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(In parallel to the events of...)

  1. Grim Trophy  - Zaknalimar, Sudon, Alyks Askaria, Aelar, and Agaric hunting up Kelvin's Cairn (as following the The Red Yeti quest)
  2. Hostage King (Zak, Sudon, and Alyks) - rescuing Spellix from the goblin fortress Karkolohk (and learning Spellix's Story)
(which were to determine the truth of Dzaan's rather suspicious story about being captured by goblins).

Search for the Missing Gnoobz

(Also following from Grim Trophy, the story Dzaan told of the deaths of the beloved gnome heroes ...)

  1. A search (and maybe rescue?) expedition is launched where Phantom (as tracker) and Dex (as arcane muscle and potentially interrogator) join members of the Termalaine militia to learn what happened to the Gnoobz, resulting in Tales of the Dead.
  2. Out on the tundra, during the search there are three consequential encounters, aside from the awe-inspiring midnight sky-auras over the land.
  3. First, with frost orcs (like the ones who attacked in the mountain pass) ending very badly for the orcs.
  4. Second, with one of the fearsome Coldlight Walkers, said to be (undead) minions of wrath created by Auril, animated from those who died of exposure to cold and taking on the goddess' power with its face emitting an incredibly bright light.
  5. Third, a vicious battle (that killed two of the militia and severely wounded all others) against a group of psychotic berserker barbarians Phantom noted were armored and armed with the Chardalyn crystal shards (said to be found only in the Frozenfar and for which there are deep superstitions in the Reghed barbarian tribes.)

Kalteswetteruntergrund 

(Translation: Cold Weather Underground - a secret group against Auril)

(And also-also following from Grim Trophy, the story of the Kalteswetteruntergrund ...)

  1. After completing the installation of the "enchanted weather instrument" high on Kelvin's Cairn, Aelar and Agaric accompany Perilou the halfling to meet with the weather-scholar who had hired the expedition that ran afoul the Red Yeti.
  2. She is a valley dwarf with a long white beard, wrinkled yet stout, residing in Targos.  She is called Madouc Mac Donnagh, and is a wizard by training.
  3. She is part of a pact of scholars (The Kalteswetteruntergrund) devoted to studying the Rime of the Frostmaiden, the disruption of the seasons - the winter that will not end.
  4. They are forced to work in absolute secrecy, due to the acts of the Children of Auril and the White Inquisitor.
  5. (Thus she is unwilling to reveal any other members, only that they are in multiple towns of Icewind Dale, and correspond with Waterdeep).
  6. It was important to have the device installed prior to the first day of Spring, so this was just in time!! (And she pays 300gp for the completed mission).
  7. The Kalteswetteruntergrund have been gathering information about the causes and properties of the Rime, in hopes they can inform others on how it might be ended.  She shares three things their studies have come to conclude:
  8. One, Auril herself is actively the cause of the Rime - the effect requires so much power, the goddess herself must ride across the sky before dawn each night, performing a potent ritual (which often results in an aurora borealis). How much of her divine power must be expended in the process, or exactly why she is doing this is pure speculation for the Kalteswetteruntergrund. Her flight is made possible by a glowing white Roc, which the new instruments have been able to spot - and with some work, perhaps even track.
  9. Two, Auril is not the only deity who seems to be acting up. Auril is one of the Gods of Fury - the others are Talos (Storms and Destruction), Umberlee (The Sea), and Malar (Beasts). Talos has been said to be manifesting and acting through a new Cult of Talos, in particular to the south around Neverwinter. Similarly, creatures from the depths have been seen, indicating Umberlee is active. Some of the Children of Auril have claimed that Talos and Umberlee tried to wrest Auril's power and importance from her, and she has chosen to defend what is hers. 
  10. Three, there may be hidden forces at work as well since the imbalance extends beyond the seasons to realms of other deities, since the Rime impacts the domains of the deities Shar (Darkness) and Lathander (Dawn / Lightbringer) - Shar (and her associated minions) greatly benefitting from the environment and quite possibly planning to exploit the situation, while it is unknown whether Lathander is concerned, angry, distracted, or otherwise intending to act against the situation in some way.

Toast in Termalaine

Despite these efforts to learn the truth behind Dzaan's claims of innocence, his accusers led by the crazed shouting of ("trusted local fortune teller") Vedda Starsprit, form a mob and force a public execution of the wizard before the return of the groups. Dex and Phantom and the trackers arrive nearly the same time as Zak, Alyks, and Sudon (with Spellix), only to arrive at the scene too late to stop the madness.

On the night after what should have been the first day of Spring (19-Ches-1492) the temperatures once more have plummeted beneath frigid.  A crowd has gathered in front of the Termalaine Town Hall to watch the public execution of Dzaan, the Thayan wizard who, despite efforts to disguise himself, was recognized and arrested for the reckless endangerment if not the murder of the Gnoobz. He has been bound to a stake and gagged. Members of the militia use torches to light the straw tucked around his feet. Fanned by the wind, the fire catches quickly. Dzaan does not struggle or scream as he is quickly engulfed in flames. Bundled-up spectators move closer to the human bonfire, eager to feel its warmth in the harsh cold.

Termalaine’s resident Seer and Fortune Teller, Vedda Starsrpit is shouting to the point of her voice becoming hoarse in calling out Dzaan’s crimes/ Vedda is a thin 30-year old woman with severe extropia (opposite of crossed eyes).

 “We need not wait on the fates of our friends, for this man is black of heart, a true deceiver, a liar, a seeker of his own selfish power. I seen this villain be but a scallywag an a foul-hearted madman, likes all thems Red Wizards wot be of Thayyyyy. May the fire cleanse the world of another creature of darkness and deliver us all from the freezing curse, and with his body turned to ash the screaming in my mind and those of the Sight be quieted!”  

The town officials are not happy with this result at all, but seem helpless as one of the Children of Auril, a so-called Frostwarden, chants a prayer to Auril to accept the burning flesh as a worthy sacrifice and offer blessings on the righteous of have brought this to be.  She is accompanied by two others in the white furs of the Children of Auril.  

There are dozens of townspeople strongly supporting the Frostwarden and the Seer, while most watch on with a grim expression - it is clear there are many who wonder if they would end up chosen as easily for sacrifice… When Vedda mentions Those of the Sight, she looks toward her home and fortune-telling shop. Lit by the fire, you see two men and two woman stand waiting near the door. One of the women is the barkeep from Lonelywood's Lucky Liar (Danae Xotal) - who speaks quietly with one of the men, then slips off into the shadows of the alleys.

None in the party are very pleased with this turn of events. Zaknalimar instigates the opposing citizens into a brawl, while Dex employs a Suggestion to force the Seer Vedda to scoop snow in a futile attempt at putting out the raging fire. The group begins a conversation with one of the men near the fortune teller's door, Telvaster Hangingbell, who they recognize from their brief visit to Lonelywood. Telvaster was a well-off merchant from Neverwinter, who decided to retire to a quiet place - he seemed a reasonable person before, so was selected to help understand this current madness.

Telvaster explains that Vedda called the group to Termalaine to stop the recurring nightmares and pulsing psychic waves that have been driving this group nutty for many days. He explains each of these four have "The Sight" - himself, Vedda, Kaska Lang of Bremen (a thin woman taking careful notes of everything going on with the witch-burning - said to be a murder-mystery novelist), and the heavy-set Nars Beldrun of Targos (who seems a master in his ability to complain about everything - weather, food, cold, delays, other people...). They learned to share information over the past couple years, to help make sense of visions and the events after the Rime of the Frostmaiden began.

Since the night of the Fallen Star (1st of Ches), they have had these terrifying visions and periodic throbbing headaches, which when they compared notes seem to come from the direction of where the meteor would have hit the ground - to the north and east of Revel's End. Each of them have been pushed to the edge of sanity, and Vedda seems to have decided the cause related to Dzaan and the cure being his sacrifice. This is soon found to not at all be the case, but the psychics do pledge 300gp reward if the group can find a way to stop these maladies! (Asked about the visions, Telvaster says he sees great darkness and points of light, and impossibly ugly creatures and symbols that mean nothing, and a sense of hunger for power).

After Dex turns the charred bones of Dzaan into a skeleton, the group sets off, with Sudon's urging, to investigate the fallen star and hopefully to return and claim the reward.


(Also in parallel to these events, see Dwarven Aspirations)

(Next: one group: Brain Freeze leading to Horrifying Halls, merging in: Jarlmoot: Circle of Thrones)

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Instigator
Auril

The island of Solstice is shaped like a snowflake, with six jagged arms that protrude out into the sea on which the iceberg floats: the Sea of Moving Ice . It's a windswept place made primarily of snow and ice, presumed the Frostmaiden's "home" or a place of her power on Faerûn

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Clues


In Jarlmoot: Circle of Thrones, in response to the question to the ghostly seeress about where Auril keeps her Coldlight Roc, was the answer:

"Iskra the Coldlight Roc dwells in a lair atop Grimskalle on the mist-shrouded Isle of Solace in the Sea of Moving Ice.
Most sailors and creatures of the sea know how to find the island – and how to avoid it, if they can.”


In the revelation by the Deva of Ilmater in the chapel of the Saint Greycastle Hospital, Sudon was shown:

There is a book that in the end, the Raven Queen would like kept forever in her Fortress of Memory. The book is a holy and precious thing for Auril the Frostmaiden. There are secrets in that book. Things written down by the goddess herself - words and letters no mortal can read. But the Raven Queen is no mortal! And the Raven Queen is patient - and there is a destiny to fulfill.
The book may well help end the Everlasting Winter - the Rime of the Frostmaiden. The book may hold other lore and secrets of usefulness too.
The book is on the Isle of Solstice, which is shaped like a snowflake, floating in the Sea of Moving Ice. The book is called The Codicil of White.


On discovering the body Nass Lantomir at the Dark Duchess Shipwreck (Shipwreck, Spirits & Scion), the ghost of Nass shared that she (guided by Mormesk, following Dzaan's own plans) she intended to bring the pirates to the Isle of Solstice to claim the book said to be capable of opening a passage through the ice to the entombed Ythryn, an enclave of The Netheril

Results

Zaknalimar returned from the Dark Duchess shipwreck to approach the Kalteswetteruntergrund through Agaric, assembling a task force to steal the Codicil of White from the Isle of Solstice.  Aelar was enlisted to arrange transport via his friend, the Awakened whale Angajuk (with the boat-in-bubble - see: Dungeon & Dragon).  The team also includes a member of the Knights of the Black Sword,  a dwarven warlock-warrior named Zigzastromanth Ziggastromarch ("just call me Ziggy"). They circled the snowflake-shaped iceberg, explored a couple sunken ships, then on making land found it to be equipped for giant-sized inhabitants (specifically, Frost Giants). Following an Ice Mephit guide waiting for them calling itself "Sopo", the group simply made for the front door of the skull-shaped Castle Grimskalle at the isle's center, after a difficult climb of the winding giant-sized steps on the approach.

Throughout, while being helpful with information, Sopo showed clear indifference to the party's well-being - even suggesting he had been profoundly bored until noticing their arrival, and hoping to be entertained by their horrific deaths.  The group found the castle to be largely quiet - passing the enormous door of the castle's warden, an elderly (and reportedly deaf) Frost Giant named Ertgard to ascend (another enormous) stairway to what appeared to be a throne room and bedchambers of the Frost Giant Queen Geluvicken, Handmaiden of Auril. There is no sign of a prominent book or even any sort of library - and the group is forced to flee down the stairs as heavy footsteps descend from above, sending deadly icicles from the ceiling to the floor.  At the foot of the stairs back on the first floor, the party sets an ambush for the approaching queen  (including spikes outside the door of Ertgard, should he somehow be alerted). 

To be continued...

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Around 900 DR under Phandelver's Pact, clans of dwarves and gnomes began sharing riches within the Sword Mountains, then guided by "helpful" wizards descended from The Netheril, ores were extracted and refined to feed into a machine constructed under the direction of the enchanters. This became known as the Forge of Spells, and a great enterprise was formed crafting magic-imbued items.

In 951 DR an orc horde and dark forces (some say wizards, some say Illithid) sought control of the mines and the forge as part of a wave of invasions on the Sword Coast. In the battles, earthquakes sunk the cave beneath landslides - until discovered in 1480 DR by the dwarven Rockseekers. This led to the events of Lost Mines of Phandelver, including the great earthquake once more burying the place in 1491.

(See: wiki)

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Oogway joined up with Our Party in the Candlekeep. See C. Bane of the Kraken.

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This humanoid-turtle (Tortle) had been a captive of the Candlekeep for many years, serving to pay off a late fee for a book he had (without authorization) "checked out". 

Plea: "I'm a slow reader."

Worse, the enchantments of the book had been drained in the process of his apparently successful use of it to contact an entity he calls "Great A'Tuin" - who has become his warlock patron.

Oogway is evasive in sharing his past, but it seems he comes from far to the south, perhaps even beneath the Chult peninsula, if not from another world entirely - for his kind are essentially unknown in the lands of the Sword Coast. He keeps a familiar named (add-this) that most closely resembles a Unknown.  

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Talos The Storm Lord

God of tempests, and destruction, called Kozah by The Netheril. Leader of the Gods of Fury (which included)

  • Auril (Frostmaiden Goddess of Winter),
  • Umberlee (Great Storm Queen of the Sea, Goddess of the Deep),
  • and Malar (The Beastlord, Master of the Hunt).

Recently more active through the actions of Anchorites of Talos led by Fheralai Stormsworn, a half-orc Unknown. The war-priestess and her followers seem to truly have a connection to this force-of-nature god, having conducted significant miracles including

Some kind of objects or locations have been driving the activities - along the coast seems focused on Leilon and another within the Neverwinter Wood.  (The latter has suffered severe setbacks at the hands of Our Party, the Emerald Enclave and Venomfang - some of this hidden to the party's knowledge).

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