Fire and Ice Gildember ????

Party

Konguq- Human Wizard Captain

Ace- Human Rouge, Quartermaster

Vodren-Human Cleric, Healer and Navigation

Ryai-Elf Spellblade, Night Watch

The party finds themselves back where Ryai, Ace, and Konguq first met each other at Stone Hill House. But instead of finding the usual patrons there, they find that the goblin Crag the Beater and his group are there instead. He tells them that thanks to them, he's chased off most of the patrons using the statue and that the Goblins will spend winter there. He goes on to explain the Test of High Sorcery to the group.

He explains that some things will feel real, some things might be real, and they might jump around in time. Before every challenge though, they will be asked what they are willing to risk.

• Nothing- they receive nothing.
• A little - they receive some knowledge from wizards past
• A lot- they gain a boost to intelligence
• All- high-level artifacts come into play.

He says it's up to each person to decide what they are willing to risk. And that this will be a high-stakes trial. But there are ways to push the odds in their favor. Crag then presents the party with four health potions of varying strength. He says the potion will only work for the person who chose it. But if they die, it's up for grabs again. The party makes their choices and then is presented with three doors.

• Front door- a normal wooden door that no one can see into
• Back Door- a steel door leading to a thunderstorm
• A Secret Door- it's covered in glitter and has drops of blood near it.

After some discussion, the party decides to go through the secret door and are asked what they are willing to risk. They are met with a hallway with a room at the end. In the room, they see a figure in a pink dress surrounded by candles and another blond figure chained to the wall near the door. The chained figure stirred, and they saw that it was Cyrus. As they get closer, they recognize the figure on the ground as Dacey. She has a bite mark on her neck and Cyrus talks of being so hungry. When they ask how they got here, Cyrus says that it wasn't long after we left that black hooded figures came and kidnapped them, locking them up here. As they talk, the hallway behind them begins to push forward. The party struggles to make a group decision about the vampire Cyrus, so Ryai decides to try to put him out of his misery. Vodren joins his attack, but Konguq and Ace decide they don't want to kill Cyrus and take Dacey to safety. Ace and Konguq slip out of the room and end up in a cavern with the Dandy Rose sitting in the river. When they go to approach it, there is a forcefield around it. Seeing that the Vodren and Ryai are still struggling with vampire Cyrus, Ace returns and helps drag Ryai out of the room. Cyrus takes a chunk out of Vodren, causing him to fall unconscious. Cyrus then throws Vodren out as well. Ace and Cyrus lock eyes. Ace tries to remind him that he cares about Cyrus and that he doesn't want to chase after them. It doesn't sway Cyrus, telling him that he needs to remember that he did nothing to stop the others from killing him, and slams the door shut. Ryai rushes quickly to shove Vodren's potion down his throat, and Vodren reawakens. With the other two now with them, the forcefield goes down, and the group enters the ship.

They take a breather, and Ryai and Konguq discuss what went wrong with the last encounter. They both decide that they need to work together better as a group to get the whole picture and not keep unnecessarily splitting themselves up.

The other two agree, and as soon as they do, Morris bursts from the Captain's quarters, telling everyone to get to their stations. Konguq slips into Captain mode, and the rest follow suit. They are asked what are they willing to risk. They know they're being pursued by a Minotaur pirate ship and a white ship. When Konguq goes to check the white ship, she sees it's being commanded by Oleander Bloodblade and a group of skeletons. In addition, the ship is made of bone, not wood.

Ace goes to seal the hatches while Ryai and Vodren go to take out the Minotaurs on the ship. Ryai aims with his wand of fireball and hits the oarsmen. Vodren continues with his sacred flame on the ship. Crew morale begins to sink, and they abandon their posts. Ace and Vodren both shout at the crew to get their asses back in gear or we're all dead. Ace, being the quartermaster, gets the group back in place. Konguq takes control of the wheel as they battle and weaken the Minotaur ship. The crew is about to make it to safety when a dragon turtle breeches and stares at the ship. In draconic, Ryai convinces it to target the other ships, claiming they were a better meal than them. The dragon turtle obliges, taking out the pursuing ships.

The ship lands on shore, and before them lies the forests of Solace. Smoke rises from the trees when they are asked again how much they were willing to risk. The party gives their answers, and they are told not to leave empty-handed. As the party returns to Solace, they are greeted by the familiar sight of dark knights running through and tormenting people. One shouts 1000 steel for Lord Mayor Branton Reese's head. The party moves quickly to find him when they are brought back to the center of town. There, they see Rigny's wife being surrounded and tormented by goblins. Vodren saw this as his chance to repent and the party splits to cover more ground. Ryai and Ace take off looking for Branton while Konguq and Vodren try to save Rigny's wife.

Konguq and Vodren try to distract the goblins from the battered woman, with Vodren trying to scare them off with sacred flame and Konguq trying to leap in with magic. While the attempts weren't as successful as they would have liked, they managed to scare off the goblins. When Konguq tries to convince the woman to come with them, she refuses. Not wanting to go with Vodren.

Ryai and Ace take off, hunting down Branton. They manage to find him in the crowd, and he is surprised to see the two of them, saying that he had seen them take off already. They explain the situation with the steel, and he agrees, making Ace the bait. The two attempt to help him escape when they are spotted. They scatter, with Ace losing the knights in the commotion. He ditches the disguise and takes off to Semolina's to try and get a horse and carriage to help others escape the massacre. There, he reconvenes with Konguq and Vodren to help save others. Konguq goes to save Rosa, but she, with her cross bolt, plans to stick it through. Konguq eventually helps her load up and fight off the other knights when she runs out of bolts; however, Rosa caves and comes with them.

Ryai, once split, ducks into a building to avoid a knight chasing after him. He enters the Alchemist's shop and finds Marble trying to pack up the shop and flee. Ryai tells her that he can help her escape and to follow him to safety. The two catch up with the rest in the square. With the rest of the party together, Ace tries to save Tika and Otik. But he is hindered when a Dark Knight comes charging after them. Konguq enters the fray and sucks the life out of the knight, allowing the rest to escape. Before Ace could make it to the burning Inn of the Last Home, the time of day quickly changes to sunset, and pathways open to them

• The forest
• The mountains
• The Inn
• The Well

With little discussion, the party quickly jumps into the well. Water surrounds them that seems to go on for eternity, with only the sun in the sky above them. Opposite them is a creature called a Chuul, more commonly known as a mage hound. On its head is a rune that absorbs magic attacks. They are again asked what they were willing to risk. In Konguq's mind, Ladonna taunts Konguq to keep her sword.

Ace is able to use his crossbow to damage the rune on its head so the wizards can attack with their full potential. Ryai goes unconscious, getting trapped in the creature's claws as Konguq is able to make the final blow on the beast, slashing it in two. Vodren heals Ryai, and he wakes up.

With the mage hound defeated, the party takes a moment to catch their breath. Then, coming out of the Horizon, they notice a pumpkin carriage drawn by two red elk speeding towards them. From the pumpkin vines sprout, violently grabbing Vodren, wrapping him tightly, and more gently grabbing Ryai. It pulls Ryai into the carriage, and Vodren is strapped on the back. It takes off before Konguq and Ace can do anything as the water beneath their feet turns to ice and winds frigid.

The wizards were going home.

Siege of the Icewalkers

Konguq and Ace

Konguq and Ace make the long, cold trek to Konguq's village. They find that the place is completely ransacked and burned when they get there. However, there are no bodies at the scene. Konguq searches frantically for evidence of her family and finds their tent with a large map in the center of it. On the map, a stronghold is marked, a place her people go to when they need to flee. On foot, it's a several days-long journey.

However, when they leave the tent, they see there is one ship left in the harbor, the Dandy Rose. She is left worse for wear and completely abandoned, but she is their only shot. The two man the ship themselves and head to the location on the map. It's a day's journey with no rest but they manage. The two arrive at the fort and find it is under siege by a large group of walrusfolk called the Thanoi. In addition, they find the rest of the Dandy Crew fleeing trying to flee a runaway ship bearing the crest of Admiral Kingsail. They are only in a rowboat, however, and the ship is close to crushing them. In the distance by the rocks, Konguq spots her desk and her spell book hanging precariously between the rocks. Agratok is holding on to the book, but he cannot hold it for much longer.

Konguq sprints off the ship to try to save her book and companion. Ace aims to save the Dandy Crew from the ship with his grappling hook. Ace flings the hook towards their boat and, despite the day-long journey, manages to pull the boat to safety.

Konguq gets to where Agratok and her book are and struggles with the dilemma. She can't save them both. She struggles and decides to try anyway since she can't pick between them. However, try as she might, she fails. The book falls to the sea, and the desk holding Agratok is destroyed, leaving only feathers behind. She sits there for what feels like hours, stunned at her loss.

Ace, after saving the crew, runs up to her on the shore and the Thanoi threat becomes more prevalent as they begin to bust down the door. Konguq rises up and begins to cast again, trying to fight off the hoard with Ace behind her. She launches into the air with a whirlwind kick to knock back some of the Thanoi, landing her right in the middle. A larger Thanoi shaman approaches and breaks a root, casting a mind-control spell on Konguq. The Shaman is about to make Konguq cast Thunder Wave on the stronghold, but Ace snaps her out of it, forcing the Thunder Wave onto the Thanoi. The two are then surrounded by the large walrus people as they begin their assault. Ace throws himself on top of Konguq to shield her from the blows with his cane sword while Konguq unleashes all the hell she has left in her, using magic and a sword