Arrival at Ten Towns

"**Arrival at Ten Towns**" is the first episode of *Queen of Cold and Frost*, played on airing on June 15th, 2022.

The session was DMed by Adonvel and hosted on his server on Discord.

## Summary

A call has come for adventurers to travel north beyond the Spine of the World to provide aid to Ten Towns, and various mage orders have answered the call, along with the party of Falidus, Lucine, Armamore, and Dharwyn.

After traveling up Ten Trail and stopping briefly in the city of Bryn Shander, a trade city that acts as the capital of Ten Towns, the party learned that more practical knowledge of the region’s predicament could be gained in Targos, and continued on to the northwest with little trouble, awkwardly encountering guards before gaining entry through the wooden wall of the town. On the way to the Three Flags Sailing tavern, the party was approached by a large grey dog wearing a torn harness that Falidus, Armarmore, and Dharwyn decidedly did not notice; following Lucine's instincts, the party allowed the animal to lead them to a two-story residence in town.

There they met Keegan Velryn, owner of the dog named Boy, who was expecting his husband Garrett to be returning from an expedition. The party was invited in, and learned that Garrett had been hired by a party of three adventurers about three days prior to take them up the nearby mountain of Kelvin’s Cairn, and that the group had set out for the town of Caer-Konig to hire more sled-dogs for the journey. Keegan examines Boy, and discovers dried and frozen blood on one of his hind legs that is not the dog’s, and implores the party to find Garrett, offering to secure them lodging at The Luskan Arms tavern during their stay in Targos.

He makes tea for the party, which Dharwyn determines is not poisoned, and explains that Targos and all of Ten Towns have suffered under a perpetual winter for the last nine months since the arrival of the Frostmaiden, Auril, and that none of the Towns’ desperate attempts, even including offering living sacrifices, have appeased her; he explains further that northern Goliath tribes are rumored to have attempted unsuccessfully to mollify her, and that Duergar have begun using the Frostmaiden’s blizzard as an opportunity to raid the Towns, with one being captured several weeks prior in Lonelywood and summarily executed in Bryn Shander. The party agrees to search for Garrett, and Keegan leads them to The Luskan Arms, an old establishment that has more recently fallen into disrepair; they meet Owenn, and learn that the Town Speaker Naerth is currently the only patron of the tavern. Keegan agrees to discuss his opinions of Naerth with the party the next morning, after they return to retrieve Boy, who should be able to lead them to the last place the dog knew Garrett to be.

Lucine promptly takes all four keys and selects her favorite room, while the rest of the party chooses among the rest; Dharwyn finds a small mirror in one of the rooms, and while checking to see if it’s silver, becomes convinced that the reflection is a magically-generated picture of himself. He proceeds to retrieve a room key from Lucine and choose a different room, struggling to operate the door until Falidus indicates that the key is upside-down; Dharwyn insists that he was raised in a temple with stone archways, claiming that he didn’t see a door with a lock until he was 27-years-old. Dharwyn then accidentally locks the door from the outside, struggles to open it, unlocks it and heads inside, covering the mirror in his own room with a blanket.

The next morning, the party wakes for breakfast, and they learn that The Luskan Arms has been in Owenn's family for 200 years, having been built by his ancestors with timber from the city of Luskan below the Spine of the World; Lucine pockets the spare jerky, and Dharwyn finishes the spare coffee. The party then returns to Keegan’s residence to his relief and briefly discuss Naerth, who Keegan indicates has a tendency “to know things”; Keegan then hands over Boy to Falidus, who casts Psychic Whispers in order to create a four-hour telepathic bond with both the dog and Lucine, who gives Boy some of her jerky.

*continued in session two...*