Chilling Adventures in the North

     "Call him back?" Bàn suggests with a shrug.  "Can he even get back?  You still able to see him or...?"  Bán had been focused on watching the way they had entered in case that Mammoth or the wolves can back and was barely away of how long Ricky had been gone.

     "If he hasn't found hostages down there yet then I would think they are being kept elsewhere..."

If it's easy to get down into the hole/tunnel, Qinfaren will jump down and shout down the tunnel.

"Anything down there Rick?" Qinfaren calls. "Seems unlikely the prisoners are way down there."

Noticing the white residue, Qinfaren looks more closely at it to see if anything about it strikes a bell.

9  (Arcana/Investigation +1; Medicine? +5)

(It's not too difficult.)

Qinfaren identifies that the substance is thrym; a residue that is left by remorhazes which can be used to make potions of cold resistance by alchemists.

Once he realizes what the residue is, Qinfaren calls more loudly for Ricky.

"Ricky," Qinfaren calls. "Get out of there. This is a remohaz burrow. They're definitely too big for you to punch."

(assuming I can hear)

Ricky will come back. "It's a what?"

Qinfaren offers help to Ricky to get back out of the hole if he needs it.

"A remorhaz," Qinfaren says. "Great big bug. As big as this tunnel is wide and high."

He does look at the residue for a moment.

"Does any one have a flask we could collect this in?"

     “I have a water skin,” Bàn offers dubiously.  “It’s got my water in it…”

"Is that the same water we collected from the fountain?" Bjorn responds to Bàn. "But that's all I have got as well."

     “Huh… damn.  I really should have picked up a skin for drinking water…” Bàn says, scolding himself.

"Well, we'll just have to remember where this is," Qinfaren says. "Might come in handy."

Once back out of the hole, Qinfaren retraces their steps until they come back to a different pathway.

"Well, I don't know about any of you, but I'm not too sure where we are now," Bjorn adds. "We made some distance from Dougan's Hole with us following those wolves through a blizzard."

Qinfaren retraces his steps back to the area with the now-deceased frost giant. He can see another exit out of the ice lodge, but there were three entrances. The third entrance must lead to an area the group has yet to explore.

Keeping a look out for the wolves, Qinfaren heads into the third entrance.

Qinfaren heads out of the exit but sees no sign of the mammoth or the wolves. He then heads back into the lodge through the third entrance. A huge, slatted animal cage, with a locked gate attached to it by rusty hinges, stands against the west wall of this chamber. Trapped inside the cage are two shivering humans in cold-weather clothing. They look fearfully at Qinfaren.

Qinfaren smiles at the two humans.

"Hello," Qinfaren says. "We were told there were prisoners here. We're going to get you home."

He points out the hinges to Ricky and Bjorn. 

"It might be easier to break those then deal with the lock."

Qinfaren then creates a small ball of fire in his hand (via Produce Flame) and lights two torches from this pack, placing them down near the humans to help give them a little warmth.

"One quick question for you," Qinfaren says to the humans. "The two big talking wolves, do they seem forced to stay here by the giant or do they seem to like being here?"

     "And are there more of you being held here?" Bàn asks, eager to rescue others if there are any.  Bàm will leave the breaking of locks and hinges to the others and himself will look around the room.

"Giant?" One of the humans repeats, a boy. He is a piebald face with two malformed ears. His teeth chatter uncontrollably, his hands frostbitten.

"We haven't seen no giant," the other human adds, a girl. She is a spindly girl with pointy teeth. Snow clings to the ends of her long braids. "It was the wolves that brought us here, and took us hostage. They were trying to get some food for a Norsu; whoever that is."

Qinfaren nods sadly.

"I'd hoped the wolves weren't lying, but suspected they were," Qinfaren says.

If he can help Ricky and Bjorn with breaking the hinges on the cage by pulling one side with all his strength he will.

Ricky will look for something to bust the cages open.

What's a Norsu?

"No idea," the girl replies. "We never saw them. Just the wolves."

"Could be the name of the mammoth," Bjorn adds thoughtfully. "Their master dies, but the mammoth doesn't know how to take of itself. The wolves can hunt, but that's no good for the mammoth. So, the wolves concoct a plan to get food for the mammoth. They lead people away from Dougan's Hole to extort food from the town's people.

All three could talk, probably similar magic that the other druid had on those animals, the one that Qinfaren and I met before. Unless they were winter wolves.

I suppose it doesn't matter now, the mammoth has gone off looking for a banana tree and I guess the wolves went out of a sense of loyalty.

Anyway, let's get these two out of the cage, and then we can all leave.

(Athletics: 16)

Bjorn and Qinfaren work together to bend the bars of the cage. The bars bend just enough to let the slender two prisoners out.