Chwingas And Roundabouts

**Chwingas And Roundabouts** is the fourth chapter of Rime of the Frostmaiden.

## Synopsis

While Rurik and Gwen spoke to Naerth, Ruedolf did a spot of shopping. While wandering around the town, he heard a rumour that the Town Speaker of Caer Dineval had gone missing. He added it to his quest log, and reunited with Rurik, Gwen, and Rextopher Stanners. Rextopher explained he had needed a break after the whole blizzard-murder thing, and took a few days holiday from Academy work. The party attempted to explain to him that as a contractor he didn't really need to take holidays, and then brought him up to speed on their adventures since his departure. They then decided to continue their murder investigation.

Acting on Naerth's advice, they found a guard to help them. Selios Sillyhorse, eager to please, agreed to take them to Jakys' house. Finding no pertinent clues there, they moved on to the docks to see if they could find someone who knew Jakys. There, they learned he had recently come into some money, but had a pretty clean life and no known enemies.

Selios then took the group to Darmur's house. Rurik found some copies of love letters to Hlin, the handwriting of which did not match the note found by Darmur's body. The party then spoke to Darmur and Jakys' neighbour, who was very nice.

The group next decided to journey to Termalaine- both as it was mentioned on the list of locations, and to sort out whatever trouble was occurring in its mine. However on the way they encountered three chwingas being hassled by two crag cats. During the fight, Ruedolf summoned two ghosts, which was kind of suspicious- his crewmate Lancaster Zelroth and Thergrun. Killing one cat and letting the other flee, the party attempted to befriend the chwingas.

Rurik earned the affection of one by eating a pine cone after they dared him to. Ruedolf and Rextopher both earned charms after presenting the other two chwingas with gifts. Those chwingas then ran off however, leaving the one nestled on Rurik's shoulder. After a long discussion on how likely it was the Academy was going to perform some sort of horrible experiment on the chwinga, the party decided to return to Targos to drop it off to an Academy contact there.

Back in Targos, the party unfortunately met Bouchard. Bouchard explained the Academy was simply going to observe the chwinga for a while before letting it go back into the wild. The group left the chwinga with Bouchard, accepted their payment, and then went to the Three Flags Sailing inn for the evening. There, they discussed how weird it was that no one knew where their magic powers came from- Rurik could shoot ice lasers from his hands, Gwen could glow in the dark, Ruedolf had lots of ghost friends (one of whom taught him how to play chess good), and Rextopher had seemingly wished an octopean imp into existence. Even beyond the source of his magic, Rextopher didn't know anything about anything that happened before he was "lost in the mountains" some time ago. He did not think this was that weird. Gwen lost another game of chess to someone to whom they had only explained the rules five minutes beforehand, and everyone went to bed.

The next day, the party again ventured towards Termalaine, but made it all the way this time. There, they met a boy who yelled news at people. They asked the news boy where they should go to solve the mine problem, and he directed them to the Town Speaker, Oarus Masthew. Oarus explained a group of kobolds had moved into the mine, and that had caused all the miners to run away. He also advised them to be wary of the giant hole in the middle of the mine which went all the way down to the Underdark.

The party set forth into the mine. They first killed a bunch of rats before, deeper into the mine, they faced down a grell.

## NPCs

* Selios Sillyhorse
* Lancaster Zelroth (ghost)
* Thergrun (ghost)
* Bouchard
* Oarus Masthew
* Jakys (mentioned only)
* Scath (mentioned only)
* Markham Southwell (mentioned only)
* Darmur (mentioned only)
* Mason Earthheart (mentioned only)

## Locations

* Icewind Dale
	+ Targos
	+ Termalaine
	+ Caer Dineval (mentioned only)