This session picked up right where the previous one left off, with a small pack of rabid wolves bounding out of the swirling snow intent on eating everyone is sight.

Just to get everyone's blood racing, we opened up with a combat encounter. The party had just ground to a halt in the snowy wastes of Winter's Hall, unintentionally letting a pack of wolves catch up to them. The resulting combat was short and brutal, resulting in a relatively easy win for the party.

The pack consisted of six wolves who were looking for what they thought was an easy meal. Three of the wolves were immediately distracted by an illusion of a cave bear, cast by Que. The other three bounded forward and attacked Twig and Shazarr. It was quickly apparent that these were not just normal wolves, as evidenced by the foul glow which enveloped their fangs as they attacked the party. (The glow disappeared after their first bite and did not return.) Shazarr was bitten, but did not appear to suffer any other affect. Rusteen, on the other hand, *did* suffer a greater affect when he was bitten - the bite channelled some form of baneful energy and charred the ranger's flesh far more than a simple bite would have!

Despite a somewhat supernatural nature to the wolves, the party dispatched them rather handily. Que used a color spray spell on the three animals trying to eat his illusion, knocking two of them unconscious. The combined efforts of everyone else took out the three remaining wolves - Dr. Fever, Shazarr, and Ginaea dispatched the one which was intent on ripping Shazarr's leg from his body; Twig and Rusteen each dispatched one on their own. (Although Rusteen did manage to drop his greatsword after landing one solid blow with it. A quickly drawn dagger was all he needed to finish the job.) The one remaining wolf quickly fled after its five fellows where dropped rather quickly.

Following the fight, and a somewhat disturbing display of healing from Dr. Fever - apparently he uses power tools rather than spells - the group continued on, trying to find a location in which to take "a look around". Fairly soon after, Dr. Fever tripped over something buried in the snow. A quick examination found it to be the partially eaten and completely frozen body of a female half-orc. The party quickly assumed "rummaging formation" and provided a rather thourough examination of the body and surrounding area. The only remarkable thing about the corpse's equipment was that the woman had apparently made use of a two-bladed sword. Dr. Fever made two discoveries about the body. First, the creatures which brought her down and snacked on her were apparently much larger than the wolves the party fought. Second, the half-orc had some kind of a tatto on her lower back. (The only such marking on the body.) It was hard to know for certain, but it appeared to be of a flower wrapped around something.

Ginaea quickly expressed a large amount of interest in this. Without too much prodding, she revealed that she also had a tattoo in the same location. Showing it, it was the form of two roses wrapped around a brain. It was obvious that it was indeed the same design as the one on the corpse. Ginaea revealed that she apparently got the tattoo during the time she can't remember anything about her past, as she did not have it done during any of the time she can remember. (She also made the odd comment that she wouldn't even know she had it except for that incident with the duck. She didn't elaborate about the duck or the incident, and no one wanted to risk asking a question about it.)

Moving on, the party caught sight of a norse longhouse in the near distance and started moving towards it. As they did so, some more wolves could be heard closing in. However, Rusteen pointed out that the howls were deeper - implying bigger creatures - and they sounded almost intelligent. Disturbed, the party picked up the pace and attempted to get to the building. It took a lot longer to get to it than they expected. Once they did get there, they quickly figured out why.

The building was a lot larger than they expected it to be. It was scaled for beings who were 20 feet tall; giants. Thus, it was farther away than the party first guessed. It then became a matter of slipping under the door and gaining entrance. Unfortunately, the gap was two feet tall which prevented Dr. Fever from entering. Instead of trying to open or break the door, the rogue modron decided that now would be a good time for "Naked Time". After digging around in his pack, he came up with a mummified rat. After confirming it's magical nature with Que, Dr. Fever squeezed it and promptly turned into a wolf. After slinking under the door, the entire party now found itself inside the foyer of the hall.

Based on the number of enormous cloaks hanging on the walls, there would appear to be about sixty giants inside the hall. However, not hearing anything beyond the other doors, the group risked slipping under them and into the main room. It seemed that the party had been blessed. It was apparent that the giants had just finished a hard night of drinking and were all passed out around the room. All of the wargs, dire wolves, and winter wolves that lived in the hall were also asleep. It would appear to be an easy matter to sneak quietly around the immense room and have that look around that Augustus wanted. Moving very slowly, the party was able to make quiet progress across the room. It soon became apparent that something in the very air itself helped the group be sneaky - it was just somehow easier to sneak, hide, and the like.

The group decided to make a beeline for a titantic throne that sat in the far corner. The party did have to dodge one giant that decided that he'd rather be passed out on the floor rather than the bench. After the monster hit the floor, Rusteen decided to take advantage of the situation and peek into the creature's pockets. An unfortunate nosing from the Dr. Fever-wolf caused him to fall in, and the giant to idly scratch and shift the pocket around. Fortunately, the monster didn't awaken and Rusteen was able to get out without drawing attention to himself. Halfway across the hall, the party ran into something they didn't expect - a normal sized man, awake and reading by the fire.

Hiding proved to be useless as Ginaea boldly approached him and proceed to engage in her usual smalltalk. It was quickly apparent that the man (Sven, the hall's chief cook) wasn't happy about the party's presence. Not that the giants might wake up and kill them, but that the giants might wake up and put him back to work. So, he tried to get the party to turn around and leave. Unfortunately, Que was invisible and Ginaea was slippery. Those two made it to the throne while everyone else headed back to the foyer.

Once those two got back to the foyer, Twig asked if they should go, considering that they hadn't seen the kitchens or slave pens. Upon hearing mention of the slave pens, Que immediately went back into the hall and made a beeline for the said pens. In the meantime, the rest of the party waited for the gnome to return. During this wait, Dr. Fever returned to his normal shape, thus meaning that he could no longer sneak *out* of the hall. At which point, Twig went back in and mentioned this problem to Sven. In the interest of not going back to work, he went and rounded up some of Loki's other willing servants and opened the outer doors for the party.

Que, for his part, was working on a way to help the slaves free themselves. He eventually settled on a way to get the key to the cells off the wall peg it was hanging on (some 15' feet off the floor) and give it to one of the slaves. Trusting that the slaves would know what to do, Que immediately scuttled out of the back room and back to the rest of the party. Finally deciding that their mission was done, the party quickly left the building and made their way back to the portal to head back to Sigil and a well-deserved rest.

Unfortunately, it was at this time that the party remembered what the portal key was - a practical joke on a complete stranger. So, half the party stayed at the portal while the other half went back to Icebite in order find a stranger and bring him back to the portal. They managed to do so - and the stranger played a joke on the party by giving Shazarr a wedgie. The portal was satisfied even if the tiefling wasn't, and the party was thus able to return to Sigil.

Having been up and doing a lot of walking, the party found the nearest inn and collapsed in exhaustion. The following day, the group headed back to the Civic Festhall and turned the mimir over to Augustus. True to form, he asked for three days to review the findings. Three days later, the party once again found their performance to be mostly acceptable - Augustus was not happy with the party splitting up as some key experiences might have been lost in the half that did was not with the mimir. However, he did pay up and offer another job. Even though Twig asked for some details up front, Que accepted before any were given.

Although we did cover some of the three days at the session, and I did outline the next job. We'll replay these last segments at the start of next session, as I had forgotten my notes for the next bit and left out some minor encounters. Some I can run over e-mail, but we'll re-cover that last paragraph when we next meet.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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