The Road to Issenkald

General Summary

After spending their night in the Elf in the North, the party is disturbed by a loud knock on the door while they're packing their stuff. Mayor Jafaedeth requests that they leave as soon as possible, having come to offer them a small compensation for their troubles. They talk to her for a short while when she grows suspicious at Snap's disappearance, and despite the party not offering her a good explanation she just tells them to get lost. Everyone except Tarek receives 20 gold pieces. Making their way northwards, things go slow at first as Norin doesn't know the way very well. The nights are spent in cold and harsh caves as the temperature keeps dropping, and some members of the party are starting to feel the very real effects of the fatigue. Three nights they spend travelling towards Issenkald, up and down a large but often damaged and rocky road. As they look for a place to sleep on the fourth night, they see a light in a cave - Norin and Arviel go to investigate. As they approach the cave, Norin is suddenly held at daggerpoint by an Orc who snuck up behind him, and a tense situation unfolds as people rush out from inside the cave and the rest of the party rushes to help them. Fortunately, no fight breaks out, as a long-haired half-elven woman wielding a bow manages to calm down both her own party as the others. The woman introduces herself as Ashe and invites the party into their cave for some trading. She introduces the Orcish rogue, who still seems full of distrust, as Yamar, the half-elven gruff man wielding a warhammer as her brother Eldar, and the shy red-skinned Tiefling wearing strange blue robes as her wife, Sanctity. The party, although distrustful, decides to go with them inside. Each member of the party drops their weapons in one corner of the cave, although Eldar refuses and still holds his warhammer. After some trading and discussing, the party learns some valuable information about Issenkald, as well as identifying some of their magical items. The things Sanctity tries to sell them are somewhat above their budget, so they decide against buying them. They discover some interesting things about the group, who call themselves Virtuous Flame, but despite being pressured to do so they cannot come up with a name for themselves. Eventually, everyone goes to sleep, making sure one member of each party is on guard at all times. Everything seems to go well until Yamar and Norin steal some Wolf Cress from Tarek while he sleeps, Norin agreeing because he doesn't think Tarek will mind very much. They knock themselves out with it, and as everyone wakes up Norin is having an intensely bad trip. Tarek, realizing what is going on with Norin and Yamar, checks his pouch, and is furious to see everything is gone. He pulls out his dagger, holds it to Yamar's throat and starts shouting for answers. Immediately, everyone draws their weapons and Ashe tries her best to bargain with the enraged Dragonborn. Yamar wakes up and apologizes, saying he will pay him for the drugs, that he can buy new ones in Issenkald. Things are tense as everyone goes outside and makes their small goodbyes. Tarek redirects his anger at Norin, and starts trudging through the snow to get to Issenkald as fast as possible. Two days of travel follow, during which Tarek begins to look worse and worse. The party is worried and conversation is sparse - Norins guilt increases by the day as he realizes what he has done. Eventually, they arrive at the grand icy blue walls of Issenkald, marvelling at the ominous and enormously large building, rumoured to never once have fallen. Considering the options before them, they decide to try and find where they would be able to climb over the walls, but once they see it it seems slightly too daunting, and Norin suggests going to the front gate instead. They were warned by Ashe that the gates of Issenkald were guarded by a vicious Orcish tribe called Iron Tusk, but Norin doesn't care and just walks up over the long, scary stone bridge. Once he's there, he does his best to negotiate, but things don't go well. The orcs take his weapons and eventually agree that they'll let him and his friends through if he can beat the worst one of them in combat. Even if he manages to do that, the orc tells him that he would still owe the One-eyed King, and that debts to the One-eyed King aren't to be taken lightly. As the rest of the group approaches, Norin attacks Pimwrick, and the group reacts with confusion. Pimwrick initially refuses to fight, but when Brakag tells Norin to fight Arviel instead he jumps into action, swinging a thundering warhammer at his party member. A brutal fight ensues, but Norin barely manages to win. Laughing and jeering, the orcs let them through, welcoming them to Issenkald. Within Issenkald, things aren't much better. What seems like a permanent icy coldness permeates the husk of a city, and the party try to subtly make their way through the Iron Tusk territory to find a place to heal Pimwrick. Craig is intimidated by an orc who notices his single eye, but manages to slip away back to the party. Finally, they manage to leave the orc-controlled area and now find themselves in the complete loneliness of the enormous city. They get to a long-abandoned stone building, the insides as cold as out, and lay Pimwrick on a table. Having heard from Ashe about a certain marketplace called Frostbite, they are unsure where to go to find this place. Craig gets angry at Norin, claiming he hasn't been a good member of the party recently and asking him to step up his game. First, Tarek and Arviel go out to ask some Orcs for directions, but to no avail - they get a handaxe tossed at them. After this, Craig and Norin go as well, and they have more success. Craig, pretending to be a prisoner, gets his hair cut off by an Orc who questions his legitimacy. Norin learns that Frostbite is under a great church of Mertandor. Heading back to the camp, Norin suggests to Craig that he should go alone, as quickly as possible. Craig agrees to go back and alert the others, so they could meet up at Frostbite - it would be far too dangerous for Norin to travel back alone through the night. With Pimwrick back up and Tarek freaking out because of his withdrawal symptoms, Craig gets everyone going as the sun begins to set. Norin manages to successfully reach the church without any encounters, although he does see a large wolf, barely avoiding it. He marvels at the enormity of everything in Issenkald, and the depths under the stony bridges give him the sensation that darker creatures live down below. The rest of the group isn't so lucky - as they make their way across a long bridge, they are attacked by a dangerously strong wolf that takes out two party members with one blast of icy breath. They manage to get rid of it using Craig's levitation, but they turn to see three more, attracted by the first's mighty howl. Worried, Tarek turns to fight it, only to see an enormous insectoid creature that crawled out from under the bridge and attacks the wolves. Pimwrick gets Arviel back to her feet and everyone runs as fast as they can. Once they're under the church, they find Norin, who gives Tarek the Wolf Cress he bought at Frostbite. They see Frostbite, a dizzying construction over what seems to be an abandoned mineshaft, bridges built from side to side between the rocks and water dripping down in icycles from the darkness up above. Tarek tells Norin they are equal now, and the exhausted party makes their way to the only inn Norin had seen here - Dagger Shards. In the small tavern, the group sits down to talk. They interact for a moment with the innkeeper, a mysterious grey-skinned woman who names herself Salathnis, before sitting down and enjoying a drink in the abandoned inn hall. Although distrustful, they take this moment of relative warmth and relaxation with relief. Tarek asks them not to tell Snap about his addiction, although he seems pained to do so - he even calls Arviel his friend.