Chilling Adventures in the North

Qinfaren moves over to the ice wall, looks up, smiles back at the others and suddenly shrinks down to the familiar spider shape he has used before. The small spider-Qinfaren waves a tiny arm at the others and then climbs quickly up the wall and continues down into the tunnel.

He keeps moving, letting the spider's eyes infravision sort out the shadows as he goes.

"I'll be up jus' in a minute," Arogna calls as Shad begins to climb the rope. She chases after the departing Muharg to wrap him in a brief, but forceful, hug. "You take care a yourself, Muharg, all right? If we ever gets them parcels back, I'll make sure I gets all your pay outa Mister Bassk, and sends it to you. Leave us a note in town of where you're headin'. I can read that now, thanks to you."

With a last clap on the dwarf's back, she jogs back into the cave and begins to make her way up the rope once Shad is at the top.

Athletics with adv 19

With the use of the rope, Shad makes a quick climb up the frozen waterfall to join Bjorn by his side. Shortly afterwards, Arogna makes the climb seem effortless.

"Okay then," Bjorn says. "Now we wait here."

Meanwhile, Qinfaren makes his way along the wall of the tunnel. Travelling as a spider is much slower than movement in Qinfaren's regular form. However, before too long, he makes it to the end of the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, Qinfaren finds himself inside a cave. From above, moonlight shines down through natural fissures in the ceiling providing light to the cave. This allows Qinfaren to see the fresh blood splattered across the frozen cave floor. However, what is more apparent, is the piles of bones. Bones of knucklehead trout, birds and small animals are scattered across the floor. However, some of the bones are not from that of a mere beast. Instead, some of the bones are the broken pieces of a humanoid skeleton, several humanoid skeletons. These bones have scrap pieces of cloth clinging to their ends, with armour and weaponry fallen to the ground where their owners were killed.

However, Qinfaren is not alone in this ossuary. In the middle of the cave is a huge skeleton partially encased in ice. The skeleton is resting in a sitting position, still and inert.

Qinfaren moves inside the chamber a little bit more, staying to the wall though as he remembers the groups fight with the undead up on the mountain. He tries to get a better look at the skeleton in the ice to see if he can determine what kind of creature it was when it was alive.

Nature?: 15  

Looking more closely at the skeleton, Qinfaren figures it must be from a giant from the size of the bones. Most likely a frost giant with it being this far north.

Shad wraps his coats tight around him. He watches in the direction Qinfaren left.

"Thank you for the rope, Bjorn. Have you heard of these caves? I'm sorry I broke the ice that freed that water serpent. Stupid ice," he says. "I hope Murhag's trip back is safe."

If a spider could frown, this one would. Qinfaren-spider looks down a the bones on the floor, noting the ones that look humanoid, and all the fresh blood.

He continues along the wall, looking to see if there are any other tunnels leaving this one. If there aren't, he'll return to the others.

Bjorn leaves the rope where is for the moment, then stops and thinks, "It is possible that these caves are part of several others used by elderly frost giants in a drowning ritual. Although, I have not heard mention of these particular caves before."

At the back of the ossuary, Qinfaren finds a tunnel that splits into two. One leading to the north, and one to the east.

Qinfaren-spider continues along the ceiling of the east tunnel.

"Ain't your fault, Shad," Arogna says. "What d'you mean drownin' ritual, Bjorn? That how they does the sacrificin'? Drownin' people?"

Qinfaren continues to the east. He passes through the tunnel out into another cave. Here he sees a large cauldron in the middle of the cave. The cauldron is made of thick copper that has turned green with age. It is four feet wide, and has a mouth three and a half feet in diameter. Embossed on its bulging sides are images of satyrs and nymphs in repose, holding ladles.

Near to the cauldron is a stone block. On top of the block are some pieces of fresh meat that are in the middle of being prepared for cooking. Lying next to the meat are some rusty hatchets.

In between the cauldron and the stone block is a decrepit old woman. The old woman wears tattered furs to stave off the cold. She attends to the cauldron in which she appears to be brewing a stew.

Bjorn shakes his head, "No, not to sacrifice people. The drowning ritual is ritual to end their own lives."

Qinfaren-spider watches the old woman and the large pot for a few moments, wondering where she would have gotten such large pieces of meat out here on her own.

A small spider arm scratches a small spider head and then Qinfaren- spider turns and heads back to find the others to tell them what he’s found.

"Old giants drowning themselves?" Shad said. "I never would have thought it . . . though a graveyard for giants would be huge. What do they do with the bodies, Bjorn? Have you heard?"

Bjorn shrugs his shoulders, "I guess some of the bones might be lying around here somewhere. Although, if they used to drown themselves in these caves, they might have been washed away into the lake."

Qinfaren safely makes it back to the rest of the group.

Qinfaren-spider jumps off the wall, changing back into Qinfaren the less than quiet Firbolg just before he lands on the tunnel floor. 

He opens his mouth to speak, stops, turns and looks back down the tunnel he came from, furrows his brow and sighs before turning back to face the others.

"Very strange," Qinfaren starts. "The first cave up ahead has a lot of bones lying around, some that look humanoid, but right in the middle is the skeleton of a giant frozen in ice."

Qinfaren scratches his beard before continuing.

"And then to the east there's another cave and that's even stranger. There's an old woman making a stew or something in a big cauldron. Chunks of meat lying there and more bones." Qinfaren says, pausing before continuing. "Where do you suppose she got the meat way in here? And what's she doing out here all by herself?"

He frowns.

"No anglers walking about."

"Not good," says Shad. "No anglers. A suspicious old woman with fresh meat. Skeletons including a giant." He signs. "The fishers must have fallen prey to the suspicious old woman, as the giant did maybe? She knows magic?" He shakes his head. "I really wanted the town in debt to us because of a rescue. How's that going to happen now?" He looks at Qinfaren. "Did she look nice or anything?"

"Is she the Frostmaiden, d'you think?" Arogna asks, looking aghast. "This where they sends 'em all, to get ate? Prob'ly that thing drowns 'em an' then she cooks 'em. Even got a giant frozen up 'case she runs out."

Qinfaren’s eyes go wide at the mention that the meat might be the anglers.

”She looked like an old woman. Neither friendly or unfriendly. Busy I guess. It was a cauldron she was stirring in. Maybe she knows magic.”

Qinfaren looks down the tunnel.

”If this is what happens to the sacrifices we should stop her. But do you need time for a decent sleep and prayer, Shad? We could try one of those other cave entrances from the lake and camp out there, keeping watch on this tunnel entrance to see if she leaves.”

"Might be a bit risky to camp this close to this old woman. Especially if she is as dangerous as we suspect," Bjorn adds. "Although, we could be jumping to conclusions though. She is close to the lake, perhaps she's just good at catching the fish there? Did the meat look like fish?"

Qinfaren runs his hand through his shaggy hair and scratches his beard again.

”I suppose it could have been fish. But near the giant skeleton there were a lot of other skeletons and some of those were humanoid with armor and weapons too. Either she did that, has the power to do it, or is strong enough not to be scared off by a cave that has signs of a lot of carnage.”

He looks back to Shad.

”I’ll agree with whatever you decide, Shad. If you need to talk to your Cat Lord we can find somewhere safe to camp. If not, let’s go ask the woman what’s going on out here.”