Frozen Episode One - Below Zero

General Summary

Prologue

There was once a family born to Icewind Dale that would come to some importance. For several generations this family ruled the Frozen Hold but eventually it fell. As the years churned on, a patriarch whom had never seen the hold; cast its history aside and cared only for the money it left behind. Selling off the last few Netheril trinkets the hold gained them, he became content and complacent. Wishing only for an heir, Theadric married but could not father such a child. Desperate, the lazy noble wandered into the wild on a vision quest. Theadric traveled to the mountains, sent by a hag to find a flower, and with his retinue he braved the cold hell found there. In those windswept peaks, Theadric found a weak goliath, injured from her battle with a bear. Theadric cared for the woman and restored her to health. Low though, when he realized that he had failed in his quest, he fell into despair. As a deep state of depression fell upon him, he took the bed of the goliath and together they created a child. Enamored with Theadric's vigor, she helped him find his herb, a poisonous flower, and he abandoned her that very night. Down the mountain, he returned to his wife and they petitioned the hag to help them have their child. After toil and coin, Precival was born. Not a year after his birth a child arrived, Theadric knew it to be his, but he hid that fact from his wife; the bastard's name would be Navi. Only in the throws of their second son's birth, Gwain, did Theadric admit his failings and recognize his bastard. In anger Drorcella fled into a snowstorm and she was never seen again.
Theadric fell into a deep depression then, following the loss of his wife, and his spawn went their own way soon after. After several years, Precival called for the family's return, he claimed command of the noble house's banner and swore to rally the Stoneguard family for a return to the Frozen Hold. Gathering to the south, Precival ordered a reorganization of all those loyal to the family and sent a courier forth to Icewind Dale stating his intentions. Having already returned, Navi intercepted the letter and rushed to the border of Icewind Dale to warn her brother of the trap that had become the north.

Story

Traveling through the southern borderlands of the frozen north of Faerûn, Precival and Gwain braved the mountains known as the Spine of the World. Venturing once more into their homelands, they were met with a hellish blizzard and their half sister only hoped to find a trace of their corpses in such horrid weather. Navi knew there would be no exit to Icewind Dale if she could not warn her half brothers away but she was to late. When she received their letter she knew she stood only a small chance of warning them before they made it to far into the north. Unfortunately, along her journey south, she was swept up in a strange happening and slowed. Her future seemed bleak as she escaped the horrible incident and she knew she was far to late to rendezvous where needed. Hoping only to reach her kindred before one of many horrible things happened to them, she saw a light in the distance.
"We dying out here Nal, we canny go forth or the wind'll cut us in half." A dwarf caravan guard named Gryst offered.
Nal, the caravan leader, responded, "we need to get through that pass."
Joselyn, Nal's wife, added "if we don't stop soon we'll all be dying, this weather is unheard of Nal. Its Mirtul my love, something's the matter but my elven blood tells me not what."
Nal, then seeing a light ahead, declared. "Whoa, whoa, hold up! Look there, in the distance"
The small caravan of wagons slowed, moving through the cold mountains they then lurched to a stop. The dark of night, having extended into early morning, brought uncertainty and a harsh wind. Snow fell like and assault of arrows and a dense wal of fog limited all visibility. Only a few dim lanterns lit the way. Navi's figure then emerged in snow-covered clothes and approached the lead wagon.
The wagon driver, Nal, then called down to her, "Who's there? Name yourself!"
As she responded, she set about a chain of events that could not be undone..
The wagon driver then calls back, "get the brothers bring'em up here!"
A small dwarven man approached and calls up to both of them, "Masters Gwain and Precival, there someone up front ya need be see'n."
Greeting their sister at long last she told them of the everlasting winter and the Rime of the Frostmaiden before joining the caravan and setting out toward home. At a river bend one of the wagons slipped toward a river as a lynx looked on and all about, aside from the siblings, were calmed by strange magic. Saving the wagon, the siblings noticed that the man-at-arms there had died. Navi determined that he'd been claimed by the magic of the everlasting winter and when his frozen corpse broke apart, they put him in a bag. Journeying on, they made camp and were joined by the lynx
Navi and Gwain pitched in whilst Precival formed a bond with the lynx (teaching it to pat its paw forward for yes and twirl in a circle no). Gwain joined first watch with Gryst and had already made a fast friends with him when Gryst learned that Gwain was a member of the Runesmithing Guild. They separated during their watch but Gwain found a tree carving of Gryst and when he showed the dwarf, he dismissed it. When the dwarf was killed, and Gwain calmed, Navi and Precival investigated his death.
When they realized that the dwarf had been shredded and only his hand left behind, they looked then to the trees and saw not his killer but a new carving, a carving of Precival.

Missions/Quests Completed

Quest Reclaiming the Hold Started, Subquest Below Zero Started

Notes

Notable Party Damage:

• Gwain is pristine.
  Noted Effects: None
• Navi is pristine.
  Noted Effects: None
• Precival is pristine.
  Noted Effects: None

Report Date

02 Nov 2021

Primary Location

Faerûn