Our noble squadron of Ashenmark forces arrived at the Gilded Lion Pavilion to meet with Ulric and Aeston and get the lowdown on what we needed to do with this whole Vanfrost thing. In attendance were Twenaria, Stripes, Grindin, Temorse, Umbra, Raynor, and yours truly. We were informed that the Vanfrost had a tendency to spit people out anywhere it saw fit, and so we’d really have no idea where we might end up after entering. While our brave crew spent a few minutes investigating the portal and pondering in what order to pass through it, I was mostly preoccupied with how alike Aeston and Ulric look. Seriously, has anyone ever noticed that before? If I hadn’t seen them in the same place at the same time this once, I would’ve started to get real suspicious.
Anyway, we jumped through the portal and ended up in a small stone room with a giant statue of a Jotun. Some members of our party examined this towering monument for clues, while others scrambled over some rubble on the other side of the room to discover a horde of hostile lizardfolk. Stop! Lizard Time. Temorse advised patience and tactical maneuvering in fighting the lizards, but being impatient and impulsive I ran in and was gravely wounded quite quickly. I have the infallible support casting of Twenaria, Stripes, and Grindin to thank for pulling me back from the brink of death then and throughout the rest of the excursion.
We put down the lizards eventually and proceeded on through the halls of stone. Everywhere along the way, we found shattered stone tablets which, upon reassembly, displayed pictures of different animals. Between those, the lizards, and the crocodiles that would eventually plague us, the Vanfrost was practically showing us a real-time, interactive nature documentary. Crikey. On our first few attempts we had trouble distinguishing many of these animals’ heads from their derrières but by the end of our time on this journey we were real pros. If you ever need a zoology lesson, don’t hesitate to call Ashenmark.
After several tiles were solved, more lizardfolk slayn, and a few giant snakes dispatched, we reached an interesting room with levers. We were again tested on our animal assembly skills when pulling all the levers in unison trapped half our company in a walled room and the tiles in the hands of the Jotun statues revealed several strange shapes and forms. We were able to rearrange the shapes (into more animal imagery) in the appropriate positions, releasing the other half of our group and revealing the way forward. We didn’t leave the room without claiming some souvenirs first, though: there was a nest of giant snake eggs in the corner of the room. Snake Cult Baby Shower in a few months, anyone? You’re all invited.
Up next, we stood on the edge of some crocodile-infested waters. Some ingenious member of our party (don’t remember who, unfortunately) came up with a perfect plan--wade into the swamp waters carrying the corpses of the lizards we had slain previously. Surely, these crocodiles would prefer to snack on freshly killed, juicy, plump lizards than on a spindly, sinewy adventuring party. For the most part, this assumption was correct and we were able to get through this part of the swamp unscathed. Grindin took an even easier route, throwing the egg he had picked up to a crocodile, and while it worked out for him, I would personally never do that to a future proud citizen of Snake Cult. After clearing the crocs, we ran into (or rather, accidentally stepped on) an enormous lizard: the biggest thing we had encountered yet. Luckily, we quickly discovered its weak spot--a gem on its tail--and Grindin and Stripes weakened it there while Temorse thrust his sword through its brain, dealing the decisive blow.
A couple more animal encounters down the line, both of the trying-to-eat-you kind and the gotta-assemble-it-out-of-tiles kind, we arrived at a great big stone door. The door had on it...wait for it…you guessed it--animals! We had to organize the animal tiles we assembled according to symbols that appeared on them, which turned out to be written like Teng Huanese numerals, adding strokes to increment the number. If I was more cultured I might have known that--and how to spell “Teng Huanese”. However, the more cultured and quick-thinking members of our party were able to organize the animals and deduce the correct order for inserting the tiles into the slots on the door. The door opened to reveal a great big acorn. This may or may not have been what we came here to find, as right after we collected it, we ended up being transported back to Rhiassa. Personally my shiny new snake egg was definitely a better prize, but I’m glad we were all around successful on our Vanfrost mission.
--Shader, Champion of Ashenmark