Having patched themselves up a little the party decide to relocate their camp a good deal further down the mountainside for a number of reasons; firstly, to lessen their proximity to Keraptis’ fortress; secondly, to enable Sorrel to recuperate from his altitude sickness (and prevent others from developing the same malady); and thirdly, in the hope of easier hunting, for there are musk deer to be found at lower altitudes where hardy vegetation pokes through thinner snows. Chillwind will be able to use the cloud base as cover for his predations and minimise the risk of being spotted by Keraptis’ rather larger skeletal cousin of his.

They spend the rest of the day making their way down the mountainside. The ice elves greatly help in this endeavour as they are very familiar with this terrain already; indeed this particular mountain is a regular destination of theirs. Ugrat’s Ring of Feather Falling is also a boon in helping to descend steep inclines. Albrigon does his best to keep up with the elves by his own means, for he is no mediocre climber himself and generally prefers not to put his trust in wizard’s tricks.

Once under cover of cloud Sorrel successfully dispels the transformation in form that Mia had worked on Chillwind and this gives them a further means of transport.

It seems that Keraptis’ minions have either failed to find them or have given up the chase, for the party is not troubled by them. During the course of the climb, and later that evening, several new pieces of information emerge, provided by Lyrina the shamaness.

The way to the Sacred Glacier of Thelandira (as the Hanging Glacier is known to the Rakeskia) is through a cave in the mountainside. A magical ritual may be performed on nights when Luna is fully in shadow - every four weeks by the common reckoning of humans. This opens the way to the sacred glacier. The Rakeskia harvest three colours of magical shard from the glacial ice - red, blue, and yellow, each having different properties. The red shards increase the potency of beverages. The yellow shards can be used to cure disease or injury. The blue shards seem to absorb heat and can be used to keep things cold or frozen, and are also used by the Rakeskia to tip their arrows and daggers with to inflict chilling wounds on their targets - possibly a kindness when used to hunt animals for food.

Time is known to flow differently on the sacred glacier. The harvesters remain only for four hours but find that an entire night has passed when they emerge. It is taboo to stay beyond a certain length of time on the glacier - it is said that spirits awaken and roam the glacier when the sun rises in that realm, and it is exceedingly dangerous for mortals to remain there. Old legends state that if you stay to watch the sun rise on the sacred glacier the spirits will trap you there for a month and you’ll not return until the following new moon - if you return at all, which is unlikely.

Nine hundred years ago Keraptis’ vassals first arrived in the Corsuks having learnt about the fabled glacier and its magical shards. At first they traded with the Rakeskia but soon the wizard grew greedy and decided that he alone should control access to the glacier and its magical treasures. He usurped the Rakeskia and constructed the fortress which the party saw earlier on. The gatehouse set in the mountainside guards the subterranean path to the glacier. Keraptis continued to allow the elves to enter the realm of the glacier and harvest the shards, but he exacted a heavy price - typically one half of the shards they had recovered, sometimes more, and other forms of tribute besides such as food and furs for his minions. Amongst Keraptis’ servants was a form of elven lycanthrope, a Foxwoman known as Néava, who was not of the ice-elves but from lowland stock, a sylvan elf most likely. She had the power to enthral men by her mere presence and this power even worked on elves, who were by and large resistant to magical charms. Only the stronger-willed could resist her allure.

Keraptis’ tyranny was not to last. After a time his servants that staffed the fortress grew somewhat thinner on the ground, and complacent in their demeanour. Keraptis himself stopped making any personal appearances, the last being around five hundred years ago. A century after his final visit to the fortress the shard harvesters of the Rakeskia encountered a pair of humans on the glacier who had allegedly travelled there from another world. Their names were Orn the Wanderer, a priest of a deity called ‘Odin’, and his large, powerfully built companion Urwath the Boar. Orn was on a pilgrimage to spread his religion to a new world. The Rakeskia had vaguely heard of these norse deities for they figured as minor characters in one of their own legends of Solonor Thelandira who had once gone to the hunt in a place called Alfheim accompanied by primitive ‘wild men’ with names like Uller and Frey.

When these two mighty humans accompanied the harvesters back through the portal it was the beginning of the end for Keraptis’ foothold on the Corsuks. When they witnessed the indignities that the elves were forced to endure at the hands of Keraptis’ servants they were filled with wrath and a fight ensued. It is said that Urwath was charmed by the foxwoman Néava and turned against his friend Orn, but Orn solved the problem by decapitating her with a single blow from his sword. Until this time the Rakeskia had assumed that any such resistance would be met with a terrible response from the mighty wizard himself as had happened in the past but none was forthcoming.

Orn and Urwath succeeded in fighting their way out of the fortress with their elven companions. After this incident there was an uprising among the Rakeskia who mustered aid from other tribes and stormed the fortress, slaying every last servant of Keraptis without mercy. The two human heroes headed down to the lowlands afterwards and it is said that Orn had considerable success in spreading his strange new faith amongst the Schnaii barbarians who dwelt there.

Néava left a legacy behind in her passing however. It is known that she fostered a number of young ice-elf girls stolen from the Rakeskia and other tribes, infecting them with her peculiar strain of lycanthropy. As Lyrina explains this in hushed tones to Albrigon and Ugrat, she directs a furtive glance at Valaina who is busy queening it over three of the elven men who were rescued who seem entirely submissive to her whims. She also has the young waif Kaylan eating out of her hand too.

“Hmmmm. She had me and Ugrat under her spell, when we first ran into her, before Sorrel’s prayers to Aegir cleared our heads. Though I think she got me by spiking my drink.”

Ugrat’s snout crinkles as Albrigon speaks. “You speak f’r yousel’. I zee thru her, straight way. But Uruviel, Valaina’s daughter, now she lovely girl, beautiful girl, she no make charm on us. I worry, maybe she in danger, maybe Valaina infect her. I want save Uruviel from foxwoman curse if can be done.”

Albrigon stares at Ugrat for a moment. He suspects that Ugrat is still enthralled by Uruviel.

Lyrina frowns. “She is no true daughter of Valaina’s. The foxwoman can bear no young of her own; it is part of her curse. Uruviel is the name of a girl who went missing from our tribe a number of years ago. If she has been in Valaina’s company for that time, she too is infected by now.”

Lyrina has more information. The Rakeskia children were turned to stone by a bull-like creature with iron skin that breathed on them. The seven gnomes that Ugrat saw claim, collectively somehow, to be Keraptis although usually only one of them speaks at a time. Keraptis has a number of other members of her tribe prisoner besides the petrified children - she believes they are held in the dungeons of the main keep. This is confirmed by Menwen, the male elf who seems to have resisted Valaina’s charming effect. He tells of around 7-8 more elves held by Keraptis including, he believes, Naramir their chieftain although he was separated from the others soon after their arrival and he doesn’t know for certain if he is still alive.

Lyrina says that Keraptis, naturally, wanted her to open the way to the sacred glacier once more and harvest shards of ice for him. Not content with red, blue and yellow shards he also wanted copper, silver and gold shards - these more exotic types had not been seen by the Rakeskia in living memory and although spoken of in legend, they were said to be the property of the spirits who dwelt on the realm of the glacier and not for mortals to possess.

If she did not comply with his request, he would start feeding her kinsmen to his pet monsters. If, however, she obeyed, he would let them live, as his servants.

Later that evening, there is a general discussion about what is to be done. Lyrina feels that it is important to make contact with the other members of her tribe who had been away at the betrothing. They need to be told that there are a few of their kinsmen who yet live, that their chieftain may yet live, that there may be hope for their children to be restored to flesh and blood. The shamaness knows that they will be beside themselves with grief if they return to the scene of the massacre and find no living thing remains in that place. She declares that she will make the journey alone if need be.

Valaina says that someone should head back to the fortress and make contact with Keraptis. He needs to know that Lyrina is still alive and that the party are open to negotiation, as she is his only means of access to the glacier. The moment he believes he has lost his chance to lay hands on the shards, he will no longer place any value on the life of his prisoners.

Night falls. Albrigon’s keen senses and natural alertness awaken him to someone slipping into his tent. It is Valaina. She shrugs off her fur cloak and lays beside him.

“Hmmm! Just couldn’t keep away, huh? Three of your own kind on a leash not enough for you, are they? See, once you’ve had a real man there’s no going back!”

She silences him with a slender finger across his lips. “Hush now….I like you much better when you keep your mouth shut, human. Now…business before pleasure, as I believe your people sometimes say.” She presses a small crystal vial into his hand. “The shamaness, Lyrina….we need to ensure her cooperation. Now that she is at liberty from Keraptis’ stronghold she may want to bargain him down. She will not want to stay on the glacier to harvest the metallic shards - it goes against the Rakeskia’s tradition. For that matter, once she has made contact with the other survivors from her tribe, she may choose to deal with Keraptis directly - she has no need of us in any negotiation and she will have her own people for protection. We will be left with nothing.

“She is already grateful to you for saving her, but that is not enough. This potion will make her more malleable. Slip it into her drink or food. It is near tasteless and odourless. I used it on you, in fact, to make you my puppet for a while.

“Make sure you remain in her company and have her undivided attention for a short time, and it will work its magic. She will be enthralled by you and hang upon your every word, be subservient to your every wish.”

Her dark almond-shaped eyes gaze into his, taking his breath away with their sinister beauty. He struggles to resist falling under her spell once more.

“Then, you and I will hold all the cards. You and I, Albrigon.”

Previous Installments:

Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Part 1
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Character Sketch: Snake
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Part 2
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Character Sketch: Albrigon
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Part 3
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Part 4
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Character Sketch: Ugra’at
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Part 5
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Part 6
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Part 7
Quest For The Hanging Glacier - Character Sketch: Sorrel