The portal did not take us back outside. It opened onto a ledge, the chasm dropping away to our left, rock wall to our right, and ahead of us a portcullis shaped like a bear’s head with its mouth agape.
Corren sent his cat scholar through the gaps before Kylma and the Tortle wizard began on the portcullis. It reported back through him. Past the entrance, a floor scattered with eggshells large enough to house something considerably bigger than a man. A waste area nearby. Further in, a room with a blue flame burning in a stone brazier.
Kylma and the Tortle wizard set to work on the portcullis. Corren, the shield guardian and I watched from behind. Two small heads emerged briefly from the wall to our right, breathing cold air across them, then withdrew back into the rock. I am not entirely certain what I saw. Neither, it seemed, was Corren. We said nothing. In hindsight, we could have asked the shield guardian.
The portcullis came down eventually. We went in.
. . .The cave opened up past the entrance. A floor of eggshells, as reported. A waste area to one side. The party spread out naturally to explore. The Tortle wizard found a tribesman who was carrying the severed head of an owlbear, along with a chardalyn cleaver. It reminded me of the caged prisoner in the chasm. This tribesman was afflicted with chardalyn madness as well. Combat began.
Corren and I continued exploring while Kylma and the Tortle wizard handled the berserker. I reached a living quarters, nothing remarkable in it, and returned to the flame where Corren was.
. . .The blue flame flickered, and in those flickers, briefly, the shape of a woman. The image never held long enough to be certain of anything except that she was beautiful. I stood there longer than I intended to.
From Corren’s knowledge of the arcana, he deduced that the flame was likely a blessing from Auril, capable of granting her worshippers a form of immortality within the cave. While I understand that resurrection and revival spells violate the natural cycle of life, this is something darker. Something much more sinister.
. . .Looking around the cavern, I learnt more about Auril. She did not mean to descend to the mortal realms. She was betrayed. Cast out by those she stood beside, wounded and driven to the edges of the world. Icewind Dale is where she came to recover. The everlasting winter was her doing. A wounded god, throwing a tantrum while in hiding.
Both things can be true. The suffering she has caused and endured are both real. But such misuse of power speaks of an arrogance that will be her downfall.
Though I find myself wondering. Is she the one that brought me here?
. . .The berserker had gotten back up. Knowing what I now knew about the flame, this was not a surprise. I realised then that this particular individual made a good test subject. Kylma had him grappled.
I ran through each option methodically.
I had the shield guardian hurl the chardalyn spear at the test subject, two corruptions pressed against each other. No effect. I did not have high hopes for this anyway.
Next, I had Zglarrd extract the subject’s brain for consumption. Interestingly, the flame kept the subject alive even without brain function. The subject himself still seems agitated, as though the chardalyn madness is still afflicting him. This is an interesting find, as I had understood the chardalyn madness as a sickness of the mind. Could it be that the material itself is not poisonous but rather a conduit of a form of magic? I will need Corren’s help with this.
I observed no changes in Zglarrd from the latest experiment.
With the experiments concluded, it seems the only way to put the subject to rest was to bring him out of the cave. Kylma carried the subject out and threw him into the chasm, with the chardalyn spear still in him. That is unfortunate. I will need to find another source of chardalyn for experiments. I wonder if Kylma would mind consuming raw brains.
. . .We explored what remained. The waste area turned out to be the wyrmlings’ hoard, two of them, scattered and modest. We took what was worth taking. Kylma found a store of frozen meat deeper in, provisions that had likely belonged to the Ten-Towns before they went missing.
A portal returned us to the caravan at the Cackling Chasm.
. . .Yselm’s map points to a shipwreck frozen in the Sea of Moving Ice. A vessel called the Dark Duchess. It is said to contain treasure. We set out before the light changed. By my count, we should arrive by morning.