Chapter 10 : Snow

#### Snovirn

Nestled at the side of the lake, near the southern tip, the town of Snovirn lies shivering beneath the winter cold creeping in from the north. We try to engage in some conversation with the local people, but receive even less interest than we did in Groger. We do learn about the old castle from the innkeeper, that is now forbidden area, because the major has decided it was too dangerous to enter. A long time ago during one of the Frost Giants raids on the city, they fought all the way into the castle, which was heavily damaged by the fighting. We chose a random night to sneak inside and have a look, after all we are chasing the legends of the Aeqofask, the stone jug, the artifact that is part of the Well of Many Worlds. Of course somebody had to fall through the dilapidated and hole-riddled roof (Druw, in this case), but fortunately after a few moments of attentive looking, the guards that came to investigate got bored and went back to wherever they came from to do whatever they were doing there. We worked our way further down, carefully climbing over the heaps of rubble. The interior area was not too big, and we quickly found the abandoned crypt to be the only room which could pique our interest. Inside we discovered a set of sarcophagi which clearly once had held bodies. At the other end we found a stone pedestal on which teetered the shattered remains of an old wooden coffin. On the wall behind it were some faded murals depicting a scene, which in some way that I do not now recall focused around a small recess in the middle of the wall. It was immediately clear to us that this was the exact spot where the jug had once been. We could only assume it had been taken by the Frost Giants in that raid long ago. At that same time, however, a zombie of some sorts attacked us. I called the name of the town's ruler of that time, which I knew from the innkeepers story. He seemed to react, and I tried to impart onto him the fact that his haunting days should be over. I don't remember now if that succeeded, or that we had to fight him anyway. In any case, in short order we had things sorted out, and went to have a closer look at the rest of the crypt in order to get grips on what might have happened to the jug.

In the room with the two sarcophagi, there were some scribbled sentences, coarsely drawn in blood, apparently telling of the last hours of the Frost Giants' raid on Snovirn. It said something like they are ’*coming through at last ... I have sealed myself in to save it'* , as far as my memory serves me. It appeared this last strategy had still failed, but it also seems clear that the Frost Giants cannot have been acting alone, for they could never have entered the low, narrow confines of the crypt, let alone fight there. Someone had broken through and fought here to get hold of the jug artifact.

#### From Snovirn to Snow

In any case, we had sufficient confirmation of the likely fate of the jug, and decided to head further north after stacking our supply of healing magic. Our earlier inquiries had just given us a vague idea of what to expect: the local people inhabiting the icy plains, and the hostile Frost Giants tribes beyond. So we set off walking north, without guide since no-one in the town was even remotely interested in such an assignment. Several days of snow-covered forests and plains later, we were caught in the open by a snow storm. Fortunately we had the snowball that provided an instant igloo-shelter for all of us. We spent a considerable time inside, which felt about like a long night. When we went out again the whole world seemed transformed. Later, we noticed a couple of figures in the distance – I don't remember whether they were following us, or taking some parallel route, but we decided to seek contact with them. To find our way successfully through this icy waste would take some guidance at least and there was really nobody else available. After some initial careful exchanges they seemed very friendly, and we could accompany them to one of their traveling settlements. In fact, we found out they could tell us little more about the Frost Giants than we already knew. They vehemently confirmed their violent nature, and the fact that any friendly approach would be virtually useless. They could tell us that they live in settlements beyond the Great Wall in the north, which turned out to be a huge 'rift' that goes on for many miles, possibly many hundreds.

#### From Snow to Frost

The snow people agreed to guide us to within sight of the wall, but no further since they could not risk being seen by the Frost Giants to be in league with a faction that was set on penetrating their perimeter. In all it took us several days to get there, and after the snow people parted with us, Juneeka set out as Snow Owl to scout out the entrance to the world of the Frost Giants. This could be very easily located since it was next to an icy pinnacle on top of the Wall, which could be seen from many miles away. While we plodded on through the thick snow, Juneeka found the entrance and its peculiarities. The entrance proper was more than forty feet above the ground, in the thousand-foot high wall. The top of the Wall consisted completely of ice, that overhung the cliff below, and was riddled with icicles and huge chunks of ice that came smashing down at irregular intervals. From the platform in front of the entrance cave, a lift hung suspended on ropes. When Juneeka reported back, we started discussing several manners of approach, but we came down on the simplest possible option. We would make a small detour to approach along the cliff side, and climb up using Tinder s Rope of Climbing and Rufus Rod of Many 'Things'. We made good progress, but were given away by an uncoordinated movement when Tinder almost lost his balance. Two wolves that Juneeka overlooked when keeping an eye on the platform, immediately responded, which also alerted the Frost Giant guard who sat, seemingly drowsing, on a stone just inside the cave opening. The three of them were waiting for us to get off the rope and ladder onto the platform. Terrak was up front, ready to swing himself up, and managed to get the first attack on the first wolf even before getting to his feet. Rufus could not get up there fast enough though, and had to move smartly to avoid the large boulder that was hurled down by the giant. He dangled by one hand below the ladder, while Druw behind him made a smart loop under it and swung back up smoothly.

In short order, all of us managed to get in position on the platform, even while Juneeka transformed back on the other side. Meanwhile as well, the guard had shouted for backup and a second Frost Giant came running to join the melee. The guard, meanwhile had gone berserk at seeing his wolves slaughtered. It was a hard fight against the sturdy giants, who dealt shocking blows, but eventually we succeeded. The next stage was tricky, since we should expect enemies inside, but there was no way to postpone or alleviate the next step, except for a short scouting mission by Juneeka. We started inside, and split the party in two to advance through the two corridors to the next two giants who stood waiting for us. What we failed to realize was that they were actually the second line of defense; the first being an embarrassingly simple but effective trap which released boulders from the ceiling. We all managed to avoid the damage at least to a large degree, and continued with care. While we inched forward through the corridors, Terrak heard a grating sound that seemed to be moving away in the distance. Too late we realized what it was: an elevator. The last two guards had stepped onto a platform that was pulled up through a shaft that seemed to extend endlessly. Further investigation showed us it might go up to about halfway the height of the wall; perhaps the level at which stone gave way to layers of ice above it. Minutes later we learned the counter move the giants had in store for us: a white dragon to guard the cave exit.

Hoping for the intelligence and vanity of the dragon to give us an edge in arguing with it, we tried to start negotiations, at least to learn what interest it might have in us except the unavoidable killing (or attempt thereto). But for some reason, we were unable to entice it's interest in any way whatsoever. We finally decided to ignore the dragon, as well as the elevator, which by now was completely out of our reach, and find a different way out of this cave. A spell of Juneeka, involving feathers and turning us into small birds (and back, I hope) seems our best choice. Assuming we can get past the dragon before it realizes the deceit, we can continue to fly up and continue our journey beyond the Ridge Wall.

#### Flying

We finally settle for another option, that we first hadn't realized. As soon as we can fly, we can also fly up in the elevator shaft. A scouting mission by Juneeka, as bat, reveals that there are cracks around the elevator platform big enough to let a small bat through, so also a small bird, like a swallow, would do. This would help us achieve two goals: one to evade the dragon, and second to progress in our journey North.

Using a spell and a handful of feathers, Juneeka Transforms all of us into Swallows. Maneuvering up in the narrow shaft proves a bit more delicate than we anticipated, but we finally manage to get up to the bottom of the elevator platform and wiggle through the crack that Juneeka had already selected for us. This was furthest away from the Frost Giant guard - so although he glanced in our direction, and even tossed a stone in our general direction just after the last of us had come up, he still dismissed us as something like buzzing insects. We had agreed to fly on for as far as seemed sensible, but there were some tricky things to our plan. First, all communication between us was impossible while we were swallows. Second, while airborne as small animals, we would be quite vulnerable - although hopefully small and fast enough to escape notice. Finally, the transformation back to normal would take some time, during which we would remain vulnerable.

Juneeka being most used to assuming animal form would take the lead, and hence would make the major decisions from here on. We flew on into one of the two corridors, through a gate and into a large room with tables arranged in a u-shape. From this room we saw several corridors leading out, which we scouted through one by one. One curved back into the large room, and had two single and one double door leading out from it, with a guard posted at the double doors. Another corridor led almost straight to another set of double doors, this one, according to what Terrak could hear through the door, guarded from the other side. A set of gates similar to those at the entrance, barred the way into a neighbouring, foul-smelling cave which we did not care to enter at this moment. The next and probably last corridor led onto several dormitories, and one other door. We decided to first try the double doors that were guarded from the outside, as that might lead to the passage beyond this outpost.

#### Diversion

When we reached the double doors once again and had just resumed human form, we heard some considerable commotion behind us. Remembering the message that Cistor had brought us in Snyvorn about someone else hunting for the jar artifact, and rumors we picked up along the way about another party going our exact same way, we concluded that they must too have arrived at the entrance. (1) The guard opened the door to discuss with some other Giant that came this way, and we took the opportunity to slip through the door under the cover of Druw's musical cloak of silence and invisibility.

Our victorious feeling was short-lived. About thirty feet to be exact, since at that distance from the doors we came to a strong iron fence. Some considerable time later we had not discovered any means by trick, cunning or force to open it from here. Meanwhile Juneeka's ferret had established for us that the corridor continued ahead for at least another mile or so, always sloping up slightly. Stuck between the non-budging fence, and the double doors now with two guard, we felt the same frustration rising that had caught us in the entrance cave with the elevator gone up and the dragon just arrived. In this case, the next step turned out almost as simple; we would continue under Druw's silence and invisibility, brazenly open the door and walk back in. The plan, simple as it was, worked perfectly! The guards were caught off-guard, got quite confused and might still be trying to figure out what happened.

#### Locked up

Meanwhile we made our way to the other set of double doors - after all we all know that these always hide the most interesting things, or not? We used the same trick to get through these doors as well, and it worked again. It turned out to be the main storage room, which at the moment we realized it had no other entrance or exit, they locked from the outside. We brainstormed our way through several plans, discarded most, and came up with using Soften Stone to detach the doors' hinges from the stone wall - once the stone was turned to soft clay, and were further loosened a bit, it was an easy job for Rufus and Hender to tear it down. When the door came crashing down, we found two giants standing ready in the corridor. It took only a couple of rounds, and heavy blows were dealt and received in that short time, but in short order we had both of them down - permanently. The only other possible route was through the door at the dorms. We found it to lead to an antechamber with two more rooms behind, apparently from the commander and his second. We broke in and looted the two bedrooms, finding a nice cache of scrolls, gems and gold, but also a box of correspondence. (2)

When we were just about to start stashing our finds, we heard noises coming from the corridor. We quickly grabbed all we wanted, put back chest and box, and quickly closed the doors as best as we still could, at least a quick inspection would make it seem nothing had happened. While the giants came in, we waited quietly again under Drew's obscuring musical protection. Meanwhile, Terrak found the secret door that logic dictated must be present in the suspiciously empty bit of wall in between both rooms, so that when the Giants were in the rooms discovering what we had been up to, we could slip away through.

We made our way through the pitch-dark corridor, and behind us, around the corner heard one of the giants open the door for a cursory inspection, which only revealed emptiness where we had walked moments ago. The direction took us to the cave with the awful smell, but it sloped down to go underneath the cave to merge with the long corridor outside of the fence that had so effectively kept us back before. We carefully opened and closed the secret door, meanwhile quietly admiring the craftsmanship that must have gone into making it, and wondering about the careless lack of traps. We set off in a brisk wall through the corridor, once again making progress in the right general direction: north.

#### Surprise in Ice

The corridor went on for a mile and a half, and surprisingly ended at the foot of a spiral staircase. At some point the rock gave way to ice, and the steps became treacherously slippery underfoot. We fortunately all made it safely to the top, where we found ourselves in the midst of the ice, inside a series of cracks or gorges. Ahead, at some hundred and fifty or so feet, we could see daylight, but we felt the need to rest first before plunging in the next unknown Terrak looked around for traces of frost giant activity here, but he instead noticed huge gauges in the icy floor - undoubtedly from some quite large animal, or animals. It was too large for bears or even tigers, so Druw ventured packs of Jeti. In any case what at first might have seemed a safe place for spending the night, now seemed to lack a sufficient level of safety.

To increase that to an acceptable level, we decided to scout for a ledge of some sort, where we could erect the igloo that we had previously used to camp on the ice plains and had got us safely through a snowstorm. Terrak went looking into a few of the gorges that branched off the main one; the second showed a dazzling, blinding spectacle. In the light that filtered down through the top of the cave-like gorge, Terrak saw the inside completely covered in what looked like diamonds. Somewhat stunned by the sight, he called the rest of the party too look. Hender confirmed without a trace of doubt that these must be genuine. That triggered a thought - what if this cave was not the home of some pack of Jeti, but the lair of the white dragon that had come pestering us in the entrance cave below? Collecting diamonds would sound exactly like something a white dragon would do! That brought us to a simple conclusion: we cannot stay here to rest. So we set out onto the ice plains, walked for about an hour to find a good camping spot, sheltered and hidden as well as possible between the rough ice that makes up this barren landscape.

So goes our quest - we are on course heading north, we are in pretty good condition, and we are still making good time. Unknown dangers ahead - the frost giant chief bedroom had a large mural with some ice-creatures clearly even larger than they are - and an unknown competing party behind us. Adventure at every turn, what more could we hope for!

1. Although from what I remember, I had the impression they were ahead of us.
2. We would later find that most of it was useless inventories and similar bookkeeping stuff but one – letter dealt with some trade agreements, and thanked for a recent shipment of 'goods' that apparently 'wore quickly in the cold' somehow that made us feel it was slaves. In addition it mentioned a project – involving large amounts of ice, possibly as a construction material.