The necromancer Vellynne Harpell (who aided the party against the threat of the chardalyn dragon) approached them soon after their return to Bryn Shandar from the Black Cabin and suggested it was time to make good on their earlier agreement to locate the ancient city of Ythryn, buried somewhere deep in the ice near the Reghed Glacier.
“We first need two items,” she said. “One is a book, the Codicil of White, which can open up a passage through the glacier to the lost city. The second is a personal possession of mine, an orb named Professor Skant, whose knowledge will aid us when we arrive in the city. Both can be found on an island located in the Sea of Moving Ice.”
When the party pressed for more information, Vellynne admitted that the orb was stolen from her by another member of the Arcane Brotherhood, Nass Lantomir, whom Vellynne learned had chartered a ship to the island days earlier. Nass had also hired a few adventurers to aid her in the theft of the Codicil, which was guarded by a number of frost giants, including the druid Geluvicken, a powerful Aurilian zealot whom the Brotherhood had learned was responsible for the continuation of Auril’s Everlasting Rime.
“Each midnight, Geluvicken leaves a fortress there on the island astride a giant roc,” Vellynne explained, “and for the next eight hours flies over the land, casting her most powerful spells that maintain this accursed weather. While the giantess is there on the island, the cold will be more extreme than anything we’ve seen here; resting for any extended period will be fruitless.”
“So how do we get there?” Talion asked.
Vellynne suggested they look into paying a ship captain up near Revel’s End to take them there, though she admitted that would be costly. Then an old codger at the next table piped up, “Pardon my droppin’ some eaves, but there’s Angajuk, the ol’ talkin’ whale. Once hauled my cousin’s friend out ‘em waters – saved her life, most likely. I’s heard it sometimes takes on passengers!”
It was too curious for the party, and they prepared for the trek which would take them a few miles out to an anchorage where a summoning bell would be found.
After a run-in with a group of whale hunters who wished to poison the whale to harvest ambergris, the party rang the bell and waited. A short while later, a massive sperm whale breached through the ice, a boat attached to its back. Even more to their bewilderment, the whale began speaking to them! Angajuk had heard the commotion of the fight, and was willing to take the group to the island out of appreciation for their trouble.
The voyage took three days, as the whale genuinely seemed to enjoy the party’s company AND gave them a tour of the hidden depths beneath the ice, along with explaining how it came to be able to speak. Storm giant fortresses and shipwrecks were highlights of the tour, though the party had no way of exploring any of them.
Upon reaching the island, the group disembarked from the boat, and Angajuk promised to remain near the island for 24 hours. Knowing they had a time limit, the group of adventurers cautiously made their way down the enormous dock and toward the island proper. They soon encountered a seemingly docile ice mephit, who through a series of gestures (as the mephit could not understand Common, and they could not understand its languages) came to be known as Sopo. It began to act as a guide, encouraging the party to follow it into the island. The mephit brought the party to an open field of ornate ice sculptures, which it encouraged the members to examine. Hawlkrin, curious about the statues’ workmanship, examined one depicting a raging yeti, even going so far as to touch one of its outreached claws.
“Defilers!” From out of the snow the form of a seven foot tall woman appeared, pointing at Hawlkrin. A wave of cold washed over him but immediately subsided, and the snow that had been light immediately began raging down. The group hastily left the field and continued on the broad path leading them further into the island.
The driving snow seemed to chase them as they pressed on, and then a howl of rage erupted above the whistling wind. The party turned to look to see Ferus bloodied, though his mage robes immediately misty stepped him away, leaving the horrific sight of an impossibly large yeti, its talons red with the wizard’s blood. The mephit flew directly up into the storm, seeing the threat before it. The yeti’s gaze paralyzed Talion to the spot, leaving the others to charge the beast. The 17′ behemoth both took and dealt out a tremendous amount of damage, freezing several of the party to their core when it breathed a cone of cold on the group. Thoradaen finally ended the threat with a crushing blow to the monstrosity’s head, leaving the party momentarily safe though with a harrowing choice before them: do they chance encountering the giantess in her castle, or continue to bide their time in the elements to face possibly more horrors until she has left the keep to reinforce Auril’s spell?
