The two Portal Dogs seemed to Krasire to be doing a better job of controlling the battlefield than he was.

They teleported Relvain into the cave, but they failed when they tried the same tactic on Shadowfox and Krasire himself. This failure was almost worse than success might have been, isolating Relvain from their help.

Sure, it allowed him to keep his hippogriff, Xerxes, in the fight. But Relvain was isolated from all help. Still the Dwarven Defender seemed to be holding her own, tanking the Bloodbear inside.

But Pyradan and his dogs were able to harry them relentlessly outside the cave.

When he worked his way closer to the mouth of the cave he used his full mental powers to Force Grasp both Pyradan and the Bloodbear. Not only did this immobilize them inflicted so much damage — more than Krasire had ever dealt in a single attack — he tried it again before they could react. Seemed like a waste of a good immobilize, but it sure did a lot of damage.

Then the dogs were able to knock him out.

“Ah, the sweet surcease of consciousness,” he thought as he slumped to the ground.

Andrea Ravn remembered another moment from her dream: Zellara telling her about being trapped in the Harrow Deck. She could not get out of it until she taught another to use it. The woman’s ghost was caught in the fortune-telling deck which had been so much a part of her life.

Trinity Shadowfox was glad to see Xerxes bring his rider back to the land of the living, but the Shardmind did not seem to have his heart in the fight. Using her Ghost on the Rooftops power, she was able to evade the dogs for a while. Neither she nor Krasire ever really got inside the cave to help Relvain, who had added Bloodbear-pinning to her repertoire.

Trinity knew it wouldn’t be long before both she and Krasire would both be unconscious at the same time and she would not be able to heal the Shardmind.

“I’m glad this is not a fight to the death,” she thought. “And Xerxes can probably keep us both alive.”

“Precise Mind,” The Seed of Winter whispered. “Precissssse Mind.” But the Shardmind did not seem to want to use its Precise Mind. Still, the Seed persisted, “True domination is possible only through the Precise Mind.”

Relvain the Dragonpinner was almost sorry when she finally bloodied the Bloodbear. At first it was just a Firbolg in a bearskin. When she bloodied it, however, it turned into a giant bear-humanoid hybrid which seemed to have healed all its wounds.

Thinking it was critical to bloody it again — “I’ll bet it turns back into a Firbolg” — she threw everything she had into her attacks on the werebear, which seemed to have some kind of power of regeneration.

Even though this meant she had to ignore Pyradan and his dogs, she was able to pile on the damage faster than the Bloodbear could regenerate. The dogs were unable to get through her defenses much, but Pyradan and the werebear finally managed to wear her down.

She awoke on a makeshift altar in the war-camp of an Eladrin noble who seemed to have two streaks of gold in his hair just above his ears. He was directing his healers to bring Relvain and her companions — lying on the ground nearby — back to consciousness.

Entertaining the Skyshaper

“I like this place,” Grim Shadowfox told the rest. “Lots of shadows.”

It quickly became apparent the shadows were not just for effect. Two 12-foot humanoid hunters quickly moved to attack. Shadowfox knew that Firbolgs like shadow almost as much as she did.

“And so do those Shadow Snakes I see hiding in the shadows.”

A rumbling voice thundered through the sky. “You fight in my demesne, do you? Fine, then. Entertain me.” She quickly realized this must be the Skyshaper, the archfey Caliandra told her about.

While the Firbolgs started raining Moonfire down on them — to the delight of the Skyshaper — Grim was not convinced they were fighting all out. “Probably just testing us out,” she decided. “What are those war picks for?”

She soon found out. When they hit two different creatures with their picks in one turn, the Ghostravens could blind one of them.

Then she got a message from Krasire. Using his arcane lore, the Shardmind had figured out that the Skyshaper could be influenced by either acrobatics or flattery. “I can do both of those,” she shot back to him.

Sure enough, as soon as she started complimenting the archfey, the sky brightened slightly. This didn’t help Grim much, but she was sure it helped her allies.

And the enemies definitely didn’t like it.

Andrea Ravn remembered this dream. She’d had it before. On a mission to save some kids from a guy named Lamm. Only in this dream she wasn’t a Dragonborn. She was human. She had always failed before. This time she spotted the gnome hiding among the children before he could stab her. Andrea convinced the kids — known as Lamm’s Lambs — to turn on their oppressors. They her where Lamm was hiding, and went down and killed him. She awoke with a sense of success she hadn’t felt in days. And four trophies: a gruesome hatbox, a Harrow Deck (which probably belonged to the ghost who sent her after Lamm), a teak cigar box containing a broach with a broken clasp; and a knife inscribed “for a father’s inspiration.”

Andrea found magic on the Harrow Deck and on the broach and resolved to find out what they did. The Harrow Deck was probably for divination, but the broach could be useless until she got it repaired.

In this world or in the other.

She went to Amyria, who was recently elected to take Lord Torrance’s place leading the Coalition. The deva told her the Order of the Black Feather had been selected to take care of an important mission. She thought Andrea’s skills in that arena might be singularly useful.

So Andrea decided to try to catch up with them. She still thought of herself as more of a Golden-Scales kind of Dragonborn. But Amyria told her that Ragnar the Mighty was going along. Andrea couldn’t think of anybody as Golden Scales as Ragnar.

Except Grigore Weatherbie Goldforge, of course.

She found the trail of the other members of The Order of the Black Feather at the ruins of Rhest and almost caught up to them before they disappeared through a portal.

After Shadowfox’s compliments had such an impact on the ruler of this strange realm — the guy they were hoping convince to help them get to the Stone-Skinned King’s court — Krasire tried following his own advice. The sky brightened as the Skyshaper was again taken in by the flattery.

Then Shadowfox tried a different strategy: Using her acrobatics to leap to the top of one of the standing stones which surrounded them, she somersaulted out of reach of the snakes which kept shifting between them.

“Marvelous!” shouted the booming voice. And the sky brightened further.

When Krasire delivered his final compliment, Andrea saw the sun come out and heard yet another roar of pleasure from the Skyshaper.

The Shadow Snakes were not doing well under the sun’s rays. Nor were the strange creatures wearing the raven masks. Andrea could almost see smoke rising from their shadowy hides.

Except the smoke seemed to a sunshine sparkle to it.

“Like this guy likes to show off his control-of-the-sun-and-moon powers,” Andrea decided. “Almost as much as he likes flattery.”

In the heat of battle, Krasire could hear the voice of the Seed of Winter in his head, "To control is to dominate. Domination is control. See: You are now the controller. You slowed the Ghostraven with your Force Grasp. it can even immobilize, but sometimes slow is all you need. It could not get away while it was phasing, so your comrades could concentrate their damage on that one. Elimination in detail: That is what a controller can do. Just as your Kinetic Wave can push your enemies into traps laid by your allies. Just as your Betrayal can shift or slide your opponents into bunches. To control is to know just what your allies need. To dominate the battlefield is to be aware of everything on the battlefield and move the pieces where you want them to be.

When one of the snakes tried to climb the pillar where Shadowfox was acrobatically dancing out of its reach, Relvain was able to convince the others to concentrate their fire on that one. Once it was dead, they did the same to the other.

When they turned to the Ghostravens, she did not like the way the battle turned. The Firbolgs could no longer achieve true invisibility in the bright sun, but they were alternating their attacks in such a way that only one was available to attack each turn.

But Krasire finally saved the day by slowing one when it was not in a tree.

“The kid’s actually getting good,” Relvain told herself. The Dragonpinner had been frustrated as the Ghostravens kept phasing out and flying away. It prevented her from concentrating the damage on one of the two remaining opponents.

“I guess once you’ve pinned a dragon, it’s going to be frustrating to be unable to pin something as inconsequential as a Firbolg,” she told herself.

The slowed Ghostraven was unable to escape Relvain’s pin and, when the other came down to rescue it, the Shardmind caught both of them in a Kinetic Wave. Soon it was unconscious and they were able to finish off the other.

…And the Kidnapped Citizens…

…of Elsir Vale are set free.

Ragnar the Mighty raced toward the Ruins of Rhest. The ancient city was hidden in the swamps which were gradually engulfing it.

“Where are they?” he asked. “Amyria said some revenant figured out these ruins are where the slavers they are seeking are operating from.”

Then he heard the sounds of battle.

“That’s where the blood will be,” his sword told him.

He tried to ignore it. The sword always tried to out-barbarian him. He didn’t like that much.

Running to the sound of the fighting, he found a passageway leading down into the ruins. He got there just in time to see a Stone Golem rampage through the party Amyria sent him to find. Charging in, he told himself the Golem wasn’t the only one who could rampage.

His sword agreed.

“Shut up, Wicked Fang,” he told it.

He was able to charge the Stone Golem repeatedly when Krasire — the Shardmind turned out to be a psion — forced it back toward the imprisoned citizens they had been sent to free.

Then his sword got stuck in the rocky hide of the Golem, Ragnar could see how he could twist the sword and free it. Likely hurting the stone creature in the process. "It might break Wicked Fang, though…

A smile crossed Ragnar’s face, and he twisted hard. No break, but maybe now the sword might not be so quick to call him a whiner.

The sword did not seem to mind. Almost seemed like it enjoyed the risk.

The Seed of Winter whispered, “Dominance is control of the battlefield. Not just making them hit themselves. Not just making them hit their friends. Control is dominance of the battlefield.”

Grim Shadowfox watched as her shadow detached itself from her feet and went over to stand behind the Cyclops Crusher. “That greatclub of his might have the reach of my inescapable rapier, but it will do nothing to a shadow on the stone.”

Unfortunately Shadowfox was soon separated from her shadow, unable to use it to gain combat advantage. The Stone Golem’s rampage pushed her back, but not her shadow. So she just piled on her shrouds until she could get that advantage back.

When she did, her vampiric rapier was able to channel some of the golem’s essence into her own undead being. Soon the Golem was nothing but gravel and they were able to turn to the Cyclops themselves.

Krasire pondered the Seed’s words. “What could be more useful than damaging themselves? And how could I spread my augments out longer in a big battle. I have used all my daily powers, so I will need to make the most of my mental powers for the rest of the day.”

Relvain Blackaxe was finally able to get the Cyclops Crusher up against a wall of the cave. “Not quite as fun as pinning a dragon, but effective nonetheless,” she thought.

The Cyclops’s Evil Eye was doing little to fend off the damage that Shadowfox and Ragnar were pouring on. And, of course, Relvain was doing her share as well.

“Nice to have a tank who can do some damage,” the barbarian told her.

Krasire was doing a good job of getting the two Cyclops to swing at each other, but they didn’t seem to hit very often. When they did, not a lot of damage ensued.

The Crusher did go down. And the other Cyclops — the Slaver with all the barbed nets and shuriken — headed off in a hurry.

After they searched the body, they freed the captured citizens and followed a map they found to a portal which opened with a scroll from the Crusher’s body.

Stepping through the portal, Relvain found herself surrounded by a circle of tall, columnar stones. A ring of glowing runes encircled them, but it dimmed after they arrived.

Twelve-foot-tall humanoids immediately ambushed them in the circle.

“Firblogs,” the shieldmaiden snorted. “I guess the Slaver warned them we were coming.”

The mercenaries brought Krasire and his wounded mount back to Brindol, where they were greeted as heroes. While Quelenna Entromiel was not present — she was still politicking back in Sayre — she had arranged for a parade in their behalf.

Her agents were quick to credit Krasire for his efforts, but the mercenaries were the stars who had broken the blockade. The result was clear.

Quelenna’s gambit had succeeded.

Testing the waters with Odos, Krasire found the Githzerai leader unwilling to commit to any politics. He wanted the voting over. With Quelenna in the lead, any commitment he might make to Amyria would only prolong the voting at this point. “Maybe I can convince him once Amyria is closer to winning.”

He already had the Deva vote locked up, since he had convinced Bejam to join the council after saving Nefelus from an Exarch of Tiamat. And with the people of thinking so well of Amyria — since he had convinced them of the historical importance of religion in past wars — he was able to convince Inogo as well.

Shadowfox told him the people of Overlook seemed to be impressed with her credentials as a member of the Order of the Blackfeather, even when she told them she had only been associated with the group for a couple of days. So the Revenant went to the High Council in the dwarven city and convinced them the Black Feather was backing Amyria.

Then a stealth raid by Hobgoblins was easily foiled by the city guards. Eoffram Troyas decided to use this as proof the forces of evil were easily defeated. Trying to convince the people of Brindol that this meant his aggressive strategies would quickly pay off, Troyas made a move shore up the votes in Elsir Vale.

So confident had Krasire become with the Revenant’s abilities, that he left this gambit entirely up to Trinity. But working by herself the Revenant was unable to prove the danger of the Hobgoblins was exaggerated or even show that they were not associated with the Githyanki.

As she died, Lyrindel had a strange thought: “My soul is frozen in many pieces. My body as well. What if I split my mind as well? Legends say the swarm mind was created at the same time as the dryad mind.”

Two dragon sisters became heroes. Great metallic-dragon gods brought them to Bahamut and asked that he reward them. Bahamut told them the pair they could choose any kind of mind they wanted. The first sister said, “I will choose the mind of a tree, serene and slow, able to think a single thought for a long time.” She became the first hamadryad.

The other sister said, “I will choose the mind of the beehive, able to think many things at once.” She became the first bee swarm.

Lyrindel thought about this. “I will try to die with the mind of the swarm,” she decided. “I wonder how many ways I can split my personality before I lose consciousness.”

As Trinity shadowfox watched Krasire attempt the next round of diplomacy, she became convinced the Shardmind was going to blow it. Then she began to see the way the rock-person was able to become one of the secret masters of an entire city.

Suddenly, Quelenna was on the offensive again with another of her gambits. She had been nosing around in their finances and found the heroes who were supporting Amyria had profited substantially. “Maybe they only vote for this strange Deva because they know she will send them where they can acquire the most loot,” she suggested.

Trinity was quick to his own defense. “I have not profited at all by my association with ”/wikis/the-order-of-the-black-feather" class=“wiki-page-link”> The Order of the Black Feather," she insisted. Since none of the evidence indicated Trinity had looted anything, Trinity was off the hook.

She could see that Krasire could make no such claim. Yet he was able to overcome the accusation by promising to return the Seed of Winter to its rightful owner and to contribute his profits to the Alliance cause.

Quelenna’s second gambit was nowhere near as successful as her first, even losing some of the support she had garnered earlier.

Krasire apparently saw that Eoffram had the momentum and deftly offered Elsir Vale seat to Eoffram Troyas if Amyria got the leadership role.

“That ought to take the edge off his attacks on our candidate,” Shadowfox decided. “He won’t want to insult her too publicly if he knows he might lose the seat should she win.”

Krasire told Shadowfox he was going to talk to Fariex to see if the dragon-merchant was impressed by the way they were foiling the gambits, so she decided to talk to Inogo. Both negotiations were successful: Fariex the Scalehammer laughed heartily as he admitted he was impressed, and Inogo Dravitch was glad the council was coming to a consensus around Amyria.

Trinity turned underground, gathering rumors — and even spreading a few herself.

Turned out she wasn’t the only one taking this route. She caught wind of Quelenna’s effort to bribe some officials in Sayre. When the bribes went public, Quelenna lost the last of her non-Dornatholian support.

Desperate to stop the dangers she saw in the rash policies being advocated by Eoffram Troyas, Quelenna withdrew from the race and threw her support behind the candidate she thought would be more willing to listen to conservative ideas: Amyria!

Desperate to prove his plan’s viability, Eoffram sent out some false orders to two cities. He made it look like the Alliance Council was commanding them to raise civilian armies and strike back at the invaders. Shadowfox lit out like a banshee, using her endurance to beat the messengers to one target city.

Later she returned to Sayre and heard rumors that Krasire had taken a more leisurely pace. Even flying on his hippogriff, he got to Overlook after the messenger had presented the fake orders to the dwarves. But his masterful diplomacy managed to convince the High Council to wait for confirmation.

Which never came.

“I guess it never pays to underestimate the skills of someone who claims to be one of the Secret Masters of Waterdeep,” she said. Back out on the streets, she was able to undermine confidence in Eoffram by spreading rumors about his fake orders.

This set up Krasire for his final round of diplomacy, winning the leadership position for Amyria.

… to Upend his Support of Amyria…

…when another candidate tries a gambit to take advantage of it.

When Krasire returned to Sayre, he found the Coalition in disarray.

After Kalad, the paladin from Overlook was killed, Lord Torrance rushed out to avenge his death. But the Githyanki assassins had left behind an ambush, which killed Torrance himself.

With two of the top leaders dead, Amyria told Krasire the Coalition needed new leadership. After careful consideration of the alternatives, the Shardmind convinced Amyria she should run for the office.

Two other candidates had put themselves forward: Eoffram Troyas, a half-elf member of the Council in Brindol, and Quelenna Entromiel, an Eladrin merchant who rules over the settlement of Dornaithos.

Krasire believes Troyas, who hasn’t even been chosen for the Elsir Vale seat vacated by Kalad yet, is to brash and aggressive to lead the Coalition. And Quelenna is just the opposite — convinced a defensive posture will eventually win without diverting too many resources from trade.

With Bejam already backing Amyria because of Krasire’s intervention to save his island from a Winter-Court dragon who had thrown in with the Githyanki, Krasire decided to start his campaign for Amyria by targeting the respresentative of the distant city of Sherrbyr, Deacon Inogo Dravitch.

Belinda was able to open a portal to the village of one of her father’s vassals, which made his journey to Sherrbyr a lot quicker. He found a religious community open to many religions. So varied were the opinions, the entire society seemed caught up in endless debate.

Open-air forums were everywhere, so Krasire decided to take advantage of this. He set himself up on a soapbox in one of the open squares and began propounding on the history of warfare and the importance of all the various religions in that history. Didn’t take him long before he had the crowd squarely in Amyria’s court.

“That should help Inogo see the wisdom of siding with Amyria,” he told himself.

As Belinda got ready for the musical to start, a young elven lady sat down beside her. “That’s funny,” she thought. “Here I am at a play about an elven princess, and a girl sits next to me who looks just like a high elven princess.” So she started up a conversation.

Returning to Sayre, Krasire found the city in an uproar. Hobgoblin brigands were blockading trade in the Elsir Vale. The Elsir Consortium was crippled by the blockade, and Quelenna Entromiel was quick to exploit the situation for her own political gain.

“The Consortium is a competitor of mine,” the ruler of Dornaithos told the people. “But this demonstrates what I’ve been saying all along. Trade will be vital to defeating the Githyanki threat.” Quelenna announced she was hiring mercenaries to break the blockade. “Trade protects itself. I will put up the money to keep the resources flowing.”

Figuring that hiring mercenaries would take awhile, Krasire decided it was time to fly his hippogriff, Xerxes, to break the blockade before Quelenna got all the credit.

He flew out and found a few Hobgoblins blocking a bridge.

“Not much of a blockade,” he thought. “I can take them out before the mercenaries arrive. Then I can tell everyone Amyria sent me out to scout the blockade and her quick thinking and careful planning allowed me to break it quickly.”

Sure enough, he was able to kill two of the Hobgoblins with a quick Irruption of the Living Gate. The third Hobgoblin was obviously a lot tougher.

“Must be a veteran,” Krasire realized.

Hanging back and hitting the creature with his mental powers, the Shardmind was able to bloody it without taking damage. But then he got overconfident and had Xerxes swoop in for the kill.

The Hobgoblin was ready for it. With a heroic leap, he grabbed Xerxes’s claw and pulled him close enough to swing his axe at the Hippogriff.

Seeing the wound his mount had taken, Krasire jumped to the ground and engaged the Hobgoblin Vet hand to hand.

Much more to the Hobgoblin’s liking.

Soon the Shardmind was bloodied as well, desperately trying to heal himself while he wore down the veteran. Then the Hobgoblin got in a lucky blow and Krasire went down.

When he regained consciousness, Xerxes was licking his face and the Hobgoblin was dead nearby. He could see Quelenna’s mercenaries removing its head and mounting it on a pike. Apparently they had arrived in time to finish off the Hobgoblin and revive him.

By the time he got back to Sayre, Quelenna’s partisans were already celebrating her “victory” over the blockade.

The trade queen’s gambit had paid off.

…Civiron, a sister city to Sayre, was burned to the ground…

…5,000 were killed, and the Coalition elected Lord Torrance as its leader. Torrance sent an emissary to Overlook, telling Kalad that the Coalition was willing to admit they were wrong about selecting a leader. This proved to be enough to convince the proud dwarven paladin to bring Overlook back into the coalition.

Krasire stopped to try to find the bodies of Klaxi and Lyrindel before he fled the collapsing iceberg. Without the enhanced magic of the Seed of Winter, its structural integrity was not going to last long.

Relvain Dragonpinner showed no such compunctions. The shieldmaiden headed out the secret door as soon as the first cracks began to show in the ice overhead.

Noticing objects embedded in one of the icy walls, the Shardmind threw everything he had into breaking them free. Sure enough, it was Klaxi and Lyrindel as they had been captured in ice by the gargoyles.

The prospect of carrying two bodies out of the magickal ice structure that was already breaking apart around him was too much for Krasire to try on his own, so he headed off to the dragon’s treasure room. He was able to leap up the slippery blocks of crumbling ice to get to the secret door to the Grand Hall where the Ice Gargoyles had killed Klaxi and Lyrindel, but he got the idea that acrobatics — as good as he was at them — might not be the best way to handle the slippery surfaces.

A hard run through the hall convinced him that was little better as a strategy for dealing with the dangerous surfaces.

In the Frost Giant Enclave, he found the rest of the party had left with Relvain, abandoning Uarion. The Githzerai mindmage insisted he was no longer under the control of the Seed of Winter and asked Krasire if he brought it with him. When the Shardmind admitted he had forgotten the Artifact, they returned to Chillreaver’s Chamber.

That return was made easier by the fact that Uarion had spent so much time as Chillreaver’s slave. He knew exactly how to open the door straight into the chamber. He simply dropped to his knees and bowed his head to the ice.

“Prepare for supplication in the proper manner,” Krasire said, remembering the words written on the ice. Those words, along with the door they were written upon, slid into the wall and they could see the Seed of Winter lying on the floor below.

As the Seed implored them to return it to the Winter Court, Uarion told Krasire to stand on the other side of the gallery. He blasted a Concussion Orb directly under the Seed, throwing it up into the hands of Krasire.

Snatching the acorn-shaped artifact from the air, Krasire spotted the best way back to the enclave where he saw the body of a Winter Wolf he had checked out earlier. It was still dead.

By now, the Shardmind was convinced getting out was going to prove harder than he thought at first. So he began using his arcane knowledge to find the best way out. After all, the iceberg was little more than a crystal held together with magic. Who better than a Shardmind to figure out how it would come apart?

This insight told him athletics might be the best way to climb down, followed by a leap or two to make his way the room where Uarion had imprisoned his ice-magma hybrids. He found the best way down a hole where Klaxi had left a rope pinned with the stolen trident.

When he got to Xurgelmek’s Chamber, his crystal prowess showed him the spot where a strategic stomp created a rough stair down to the lower level. Calling on all his endurance he was able to make it to the stairs before they collapsed.

The combination of his perception and his arcane knowledge was all it took to get him and Uarion to the last of the strange vessels — the Apparatuses of Kwalish — which looked like mechanical lobsters.

“They brought me here,” he told Uarion. “They should get us back to Nefelus.”

On his way to join the Coalition Council in Sayre, Kalad was assassinated by a crack team of Githyanki killers.

The actor who played Titus Androwdicus in Jerath’s play told Avenglen the bard was currently working on a much better play, called Roland and Juliette, which was currently on the road in a place called Sayre. He suggested it was a much more cultured city than Overlook and a better place to see good theater.

As she headed out of Elsir Vale toward this university town, Avenglen recognized the signs of war all around her. She had seen enough wars in her 146 years to spot the clues: refugees on the road, soldiers looking very serious on patrol.

As she neared Sayre, she saw a large group of soldiers heading out on what looked like an important mission.

Inside the city, she found accommodations at the River Jewel which turned out to be quite a nice inn. The clerk told he how to find the theater where she could see Roland and Juliette. He even mentioned Jerath was staying at the River Jewel himself.

Lord Torrance of Sayre ordered an immediate response to the outrage — the heroic dwarf paladin assassinated by Githyanki. But the Githyanki had already escaped via a portal to the Winter Court area of the Feywild. Anticipating the response, they had laid an ambush — manned by Hobgobilins — which caught Lord Torrance off guard and killed him.

Krasire brought the vessel back to Nefelus and was greeted by a very happy member of the Thraxinium, named Bejam. Amyria was there as well and they led him to a big parade were the people of the city feted him as the hero who had saved their city. The mages who had protected the island while Krasire was defeating the dragon were also hailed as heroes.

Amyria reminded him that the purpose of all this was to get Nefelus to join the alliance and send a representative to serve on the council. She suggested the end of the island’s isolation was over and the only problem might be Bejam’s willingness to serve on the council.

Krasire talked it over with Bejam and found that mage was struggling with this decision and wanted to do what was best for his people. But the Shardmind was able to convince him that representing those people on the council might be the best way to serve them.

Impressed with the arcane power of the mages of Thraxinium, Krasire pointed out those powers could best be applied to the protection of Nefelus through the alliance if he was representing them on the council. All it took was a bit more diplomacy and Bejam agreed to leave with Amyria as soon as he told the Thraxinium of his decision.

Once on the Conqueror, Krasire discovered the vessel was capable of flying. Although it had been anchored in the harbor at Nefelus, once Tokk’it and his ghostly crew got it under way, it was airborne in a short time, flying towards Sayre. Belinda went on ahead to get back to her studies at the university.

But it wasn’t long before she was back with bad news: Although the Coalition’s decision to name a leader — Lord Torrance, as it turned out — convinced Kalad to rejoin the council, he was assassinated on his way to rejoin them in Sayre. Lord Torrance was riding out to capture the Githyanki assassins who had pulled off this foul deed.

The Shieldmaiden Puts Her Shield…

…to a use no dwarven shield has ever been put before: pinning an exarch of Tiamat to the wall.

“The mages must be desperate to save their people. They send outsiders here to do their work. How weak! How pathetic! Soon the storm comes to them, and nothing will escape my wrath!”
— Chillreaver, Exarch of Tiamat

As she stepped into the chamber Chillreaver had constructed to house the Seed of Winter, Relvain Blackaxe was impressed by the terrifying sight.

The room was bathed in blue-white light, with beams focused on a small white object floating atop a pedestal high above her head. The beams seemed to originate from 10 silvery mirrors positioned along the east and west sides of the walkway 30 feet above the secret door they entered through.

Down on the level where she and the Shardmind stood, she could see the base of the pedestal where the beams were focused; the pedestal’s length made it appear almost like an ice obelisk. An energy hung about the room, and the air was colder than they’d felt anywhere else in the complex.

Briefly, she felt an invasive presence in her mind, as if it is searching for something . . . and then it was gone.

She saw that sat upon a rune-inscribed icy dais just in front of the secret entrance to the Treasure Chamber. A gigantic, two-headed white dragon met her gaze, its eyes black as the soulless depths and its mouths smoking with its icy breath.

A dire warning, then it attacked.

Her counter-attack was able to concentrate the dragon’s attention on herself. She and Krasire were able to create an opening so the Shardmind got around to the other side. Rather attacking from both sides, however, they decided the Psion should go about smashing the mirrors which seemed to be powering the small white object — the Seed of Winter, they assumed.

Krasire had some initial success, but he soon disappeared around the corner and Relvain heard no more mirrors breaking. She began to fear for their mission, even though the dragon was having a lot of difficulty hitting her. Trying to escape and bring back some help for Krasire, Relvain backed away from the two-headed dragon.

But the dragon was having none of that. Leaping into the air, it flew into the Treasure Chamber and blocked the only way out. That put its back against the wall and gave Relvain her chance. Her shield-trainers called it The Shield and a Hard Place. Placing her shield against the body of the dragon, she pressed it against the wall of ice, pinning it there.

And Relvain Dragonpinner was born. For the rest of her life, Relvain Blackaxe would remember the helplessness in the Exarch’s four eyes as she held it there.

“A small victory, perhaps,” thought the shieldmaiden, yet it gave her the hope she needed to continue once the dragon broke free.

Eventually, though her strength began to fade and she knew the battle was in the hands of Krasire. Unless he could break the rest of the mirrors, the dragon was sure to outlast her.

Avenglen regarded the enraged dwarf with curiosity. She found him outside the Orb Theatre, owned by a famous Drow Bard named Jerath. The dwarf was passing out handbills, which accused Jerath of plagiarizing some of his work. But it seemed to somewhat short of evidence of actual plagiarism. She went inside and saw the play — a bloody work called Titus Androwdicus — and talked to the main actor after the show. He had other explanations for Murrik Ironfell’s anger.

He knew it was a desperation measure, but Krasire was convinced he had to try something. Mental communication with the Seed of Winter was risky, yet it was something only a Psion like himself could try.

His desperation was well-informed: While the dwarven shieldmaiden was able to battle the two-headed dragon to a standstill — each of them able to damage the other only slowly — he could see she was weakening. The Exarch of Tiamat was simply able to take more damage than the plucky dwarf.

The Seed of Winter and Krasire, on the other hand, had reached a different kind of stalemate. His Irruption of the Living Gate had been able to break two of the mirrors which were powering the Artifact as soon as he had entered the room.

He had hoped to use the Gate to teleport to the upper level of the icy room where the mirrors were. The icy walls were too slick for his to climb. The Seed had stymied this plan with some kind of mental attack. Since that time, the Seed had dominated his mind, forcing him two the far end of the room where eight more mirrors poured energies from all over the world into the Seed itself.

“Why do you serve this dragon?” he asked the Seed. “Why not break free and work with us instead?”

He was not sure such a message would even get through. But answer came nonetheless. He was able to understand the mind of the Seed of Winter to such a degree that only a Psion could achieve. The Seed had four goals which informed its actions.

• Bring the touch of winter to even the most sweltering climes.
• Oppose the agents of the Summer Fey and elemental fire.
• Demand obedience from the weak and frail.
• Be reunited with the Winter Court in the Feywilde.

“We could help you,” he told the Seed. “We could take you to the Winter Court.”

The Concordance the Artifact had reached with the Exarch was too strong. He could tell the offer was tempting the Seed, but Chillreaver was allowing the Seed to bring cold and ice to this tropical Paradise and it was demanding obedience from the Council of Mages who ruled the place.

Their agreement on these two principles had allowed the dragon and the Seed to reach a level of Concordance that practically welded their minds into one. Krasire could see the Exarch was using the Seed of Winter for its own purposes. He also saw it would never see that itself as long as the mirrors were giving it such power.

He had to break the mirrors. First, however, he had to break free of the Seed’s mental grasp.

Then, he got his chance: When the Artifact’s attacks failed, he teleported to the upper level and ran to hide from the Seed’s line of sight in an alcove where the main door was still closed. From there, he was able to finish off the mirrors on the side where his Living Gate had irrupted earlier.

“Fortunately, I was able to preserve my mental powers while I was dominated.”

But some of the mirrors on the other side were out of the reach of his mental blasts. So he ran for a different kind of protection: Each mirror was in its own tiny alcove; by keeping his body pressed against the wall of the nearer alcoves, he was able to stay out of the line of sight of the acorn-shaped Artifact.

He broke the first two mirrors by dashing from alcove to alcove. The third alcove presented a different problem. Situated directly in front of the Seed of Winter, its walls provided him no protection from its line of sight. He knew he could not allow it to resume its domination of his mind.

So he ran behind the mirror and hid from it there. When the Seed shifted its focus to Relvain, he was able to smash the eighth mirror from behind and dash to hide behind the ninth mirror.

The dwarf fell once both the dragon and the Seed were using their powers on her. So, Krasire found himself trapped in the next-to last alcove by the dragon. His Kinetic Wave was perfect for this situation, though, and he used it to blast the mirror and the dragon simultaneously.

The mirror shattered, the dragon was pushed back 20 feet, and he dashed to hide behind the final mirror.

The dwarf had recovered enough to try to distract the dragon from below and another Kinetic Wave shattered the final mirror. As it fell in pieces to the floor 30 feet below, the Seed of Winter fell from its pedestal as well.

The dragon looked around in alarm as a blast of energy crackled through the room. It flew out of the room into its treasure chamber and out a hole in the top of that room — which they had noticed earlier.

Seconds later it became apparent what the dragon was fleeing. A great rumbling sound was followed by deafening cracks. The magic which sustained Icehome was becoming undone, and the whole structure would soon crumble into the sea.

They had to get out of there.

In a hurry.

…With a Few Comments About the Bravery…

…of the Adventurers Waiting in the Wings.

“Pass through this portal and enter the presence of Chillreaver, master of Icehome, greatest among the Dark Queen’s frozen children. Prepare for supplication in the proper manner, and you can enter his fearsome domain and receive his cold gift.” Using his arcane powers, Krasire was able to see through the illusion which was hiding these words.

But he didn’t have much time to figure out what they meant. With the sounds of cracking ice, two of the statues came to life.

At first he had a lot of confidence in his ability to damage them. When the grabbed him, he could still use his mental powers to chip away at them. The dwarven defender who came up here with him — after berating the wounded warriors below as cowards — was able to keep one of them occupied most of the time.

Even when he was grabbed, failed to escape, and imprisoned in an ice-cube jail, he could still hit the Ice Gargoyles and escape with a teleport.

Eventually his mental powers began to flag, and he ran out of teleports. Then his confidence began to flag as well.

Bloodied, he fought on. But he began to wonder if this would be his last fight. A claw attack took him down. And, as he slipped out of consciousness, his logical mind could not fail to notice that the life force that animated his crystals was fading, too.

Avenglen finally found civilization in the small human city of Fallcrest. The High Warden who ruled in his small court seemed unusually familiar with the arts in the area. Warden Markelhay even said he knew the famous Drow Bard himself. Apparently Jerath had spent a short amount of time in Fallcrest before moving on to bigger and better things in the Elsir Vale — to the west. His wife explained that the Bard had built a theater — called The Orb Theater — in the Dwarven city of Overlook. She even suggested her daughter was reporting that his fame had spread to Sayre, a university city closer to the coast.

Relvain Blackaxe gave the fallen Psion a potion of regeneration. Made from Troll blood, the potion would keep the Shardmind on his feet.

Sure enough, Krasire was able to resume his attacks. Relvain wasn’t certain he would ever resume his confidence. The brush with death had weakened his resolve and he called out an apology: “I’m sorry if my weakness caused your death.”

The shieldmaiden, however, was having none of that. “Oh, I’m not going to die. And, with that potion in your bloodstream, I don’t think you will, either.”

She saw the growing recognition in his eyes as he seemed to figure out how the potion could keep on healing him. His renewed determination and fancy footwork helped her take down one of the gargoyles.

Then it was easy for her to force the last statue’s attention to remain on her — she was a Dwarven Defender, after all — and Krasire was able to shift away and bring his mental powers to bear.

Then it was only a matter of time before they were victorious.

…does it make a sound?

Both Klaxi and Lyrindel died fighting some Ice Gargoyles, but no one will ever know how bravely they fought, how close they came to defeating the last gargoyle, or what they might have learned about them because no one saw they die and survived.

Those who did survive will just have to fight their fight all over again and learn it all themselves.

…To Take Back Their Lair

Borg could not see newcomer from his perch on the giants’ icy platform, but he could hear her. “I think it’s Andrea Ravn,” the Hamadryad told him. She seemed reassured.

When Nara returned, he was glad they had help. Nara seemed energized. When they drove her up the slide, she was hardly injured. But now the icy blue glow in her eyes was stronger. Borg could only speculate about what was different.

“Maybe the Seed of Winter has some power beyond enslaving these creatures,” he thought to himself. “It could have given her special cold powers. Or something.”

It didn’t take long before he got a look at the newcomer: Nara slid both of them off the edge into the waters below, as another Winter Wolf attacked them and the Frost Giant peppered them with icy bolts.

The newcomer was a Dragonborn warlord. Not ideal as a defender, but better than Borg himself.

Or the druid: Lyrindel was constantly transforming back and forth between her beast form — a swarm of insects — and her dryad form. It made it hard to injured her permanently, but it didn’t do much to hold the wolf back.

Andrea Ravn suddenly realized this was no ordinary dream. She had heard of DreamQuests before, but she had never experienced one. The fortuneteller in the dream…something was fishy about her. “Thank you for coming, my friends,” the fortuneteller said to those gathered there. But Andrea was not sure she was a friend. She searched the dream house for clues about what was wrong…and failed. She awoke from the dream unrested. She found she was no longer in the Solace Bole. “Back in the iceberg, I see.” She saw some of her companions still sleeping, but Lyrindel was missing. She climbed up the tunnel the Umber Hulks had excavated. But before she found the dryad, she heard a giant attacking.

When they finally killed off the wolf, Lyrindel could see that Andrea was having trouble keeping all their spirits up. They managed to get back up the ice stairs, but Nara kept pushing them toward the edges.

“Keep to the center of the platform!” she shouted. And the new elf was doing a good job at that. But it was hard for Lyrindel and Andrea to flank the other giant sometimes without getting perilously close to the drop-off.

Sure enough: When Lyrindel shifted back to her humanoid form, Nara caught her on the slippery ice and sent her off the 30-foot drop. Not into the icy water this time, but she took more damage falling to the hard ice of the iceberg.

“Now I’m going to have to cross the stream again,” she thought. “Through that nasty fog.”

Yet the new elf — Borg, he said his name was — turned out to be a fast thinker. Before she could begin the roundabout path through the fog, he pointed at the ice at his feet. Green tendrils began to form. Through the ice, Lyrindel could see them growing rapidly inside the ice, finally reaching the ice below her, near her own feet. There they burst out, forming a portal in front of her.

“Step through!” he shouted from above.

When she did, she found herself back up on the platform. “That was easier than jumping the stream through that icy fog.”

Looking around, she saw that Andrea was about to pass out, even though they had finished off Nara’s ice-giant companion. Fortunately she and Borg were able to concentrate their damage on Nara and finish her off before the Dragonborn fell.