Hammer 5, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
I’m afraid to tell you that Talyth’s bold attempt to commune with Auril turned into a terrifying scene.
We made camp within the shrine of Auril, near Kelvin Cairn’s peak. As Talyth began her ritual, everyone curled up by the fire and quickly fell asleep. I kept one eye on her and another on the path toward the yeti cave.
As Talyth meditated by the snowflake-shaped shrine, I could hear the winds blowing fiercely outside the cave. Soon, she was covered in purple and green faerie fire, mirroring the night sky’s aurora. In the glowing light, I saw four words appear on the cave wall: ISOLATION, PRESERVATION, CRUELTY, and ENDURANCE.
Talyth closed her eyes. Her breathing began to slow, and she seemed to meditate on the first word. The wind grew stronger, blowing into the cave and circling Talyth, who soon widened her stance and faced the second word. The winds began to scream, causing some of my companions to peek outside their tent before bundling themselves deeper into their coats and cloaks to escape its chill. Talyth turned to face a third word, and the winds began to blow with deafening force. As an aurora, many times bigger than any I had ever seen, began to blossom in the west, a swirl of snowflakes lifted Talyth off the ground. Then, the wind suddenly stopped, and I dove for Talyth as she fell, barely managing to break her fall.
She was alive and awake but exhausted. Her breathing was ragged.
Filled with a sense of dread, I alerted her and the others to the approaching aurora, but Talyth was certain we had nothing to fear. We decided to stay put and continue our rest in the cave.
Talyth explained what she learned from her meditations: that Auril was banished to the mortal plane by the other Gods of Fury for expanding her domain too far into each of theirs, and had to flee the plane entirely which she did on her roc, noting that she appeared as a scarily striking woman, not as the cold crone. Auril came here thinking no one would try to follow her to the coldest corner of the mortal plane. Apparently, the Rime takes a substantial toll to cast every night. Auril soon discovered that there was something buried deep within the ice, forgotten for millennia, that she staunchly believes must remain secret and has taken it upon herself to keep concealed. The Codicil of White appears to be integral to finding whatever the secret is, which means the necromancer who initially hired Garrett was definitely up to something.
As Talyth tried to rest, I watched the massive aurora approach from the western horizon. An hour later, I saw that the aurora borealis extended from the wings of a huge bird, a roc. Clinging to its neck was the Cold Crone, part goat and part owl.
As the roc circled the mountain’s peak, the wind from its wings extinguished our fire. As it began to land on the mountain’s peak, a bright flash of light exploded from the west, and the roc took flight, heading east. The light collapsed into where we had seen the Black Cabin.
In the morning, after everyone had rested, I saw two humanoid shadows crawling toward us. It seemed they were impervious to my arrows, Steve’s Firebolt, and Talyth’s Moonbeam, until Saritu alerted us to the fact that the shadows belonged to two Perytons flying overhead. Saritu blasted them with a piercing Shatter spell, causing one to screech horribly. Ambrose, Saritu, Jojo, and Taimen swarmed the Perytons, but they were resistant to mundane attacks, and Ambrose fell.
Once Talyth, Saritu, and Steve used their magic to defeat the monstrosities and revive Ambrose, we packed our things and began our descent. Unfortunately, Perilou had wandered off just before the Perytons attacked us.
We soon found Perilou’s remains near the entrance to the yeto cave. The yeti tike was poking at the unfortunate halfling. We distracted the yetis with the peryton corpses and retrieved Perilou’s belongings.
Soon, we had climbed down the ice wall and found that Garrett’s corpse had disappeared. I found marks showing that he had crawled out of the nook we made for him and walked off with someone else.
When we reached the rock where we had seen the goats, I halted my companions in the cover of the trees where we had sought shelter from the avalanche. A human was crouching atop the rock, and another stood at the base, surrounded by wolves, including a winter wolf. I could see the icy blue eyes of the crouching man by the moon’s light. It was Sephek!
As the wolves charged, I struck Sephek with two arrows. The wolves engaged my companions in the high snow, followed by the shambling form of Garrett. He was a zombie. As the wolves and Garrett gradually fell, I continued to pelt Sephek with arrows from the dark woods. Talyth blasted him with her Moonbeam, and he surfed down from the rock, taunting us. Harassed by Talyth’s Moonbeam and my arrows, he rushed Talyth and was finished by Jojo’s sword.
Before we could breathe a sigh of relief, a ghost emerged from Sephek’s form. It was impervious to most of our attacks, but not Talyth’s Moonbeam. Then, to my horror, it flew into Talyth, and the Moonbeam disappeared. From Talyth, the ghost spoke, insisting that if we let it go, it would spare Talyth. Refusing to trust this unknown being, I did what I had to do. Talyth is vital to stopping the endless night, and I was incapable of harming this being. I demanded that it take me instead, convincing it that I would serve as a better host than my exhausted companion.
As soon as the ghost was in me, it/I began to laugh hysterically and, leaving my bow behind, dashed toward the cliff. As I leaped off the edge, Steve cast Feather Fall, and I floated down, skipping down the mountainside. When the spell expired, I ran, sprinting for miles, navigating the foothills with ease. All the while, I heard my voice laughing with uncharacteristic mirth.
“What luck to have found a vessel that could so easily bound across the snow!” I heard its thoughts in my head. “How fitting that a priest of Auril should inhabit a host somehow immune to the cold!” I was driven by a will that was not my own, I was merely a passenger in my own flesh.
No comments:
Post a Comment