Chilling Adventures in the North

Shad listens to Arogna and Qinfaren and the others talk. He follows up after Qinfaren with questions about staying warm and dry while traveling in such cold, wintery conditions. Eventually, very late, he will take a warm drink up to the room he has rented, briefly supplicate the Cat Lord for safety for him and his friends on their journey, and sleep.

 Just before he drops to sleep, he remembers the orcish tradition of burying five stones for good luck before a journey. He considers trying it tomorrow, but the ground is probably too frozen. 

Muharg spends the evening chatting with his companions, joining in when they speak to the locals, while enjoying a couple of ale mugs and a good, roasted pork knuckle. He eventually asks at the bar about how the rebuilding is going.

Eventually, he finds his way to his chamber where he cradles his belt for a while as he thinks about his parents, gives it a kiss, and goes to sleep for the night.

Bjorn allows himself to relax and join in the towns festivities. He eats, drinks and trades stories with the locals. He pays in particular care to any story with even the hint of a mention about undead or necromancers.

By the time you retire to your rooms, most of the patrons have left, heading home. The night is peaceful and you find warmth in your beds. You don't know when the next time you will be able to shelter from the harsh weather, so you make the best of the comforts provided.

So far you have been travelling between destinations on the Icebreaker which has provided regular shelter from the harsh weather found this far north. Tomorrow, you have been told, you will be heading even further north far away from the Icebreaker. For some of you Ten Town will be closest to home you have been in months as you have searched for answers to the everlasting night. (The patrons that you encountered earlier in the day had no idea as to its cause. Neither had they seen any unusual creatures like the skeletal shark that you encountered on the Icebreaker.)

For the rest of you, Ten Town will be the farthest north you have travelled. Though Luskar had previously been the farthest north, then Fireshear and then Aurilssbarg. Still you have your own reasons for continuing on this journey.

In the morning you wake up to the sound of patrons searching for breakfast.

Qinfaren gets up and gathers his gear and heads downstairs to look for the others and breakfast. He's both looking forward to today and dreading it at the same time. He's never been to where they're headed and that's got his already high levels of curiosity working over time, but he's worried about the cold and what might be out there similar to the skeletal sea creature.

He greets any of the staff and other guests and orders food while he waits for the others to come down.

Arogna walks heavily down the stairs, grunts to Qinfaren, dumps her gear at his table, and goes straight through the door of the Dancing Bear, without her coat on. From outside there is a noise of cracking ice, followed by a series of splashes interspersed with gasps and yells of shock, as if someone had broken the ice on the inn's big water-butt and then dunked their own head in it repeatedly. Following which Arogna re-enters the inn, shaking water from her hair, her cheeks now glowing a lively pink through her grey skin tone. "Best way ta wake up when you had a fun night," she explains cheerfully, and requests bacon and ale from the staff, frowning at the contents of her coin purse. "Hey, Qinfaren, d'you see me drop any money last night? I got a lot less than I did have."

Before heading downstairs to ask for a nice breakfast fish, Shad looks longingly at his warm bed. When he meets Arogna and Qinfaren, he will ask about tents or bags for sleeping. "Do you think we should try and find such things before we leave? I'm not even sure how far we will be traveling. I'll bet we can find a guide or pack animals for all our bonfire wood."

Qinfaren watches Arogna move through the main room in silence and watches her come back inside, head dripping wet. He laughs at her transformation.

"I think you will find you gave a great deal of your coin to the bartender," Qinfaren says. "You did seem happy with what you got in exchange though."

He then turns as Shad joins them.

"I hope the parcelmaster will have sufficient supplies for our journey, but yes we should confirm that before we leave."

He turns back to his food but looks back up before taking another bite, his eyes shining with excitement.

"Do you think we'll see a polar bear? That would be amazing."

Shortly after Arogna makes her way back into the tavern, a familiar dwarven figure enters the place through the same door adjusting his belt. Muharg has woken up early and has been wandering around for a little while. Breathing the cold morning air, thinking about the next leg of their journey, and finally spending a few moments by the sea wondering how long it will be until they meet each other again, and scanning the horizon for another monstrosity.

"Morning there! How was your night lads and lasses? Hope you slept tight, who knows when will we have a warm and cozy place to sleep in again!" He then orders a porridge and takes a seat by his friends patting Qinfaren on the back as he sits down. “Polar bears you say? Those have to be a magnificent sight... Hope they have had breakfast if we meet one up close though!”

"Ugh," Shad says. "Polar bears." He continues to eat his breakfast. "My sleep was excellent. Heavy blankets. Warm stove. Very nice," he says. "We meet the parcel master at the dock, right?"

"Yeah, think so," says Arogna. "Mr. Bassk was gonna fix somethin up with Kal... Kalnal.. that elf lady. Maybe she's got some gear for us." 

After eating, the lodge is now a lot busier with more people gathering inside. Some are meeting to discuss plans for the rebuilding of Fireshear. Whilst others are sit in solitary enjoying a quiet moment before their day ahead. With you all finished, all that is left is for you to go and find Lennart, and see what he has prepared for you.

Upon arriving down by the docks, near where the Icebreaker is moored, you see Lennart, Silvermane, Kalannai waiting for you. Along with some of the remaining members of the.Icebreaker crew and other Luskan deliverers. In the middle of the group is a sledge with two sledge dogs. Already the sledge is loaded with the remaining packages.

Arogna grins widely at the sight of the sledge dogs. "Oh, look at 'em. Ain't they nice. Proper dogs, those." She looks at Kalannai, "D'you know their names, miss?"

Qinfaren's grin is as broad as Arogna's when he sees the sled dogs.

He kneels down in front of them, pulling his gloves off, spreading his fingers out so the dogs can smell him.

"Hey there," Qinfaren says to the dogs. "I think we're going to be great friends, and we'll reward all your hard work with lots of treats."

Qinfaren uses his Speech of Beast and Leaf to make sure the dogs understand that they're friends and that they appreciate the work the dogs will do for them.

While staying down by the dogs, he looks over at Lennart.

"Good morning, Parcelmaster. Are you coming with us?"

Shad is wary of the dogs, but after watching Qinfaren and Arogna, he approaches them, letting them become familiar and friendly. He will present a fist for each dog to smell, not sure how he feels about them. He looks at the sledge, hoping to see small portable stoves, coal, and bonfire wood. Finally, he will also look over the crew and deliverers he hasn't worked with yet and try to decide how much he trusts them. 

"Their names are Basan and Pom," Kalannai says in response to Arogna's question.

The dogs sniff Qinfaren's hand as he presents it to them.

"No, as I said yesterday," Lennart begins. "I will be parting ways with you today. I need to get back to Luskar. I have been away long enough. There will be more deliveries to sort out I'm sure. However, make sure that you finish these deliveries. That is the only way you will receive your final payments."

When Shad approaches the dogs they sniff at him as well. Wagging their tails in response. However, Shad fails to see anything to be used as a stove, coal, or bonfire wood on the sledge. All they managed to sort out was the transportation for remaining parcels and one person at a time on the sledge.

Muhargs greets Lenart, Silvermane and Kalannai, and then does so with a general gesture to the rest of the deliverers and crew. He then adjusts his belt and proceeds to introduce himself to the dogs, like his companions before. After getting to know the animals and pet them for a few moments, he stands up again and addresses Lennart. "All right sir, will you provide us a map along with the remaining delivery addresses and recipients?" Then turns to Kalannai "Any advice for the road ahead miss?"

"I can provide you with a map of the area," Lennart replies as pulls a stack of folded parchment from his pocket. He flips through them all until he finds the one that he is looking for. "Ah, here we go. I am entirely sure how accurate it is. Nevertheless, this is a map of the general area this far north. You will find Luskan near the bottom right corner, Fireshear nearer the middle, and Ten Trail up from there and to the right."

Lennart then passes the map to Muharg.

"If you need shelter at any time, I would suggest you to stop at Hundelstone," Kalannai adds helpfully. "They are well known for their master blacksmiths. I would have thought that's where Griggle would have headed to, considering his was looking to craft adamantine bars. But if the weather starts giving you trouble, I'm sure you will be welcomed there."

"As for addresses of the recipients of these packages, one is bound for Raggamel in Bryn Shander. Another to Artus Cimber, but I'm not sure which settlement you will find him at, nor Jarlaxle Baenre. But that last one, Vanifer, should be waiting for you at Reghed Glacie." explains Lennart. "I'm sure that is you what you said Arogna? You collected the package from Vanifer, right?

After that, if you ever find yourselves in Luskan, I will be happy to offer you more work."

"S'right, Mr. Bassk, she said Reghed Glacier. I dunno what she's doin' all the way out at the end of the trail, though," Arogna says, peering at the map. If someone has pointed the glacier out to her, she'll know where it is, but she can't read the names. "Probably hidin' from someone or somethin'. I'd'a liked to get rid of that package first, I gotta say." 

She looks at Lennart, " 'S that it for this lot of jobs then, Mr. Bassk? Do we gotta bring you a letter or somethin' to get paid?"

Qinfaren peeks over Arogna's shoulder to look at the map. After a moment he stabs a big finger at the glacier in the top right.

"There's the glacier," he says to Arogna. "It's a long way away, we might end up there last."

Then he looks over at Lennart.

"The people getting the packages pay us, and we keep that, right Parcelmaster?" Qinfaren asks.

He looks back at the map.

"That looks like a long walk to Hundelstone. The sooner we start the better."