Fire and Ice 15

General Summary

22 Arodus 4713

Maret graciously allowed us to stay at her place while we were in Ellsprin. She also offered to look after Orm and Mjoli while Nadja was away. I have to admire her. She'd been through so much, and still, all she wanted to do was help us.   Most of the others went into town for a while, though Grinner and I stayed with Maret. I was exhausted and, more importantly, still burning. The townsfolk would probably not have reacted well to me. While in town, the others picked up some supplies and sold a bunch of the stuff we'd found. When they got back, Cassy presented me with several thousand gold. Holy shit, I've never seen so much money as I've seen the past few weeks. I guess it helps make up for all the terrors and dangers we've faced. It would be nice to be able to spend it though.   Amongst other things they got in town, the others were also able to get a magical scroll to remove Valeria's curse. It didn't actually remove the curse on the ring, but it did allow her to take the ring off. Grinner has now taken custody of the ring. He hasn't put it on, but it wouldn't surprise me if one day he does.  

23 Arodus 4713

We resumed travels in the morning. Nadja said farewell to her boys and left them in the capable care of Maret. Nadja said it should only be about two more days travel until we reached our destination.   As we travelled through, we came across a group of hunters led by a winter wolf. That thing was huge. Gorgeous really with pure white fur that blended in with the snow. But it was also vicious and kind of terrifying. Before it died, it yelled out that we would not escape Nazhena's wrath.   After we killed the winter wolf, the hunters surrendered and recalled the falcons they had set on us. They were pretty cooperative when we questioned them. They were part of something called the "Winter Guard", and Nazhena had sent them specifically to hunt us down. They'd gotten pretty lucky to just run into us like that. They didn't have a lot of information to give us other than Nazhena was still in Whitethrone when they'd left, although they couldn't guarantee she was still there now.   Bronwyn then did her usual thing of offering the hunters the opportunity to repent and redeem themselves. They accepted. It was perhaps a little surprising, but they didn't really have much choice. How sincere they were, I guess we'll have to see. Cassy told them that they were to go to Waldsby and protect the people there. They also agreed to this. I should add that Bronwyn told them, in no uncertain terms, that if they ever committed another evil act, she would know, and she would find them and kill them. There would be nothing they could do to escape her. I think they believed her. I know I did.   Nadja informed us that the winter wolf we had killed had two different coloured eyes, and that stories said that the pelt of such a wolf could be used to make a special magic cloak that a person could use to turn into a winter wolf temporarily. She called it a rimepelt. Unfortunately, the wolf's pelt was badly burned. That was entirely my fault, I confess. You know me and fire. At any rate, in its current state, it might not be possible to make the cloak. However, it turned out Valeria could prepare a spell to restore the corpse to an undamaged state. She couldn't do this until the next morning, however, so we took the winter wolf's body with us.  

24 Arodus 4713

In the morning, Valeria prepared and cast the spell. Nadja then skinned it. The procedure was a success, providing us with the magical rimepelt. It's a one-use item and only lasts for a couple of hours, but we figured it could be useful for when we reach Whitethrone. Grinner took custody of it for now, but we're not sure we want him to be the one to actually use it.   After a couple hours of travel, we could see Whitethrone up ahead on the cliffs overlooking Glacier Lake. It was actually kind of beautiful. It's funny how places of pure evil can look good from afar.   We reached a bridge over a river, where a group of ogres demanded we provide them with papers or pay the "bridge tax". When we asked what the tax was, they pointed to Billy and said, "That looks good." So we killed them. We've all become pretty attached to Billy, and there was no way in hell we were going to give her over to be eaten by a bunch of dim-witted brutes.   After crossing the bridge, Nadja led us off the road, as we were not actually heading directly to Whitethrone. She led us to a small shantytown along the lake shore called the Fishcamps. This was where her late husband's Uncle Ringeirr Malenkov lived.   Ten-Penny offered to go ahead and inquire with the locals where we might find Ringeirr. She wanted an opportunity to practise her Skald. We're all getting better at the language, though I think I'm progressing the slowest. At any rate, Ten-Penny came back a little while later, saying that the locals had been very reluctant to talk to her, but she'd managed to intimidate them into speaking. Ringeirr had apparently been arrested, but she knew where he was being held.   Ten-Penny led us through the village. As we got close to the where Ringeirr was being held, we spotted another man being accosted by a group of thugs--the local watch--on a pier. We interrupted and they yelled back some nonsense about making us sorry for not minding our own business. Suffice it to say, they were the ones who ended up being sorry. Ten-Penny took some nasty damage though. The poor girl had not been having much luck in our recent fights, but we always managed to keep her alive.   While we took out the thugs pretty easily, it wasn't over. There were ogres inside the nearby buildings.   And sorry, I have to run again. I'll finish this off later.  

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Featured Music

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Rewards Granted

Level 5 gained!

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Character(s) interacted with