Session 5: Trek to Ten-Towns

Ezahne seems to calm don't a little as Agna mentions the blizzard passing soon. "But the ... that thing... It's back there. We can't go back that way? Maybe we can close the door and wait here?" she says, considering the terrible archeological loss of destroying the caves.

As soon as Agna leaves the room, and despite telling the scholars to stay put and not touch anything or go anywhere, Adaia decides to cross the bridge, fascinated by their finding. The others obviously follow, even if they are not as comfortable as they would be, knowing the orc might return at any time...

On the other side of the pit, Adaia finds her way to another chamber through a number of collapsed chambers and dead ends. The floor of this chamber is broken open at the center, with chunks of ice lying strewn. The elf immediately notices that this chamber is frigid compared to the rest of the caves. She would say even colder than the blizzard outside. A quick inspection tells Adaia that the ice is free of dust and so, it must have formed recently. Confirming her suspicion, she spots an icy tunnel between the partially collapsed rear of the room. The slope upwards and the icy winds coming from it, suggests it might lead outside.

"There's more of those writings here" Nass points out to Ezanhe, who quickly checks them.

It takes Agna a little bit to find Beorne, as he is constantly moving between tunnels, busy setting up the caravan to wait out the storm. The dwarf doesn't looks surprised as he hears the news from the orc. "Another two?" he sighs. "We already have some guards fall fer an ambush of em piercer creatures. Fell from the dark ta feed on soem good dwarves." He looks around to give some orders order the other traders. "Helda be cleanin the tunnels to be sure we can wait the storm safe." He stops for a moment, worried about something. "Aye, ye have anything in mind ta help?"

Adaia looks around the ruined place, finding nothing left but the old writings. What surprises her the most is that she actually recognizes those symbols! These are not the same as those from the door. Instead of Netherese, these are elven. Probably much more recent than the ruins themselves. It seems to be describing some sort of ancient ritual. It mentions how the Netherese found and used a naturally magic absorbing gem they called chardalyn and how the writer found a small trove of it in some old ruins. The ritual involved sacrificing seven of their most illustrious elders and bind the necromantic energies to these gems, which were used to craft a dark staff. The ritual is described as a replication of the creation of some legendary crystal shard... called crenshinibon.

"Hey!" Ezahne's shout distracts Adaia from the text. "This ice here looks different. It doesn't seem to melt the way the other does."

Beorne agrees with Agna and starts regrouping. Though it is clear he is not directly responsible for the other merchants who joined the dangerous trail at their own risk, his job being to lead them to Ten-Towns means he is still responsible for making sure they do so alive. Happy with the dwarf's response, the orc returns to check on those 3 wizards. There is a reason why wizards tend to die first, and that's because they can't keep their hands off of dangerous witchcraft stuff.

As Agna returns, she figures out they had already entered another chamber while she was away... She continues until she finds both Nass and Ezahne close to a deep gap in the broken floor, carefully inspecting pieces of broken ice. Adaia is in the far corner of the room, close to some strange, possibly cursed, writings.

And that's the moment that the chamber shudders... Ezahne and Nass struggling for balance...

Nass and Ezahne, surprised to see Agna return, quickly move away from the gap on the floor, though Ezahne stops to grab some of the ice crystals just a little further, taking advantage of the orc's distraction as Adaia to show the exit. It doesn't take a second after the elf mentions her bad feeling or an immense creature to crash through the new exit tunnel into the room, filling it with a shower of show and ice.

As the snow and powdered ice settles, a huge creature with shards of blood frozen into its fur and feathers comes into view. Callous intent burning in her crystalline blue eyes, she stares intently at you and lets loos an ear-piercing shriek.

You hear an earsplitting crack coming from the ceiling just about Ezahne, the scholar turning her eyes away from the ice she was collecting, freezing in terror as a huge chuck of ice starts to detach.

Adaia is terrified of the huge beast and for a good reason. As the elf cowers, she witnesses the huge chuck of ice detaching from the ceiling with an earsplitting crack and crashing to the ground with immeasurable force. The only thing of where Ezahne once stood frozen in panic is a pile of shattered ice and the slowly growing pool of dark-red blood...

"Oh gods! I'm not dying here!" Nass shouts terrified, a beam blue-white light streaks from her hands as she uses the first spell she can remember to attack the creature. The beast seems to ignore her magic, staring at Agna as the orc seems to challenge it.