My Spider Gwenses Are Tingling!

**My Spider Gwenses Are Tingling!** was the ninth chapter of Rime of the Frostmaiden.

## Synopsis

Having fled the duergar fortress, Ruedolf read Nildar's letter to Rextopher, Gwen, and Rurik. It mentioned the brothers fulfilling their father's plan, and their search for chardalyn- the corrupting substance the dwarves of the Dwarven Valley had identified as "black ice". Rurik also asked Ruedolf about how he was able to turn into a duergar, which Ruedolf said he just did on instinct.

As the party headed back towards Caer Konig, they stumbled across a corpse upright in the snow. The corpse turned out to be mounted on the dragon Iceclaws, who the group narrowly escaped.

Back in Caer Konig, Rextopher upset everyone by falsely telling the Shorard sisters that Trovus was paying for his stay. Due to this obviously being not true, they kicked him out of the inn. The next day, the party moved on to Caer Dineval, with the hopes of finding Torrga and Sephek.

In Caer Dineval, the party quickly found Torrga's stall. Ruedolf went in first, but immediately left as he saw the man he had known (and left for dead) as Frederick "Snake" Spalding. Gwen was able to confirm that the man inside the tent was indeed undead. Rurik and Rextopher went in after Ruedolf, and asked the man why he wasn't dressed for the harsh weather. The man, who identified himself as Sephek, told Rurik that he had the Frostmaiden's blessing. When asked about the murders, Sephek told the pair he would meet them later behind the local tavern, the Uphill Climb.

While Ruedolf agreeing to wait around to keep an eye on Sephek and Torrga, the rest of the group decided to go to the caer to investigate the rumour of the missing town speaker they had heard about a hundred sessions ago. They were not let inside the caer however, with a guard explaining Speaker Crannoc was ill, and that his second in command Kadroth was too busy running the town to see them. Suspiciously, the guard refused to allow Gwen inside to attempt to heal Crannoc. The party then went to the Uphill Climb. The tavernkeeper Roark told them he hadn't seen Crannoc in a couple of weeks, and that Crannoc had no such second in command.

Ruedolf walked with Sephek to the back of the tavern, where Sephek attempted to kill everyone with frost magic and ice mephits. The party was able to defeat Sephek however, after which he began to melt. They then told Torrga that they had killed her bodyguard, which she was upset about. She was so upset she brought up a mysterious figure named Guinevere who looked an awful lot like Gwen, who she had seen on a poster years ago.

The party then tried to stay in the local inn, Dinev's Rest, but found it had gone out of business. They also found a group of duergar was squatting inside. After an uncharacteristic argument, the group eventually agreed to look for accommodation elsewhere. They had just began to ask Roark if they could sleep on his floor when the guard from the caer arrived, and invited them up to the keep.

## NPCs

* Iceclaws
* Cori Shorard
* Allie Shorard
* Trovus
* Torrga
* Sephek
* Huarwar
* Roark
* Frederick Spalding (ghost)
* Nildar (mentioned only)
* Crannoc (mentioned only)
* Kadroth (mentioned only)

## Locations

* Caer Konig
* Caer Dineval