Fire and Ice 18

General Summary

I know it's been awhile since I wrote to you. Sorry about that. It's not that I haven't had the time. I've actually had a few moments where I could have. I've...well...just been distracted I guess. Anyway, because of the amount of time that's passed, my memory of everything probably isn't perfect, so I'll try to move through things as quickly as I can without dwelling too much on details until I'm more caught up.

4 Rova 4713

We met Solveig Ayrdahl, the leader of this branch of the Heralds of Summer's Return, and filled her in on who we were and what we wanted. She seemed nice enough, if not a bit on edge. In a city like Whitethrone, I could hardly blame her. We asked about the Dancing Hut, and she told us about the forest that had grown up literally overnight around the Market District. Cutting down the trees just resulted in more growing up to replace them even thicker than before. As best anyone could tell, the Hut was trying to protect itself. It was possible to get in and out, but the entrances were well guarded. Solveig also told us that Nazhena Vasilliovna was inside the central Market Square and somehow trapped there. She wasn't sure what exactly that meant though. We said we had to get in and she suggested a plan. Her Heralds had contacts with the old Iron Guard who had been forcibly disbanded when Elvanna declared martial law and replaced them with her own Winter Guard. The remnants of the Iron Guard were itching to try to take back control, but they wouldn't be willing to do so without some sort of significant aid. She suggested we take out the tower of one of the Winter Guard's generals, a white dragon named Logrivich. If we could do that and then send out a signal, the Iron Guard, assisted by the Heralds, would revolt, causing a big enough distraction to let us get into the Market Square. We agreed. When we finished talking, Solveig asked to speak to Valeria alone. We found this a little odd, but Valeria agreed, and she said nothing about it afterwards, so we didn't think too much of it. I didn't, at any rate.

5 Rove - 27 Rova 4713

We needed time to prepare though, so we didn't immediately head off after the dragon. Instead, we sold and bought items, and made new ones. Well, the others did. This was another of those situations where I was left without much to do. I ended up assisting Cassie with making magic items again. Like last time though, the assisting was mostly fetching things for her and making her coffee or tea while she talked endlessly about things I didn't understand. I make it sound kind of tedious, but honestly, I rather enjoyed it. Cassie can be a bit intense at times, and she can... I'm not really sure how to describe it. She doesn't really do anything inappropriate, but she can say a few things with just a tiny bit too much sexual innuendo, or she can hold on to an action like hugging just a little bit too long. But I don't mind all that much. I actually kind of enjoy it. And I like helping her. I didn't interact with the others a whole lot during this time. I mean, of course, I saw them all at various moments, but we didn't do a lot together. Bronwyn was in charge of buying and selling. I think Grinner helped her, though maybe he was doing different buying and selling of his own. I'm really not sure what Valeria or Siona got up to. I still feel I don't really know Siona that well. I know she and Cassie have had long magical discussions, but otherwise, she doesn't really say much. I do know that Ten-Penny spent a lot of time with Greta. She said it was the perfect sort of relationship: one which would end soon, either because we would all get killed by the dragon or we'd take off in Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut. Either way, there wouldn't be any way of continuing the relationship. Ten-Penny doesn't like longterm relationships.

28 Rova 4713

The day finally came that we were ready. We left Solveig know, and she informed her contacts in the Iron Guard. Logrivich's clock tower was located near the city gates in an area which gave him a good view of much of the city. Over the past few weeks, Grinner and Ten-Penny had done quite a bit of staking out of the tower, and we had discussed quite a bit how we would enter. Ultimately, we decided to climb the outside to try and bypass whatever help the dragon had inside and go straight to him. We'd then deal with his help after we'd dealt with him. It went unbelievably well. We reached the top under the cover of invisibility and attacked the dragon in his lair. He actually noticed our approach. Heard us of smelled us or something. But it made little difference. He flew out, breathed on us once, and went down in a flurry of gunfire. And when I say, "went down," I'm being pretty literal here. Bronwyn got in a spectacular shot and he went crashing down into the street below. That was probably enough of a signal to Iron Guard on its own, but we set off the pre-arranged signal as well, just to be thorough. Then we entered the tower from the top. In one of the upper rooms, we found a woman imprisoned. Her name was Bella Belvorica, a singer from Cheliax that Logrivich had decided to make his own personal entertainer. However, the remarkable thing was, she knew Solveig. Although we coudn't get a lot of the details here, it seemed the secret conversation Solveig had had with Valeria had been about Bella. Valeria had come here knowing Bella was here, but without telling us. There wasn't time to be angry though. That would come later. We then went down another floor and encountered an old lady along with a...toy? Rather, a self-mobile thing made out of toys. Kind of ghostly. The old woman and the toy weren't in the same location, but they attacked us from either side at virtually the same time. We were able to kill them, but not before the toy made Siona first become exhausted and then fall asleep. We were able to wake her up, but she remained in an exhausted state. Anyway, got to run again. There's still a lot to get caught up on, but I'll try to be more prompt from here on!

All my love,
Izzy (and Frono)