Post by Dead Greyhawk on Jun 4, 2007 20:56:13 GMT -5
Winthrop and Hugh materialize, not outside, in front of the Hall as Hugh expected, but instead inside the hidden storeroom where the Company has stored its spare equipment and assorted coinage. Hugh blanches at the sight of the low ceiling. “The chance of dying during teleport is small,” mutters Winthrop. “The increased chance from teleporting indoors is still small. The surety and security of this location was worth the risk.” Indeed, the storeroom has clearly lain undisturbed since the Company left. Dust and grime cover the floor, and no footprints are visible in the dusty, grimy layer.
Winthrop carefully approaches the hidden door and removes from it a folded piece of paper marked “SECRET! DO NOT READ!” in broad, square print. With a smile, he puts the paper, unread, in his pocket. Quietly saying a word under his breath, he opens the door slightly, the door’s minute hesitation showing its magical seal. Peeking through the crack, Winthrop sees a very full Hall of the Blue Sun. The inn established by Dell either is doing a booming business, or it has been occupied by armed men. Winthrop eases the door shut, its wards sealing again.
He and Hugh discuss their options. Winthrop keenly remembers his last homecoming, where Diego and Maximilian were slain by Turrock the Spider and his mercenaries. He has no wish to relive the experience. Finally, they decide on a plan. Winthrop summons and sits on his chest, reading through his books of spells, memorizing for hours on end. Once prepared, he casts his spells.
Hugh anxiously waits while Winthrop stands in the middle of the room, his eyes darting wildly, his body jerking slightly. Winthrop’s attention focuses back to Hugh. “Good news,” he opines. “The men camped outside wear the sign of Keoland, even though those in the inn itself are a motley bunch. I reckon they are officers, scouts, or mercenaries. It’s always so hard to tell the best from the worst. In any case, a short dimensional hop will allow us to appear outside, outdoors, and amidst them.”
Just in case, Winthrop and Hugh cast wards and benisons to protect themselves from assault, since their sudden appearance will likely be quite startling. With a deep breath, out they teleport, stepping through a faint dimensional rift. The Keoish soldiers camped outside are indeed surprised, jumping up in alarm and reaching for their weapons. “Who are you to camp in my yard? Who? WHO!” bellows Winthrop at the frightened men. Clad in mountaineering gear and accompanied by an armored man with a flaming sword, Winthrop and Hugh are a bizarre, imposing presence.
Eventually the chaos subsides as an officer is found. Winthrop starts berating the poor lieutenant, one Rupert, when suddenly Frank and Thomas Church arrive on the scene, vouching for Winthrop and his word. It seems that more than one force camps outside the Hall of the Blue Sun, and one of them is led by Frank. Frank and Thomas Church hustle Winthrop and Hugh out of the courtyard and into the Hall of the Blue Sun, Lieutenant Rupert trailing along behind. Space is cleared at one of the larger tables, and the motley bunch of men, seen earlier by Winthrop and who appear to report to Frank, keep the others back.
Frank is overjoyed to see Winthrop and explains that much has happened in the months since the Company was last in Longspear. He babbles somewhat incoherently and without clarity tales about war and law and giants. After much repetition and expansion by Lieutenant Rupert, a clearer story emerges.
Following the assaults on the Yeomanry and the banns calling soldiers to war in Sterich, the Army of Keoland and the Keoish militia were mobilized. Many troops were sent into Sterich, to aid the missing Earl by repelling those fouls creatures that had flowed out of the Crystalmist Mountains. Early successes emboldened the Keoish leaders, and they pushed the humanoids hard, breaking them under the charges of heavy cavalry. All was a false success though, as one night, when most forces had by then been committed deep in Sterich, forces appeared from nowhere and attacked from all sides. The militia cracked under the strain, and only the iron discipline of the Keoish regulars allowed any to survive the long march out from Sterich.
The Javan River forms a natural barrier between Keoland and its vassal state, and the Army used it as a place to regroup and entrench. Men moved forward from the personal armies of the Keoish Lords to bolster the surprisingly weak line between Sterich and Keoland. It was then that Longspear was beset.
On the wrong side of the Javan River, Longspear proved vulnerable. An army of orcs boiled out of the Jotens into the Little Hills. With many of the city’s forces already deployed to the river crossing along the King’s Road, further north, Sir Highrider planned to rely on the strength of the walls of Longspear to protect the city. The men of the merchant houses and his personal forces could sortie forth and defeat the besiegers in detail, while the walls held strong. Commerce across the river in food and arms cannot be easily impeded, given Longspear’s port and the great draft of the Javan downstream.
Sir Highrider’s plan was sound until the giants appeared. With great boulders, the giants dispersed those men of the city who raided the orc encampment and demolished the city walls. The orcs and giants broke through and ravaged the temple district, defiling the shrines along the Holy Walk and the temples themselves. Longspear’s defenders were able to drive the orcs out, but, with the city walls breached, have been unable to retake the temple district.
Scattered after their sorties, Frank, who leads the Colnets’ men and claims to speak for the Colnets, met Lieutenant Rupert and his squad. Knowing of the Morning Star Inn as a safehold for the Colnet merchant caravans, Frank led his retainers and Rupert’s men up into the Little Hills to regroup and rebuild their strength. Men still stream into the camp, the remnants of companies broken and trapped outside the city walls. The Inn is a secure location, at least as secure as any location in the mountains can be.
Winthrop listens gravely to these events and sends Hugh out among the soldiers to heal their wounds and learn more about the state of things. He then goes to talk with Thomas Church about Morning Star Inn and its operation. Thomas visibly blanches at the blood-spattered, begrimed countenance before him, but refuses all of Winthrop’s inquiries. “The Inn is Master Dell’s property, and no one but Master Dell is to learn the details of its operations,” Thomas informs Winthrop.
Winthrop grinds his teeth at Dell’s impudence and informs Thomas Church that he must clear the Inn of visitors. Winthrop will be using the common room of the Inn for magics dangerous to behold. The thought of evicting the soldiers that have secured the Inn so far is enough to make a pale man paler, and Thomas Church begins to stammer at Winthrop about the impossibility of doing so. “Send any who complain to me,” begins Winthrop, “but have them bring a letter noting their kinsmen. I grow quickly annoyed.” The Inn is cleared by the end of evening dinner.
Winthrop and Hugh send the Churches to their quarters and then secure the Hall of the Blue Sun, warding the doors. They then confer. Hugh relates that Longspear seems in a bad way. He spoke with several men who escaped the city in the battle for the walls and with others who Frank has sent on a rotating basis to keep an eye on the city.
Frank believes that the temples were the target of the attack, since the temple district is not a natural weak point in the defense of Longspear. Giants, hill he thinks, bombarded the walls while orcs scaled them. Several gates were opened from within by creatures that suddenly appeared from nowhere. Frank and his men were in the merchant quarter when the attack started, and so he did not see the battle in the temple district first-hand. He does not know if they were shrunken giants, like Gador, or if they were spellcasters that became visible or if they were forces more foul.
It seems that the Temple of Trithereon held the temple quarter to the last and suffered heavy casualties. The temple levy, those fighters always practicing near the temple, sacrificed themselves so that the wounded could be withdrawn into the merchant quarter. The whereabouts of High Priest Arthurus is unknown. The merchant family armies have both infiltrated men out of the city, like Frank and his boys, as well as hired reinforcements from Keoland, shipping them in on barges from the remains of the refugee camps upriver.
The priests of Phyton were mainly absent from the fray, having retreated up into the nobles quarter early on. The nobility have heavily fortified their high ground and have used ships in the Javan to both resupply themselves and bombard the besiegers.
The Pelorites, including Maximilian Sol’Invictus and High Priest Abernathy Wernack, fought on the walls of the city beside the dwarven guard, suffering heavy losses. When the temple quarter fell, a great light was emitted from the Temple of Pelor, blinding the orcs and allowing the dwarven guard and the remaining Pelorites to fall back into the warrens of dwarves. One of Frank's men saw several dwarven priests of Moridin fall during the fighting, but Frank denies that any were Garvin Orccrusher.
As far as Frank is aware, the Temple of Pelor is no more. The other two temples and the wall of shrines, while intact, are most certainly defiled. Frank's men tell that the orcs and giants occupy the temple district, launching raids at sallyports and throwing boulders at the internal walls of Loftwick. They assume that the invaders are tunnelling to bypass the internal walls. Large bonfires have been lit and flaming brands sent over the walls in both directions in mutual attempts to burn each other out.
Since the giants throw boulders, the orcs need no siege engines. Frank assumes that is why the standard practice during sieges of lobbing the dead over the walls to break the defenders' morale has not taken place. Instead, the dead have been either left in place or dragged aside when blocking the way. Hugh did not have the heart to tell him about the waves of undead encountered by Gitmo and Naboth in Sterich.
Hugh’s words weigh heavily on Winthrop, but what must be done, must be done. Winthrop sends a short message back to the rest of the Company, "Safe at Hall. Strange armored men occupy it. More tomorrow." He grins at Hugh. “Dell’s going to love that,” chuckles Winthrop.
The two of them head into the secret chamber again and begin the unloading process. Hugh dumps the contents of Dell’s pouch into one corner. Winthrop calls the massively heavy chest back from the ether and begins hauling the bodies out from inside it. The three corpses are stacked unceremoniously on the floor while the coins and other valuables are literally shoveled from the chest, the careful bundles tossed hither and yon. “Al’s going to love sorting this again,” quips Hugh.
Emptying the chest takes a surprisingly long time, and it is the early morning before they finish. They drag the three corpses back into the common room, release the wards sealing the Hall, and promptly fall asleep. A long rest and recovery, followed by an even longer period of memorization, provides Winthrop with much needed energy and rejuvenation. He comes out of his room much less annoyed than before, but finds only Thomas, Hugh, and the pile of corpses in the Inn’s common room. Thomas stares glumly at the corpses. “I’ve shrived the dead,” says Hugh.
“Keep the short one for experimentation,” jokes Winthrop. “The others can go into the cemetery on my coinage.” Winthrop extends a pile of giant-sized gold coins to Thomas, who takes what Winthrop proffers and heads out to find some men willing to labor at grave digging. “Did you find any holy water?” asks Winthrop of Hugh. Hugh frowns and shakes his head. “Let’s get Pfiffwin back into the chest then.”
Once Pfiffwin is secreted away again, Winthrop prepares to depart for the glacier. Surrounding himself with wards, and with Hugh casting benisons on him, he begins his casting. As Thomas Church enters the Inn with a group of Colnet retainers, Winthrop thunders a short string of syllables and vanishes, a slight wind stirring the room.
The cold is amazingly sharp as Winthrop appears in the glacial hall, surrounded by ice and stone. The rest of the Company huddles near the kitchen, with Otto and Diego keeping a weary watch. The sudden presence of a clean, groomed, rested Winthrop is a shock and surprise to them both, but they soon recover. Winthrop relates to the others the events that have transpired outside of Longspear. Dell is pleased by the Churches’ loyalty, but is even more convinced of the need to quickly return to Longspear and his investment.
The Company has not been idle in the day that Winthrop was gone. Adrienne used her new dragon bones to augur whether the scrolls found in Jarl Grugnir’s den would be of weal or woe to the Company. All of the scrolls appeared to be beneficial, but one of the scrolls was cursed! The first scroll was opened by Oaklock and revealed to contain mighty magics, written by an archmage. The second was the cursed scroll. When he opened and read over it, Oaklock was almost turned into a block of featureless flesh, only his natural affinities for magic saving him. Oaklock was greatly shaken by the event and refused to open any other scrolls.
Raven took up the burden of reading the remaining two, having faith in Adrienne’s augury. The third scroll was protective in nature, but the fourth was not. It exploded in Raven’s face, almost slaying him. Only through the quick response of Adrienne, who prayed for Raven, was his death avoided. Whatever was on the scroll, it was important to someone, but it was lost when the scroll was.
Cedrus and Adrienne have spent much time sequestered with Oaklock and Dell, speaking in tongues with the dead giants. It was a long and tiring process, as many of the dead were strong personalities and struggled against the yoke of Ehlonna. Surprisingly, the spirit of the great albino giant, Caplings, spoke, not being consumed by the Dead God as the human priests have been.
The ogre magi related that they were negotiating with Grugnir for the services of their lord, Tuala Makar. Tuala Makar is somewhere to the south, in the mountains near the Yeomanry. Grugnir wished for more high quality armor to gird his ogre minions and for the aid of the ogre magi in scouting the enemy forces. The ogre magi defeated by the Company were to bring back Grugnir's acceptance of Tuala Makar's requirements, which would have sealed the pact between them. Raven believes that since the Company has that document, taken from the last ogre mage, Tuala will believe that Grugnir has negotiated in bad faith and will not act on Grugnir's behalf.
Caplings spoke of darker things than mere mortal alliances. He answered the Company’s questions about the red mists that come at the cloud giant’s beck and call. These mists, translated poorly as Cloud Demons, are the servants of one of the dead god's minions. The Cloud Demons are summoned through blood sacrifice and rite and appear almost instantaneously, even though they do not serve the Dead God directly. Caplings haughtily claimed that the Cloud Giants are the only giants capable of summoning them.
When told of this, Olganni disagrees with its fundament, but agrees in its practical applicability. She thinks the cloud giants are the only giants who have fallen under the Banished One's sway who can work the summoning. She points out that the other giants have degenerated too far, and only the cloud and storm giants retain their powers. This is why she and her two brothers had hoped to sway the cloud giants to ally with them, rather than with the Banished One's minions. She suspects that a storm giant could also summon the Cloud Demons if the storm giant had been perverted. Olganni grows increasingly distressed talking about the perversion of giantkind and the return of the Banished One, her anger growing and growing. Finally, she leaves the presence of the Company and works out some of her anger by throwing ice chunks into the walls.
Caplings also claimed that all power runs to the Banished One, and that the souls of his priests are consumed for his health. Caplings was not a priest; he keeps his soul. Smalluns sacrifice their souls to achieve the oneness that allows the Banished One to work through them. They are strengthened by the Banished One's direct touch.
Sensing that Caplings’s ego was as large as his size, Cedrus was able to get his spirit to ramble by asking open-ended questions. The most productive response was about the black dome covering Istvin. Caplings claimed the black dome is the work of one of the Banished One's minions as well. It captures the leaders of the invaded lands, first by providing an impenetrable barrier and then second by allowing only the most powerful through it at a later date. Thus, first, the leaders and then, second, those who would save the leaders are taken. The dome is a portal to an unknown place, where the Banished One's minion deals with those taken.
The fire giants were less ego-filled than Caplings, but even their spirits had some nuggets of information. They claimed that Jarl Grugnir is Snurre's inferior and takes orders from him. Grugnir had given tribute to the fire giants to take with them when they were leaving. One of the fire giants suspected Grugnir of being allied with another force, double-crossing Snurre, but didn't know who it was. According to the fire giant, the treaty with Tuala Makar was Snurre's idea, but he gave the job the Grugnir because of Nosnra's failure. Nosnra, closer to the ogre magi overlord, was supposed to make contact, but failed to do so before dying. Nosnra was replaced by Groorg, the Mountain King, but Groorg competes with Snurre. Even though Groorg's has powerful magic, the fire giant remained confident in his king.
The hill giants were easily tricked into giving up substantial information and incidentally confirmed parts of Olganni’s story. They claimed that Lady Solka, Nosnra’s wife, led her people here after the Company destroyed Nosnra's steading. She entered into a relationship with Grugnir and his wife Amroth. Grugnir was also courting a storm giantess prisoner to add to his harem. They claimed that this was a plan by Lady Solka to split Grugnir from his wife and install Solka in her place. Solka also was convincing Grugnir to ally with another power, a powerful spellcaster. The beginnings of an alliance had started; trade had been established, but no formal military alliance begun. A delegation had just gotten furs ready to trek across the ice with a gift, a silver statue of a bear, probably the one stolen by Gitmo, to help seal the alliance when the blizzard rose up.
The delegation was heading to what sounds like an ice castle, where they would give the present to the powerful spellcaster's minion. The hill giant spirits state that Lord Evron Springbear and Harthal Whiteheart were the names of the minions to be met. It seems obvious from the names that spellcaster’s minions are the elves seen on the glacier. Besides the elvish names, the giants also spoke of ice ships sailing the glacier, as well as the frightening steeds they ride. The hill giants seemed somewhat in awe of the powers of the ice elves and were very proud of Lady Solka conniving to ally with their master.
Once the Company has been collectively informed, they move on to the next step in escaping the Jarl’s Hall. Winthrop, who is prepared to immediately return, is stopped by Dell, who tells him, “I have a plan.”
Winthrop carefully approaches the hidden door and removes from it a folded piece of paper marked “SECRET! DO NOT READ!” in broad, square print. With a smile, he puts the paper, unread, in his pocket. Quietly saying a word under his breath, he opens the door slightly, the door’s minute hesitation showing its magical seal. Peeking through the crack, Winthrop sees a very full Hall of the Blue Sun. The inn established by Dell either is doing a booming business, or it has been occupied by armed men. Winthrop eases the door shut, its wards sealing again.
He and Hugh discuss their options. Winthrop keenly remembers his last homecoming, where Diego and Maximilian were slain by Turrock the Spider and his mercenaries. He has no wish to relive the experience. Finally, they decide on a plan. Winthrop summons and sits on his chest, reading through his books of spells, memorizing for hours on end. Once prepared, he casts his spells.
Hugh anxiously waits while Winthrop stands in the middle of the room, his eyes darting wildly, his body jerking slightly. Winthrop’s attention focuses back to Hugh. “Good news,” he opines. “The men camped outside wear the sign of Keoland, even though those in the inn itself are a motley bunch. I reckon they are officers, scouts, or mercenaries. It’s always so hard to tell the best from the worst. In any case, a short dimensional hop will allow us to appear outside, outdoors, and amidst them.”
Just in case, Winthrop and Hugh cast wards and benisons to protect themselves from assault, since their sudden appearance will likely be quite startling. With a deep breath, out they teleport, stepping through a faint dimensional rift. The Keoish soldiers camped outside are indeed surprised, jumping up in alarm and reaching for their weapons. “Who are you to camp in my yard? Who? WHO!” bellows Winthrop at the frightened men. Clad in mountaineering gear and accompanied by an armored man with a flaming sword, Winthrop and Hugh are a bizarre, imposing presence.
Eventually the chaos subsides as an officer is found. Winthrop starts berating the poor lieutenant, one Rupert, when suddenly Frank and Thomas Church arrive on the scene, vouching for Winthrop and his word. It seems that more than one force camps outside the Hall of the Blue Sun, and one of them is led by Frank. Frank and Thomas Church hustle Winthrop and Hugh out of the courtyard and into the Hall of the Blue Sun, Lieutenant Rupert trailing along behind. Space is cleared at one of the larger tables, and the motley bunch of men, seen earlier by Winthrop and who appear to report to Frank, keep the others back.
Frank is overjoyed to see Winthrop and explains that much has happened in the months since the Company was last in Longspear. He babbles somewhat incoherently and without clarity tales about war and law and giants. After much repetition and expansion by Lieutenant Rupert, a clearer story emerges.
Following the assaults on the Yeomanry and the banns calling soldiers to war in Sterich, the Army of Keoland and the Keoish militia were mobilized. Many troops were sent into Sterich, to aid the missing Earl by repelling those fouls creatures that had flowed out of the Crystalmist Mountains. Early successes emboldened the Keoish leaders, and they pushed the humanoids hard, breaking them under the charges of heavy cavalry. All was a false success though, as one night, when most forces had by then been committed deep in Sterich, forces appeared from nowhere and attacked from all sides. The militia cracked under the strain, and only the iron discipline of the Keoish regulars allowed any to survive the long march out from Sterich.
The Javan River forms a natural barrier between Keoland and its vassal state, and the Army used it as a place to regroup and entrench. Men moved forward from the personal armies of the Keoish Lords to bolster the surprisingly weak line between Sterich and Keoland. It was then that Longspear was beset.
On the wrong side of the Javan River, Longspear proved vulnerable. An army of orcs boiled out of the Jotens into the Little Hills. With many of the city’s forces already deployed to the river crossing along the King’s Road, further north, Sir Highrider planned to rely on the strength of the walls of Longspear to protect the city. The men of the merchant houses and his personal forces could sortie forth and defeat the besiegers in detail, while the walls held strong. Commerce across the river in food and arms cannot be easily impeded, given Longspear’s port and the great draft of the Javan downstream.
Sir Highrider’s plan was sound until the giants appeared. With great boulders, the giants dispersed those men of the city who raided the orc encampment and demolished the city walls. The orcs and giants broke through and ravaged the temple district, defiling the shrines along the Holy Walk and the temples themselves. Longspear’s defenders were able to drive the orcs out, but, with the city walls breached, have been unable to retake the temple district.
Scattered after their sorties, Frank, who leads the Colnets’ men and claims to speak for the Colnets, met Lieutenant Rupert and his squad. Knowing of the Morning Star Inn as a safehold for the Colnet merchant caravans, Frank led his retainers and Rupert’s men up into the Little Hills to regroup and rebuild their strength. Men still stream into the camp, the remnants of companies broken and trapped outside the city walls. The Inn is a secure location, at least as secure as any location in the mountains can be.
Winthrop listens gravely to these events and sends Hugh out among the soldiers to heal their wounds and learn more about the state of things. He then goes to talk with Thomas Church about Morning Star Inn and its operation. Thomas visibly blanches at the blood-spattered, begrimed countenance before him, but refuses all of Winthrop’s inquiries. “The Inn is Master Dell’s property, and no one but Master Dell is to learn the details of its operations,” Thomas informs Winthrop.
Winthrop grinds his teeth at Dell’s impudence and informs Thomas Church that he must clear the Inn of visitors. Winthrop will be using the common room of the Inn for magics dangerous to behold. The thought of evicting the soldiers that have secured the Inn so far is enough to make a pale man paler, and Thomas Church begins to stammer at Winthrop about the impossibility of doing so. “Send any who complain to me,” begins Winthrop, “but have them bring a letter noting their kinsmen. I grow quickly annoyed.” The Inn is cleared by the end of evening dinner.
Winthrop and Hugh send the Churches to their quarters and then secure the Hall of the Blue Sun, warding the doors. They then confer. Hugh relates that Longspear seems in a bad way. He spoke with several men who escaped the city in the battle for the walls and with others who Frank has sent on a rotating basis to keep an eye on the city.
Frank believes that the temples were the target of the attack, since the temple district is not a natural weak point in the defense of Longspear. Giants, hill he thinks, bombarded the walls while orcs scaled them. Several gates were opened from within by creatures that suddenly appeared from nowhere. Frank and his men were in the merchant quarter when the attack started, and so he did not see the battle in the temple district first-hand. He does not know if they were shrunken giants, like Gador, or if they were spellcasters that became visible or if they were forces more foul.
It seems that the Temple of Trithereon held the temple quarter to the last and suffered heavy casualties. The temple levy, those fighters always practicing near the temple, sacrificed themselves so that the wounded could be withdrawn into the merchant quarter. The whereabouts of High Priest Arthurus is unknown. The merchant family armies have both infiltrated men out of the city, like Frank and his boys, as well as hired reinforcements from Keoland, shipping them in on barges from the remains of the refugee camps upriver.
The priests of Phyton were mainly absent from the fray, having retreated up into the nobles quarter early on. The nobility have heavily fortified their high ground and have used ships in the Javan to both resupply themselves and bombard the besiegers.
The Pelorites, including Maximilian Sol’Invictus and High Priest Abernathy Wernack, fought on the walls of the city beside the dwarven guard, suffering heavy losses. When the temple quarter fell, a great light was emitted from the Temple of Pelor, blinding the orcs and allowing the dwarven guard and the remaining Pelorites to fall back into the warrens of dwarves. One of Frank's men saw several dwarven priests of Moridin fall during the fighting, but Frank denies that any were Garvin Orccrusher.
As far as Frank is aware, the Temple of Pelor is no more. The other two temples and the wall of shrines, while intact, are most certainly defiled. Frank's men tell that the orcs and giants occupy the temple district, launching raids at sallyports and throwing boulders at the internal walls of Loftwick. They assume that the invaders are tunnelling to bypass the internal walls. Large bonfires have been lit and flaming brands sent over the walls in both directions in mutual attempts to burn each other out.
Since the giants throw boulders, the orcs need no siege engines. Frank assumes that is why the standard practice during sieges of lobbing the dead over the walls to break the defenders' morale has not taken place. Instead, the dead have been either left in place or dragged aside when blocking the way. Hugh did not have the heart to tell him about the waves of undead encountered by Gitmo and Naboth in Sterich.
Hugh’s words weigh heavily on Winthrop, but what must be done, must be done. Winthrop sends a short message back to the rest of the Company, "Safe at Hall. Strange armored men occupy it. More tomorrow." He grins at Hugh. “Dell’s going to love that,” chuckles Winthrop.
The two of them head into the secret chamber again and begin the unloading process. Hugh dumps the contents of Dell’s pouch into one corner. Winthrop calls the massively heavy chest back from the ether and begins hauling the bodies out from inside it. The three corpses are stacked unceremoniously on the floor while the coins and other valuables are literally shoveled from the chest, the careful bundles tossed hither and yon. “Al’s going to love sorting this again,” quips Hugh.
Emptying the chest takes a surprisingly long time, and it is the early morning before they finish. They drag the three corpses back into the common room, release the wards sealing the Hall, and promptly fall asleep. A long rest and recovery, followed by an even longer period of memorization, provides Winthrop with much needed energy and rejuvenation. He comes out of his room much less annoyed than before, but finds only Thomas, Hugh, and the pile of corpses in the Inn’s common room. Thomas stares glumly at the corpses. “I’ve shrived the dead,” says Hugh.
“Keep the short one for experimentation,” jokes Winthrop. “The others can go into the cemetery on my coinage.” Winthrop extends a pile of giant-sized gold coins to Thomas, who takes what Winthrop proffers and heads out to find some men willing to labor at grave digging. “Did you find any holy water?” asks Winthrop of Hugh. Hugh frowns and shakes his head. “Let’s get Pfiffwin back into the chest then.”
Once Pfiffwin is secreted away again, Winthrop prepares to depart for the glacier. Surrounding himself with wards, and with Hugh casting benisons on him, he begins his casting. As Thomas Church enters the Inn with a group of Colnet retainers, Winthrop thunders a short string of syllables and vanishes, a slight wind stirring the room.
The cold is amazingly sharp as Winthrop appears in the glacial hall, surrounded by ice and stone. The rest of the Company huddles near the kitchen, with Otto and Diego keeping a weary watch. The sudden presence of a clean, groomed, rested Winthrop is a shock and surprise to them both, but they soon recover. Winthrop relates to the others the events that have transpired outside of Longspear. Dell is pleased by the Churches’ loyalty, but is even more convinced of the need to quickly return to Longspear and his investment.
The Company has not been idle in the day that Winthrop was gone. Adrienne used her new dragon bones to augur whether the scrolls found in Jarl Grugnir’s den would be of weal or woe to the Company. All of the scrolls appeared to be beneficial, but one of the scrolls was cursed! The first scroll was opened by Oaklock and revealed to contain mighty magics, written by an archmage. The second was the cursed scroll. When he opened and read over it, Oaklock was almost turned into a block of featureless flesh, only his natural affinities for magic saving him. Oaklock was greatly shaken by the event and refused to open any other scrolls.
Raven took up the burden of reading the remaining two, having faith in Adrienne’s augury. The third scroll was protective in nature, but the fourth was not. It exploded in Raven’s face, almost slaying him. Only through the quick response of Adrienne, who prayed for Raven, was his death avoided. Whatever was on the scroll, it was important to someone, but it was lost when the scroll was.
Cedrus and Adrienne have spent much time sequestered with Oaklock and Dell, speaking in tongues with the dead giants. It was a long and tiring process, as many of the dead were strong personalities and struggled against the yoke of Ehlonna. Surprisingly, the spirit of the great albino giant, Caplings, spoke, not being consumed by the Dead God as the human priests have been.
The ogre magi related that they were negotiating with Grugnir for the services of their lord, Tuala Makar. Tuala Makar is somewhere to the south, in the mountains near the Yeomanry. Grugnir wished for more high quality armor to gird his ogre minions and for the aid of the ogre magi in scouting the enemy forces. The ogre magi defeated by the Company were to bring back Grugnir's acceptance of Tuala Makar's requirements, which would have sealed the pact between them. Raven believes that since the Company has that document, taken from the last ogre mage, Tuala will believe that Grugnir has negotiated in bad faith and will not act on Grugnir's behalf.
Caplings spoke of darker things than mere mortal alliances. He answered the Company’s questions about the red mists that come at the cloud giant’s beck and call. These mists, translated poorly as Cloud Demons, are the servants of one of the dead god's minions. The Cloud Demons are summoned through blood sacrifice and rite and appear almost instantaneously, even though they do not serve the Dead God directly. Caplings haughtily claimed that the Cloud Giants are the only giants capable of summoning them.
When told of this, Olganni disagrees with its fundament, but agrees in its practical applicability. She thinks the cloud giants are the only giants who have fallen under the Banished One's sway who can work the summoning. She points out that the other giants have degenerated too far, and only the cloud and storm giants retain their powers. This is why she and her two brothers had hoped to sway the cloud giants to ally with them, rather than with the Banished One's minions. She suspects that a storm giant could also summon the Cloud Demons if the storm giant had been perverted. Olganni grows increasingly distressed talking about the perversion of giantkind and the return of the Banished One, her anger growing and growing. Finally, she leaves the presence of the Company and works out some of her anger by throwing ice chunks into the walls.
Caplings also claimed that all power runs to the Banished One, and that the souls of his priests are consumed for his health. Caplings was not a priest; he keeps his soul. Smalluns sacrifice their souls to achieve the oneness that allows the Banished One to work through them. They are strengthened by the Banished One's direct touch.
Sensing that Caplings’s ego was as large as his size, Cedrus was able to get his spirit to ramble by asking open-ended questions. The most productive response was about the black dome covering Istvin. Caplings claimed the black dome is the work of one of the Banished One's minions as well. It captures the leaders of the invaded lands, first by providing an impenetrable barrier and then second by allowing only the most powerful through it at a later date. Thus, first, the leaders and then, second, those who would save the leaders are taken. The dome is a portal to an unknown place, where the Banished One's minion deals with those taken.
The fire giants were less ego-filled than Caplings, but even their spirits had some nuggets of information. They claimed that Jarl Grugnir is Snurre's inferior and takes orders from him. Grugnir had given tribute to the fire giants to take with them when they were leaving. One of the fire giants suspected Grugnir of being allied with another force, double-crossing Snurre, but didn't know who it was. According to the fire giant, the treaty with Tuala Makar was Snurre's idea, but he gave the job the Grugnir because of Nosnra's failure. Nosnra, closer to the ogre magi overlord, was supposed to make contact, but failed to do so before dying. Nosnra was replaced by Groorg, the Mountain King, but Groorg competes with Snurre. Even though Groorg's has powerful magic, the fire giant remained confident in his king.
The hill giants were easily tricked into giving up substantial information and incidentally confirmed parts of Olganni’s story. They claimed that Lady Solka, Nosnra’s wife, led her people here after the Company destroyed Nosnra's steading. She entered into a relationship with Grugnir and his wife Amroth. Grugnir was also courting a storm giantess prisoner to add to his harem. They claimed that this was a plan by Lady Solka to split Grugnir from his wife and install Solka in her place. Solka also was convincing Grugnir to ally with another power, a powerful spellcaster. The beginnings of an alliance had started; trade had been established, but no formal military alliance begun. A delegation had just gotten furs ready to trek across the ice with a gift, a silver statue of a bear, probably the one stolen by Gitmo, to help seal the alliance when the blizzard rose up.
The delegation was heading to what sounds like an ice castle, where they would give the present to the powerful spellcaster's minion. The hill giant spirits state that Lord Evron Springbear and Harthal Whiteheart were the names of the minions to be met. It seems obvious from the names that spellcaster’s minions are the elves seen on the glacier. Besides the elvish names, the giants also spoke of ice ships sailing the glacier, as well as the frightening steeds they ride. The hill giants seemed somewhat in awe of the powers of the ice elves and were very proud of Lady Solka conniving to ally with their master.
Once the Company has been collectively informed, they move on to the next step in escaping the Jarl’s Hall. Winthrop, who is prepared to immediately return, is stopped by Dell, who tells him, “I have a plan.”