The Drowned Valley

Through the Living Stone

There was no safe rest at the threshold of the Black Expanse. The cold remained lethal and the enraged frost giant was searching outside. Toby went first, carrying a lantern into the moving carpet of frost beetles. They covered him as he crawled, then fell away when he reached the passage beyond.

One by one the others followed. Asuran’s fear of the beetles made the crossing hardest for him, but retreat was no longer practical. Beyond the colony lay a narrow, deliberately cut corridor running between the inner and outer faces of an ancient defensive wall. The structure had once barred a valley; the glacier had engulfed it, while generations of beetles had eaten its mortar and weakened its stonework.

The Giant at the Door

The party found a defensible inner passage and finally rested. Asuran fell asleep almost immediately. During Toby and Halen’s watch, the beetle colony became quiet. Looking back, they found the frost giant asleep in the snow nearby, its legs protruding towards the opening it could not enter.

They resisted the temptation to wake Asuran for an assassination attempt and returned to their watch. An alcove concealed a trapped control: turned one way it would sever the operator’s arm; turned the other it would open part of the wall. They left it untouched until morning.

The Valley Beneath the Ice

Rest and morning prayer restored the company. The control was safely turned and concealed observation slits opened through the old wall. Beyond them lay an immense flooded lake beneath the glacier.

The water smelled of salt and moved with wave-like force. This was not proven to be another plane: the stronger explanation was that an ordinary outdoor lake or floodplain had been overwhelmed when the glacier advanced, forcing water and debris through the trapped valley. Floating floes crossed the black water; farther away, ice-covered land, ruined battlements and lakeside structures remained.

The Sea Gricks

Pale aberrations moved between the floes with extraordinary agility. The Sea Gricks did not pursue the party. Instead they watched the water and offered themselves as bait, drawing aquatic predators close enough to attack. When a predator struck, a Grick could engulf it and grow into a larger form.

A substantial shadow moved below the surface, but the party never identified it. Whatever waited beneath the lake made swimming even less attractive.

Keep the Armour, Leave the Lake

Karl argued for using the giant weightlessness squash. His plate made swimming dangerously difficult, yet he refused to abandon it: the armour would still have to be carried across and could easily be lost in the water. The unstable floes, agile Sea Gricks and unidentified underwater predator made a surface crossing little better.

Asuran used his herbalism and alchemical experience to divide and preserve the squash into five portions, one for each man. Each portion held several bites: the more someone ate, the less he weighed, while additional bites also prolonged the effect. Halen tested a bite and became light enough to bound roughly eight feet.

Tanner proposed tying the company together. Rather than swim or leap among moving floes, they would become light enough to rise to the glacier ceiling and cross above the danger. Spank could climb and be carried when needed.

Across the Glacier’s Roof

The squash did not carry them horizontally; it sent them upward. Roped together, the party pushed away from the fortification and accelerated towards the ceiling. Asuran and Toby, the lightest and most agile, controlled their impact. The heavier warriors struck harder, but all five reached the ice above.

With gravity reduced, the ceiling became their road. They stood upside down, managed ropes and equipment, and began the awkward journey across cracking ice while keeping further bites ready.

The Ice Trolls Below

At least three ice trolls occupied the floes and frozen structures ahead. They spotted the party and began hurling heavy masses of ice towards the ceiling. Toby answered with arrows while Halen prepared to exploit his great, low-gravity leaps. The creatures’ wounds began closing almost as soon as they were made, confirming that fire was needed to halt their regeneration.

Toby drew on the green gem embedded in his ancient bow, empowering two arrows with petrifying force. Both struck separate trolls. One creature resisted the gem’s power; the other hardened into stone, but only temporarily.

Another wounded troll withdrew and began recovering. Asuran used his Ring of Invisibility and prepared black powder, considering whether an explosion could prevent the trolls from regenerating. The blast would also threaten his companions, their intended landing floe and the petrified creature.

Jargaluk Beneath the Ice

Toby and Tanner performed the rite that released Jargaluk Stone-Eater, a colossal Entombed mountain giant held beneath the glacier. Once awakened, the ancient undead guardian carried the company through the hostile water and ice.

The Glacial Sanctuary

Eight hidden cells lay inside the sanctuary: six held preserved magical creatures, one stood empty and one held a living unicorn. A remorhaz helped maintain the ancient cold-working system. A martial woman tested the party without seeking to kill them, then offered food and refuge.

The Unicorn and the Yellow Gem

The yellow gem went to Tanner. As a skilled leatherworker, he could install it securely in a leather clasp for his fur cloak.

Set into Tanner’s cloak, the yellow gem lent him a markedly stronger presence. His words carried greater weight, his confidence became difficult to ignore and, when he deliberately drew upon the stone, that authority could harden into a powerfully compelling or commanding personality. The same divine reserve strengthened his faith when he stood against hostile undead, allowing him to drive them back more readily.

The Imprisoned Mind Flayer

The unicorn warned of a Mind Flayer, or illithid, held in its own cell. It contacted the party telepathically and offered knowledge and assistance in exchange for release.

The company declined to seek it out, bargain with it or free it that day.

What Remained of Telchur

Asuran noticed ice-coloured remains bearing Telchur’s divine character. They were not loose bones, ore or treasure that could simply be collected: the pale crystalline and bone-like forms were fused into the glacier itself, as though the surrounding ice had grown through and become part of them.

Preserved in place: The company only observed the remains; nobody touched them, attempted to cut them free or removed any fragment, crystal, bone or other material. Nothing from the discovery entered the party’s inventory, and the site was left exactly as found for Telchur’s priest.

The Bow of the Ancients

Toby’s bow retained eighty-three charges. It accepted ordinary arrows; stronger special arrows struck harder. Its deeper powers were accuracy, an additional attack and petrification.

The green stone was a crude imitation of the dwarven god-gem process, containing an unnamed primordial power older than the gods. An attempt to restore roughly half its greater function failed, leaving the party drained and injured, though bow and gem remained intact.