Breara Quilphestrie (Wood Elf Ranger) - City Watch
Indarna, Drake of Breara
NPC:
Arrigus Mistborn - Human Black Robed Wizard
Braid Lockpick - Kender Thief Rogue Borrower
Aushlay (Silvereyes) - Irda Red Robed Wizard
Embedded Files
Sailing from west from Blödehelm, they sail past the Scallsea and see their ship had been repaired (that had originally departed from Haligoth and been destroyed by the Blue Dragons - see Session 6: Jansburg and Haligoth and Session 7: Adrift and Dragon Highlords ). They continue to sail west through the Straits of Schallsea and then southwest through Straits of Algoni.
It is here, they make a choice - they could warn the Kagonesti Elves in Southern Ergoth of the coming attack from the Black Dragon Highlord and his army, and warn them that the Black Dragon Highlord is none other than the Chief's son, Kolvar, and that Ketharion had died confronting him... but they choose not to, and continue to sail southwest through, and into the Sirron Sea, where the winds blow colder as they eventually approach the Ice Mountain Bay.
The journey had taken several weeks and the harsh, cold winds of Icewall were not kind. The chilling, artic wind whipped around the vessel, freezing liquid quickly. As the edge of Icewall came into a view an unnatural cold gripped Tharrom, which he could not shake. Though he'd been on the ship with everyone else, there was an uneasy sense that he'd felt abandoned somehow. As Ronalyn, freezing from the crow's nest, called out that he could barely see the shoreline through the constant snowfall, Tharrom made his way down to his room and prayed to Gilean - and he felt no comfort, he heard no answer. His heart raced with fear as to what that could mean. In the time they'd sailed had the Dark Queen somehow found a way to silence the gods once more?
As the shoreline finally became more clear, despite the frigid snowfall, Feroz anchored the ship, and left it under the command of one of the others aboard the ship, who remained behind as he and the others; Ronalyn, Tycus, Breara, Tharrom, Thalia, Bedlam, Arrigus, Braid and Aushley, boarded a jolly boat and made way towards the shore. As the jolly boat drew closers, a small village of what appeared to be fishermen could be seen. Pulling the frozen jolly ship up to shore, they moved against the frigid wind that seemed to be pushing them back - pushing them away - almost as if telling them to go back, they'd forgotten something along the way.
With their blood freezing in their veins, their bodies shaking uncontrollably as if facing some unseen fear, they approached the fishing village, and were surprised to see it was not fishing village, but rather a small encampment of Knights - one of whom, they'd recognized as Heric Soulward. (See Session 4 - Liberation & Creatures! ).
Wrapped in bear furs, their armor dented, Heric looked, "I thought I was going mad when I saw a vessel in the Ice Mountain Bay," he admitted. "I thought surly, the Dragon Army now comes to finish us off."
"How did you end up here?" Ronalyn asked, the leather armor he wore did nothing to protect him against Icewall's freezing winds, his teeth chattered uncontrollably.
"After our run in with the Cridheolc in Hearthcrest," Heric replied, "and then the strange creatures we ran into later - who looked to be part dragon and part human," Heric shivered at the thought of the Draconians, "and after what you'd told us about the undead you'd encountered. I could not sit idly by. I returned to Palanthas to plead with them to take action, just as Yavun Faithbringer had been instructed to do - but they had turned him away and turned me away as well, not believing what we had told them. I began gathering other Knights, and despite my dislike of them, I employed several mercenaries as well to follow me. I had garnered a battalion of sixty to follow me. We'd gone to Haligoth to book passage to Abanasinia, with the idea of venturing to the southwest to speak with the Qualinesti. Imagine my horror when I found Haligoth in ruins. We were able to still book a passage after discovering dragons - Dragons! - had attacked." He shivered at the thought again. "Who could believe such a thing? Dragons? Real? But the destruction I saw in Haligoth could have been nothing else. We had been sailing south when we saw a ship baring a Blue Dragon symbol - and we gave pursuit. It traveled here to Icewall, but both of our ships were lost in the Icewall Mountain Bay, land-locked by the frost. As the cold grew, so did the ice, eventually crushing both of our ships. We'd given pursuit on foot, but we were slow in our armor, unable to move as quickly as the dragon-men had. Then they came," he looked at the few remaining soldiers, a force of sixty now reduced to ten. "White Dragons ambushed us. Time and time again. We had nowhere to go, our ship having been lost and sunk in Ice Mountain Bay. We found this abandoned village and survived on what little supplies were here, waiting for death to claim us, either in the form of starvation, frost or dragons."
"Dragon-men, the Draconians," Feroz looked at the others. "That sounds like the ones we'd chased off Schallsea. Then they've come here? Why would they come to Icewall?" Though covered in fur, it had not been enough to fight the chilling winds that wrapped around him.
"Perhaps they too seek the Tower," Tycus said, shivering, his arms wrapped around himself, like his mother had done when he was young, but not even his arms or the thoughts of his loving mother could keep him warm.
"No," Arrigus' teeth chattered in his mouth, his black robes, almost purely white, as it was covered by snow, "there is no way they would know of the Tower being here. Is there were White Dragons here, then they may be a Dragon Highlord here to contend with."
Aushley nodded in agreement, and turned to Heric, "Did you see any riders on these dragons?"
"Yes," Heric nodded, "there is a rider on one - he warned us that 'These lands belong to me, the master of the white dragons - Feal-Thas!' He appeared to be an elf, and by his accent, I would guess he was Silvanesti."
"A Dark Elf, then," Breara said, her own Qualinesti accent tumbling out in the frigid wind, as she spoke the words.
"Is that what all Silvansti are called?" Tharrom asked, unaware of what the comment had meant.
"No, a Dark Elf can apply to any - Silvanesti, Qualinest, Kagonesti - they are Elves that have been banished from elven society for a crime that they have committed or because they have turned their backs on good and chose Darkness." She paused and then added, in lower tones, "Though, some Dark Elves are may have done nothing more than fall in love with one who was above their station in society." She cleared her throat, "They are called Dark Elves because these elves have been 'cast from the light.'"
Thalia, though covered in fur, was native to a warm, humid swamp, wore little in the way of clothing or armor, as a barbarian, shivered. "Is there anything we can do about the cold?" She looked at Heric and saw he, and the other few Knights who all sat around a fire inside one of the primitive huts, wore polar bear skins.
"Yes," Heric offered his to Thalia, but she rejected it. "There are bears out in the blinding snow. But damn Icewall, it is night for three more months here. Hunting in the blinding snow in the endless dark, feels helpless. This has made spotting the white dragons that hunt almost impossible. I have men throughout Icewall who have perished because of the damn dragons - their bodies left behind and unrecoverable, now buried in the snow, never to be brought home and properly buried." Heric was hard on himself as he cursed his arrogance and fury. "To make matters worse, the Thanoi are everywhere."
"Thanoi?" Bedlam asked.
"Yes," Heric nodded. "The Thanoi, also called Walrus Men, are a barbarian race of walrus-folk that live here in Icereach. They are not overly intelligent, but are strong and immune to to this cursed cold. Most of them stand around eight feet tall, though walk with a hunch so their full height is not realized until they need to fight. Their mouths, much like a walrus, have massive tusks that can pierce our armor and crush flesh without effort. They claim all of Icereach as their homeland, and will battle both the Icefolk and the Ursoi here. They seem to have fallen under the command of the," he looked at Breara, "the dark elf."
Braid, seemingly uneffected by the cold, with his cheery disposition, chimed in, "Dragon Highlords are no problem! She killed one," he pointed to Breara, "and the other one was like a friend of ours. But then our other friend was his friend and they got in a fight and the Dragon Highlord killed our friend." Braid's expression grew sad as he thought of Ketharion.
Feroz shook his head, "The Black Dragon Highlord was not our friend," he corrected. "We were using the ruse of the Blue Dragon Army. We'd fought a Dragon Highlord on Schallsea - the Draconias you were chasing, we believe, may have been the commanders who were fleeing from us. They escaped on the eastern shore before we could stop them."
"And yet," Heric said, "you travel with a Black Robe Wizard," his eyes fell on Arrigus. "I did not question it, because I knew all of you from Hearthcrest, but it is strange you travel with one who follows the Dark Queen."
"My allegiance is not to the Dark Queen," Arrigus growled as he tried to fight off the cold. "It is to Nuitari."
"A Dark God," Heric persisted.
"My deal with my god is my own," Arrigus snapped. "You can either accept it or try to take me down now."
Tharrom stepped between Arrigus and Heric. "Yes, he wears black robes, but he has been an ally to us."
Heric eased, "It would seem desperate times make for desperate allies. We too, have made allies here. A race of bear-like people, who do not speak words, only use symbols, known as the Ursoi, have allied with us. They are bitter enemies of the Thanoi, it would seem, and more so with the Dragon Highlord."
Feroz winced. "We've encountered some Ursoi," he said, somewhat solemly. "They were with the Dragon Army." (See Session 5: New Companions. )
Thalia shook her head, snow fell from the frozen bits of her fur. "They were not with the Dragon Army," she growled. "They were enslaved, as I was."
"Well, we're going to need furs if we hope to find this Tower," Ronalyn said, shivering uncontrollably.
The deep stnow had made movement difficult. The non-stop blizzard and the eternal night skies of Icewall, made visibility impossible.
When three young dragons, acustomed to the dark and the snow, saw figures moving in the snow - they quickly grounded themselves ahead of the travlers, and allowed the snowfall to bury them.
Then at the perfect moment, with one directly in front and another on each side of it, they rose up from the snow and unleashed their breath.
Ronalyn accustomed to such surprise attacks managed to avoid the one in front of him, but the one on the left struck, then the one on the right struck, and he collapsed, no longer shivering, and barely alive. Feroz's thick hide, though he was still freezing, and his strength and endurance, allowed him to take all three breaths, but he was badly wounded. Next to him, Tycus still stood as well, though also badly wounded. Breara, Tharrom, Thalia, Bedlam, Arrigus, and Auslay had all fallen. Braid rushed up next to Feroz and Tycus and shouted, "White Dragons!"
Tycus quickly moved to Tharrom's side and channeled his Cataclysm stone magic to bring stabalize Tharrom, while Feroz drew his axe and prepared to fight the dragons.
I trusted you. Selected you. Believed in you. Tharrom heard a voice. Knowledge is our power. Knowledge I bestowed upon your mother, and her mother before her, then unto you. Silent I have remained, hidden, but always there. Knowledge I provided you. I expected you to share the Knowledge. You learned of the Black Dragon Army's plans. You knew they were headed for the Kagonesti Elves in Southern Ergoth. Your friend died defending his people against his best friend. I knew where the Tower was. I showed it to you. Icewall. I knew you would sail by Southern Ergoth. I expected you would stop there - warn them of what was coming. At least share that the Gods had returned. The Dragons had returned. They may not have believed you. But as a vessel of Knowledge picked by my hand, I expect you to share that with the Races of Light. You have disappointed me descendant of Haylie Starchaser. You were not there for me, and now I may not be there for you.
Tharrom awoke to a scream. He looked and saw his other companions badly wounded. The White Dragons were gone, but not the scars they'd left behind. "What happened?" he asked, his entire body wracked with uncontrollable pain, despite feeling as if he'd been frozen solid. The ice did nothing to numb the pain that throbbed throughout his body.
"Some horn sounded," Breara explained as she bandaged her frostbitten arm. "Called them away."
"They were toying with us," Feroz growled, clawed across his chest from two of the white dragons. "They could have finished us, but they were like cats playing with their food."
"They had to have been young dragons," Arrigus replied. "Not yet mature enough to see us as any kind of threat."
"Threat?" Tycus who was also frostbitten. "We were hardly any kind of threat to them."
"The fact they were, as the minotaur said, playing with their food, then called back by a horn," Arrigus replied, "tells me that they were young, out training to hunt, and called back after their training was done. If they were adult dragons, they would have eviscerated us all and not be beckoned by a horn to call them back. They would have probably also had riders, mercenaries, following the Dark Elf's command. But the young would be too small, too untrained, to bare riders."
As they marched, Tharrom began to think he was losing his mind... he heard voices in his head... Free us... save us... release us...
After several more hours of wandering through the snow, the harsh winds whipping them in every direction, frost so cold that it burns, something finally comes into view - and it is both welcoming and heartbreaking.
It is the abandoned fishing encampment that Heric and the other Knights of Solamnia had been using - they had gone in a circle and earned several layers of exhaustion. Resting in the encampment provided no long rest because of the relentless cold. "We're going to die out here," Breara whispered.
Once again, risking the snow, venturing forward, they traveled several hours into the barren, white, frost-land, Breara finally spots a cave, and coming from the cave, the scent of death. Drawing closer, she sees several slain polar bears inside the cave. But what had killed them?
Breara waited - half expecting a white dragon to emerge from the frost. Together they moved closer, and reached the inside of the cave. Thalia began skinning one of the bears, with Feroz directing her on how to make the cuts with her claws. As Thalia begins moving to the next one, Ronalyn begins stealthing further down the cave.
Feroz hisses, "Be careful. I've heard of frozen beasts that hunt polar bears. Creatures known as frost salamanders dwell in these kinds of conditions."
Ronalyn reappeared several moments later, describing a creature he'd seen.
"That's a frost salamander," Feroz confirmed. "Frost salamanders prey on elk, polar bears, and other creatures sharing their territory. When hunting, a frost salamanders burrow deep below the snow and ice and lies in wait for the faint vibrations created by a creature moving above it. Their six legs make them quick and they have a breath weapon, just like those white dragons we just encountered."
A brief battle with the frost salamander allows them to take shelter from the cold for a moment as they harvest the remaining skins of the polar bears, enough to protect themselves somewhat against the cold. A small patrol of Thanoi were spotted and dispatched also - but as the last Thanoi fell, an all too familiar sound of a dragon horn sounded.
Then all around them, a roaring dragon...
.... to be continued...
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