The Fox Beneath the Snow

North Through Untouched Snow

Morning brought the party's farewell to the Temple of Laogzed. They marked its position relative to the northern tunnel exit, approximately five miles away, and set their course north. The blizzard had passed. A grey sky slowly brightened above snow so fresh that it held no tracks at all.

Toby led from the front. When he recognised unsafe ground or water hidden beneath the snow, he took the party roughly a mile west, a mile north and then a mile east to pass around it. He continued to hunt while travelling and found enough food to support the group without seriously delaying them. No enemy appeared; cold, concealed ground and the shortening day were the journey's real hazards.

A Ruin Designed to Be Ignored

Late in the afternoon, Toby found a decrepit house on slightly raised ground. His first circuit revealed neither recent tracks nor movement. Karl, however, saw that the ruin was performing a deception: its sound structure had been strengthened and its rubble deliberately arranged to make it look unstable and worthless. The ground itself was oddly warm, easing the cold that had bitten through their boots.

Inside, Asuran found a section of debris prepared as a collapsible trap. He dismantled it safely and understood how to reset it. The nearby outhouse was warmer still, with melted snow around its base. Opening it released an overpowering sewage smell, but the odour came from deliberately crushed plants and herbs rather than waste. The scent was a repellent and disguise, probably renewed within the previous day.

The privy had never been used. A fur-covered seat and lifting footboard concealed ladder rungs. Beneath lay a proper, warm cellar hidden entirely under the earth. A long-burning root supplied a bubbling but non-magical flame. Blankets, tools, salt, preserved meat and scavenged necessities showed that a human-sized resident lived here carefully and expected the refuge to remain secret.

The party searched respectfully. Nothing was valuable enough to steal, and signs suggested that the occupant had departed about three days earlier, before or during the blizzard. A lever allowed them to close the entrance and restore the outhouse disguise. They reset the refuge, established watches and spent Night 24 below.

The Red Spell Gem

That night, the party returned to the red gem. Karl was already attuned, and the others helped him gather its scattered power. Resistance remained because traces of the stone's earlier dwarven-door purpose had not completely disappeared. Karl accepted further strain rather than damage the gem.

The work succeeded. The stone was confirmed and configured as a red spell gem: Karl could pray to Thardar and attempt clerical magic he would ordinarily be able to cast, provided he had a suitable spell slot. A charge could guarantee the attempt; preserving charges meant accepting a roll and the risks of fatigue or lost power. More demanding magic required greater success and carried greater danger. The remaining hours allowed the others to continue their smaller crafting tasks before sleep.

The Predator Outside

After breakfast, Toby went above to scout and returned almost immediately. Something was outside. All nearby wildlife had fallen silent: no birds, insects or close movement, only distant life beyond the refuge. To a ranger, it was the unmistakable sign of a predator.

The party gathered its belongings, tidied the shelter and prepared to leave a note of thanks. Then a white Arctic fox appeared on a rock. No one had seen it approach. Its paws rested neatly beneath it, its weight scarcely marked the snow crust, and its expression held an intelligence—and a grin—that no ordinary animal possessed.

The creature was a werefox, a lycanthrope whose powers had weakened during the long absence of magic. It remained immensely strong and resistant to ordinary weapons; the party had no silver blade with which to face it. Yet the meeting did not become a battle.

The fox accused them of theft and murder and threatened to hunt them down. The challenge was a test. Their clothes marked them as members of the Order, but the attack on the Safehold had prevented them from completing their training or learning the proper passwords. They explained the attack, their unfinished training and their mission to reach the dwarves. The fox sensed that they spoke truth.

He named himself Sebastian. Years earlier his Order group had left the island on a mission that failed. Only Sebastian and Thomas survived. Thomas now lived in the marshes, where his skill at herding the great lizards supplied food and leather. Sebastian had been bitten by a werefox seven or eight years earlier, after the group's healer had already died. With magic failing, he never developed his full powers and could no longer return to human form. The concealed cellar was his refuge, protected by the false ruin, resettable trap, repellent herbs and disguised entrance.

What Waited Beyond the Refuge

Sebastian described a country that had once been grassland and settlements. A few years earlier, winter arrived in roughly June and never released its grip. Spring and summer failed to return. Ice advanced from the northern mountain range, driving refugees, prey and entire wolf packs south.

The dwarves had travelled north and east towards a north-south road lined with trading posts. An east-west road crossed it farther on. Hills and mountains lay five to seven days north; jungle spread east and south; orc and goblin tribes occupied the west and south; the Ogrelands lay northeast; and the northwest remained a blank from which few travellers returned.

Some of the western tribes still worshipped the old gods in secret. Sebastian warned the party to speak carefully about gods and returning magic. He then marked the known routes and dangers on their map.

With Sebastian’s warnings and marked routes in hand, the party prepared to continue north into the freezing wilderness.