Chapter Four

Previously in Chapter Three

## Prologue - Severance

Deep within the hidden Thayan Enclave in Waterdeep, the three cloned adventurers Defective Diva, Malformed Melech and Verminous Vohrun lie strapped to a series of operating tables as the Red Wizard agent Octavious administers the latest in a string of treatments designed to prolong their short expected lives.  A knock on the door draws Octavious out of the room for a conversation in the hallway with the head of the enclave, Manus Kost.  A moment later a large white rat quietly pushes the door open before scurrying under the tables.  The cracked door allows the Cloned Three to hear the remainder of the wizards conversation.  Manus indicates that the Hamun Kost has made his move again the original Diva, Melech and Vohrun and will soon have the Arcane Cypher.  Manus then states that he depart for  Lyn Armal to meet with a Countess Sansuri before ordering Octavious to dispose of the no-longer useful clones.

Octavious pokes his head back into the room and cheerfully tells the three that he needs to retrieve one of their ministrations from his office and will return shortly.  Aware of the limited time they have Vohrun manages to slip loose from his bindings and frees the others with a small knife he finds on the table.  The three arm themselves as best as they can, Vohrun with a knife, Diva with a heavy glass bottle, and Melech with the summoned shadow of the sword Blackrazor.  The three of them descended upon their jailer, the Thayan soldier Epson, who was dozing in the hall.  He was dispatched in a few scant seconds, unable to cry for help or draw his blade before being overcome.

The three ventured out into the central hall of the complex, taking a moment to peer into nearby darkened rooms before making their way to a raging wall of fire, seemingly burning without fuel blocking their path forward.  Vohrun used a spell to temporarily suspend the enchantment, allowing the three of them to duck unharmed before the flames sealed the path back behind them.  Recognizing the portion of the complex they found themselves in the three observed the Cloning facility from the shadows but opted not to engage the wizards working there or the Thayan captain drilling her undead servitors in the open area.  Instead they let themselves into another nearby chamber finding a bare room, occupied only by a massive suit of armor.  This construct made no move to stop them as they ventured across the room.  Instead it simply observed their passing keeping a methodical eye on them as they passed through.  When Melech went to open the far door the Shield Guardian noted that “The Master’s office was by invitation only”.  Beside the warning, however it made no move to physical restrict them from continuing on.

In the next chamber the cloned three found Octavious's office, where he was busily preparing some concoction at a work table across the room.  Melech crept forward towards the mage but as he did an alarm sounded, taking the form of numerous animated mouths forming along the perimeter of the walls, each one emitting a single low tone, together forming a discordant cacophony, causing Octavious to spin around.  Octavious quickly dropped any pretense that he was not preparing for the clones death.  After a quick verbal sparring the wizard tried to escape by turning invisible.  Melech opened a gateway to a distant far realm, flooding the room with a freezing inky blackness while Vohrun instituted an area of silence to foil the wizard.  Octavius reappeared a moment later tucked in between his bookcases and summoned a massive ghostly hand to envelope and crush Melech.  Simultaneously the shield guardian burst through the adjacent door sending wood and stone flying.  The automaton quickly descended upon vohrun, pummeling him badly with massive steel fists.  Diva charged the wizard while Melech reached for Vohrun’s hand, once they made contact Melech used Thunderstep to appear beside Octavius with Vohrun, leaving a blast of thunder to batter the spectral hand and guardian.  Suddenly surrounded the Thayan made an attempt to control Melech’s thoughts before Diva summoned a blast of energy that sent him sprawling across the room unconscious, ending his control of his defenders.

Defective Diva rushed to Octavious to prevent him from expiring.  As Melech and Vohrun restrained and strip-searched the wizard Diva poured through his desk to find a decanter of brandy which she quickly consumed.  Sated for the moment she rifled through the contents of the desk finding a number of oddities such as:

* A list of regulars at the Jade Jug and their known mistresses or consorts;
* Scrawled musings on potential locations of the “High Holdfast” and conjecture about the nature of the weapon someone named Sansuri claims it contains;
* Several broadsheets with headlines about lost ships along the Sword Coast;
* A map of the presumed extent of ancient Giant kingdom of Ostaria based on known ruins;
* A wooden rack of 40 stoppered flasks containing hair labeled with names. Most are unknown to the three but a few stand out to the three, including Manus Kost, Hamun Kost, Diva Flinthelm, Melech (Last name unknown), Vohrun Deepshale, Dagult Neverember and Olivia Falcrest

Melech meanwhile mutilates the wizard by carving his true allegiances onto his forehead before recovered a large pearl, an obsidian token and a ruby amulet from Octavious unconscious body.

Frustrated by their lack of a clear path and missing her connection to Berronar Truesilver Defective Diva attempts to contact the entity that has haunted her dreams since her return from White Plume Mountain.  She hears the distant crashing of waves, the cawing a gull and a whispered voice calling out “Find me in the sea”.  When her vision concludes she billows several gallons of briny ocean water from her mouth, drenching the desk.

Departing the office the three carried Octavious to the wall of fire before rousing him.  After a brief conversation, the three conclude that killing the wizard would be fruitless given the potential for him to have doubles prepared.  The three knock him unconscious and continue looking for the means to escape the complex, and perhaps revenge themselves along the way.

They enter one of the side chambers, finding within an odd creature hunched in front of an arcane machine.  Crackling electricity arcs between a pair of brass pillars, seeming supplied by six glass tubes that each contain an entity comprised of bluish white electrical energy.  The hunched beast resembles one the original three found months earlier in the cavern below Tresendar Manor and seems transfixed by a small window of light formed where the lighting arcs together.  The creature sat upon a pile of scattered papers, the products of it’s mad scrawlings.  It paid the intruders little attention, even as Diva peruses  the creatures notes.  Among the multitude of languages and scripts she finds a legible string of text stating: *“The Broken Dwarven Miner sees a fellow member of the chain gang collapse from exhaustion and be promptly be devoured by an obsidian hound with a flaming maw”*.  The three tried to interrogate the creature but the conversation was less than enlightening.  It argued with itself but did manage to review that its purpose is was “predictive analytics”.  Satisfied that the creature was important to the Thayans, Melech struck it down.

Curious about the lighting aperture Diva attempted to reach into it, after using a gift of her new unknown deity to shield herself.  Upon making contact with the aperture diva sees a quick succession of scenes:

*“The Terrified Ship’s Captain sees a tentacle lash out from the storm and wrap around the mast before snapping it like a twig”*

*“The Quiet Hateful Drow listens as his fellows argue over a map of the deep-roads discussing best route to Gauntlgrym”*

*“The Proud Bedine nomad pulls the sword across the throat of the last of the spies.  The great Blue Wyrm nods in approval.”*

The party moved on to the eastern portion of the complex, finding a large chamber dominated by a number of fresh corpses laid atop stone tables.  As the three pushed into the chamber the found a trio of doppelgangers observing a number of portraits mounted on the wall, their features slowly shifting to match the figures in the paintings.  Still looking to disrupt the Thayan’s efforts Melech used a potent spell to torment their minds and disorient the creatures.  After the initial salvo the creatures did not last long against the three’s assault.  Searching through the room the three found their equipment as well as dozens of sets of clothing of all manner of styles, both common and fine, apparently serving as a cache of disguises.

Venturing through another door the clones found a round room with a free-floating arched gate.  It was a circular silver ring suspected by gold-chased supports on either side and was inscribed with a flowing script reminiscent of drops of water.  Placing the pearl found on Octavious into a depression on the ring caused it to spin in place rapidly.  As it spun faster the ring gradually blurred into a silver orb.  The orb drew in the clones and as the passed through they quickly fell hard onto a rough wooden walkway in the middle of a ramshackle shanty town overlooking a set of docks perched in quiet still water.  When they looked toward the sky instead of stars they saw a cavernous ceiling dotted with stalactites arched above.  While rising and gaining their bearing they sensed a presence behind them.  Turning they saw a Beholder wearing a massive eyepatch over its central eye.  It assessed the clones for a moment before snarling “It’s not much of a crew but it’ll do in a pinch”.

## The Shattering

### Through the Black Mirror

The Three emerged from the sewers adjacent to Castle Never to find the city of Neverwinter in chaos.  Blooded people screamed and cried, bells tolled and buildings began to catch fire as a rain of projectiles crashed into the city.  Their source was a massive fortification, a castle of white walls and blue roofs perched atop a grey storm cloud.

Fearing for his mother’s life Melech broke into a full run through the city with his friends following quickly behind.  Navigating through the chaos they arrived at the Moonstone Mask, finding it darkened and abandoned.  Melech rushed upstairs to find his mother Neris, while Diva and Vohrun stayed on the ground floor.  Responding to Diva’s calls one of the staff opens a door behind the bar and ushers the party down a flight of stairs into the wine cellar.  There they find the fearful patrons and staff of the Mask sheltering in the darkness.  Melech locates Neris, who despite a glassy-eyed demeanor and odd mood swings seems unharmed.  Melech encourages her to stay out until after the attack and then flee to Phandalin.

Departing the Mask the three make their way back across the city to locate Diva’s cousin Leanne and her husband Claimdor.  As they make their way back to the northern wards of the city the cloud castle moved towards the northeast over the city, all the while the pace of the bombardment starts to abate.  The three find the two dwarves in their cellar, seemingly largely unfazed by the events around them.  With their families secure and the castle beginning to move away the party begins to discuss their next course of action.  Emerging onto the street they find it empty with the exception of a curious creature, a Homunculus.  The oddity opens it’s mouth and speaks with the voice of Hamun Kost.

Hamun, speaking through his intermediary, informed the party that he had presented their deal to his partners, and they had decided to conduct the bombardment of Neverwinter as a warning of things to come if the Arcane Cypher was not presented to them immediately.  The party offered to fly the cypher up to the floating fortress immediately, pleasing the mage.  Before they departed Diva attempted to enter a reverie to divine from Berronar Truesilver whether their decision was wise.  She received a cryptic message; “It matters not, for you are a rat in a cage, leading another to the cheese”.  The party opted to go ahead with their plan and made haste to Sandyse’s townhouse.  Along the way Diva and Vohrun noticed a bakery, Tort’s Tarts in the neighborhood around the Wounded Warrior tavern.  Each had a distinct memory of that establishment burning down roughly a year ago.  Not sure what to make of this they rushed on to the Harper Safehouse.  Their knock was answered by an unperturbed Sandyse, who froze in place the moment they asked her for the Arcane Cypher.  Immediately suspecting an ambush the three turned and looked for an attacker, finding instead the entire world around them likewise frozen.  Birds hung in the air motionless and there was not a sound in the world except for their breaths.  The silence was broken by a distant conversation, that seemed to emanate from all around them.  The voice the Mind Flayer Nihiloor adopted in it’s telepathic communications informed Hamun that the Arcane Cypher was located in a townhouse within the city.  Hamun indicated that he would leave immediately to collect it, and authorized Nihiloor to flay the minds of the three and render them into thralls in the mind flayer's service.

The process of indoctrination manifested itself in this false reality as an unraveling of the world.  Reality peeled back to their immediate surroundings before beginning to split apart.  Glowing cracks split the ground revealing that the world on which they stood was a thin shell of artifice, perched over a swirling black abyss.  Unknowable far below them lay a swirling maelstrom of black tinged with purple, all twisting and falling into a featureless black orb.  As the cracks continued to spread monstrous Indoctrinators began to pour out from them.  Large amoeboid bodies of grey flesh covered with mouths and eyes dragged their pitiful forms out of the cracks and descended upon the party.  They fought back with blade and spell, Diva summoned Mother and Melech summoned a wall of flame to keep them at bay.  Surrounded and on shrinking ground Melech imbued magical flight upon the party and he and Vohrun soured into the air while Diva stayed behind, battling the creatures.  Dissatisfied with the progress of the indoctrination Nihiloor attempted to draw them into the abyss below.  Diva began to plummet towards the black star and Melech gave chase.  Desperate for a means of escape Diva banished her companions one after the other to a demiplane in Berronar’s domain.  In this featureless cube, adorned solely with the interlocking silver rings of Diva’s faith Melech and Vohrun each found themselves gaunt in thin shifts of fabric with painful throats.  Diva meanwhile, circling towards the void heard the distant sounds of conflict.

Each of the three awoke submerged in open topped vats of viscous fluid, with a think tendril of fibrous material strung down their throats into their lungs.  As they rose from their vessels and removed the tendrils they found themselves in an unfamiliar complex where alien yellow skinned humanoids were slaying others kept in tanks such as theirs.  Wererats and other servitude of the Mind Flayer lay slain around the room as well.  After some attempts to communicate the amused beings who Vohrun identified as Githyanki took the three through the besieged complex to meet the leader of their raiding party.  The Githyanki Knight knew enough common to offer them a deal, their lives in exchange for the head of Nihiloor, who was barricaded in the next room.

### Comeuppances

Readying themselves, The Three burst into Nihiloor’s chamber.  Finding the Mind Flayer and his creation sealed within a wall of force.  The party engaged him in conversation briefly while probing his defenses but ultimately they turned down his offer to leave them be if they turned on their new Githyanki allies.  Early in the fight Melech managed to magically muddle the flayer’s mind long enough to drop the barrier. After some initial success the battle took a turn for the worse when Nihiloor incapacitated Diva and Melech with a blast of psychic energy and the Mindwitness wrapped it’s tentacles around Vohrun.  In the end the three emerged victorious and presented Nihiloor’s bloody corpse to the Githyanki Knight Bal’Dresh.

The Githyanki Knight was amused by the three’s victory and praised them, admonishing the students of his crèche in the process for failing to challenge his decision to allow the three to attempt the kill.  Before they departed the knight indicated that they had received a tip on the location of this mind flayer from their network of spies and information brokers but could not say from where, though he mentioned Baator and the Children of Tiamat as their most prolific sources.  Their work done the Githyanki disappeared though a gateway that the summoned, whisking them back to the astral sea.

The three recovered their equipment from the complex and carried the unconscious woman they had saved back to the surface, finding the city much as they left it, they trudged through the early morning to the Hall of Justice.  There they saw to the woman’s care and inquired after Sildar Hallwinter. They found that they had been gone for over two months rather than two days. Sildar it seems had taken a delegation to the city of Yartar some time ago and was not due back for at least another week, if not longer.

Knowing that Hamun was now aware of the Harper safehouse where Sandyse had the Arcane Cypher the three quickly made their way across town.  As they approached the townhouse they were greeted by the smell of smoke and an assembling crowd of onlookers. The structure had been damaged by fire, the windows were blown out at the door hung off its hinges.  Sandyse struggled out of the door and gestured to a carriage pulled by four large black horses pulling away down the street. Melech took flight and pursued the carriage while Diva and Vohrun tended to Sandyse. She told them that before the attack she had learned that the Cypher is used to decode the ancient runic magic of the giants the Jotenlivild.  Diva and Vohrun raced after Melech a moment later, eventually leaping into a hitched wagon of their own.  Though Hamun’s carriage was faster, Neverwinter was the party’s home, and they used their knowledge of the streets to keep behind the fleeing wizard.  As the chase left the city and flew down a coastal road the wizard reached a dilapidated temple, perched on a bluff overlooking the Sea of Storms raging below.  On the horizon over the water, the party could make out the floating cloud castle

The party arrived just moments after Hamun, and quickly rendered themselves invisible to get the drop on the Thayan.  Interposed between Hamun and the party were a pair of skeletal Dread Warriors that Diva rendered to ash with a gesture. Now aware of the parties presence, a drunk and clearly nervous Hamun began to rant about the history of the temple, clearly hoping to buy time for the cloud castle to arrive.  He described how this temple of Helm was laid low by a Paladin of Torm during the Time of Troubles as retribution for the death of Torm whose death some blamed on Helm who prevented the gods from returning to the heavens. At the end of this rant Hamun revealed the name of the Tormite who razed the temple, Knight Commander Yorrick Farren, who entered the temple, unaware of who Hamun was speaking to.

The party broke their hiding to make a quick series of attacks in an attempt to quickly defeat Hamun.  Much to their surprise Rhenda Thistlehill burst into the melee condemning Yorrick and charging the corrupt knight.  The party succeeded in badly wounding the mage, who offered Melech one last chance at immortality if he turned on his comrades.  Melech seemed to agree, lowering Hamun’s guard and allowing for a quick and brutal execution. His patron lost, Yorrick seemed at a loss for how to proceed until Diva talked him down from fighting to the death.  As the battle drew to a close a dark shadow loomed overhead. The cloud castle hung in the air directly over the temple, and a number of massive blue skinned Cloud Giants began to fly down towards the party.

### Friends in High Places

With a few moments before they were confronted by the Cloud Giants descending from the castle overhead the party departed their next course of action.  Hoping to avoid a direct confrontation they formulated a plan. Melech produced the Switcheroo potion provided to the party by Skeemo Weirdbottle and managed, with some difficulty, to find a hair that Hamun’s ritual shaving had missed.  In Hamun’s form Melech looted the wizards belongings and hit the body. Diva meanwhile found a hidden position while Vohrun and the paladins stood by.

When the giants arrived they reached out for the Arcane Cypher.  Melech tried to pull rank but it quickly became apparent that the haughty giants did not consider him even an equal, much less someone to be cowed by.  Melech passed off a Spell scroll he had on his person as the cypher, the leading giant seemed dubious but agreed to take it to the Countess above and return with his reward if she was satisfied.  He left his junior Hanvi there to watch affairs there until he returned.

Melech began to bicker with the remaining giant.  Their contest of egos eventually enraged the giant that he cast a spell to hurl Melch, still maintaining Hamun’s guise, into the rough sea below.  Melech summoned an icy shield from Cania that protected him from the fall onto the jagged rocks below and quickly found himself bobbing in the crashing surf.

This prompted an melee, with Vohrun torching the giant by enflaming his jewelry before trying to lead him into the tight confines of the smaller rooms of the temple.  Diva meanwhile re-entered the temple in dramatic fashion, jumping through the stained glass window before grabbing shards of glass to hurl at the giant, magically alighting them to distract him.

The paladins of Torm, Rhenda and Yorrick charged the creature, followed by Vohrun.  The trio of them savaged the giants legs while Diva battered it with a spiritual hammer from above.  Melech meanwhile witnessed a massive Frost Giant, clad in Plate armor and wearing the skull of a white dragon free climbing up the side of the cliff.  He attempted to hitch a wide and was pleased when the giant offered to lift him back to the temple above. Melech and this Frost Giant arrived just in time to see friends fell Hanvi.

Diva set to gather the valuables from the slain giant while their new frost giant companion gazed upward, alerting them to a dozen more cloud giants descending from the castle.  He implored them to follow him before charging through the front side of the church. The others followed save Yorrick, who sent Rhenda off with the succinct mantra of their order.

Their flight from the temple was aided by a large Bronze Dragon that broke through the clouds and began to strafe the giants pursuing them with gouts of lightning.  Things took a dire turn when the dragon was harpooned from the castle and dragged into the fortress by heavy chains. Still the wyrm had bought the party enough time and they arrived at their destination, a massive tower, topped with a peaked roof in the shape of a comical wizards hat.  The tower was set on a base of clouds which rested for the moment at the bottom of a small valley. Following the frost giant up a set of massive stairs shaped from solid cloud-stuff they arrived at the double doors that marked the entrance to the tower. They were met by a thin cloud giant with wispy white hair.  The cloud giant bade them enter and flew upwards through the tower through a hole in the ceiling and out of view.

A moment later the tower began to lift into the sky and become shrouded in clouds.  When the tower reached it’s cruising altitude and began to fly to the east the giant descended from above and began introductions.  He introduced himself as Zephyros, a scholar and wizard and the Frost Giant as Harshnag of Waterdeep, a Gray Hand of the Blackstaff.

The party was informed that Zephyros uses his spells to consult with numerous extra-planar entities to extract knowledge or wisdom from them.  Normally they speak cryptically or nonsensically but his most recent divination was unusually clear. He was told he should seek out the Party south of Neverwinter because they were vital to solving “The Shattering”.

Somewhat disappointed that the party didn’t possess more knowledge of events than the pair of giants had already managed to assemble they debriefed the party on the events within giant society over the last several years as they understood it.

The began by informing the party that three years ago on the day that marked the beginning of the Time of Troubles every god was cast down from the heavens to walk the face of Faerun.  Every god except Annam All-Father the creator god of giants, who was never seen during the Troubles.

On that day every Giant felt The Ordening shatter.  The Ordening was the social structure to which all giants adhered, dating back to the ancient empire of Ostoria. It was similar to a class-based society, but was much more specific, assigning a social rank to each individual. Therefore, each individual giant knew which other giants were inferior and superior to himself, and no giants were equal to other giants.

Each type of giant used a different combination of skills or qualities to determine the ordening. Giants believed excelling in these skills to be the purpose of their lives. It was considered an maug (evil) act to show disrespect to a superior giant.  The ordening is intrinsic to Giant-kind, a part of their collective consciousnesses and they sensed it’s disruption immediately.

For a time though the old order persisted despite the loss of the ordening but something happened a few months ago and many tribes of giants have run amok.  Harshnag and Zephyros hypothesized that the Storm Giant King’s court kept order for a time but no longer does, though neither one of them, as outsiders to the upper levels of Giant Society can say for sure.

Following a raid on the temple farm of Goldenfields, the breadbasket of Waterdeep, Harshnag was asked by the Blackstaff of Waterdeep to Investigate.  Himself an outcast from Giant society, Harshnag sought out his friends, Zephyros and the bronze dragon Felegos. Together the three endeavored to find a solution before the north was drowned in blood.

Before diverting they to recover the party they had a plan to venture far to the north to the Spine of the World Mountains to find the Eye of the Allfather, an Ostarian temple that housed an Oracle Spirit that supposedly knew the will of Annam.  The legends Zephyros had researched hinted that an offering pleasing to Annam must be made by petitioners to the Oracle

Harshnag has identified potential offerings: Over a thousand years ago the Human Uthgar led his people into the North from their original home in the Moonshae islands.  As they moved inland they came into conflict with the Giants who ruled the wilds. Uthgar personally slew a number of great giant lords. His followers constructed Spirit Mounds devoted to Uthgar and their Totem Spirits at the locations of these battles, burying the relics of the Giants as tributes to their Totem Spirits.  Harshnag reckoned that recovering these giant relics from the shrines of their killers would avenge the spirit of the slain giant lord and provide a suitable offering to the Oracle. Harshnag prepared a map of the locations of each Mound and the party settled on the nearest one. Morgur’s Mound, the spirit mound of the Thunderbeast tribe of Uthgardt, located three days flight to the northeast.

The party asked why Countess Sansuri, the leader of the cloud giants in the castle they fled from had sought the Arcane Cypher.  Zephyros examined the relic and discerned part of its origin as well as it’s intended use. He told the party that it was a work of “small-folk” such as them but from one who knew a great deal about the Old Magics of the Ostorian Age.  The giants had fallen far from the great magics they worked in the time of their empire. With the departure of Annam at the end of the “1000 Year War” their magical sophistication atrophied. Eventually they could no longer create any of their great works such as the floating tower in which they now stood.  As as result of the passing of millenia the magical relics of Ostoria became rarer and more treasured, to the point where Countess Sansuri’s ownership of the castle of Lyn Armaal, which Zephyros described as an Ostorian summer home, granted her great station in giant society. Zephyros hypothesized that the creator of the Cypher used it to interact with relics of the Old Magic, possibly to a greater degree than modern giants were capable of.  As a test he brought Melech up to the second floor of the Tower where Melech was able to use the cypher to briefly control the tower, something a non-giant should have found impossible. As he did the ink lept from the page, forming a floating arcane prism in the shape of a dodecahedron, while peering through this prism Melech could see the lines of Ley energy pulled from all over the tower through the Control Orb. Zephyros explained that the Old Magics did not tear off a piece of the magical weave and transform it as mortal magics did, but rather pulled many threads of it together magic enchantments that could reach back into the weave for additional power when needed.

Satisfied with the course of action the three began to rest,  Vohrun worked the bard’s craft on his lute while Diva learned more of Harshnag.  Melech meanwhile, endeavored to find more opportunities to test his control of the tower.

### Ghosts of the Past

The party settled into Zephyros’s tower, each keeping busy as the floating structure was underway to Morgur’s Mound.  Vohrun spent the day growing ever more confident on his lute, making significant progress on his first composition with the instrument.  Melech continued his study of the Navigation Orb, aided by the Arcane Cypher, developing some rudimentary understanding of the control’s of the tower.  Diva notified Matriarch Benezia of their intentions and received a cautious warning in response that Giant-kind was no friend of the dwarven people and to be careful with her newfound allies.

That evening the giants took their leave from the party, leaving the party and Rhenda alone on the ground floor.  There they conversed and took the measure of their hosts.  Melech, increasingly confident in his navigational abilities, offered to seize control of the tower if things took a turn for the worse.  The party agreed to stay their hands for the time being and instead try to learn more from the giants, in particular information on their Pantheon that seemed to be interwoven with the shattering of the Ordening.

As the party separated for the night the party continued their search for answers.  Diva conducted a divination ritual to determine what extra-planar being had led Zephyros to them.  Her resulting vision was of a silvered serpentine form, orbited by seven motes of yellow light that frolicked around the silver form.  Frustrated at the cryptic message Diva climbed onto the seat of Zephyros’s chair and had a series of nightcaps before drifting off to sleep.

Melech sought to clarify his understanding of the night that led to the formation of his pact given his memories inconsistency with Horeak’s remembrances.  Without a clear way to communicate with his patron Mephistopheles,he attempted to clear his mind .  This ultimately failed, though he did dream of ice of fire.

Vohrun rooted through the loose belongings of Zephyros, plucking coals from the braziers and larger than life herbs and tubers from his drawer.  A little ashamed of his increasing proficiency in the arcane he found a secluded place to prepare a summoning circle, eventually calling forth a spirit from the ether and binding into the form of a burrowing owl he named Morrigan.  That endeavor completed, he crawled into his bedroll and fell into a fitful sleep.

One of Vohrun’s dreams that night stuck in his mind the following morning, as if seared into his consciousness.  He saw an old man sitting on a smooth stone block.  The man wore simple black robes and was hunched over, reading a book resting across his lap.  As he reads he absentmindedly fiddles with a smoldering pipe, rolling it between his thumb and index finger.  The pipe’s smoke rises and mingles with the smoke of a nearby small campfire sputtering the occasional spark.  Suddenly the man bolts upright and turns around.  Vohrun’s gaze followed the old man’s as he stared into the darkness outside of the small ruined antechamber he had squirreled himself away in.  Beyond the opening the winds whipped the sands, causings tiny cascades down the fronts of the nearby dunes.  When Vohrun returned his gaze to the man he found him lying face down on the sand-dusted stone floor of this familiar opening.  His body lied motionless as the last wisp of smoke rose from the dying ember in the pipe.

The next morning Zephyros returned to the ground floor excited to share a breakfast of massive produce and the results of his overnight research.  He had learned that Morgur’s Mound was the spirit mound of the Thunderbeast tribe of the Uthgardt and the burial barrow of Morgur Gardolfdottir, Beast Breaker, the sister of Uthgar, the once mortal deity of the Uthgardt people.  The mound was constructed on the spot where Uthgar killed Gurt, a legendary frost giant from whom Harshnag is descended.

With the rest of their day the three again set to their own endeavors.  Vohrun practiced once more on his lute while Melech received some basic language instruction from Hashnag, committing only one phrase to memory “Jeg vil ri deg som en ørn” which translates to “I want to ride you like an eagle”.

Diva, meanwhile, requested that Zephyros aid here in deciphering her vision from Berronar.  His research did not turn up anything conclusive but he postulated that off all of the beings it could be representing, one of the Draconic deities might have the most interest in these affairs.  Her research was cut short however when she received a message from the Matriarch through her sending stone.  Benezia informed Diva that her father in Mirabar had passed on and advised her to make her way there to settle affairs.  Diva responded with a clipped message stating that she had to make a stop but would do so.

In the waiting hours of the day Melech returned to his practice with the navigation orb.  Though he had trouble expanding his understanding of the controls he did notice a confluence of ley lines leading into the orb.  He attempted to untie this knot in the weave using the cypher and in the process triggered the tower to release a massive flare of light.  This magical eruption evaporated all cloud cover within several miles, blowing a massive hole in the overcast sky.  It also revealed that Countess Sansuri’s floating fortress Lyn Armaal was still pursuing them.  With Zephyros’s tower still in sight the much larger fortress began speeding towards the party and their companions.  The tower managed to reach the far bank of clouds shortly ahead of Lyn Armaal, allowing Zephyros to give the party and Harshnag each tokens of feather falling.  Zephyros promised to meet the party at the Eye of the Allfather and attempted to draw Lyn Armaal away as the party dove through the banks of clouds, plummeting toward the ground.  As the ground fast approached they each activated their tokens, slowing their descent except for Melech who delighted in the thrill a bit too long, striking a goose and losing his feather in the process.  He managed to grant himself magical flight before striking the side of a hill but still walked away from the experience scratched and filthy.

    The party immediately took cover in a grove of trees, hoping to avoid the eye’s of Lyn Armaal.  They soon made way for Morgur’s mound, but Rhenda fell back.  She told Vohrun that she had a duty to tell Eamon what was afoot and departed the group after making sure that Vohrun still held the token Eamon had hidden on his pack months ago.
Late the next day the party arrived at Morgur’s mound, an elongated barrow in the shape of a massive lizard.  It was surrounded by scattered cairns and was pockmarked with shallow excavations, though there was no trace of those doing the digging.  The part set to delving the secrets of the barrow but their attempts were fraught.

On the third day of hard labor they finally unearthed a massive stone marking the entrance to the hollow within.  In the thousand year old air they found a carved likeness of a fierce barbarian woman, surrounded by spoils of her presumed conquests, including massive horn carved from the tusk of a mammoth that could have only been used by a giant.  The party reasoned that this was the relic of Gurt they came to find and began to take the horn towards the surface.  As they did, the spirit of Morgur Gardolfdottir rose from her resting place and attacked the party.  They drove her back eventually, her increasingly tattered form passed through the ceiling, which quaked and began to collapse.  The party grabbed the horn and shoved a few handfuls of treasure into their pockets before dashing out of the collapsing tunnel.  They found scant comfort on the surface however as Morgur erupted from the top of the mound astride a massive skeletal wyvern.  With aid from Harshnag the party overcame the spirit, driving her back to her long rest without the trophies of her conquests.

## Mirabar

### You Can't Go Home Again

The party departed Morgur’s Mound and made their way towards Mirabar to resupply for the journey ahead and for Diva to pay her respects to her dead father.  With Harshnag at their side they opted to travel overland through the Crags and avoid the Long Road and Xantharl’s Keep. Moving through the crags they found repeated signs of the presence of Crag Cats but Harshnag suggested that they would not be attacked if they stayed near him.  As they approached closer to Mirabar, Vohrun noticed a hydro-thermal deposit that left sizable deposits of precipitated minerals. He hammered off a few choice specimens and packed them away. As the party reached the portion of the crags that had been denuded of trees to feed the forges of Mirabar they separated from Harshnag, who agreed to meet them up the River Mirar from the city, a day or two’s travel from the city.

Entering the impressively fortified city the party made their way straight for Diva’s former family home.  Outside of home Diva was hailed by the heavily accented voice of a Gold Dwarf who introduced herself as Istrid Horn.  She claimed to be a business partner and friend of Diva’s Father. She informed Diva that her father’s holdings had greatly diminished in value but she was willing to purchase them from Diva to make sure her family was provided for.  Istrid Horn then left, telling Diva that she could be found at the Balnorran Hot Springs most evenings if she wished to discuss the matter further.

The party approached the door to Diva’s childhood home, and were answered by Diva’s stepmother Ava Orcbraid and her younger stepsister Dana Orcbraid.  While Dana seemed excited to reunite with her sister Ava quickly sent her to her room and ushered the party into the basement. It was there she revealed a still very-much alive Karnan Orcbraid, Diva’s father.

Karnan gruffly explained that he had taken a sizable loan out from Istrid to fund a new level of his mine.  Before it became profitable Istrid attempted to collect on the debt, invoking a clause that let her buy out the holdings for a fraction of their value if he was unable to pay immediately.  Karnan had no memory of this clause in the contract but when he checked his copy of the document it was there, clear as day. Refusing to turn over his life’s work he faked his death and left his estate to Diva to place them in a legal limbo, hoping to outlast Istrid’s attempts to seize the holdings until they generated enough profits to pay off the debt and fake a resurrection.  This plan was contingent however upon Diva not returning to Mirabar, something the family didn’t think she would ever do.

Diva was irritated that they would drag her into this affair and proposed to skip town before the contract could be enforced.  When she went to depart however no-one could locate Dana. After a few moments the party identified what looked like signs of forced entry and a struggle in Dana’s room.  They concluded that Istrid had abducted her to force the transaction.

Not wanting to tip her hand Diva decided to go along with their original plan of procuring supplies for expedition to the Eye of the Allfather.  Vohrun and Melech hung back, trying to take note if Diva was being followed. In the markets of the dwarven portion of the city buried beneath the hill they saw a pair of dwarves interrupt their conversation upon sighting Diva.  One of the dwarves made directly for Diva approaching her from behind. Melech interposed himself distracting the man with a vague comment, hoping the man would slip out some useful information. Unfortunately all he learned was the man was a baker attempting to flag down Diva, who he recognized as one of the Faenor priests in the hopes of receiving some magical healing for an intimate infection. Vohrun meanwhile charmed the other dwarf and shared a drink with him before stumbling to the ground and scurrying off as the enchant faded.

Without any further leads the party left the city for the Balnorran Hot Springs in the geothermally active hills north of Mirabar.  They arrived and were directed towards the separate sides of the establishment set aside for the sexes. Diva located Istrid in the rear of the springs and found a spot nearby to keep an eye on her.

After a time Istrid began to leave, accompanied by two vicious looking companions when she noticed Diva interposed between her and the exit.  The two shared a tense conversation while Melech and Vohrun positioned themselves to eavesdrop through the divider. Istrid made it clear that she did, in fact, have Dana and that her well-being was in the balance.  Diva grew incensed but was outnumbered and at a disadvantage, a point Istrid made clear by signalling for a massive, black feathered arrow to be shot from a hidden vantage into the water adjacent to Diva.

Eventually Istrid tired of the back and forth and reiterated her demands before rising to leave.  Diva noted Istrid whisper something into the ear of one of her confidants who then hurried ahead. The party quickly reconvened and tracked that associate from a distance, using Morrigan to keep tabs on her.  Through the owl’s eyes they observed her enter a dark Warehouse near the river docks southeast of the city.

The party entered the warehouse after her under the cover of a silence spell provided by Vohrun, avoiding sounding a bell rigged to the door in the process.  They found the warehouse stacked with crates of mining supplies. As they began to work their way through the dark warehouse Vohrun inadvertently triggered a booby-trap, dropping a box containing ceramic jars of a solvent material onto Vohrun’s head, dowsing the dwarf and breaking the silence.

### Chain Reaction

The party continued to creep through the darkened warehouse.  Melech, working his way along the catwalk spotted Dana tied to a chair and Istrid’s henchwoman lurking behind her.  He lept down, jumping from crate to crate, driving his spear into the dwarf.  He attempted to cow her but was struck with an arrow fired from a hidden foe.  Vohrun and Diva charged to aid him while Melech charged his new assailant, a massive Half-Orc named Ziraj sporting an over-sized bow.

The three heard the outside door pull open and a number of footprints echoed through the warehouse as Istrid and several of her gang charged in to reinforce Ziraj.  Vohrun grabbed Dana and stepped through a magical door, depositing the young shocked dwarf outside the warehouse before returning to the fray.  Diva found a hidden position and ambushed Istrid’s goons.  Together with her guardian spirit Mother she laid them low.

Melech meanwhile found himself sporting a number of wounds as Ziraj cut into him again and again.  Melech summoned a wall of fire between him and the half-orc to allow him to pull back. Ziraj pushed through the flame and lined up a killing shot with his bow, causing Melech to retreat within a shield of ice that he summoned from the frozen wastes of Cania.

As Diva dispatched the brigands Istrid showed herself and swept her hand, dispersing Mother.  The Gold dwarf then raised her hammer and split into two identical copies of herself, both of which charged Diva.  Ziraj attempted to charge the exit, magically compelling Vohrun to step aside.  Incensed by this, Vohrun brought a savage blow down on Ziraj, causing him to attempt to flee the altercation altogether.  Diva fended off Istrid’s assault while Melech began to light the warehouse ablaze, trying to catch Istrid in the altercation.  A chain reaction of explosions began as container after container of flammable solvent caught fire and exploded.  The party ran for the door but Ziraj beat them there, holding it shut with his bulk.  The three battered through the warehouse door and Vohrun polymorphed Ziraj into a turtle for later interrogation.

With the whistles of the guard approaching the three ducked through the gathering onlookers and found a sheltered alley to make their plan.  Diva opted to return Dana home while Melech and Vohrun took Ziraj, still a turtle to a sheltered strand of trees outside the city.  Diva walked with Dana who apologized profusely for the incident.  Her memories were muddled but she remembered leaving the Orcbraid home on her own, staging the kidnapping on her way out.  She recalled meeting Istrid before but couldn’t remember when.  Diva assured her that her mind had been altered by magic but Dana fretted that her anger at her father made her susceptible to the manipulation.  Diva returned Dana to Karnan and Ava but made it clear she was irate at the situation and had no intention of staying to patch things up.  With that she departed back into the night to find her companions.

Melech and Vohrun meanwhile, had concocted a scheme to torment Ziraj, with Vohrun taking flight performing what acrobatics he could muster with the turtle in tow until the spell ended and Ziraj was unceremoniously dropped to the ground and pinned in place with the immovable rod. The pair questions Ziraj who was irritated at his defeat but generally unwilling to debase himself for their amusement.  They learned little, save that he was a friend of Istrid’s and they had a mutually beneficial relationship.  When Melech questioned Ziraj about his Armor, that seemed to slowly shift color and texture to match his environment they learned that he was a follower of Malar, God of the hunt, bestial savagery and bloodlust and that his armor was “earned”.  Still when the pair made it clear that his surrender of the armor was a condition of his release, he removed it, cautioning them that they may not be worthy of donning it.

Upon Diva’s return the three attempted to get some rest but each of them found their sleep disturbed by vivid dreams of being chased through a dead wood by unseen beasts to the edge of a cliff.  When they awoke they were tired, sore and exhausted, having failed to gain any true rest.  A long walk through the western portions of the utterly unsettled grassy and picturesque Valley of Khedrun led them to another evening of haunted dreams and an ever-present feeling of being watched.  They wondered if Ziraj’s warning about the armor had something to do with the situation but Diva determined that it was unlikely, though not impossible.

Answers came when they reached Harshnag the following day and found him arguing with an old bearded man who introduced himself as Breolix, a shaman.  He scolded the party for their desecration of Uthgardt sacred lands, informing them that his divinations had alerted him to their trespasses and that the totem spirits of the Uthgardt would hound them until they expired or made amends.  He offered several ways they might accomplish this, by returning the horn to Morgur’s Mound, by seeking the wisdom of the Great Worm spirit at the Great Worm Cavern at the far end of the valley, or by the most dangerous approach, attempting to summon the spirits into the material world to defeat and dominate them.  The party deliberated and settled upon the quickest but most dangerous route, they would summon the spirits that evening, and if they survived, be rid of the curse.

## Spine of the World

### Uthgardt Exorcism

Breolix left the group for a time to prepare for the ritual.  Vohrun played his lute while discussing with Melech the finer points of dwarven wedding traditions while Diva attempted to purge the curse from herself.  She attempted to use her divine gifts to end the effects of the haunting on herself before attempting once more to rest.  In her sleep she found she was more lucid and aware of her surroundings to a point.  She tried to draw the spirits that pursued the party into view and three of them answered her challenge.  A massive black panther slunk from the shadows of her dream drawing her focus while a tree behind her came to life and wrapped it’s gnarled branches around her.  She tried to struggle but an unseen third beast charged from the side and closed it’s mouth around her.  As she fell into the darkness of it’s gullet she passed row after row of fangs tearing at her until she awoke with a start.

After a time Breolix returned with a goat in tow, and began to lead the party to the site of the ritual, explaining a few details of the ritual to the party.  He would conduct the ritual, summoning the offended totem spirits into physical form.  He predicted that they would take offense at this and attempt to kill him as well as the party.  He insisted that if they wanted to survive the ordeal they would need to protect him during the ritual.

The group arrived at a ruined stone circle with an irregular altar in the middle on the banks of the River Mirar.  Breolix arranged eleven carved totems around the perimeter of the circle then raised the goat onto the center of the altar.  He then sliced the goat open, pulling it’s entrails from it’s still bleating body and arranged the viscera in a circle around him.  He began to wipe the blood in claw-like markings over his body, lowering his robe to paint his gaunt torso as well.  As he did he began a chant in a language the party did not know but recognized from their encounter with Morgur.  Four shapes formed at the edge of the circle around the scattered tokens, a massive elk, a griffon, an armored lizard, and the black panther from Diva’s latest dream.  Vohrun turned himself into a massive ape, rivaling Harshnag in size while Diva enveloped her weapon in holy fire.  The party moved to intercept the beasts but Breolix, still in some kind of a trance on the altar, was left open to a charge from the Elk.  Diva yanked the old man down off the altar to safety.  As he passed through the circle he roused to his senses, cursing Diva, exclaiming that with the ritual broken he could no longer hold “them” back.  At that moment the seven remaining Uthgardt Totem Spirits appeared, the Black Raven, Blue Bear, Great Worm, Grey Wolf, Red Tiger, Sky Pony, and Tree Ghost.  Suddenly outnumbered the party braced for a charge while Breolix cowered beside the altar stone.  Vohrun, separated from the rest of the party, was surrounded by a trio of beasts, ripping and biting at his massive ape form.  Diva, Melech and Harshnag took on the remaining foes.  They were initially overwhelmed until Melech created a wall of flame to guard their flank.  One by one, the party, suffering grievous wound after grievous wound, beat back the horde.  Breolix was nearly slain but Diva summoned waves of divine energy that healed the group's injuries.  As each foe was felled the spirit would coalesce back into the totems that Breolix had placed around the circle.  In the mad melee he dove from the relative safety of the group’s position for the totem of the Tree Ghost after Harshnag split that spirit in twain.  Vohrun was eventually forced to abandon his ape form and fell back to the others where in a tight circle they made their stand, felling all of the remaining spirits.

After catching their breaths for a moment the Diva questioned Breolix about his desire for the Tree Ghost totem under magical compulsion.  He told the party that a portion of the defeated spirit’s power was now bound into the totems.  He revealed that he was once the shaman of the Tree Ghost tribe of Uthgardt until he was cast out for attempting to usurp the power of the chieftain.  He intended to return with the captured spirit of their totem guardian to inspire his clan to follow him.  Diva felt that he was planning on misrepresenting their victory as his own and asked Harshnag to seize the shaman.  With Breolix restrained she placed a geas on him, binding him not to misrepresent the events of this day to his clansmen.  Satisfied, the three split up the remaining totems and departed the ritual circle for their first real sleep in several days.

Refreshed, they awoke the next morning and made their way further up the valley, looking for the pass that would lead them into the Spine of the World towards the Eye of the Allfather.  After two days they located the tributary that they had to follow up the valley.  Near the edge of the river they encountered an incredibly relaxed hermit named Tamubah who was spending his time feeding seven small yellow birds by the riverside.  The old man stated that he enjoyed the solitude, and had been in the area for some time after a long life of travels.  He provided some basic description of the road ahead and gave a warning that if they ventured into the mountains that the party would need to depend on each other to survive up there.  Melech confided that the Eye of the Allfather was their destination and Tamubah shared an old rhyme about the place he picked up from an old friend:

* *Annam’s wisdom lies within;*
* *Pass the Mist to take it in;*
* *But only in the arms of kin;*
* *And only by the arms of kin;*

The party left Tamubah behind and made their way up into the frigid pass arriving at the foot of a massive valley filling glacier.  The three made their way into the treacherous ice field led first by Diva who attempted to let Berronar take the wheel and tried to divine the correct path.  This approach did not pan up but the group stayed cohesive, with Vohrun encouraging the party along while Melech warmed them with arcane fire and Diva tended to their battered bodies.

Vohrun thought he recognized a rock structure from a story and led the party that way, leading them far out of the way.  As it happened he was mistaken and the effort to take the detour left Vohrun exhausted.  Sensing the group was growing frustrated Melech attempted to urge them along by telling them they were nearly there, repeatedly.  Hashnag grew tired of his nonsense and gave him what was intended to be a gentle pat but sent Melech slipping down an icy slope toward a cavernous crevasses.  Melech managed to arrest his fall shortly before disappearing into the abyss and took flight to return to the group.  While she waited for Melech to get back to their positions the blowing snow cleared long enough for Diva to spot a clear way to the top of the glacier.  At the top of the glacier the valley narrowed to a narrow pass through the first ridge of mountains the rest of the Spine of the World beyond.

### Eye of the All-Father

Standing at the top of the glacier they crossed the party forged ahead through the narrow pass.  They followed a set of goat tracks up the pass until they came to an abrupt end in an area of churned snow that was red with frozen blood and viscera.  Harshnag lifted Vohrun up into the air so that he could see the simple message splayed out in the snow.  Spelled out in the common tongue with blood and offal were the words “No Further”.  The party investigated the pass but could find no hidden enemies.  They pressed forward, with Melech announcing his intention as he crossed the bloody warning.

As they did a pair of Giant Gargoyles rose up from the snowbanks bordering the pass, casting it off as the dove towards the party.  These creatures each sported four arms and a draconic maw with which they unleashed a torrent of attacks on the party.  One of the creatures grabbed Melech and carried him into the air in its clutches.  Melech quickly used the Fly spell to put the creature off it’s balance and into the reach of Harshnag.  Diva and Vohrun meanwhile weathered an onslaught of attacks from the other creature, interposing shields between themselves and a flurry of claws swiping at them.  Melech and Harshnag finished off the gargoyle they had been entangled with and found, much to Harshnag’s discomfort that they exploded into a shower of rocks upon their death.  They gave warning to Diva and Vohrun who were one the verge of defeating their own adversary.  As Diva struck the final blow Vohrun grabbed her and they stepped through a dimension door to safety as the creature erupted in its death throes.

Following the battle the party pushed on over the peak of the range, following the pass down the northern windward side of the mountain.  As the sky grew dark the wind increased and the temperature plummeted.  The three searched for shelter but could only find a narrow gap in the rock wall to shelter from the wind.  Harshnag provided what additional cover he could from the wind and the party settled in for the night.  They awoke cold and fatigued, with multiple extremities on the verge of frostbite.

As they were breaking camp Diva received a message from Matriarch Benezia informing her that King Bruenor of Gauntlgrym was open to an audience with the Faenor about the resettling of Khundrukar.   Diva declined to respond and the party descended further down the pass.

By mid-afternoon they reached the base of the pass where the ground dropped off into a steep sided gorge which dropped hundreds of feet into unseen mists.  A natural stone causeway crossed the gorge, meeting the far side of the sheer cliffs at a domed entrance into the side of the mountain flanked by ornate columns.  Harshnag confirmed what they already knew, that this was the Eye of the All-Father, and worryingly Zephyros was nowhere to be seen.

As they crossed the pathway they noted the tracks of a number of humanoids as well as a larger mark drug through the snow.  Arriving at the entrance they could see the flicker of torchlight down the massive hall ahead.  Melech slipped within, finding a group of Uthgardt barbarians massed at the base of a giant-sized staircase.

He slunk back to the others and they discussed their options.  They opted to try and evict the Uthgardt and made a show of force, augmenting their approach with displays of magic, and Harshnag’s imposing frame, to try and intimidate the barbarians.  They responded with their own show of force, as their leader Wormblod made himself known arriving on the back of a massive Remorhaz.  The Uthgardt shaman accompanying the warriors provided a translation of the chief's edicts, they had come to seize the riches of the temple claiming that the chaos the giants were bringing to the world required punishment.  The Three presumed that this was a flimsy excuse to enrich the chieftain and Melech briefly flirted with the idea of challenging him to single combat.  They opted against it and soon came to blows with the Barbarians.  Harshnag stood as a bulwark against most of the barbarians while the party focused their efforts on Wormblod.  Vohrun polymorphed the Remorhaz the chieftain rode upon dropping him down to an elevated platform above the party.  Diva molded the stone beneath his feet into a slide, dropping the disoriented chieftain to the ground where Melech pinned him using the Immovable Rod.  Vohrun descended on the incapacitated cheiftan and slew him on the ground.  The remaining barbarians that had survived Harshnag’s attacks quickly surrendered, offering up their weapons to the party before fleeing.  When the Remorhaz reappeared the party drove it away down the hallway toward the exit.

With the Uthgardt defeated they climbed the massive giant-sized staircase to a pair of forty foot tall doors.  Harshnag put his shoulder into the door, cracking through centuries of accumulated frost opening the way to the central hall of the temple.  Therein the party found a room of immense scope.  It was dominated by an eighty foot tall statue of Annam All-Father, the primarch of the giant pantheon with six other statues of the individual giant gods offering gifts of arms to him.  At the far side of the room laid a mist-filled archway inscribed with a number of runes.  Using Harshnag’s knowledge of the Ise rune and the Arcane Cypher paired with the rhyme they had learned from Tamubah, Melech was able to figure out the way forward.  He instructed Harshnag to take the greataxe from the frost giant god Thrym’s statue and touch it to the frost rune.  Doing so opened a tunnel deep into the mountain, the walls of which were made of a roiling thunderstorm.  After what seemed like an eternity they arrived in a hexagonal room with six smaller statues of giants each holding lanterns surrounding the corpse of a large giant, coated in frost splayed out on the floor.

### Challenging Fates

The party examined the frozen giant corpse they found splayed out on the floor.  They determined he was an elderly Storm Giant who bore jewelry with the mark of Venn, the giant rune for peace.  Harshnag rolled the body onto it’s back revealing a wooden gavel bearing the same rune.  When Vohrun hoisted it up he quickly felt it growing lighter.  Looking up he saw a massive spectral hand curling around the gavel, lifting it, and Vohrun, into the air.  Vohrun released the gavel as the rest of a ghostly giant materialized, rising from the frozen corpse.  It called out to the party in the giant tongue but was met with no understanding by the party.  The ghost drifted across the floor and passed into Harshnag, settling into his body.  The ghost, now possessing Harshnag’s body greeted the party with their companion’s voice.

He told the party that he was Eigeron, the last of the Oracles who made this temple their home.  He revealed that he knew this day would come and took steps to ensure that his spirit would persist to pass along his final prophecy.  The ancient giant spirit told the party the tale that led to the shattering of The Ordening.  At the peak of the Ostorian empire the first dragons began to spread throughout the world.  A genocidal war developed between the Giants and the Dragons ensued that lasted for a thousand years.  It came to an end when the giant creator deity Annam All-Father joined forces with Bahamut, the Platinum dragon god to defeat Tiamat, the goddess of the darkness within dragons.  Tiamat could not be defeated outright and threatened to turn her full ire against Annam’s creations.  To protect his offspring Annam wove a mighty spell, binding Tiamat into the Nine Hells.  This spell however bore a heavy cost, to maintain it Annam had to sacrifice his own access to the physical world.  The war thus ended in a stalemate, with both sides depleted, opening the door to the emergence of the first kingdoms of Elves, Dwarves and Men.  The kingdom of giants faded into history as Annam held Tiamat at bay, at the cost of being unable to aid his offspring.

That was the way of things until the Time of Troubles several years ago.  At that time all of the gods were cast down from the heavens to walk the world.  Annam knew that were he to return it would unleash Tiamat once more.  To prevent this he settled upon a desperate gambit as his spirit hurtled towards the world.  He broke his divine essence into countless fragments.  These divine sparks were spread to every living giant, imbuing them with a tiny fraction of Annam’s divine power.  He planned to reassemble himself as the passing of the generation of giants freed his essence to return to Jotunheim.  This divestment had the unexpected effect of destroying the ordening.  Since Annam sat atop of the ordening, the divine sparks within them made all giants equals in their eyes, though they did not know the reason for this epiphany.  Though they do not understand why this happened they have acquired the intrinsic feeling that now that any among them could rise to lead the race.  They took this as a challenge from Annam to prove themselves worthy of leading the giant race into the future.  Lords of each race of Giants developed plans to prove their worth and seize primacy among giants.  This threatened to produce anarchy but the court of King Hekaton, greatest of the Storm Giants still managed to exert his will to cow the other Giant lords into submission...until he disappeared last year.  Without Hekaton to bring the other Giant lords to heel many of the Giant lords abandoned the Storm Giant court, striking out to prove themselves.  This has led to the attacks and chaos the party has seen across the North.

The oracle offered a path forward, Serissa, the daughter of King Hekaton now sits upon his throne.  She holds the key to finding him, although she does not know it.  To reach her however the party must acquire the Conch’s Hekaton gave to each of the Giant Lords to summon them to his court.  There are five such Conch’s within the north, each held by a leader of the Hill Giants, Stone Giants, Frost Giants, Fire Giants and Cloud Giants.  The Oracle revealed the names, ambitions and locations of each of these lords;

* The Hill Giant Chief Guh - Who strives to grow to be the largest giant in history, can be found by traveling south over tree, hill, and vale. Let the great river be your guide. There, on one of its eastern arms, you’ll find Grudd Haug, the den of the hill giant chief. The conch is very close to her.
* The Stone Giant Thane Kayalithica - Who seeks to raise an army of her ancestors to revert the surface world to its state before the emergence of the small-folk, can be found by traveling southeast, o’er lands high and low. Cross the great forest to the gray peaks, and search for Deadstone Cleft, canyon of the stone giant thane. A conch is in her possession.
* The Frost Giant Jarl Storvald - Who seeks to bring about an Age of Everlasting Ice, can be found by traveling west, o’er mountains, to the Sea of Moving Ice. There, among the glaciers, you’ll find Svardborg,the berg of the frost giant jarl. His conch rests on his icy throne.
* The Fire Giant Duke Zalto - Who seeks to rebuild the Vonindod, the greatest construct of the 1000 year war, can be found by traveling east, o’er mountains and snow, to distant spires. There, on a cold mountainside, you’ll find a strange village and below that, Ironslag, the forge of the fire giant duke. The conch he holds is within his quarters.
* The Cloud Giant Countess Sansuri - Who seeks the Lost Holdfast of Ostoria and the ancient magical weapon sealed within, can be found by traveling southeast to the untamed moors, and look to the sky for Lyn Armaal, the castle of the cloud giant countess. Her conch is secreted away within a hidden chest in the highest spire.

Before he departed the Oracle offered two more grim portents.  The souls of the giants slain recently, and the spark’s of Annam’s divine essence contained therein were not reaching their rest in the Annam’s realm of Jotenheim.  He also told the party that he saw no future for Harshnag beyond this day and presumed his fate was sealed.  As the party prepared to depart the Oracle gifted his gavel to them, shrinking it down to their size before handing it to Vohrun.  The spirit then released Harshnag and drifted back to his rest, leaving no memory in Harshnag of what had transpired.

They ventured back through the tunnel cloaked in storms, eventually and suddenly arriving back in the hall of the gods.  As they discussed their next move they heard amused laughter coming from the statue of Annam.  Curled around the shoulders of the statue was a massive ancient Blue Dragon.  The dragon professed amusement at Harshnag’s presence and dismissed the party entirely.  After a moment the dragon made it’s intentions clear, it came to this place to eliminate them utterly.  The wyrm ripped off the head of the statue of Annam and cast the stone like a boulder at the assembled party.  Harshnag offered to distract the dragon to buy the party time to escape.  Vohrun grabbed Diva and pulled the two of them through a dimension door to the entry hall of the temple where they fled for the exterior of the mountain.  Melech was unwilling to let Harshnag meet his ordained fate unchallenged so he polymorphed the massive giant into a pocket, grabbed him and ran for the statues of the other giant gods seeking cover.  The dragon gave pursuit toppling the statue of the Frost Giant god Thrym with a massively destructive bolt of lightning that left Melech clinging to Harshnag, and life.  The desecration of the temple wrought by the dragon triggered the onset of a collapse of the temple ceiling.  Melech sheltered from the falling debris under the fallen statue of Thrym clutching Harshnag close.

Diva and Vohrun meanwhile made it to the exterior of the temple, only to find the causeway blocked by a number of gargoyles.  They threw themselves into the fray only to be faced with further gargoyle reinforcements.  Relief came shortly however as a ballista bolt soared through the air striking one of the gargoyles.  The source of the bolt proved to be an odd airborne ship suspended from a large red balloon.  At the prow of the ship operating the ballista were the Paladins of Torm, Eamon Targ and Rhenda Thistlehill.

The dragon, yielding to the collapsing ceiling disappeared into thin air with an incantation, though not before hurling debris against the exit, trapping Melech and Harshnag inside.  Melech took a swig of Skeemo’s Miraculous Concoction for Luck and dashed for the bars of a portcullis blocking another exit.  Near the bars he was overtaken by the falling debris, breaking his spell on Harshnag, reverting the giant to his full size.  Before Melech blacked out the frigid winds of Cania cocooned him in a sheath of protective ice.  Being crushed by more and more stones falling from the ceiling Harshnag used his last moment before collapsing to push Melech, in his frozen envelope through the bars to safety.  As the ice melted away Skeemo’s concoction took hold and Melech’s feelings for the giant deepened significantly.  He reached his arm through the bars, pelted by showers of stone and debris to find the giant's hand and used the last of his art to Thunderstep the pair of them to safety.

The party reconvened at the edge of the causeway after Diva and Vohrun laid waste to the last of the gargoyles.  The party including a wary Harshnag clambered onto the airship as the pilot Albert Thistlehill pulled it away from the collapsing temple.  Safely aboard the ship they caught up and plotted their next move, deciding on a destination, Svardborg, the berg of the Frost Giants and Harshnag’s former home.

## Luskan

### City of Sails

With their route decided the party and their companions settled into the airship for the several days journey to Luskan.  Harshnag made himself as comfortable on the deck as he could while Eamon jettisoned some of the less necessary furnishings to lighten the load on the overweight ship.

That evening, Albert locked in a heading and turned the controls over to Eamon and Vohrun who passed the time catching up and musing on what things might have been done differently.  Melech collapsed his bruised and battered body into a cot while Diva began her evening prayers.  Her devotions were interrupted when she began to notice a deposit of gritty sand appearing outside of her window.  She came back onto the deck to peer down over the edge seeing nothing there.  The hairs on the back side of her neck stood up and she just managed to step out of the way of the attack of an unseen assailant.  Another invisible foe soon engaged Vohrun as well.

Diva, Vohrun, Eamon and eventually Melech fought off the unseen assailants, who seemed to be incorporeal manifestations of the wind itself.  The creatures remained focused solely on eliminating Diva and Vohrun, taking little effort to fend off other assailants.  When slain they left no corpses, only a fight dusting of sand that seemed to be caught up in their airy forms.

The next several days passed relatively quietly.  The second evening Vohrun dreams one more of the old man from his prior dream.  In this dream he saw the old man striding confidently into the workshop deep within Wave Echo Cave where the party had encountered the Elder Oblex, and ended with him magically sealing the creature within that place.

Piqued with curiosity, Diva sought guidance from Berronar about the nature of the Arcane Cypher and of the man from Vohrun’s dreams.  She learned that the Cypher was created by that very man, described in her divinations as being Uther, a mage of the ancient city of Netheril and the first of the Phandelver Pact.  Armed with this knowledge but unsure what to make of it the party continued on their mission, setting the Peregrine down a few miles outside of Luskan.

The party ventured into the city and chatted up a few of the locals, learning the lay of the land. Vohrun and Diva made their way to a port-side tavern, the Cutlass where Vohrun’s songs won the favor of a number of the rough and tumble clientele, earning him lodging, drinks, coin and a gambling chip from the “Golden Goose” a gambling hall on a barge in the river that makes nightly trips upriver.

Melech meanwhile found the location of Esoteric Oddities, a featureless squat shop with no windows, decorations or apparently stock of any kind set in the middle of the shunned ruins of the ancient city of Illusk, on the bones of which Luskan was built.  The proprietress Jessamine seemed confident that her wide, though unseen selection could suit Melech’s particular tastes.

One he rejoined the others at the Cutlass the party inquired whether the city had been spared the assaults of the giants.  An amused patron of the cutlass instructed them to walk to the bridge across the river and look down at the “tooth”.  Their curiosity peaked, they did just so, finding a frost giant longship smashed upon a jagged rock in the river they took to the tooth.  A passerby informed them that when the giants attempted to raid the city the mages of the Arcane Brotherhood launched a magical onslaught from the Host Tower of the Arcane, the foreboding many-turreted structure reaching up from an island in the river like a dead gnarled tree.

While taking in the sight of smoldering wreckage the party noticed a white egg-shaped object bobbing, mostly submerged in the water, hung up on some drooping branches from a nearby shoreline.  The three scrambled down to the object and chased off a pack of gulls that had been tearing at it’s odd organic structure.  Within the liquid filled object they found an unconscious naked young man, with translucent, mucus-coated skin.  They roused the man who vomited water from lungs before stammering out his name, Artan Rossolio, a trader from Mirabar.  His memory of events leading to his current state of affairs he remembered getting ready to go out on the town, and a ravishing woman in a purple dress.  The party concluded that he was likely on the Golden Goose, the floating casino Vohrun had learned about earlier.  They resolved to look into the matter and began to prepare for a night out.

### The Golden Goose

The party inquired with the patrons of the Cutlass about the Golden Goose, learning that it was an establishment solely for people of wealth and weapons were prohibited on the premises.  The party’s inquires and flaunting of their own riches began to draw eyes and an offer of protection from an older pirate.  They declined and hustled out of the establishment before what seemed like an inevitable mugging.

Making their way through the market they arranged for a delivery of supplies to the Peregrine and purchased fine clothes in the northman style.  Once properly attired they staked out the Golden Goose, watching the staff prepare for the night’s journey.  Not detecting anything untoward the party stowed their arms in Diva’s Bag of Holding and boarded the ship to try their luck.  After buying a number of chips the party split up and looked around the gambling floor.  Melech settled down for several hands of “Yolanda’s Bounty” against a particularly lucky halfling named Pruda Brightbough.  She consistently got the better of him and he walked away a good deal poorer.  Vohrun had better luck at a simple sailors game called “Portholes”.  He matched off against a massive northman named Braggin Mastsplitter, a jolly pirate of significant wealth.  While Vohrun won a number of hands Braggin shared a number of his tales, some of which seemed far-fetched.  His claims included having taken a ship by slicing the mast down in one heft of an ax, witnessing a massive whale with writhing tentacles and having seen a ship crewed entirely by metal men moving in unison.

Diva meanwhile busied herself at the open bar, bringing drinks and good luck to her companions.  From her perch at the bow of the ship she noticed a woman in a flowing purple dress matching the description Artan had provided, board the ship moments before it pulled away from the dock.  Diva crossed the gabling floor and observed the woman handily win a game of Sava against an older gentleman, with whom she seemed well acquainted.  After the older man conceded and stepped away from the table Diva sat down to a game with the woman, learning her name Atalia.  Atalia proved capable at Sava and Diva was beaten.  Diva left the table and signaled to her companions who converged one by one on Atalia’s Sava table.  There Melech sat down for a game, fronted by Vohrun’s winnings.  After playing coy for a moment he decided to pull back the curtain, revealing that they learned of her from Artan and the circumstances of his rescue.  While she gave no outward confirmation of their suspicions her voice manifested within Melech’s mind, instructing him that it wasn’t safe to speak on Goose and if they wanted more information they should follow her once the ship docked.  With that she departed from the table and spent the rest of the cruise trying to avoid direct contact with the party while making her way around the vessel.

At the docks the party settled up with the house and followed Atalia at a distance to a darkened alley.  There she told them that she had been pressed into performing the abductions by a sorcerer named Oosilith.  He had her use her talents to abduct specific persons, typically traders or officials from Mirabar and deliver them to “fishpeople” that served him in the sewers below Luskan.  She implored them to either leave town or kill him, anything else was likely to bring his wrath down upon her.  The party obliged and ventured into the sewers at a grate she led them to.  They ventured into the underground, finding a pit of fetid water where one of the Merrow that served Oosilith observed them passively.  After it spotted them Oosilith made mental contact with the group, directing them further into his lair so that they might chat.  He even provided them with instructions to bypass a trap he laid over the entrance.  Descending a ladder they found a mostly water-filled chamber with two more of the Merrow standing by.  Oosilith’s “office”, a small structure built into the chamber turned out to be unoccupied.

Oosilith continued to communicate telepathically, noting that typically he would manifest a human form for guests to interact with but it seemed unnecessary given his current company.  The party asked the unseen Oosilith if, thanks to his aquatic servants, he had any information on Svardborg.  He indicated this was possible but demanded to know what services the party could provide to aid his cause.  He explained that he was attempting to gradually undermine the trade relations between Miribar and Luskan by abducting traders and officials from Miribar within Luskan.  The party responded by telling their host that Diva was the owner of a mining operation in Miribar... which was exactly the type of person Oosilith had been abducting.  Oosilith attempted to mentally dominate Diva but underestimated the stubbornness of the intoxicated dwarf.  The Merrow turned cranks opening gates that poured water into the room.  Vohrun and Diva engaged them while Melech began opening other valves to drain water.  Oosilith made himself known at this time, revealing his form from below the waterline.  He was an Aboleth, a massive rubbery fish, somewhat resembling a sturgeon with three red eyes arranged in a vertical line and lashing tentacles.  He was able to break Vohrun to his will, forcing the dwarf to assault Melech. Eventually Melech was able to snap Vohrun out of his trance with a few solid blows with a wooden dowel.  The party eliminated the merrow and focused their assault on Oosilith, wounding him badly and forcing him to withdraw through the drains Melech had opened.  The party was victorious but continued to suffer from afflictions brought on by the aboleth’s attacks until Diva and Vohrun purged the disease from them.  With that affair settled the gathered the possessions of Oosilith’s victims and prepared to return to the surface.

## The Sea of Moving Ice

### Mission Possible

The party climbed out of the sewers, finding Atalia had disappeared into the night.  Diva utilized a divine spell to locate her, finding she had made her way to the southeastern side of the city and was still progressing in that direction.  Opting to let her go for the time being the party decided their planned trek to Svardborg precluded them from investigating further.  They made their way to a bridge with a clear view of the Host-tower of the Arcane and penned a letter to the members of the cabal of wizards that dwelt there with the hope that they would prevent further harm from coming to the city.  The letter included details on Oosilith, Artan, Atalia and the possible relationship between the kidnappers and the Golden Goose.

With that affair settled, the party found a room at an inn and hunkered in for the night, doing their best to sleep off the trauma of the evening.  Late the next morning they located their porter Herschel and instructed him to drive the supplies they had purchased to the hidden location of the Peregrine.  There they found Harshnag, who was enjoying his time free from the ship and the rest of the crew.  Herschel helped unload the supplies and then promptly made himself scarce as the ship prepared to take off.

Diva and Vohrun experimented with rigging the smoke powder she had acquired into an improvised explosive bolt, with limited success.  Once in the air the party conferred with Harshnag, learning what they could of Svardborg.  He informed them the best he could but his last visit to that place was a century in the past so there were significant holes in his knowledge.  A few days later The Peregrine left the relative safety of the land and set out over the Sea of Moving Ice, a sea choked with churning icebergs that periodically collided and ground against each other.  Patrolling the sea looking for the Berg of the Frost Giant Jarl Diva spotted the remains of a giant hunting excursion, signalling they were close.

Eventually they found Svardborg, a massive conical iceberg with a number of massive wooden lodges protruding out from the walls of ice.  Not seeing any exterior defenses the party landed next to the largest structure and quietly approached to the door.  Noticing an open balcony on the second story the party requested that Harshnag hurl Vohrun to the second floor.  Vohrun managed to stick the landing but found he was now alone at the edge of the Jarl’s throne room which was occupied by two frost giants and their pet winter wolves.  Vohrun rendered himself invisible and scrambled onto the throne unseen, though his scent did perk up a nearby wolf.  In the corner of the seat he located the Conch of Teleportation.  At that moment the door on the far side of the room cracked open and Davil Starsong and his bodyguard Yagra entered the room and demanded that the giants provide him with an update on the Jarl.  With his spell about to fade Vohrun summoned a dimension door to step back to his friends.  Though the giants didn’t seem to notice Davil’s head turned at that moment, making brief eye contact with Vohrun as he stepped through the door.

Their mission accomplished quickly and bloodlessly the party signaled the Peregrine to return for a pickup.  As the ship descended Davil and Yagra emerged from the lodge and approached the party.  After some cordial pleasantries between Vohrun and Davil the two parties began to interrogate each other on their respective reasons to be in this odd place at the edge of the world.  Unsure if Davil would interfere with their escape, Vohrun used his Doss Lute to muddle the minds of the elf and half-orc.  The situation was de-escalated when Melech used a magical compulsion to invite Davil onto the Peregrine for further questioning.  With Davil leaving with the party Yagra summoned her own transportation, coming in the form of three manticores, one of which was ridden by “LD” who gave the party a look that could kill before departing with Yagra.  As the Peregrine pulled away from the Berg a horn sounded alerting the giants in the lodges to the parties presence.  The giants emerged from the Lodges and hurled boulders at the escaping ship damaging the hull and balloon.  Melech and Vohrun did their best to shoot the oncoming projectiles out of the sky, allowing the ship to pull out of range, damaged but in one piece.

Safely underway the party resumed their earlier conversation with Davil, having now learned that he was a member of the Zhentarim. He told them that he had been working with Storvald, supplying them with blood from a member of Artus Cimber’s bloodline that the giants had used to create the blodstone the giants intended to use to track Cimber to recover the Ring of Winter.  Davil revealed that the Jarl and his warriors had used the blodstone to track a member of the Cimber bloodline they presumed to be Artus from Brynn Shander, to Port Llast and now to Neverwinter.  Davil had offered to use the blodstone to find and capture Artus in Neverwinter but the Jarl rightfully assumed the Zhentarim would steal the Ring of Winter for themselves.  Instead the Jarl embarked to attack Neverwinter himself to capture Artus.  Davil had continued to advise the Jarl on a stratagem for an effective attack on the city, claiming to the party that he did so primarily to minimize the damage to be wrought by the giants.  Both Davil and Storvald were unaware that the person they had been tracking was actually Artus’s bastard son Sirac, who the party had saved from Drufi in Port Llast and had been escorted to find sanctuary in the House of the True, the Temple of Torm within Neverwinter.  No longer standing to gain anything from the Jarl’s attack Davil through his support behind the parties efforts to stop the attack.  The party turned the Peregrine towards the city and made haste to intercept Storvald before his attack fell upon Neverwinter.

### Peacemaking

Once underway, Albert brought the damaged condition of the Peregrine to the attention of the party.  They opted for a potentially risky maneuver of repairing the ship while underway.  Diva and Vohrun patched a puncture in the lower hold while Melech attempted unsuccessfully to climb the rigging to repair a tear in the balloon.  Harshnag gave Melech a lift but the easier access did not improve matters and Melech accidentally tore the balloon open wider causing the ship to list and begin to lose altitude.  Diva attempted to vault up to aid him but misjudged the leap and ended up falling over the railing.  Vohrun, still hanging from ropes over the edge of the ship attempted to catch her but instead was torn from his harness sending both dwarves hurtling towards the cold sea below.  Melech dove from the rigging and caught up to the falling tangle of dwarves and rigging imbuing the party with magical flight.  Now free from the embrace of gravity, the party mended the tear in the balloon and settled back onto the partially repaired ship for the remaining trip to Neverwinter.

Arriving in the city they found that the attack had already begun.  The Krigvind blocked much of the harbor and was using it’s mounted weapons to bombard the city’s defenses while packs of Frost Giants assailed the north gate and the harbor interior.  All the while, a White Dragon strafed the northern neighborhoods of the city blasting gouts of frost from it’s jaws.  The party made their way straight for the Krigvind, hoping to parley with Storvald to stop the attack.  Approaching the massive longship they witnessed a Roc, a huge eagle-like creature appear on the deck and then take flight with a giant on it’s back.

Albert pulled the Peregrine over the deck of the Krigvind surprising the giants operating the massive ballistas.  The party called out to the giants, demanding a parley with Storvald.  One of the frost giants called back, after recognizing Davil Starsong stating that Storvald would return shortly in victory and they would have to wait.  Not wanting to sit idle while the attack continued around them the party attempted to flee, prompting a barrage of boulders from the giants on the deck.  The party tried to deflect the oncoming fire as best as they could while Diva used her smoke powder to lay down a smokescreen.

They rose above the clouds, noting the Roc was no longer visible and made their way to the giant’s presumed target, Sirac Cimber.  Floating above the clouds the party drew the attention of the White Dragon that accompanied the attack.  The wyrm made a pass blasting the broadside of the deck with it’s frigid breath while dodging harpoons fired by Vohrun.  As the dragon passed under the hold Melech leapt onto it spear-first lodging himself on the back of the creature like a tick.  Eamon and Rhenda barely survived the first pass of the dragon and fled below decks as Diva joined Vohrun at the harpoon gun.  Melech worked his spear deeper into the dragon before being knocked loose into open air.  He attempted to thunderstep back on the spine of the dragon but failed to gain purchase and flew back to the ship as the Dragon disappeared into the cloud bank.

Albert pulled the heavily damaged Peregrine over the House of the True, and the party descended into the gaping hole smashed through it’s roof alongside Harshnag.  Within they found a massacre, arriving just in time to see Drufi smash one of the few remaining temple knights into a pulp.  Storvald stood at the far end of the hall, advancing on Benderin Drogoon, the frail old knight who led the order.  The party called out to the Jarl, halting his advance and tried to end his rampage by informing him that his prize was not here.  Not trusting the small-folk accompanying his disgraced brother he demanded that Cimber be brought out.  After the terrified Sirac eventually emerged, wet with urine from the vestry behind the altar, Storvald accepted the truth that this was merely a blood relative of Artus, not the man himself.  However in order to prevent his blood from leading him astray again the Jarl crushed the whimpering man into the tiles of the hall.  In the face of this brutality the party stayed their weapons and allowed the Jarl to depart unimpeded on Drufi’s back, though not before Melech attempted to lay a seed of doubt in her mind about the truth behind the shattering of the Ordening.

The giants drew back from the damaged but standing city, sailing away on the Krigvind as the Peregrine limped to a field outside of the city walls to begin a series of repairs.  As the party came to grips with the damage wrought upon their home far away, in another city all-together, Artus Cimber and Tylander Roaringhorn came under attack.

Continued in Chapter Five