Derrikoth waves a hand dismissively, "Nothing of note. Merely some spiders which we turned into corpses. We should head up the stairs first, leaving the main area for last."

Harshnag agrees and follows you up the stairs. (The other side of the entrance to this hallway is just another set of stairs.) Both sets of stairs arrive at the same landing, which leads off to the north in a similar nature to the last hall. 

Standing in an alcove at the south end of this hall is another giant statue. This one is a life-sized statue of a female cloud giant wearing an angry mask. Her arms are positioned in a way that suggests she’s casting some sort of spell. The statue is inanimate, though expertly carved. 

Harshnag offers to take the lead here, and starts off down the hallway to reveal that there is much structurally similar to the quarters below, except that much of it has collapsed! He checks in every room if you let him, and calls back, "It looks safe! There's just a bag that's been left here in this room. Looks like a giant left it behind."  

Nirzeg certainly doesn't stop Harshnag, having stopped to stare at the statue. He merely waved the giant on forward in almost dismissive manner. The shout gives him pause, and after a pensive moment, he glances to any that stayed behind. "Well shit! We'll be right over!" He calls ahead to the Frost Giant, before pressing on after him. If Harshnag hadn't already been in the process of investigating the bag, Nirzeg sends Zeek on inside of it for a closer look, prior to any Githyanki hands been directly involved in inspecting it.

Sensing Zeek's curiosity, Harshnag tips the bag out onto the frozen floor. "Could be something of interest here...?"

The light from your torches & magic illuminate the find. The contents of the bag consist of:

• a pelt from some very large, brown-and-white-furred animal
• a bronze shield, hammered and dented into a roughly concave shape, with food stains on the inside
• an old, rusty iron cauldron
• the bones of a horse
• a long and slender shard of ice, roughly the size of a dagger. 

Derrikoth makes a disgusted look upon seeing the horse bones, "What a revolting thing to leave lying around. If there's nothing else, let's head back and explore the rest of the place."

Lydia will pick up the icy shard. "I wonder what was so interesting that a giant would need to carry this. And why it's not broken."

The ice shard seems to exude its own coldness. It leaves a cold impression on Lydia's hands, but no moisture. 

Inside the sharp shard of ice, a shape glows with its own light. It looks familiar. Harshnag looks interested. "Ah...I knew I recognized that symbol! It's the Ise rune. It means 'frost,' or 'ice,' in the giant tongue. That looks like some kind of runic artifact. Very rare, ancient magic."

Those of you who speak jotun would know that Ise means "frost," but you also would know that the giant language has used Dethek, a common runic script, since the dawn of recorded history. 

"Well it certainly sounds like something we will want to keep." Lydia says as she claims the rune.

The rune feels magical, but Lydia will likely have to spend some time focusing on it to reveal its powers, if any.

Both Zeek and Nirzeg eyes the spread with varying degrees of interest. The latter even shares Derrikoth's look of disgust, if more mildly so, before his eyes go wide at a thought. "Best they aren't just left lying around then." Nirzeg had commented on, as he went about collecting them into his bag of holding. "Ancient Magic?" Nirzeg asked, nearly dropping the horse skull in excitement. Then his eyes go wide, and he hops to his feet!

"Waitwaitwait! Uhm, uh, what was the name-..." He snaps his fingers a few times. "Laia... Lytden... Lyles...Ah, whatever -- Before you go stuffing that away out of hand, might I examine that. And you, Bigger Blue. Uhm.. uhm... ah ****, you know your name! Perhaps you can confirm this form as well." Nirzeg worries at his bag again for a few moments, but eventually produces a banner  from it. The very same one that old crew had acquired from a hill giant not too long ago.

"I've been studying this along with a few of your peoples few written of notes on and off again, and I believe I was making a breakthrough before. But between this and that and the other -- it's not important. What is are these are, well this is another, Rune, yes? The word is, mn, the word is on the tip of my tongue, if you can have a look at this?" He holds up the banner for Harshnag to take hold off. As the giant is examining it, he turns back to Lydia and waves her off, "That, please, quickly. Give me ten minutes or so, I can maybe piece together some of its properties. And if its like that banner there, I might even be one step closer to transferring its power onto something of yours in further benefit. Please, if you would?"

If she should pass over the rock ice 'dagger', Nirzeg in his eagerness begins to ritual cast a divining to work out at least some of its magic. And with his off-hand studies of many a language finally crystallizing in mind, the certainty of success remains clear in his eyes.

"You can, but give it right back."

Nirzeg pouts, but then sighs and nods solemnly. "But, but! If I do figure out how to transfer its power to better you, I would ask for it back to make an improvement -- For your benefit, not my own, just to be clear. For whatever comes of it, will be yours." He looks away briefly. "Wow, that was a lot of redundancy there -- BUT, my point still stands. Truly, my only gain, if you're interested, is the experience and the knowing."

As you all stand there freezing your arses off, Nirzeg is able to identify the magical properties of the Shard of the Ise Rune. 

Nirzeg passes along the information alongside and muttered remark "Better off as-is", though directed at noone in particular, and the piece of ice itself handed back to its owner. "Safe to assume 'that' isn't the key we're after, assuming its a fooking key we be needing to find. Let's head on to check out those Southern Doors." Nirzeg pats Harshnag on the toe. "After you our extraordinarily large friend."

Harshnag doesn't weigh in on the "key" debate, but keeps watch as you rest. He even builds a roaring campfire, producing wood for burning seemingly out of nowhere. 

When you are ready, Harshnag follows you back into the main temple area. The only illumination remains the ghostly glowing of the archway. The southern doors, like the ones to the north, are still frozen shut. 

// Forgot to mention, in case you missed it on Discord...level up to 7, and go ahead and hit the long rest button! //

Nirzeg had been disappointed initially at talks of rest. But come the next morning, as much as any could tell anyhow, that tune changes.

For upon his next awakening its almost as if he's a new man! Or at least, a slightly less insufferable one, as any of the usual snide comments or sleazy sounding pleasantries are hardly spoken of. In fact,  he hardly spoke at all except to himself or Zeek while jotting things down in a spellbook excitedly, or during the process of re-configuring the goggles and blade so that the former functioned to its fully abilities once more.

Even once the move the excitement in his eyes barely abate. "Well then, Big Guy? You willing to pop this ****er up?" He calls up to Harshnag, gesturing to the frozen shut door.

Harshnag gets to work on the door, which is caked over with ice. He slams his axe into it, over and over again, taking out the ice chip by chip. 

Rasa sits, preening his feathers.

Swiper sits and watches the giant hack away at the door, wanting to help, but finding himself too mesmerized by the pretty ice crystals flying about to do so. 

After the first two minutes Nirzeg grudgingly starts popping off a few Bolts of Fire at the ice in key points to further weaken it. "Red? Mind lending a few shots as well? Between the strokes, if you would be so kind."