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General Summary
Eye of the All-Father
The Muffins strategically questioned the oracle of the giants in an attempt to uncover more detail about the shattering of the Ordning. They learned that the safest path to a resolution, in terms of protecting innocent lives, is to restore the Ordning and maintain the status quo among giants. To do this, they are to seek the court of King Hekaton and "root out the evil therein." While they are unsure of the location of this court, they learned that they need a magical conch to teleport them. These conchs were provided by the Storm King himself to the lesser giant lords so that he could summon them to his throne room at will. The party had leads on both the Hill Giants and the Fire Giants, and debated the merits and drawbacks of both routes.
Deciding that the Hill Giants were the least threat to their lives, the Muffins decided to try and obtain the conch from the hill giant chieftan, Guh. Kauth sent a message ahead to the hill giant Moog, who the party met while she was lamenting the loss of her mate, taken as a concubine of Guh. Moog was either too dumb or too upset to reply in that moment, leaving Kauth to wonder if her message was received, and what state of mind the recipient was in if she did receive it. The party had not left Moog on the best of terms, and Hill Giants are not known for their forgiving demeanor.
As the Muffins left the Eye, they found the entrance blocked by a fearsome sight. An ancient blue dragon stood in their way, nostrils crackling with lightning. Seeing his ancient sworn enemy threatening to defile the temple of his gods was too much for Harshnag, who hurled himself into the fray. The Muffins fled through the dormitory and squeezed out of the temple through the narrow ice spider tunnels. Harshnag turned his fury to the statue of the All-Father and began to destroy the statue with his greataxe. The desecration of the avatar caused massive tremors to shake the temple, cracking the ceiling and raining debris down as the Muffins made their escape.
The shaking of the sundered temple made the party's escape much more difficult when the snow pack broke free and began to cascade down the cliff. The Muffins tried to maintain their footing, but Nike was unable to and was quickly pulled under. Some time later, the avalanche was over and each of the party members quickly regrouped. They started a search for Nike, but had to call it off in vain as the storm clouds originating at the Eye of the All Father filled the sky. Only Nike's new sword, a frostbrand scimitar, was found, its hilt sticking out of the snow.
Kinsavarik
As the group made their way down a path that was quickly disappearing under more and more snow, they saw a young woman sitting along the path 80 yards ahead. The woman looked injured, but conscious. Approaching and asking if she needed help, Kaz rushed to her aid. Channeling his patron deity, he healed the woman. He made a mental note that helping travelers felt natural to him. Maybe Marthammor Duin truly was his god? He certainly couldn't recall tales of Moradrin doing this sort of thing. The woman introduced herself as Astrid, and said she was the herbalist of the nearby town of Kinsavarik. Needing to seek shelter from the elements, and perhaps to organize a search party for their lost companion, the group opted to help Astrid back to her shop.
After a few miles of increasingly difficult travel, the group found the shelter of the fishing town of Kinsavarik. The town was tucked into a hillside between an evergreen forest and a large, frozen lake called Iskaldyr. The terrain must have provided some protection from the westward winds, because the snow was significantly lighter here and it fell more or less vertically. Astrid proved to be a bit of a chatterbox, giving various bits of info about her humble home. The town looked welcoming, if a bit empty. Around half of the homes looked unoccupied, with no smoke coming from the chimneys. One home in particular caught the group's attention. Set high on the hill to the west, a large manor overlooked most of the town. It didn't look to be in disrepair, but also didn't look to be occupied. Before they could ask about it, however, they arrived at Astrid's shop, The Danging Owlbear. The herbalist thanked them for their altruism and offered to reward them for their efforts tomorrow after she could recuperate from her injuries. She directed the party to the local inn, and bid them good day, retiring to her shop.
The White Mare inn looked more like a large manor than a commercial inn, with the lower floor converted into a tavern that clearly served mostly the local citizens. A portly and jovial woman named Morli Dwaln greeted the ragtag group of adventurers and was the only local in the inn who did so. The others, looking mostly to be woodcutters and fishermen, kept drinking their ales and eating their bowls of stew, clearly uninterested in meeting new strangers. One of the patrons of the inn stood out from the rest. Sipping from a mug of milk was a black-furred Tabaxi wearing a traveler’s cloak. The felinoid watched the group carefully, as if she were studying them, but never approached. Borgan and Kaz made their way to the bar, and ordered ales. Morli, between pouring mugs, told the duo that she and her husband Jamora owned this inn, but rarely got visitors once the snows came. She was happy for the patronage, charging the group 5 silver for beds upstairs.
As the Muffins sipped their beers, the entire room became ghostly quiet. It was almost as if a song that was playing in the background, but not actively listened to by anyone suddenly ended. Glancing around, Kauth noticed the patrons all stopped talking for a moment, simply staring off into space, before everything seemingly returned to normal and they continued to drink and chat. Nobody, aside from the Muffins and the Tabaxi, seemed to even notice.
As the hour grew late, the locals left the tavern alone and in pairs. A younger woman and a man, presumably her husband, gathered their cloaks and her basket and headed out the door. Minutes later, everyone heard a blood-curdling scream from nearby. Rushing toward unknown danger, the Muffins and the Tabaxi rushed outside to ascertain the origin of the noise. Around the corner from the bar they found the woman, picking up her basket. She was frazzled but not alarmed, and certainly not screaming like she was in mortal danger. Borgan asked her where the man went, but her response was as perplexing as she was perplexed. "I--I'm sorry. Who? What man? I'm alone," she said.
Borgan quickly started to follow any semblance of tracks and rushed into the alleyway. The rest of the group heard a "thud" as the gnome tripped and fell. When they reached him, however, there was no indication of anything that could've tripped him up. Borgan noticed nothing, and had to shrug off the strange sensation they weren't alone. The woman, clearly shaken by the questions from the Muffins, quickly rushed into the nearby home and drew the curtains. Not wishing to push the issue any further, everyone opted to head back to the inn and get some rest. Maybe things would become clearer in the morning?
Alas, the dawn only brought more confusion. Kauth received a magical message from her eldest sister. "What do you mean you are being watched? Who is watching you? Tell me if you are in danger!" Kauth didn't know what instigated this message, but after a moment, realized she had expended a spell since their rest. Did she send a message she didn't remember? Before she could investigate that hypothesis, however, Borgan and Kaz noticed something else out of place. A small leather rucksack, like the ones they all wore, sat on the nearby bed. Thinking it was Ophio's, they started to look for their fungal ally.
Ophio, hearing the noises, poked his head out of a nearby room, and asked what was wrong. Kaz, seeing the rucksack as a potential clue or perhaps a threat, asked Ophio if it was his. The myconid wizard, equally confused, produced his adventurer's backback from the room he was in. Kauth grabbed the mystery pack and began to search through it, dumping the contents onto the bed. There was a small, wooden flute, various rations and adventuring supplies, and a leather-bound book. Kauth began to thumb through the pages...
The Tabaxi, who had introduced herself as Hushed Candle, emerged from her room. She wore a look of shock on her face, her fur standing on end. Her tunic was pulled to the side, revealing claw marks along her clavicle and on her chest. As the felinoid tried to figure out what happened, she noticed her left paw. Under the claws were bits of fur matted with blood. She looked to the wounds on her torso, and back to the claws. Glancing inside of her tunic, she saw crudely scratched words.
Simultaneously, Kauth made another startling discovery. Inside of the mystery journal were a number of references to places and events familiar to the Loxodon. Some of the pages mentioned things unfamiliar and predating the other events. Tucker's Hollow. Nightstone. Waterdeep. Those places didn't ring a bell to her. But the name Moog did. And the city of Yartar. Set in the pages of the journal, after the Yartar section, was a charcoal drawing. The drawing showed a location that seemed vaguely familiar, with buildings in the background. The subject of the image looked to be each of the current Muffins, posing together. All six of them…
Six? Kauth blinked her eyes, and focused on the apparent interloper. Center in the drawing, standing in front of Borgan, a young male halfling stood holding a lute. Nobody knew who this was, or why he was drawn amid the party. The picture was dated 1490 DR. This year.
Kauth needed guidance from Kelemvor. She channeled her deity and sought to divine some sort of answer. The voice that came back in her head wasn’t her god’s avatar. It was a chorus. A legion. It said, in a sing-song voice:I follow you home
We follow you home
I sing and we speak in mumbles and moans
You mimic my tone, repeating our poem
You bid all who will remember you come
but there are none
for they all have gone
I whisper, "Soon, we'll share a soul"
and now you know,
You should have run
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