Chapter 13 : Northern Ice

Chased away by Frost Giants from their lair, we decide to steal a boat from them....

#### The Map

Aside from the map, we also found several letters or sheets of text written in what appears to be Frost Giant language – but we cannot make anything of it. We decide to send the captain back. Juneeka apologizes on behalf of the party, but he does not seem to take that seriously. He calls us traitors, thieves and murderers1 , and heads back from where we came. Under protection of Druw's Harp we estimate our direction to head for this 'Ice Harbor'. From there we hope to be able to cross the Ice Desert in the direction of Ragnarok. It takes us four long days walking the snow, and nights huddled in the Igloo to reach what appears to be this Ice Desert; Rufus suddenly notices that we aren't walking on snow but on ice covered in a layer of snow. But we don't know for sure if we made it to the south or north of Ice Harbor. On the basis that we need to go North anyway, we follow the 'shoreline' northward.

By the end of the fourth day we suddenly see a change in the endless flat ice and snow landscape; something interrupts the horizon ahead of us. When we slowly draw nearer we recognize a stronghold with towers, and from a bit closer distance we think we recognize ship's masts. So what I imagined all the time – a harbor of ice boats at the shore of a sea of ice – turns out to be quite real. We now realize that they must also have seen us, and then we notice a Frost Giant standing on one of the towers. To the east we see four masts in what must be the harbor but it has walls around it. When we get close he reaches behind him, draws out a horn and blows it. We hear an answer from a short distance away. We go around the stronghold and find a set of doors on westward side. The castle has a dry moat with smooth icy walls and shards of ice littering the bottom – from here they look as sharp as broken glass, and they might well be. But, curiously, there is no bridge or even drawbridge to be seen.

The watchtower over the entrance is also manned by a Frost Giant. When we address him he doesn't answer but a short while later an even larger Giant appears – he looks to be in charge and might even be the Lord or Captain of this place. He asks us in halting common what we want, and when we say we are only seeking passage across the Ice Desert, his gruff answer is that we won't get it. And, he adds, I was warned about you by the master of Pinnacle...

#### Seeking Passage

That seems to close the matter to his mind, and he disappears back behind the walls. After some thinking, and looking around to find the harbor guarded and locked with three heavy iron chains, I make one last attempt to speak with them. But the only response from the guard, when I try to persuade him to get the boss, is to throw a lump of ice at me (he missed). This means we need to resort to plan B. This could take two forms, either we go along on one of the boats as stowaways, or we capture one and try ourselves to sail it over the ice. In both cases, we need to get into the harbor and onto a ship. Again using Druw's Musical concealment we sneak into the harbor – sliding Druw under the chains while lying on his back playing the Harp must have been a weird sight if anybody could have seen it.

Getting on board a ship was also easy enough. There are two boats, two-masters which to our surprise turn out to be human-sized. But the only possible shelter is the cabin at the rear, or the storage area in the front. In both cases, we will be discovered as soon as they would start making the ship ready. A better option seems to be to find a way to pilot the boat ourselves, but that will be tricky, For one, we need to get these chains out of the way. Worse, none of us can sail very well and setting sail would take far too much time anyway. So our hopes are with Juneeka – if she has some magical means to get this boat moving we may be able to get away fast enough to avoid being chased down. That does leave us to wonder how we might be greeted at the next stop. Besides, I think our provisions are starting to get slim.

#### Taking Passage

While we deliberate about our best option, we start hearing noises from inside (or perhaps the far side) of the frost giants’ stronghold – those must be our good friends of the Order of Samui! We make our way across the ice into the harbor. Juneeka disables the other ship with a Wood Rot, and we somehow unlock the harbor chain. At the same time, Rufus and Hender are starting to try and make sense out of starting up the ship. Under cover of Drew’s Harp, we work on the ship. We see a couple of figures appearing around the walls, making their way into the harbor. They have no interest in the ships, at least not yet, but head for the doors leading into the stronghold. The noises of heavy fighting going on inside are getting louder. Somehow we get the ship moving, steering our way out of the harbor miraculously without incident, and we set a course straight north.

#### As the arrow flies

Sailing on the ice turns out to be rather easy, or we’re extremely lucky. Anyhow, we have few distractions and make good speed over the ice. We see the frost giants’ walls slowly shrinking and finally fading into whiteness in the far distance. Ahead, only more white, and the journey becomes monotonous and boring. A few times we need to stay clear of some rough patches, or stacks of ice shards, but otherwise we seem to be on a clear path.

After some time – I couldn’t tell how long, perhaps a day or two – we reach the northern shoreline of the ice lake. We realize we have no clear idea of which direction to take, but the shoreline runs roughly south-east to north-west so we decide to go north-west, keeping some distance from the shore where the ice is smoothest. Not far from here, our map says we should find a settlement. At some point, a pile of ice rubble bars our path, but another path turns toward shore. Seeing no harm, we follow it, but to our dismay it turns into an ambush! We suddenly see people jumping up from their hiding places, and they start pelting us with waves of arrows. Startled, we speed past them, only to find our way blocked again! By now, and by Tymora’s luck, we have enough skills to make a sharp turn and sail back out from where we came. This means another few volleys of arrows. I think we did try to communicate with the villagers (or should I call them bandits?), but that did not seem to make any difference. Fearing pursuit, we quickly clear a path through the pile of ice shards – from up close we can now see it was put there deliberately. Soon, we are back on our way.

#### Mining Ice

A half day or so later, we see something appearing on the horizon. We decide to leave the boat and continue on foot – a lone boat on these flat ice plains is easily spotted and we do not know what lies ahead. After a good night sleep in the Igloo, we walk the rest of the way. We slowly see a massive cliff of ice growing on the horizon in front of us. We head somewhat to the east so we can approach whatever there may be from alongside the cliff. Juneeka flies ahead a few times to scout, but cannot find out much. When we reach the cliff, we see it is very unstable, huge chunks of ice and snow litter the ground and new chunks come thundering down every minute. This means we cannot keep close enough to use it as some kind of shelter. Juneeka’s nature sense tells us there is something unnatural to the west of us – like we expected when we kept slightly eastward course. So we turn left and follow the cliff wall.

Without much excitement we reach the mouth of a quarry – large hewn blocks of ice lay stacked on one side of a large rectangular entrance. We head in, and explore the whole complex. At some point, something in the layout seems to suggest to us that whoever dug these corridors may not just have been here for the ice – the pattern seems to suggest they were systematically searching for something. At some point, we come to a corridor that runs straight deeper into the cliff, and it ends not like all the other dead ends we’ve seen: it connects up with a natural crack. Also, we see discarded tools laying there, so it looks like this was what they had been searching for. We also find another reason why one may have dropped their tools and left – a pair of ice hands came up from the ground to grab one of us. I don’t remember if it was again Rufus, like so many nights ago when we were camping – was that before Snovirn?

We enter the natural ice caves, and suffered another one of these attacks. Ice caves and mazes We spend the next day roaming through these caves. Juneeka’s nature sense now tells us there is something unnatural way up ahead in the ice, so we try to keep heading in that direction. But caves being what they are, we have to weave back and forth, exploring twisting turns, backtracking and painstakingly keeping a map for fear of getting lost! At some point, the small crack that we are walking through gives way to a much larger fissure that runs across it. Our hearts jump, but Juneeka tells us our real goal is further still. Going up the fissure we find more winding cracks and passages. All of it does suggest it may have been carved out of the ice by running water – might this have come from the Thistle?

A small sense of despair slowly grows in me, and I wonder if will we wander this maze of ice forever, when we suddenly see a straight hewn corridor running off at an angle to our right. We decide to first skirt the perimeter, so we continue in the crack going left, but as soon as we are all in we are attacked from the rear – the endless searching had made us careless and we were making no attempt whatsoever to conceal our presence! Two shady figures throwing blasts of ice-cold air in our direction. It hurt, but didn’t do much damage thanks to our Rings of Warmth and other protection. Rufus and Hender were at the rear – I was at the front to do the scouting – so they were well positioned to start the attack. In the narrow corridor there was little room to maneuver, so all Juneeka, Drew and I could do was stand ready, and add the odd spell or arrow here or there. When we went forward, we found more corridors that quickly turned into a genuine maze. As before, we kept a good map but soon we heard heavy footsteps through the walls – two pairs of them heading towards us from two directions. We kept going, but soon were overtaken by a massive brass statue – clearly a golem or similar construct. Hender and Rufus go into the attack, but not without Hender muttering about it. He quickly turns out the be very right about that, between the two of them they could – quite literally – hardly make a dent in it.

We are left with only one alternative: run. At a trot we can easily keep ahead of it, but that leaves us no time to look at our map, let alone draw it. So there we find ourselves running through blindly the maze. When we no longer hear our pursuer close by, we slow down to a walk. Suddenly Hender pulls me back – he feels something dangerous may be ahead. Fearing a trap, I search carefully but then I get surprised anyway by a Construct standing around the corner. The slash of his weapon costs me dearly and leaves me bleeding – also Hender and Rufus came away from the previous encounter bleeding heavily until they were Healed. Juneeka uses a Flame Strike to melt an escape for us, and we continue trotting blindly again. Occasionally, when we have made enough headway, we take some time to draw a part of the map – some of it from memory – but this leaves us with bits and pieces that we find hard to connect together. Twice we find ourselves back at the entrance, to our relief, and we are now also slowly gaining some feeling of the layout of the maze. We continue making loops through it, always alert for the Golems and often running to get ahead of them.

We manage to avoid further encounters, and suddenly find ourselves no longer in one of the winding corridors, but in a square chamber. The far end is open to a chasm some seven feet wide, and as deep as we can see. There is a light scent of sulfur. Across the chasm is a sturdy, wide wooden bridge with railings that leads up to a pair of brass doors. Behind us, we hear two sets of heavy, brass, footsteps coming through the corridor.

#### Frying pan and Brimstone

Relieved, we suddenly find ourselves outside the winding corridors. The square chamber opens at the far end to a chasm some seven feet wide, and as deep as we can see. There is a light scent of sulfur. Across the chasm is a sturdy, wide wooden bridge with railings that leads up to a pair of brass doors. Behind us, we hear two sets of heavy, brass, footsteps coming through the corridor. To our surprise, we find the doors open easily. A brief glance inside shows a dim interior; the best we can say is that we can’t see anything inside. We get in and close the doors behind us. We had no chance to scout ahead, so we get surprised by an alien-looking creature – not quite a ghost, but its nasty looking sleek body has few recognizable features. As we engage it, we find it is both very hard to hit, and moves lightning-fast. Quickly, it is joined by three ghost-like appearances, and we decide the best move is to keep moving. Drew opens the next door, and after a peek inside which only reveals another mostly dark room, motions us that it looks safe – much like when we entered the current room.

#### Fire and Magic

In the darkness we almost stumble into a big table that is covered in the workings of the alchemist – tubes, vessels, vials. While I make my way around one side of the dark room, the first blast of magic hits us – I believe it was magic. Tinder heaves at the table, flipping it sideways for cover. Rufus jumps the table, avoids falling over the heap of alchemists’ debris and then, in the dark, barely avoids tripping over the nest table. From the vantage point atop that table, he tries to keep an eye on from where the magic is being sent our way. I complete my circuit, without encountering anyone. In the weak light of Rufus’ flaming sword, we see a raised dais a set of leather curtains. We each approach one of the openings. I nearly get my head blown off when peeking past the curtains, and Rufus promptly uses the diversion to step through on his side. I jump through as well, meanwhile with Drew on my heels. The previous room was lab and living area, this one clearly is library and study. A scattering of rugs covers the floor in front of the desk near the far wall, and rows of book cases line the walls to either side. No sight of our opponent, but a few moments later, thunder and lighting comes our way. It first strikes me, but then forks on to strike the whole party. I respond to charge the spot where the lightning seemed to originate, but struck only air. Meanwhile we have all arrived here, save Hendel who is guarding the rear from the other room.

While we try to feel out the room for any trace of our foe – I smell a lingering wisp of the sweet foulness of decay, but no trace I could follow – we hear fighting from Hendel’s spot. A huge magic hand is attacking him, so apparently our adversary has moved there, or he is not alone. From here it becomes chaotic. At some point, when we are all back in the study, Rufus starts burning books at random, to smoke out the lich (casts powerful spells, reeks of decay; seems like a safe bet!). In response he casts an Acid Fog that drives us out. Hender has finished the Hand, only to find the ghosts have opened the doors and are coming for us again. He charges into them, manages to drive them back single-handedly and slams the doors shut in right in their faces. When I enter the room, running from the Acid, I see Hender heaving with all his might to keep the doors shut against the pounding from the other side. I run to help him, but see a brief shimmer flickering over some spot on the wall. I twist to attack, but again strike only air. We do feel like we are keeping the heat on, and hopefully we kan keep on getting closer every time! Together, we bar the doors with the large table, and go back chasing the Lich. We find lots of stuff (magic gongs, magically hidden passages, magic books and scrolls, and some very interesting magic stuff from the desk), but none of that is getting us any further. After removing one of the rugs – magic, too – Rufus notices the floor underneath seems different. I trace out the outlines of the trapdoor and manage to locate and activate the mechanism hidden inside the desk.

We first think it may only be a device to get rid of unwelcome visitors, but Juneeka flies down and finds a corridor leading out from the deep shaft. It leads to a small room with an altar, which we soon find to be hollow and hiding another shaft. This one is filled with water, to some 30 or so feet deep. Juneeka lowers the water a lot, but the rest we need to swim. Water breathing helps there, and we feel we are finally making some good progress! The submerged corridor goes on for some 60 feet and leads to a pool in yet another room. When we reach it, suddenly the room is filled with white-hot fire. I get to close and receive a nasty singe in reward. While waiting for it to dissipate, suddenly Rufus starts attacking us. Hender knocks him out, takes him back, strips him down and ties him up. By the time he takes Rufus back, he is regaining consciousness, and the fire has disappeared. We put Rufus in a corner, and start canvassing the room – it seems clear that the Lich must be here now!

We engage, lead by the sparse clues that his spell-casting gives us, each time at the latest moment. Again, we strike closer every time and now start scoring some hits, and scoring more and more. Annoyingly, Rufus had broken free of his bonds, and starts attacking us in the back – bare handed this time so we can rather safely ignore him. But to avoid later problems, Drew turns to face him. Shards of glass, or something, and my whipping rapier, and spell-casting from the Lich resonate through the room. Soon, we have him located and Drew manages to pepper him in Glitter dust – then we face ten or so Mirror Images. Hender grabs the faceted mirror of True Seeing to pick out the real one. I simply close my eyes to avoid getting confused, and rely on my blind-fighting instincts to hit the true target. By the time we wear him down, Hender is immobilized, Rufus near-death and knocked out by Drew, and all of us severely damaged – all but Juneeka near death!

#### Found, Lost and Searching Again

We finally found the Jug in the room below the Lich's study. The shattered remains of the lich lay in the corner of the room (how do you kill a lich anyway -- when I tried on the Goggles of Seeing Undead, it did appear gone). We rested, Juneeka meditating and studying or whatever it is that druids do. I scouted back to make sure we wouldn't be surprised by the Order of Samui party (again), and warded the entrance doors with a pair of Stones of Alarm. Rufus spent some time Identifying all the loot that we gathered. Quite some interesting stuff. One of them a Rod of Teleportation. We decided to avoid complications by using the Rod to get out of this place -- a Lich's study beyond a maze, beyond ice caverns, beyond a mine -- and jump back outside to where we had camped after ice-sailing here. Once there, we spend a real quit night sleeping, and the next morning realizing that we really needed to get back to Hafan. So we spent another three Teleports (we travel in two shifts), to end on the heap of rubble where once Nimrods house was. Bewildered after our long absence, it took us some time to realize we already knew this house was destroyed. In stead of going straight to his new house, as we remembered, Drew scried for him, teleported to where he saw him, and found out it was Castle Galdan, seat of the Baron of Saruk. He took all of us there. In Hafan, we'd learned little, except that the Order of Samui was now firmly in control. We'd seen their patrols everywhere, and heard stories of terror, repression, abductions, disappearances, the whole Fascist Spectrum of suppression was in place there.

Nimrod, also, had had to flee persecution (and worse, surely). On their way out of the city to Cistor's flying boat (which we'd seen during our travel up north along the river), they lost Almond who was carrying the Sword. The Book and Thistle were still safe in Nimrod's possession. We rested, trained, studied. Somewhere at the end of our first week, we were rudely wakened by an excruciating pain -- one that we had all experienced before! Something was sucking the water out of our bodies. We later heard that first Rufus, then Druw were questioned by the Lich to know where 'it' was, while time appeared frozen for the rest of us. Rufus resisted him, but is reduced to a blood-drenched puking heap of misery. Druw first tried attack, which resulted in the Lich hammering a helpless Juneeka into oblivion - almost anyway - before he tried to Bluff his way out.

Amazingly, he succeeded in convincing the Lich that we didn't have any of his items anymore. He left with the warning that we'd be sorry when he found out that we had been lying... Rufus woke up Nimrod, who examined all the items, and finally pointed out that the Jug bore inscriptions that were (relatively) new; apparently the Lich had chosen it as his 'focus' or whatever that is called. This means, destroying the Lich can only be done by destroying the artifact. A double-edged weapon if ever there was one. As long as he thinks we can destroy it, we will have leverage. We should find a way to make sure he knows he cannot destroy us without destroying it! That may mean we have to take it and not leave it back with Nimrod.

We now have two remaining targets: the Sword (again, dammit), or the Cloak of Fire. The Sword is in all likelihood in Hafan, where we need to return anyway. Also, going after it will alert the Order that we are back. So we had best first get the Cloak. It's last known location is to the far southeast, in a triangle-shaped peninsula (looks vaguely like India on the map). We can probably best get there by setting out in a more or less straight line along a mountain range that stretches along the same direction. This nicely skirts the region that is supposed to be under the Order's sway, and there only seems to be one mountain range to cross. So we set packing for a journey south. We may want to hang onto some of our Snow gear for crossing these mountains. Also, there must be some seasoned travelers in the garrison, or in the castle itself, who can tell us a bit about what to expect on this route, or if there are better alternatives.

#### Sidetracked?

Drew and Juneeka find a temple to charge up our wand of healing. They can be helped at the temple of the god of commerce – also known as the god of extortion. Not somewhere one might expect a to get a bargain price for anything. They indeed make us pay dearly for some 20 charges reloaded. They promise Drew more if we can retrieve a lost holy book from their temple in Demak – which is now being controlled by the Order of Samui. Although it seems on the way to the south peninsula that we are heading for (formerly known as Hafanus Isle, but long since become independent and now is a mix of separate city kingdoms). We stock up as best we can, but are unable to find weapons, armor, magic items or horses – it’s wartime after all! We set out to the south, following the road that runs parallel to the mountains at our right hand – to the west. This will lead us to a river, at about one day traveling before Demak. From there, a trail runs along the river into the mountains. It leads to a pass that is still outside Samui influence, and deemed rather safe.

Four days on the road, we suddenly recognize the area; we are but one day walking from Moshida’s Point. We haven’t been here in years, so we cannot pass up the opportunity. But the homecoming is a complete delusion – most houses we knew have been destroyed, some rebuilt but differently. We don’t recognize most people at all, and those we do, do not recognize us. We don’t feel like making ourselves known, so we simply ask around for a place to sleep. The Inn is among the buildings destroyed, but someone is willing to let us sleep in his barn, including some dinner, for a gold piece. Juneeka and Drew go out to check on Drew’s old house, but he doesn’t know the people that now live there. Eleisa’s shack in the woods is long deserted – probably ever since we picked up her note there that night when we too were fleeing. In the morning we retrace our steps to the main road, and continue towards Demak. The river crossing is strongly fortified, and the bridge barricaded. We decide that we have nothing to gain by going there now, we’d rather try and retrieve the book on our return voyage. But we need to take a detour cross-country to avoid going near the bridge, and reach the river further to the west. While making our curving approach, we have to hide for an eight-person mounted patrol – thinking of it now they might have been on our side, but who knows. And even then, they might not have liked finding people skulking so close to the border with the Samui controlled areas.

We travel further up the river, the mountains slowly drawing closer in the distance. Our first night camping by the river side is rudely interrupted during Hendel’s watch. Suddenly, mist starts creeping in and it doesn’t seem natural. While he awakens us, the mist thickens to invisibility and then we suddenly feel creatures crawling up onto us, seemingly from nowhere. We fight them off as well we can, meanwhile Terrak finding the mist is not magic (his gem of True Seeing does not penetrate it), and Druw and Juneeka have their spells fizzle under the distraction of being bit by the critters. Before we are well and good recovered, we get hammered by a lightning bolt and a fireball at the same time (we later saw only one attacker, but there may just have been two?). We scatter in all directions to avoid being sitting ducks again. Drew and Juneeka get a head-on Blast of Ice, which would have killed them were it not that they still wore their protective rings! While we try to make our way to the source of this blast, I suddenly hear someone behind us rummaging through the camp. I use the Gem to see through the Darkness that had appeared just before, and I see a six-armed creature going through our possessions. When he notices being spotted, he just vanishes.

A quick inventory learns that he had not been searching randomly – Druw's Harp and my composite Bow are gone – fortunately, Hendel had the Jug! Furious, Drew Scrys for his harp, and finds it being examined by a number of the same creatures. Outside is a view on plains to the horizon. The light suggests they may be slightly further to the east (it is still a bit darker there). A few heartbeats later, one of them looks up, and Drew’s Scrying puffs out. We are tempted to pursue, but Rufus convinces us not to barge into the home of these, obviously very strongly magical creatures. We would be a t a severe disadvantages. We can survive without Drew’s Harp – as versatile as it is – and I have another bow. Some day later, we get charged by a group of ogre-sized creatures. They fight well, and are surprisingly fast with their great swords. We fight even better, but it cost us heavily in the fight. The next day we enter the mountains proper, and we have trouble finding a place to stop for the night – we are all the time on this narrow path hugging steep cliffs. We opt for a shallow cave in the mountain side, which gives us some room and shelter. But during the last shift Rufus’ is not in time to notice the floor opening beneath our sleeping bodies...

1. Well, we did try to steal from him, but I warned him to be silent. When he wouldn't, what did he expect me to do?