The Ascent

“The Ascent”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 99
Date	2010
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Diamonds" "Reaching Xin-Shalast"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter continuing uphill the heroes encounter an ice palace and visit the ice queens court.

The Ascent

The next day the sun shone and the warmth made water drops fall from icicles hanging from the roof. We packed all our things and set out up the mountain. I couldn't help but thought it was beautiful. The snow was glistering like diamonds and the water melting further up the mountain made high waterfalls where the water dispersed before hitting the bottom, creating rainbows of color in the sunshine. The mist slowly drifted down the slopes looking like ghosts leaving the mountain and slowly melting away. Velicia told us that her magical powers didn't work properly. She experimented with her magic and concluded that magic would be unreliable. It would make flying up the mountain side dangerous as it could suddenly just stop working. We could fall to our deaths without any help even from feather-fall rings. Instead I looked for an easier way to get up the mountainside than the ice covered cliffs that blocked our path. We found our way up making good use of Honeypot's agility as she was transformed into a snow leopard. Nathaniel made sure we were prepared well enough for the climb and to endure the cold.

After a hard climb all morning, we stopped for lunch. Kaven made a fire and cooked. I was so happy I brought him along. His food was fantastic and the warmth spread through all my body. Feeling much better we set out again. The few bushes we had seen so far sticking up through the snow disappeared altogether. There were no vegetation at all. The snow and sky seemed to turn into a shade of violet. There were no clouds above us at all. I could even see stars in the sky in the middle of the day.

To quicken our progress Nathaniel took out some big wooden beams and started making thinner planks he called skis. I had no idea of what it was until he tried to show me. They didn't work but Velicia changed them and then they worked. It was even fun to use then. At least when we went downhill, which wasn't that often. At one time the was a gorge we had to cross. I saw that it was lower on the other side so I set out on the skis and gathered as much speed as I could. Then I jumped the gorge. It was a little too close to flying for my taste but it made crossing the gorge easy and quick. Then we continued upwards on foot. As we climbed over an edge we saw a frozen swamp in front of us. It looked very misplaced in the middle of all snow. Honeypot said that there was some hot springs below the snow that probably made this a quite comfortable place in the summer, but in the winter it was very still, as if frozen in time. Small drops of water dripped from twigs as the sun tried to bring a little bit of spring even there. But there was some sort of movement. Small sparkling points of movement appeared and came closer. It turned out to be some sort of snow fairies. Honeypot told us that place was very close to Feywild. I wasn't sure what that meant. The fairies tried to trick us into following them and Honeypot did, so we all followed deeper into the frozen swamp.

The Queen Svevenka.

They led us to where a geyser had spewed up hot water and made a frozen fountain that looked like an ice cathedral. It turned out to be a palace made of ice. We were invited and taken to meet the Queen. There was a whole fey court where we were presented to Queen Svevenka of the ice fairies. She was very friendly. It turned out that Myriana in Shimmerglens that we helped, was her sister. She asked us if we too were going to Xin-Shalast and we answered her we were. She was troubled by that and told us that many had been coming and going; giants, dragons, men and even an undead eladrin. I was very troubled to hear of that. Shooting looks at the others I saw they suspected the same thing. I told her of Ironbriar and she recognized him. He had passed toward Xin-Shalast carrying a mighty sword. Queen Svevenka asked us of our story and I interrupted Honeypot just as she was about to tell her, telling her of my play. We quickly started setting it up and with the help of Velicia's magic, Honeypot's hat of disguise and a few fairies we could perform it. There had appeared many more fey creatures and we had quite an audience. The play told them our story and was well received.

Afterwards there was a party where we all were guests. There was food and I especially liked their sorbet. After eating there was dancing. I didn't understand it fully as they walked around in circles and bowed to each other. Not at all as the jumping around I was used to from taverns. But the sorbet was very refreshing after some dancing. Finally all my thoughts of the hauntings from the cabin, from the Foxglove manor and from my childhood left me. I felt like I was a child for the first time in my life. I started playing with the small fairies and making pranks. I had heard that fairies were good at pranks, but they were not at all as good as me. When Nathaniel danced with the queen I couldn't help but make some jokes about it. It felt really good to taunt him and he didn't mind much. Honeypot seemed to try to set him up with the queen, but when he didn't fall for it she moved in herself. After some flirting they left. I found that the sorbet was irresistible and ate even more of it. Somehow Kaven had to learn to make it so I could get it back home too.

The next day the queen said that Xin-Shalast was a very dangerous place and she gave us presents to help us there. Velicia enchanted some of our things even more or transfered the magic into another magical thing. We spent another night in the ice palace, but when we woke up everything had disappeared as if it all just had been a dream, but we still had the presents she gave us.