Homecoming

Well it turns out the suit of armor was not a problem at all. In fact it was a guardian and would attack anyone evil or chaotic. I couldn’t remember much about it but it would definitely be a good item to have. We could look into it another day as we had more pressing items currently. This room was his study and was actually in fairly good shape. The bookshelves were lined with books that actually seemed to be usable. A large book was opened on the desk as if someone had just recently been here and a very nice globe. It did look like the armor golem (for lack of a better term) did claim some victims here as there were some weapons and blood on the floor and carpet. Good for it.
 
The last door went into a small library. This room was in a very sad state and the books inside, those that were not vandalized, were ruined by moisture and age. Such a sad state this Keep was in, left to ruin and rot. We will definitely need to speak to Gustavon about this. This place should be cleaned up, the usable objects moved and at the very least shuttered and monitored so evil creatures do not move in again. Humans sometimes perplex me, leaving all this to just waste away to “honor” his memory.
 
This was the last area of the castle and we had found nothing to help us yet. There was the front tower with the icy strands but I was loath to go there as I did not care for an encounter with any spiders if they existed. Not knowing what else to do I switched to mage sight and we went room by room looking for any enchanted items that would assist. In the Library I found a book that glowed. Pulling it out it was not a book, it was actually a small lockbox that was made to look like a book. Not wanting to really disturb it I set it down and we moved to the Study. The large book that was open glowed as well. I looked over the page it was on and it was the basics of one of the magical colleges. Interesting. I did not want to disturb anything more so we moved to the Dining Room. In the cabinet a small silver bell was also enchanted. I noted it and we continued room by room through the Keep. The last item we found was a large and beautiful elven made box that had no keyhole yet was locked. Vague memories of a gift from the elves came through but not much else. This was definitely coming with us, stigma notwithstanding.
 
Since we were not able to find anything of immediate use to help with the throne it was time to investigate it more. We went back to the alchemy lab (or throne room). I attempted a simple shape water but the ice on the floor resisted it. I had no wish to fight anything else on ice if it came to that so I wanted a nice clear path to the throne. I tried again but this time put more effort behind it and it worked. I was able to clear a path to the throne quite easily. Under the throne was a summoning circle that was quite interesting. Inside the throne was a sword. Both glowed magical so this was definitely the source. I attempted a shape water on the throne and was able to get it to move slightly which was a good sign. Durbin asked me to do so again and he would attempt to pull the sword out. Dram protested that he may get his hand or arm stuck in the throne but if he was willing to try I was willing to oblige. I tried again putting much effort into and I effortlessly controlled the spell splitting the throne open exposing the sword hilt. I recognized it instantly as a Silvercrest sword by the hilt. Almost immediately an icy hand formed, grabbed the hilt and reformed the throne before Durbin could reach. This was going to be more difficult than I thought.
 
We decided to try and move the throne outside the summoning circle. There was some concern that it might activate or trigger something but that might be what we needed at this point. Durbin got behind the throne and, back against the wall, pushed his hardest against the throne. Rather than sliding it started to tip and hit some magical barrier that seemed to be the summoning circle. Another plan that was not going to work.
 
We were very focused on the throne up until now but examined the rest of the room. Another room that was destroyed and left to ruin by time. There seemed to be a prison cell or a lock up area which (aside from the front tower) was the last area to check. Sorin found the keys, opened it up and examined inside. I stayed by the throne studying the summoning circle and trying to think of anything that could help. All Barrick said was there is great evil here. Was it the wererat or this ice golem? Sorin said there were four people inside and all seemed frozen and lifeless. A pity that they should have had to die so. There was something that we were missing and standing there I became lost in thought until Dram was shouting that the people in the cell were elves so I rushed in.
 
Inside were Prince Elladin, my uncle Kiirion and Fayeth who was a well known scout. There was also a dwarf who was Durbins father. We had two members of the Quadrial here frozen and captured! When Sorin said he found them in there I assumed they were dead (or perhaps I just wasn’t paying full attention which could be the case, the throne was perplexing) but perhaps due to the nature of all the magic here they weren’t actually dead. Maybe they just needed to be thawed out so my first instinct was let’s get them out and warm them up. Durbin pulled his father out, Dram grabbed Prince Elladin, Sorin my uncle and I used apportation to lift Fayeth out. As we discussed what to do on the way out Sorin thought that if we warmed them up now it could kill them and we should keep them cold until they can be examined by someone with more skill. At first I resisted but after thinking it did make sense (spoiler alert, it saved their lives!). I did use mage sight on them and there was a very faint glow in their veins as if something was there but not sure what.
 
Since we were not making any headway on figuring out the throne puzzle we had some debate about what to do next. After hearing a few arguments I volunteered to write two letters, one to the Church and one to Pickman to come right away and described the situation to them and the urgency. We sent the hunters off with the letters and instructions to not speak of the Quadrial members here as we did not want anyone panicking. They agreed but ran off laughing about how they would tell the story of the rats. Well that isn’t too bad I suppose as it would keep people away from the Keep.
 
Once they left, Dram wanted to check the final area we hadn’t looked at yet, the front tower with the ice strands. I was hesitant to go down there for some reason but Dram convinced me. He also wanted me to use apportation to move a large blanket down the hall to show any invisible spider webs just in case. Better to be safe than sorry I suppose but didn’t like the idea of a blanket obscuring our vision. I suggest a piece of wood the length of the width of the hall and I would just move it up and down slowly going down the hall. That worked fine and we found several dead spiders at the end of the hall. There was one live one but Durbin and Sorin made quick work of it. It was slowly coming together but I was pretty hesitant that members of the Quadrial could have been bitten by these spiders.
 
There wasn’t much else in the tower here. A dead body and some gold coins neatly stacked in the corner. Durbin and Dram smashed the icy webs but we were no closer to solving the puzzle. I wanted to take a closer look at the open book in the study so we went back there. I started thumbing through it and a rush of nostalgia hit me from Barrick’s memories. This was going to be his life's work, a huge compendium of magical knowledge. A lofty goal for a human with a short lifespan. I started going through the whole book and lost time. Dram kept bugging me once and awhile if I found anything but this was fascinating and I ended up losing myself in going through all the detail that had been put in the book so far. Finally Dram was getting worried and I did notice I was getting very chilled. I moved the bookmark to the page I was on, closed it, picked it up and was ready to go. The others were worried the armor golem would attack me but not I, it would only attack evil creatures so I was fine.
 
We went back to the camp to await Pickman, the Church or both to look over these frozen victims. I went over and examined them with mage sight again and was able to discern more information. There was a spot where the magic was stronger and it seemed to radiate out from that spot. I checked my Uncle and found two teeth bite marks there, like a spider bite. I suppose the others were right, the four had been bit by the spiders and ended up in this state so there is a very good chance we could revive them and bring them back. I showed Sorin and the others but there wasn’t really much we could do. He already tried a blessed healing on them and it did nothing. So we would sit and wait.
 
We ended up staying there overnight which wasn’t too bad as I had uninterrupted time with my book. Nothing much happened and the next morning no one had arrived yet. Maybe they got to Torlynn late and didn’t want to make the trip to the Keep in the dark? So we waited for a few hours and still no one showed, so we packed our things and started to make our way to Torlynn with the four victims in tow. Of course we ran into Father Martin on the way there. I showed him what I found but there was nothing he could do on the road and suggested we head back to Torlynn where he could better examine and treat them.
 
We arrived back in Torlynn and headed straight to Gustavon’s mansion. He was gravely concerned of course and his first instinct as well was to warm them up. Once it was explained to him that it could be fatal we decided to put them outside in his garden which was hidden from view of the others in the village. He thought it was a bit macabre but it was honestly the best solution atm. Father Martin rested and prepared to use a blessed poison treatment and Durbin insisted his father be first. That’s fine, dwarves have a great constitution so if there were any complications he had the best chance of pulling through. Once cast I verified the magical energy was gone from the body which it was. We brought him and warmed him up and he came back to life thinking he was still in the Keep fighting spiders. He was quite surprised to learn that he had been frozen for months in the Keep.
 
We repeated the process with the others and it went well and everyone woke up the same thinking they were still fighting spiders. We all sat down for a meal and explained what had happened to us in the Keep and that Kishute was dead, there was an ice throne and a sword in the stone that was definitely one of ours. Checking his scabbard, Elladin realized his sword Khelek was missing. I explained to Dram and the others that Khelek means ice in elven. Dram asked if the winter got worse months ago when the four had been bitten and captured and Gustavon seemed to remember yes it did. So it seemed that the ice throne was some sort of ice creature or elemental and it was using Khelek to amplify its power perhaps? Elladin wanted to head out as soon as possible to retrieve his sword and help right this wrong even though he was very weak. He was persistent so we agreed but any sign of danger we would get him out.
 
We headed back to the Keep with Elladin. He rode on a horse along with Dram as he couldn’t walk. The trip to the Keep was uneventful. Dram dismounted and helped Elladin inside and we made our way to the alchemy lab/throne room. There Elladin extended his hand and shouted “Khelek, come!”, then the ice throne vibrated for a few seconds as if fighting against releasing the sword and finally it burst forth showering ice particles around. We had no time to really celebrate as the ice immediately began forming into a very large ice elemental, pointed to Elladin and said “FOOD!”
 
Dram pulled Elladin behind him and stepped back. I cast apportation to hold him up and told Dram I had him so he could focus on the creature. Knowing they would need room to move around to fight, I backed up along with Elladin and moved him out to Warren. I could hear the clash of ice and shield but I focused on getting the Prince out safely. Once I got him to Warren and they started moving out the creature wanted to follow but Dram (and the dorway) was able to slow it down. I wasn’t sure what to do so I tried to shape the stone and try to sink it or slow it down somehow. It failed miserably, did nothing and left me tired. After that I wasn’t sure. I could hurl an ice stone but would it actually just absorb it and heal itself? Dram and Durbin were fighting desperately so I tried a shape water spell to try and contest its movement at least. It did seem to work though the creature was powerful and it took all my concentration just to hinder it slightly but it seemed to help. Finally the two were able to completely break the creature down and it fell into a pile of ice chunks.
 
It was almost an immediate sense of relief. Soon after it started to warm slightly and soon after that we stopped seeing our breath. Then rays of light shone through the holes in the roof and the winter finally was over it seemed. We started to make our way out but I could not take the “stigma” anymore of not taking things from the Keep. I grabbed all the magical items and we headed back to Torlynn. We received further confirmation the winter was indeed over on the way back as the sun was out and the spring weather had returned. The village definitely knew as the few people left were all outside basking in the warmth and were ecstatic literally dancing in the mud.
 
Lord Gustavon was overjoyed at our return and the return of life to his village. He embraced us all and thanked us profusely. He ordered tables, food and drink all brought outside and everyone would feast. I was just happy to be through the quest, have a good supply of great wine and be back with Rhiannon. Lord Gustavon told everyone that we were the ones who had ended the winter and saved them and tried to sink into my seat as much as possible. I don’t mind playing for crowds but having someone call me out personally was not enjoyable for me. I liked to help but did not really want all the attention. It was a grand party for all that were there. Rhiannon suggested we play our song together which was a great idea so we played our duet and then took turns playing for the crowd. Late into the night. We played until we were both exhausted and pretty much everyone ended up exhausted and called it a night.
 
The next morning Gustavon was clearly hung over so it was no time to discuss any business. We had breakfast and I told Rhiannon what happened in the Keep and showed her Barrick’s magical compendium. She thought it was interesting but magical studies wasn’t her main focus in life. Well that’s no problem, her voice and playing are too beautiful to focus on magical studies anyways. Gustavon did say that an elven delegation was coming to escort Prince Elladin and the others home. I wanted to return home as well for some time now and asked Rhiannon if she would come with me to which she emphatically said yes. I know Dram wanted to move onto the next “quest” but I wasn’t ready to jump so quickly to the next thing. I needed some time away to focus on other things.
 
We had another great feast for dinner though this was inside and fewer guests. I explained to Gustavon what happened to me with Barrick’s memories and the items we found. Also that we needed to clear out the Keep of anything usable and ensure it doesn’t become a haven for evil creatures again. I also said I would like to keep the magical compendium and work on finishing it to which he agreed. He also agreed the Keep should be cleaned out and that it was perhaps a mistake letting it sit and decay for so long. Finally I asked if we could take the magical items with us to be identified and he could have them back since he was the next of kin. He agreed to that as well. The next morning the elven delegation arrived to collect Elladin and the others. I asked if they could wait for us to return and I would like to return with Rhiannon and if any of the others wanted to go. Everyone said they would, even Durbin though I believe just because his father was going so he could return back to the dwarven lands.
 
We brought along all our wine and gear we had and made for Silvercrest. It was a great homecoming except for the fact we learned that Adelle and some of her handmaidens were actually getting worried about Elladin and went out to search for him but now they haven’t been
heard from. Once he is rested Prince Elladin was going to search for her himself along with some others but the time in the frozen keep had sapped him of strength. We had a wonderful time and it was good to feel at home again in the forest. Rhiannon's home was close but there was nothing like being home. I showed her all my favorite places, we drank some of the wine from Gustavon’s cellar and had a fantastic time in each other’s company.
 
We learned that a dwarven delegation would be here soon to pick up their member of the quadrial and head home. I really did not want to go but Rhiannon figured it was a once and a lifetime chance to see it so I agreed to visit. Durbin did visit my home. I suppose it is only right that we visit his home. I don’t know if I can last as long as he has here though, I suppose we’ll find out.