It was just past midday when FCG arrived on the northern coast of Gelier. Amidst a light snowfall, the party took a moment to recover from their recent battle with the wildfolk druids. Rested, and with little time to spare, FCG followed Darvahn’s directions heading east along the mountain range bordering the coast before eventually discovering a passage south through the snow capped peaks. Through the icy pass they trudged, traversing nearly halfway across before nightfall. FCG sought shelter from the frigid elements in a nearby cave, but alas, the cave was already occupied by a twelve legged serpentine creature. The huge reptile skittered down from the cavern’s roof. It approached the party, reared up and loomed over them. Through it’s draconic utterances, Eris understood that the creature was contemplating eating the party. Eris hissed and growled, retorting in draconic, and implied that an altercation with FCG would only end in the creature’s death. Intimidated by Eris’ draconic lineage, the creature shooed the party from it’s home and slunk back into the shadows. FCG found shelter in Triple J’s dome instead and rested through the night with little disturbance save for the serpentine entity leaving its cave and returning later with a large egg.
It was still dark when FCG awoke. As they gathered their things, Endrin questioned the rationale behind their current course of action, worrying that it would already be too late to save Eris before they completed the task at hand and reached the island of Foren. With no other obvious solution in sight, the party decided to press on but also agreed that they needed to do so with greater haste. Eris summoned up a great elk upon which she and Nyx rode while Endrin, Triple J and Malcolm tied makeshift shield sleds to the beast. The party made great time down the mountain pass and out across the tundra, traveling at nearly double their previous overland speed. Along their travels, they encountered a large white egg half burried in the snow, however the ominous roars echoing from the mountain range dissuaded them from taking or tampering with it.
FCG’s dash across the tundra was cut short in the middle of the day as they were bombarded by snow, ice, and freezing wind. The partly dared not continue for risk of getting lost in the blizzard. As Triple J and Endrin began preparing their camp, FCG was ambushed by a group of grizzly wildfolk bearing brands in the shape of a blade on their faces. Uninhibited by the storm, the Bladescarred attacked with ferocity. Though FCG managed to fend them off, they couldn’t help but notice the hints of undead nature in the way their assailants’ flesh regenerated throughout the battle. As the party had been warned about the Bladescarred prior to their journey, Triple J decided to gather a little more information and cast speak with dead on one of their freshly decapitated heads. From the head the party learned that the Bladescarred had grown numerous in Eiselcross and that they were in the process of exacting their revenge on their wildfolk kin who’d sent them into exile. However, the most concerning bit of information uncovered was that the Bladescarred exiles seemed to have been banded together by a figure known as the Black Wizard. The mention of this “Black Wizard” stirred dark memories in the hearts of FCG. Suddenly disturbed, they performed a more thorough search of the Bladescarred and found the familiar markings of the Remnants tattooed on their bodies.
Meanwhile, the blizzard continued to rage around FCG. Endrin raised up one of the Bladescarred corpses, naming it Sled, and had it keep watch as the party settled into Triple J’s dome to wait out the storm. They awoke some time in the middle of the night, and released Sled to be a wild Zombie, destined to stalk Gelier forever, before continuing on their journey. They made it only a few more hours before their progress was halted once more by another of Eiselcross’ blizzards. The sun was low in the sky when the storm relented, and FCG pressed onwards into the night. They eventually arrived at a large snow covered hill that appeared to have been split in two. Suspicious of a potential ambush, they sent Eris’ elk through the pass first. As the party suspected, the elk had two large boulders pushed onto it before it was leapt on and pummeled to death by a group of ice trolls, who after realizing the elk wasn’t real, set their sights on the party.
