Hammer 12, 1489
Dre'zel, my love,
As we rested for the evening with Nimsy and her children, and Auril’s aurora began to fill the sky, we heard shouts coming from the docks. I ran to the dock, and Nimsy was soon by my side.
Across the lake, we saw three flickering lights from Bremen, and black smoke began to streak the sky as the wind blew northward. Within minutes, our nostrils were filled with the aroma of burning fish. Someone sheepishly commented that it smelled pretty good, and Nimsy gave them a shove.
At the end of the dock, a fisherman mooring his boat looked up at Nimsy. “It’s their speaker,” he said, squinting southward toward the blaze, “Gotta be. Heard tell from some anglers that he wandered back from one of his sojourns yesterday, all clear-eyed and coherent, claiming to have spoken to the Frostmaiden herself. Supposedly, he got a vision, said the town needed to sacrifice more than warmth to save itself, calling for others to join him in the wilderness, commune with Auril, all that nonsense. By the smell of it, it seems he decided to torch their food stores on his way outta town.”
Nocking an arrow and uttering the command, I shot an arrow toward Bremen and closed my eyes, watching the arrow soar straight into the sky for ~600 feet.
From the arrow, I saw a number of boats heading toward Lonelywood. Most were fishing boats, flying the colors of Lonelywood, returning after a hard day's work, but a few, further out in the water, flew the flag of Bremen. One ship in particular caught my eye. It was larger and better made than the other boats. At the bow stood an old dwarf. With his back to me, he was gesturing emphatically to a group of about a dozen thin, hungry people whose furs were covered in soot.
The arrow splashed down into the icy waters of Maer Dualdon hundreds of feet away from the ship, but I still heard his words echoing across the water as the arrow floated for a moment before sinking under the waves. "-aptize yourself in these waters. Sanctify them with your sacrifice and you shall rise again bearing Auril's light." I heard murmured assent and then, before the arrow dipped beneath the water, a series of splashes. As the arrow began to sink, I saw several dark, human-sized shapes in the water, hundreds of feet south, sinking in tandem…
Frantically, I ran to find Talyth and told her, “It was the speaker of Bremen! The old dwarf burned down all three of Bremen's fish houses and sacrificed about a dozen Bremenites into the waters of Maer Dualdon! He sacrificed them in the name of Auril! He was on the ship. I don’t know if he sacrificed himself as well.”
Turning to Nimsy as she returned to her house, I said, “Nimsy, the people of Bremen will need food until they can replenish their supply. Is there anything you can do for them?”
She nodded, saying they have their own problems, but volunteered some fishermen to take us to the ship.
The fisherman, though nervous, diligently rowed us to the large ship, which appeared to be abandoned.
Boarding the ship, it was indeed abandoned except for a young dwarven girl who tried to attack me on the stairs to the lower deck. She thought I was with the speaker and dropped her knife when she realized we weren’t there to hurt her. Unfortunately, her parents were less unfortunate and were among the dozen or so folk who had been tied to stones and dragged to the depths of the lake.
The rescued dwarven girl was named Aster, daughter of Greywold and Jorka Battlebeard. We brought her back to Lonelywood to stay with her Uncle Boverick.
Claiming the ship as her own, Taimen agreed to recruit Aster as her first mate.
The next morning, we left Lonelywood early in the morning.
After an hour, we reached Termalaine, where Taimen visited her kobolds, and I updated Marta regarding the tragedy in Bremen. It seemed the miners and the kobolds were getting along well, and Taimen returned with a valuable gem as a gift.
We were soon trekking through the tundra toward Easthaven when, after only an hour, we were engulfed in a magical blizzard. Deciding that continuing on was too risky, we surrounded Talyth so she could perform a ritual to create a Tiny Hut.
We spent three hours in the security of the Tiny Hut until the winds finally abated.
After another hour of hard marching through the tundra, we saw a wooden throne sticking out of the snow. A crowned man with a long white beard, in grand white and red robes, appeared to be sitting on it, but as we circled it, the truth was revealed.
We were knocked off our feet as the snow floor rose up around us, as the Great White Wyrm, Arveiaturace, rose out of the tundra. As it seemed to conspire with Meltharond, the long-dead rider secured to its back on the wooden throne, it spoke menacingly to us. I could not understand what it said, as I was frantically running back toward Talyth and the rest of the group, though it was probably speaking in Draconic anyway.
As soon as I reached them, I tossed the rope we had been holding into the air and cast Rope Trick, jumping into the empty space I had created just five feet off the ground. Talyth and the others followed me quickly, except for Taimen, who held her grown and began to converse with Iceclaws.
Though I could not make out the words and could only partially see through the entrance to the empty space, it was incredible to behold. The White Wyrm’s entire demeanor transformed as Taimen spoke with charming emphasis and gestures.
In the end, Taimen offered Arveiaturace her newfound gem and Princess Skullcrusher. Seemingly satisfied, the gargantuan dragon flew away, and we all dropped down from our hiding space.
After another hour, we encountered a huge spire of chardalyn jutting out from the tundra. Around it were five large men dressed in rags that hardly seemed sufficient to protect them from the weather.
Upon closer view, their skin appeared to be broken and spoiled, suffering from frostbite and other maladies, none of which seemed to bother them.
Taimen said she sensed they were fiends and they soon turned on us, throwing their chardalyn-tipped javelins and drawing their chardalyn weapons.
They were soon defeated, but in the process, Saritu cast Shatter, and the chardalyn spire collapsed. We were planning on using Mage Hand to bury their desecrated weapons under the rubble and covering the entire pile in frost from Talyth’s divine magic when Saritu plucked a magic ring off one of the chardalyn berserkers’ fingers.
We were all immediately dragged toward Saritu and transported far to the east, on the north side of the Spine of the World, somewhere between Ten Towns and the Reghed Glacier!
We were on an elevated causeway leading to a bear-head-shaped cave mouth blocked by a metal portcullis. Saritu recognized the signs of the Reghed Bear Barbarian Tribe.
Just then, Talyth received a Sending from Vellyne, to which she replied: “Teleported two days east. On our way! Promise! If you have teleport/fast travel, hit me up! We know how to get book.”
On the causeway, I found the tracks of ten men going in and only nine coming out. I also spotted an opening near the bottom of the ravine beside the winding causeway. The slimy hole reeked of refuse and waste.
Gathering my companions close, I cast Pass Without Trace, and we ventured into the hole. Taimen went up first and dropped the rope down.
When we had all made it through the twenty feet of slime and sewage, we found ourselves in a dark, natural chamber. Nearby was a pile of bones and coins. It was a hoard, we quickly discovered as two wyrmlings breathed down on us from their perch above.
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