The rest of the party is back in the garden of the Duke's Palace in Blackshore. Corus Copperscale helps them hide the Duke and Duchess in the stables near the garden, then he shows them the way into the palace. The sphere of Aseroth sits where it was left on the table in the dining hall. The minotaurs, ogres, and the Norselord himself slumber in the adjacent throne room.
They touch the sphere and are transported to the frosted vale. There they meet an ice elf who offers them the warmth of the fire in their lodge nearby. The party (Veszafein, Ilmak, Garrick, and Ottian) declines the elf's hospitality and continue on their way. Along the road they sense movement in the snow but continue along the path.
The two groups of adventurers cross paths near the tower and are reunited. Their joy is short-lived though as a great ice worm monster called a Rhemorhaz rears up from a snow drift and attacks. The party engages the beast who radiates heat so strong it burns those who come too close to it. The creature grabs Kodrus and swallows him whole, though the rest of the party manage to dispatch the beast and it regurgitates Kodrus in its death throws and he escapes death.
They enter the tower cautiously and find the basement is presently abandoned. They continue into the tower complex and find:
"A network of tunnels have been dug out of the ice and snow leading up to the main tower in Lady Gurmorel Glimmergaunt's magic school. You come to a large chamber up ahead where long ice bridges extend out over a gaping hole in the earth. Standing all around you are ice sculpters of various beings, some large and some small, some human and some monsterous. Their cold expressions greet you like an icy wind filling your lungs.
As you are passing over the chasm on the ice bridge, a handful of figures around you in the room regain their color and form, shifting from ice statues into solid breathing creatures. They advance quickly towards you to engage you in combat. You hear the slow rythmic beating of huge wings and feel a rush of cold air and the inescapable scent of rot and death from the pit below.
Turning to look down into the darkness you see the bloody reanimated form of Frostbite, the white dragon, daughter of aseroth rise up beside you. Her zombie-like form lurches upward stiffly and spasmodically, and a bluish diseased ichor drips from her maw as she gnashes her fangs with silent rage. Some of you remember the wounds well, as you inflicted them just days ago, but her undead form has already ripened significantly despite the cold, and a foul odor overpowers you all momentarily as you regain your bearings and prepare for battle."
The party fights off the servants of Aseroth, casting all but one of them into the pit below. They continue up a spiraling staircase into the tower where they find Gurmorel Glimmergaunt at the top of the tower:
"A woman with fair pale features sits on an elegant couch in the center of the circular room. To the left, a balcony with double closed doors is iced over, blocking the view outside of the snowstorm you hear battering against them faintly. Behind her is the mouth of aseroth, a great magical mirror with a reflective liquid-like surface that seems to breath or beat steadily, with slight ripples passing along it's surface from the center with each pulsation.
Sitting beside the woman on the couch is the frozen ice-form of Whosis Kid, his face staring off expressionless. Her arms are wrapped around his ice statue in an embrace and she is lapping hungrily at his cheek as you enter. The woman wears a heavy fur cloak with a hood hanging down over her eyes. As you enter she draws it back to view you."
Kodrus is unaffected upon entering the throne room (Drandis later notes this is because the curse Aseroth laid upon Gurmorel exempted servants of the dark six, including Minotaurs who are regarded as children of Baphomet). Thinking it is safe, Ilmak enters and is frozen into an ice statue by Gurmorel's ice medusa gaze.
Gurmorel can only see magical items and creatures she has turned into ice statues, so she addresses the party as the items they carry. Veszafein moves toward the balcony doors and causes a small blast of cold air to enter the passage. Gurmorel casts a powerful attack spell on Veszafein, but his cloak of cold resistance protects him.
Kodrus and Garrett plead with Gurmorel to understand that she has been tricked and that the world outside has been corrupted due to the trickery of Aseroth. She allows them to open the balcony doors to the outside, letting in a blast of cold air. She has a magical eye spell cast on Kodrus so she can see the outside world and regains some of her senses when she realizes that her kingdom has been corrupted. The delusional veil she lives in is briefly lifted.
She whispers in Kodrus' ear and he lifts her from her couch. She cannot move because her legs are permanently frozen by her curse:
"Kodrus carries Gurmorel Glimmergaunt's weak frame over towards the mouth of aseroth. The mirror pulsates with a cold dull hollow voice and speaks, "I am ready to receive your sacrifice. Who's soul do you offer me?" Kodrus speaks, "I offer myself to you." The mirror replies, "Kodrus, Barbarian from the pirate clans of the northern ice flows, Guardian of the house of Ottian the honorable of Ironview, Explorer of Gladomain, Liberator of Mistmeadow, Champion of Baphoment, Servant of Pale Night, Savior of the Eladrin, and Dragonslayer of Blackshore. It will be my pleasure to consume your soul!"
Kodrus steps forward carrying Gurmorel Glimmergaunt who also speaks, "Foul Aseroth, you have betrayed me, and now I seek passage to your realm in Soulfreeze where I undo our pact. Kadrus' soul will grant me passage to your world. May the legend of your treachery and failure outlive the memory of my own."
The mirror emits a hollow scream as Kodrus and Gurmorel pass through it, and a moment later the silver reflective surface freezes over into a solid hard plane. Outside you see the blizzard clear and the clouds retreating at an unnatural speed, revealing the sun in the heavens which rotates dizzyingly backwards in the sky orbiting in full in a matter of seconds, becoming night for a few breaths and then becoming day again. It seems as though many days has passed in this manner as if time is reversing itself, and you see the ice melting on the tower walls and the entire valley and tower seems to spin around mercilessly throwing you all to the floor, where you cling to the nearest objects holding on for dear life.
A great boom followed by a falling and crashing sensation lands you heavily back in the world of Gladomain, where you can see from the tower balcony you have been returned to the Silent Vale. Slowly, the residents of the once frozen valley begin to stir and gather in wonder around the thawed ruins of their once pleasant valley.
The bears bound playfully across the meadow. The ogres on the hillside leave their hall with great steins full of ice wine and their songs bellow across the once silent valley. The halflings roll out of the basement of the tower, holding each others hands and dancing in circles in the main courtyard, where they are joined by the pixes who have been restored to their true form and who flit around their heads.
You see the frost elves emerge from their lodge with cautious faces, and they begin gathering up the handful of Aseroth's servants who remain. They drag them kicking and screaming towards their hearth to be cooked and eaten. In the distance, you see many Rhemorhaz writhing on the ground, their boiling blood melting through their now too-warm skin.
The mouth of Aseroth crashes to the floor as Gurmorel Glimmergaunts body flies through it and the magic portal is shattered, destroyed forever. She moves slightly, then lays still, barely breathing and unconscious. Drandis the silver dragon lands on the balcony and squeezes his thick trunk and wings through the double doors where he crouches protectively over the lady of the tower. He nods his head towards you in a silent thankful acknowledgement. In the distance you hear a sound unheard in the silent vale for almost 1000 years birds singing…or rather cawing.
The Raven Queen appears as a flock of ravens who encircle the tower, blotting out the sun then form into her on the balcony (darkness envelopes the tower and blocks out the sun and sky) – she speaks:
Long ago, when Lady Glimmergaunt was a young and very powerful warlock, she made a pact with the Lord of Stygia, the icy realm in Baator, to keep the winters touch away from her valley and the surrounding area (which in those days included Lighthedge Point, SummerSpring, and Mistmeadow). The terms of the infernal pact where that upon her death her soul would be surrendered to the Lord of Stygia, but in return the lands would forever be free of Winter.
Lady Glimmergaunt grew very powerful with age and as she grew older she sought to thwart her earlier pact with the devil in Baator. She drafted a pact with me, the Raven Queen, so that I would grant her agelessness, under the condition that if at some point in time she was killed or wished to end her life, I would claim her soul. She did not however inform me of her earlier pact with the Lord of Stygia, and so there was a conflict of interest, as both I and Baator now had equal claim to Glimmergaunt's soul.
Aseroth, the Winter Warlock, learned of Glimmergaunt's treachery, and since he desired her for some time, he threatened to expose her fraud to the Lord of Stygia and me. Aseroth told her that if she came away with him he would save her life. Desperate to escape death, Gurmorel succumbed to Aseroth's charms and he dragged her and her realm into imprisonment somewhere between the elemental plane of ice and his home called Soulfreeze, a desolate layer of the Abyss.
When my servants investigated and I learned of her deception, I could not locate or rescue the Lady to exact my justice on her and her people. Now she has returned and I may do so, if I choose. But I have more pressing business to attend to. I like that you have offended Aseroth, as we are both rival immortal gods of winter, and I despise him. Also, I believe that we could be of some use to one another.
Orcus, my other rival immortal god of death, has an avatar on this world. He keeps all the souls he takes in his army's campaigns, when they should lawfully come to me in the Shadowfell. If you will pledge your service to me, I will grant you the power to wield Hellsong, the godslayer until such a time as you have destroyed his avatar on this world. At that point, our pact will end. Also, I will remit my claim to the soul of Lady Gurmorel Glimmergaunt in exchange for you rendering this service. Do you accept?"
Ilmak takes an oath to banish Orcus with the blade. The Raven queen quickly withdraws outside of striking range after granting Ilmak the full power of the godslayer. She addresses Garrett:
"I see that you are also plagued by the pestilent influence of Vecna. I know of this worm who haunts the Shadowfell, and seeks the power over death that is rightfully mine. His soul will suffer eternally for his defiance of me, and I will be rid of him one day before he can realize his dream of power over all gods. If you wish I can remove this burden for you."
Garret declines, claiming that he believes it is Ioun's wish that he bears the burden. She presents a dead gnoll's body before the party. The same one they saw in the throne room in Blackshore."This is Brock Mez'gar. Once he was a skilled assassin in the service of the dark six, but he was betrayed after he killed Emperor Goldspawn for them.
Putrid gnoll, I am resurrecting you so you can exact your vengeance on the dark six and your mortal enemy Lady Xyrlynn, the one who betrayed you, and sent your soul to me in the Shadowfell. You will be a loyal ally to these noble adventurers in their quest to thwart the dark six's plans for this world. Brock Mez'gar stirs and rises to his knees, bowing deeply before the Raven Queen. She hands him a black feather plucked from the collar of her cloak and hands it to him. When you have defeated Orcus, hold this feather and call to me. Then I will come to claim what is mine."
Brock rises. The party asks him how they know they can trust him and he assures them he will prove himself when they need him, then he takes his leave of the party. They decide to journey on to Mistmeadow, leaving Whosis Kid in the care of Drandis and Gurmorel until he recovers from being unfrozen and weakened by his ordeal. He spends his recovery time over the next few days sparing with the Ogres in the valley and drinking large quantities of ice wine and ogre mead.
On the road to Mistmeadow they meet Yllallae Serpenthelm from Lighthedge Point, who they met in the first session with the rest of her party. She reveals that Baron Redspawn in SummerSpring has conscripted all citizens to guard the city and declared martial law. She and the former mayor of SummerSpring lead a small group of deserters who came to the aid of Lighthedge Point and helped them drive back the goblins and some of the Norselord's raiders. The magical creatures of the Sybarite Isle including the Treant and the Leprechauns came to the aid of the city as well and helped them push back the invaders.
Yllallae's friends, the heroic trio of Blackshore, have helped restore the city and driven out the Norselord and the undead. Marfalcon Moonshadow has become a regent of the magic school there. Fahana Silverkin has taken over as master of the thieve's guild and Graward Shortcloak is now the Duke's Champion and personal bodyguard.
When they arrive in Mistmeadow they find the local elves and tell them they must help the elves in Glimmergaunt vale who have fallen into the practice of cannibalism. They agree to send a delegation to speak to the feral elves and help ease them into their new environment.
They go to the mayors house and find he has been badly injured in one leg and is mostly immobile now. Juliana and Orlando say that a red mist appears nightly from the ruins of Gladomain Keep and envelopes the city. Out of the mist appear terrible creatures who cover homes in black viscous webs, kill city watchmen, and consume residents in their homes. The slow siege, presumed to be an attack by the drow, has sapped the city of it's morale.
The watch sent a team to the ruins but they found there was no way into the underdark through the keep. All paths are sealed save some very narrow vents that carry the mist up through the statue of Tiamat in the ruin's courtyard.
The party offers to help and sets off for the ruins between SummerSpring and Ironview, directly east of Gladomain Keep. These ruins are the closest alternate route into the underdark. When they approach the ruins, two guard drakes rush out of a cave to attack them. Ilmak charges in through another entrance and surprises a half dozen troglodytes who rally and surround him.
A sorceress appears out of a passage nearby and begins casting spells on Ilmak. Garrick and Veszafein fight of a bullette/land shark that rises from the earth and attacks them. Garret and Yllallae take on the drakes, then help Ilmak finish off the Troglodytes, though Yllallae is badly injured. Vesafein and Garrick kill the bulette. Before they can press their attack to the mage in the cave she casts a spell that freezes their feet to the floor and she retreats into a tunnel leading down into the earth.
The party sets up camp to rest the night. Yllallae decides to stay behind to keep watch on the entrance while the rest of the party heads in. She will notify them if any follow and then will go attend to some other business in the area.
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