally retreat from battle to heal himself. Ephros and Waqsted did little damage, although the halfling thief did land a few blows with his newly acquired giant slaying sword. A Magic Missile spell from Arcus seemed to damage her, and Argois rejoined the battle. Ephros tried every trick in the book including throwing a magic powder in Enoki's face (to no effect) and levitating up and using arrows on the priestess, which seemed to be a better strategy for him (as he was not struck, and he hit her a few times). Now that Malachi was dead and the Chraal destroyed, the party could concentrate on the two priestesses, with their backs literally against the wall (or the gate). It would only be a matter of time, they hoped.
At this point Enoki stood back with her frost whip and hand axe in hands and called for a parley. Breathing heavily, wounded, and looking for a way out, she told the party that she was the cause of the unnatural weather in Norvik, which she had caused through use of a special magic item she had and the existence of an older gate at the site of the catacombs. Inoke revealed that her research in the dwarven library told her the dwarves had used ancient magic to activate a gate to the lower underdark, which they left through when attacked by frost giants and others. However, the still functioning gate had been corrupted by the magic of the priestesses of Rualt and been used to open a rift to the Elemental plane of ice. The opening was wreaking havoc with the regular weather….and Enoki said only she could close the gate, and only if the party allowed her to leave! She said she had the information she needed about the location of the frost giant Jarl who had wielded the mighty axe Gore, so there was no point in her remaining here. If the party let her leave, she promised to close the gate, and perhaps their paths would not cross again….
The tale sounded fishy, and Enoki kept edging closer to the open gate. Korgaard began singing a lusty battle song, and the party attacked. Renata threw her ice blade at Argois and it dropped him, almost severing his head, as the rest of the adventurers cast spells or struck at Inoke. Unfortunately, despite taking several blows, she leapt through the opening to the plane of ice, and the gate closed behind her, ending the threat of the icy spring with a loud boom as the gate collapsed upon itself . As the roaring and whistling stopped and the room grew quiet with the closing of the gate, the priestess of Rualt who had been left behind called on her goddess to grant her a swift death at the adventurer’s hands. This came to pass as very quickly as the ones still standing made quick work of her, and soon she lay dead on the ice.
Chapter Three:
Soon after Galgadayle’s wolverine entered the cave, warning of the arrival of the yetis and winter wolves in the outer caverns. Arcus fired his Wand of Steam down the tunnel, which killed the yetis, and the injured winter wolves were finished off by the party fighters. Plans were made to gather fire-making materials from the upper caverns, find a spot to hole up and heal up, especially the heavily injured Angles and Argois (who had nearly died from the last attack). The party found both the dwarven library and Enoki’s chamber, from which they gathered minor treasure and the dwarven stone tablets detailing the information about the frost giant Jarl Turkhan and his mighty axe Gore. Translating the tablets from dwarvish, Arcus said that with some work he would be able to possibly pinpoint the location of the Jarl’s final resting place, which would contain the axe, and with a little luck they might beat the half-giantess to the spot. Although they would have to see the caravan they were guarding through to Karlsfjord, the fact Enoki did not have the tablets themselves might slow her down or derail her quest entirely.
Also, they party was troubled by the discovery of Enoki’s traveling spellbook as the spell Magic Mirror was within, a scrying spell that told the party Enoki had been able to spy on them awhile to learn their names and abilities, and would be able to watch them in the future if she had another spellbook with the spell.
The dwarven library, when located, showed the depth of the giantesses’ depravity as any of the stone tablets left behind and not needed had been ruthlessly destroyed by Enoki and her helpers. Piles of broken stone lay scattered across the shelves and floor of the small room; not a lot of items had been left by the retreating dwarves, but what had remained was gone. Only a few of the stone books were left and these were salvaged by Arcus to hopefully bring to The Citadel (his birthplace) someday for preservation.
For two days, the party stayed below in the catacombs, healing up and taking time to thoroughly search the area for any other clues to what Enoki had been planning. Galgadayle used the time to approach and befriend the giant snow cat pet of the barbarian leader, who would make a valuable ally and pet against the Cult of the White Wyrm. The cat quickly befriended the druid but was very skittish around the wolverine and the flying flaming skull Chester (who it hissed at whenever he floated nearby).
Meanwhile Arcus was able to spend the two days further translating the dwarven runes on the stones, and was dismayed by what he found. Although an expedition to the north would have to wait until the party finished escorting the caravan to Karlsfjord, the entire fate of Norvik and everyone on the great glacier might rest on their shoulders. In the hands of a powerful, charismatic frost giant Jarl (presumably like Enoki’s father) the weilder of the battle axe Gore might unite the various tribes of giants into an unstoppable force sweeping down from the Thunderspire mountains…..
Stealthily making his way ahead, the halfling thief Ephros came upon a small antechamber that was lit by oil lamps. The coldness down below the Halls of Frost was perceptible only to Argois and Waqsted, who had no items to combat the chill, so Angles cast Endure Cold on the both of them for the exploration ahead. Down a short hallway, the party came upon a locked door, behind which they could hear very faint whisperings. Ephros picked the lock and peeked in enough to discern a large chamber with a dwarven throne at one end, and hastily erected blockades (large wooden tables tipped on their sides) at different points of the room, behind which were shadowy figures. From the belongings scattered across the room, the party decided there were more barbarian warriors here.
Whispering a quick plan, the door was thrown open wide and a fireball from the necklace of missile was tossed to the far end of the room, engulfing several barbarians. The bard Korgaard used his newly found Bracers of Invisibility to sneak in one side as Ephros snuck in the other, Waqsted, Galgadayle’s wolverine, and Argois meeting the charge of several barbarians who rushed forward when the door was opened. Vaerlon also ran inside and leapt the nearest barrier to engage the six barbarians behind it…the battle was joined!
As the fighters battled the barbarians, the spellcasters turned the tide with judiciously cast spells. Galgadayle cast a Warp Wood spell that took out the weapons (spears and hand axes) from a small group, forcing the evil cultists to battle hth; Korgaard scouted out a side room that contained several barbarians including their leader, and Arcus used a Web spell to trap them all. Arcus also Charmed one fighter and he tried to hold back his brothers from the attack. Meanwhile, Galgadayle’s wolverine wreaked havoc as it tore three of the barbarians to pieces. Even Chester participated, setting several of the barbarian cultists aflame with his fiery breath. After only ten minutes, all the barbarian warriors lay dead except for the ones trapped in the web (who were quickly dispatched) and Arcus’ charmed companion. Questioning the barbarian led to several very interesting bits of information, including the fact that not only the half-giantess Enoki but another ice priestess and Enoki’s paramour Malachi (who it seemed was some sort of fighter/assassin) were in the caverns below. The charmed barbarian also helpfully led the party around the lower level, and they found a giant snow cat in the barbarian chief’s room (which they left for now, as Galgadayle wished to become friends with the beast after the explorations and battles were finished). However most enlightening of all the party found Malachi’s room, which yielded several magic items and a logbook detailing much useful information.
From skimming the last few pages of the logbook, the party found that a “General Ajani” had sent Malachi (a loyal member of the Cult of the White Wyrm) northwards to help Inoke and her father locate an artifact of past frost giant Jarls, the great battle Axe “Gore”, with which they would be able to unite all the frost giant tribes of the Thunderspire Mountains for the first time in five centuries. Knowledge of the location rested in the forgotten dwarven library here in the catacombs of the Halls of Frost, which Malachi, Inoke and Renata (the priestess of Rualt) searched diligently until the correct stone tablet was located. Malachi also indicated he had fallen in love with Inoke, and she was also indulging her passion with him, which threatened to disrupt the mission since they had overstayed in the Halls of Frost to dally with each other. Clearly Malachi had become smitten with the seven foot tall, white skinned half-giantess who he indicated was both a priestess and mage, a formidable foe when they would finally face her!
Further information gained told of sleeper agents of the Cult within all four main cities on Norvik and in several villages, all passing information and items to the cult itself. However, no names were given, only coded words that it would take a talented cryptologist to crack. Pocketing the logbook, Arcus and the rest decided this information must get into he hands of important people in Norvik when the party returned.
Also discovered was a dwarven short sword, covered with dwarven runes, that Malachi had apparently located in the catacombs, but had decided not to use. Arcus deciphered the runes on the hilt as reading “Giant Killer”, which indicated the sword was undoubtedly a giant slaying variety. Ephros claimed it as his own to use in the Halls. After this break, the party healed themselves and then got ready for whatever dangers awaited them below in the catacombs.
Chapter Two: Battle in the Catacombs
With even more care than before, the party started down into the lowest levels of the Halls of Frost. Not wanting to take the chance of waiting until the next day, they were very low on magical resources, but the fighters were for the most part healed of their wounds and ready to go. Coming to a large cavern, Ephros and Korgaard used their Cloak of Elvenkind and Bracers respectively to silently search all egresses from the chamber, finding a room with a pair of yetis and another with a pair of winter wolves. Not wishing to battle them and give away their position, the group quietly made their way through the passage to another twisting hallway. Galgadayle guarded their way with a Snare spell (that would activate when the first creature attempted to follow them) and set his wolverine on guard to come warn him when any creature emerged from it’s cave.
Going still farther into the heart of the catacombs, the party heard loud chanting ahead, and soon came to a gigantic chamber polished smooth with ice on the floor and walls. At the far end a large hole, which showed a swirling scene of ice, snow and cold, was faced by a beautiful 7 foot tall giantess (five of them actually, since she had Mirror Image on) with blue skin and long, white hair; and a horribly fire scarred priestess with twisted features in a leather thong. Both were obviously involved in some kind of ceremony, which stopped as soon as the party entered. No sign of Malachi was seen, and the party instinctively knew that whatever was going on in this chamber, it was responsible for the winter weather in the world above that had halted spring.
Turning around suddenly, Inoke began greeting the party members by name, saying she had followed their progress with great interest. Disconcerted by her smug knowledge of their names and specialties, the party still put their earlier discussed plan into action. Argois shouted “Enoki! Whatever evil you and the Cult have planned, it ends NOW!” and began sprinting across the ice (along with Vaerlon, Waqsted, the charmed barbarian warrior and Chester), ready for battle. Ephros and Korgaard began invisibly sneaking around the edges of the room from either side; Angles hit the pair of priestesses with Dispel Magic and then readied his sling, Galgadayle threw a fireball from the necklace of missiles (which sizzled harmlessly as it came within 10 feet of the pair), and Arcus cast Mirror Image and readied what few spells he still possessed.
Things of course didn’t go quite as planned, but that is the nature of such conflicts. Hurrying invisibly along the side of the cavern, Korgaard slammed into another invisible figure; Malachi! Turning visible briefly, Malachi struck the bard with a poisoned longsword. Feeling the poison burn like fire, the bard immediately turned back invisible realizing the longsword-armed warrior overmatched him. Now visible, Malachi began sprinting for the trio of Arcus, Angles and Galgadayle, presumably hoping to take out the spellcasters!
As the warriors approached the giantess and the frost priestess, Renata let loose Cone of Cold which turned the barbarian warrior into ice, causing him to shatter to pieces as he hit the floor! Chester was also caught in the blast but being immune to cold, he simply flew through it at the priestess. He flew at the priestesses face and breathed fire, which caused the scarred woman to visibly flinch and drop to the ground…..obviously traumatized! Vaerlon took the opportunity to strike her. On Enoki, Waqsted and Argois struck at her, and Ephros attempted to backstab from behind, but to no avail as her mirror images caught the blows. Enoki spoke a word of power and a long whip of frost appeared in her hand. She swung the magic construct and it went through all three of her attackers, damaging them and chilling them to the bone! Fortunately for the party, Renata (who was panicked by the flaming breath of Chester) cast her Ice Storm, which struck everyone in the vicinity. Although it injured not herself or Enoki, it did take away all her Mirror Images, leaving her slightly vulnerable! Renata then cast a Wall of Ice between herself and Vaerlon and Chester, giving her breathing room to escape the flames and heal herself.
On the other side of the chamber, Malachi sprinted straight for Arcus, obviously attempting to take out the party mage. Arcus used his Wand of Paralyzation, and the ray appeared to bounce off the fighter; Galgadayle cast Chill Metal and Hold Person to no effect; Angles stepped in front and engaged him, taking several savage blows from both longsword and dagger. Arcus threw a Color Spray which briefly stunned the fighter…Angles took advantage and slammed Malachi with his mace twice, and Galgadayle threw two handfuls of poisoned darts at the fighter. Shaking his head, Malachi screamed in pain and clutched the wounds the darts made, attesting to the strength of the poison on the weapons. However, enough fight remained in him to battle the trio efficiently for several more rounds as the poison took it’s toll, causing him to perspire, vomit and turn red during battle. Arcus cast a Burning Hands that did some damage as Galgadayle had to retreat in owl form when he was wounded several times, and down to his final spell, Arcus took over efficiently as he struck the staggering fighter with his staff. Finally, after several more mace blows from Angles, Malachi managed to run the cleric through with the longsword, dropping him to the ground near death. This was his last action, however, as he then dropped to the ground vomiting blood as the poison worked it’s way with him. Arcus then bandaged up the bleeding Angles before he died as Galgadayle cured himself in anticipation of joining the battle still going on with the priestesses. Malachi expired in a puddle of his own vomit and blood whispering the name of his lover Enoki…
That battle however had taken a bad turn….from the gaping hole in the wall (which the party realized was some sort of gate to another dimension or plane) came a 8 foot tall crackling figure made of blue ice…..Enoki laughed and said the gate was to the elemental plane of ice, and the creature was a Chraal, a monster of pure cold! Chester yelled “Let’s see what fire does vs ice!” and attacked the creature, buzzing around it’s head and breathing fire on it but taking several blows and another Cone of Cold which emerged from the monster’s mouth (but once again did not harm the magical Chester). Unfortunately, Chester finally got too close, and the Chraal batted the flying flaming skull away to smash against the far wall, and fall into pieces….he would be out of the battle until he regenerated!
However, the actions of the skull had given Vaerlon an opening. The priestess Renata had thrown up a Wall of Ice between her and the ranger, so he began attacking the creature of cold with his flaming sword, which seemed to hurt the creature immensely. Finally, a blow cut the creature from head to toe and it fell to the ground and melted as Vaerlon applied the heat of the blade. At the moment a self-cured Renata stabbed him from behind with an ice knife, and he turned his attention back to her.
Against Inoke, the others seemed to be having no luck at all. Using a hand axe seemingly made of ice and glowing, Inoke struck Argois again and again, almost killing him until he had to finally retreat from battle to heal himself. Ephros and Waqsted did little damage, although the halfling thief did land a few blows with his newly acquired giant slaying sword. A Magic Missile spell from Arcus seemed to damage her, and Argois rejoined the battle. Ephros tried every trick in the book including throwing a magic powder in Enoki's face (to no effect) and levitating up and using arrows on the priestess, which seemed to be a better strategy for him (as he was not struck, and he hit her a few times). Now that Malachi was dead and the Chraal destroyed, the party could concentrate on the two priestesses, with their backs literally against the wall (or the gate). It would only be a matter of time, they hoped.
At this point Enoki stood back with her frost whip and hand axe in hands and called for a parley. Breathing heavily, wounded, and looking for a way out, she told the party that she was the cause of the unnatural weather in Norvik, which she had caused through use of a special magic item she had and the existence of an older gate at the site of the catacombs. Inoke revealed that her research in the dwarven library told her the dwarves had used ancient magic to activate a gate to the lower underdark, which they left through when attacked by frost giants and others. However, the still functioning gate had been corrupted by the magic of the priestesses of Rualt and been used to open a rift to the Elemental plane of ice. The opening was wreaking havoc with the regular weather….and Enoki said only she could close the gate, and only if the party allowed her to leave! She said she had the information she needed about the location of the frost giant Jarl who had wielded the mighty axe Gore, so there was no point in her remaining here. If the party let her leave, she promised to close the gate, and perhaps their paths would not cross again….
The tale sounded fishy, and Enoki kept edging closer to the open gate. Korgaard began singing a lusty battle song, and the party attacked. Renata threw her ice blade at Argois and it dropped him, almost severing his head, as the rest of the adventurers cast spells or struck at Inoke. Unfortunately, despite taking several blows, she leapt through the opening to the plane of ice, and the gate closed behind her, ending the threat of the icy spring with a loud boom as the gate collapsed upon itself . As the roaring and whistling stopped and the room grew quiet with the closing of the gate, the priestess of Rualt who had been left behind called on her goddess to grant her a swift death at the adventurer’s hands. This came to pass as very quickly as the ones still standing made quick work of her, and soon she lay dead on the ice.
Chapter Three:
Soon after Galgadayle’s wolverine entered the cave, warning of the arrival of the yetis and winter wolves in the outer caverns. Arcus fired his Wand of Steam down the tunnel, which killed the yetis, and the injured winter wolves were finished off by the party fighters. Plans were made to gather fire-making materials from the upper caverns, find a spot to hole up and heal up, especially the heavily injured Angles and Argois (who had nearly died from the last attack). The party found both the dwarven library and Enoki’s chamber, from which they gathered minor treasure and the dwarven stone tablets detailing the information about the frost giant Jarl Turkhan and his mighty axe Gore. Translating the tablets from dwarvish, Arcus said that with some work he would be able to possibly pinpoint the location of the Jarl’s final resting place, which would contain the axe, and with a little luck they might beat the half-giantess to the spot. Although they would have to see the caravan they were guarding through to Karlsfjord, the fact Enoki did not have the tablets themselves might slow her down or derail her quest entirely.
Also, they party was troubled by the discovery of Enoki’s traveling spellbook as the spell Magic Mirror was within, a scrying spell that told the party Enoki had been able to spy on them awhile to learn their names and abilities, and would be able to watch them in the future if she had another spellbook with the spell.
The dwarven library, when located, showed the depth of the giantesses’ depravity as any of the stone tablets left behind and not needed had been ruthlessly destroyed by Enoki and her helpers. Piles of broken stone lay scattered across the shelves and floor of the small room; not a lot of items had been left by the retreating dwarves, but what had remained was gone. Only a few of the stone books were left and these were salvaged by Arcus to hopefully bring to The Citadel (his birthplace) someday for preservation.
For two days, the party stayed below in the catacombs, healing up and taking time to thoroughly search the area for any other clues to what Enoki had been planning. Galgadayle used the time to approach and befriend the giant snow cat pet of the barbarian leader, who would make a valuable ally and pet against the Cult of the White Wyrm. The cat quickly befriended the druid but was very skittish around the wolverine and the flying flaming skull Chester (who it hissed at whenever he floated nearby).
Meanwhile Arcus was able to spend the two days further translating the dwarven runes on the stones, and was dismayed by what he found. Although an expedition to the north would have to wait until the party finished escorting the caravan to Karlsfjord, the entire fate of Norvik and everyone on the great glacier might rest on their shoulders. In the hands of a powerful, charismatic frost giant Jarl (presumably like Enoki’s father) the weilder of the battle axe Gore might unite the various tribes of giants into an unstoppable force sweeping down from the Thunderspire mountains…..
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