Hammer 27, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
As we began to descend the long, spiraling stairway, its railing lined with ice mephits, to the level below, where a deep voice had asked, “Returned already, my queen?” I asked Talyth if she needed healing before continuing on.
“You’re right!” Talyth responded. “I’m hurt! Can anyone heal me?”
At first, I thought she was trying to preserve her divine power, and I offered her a Goodberry, which she accepted in favor of the fungus cap offered by Ambrose. There was something off about her response. But she was still determined and insisted that we continue onward.
I climbed up to the ceiling over the stairway and followed Talyth and the others down from above.
At the bottom of the stairs, we found an old frost giant waiting for us. Ambrose claimed that he was an emissary come to visit the Frostmaiden, but the giant wasn’t buying it, despite his apparent senility, demanding that only followers of Auril could enter. Taimen pointed out that Talyth was a follower of Auril, and to my growing confusion, Talyth acted surprised! Ultimately, the giant refused to let us pass, instead favoring an honorable death while performing his duties.
We quickly obliged, and the old giant slumped to the floor and stirred no more.
During the battle, I noticed from the top of the stairs that Talyth had cast a spell she’d never cast before and did not use her holy symbol, but some arcane focus. I was not the only one to notice that something was off with Talyth, and as the others began questioning her, her affliction became clear and she tried to flee. Still in the form of a giant eagle, Rowan flew down and grabbed the Talyth in her talons. I began pummeling my possessed friend, demanding that her possessor, probably the ghost of Nass Lantomir, get out.
Ambrose urged the ghost to possess him instead, and that’s just what it did. With Talyth back to her senses, she healed herself as Nass explained that they just wanted to claim The Codicil of White so that she could pass from this realm.
At the bottom of the stairs was a massive dining hall, with a giant-sized table carved of ice, surrounded by ice blocks positioned for seating. Beyond a nearby doorway were stairs continuing down to a lower level. A corridor led to the massive outer doors.
Beyond other doors, we also found a kitchen and a small treasure chamber. In the latter—which we were only able to enter after Rowan used Destroy Water to open a hole in the door—we found an ice statuette of the frost giant god, Thrym, a giant-sized shield made of a white dragon scale, and an Alchemy Jug which we gave to Ambrose.
As we descended the stairs to the basement, the floors, walls, and even the ceiling were so slippery that I could not hold on with my slippers and slid to the floor and down the stairs, where I found myself face-to-face with a giant blubbering beast with long whiskers and longer tusks, and flippers for arms and legs.
Sensing it wasn’t hostile, I gave it a friendly greeting and offered it a Goodberry, which it gladly accepted. Introducing itself as Ukuma, it said it had been awakened by Ravisin and was supposed to be guarding the chamber but was having fun sliding around the icy floor. The large chamber had corridors to the north and south, leading to doors beyond, and four other doors in each of the ordinal directions.
Ukuma shared that the passage north led to the tomb of the frost giant queen, Vassavicken, while the passage south led to The Codicil of White. In order to enter the south chamber, one had to pass all four of the trials presented beyond the other four doors.
Talyth shared that while communing with Auril, the Frostmaiden had encouraged her to pass the trials and decided that we should first take the trial of Endurance, which was to the northeast.
Beyond the door was a portal, and as soon as we passed through it, we were transported to the middle of a snowstorm in the open tundra. A snowflake symbol of Auril glowed above each of our heads.
Nearby was the camp of a Reghed elk tribe, which the tribesmen were feverishly dismantling. As they noticed us, some drew their weapons tentatively, and the tallest among them shouted, "We shall not lie down and die for your pleasure, emissaries of Auril! Begone!"
JoJo explained that we meant them no harm, and their leader, Jarund Elkhardt, explained that they had to move their camp to follow the herd they relied on for sustenance. We agreed to assist them on their journey and were soon heading south.
I tried to show the tribe how to move faster through the tundra, but there were so many of them that I was soon exhausted by the effort, and we still had many hours of traveling ahead of us.
A herd of elk came barreling toward the migrating tribe in a wild stampede, which was only stopped by Rowan, who warded them off.
While crossing a frozen river, a tribesman fell through a crack in the ice. Jarund urged his tribe to push on rather than incur further risk, but I flung the Rope of Climbing toward the man and pulled him to safety.
After many hours of traveling, I was slowing, which was ironic since I could have been much further ahead had I not been herding the weary tribesmen on. Taimen graciously allowed me to travel the rest of the way on Princess Skullcrusher.
Soon after, a small boy approached Talyth, crying that he had lost his parents and could not continue, but JoJo carried the boy on his large shoulders.
Finally, we reached the Elk tribe’s destination, and as Jarund thanked us, we found ourselves back in the ice chamber.
Though we had traveled for half a day, Ukuma indicated that little time had passed since we had left.
We agreed to take the trial of Isolation next and passed through the southeast portal, which transported us to a clear, still night. By the light of the full moon, we could see a huge pile of wood nearby gathered by a hulking bear tribesman, Gunvald Halraggson. He explained that he had lost his wife and needed to sit in silence while her spirit departed. We agreed to sit beside him as he lit the funeral pyre.
While I sat, there was a tapping on my shoulder, and I heard my son, Fri'zel, call out to me. I knew that this was part of the test, but it was hard to resist, and I took the scrimshaw figurine that Keegan had made for me and focused on your image.
Eventually, the voice stopped, but a new voice confronted me. It was Bra'tac who suggested, urged, and demanded that I join him. Again, I focused on your image until the voice faded.
Soon, I was confronted by a chwinga in need of help, but this trial was easy to ignore.
Then I heard your voice, soft and sweet, whispering in my mind, assuring me that I had done enough. A part of me knew that this was still part of the test, but I found it irresistible, and I followed the voice…your voice. We spoke for a long while until I was discovered, wandering through the tundra alone, and returned to the campsite by bear tribesmen. I had failed the trial, but it was hard to regret my actions.
Ambrose, Taimen, and JoJo had also wandered off, leaving only Talyth and Rowan. Together, we were all transported back to the ice chamber where Ukuma waited.
Next, we agreed to take the trial of Cruelty, and passed through the northwest portal, which transported next to a tribal camp where a powerfully built woman stood by a grand tent. The woman, surrounded by shaman, warriors, and two saber-toothed tigers, had familiar features, which were explained when she introduced herself as Bjornhild Solvigsdottir, Queen of the Tiger Tribe.
Recognizing that we were undergoing Auril’s trials, as the other leaders had, she began to explain that her tribe was starving and in order to feed them, she had decided to sacrifice the eldest among them and gave us that “honor.”
Fuming, JoJo refused to sacrifice any innocents and instead challenged Bjornhild. Upon learning who JoJo was, the queen laughed and after some back and forth in which JoJo would not back down, offered her champion to fight JoJo. Out stepped a huge man, at least as large as JoJo, with runes all over his body, but otherwise looking even more similar.
“At last, we meet, my brother,” Nicolas Solvigsdottir greeted, and soon their blades were slamming recklessly against each other.
Peaking inside the tent, I saw six elderly and emaciated tribes-folk bound and kneeling. After briefly watching the battle, Rowan entered the tent and coldly drove their weapon into the nearest, disappearing as they died. Soon after, Talyth entered the tent, the anguish apparent on her face, and struck another. She tried to immediately revive them with Healing Word but faded too quickly.
JoJo was no match for his hag-enchanted brother and was slowly losing, when suddenly his skin began to ripple and he transformed with a roar, not into a bear, but into a weretiger. Nicolas slashed down at his brother, but JoJo was impervious to the blows.
Captivated by the melee, I became aware that our time was running out, and I entered the tent. Approaching the most emaciated of the sacrifices, I gave them a Goodberry and bade them, “do not fear.” They smiled as I closed their eyes with one hand and gave them a painless death with the other.
I was immediately transported back to the ice chamber, where Rowan and Talyth were waiting. Soon after, Taimen, Ambrose, and JoJo appeared.
JoJo was adamant that he did what he had to do. To our relief, when JoJo tried to transform, just to see if he could, he could not.
At Talyth’s insistence, JoJo hung back as we entered to southwest portal to take the trial of Preservation. We were transported to another camp, this one belonging to the wolf tribe. The sky was dark with the new moon.
Isarr Kronenstrom, king of the Wolf Tribe, held a kicking boy off the ground. When he threatened to kill the child in the name of Mala, Talyth hit Isarr with a Guiding Bolt and Taimen charged with her trident as I hit him with two arrows and Ambrose cast Blight on him.
The wolf tribe warriors engaged, but I was invisible and quickly slipped away, avoiding an Entangle spell. Talyth grabbed the child and rose into the air. Isarr leaped onto the nearby yurt, striking at Talyth as I shot him down.
The boy smiled with gratitude and thanked us, introducing himself, as we were transported back, as Nicolas.
We found JoJo with Ukuma, who was still sliding throughout the ice chamber and congratulated us on our success.
The passage south led to a small anvil-shaped chamber with a door on the far wall. Flanking the door were bas-reliefs of two frost giants that have been chipped and defaced. Above the door were carved heads of an owl, a wolf, and a goat.
The normal sized door beyond opened for Talyth and Rowan, and they disappeared into the corridor beyond.
“Help!” Talyth cried out after only a few minutes when she emerged with a white fur covered book. Rowan was petrified!
Ambrose rushed over and touched the book, at which point the ghost departed and Zelennor disappeared.
Soon, the entire tower began to shake, and Ukuma cried, “What have you done?”
Acting quickly with Ukuma’s help, we tipped Rowan’s frozen form onto the giant walrus and secured them with the Rope of Climbing. We helped Ukuma up the long slippery stairs as cracks began to form in the walls. Bits of ice were beginning to tumble down around us as we burst out of the massive doors. But Taimen did not flee with us, instead charging further up the stairs on Princess Skullcrusher.
As we began to descend the giant stairs, we saw Taimen standing on the roof between two crown spikes hefting the large silver dragon egg in her limbs. To my amazement, she leaped off the roof…and then began to fall slowly down.
We quickly went back in for the dragon scale shield and used it as sled to carry the egg and Rowan.
At the bottom of the stairs, we were moving slowly due to exhaustion and Ukuma’s waddling pace. We soon heard the blood curdling howl of yeti coming from the east and I cast Longstrider.
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