(Occurring after Skyreach Aftermath continuing the Divine Contentions: Leilon events)

Sailing on the Sea of Swords

Rumor has it there is a circle of giant thrones in the tundra, where the Unknowns of Icewind Dale go when they need answers - an oracle of sorts. The place is not easy to find, but a guide in Dougan's Hole named Yselm claims to know where it is.

Result

Returning to Bryn Shander by airship from Revel's End, the party of adventurers hears their prison-liberator and yeti-hunting friends Aelar and Agaric have recently arrived in the large town in the company of a woman from Targos. The Sea Elf and Gnome introduce the group to the wizard Madouc Mac Donnagh of the Kalteswetteruntergrund (see Meanwhile) and information regarding the secretive Cold Weather Underground's evidence and theories on the Everlasting Winter are shared.

The party takes the most interest in three points:

1. Auril is very actively involved in the Everlasting Winter - using her personal power to perform a ritual every night before dawn. (Its effects can be seen on clear nights as the "northern lights" aurora).
2. The Kalteswetteruntergrund has viewed her doing so via the weather instruments: a Roc shining with moonlight carries her across the sky.
3. Auril is usually noted in myth as one of the "Gods of Fury" - but unlike the others, she is forced away from the world most of the time (the seasons excluding Winter - not to mention in the south were Winter does not come at all!) Two of the Gods of Fury: Talos and Umberlee have taken on more personal manifestations in the world over the same period as the Everlasting Winter:
   • the storm god Talos most notably through the Cult of Talos' recent rise of Anchorites of Talos.
   • There have been tales that the priests of Umberlee, have successfully sent the great sea monster the Unknown in attacks, sometimes assisting the forces of Talos.

Madouc had come to Bryn Shander to find others to join Aelar and Agaric on an urgent expedition.  Meeting with prior adventuring companions is taken as an omen, and hearing the party aligned with the Kalteswetteruntergrund's opposition to the Rime of the Frostmaiden, she urges the group to make haste for a site out on the ice west of the town called Jarlsmoot (which means "meeting place of the kings" in Frost Giant language.

The timing is important because Madouc claims the spirits of the Jarls only appear on the night of the full moon, and the 1st of Tarsakh (each month on Toril begins on a full moon) is only a day away! She believes important questions about Auril and the Rime can be learned by consulting with the spirits on the Thrones of Jarlmoot. She herself is unable to go to the site due to some purification ritual she must maintain to use the weather instruments, but she uses a ritual to place a sense of direction to it in the mind of the divination-apt mind of Alyks.

The plan splits the adventurers into two groups:

1. This important once-a-month night is said to also be used by Unknowns as a rite of passage, so in the event one of them is seeking the place, Madouc, Phantom and Agaric will create a distraction and otherwise mislead them away from the place.
2. A second group pulled on swift dogsleds will seek out the wisdom of the spirit Jarls, led by the direction-ritual.

The Challenges

Arriving with the full moon of the 1st of Tarsakh, the ghostly figures loom above the party, conversing with each other while sitting in the enormous thrones, ignoring the tiny people until Zaknalimar uses Tongues to address the largest giant. This one, calling himself the Jarl of Jarls, Reggaryarva - challenges the party to prove they are worthy in a trial of combat and summons three deadly minions: a Frost Salamander, an Ice Elemental Warrior, and a Frost Giant Skeleton.  The battle brings the group terrifyingly close to their own end, but victorious only having Alyks Askaria fallen, targeted for her powerful fire magics, but spared from death by the necromancy of Dex, who also - crucially to survival - had tremendously weakened the giant skeleton with Ray of Enfeeblement.

Upon this success, the party is granted entry into the (frost giant-sized) Questing Halls beneath the Great Throne: "Bring the artifact and ye shall have three questions answered." Within the rooms beneath the ice, the party finds six arches with words of a poem above and large bowls below. A room to the side has two more arches with runes at their peaks and a ring with matching golden runes high on the wall. A hallway to the other side is barred by six floating runes forming a wall.

Alyks uses Comprehend Languages and translates:

The runes forming the wall are:

("Ise" - Ice) ("Fjell" - Mountain)
("Krig" - War) ("Liv" - Life)
("Vind" - Wind) and ("Wyrm" - Dragon).

The poem over the arch-bowls reads:

• Snatch a scale from a sleeping wyrm
• Against the blowing wind, stand firm
• The tallest stone sits atop mountain head
• Life's paths lead to being dead
• Blood from battle starts the war
• Snowflakes fall, till blood stains no more

The archways in the side room are reached by placing the key-runes in the top (aided by Sudon using Fly).

1. Wyrm disappears after Aelar sneaks into a dragon's cave to steal a scale through one of the arch-portals opened in the side-room and places it in the bowl, which lights with a flame.
2. Vind fades when Zaknalimar, trying to read a figure blows across the bowl.
3. Fjell vanishes after Aelar climbs to the top of the rocky pinnacle of the upward-gravity-angled passage in the side-chamber arch, placing a pyramid-like stone in the bowl. (Note the dangerous guardians of the peak, giant mountain goats were horribly burned by the Tiefling Alyks Askaria's fire magic, falling as enormous burning meat-boulders through the archway and sideways to pummel several party members - but providing an excellent meal later).
4. Liv dissolves after drops of blood from a survivor of the battle among the thrones above are added to the bowl.
5. Krig dims as a sawn-off head of one of the goats is placed in the bowl.
6. Ise melts away when snow is placed in the bowl.

Through the now-opened passage, a giant-sized chest is found with a key already in the lock. Just before Aelar turns it, Alyks uses her Wand of Secrets to learn while the chest has no trap itself, there is something about the key. The key is removed, and Aelar realizes it does not in fact fit the lock. Using his own lockpicks (and larger tools such as knives, since it is so large), he opens the chest, revealing a pile of battleaxes and a horn. Reaching for the horn, the axes jump to life, attacking the party.  Dex uses Mage Hand to grab the horn and run to the exit. With the successful removal of the Horn Relic, the battleaxes cease their attack, falling to the ground, and the Jarl of Jarls offers the party one question to each of the Seer Jarls, the three ghostly queens in the circle of thrones.

Questions and Answers

Question One: How can we end the everlasting winter?

"Only by preventing Auril the Frostmaiden from repeating her ritual may Spring return to these lands." 

Question Two: Where does Auril keep the Roc she rides each night?

"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.”

Question Three: Why is Auril preventing the other seasons from coming to Icewind Dale?

"Thousands of years ago powerful and arrogant wizards built cities that flew in the sky. One of these cities fell deep into the Frozenfar and the Frostmaiden preserved it in a tomb of great ice as a prize and treasure for herself.  Silent for all those centuries, something suddenly stirred in the ruins and Auril feared her precious keepsake might escape in the melt while she was away in summer's warmth. And so she devotes a great deal of her power each night to prevent the change of the seasons."

Treasure

The Horn Relic is a Horn of Blasting - shaped like a cone with a lion's head at the large end. It can deal thunder damage and deafness.

The large gold key is worth 25gp, but also has a property of creating a doorway - but Alyks' Identify is unclear on how this works or the danger it might pose - the wand insists a trap is somehow involved.

Return

Phantom and Agaric report there was indeed a frost giant contingent headed to Jarlmoot. Madouc was able to lead them astray with illusions of some sort - and into a time-wasting conflict with a stampede created by the barbarian and druid (and an enormous Snowy Owlbear friendly to Agaric) - delaying their arrival.

Strongly-supportive of the Free Towns, Termalaine is situated in a picturesque location - perhaps the most scenic in all of the Icewind Dale. It looks across the lake, just nestled against tall pines, with the looming extinct volcano of Kelvin's Cairn casting a shadow (in seasons outside winter anyway) to the south.  Reached by the road around Maer Dualdon from Targos, the road continues north to Lonelywood. 

Founded by Calishites with an eye for beauty, the buildings incorporate carvings of wizards, tigers, smiling djinn, and creatures of the far-off land. Unfortunately, the town experiences some of the most extreme winds and cold, whipped off the lake from the west.

Alongside fishers, shipbuilders and scrimshanders, a number of miners continue to work a cavern complex in a nearby hill. Whenever nasty Underdark creatures disturb this, the town seals off the mine and waits for adventurers to be hired to clean things up. Other past threats have been dealt with by the town's enduring good relations with Clan Battlehammer of the valley dwarves, to which the town is ever-supportive and remains indebted for repeated aid in battle.

Mine-cleansing was performed by a wildly popular and charismatic group of gnomes who called their troupe The Gnoobz. These had already made a name for themselves in Lonelywood, and after the mine-clearing and a few other key accomplishments for the locals, the group vanished after being hired by the wizard Dzaan, later publicly burned at the stake on the mob insistence, pushed by Frost Druids of the Children of Auril.

Readiness for the attack by the Sunblight Dragon came through warning and clear-thinking of the druid Agaric.  During the Desolation, the townsfolk hiding in the Gem Mine were threatened by an attack from the Underdark, led by Duergar. The arriving Sewer-side Squad were able to push back the attack and force it to retreat, allowing the townfolk to remain protected from the dragon. This group is now heralded in this town as heroes, and have free room and board for life at the Eastside Inn.

About

• Leader: Speaker for the Maer and Mine, Oarus Masthew (Half-Orc) - close/contentious election but support cemented after surviving the Desolation,
  he is the adopted son of Shaelen Masthew (previous speaker who still lives there)
• Population: 600 (nearly all survived the Desolation by hiding in the Gem Mine)
• Industry: lumber and mining (gemstones and precious metals, ties with valley dwarves)
  The forests were heavily taxed in rebuilding after the Desolation.
• Northway: New road constructed after the Desolation, direct from Bryn Shander, bypassing now-contentious Targos.
• Construction: docks and buildings on forest edge
• Founders: Calishites (far to south, below Tethyr - Easthaven's founders) / (Accent: Hindi)
• Other notable residents:
  • Vedda Starsprit, a frail 30-year-old seer with severe exotropia (opposite of crossed eyes) who does fortune-telling and advises leaders in the town, close friends with Danae Xotal of Lonelywood
  • Marta Peskryk, innskeeper at The Eastside
  • Vernon Braig, owner of the dockside tavern The Blue Clam
  • Agaric, a Druid, has taken up interest in the locale, along with a group of scholars-of-weather - often protecting or at least warning of the ill effects of Auril and her minions and weather-tantrums

Map

(see also: wiki)

Tallon is an enormous and muscle-thick barbarian called Stormborn, giving him a strong affinity for lightning and thunder. Though clearly human, he stubbornly insists he is simply a very tall dwarf.

He eagerly shares the explanation for his name "Tallon the Tall" relating to his astounding size despite his insistence that he is a Dwarf. This branch of the Foehammer Clan experimented with binding natural forces into their armors and weapons. Assisting his grandfather and uncle in an experiment one day, and wearing a newly-forged suit of fine dwarven plate mail, he stood atop the mountain peak in a storm and was bathed in lightning, making a suit worthy of a king of old!  But this lightning also changed him, for they had to quickly remove the armor as his body was growing beneath and they feared he would suffocate! He continued to grow to his present height of nearly seven feet, something of a giant of a dwarf!

In actuality, as a (human) infant, Tallon was left in the care of a clan of inventive and good-natured, if mischievous, dwarves who had remained in a fortress-forge high in the Thunder Peaks of Cormyr, a valley away from the tragedy of Thunderholme.  The dwarves raised the boy as their own, teaching him stonecraft, metalwork, carpentry, and the like. Noting the youth's affinity and fascination for watching storms from the mountaintop, what began as humor became his origin story. He was tutored as a Stormborn Barbarian by another Stormborn - a dwarven heroine named Ardath Stormhammer.

Tallon the Tall proudly wields of the greataxe Hew, a weapon created by a grumpy dwarf feuding with a forest dryad. As bearer of this weapon, however, he finds the forests to be somewhat hostile to him, as if it senses the axe's thirst for cutting wood.

Tallon is a devoted member of the Order of the Gauntlet, and more generally a very law-abiding (Lawful Good in all its glory) and constructive citizen, with a firm policy of Taking No Crap! (unleashing his more destructive side!)

Elite Drow mercenary company and trading group, founded and led by Jarlaxle, mainly working out of Menzoberranzan and Luskan. Now strong-arming the other four High Captain factions of Luskan toward legitimate leadership, as the true face behind Ship Kurth.

Composed of renegade Drow, and led by the often outrageous and larger-than-life Jarlaxle, a now house-less noble and now the Open Protector of Luskan.  The company's base of operations remains in Menzoberranzan, but trades with the surface world through Luskan, the City of Sails.

Their symbol is a pirate-like hat with a large black feather - often worn by members as a pin.  They are often employed by House Baenre for dirty work, are known as exceptional smugglers between the surface and underdark, and are considered treasonous for their disrespect of the matriarchy and Lolth. They have a sympathetic patron in Zinzerena (Chaotic Neutral Dark Seldarine deity of Trickery, assassination, illusion and lies) and sometimes Eilistraee (Chaotic Good Dark Seldarine deity of freedom, moonlight, and song).

They are known to frequent the inn and tavern called One-Eyed Jax, but employ Ship Kurth's base on Closeguard Island.

(See also: wiki)