By 9.30am The colossal primordial Ice Wyrm, Sceaða ColdDrake had crossed the frozen expanse of Iceflow Bay and made its way up the incline, it was antagonised by the spiritual energy of Iceflow Keep, and it raided itself to its full height towering over the Keep and then proceeded to bash the Keep and flanking Towers into the ground while shadow seeped out of the Wyrm and desecrated the Holy defences the Arch Cleric had potently filled the place with. The Ice Elf King Gorthaur Iceberg organised the Horde and prepared to march forward; waiting for Sceaða to finish, the Ice Wyrm continued its destruction of the Keep's rubble until it was satisfied, which was shortly after midday, and then Sceaða headed at a brisk pace towards Jade City knocking over trees as it moved and the Horde followed in the Wrym's wake. One of the rear guard, Rangers ran to Jade City to ring tidings of the destruction of Iceflow Keep and the advance of the Horde; the rest stayed far in advance, leaving traps and hidden stakes behind and keeping track of the Horde's progress.
The Rangers took it in turns to approach healthy trees en route and to press the talisman for a second, and then pass on the talisman and wait. If the tree decided to birth a seed above ground, then it showed it with a glow, a buzz, a feel, or a scent leading to the seed, which was collected when it stopped growing and the sensation stopped. Sometimes nothing happened that they could see, so they moved on. Some trees were too soundly asleep to be awoken; some ignored the disturbance; some took the warning but chose to hide their seed in the ground, but most trusted the tree friend messengers to collect their seed. A Ranger was often detached from a group to escort located livestock, people, or resources moving them as fast as possible to keep them ahead of the Horde approaching Jade City.
Unlike the other High Elf Advisors, Dawn Sunspot, The veiled High Elf Assassin, had made off across the country with the Rangers going fast and straight for Jade City. Dawn then detoured down a stream so as not to leave a trail and headed to the deep Wood of the west coast and for the one tree that worried her in the Northern Province, the Willow Tree Shepherd, in the centre of its Vale where it sat and ensnared its victims. The malign Willow tree spirit of a former age appeared asleep, for it was now Winter, even more so with the approach of the Ice Wyrm. Dawn unveiled herself and asked for a change from the Willow tree. She felt that bartering with a Dragon might have been more fruitful than what she attempted, as the Willow would neither see reason and help nor agree not to help the Icewyrm. Finally, Justiciar Dawn had had enough, and she withdrew the Ancient Blessing of nature affinity and the Blessing of fruitfulness that the Willow Tree Spirit had enjoyed since its creation. Siphoning off additional power from the Tree Spirit, which she gave to the nearby yellow Ants, and she also blessed them with the two blessings, which were the nearest benevolent animals that would serve her purpose and she spoke to the Ants and asked them first to eat the Willow Tree, as the power imbued in the Ants made them grow in size, strength, and intelligence and Dawn Blessed the Ants further with Speech, resistance to the curse of the shadow and a cleansing blessing that should positively charge the spiritual space of where ever they abide. She asked the Ants to defend the Trees next, harm not men save they attack you, then defend yourself against each man as an individual; she also advised them of the coming Icewrym and to go underground to avoid it for now to they are stronger, or the danger passes. When the Willow Tree was empty of power and unable to fill itself, Dawn left, leaving the Ants to feed, and they destroyed the Tree Spirit. Dawn dived over the nearby cliff top and swam back to Ashvale to report back.
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Lots of people were harvesting all they could from the surrounding fields of Jade City and leaving them bare for when the Horde arrived. A new outer Wall around Jade City had been started to the North where the enemy was expected from, with additional Towers less in stature than the older main defensive curtain Wall but able to buy Jade City time, it was hurriedly being extended in both directions to try to be completed before the enemy arrived, with all the Golems helping to move a stone block into place at a time. The only person who had detoured was Viscountess Hope Joy, who departed from Mittfield overland at speed. She was worried that Viscount Love Joy might seize her holdings, so she had asked Ur'sid if she might be lent the DireBear to race to evacuate all her personnel before Viscount Hope Joy could get there. She could send all she could back to the safety of Big Bear, Then ask Big Bear to assist her people's evacuation, and then she and the DireBear would return to Jade City. Both the DireBear and Ur'sid had agreed to this, so she raced away to get this done.
Workers were excavating a deep ditch before the outer wall and taking the soil back into the city to build a new mound on the ground where previously building had stood, which had been flattened due to the war effort. Additional defences would then be added once the mound was high enough to add defensive value to the protection of the City.
The King waited by the underground Dwarven Expressway Northern gateway entrance, greeting the refugees and soldiers as they arrived. The last arriving from Iceflow Keep were Earl Bloodburn and Sir Purple, who had methodically closed the Tunnel behind them. The Warden was last arriving from the other tunnel, which he had bought down behind them. The refugees and retreating forces were given food and a place to sleep.
Additional Rangers had been sent to assist the incoming Rangers, and Wagons were sent out to meet them to collect what they had scavenged and send it in haste to either by default to Big Bear or otherwise Jade City, depending on what it was and if it had a preference of where to go. The seeds were sent to the Dryads for their stewardship, many refugees were saved, and much livestock and game were taken out of the following hands of the horde, which would have to have hurt their supply lines.
Jade City saw reinforcements arrive from all over the Kingdom. At the same time, they waited for the horde and the very last convoy to arrive overland was all the guardsmen and militia volunteers from Viscountess Hope Joy holdings, loaded with food wagons and sent by the Viscountess.
Thomas was left in charge of Big Bear with Sideswipe as his left hand; he was left with the Garrison 100 Golems, the Spiders, Kraken, Dryads and other residents. Duchess Theria attired in purple armour, Princess Tystin, who wore Blessed Silversteel Armour, Viscountess Hope Joy, a DireBear, and the amassed forces of Big Bear's Army, including the Kobolds and bears arrived through the Dwarven Expressway into the Adalbern Embassy in secret, hidden from watching eyes but known to the Crown, Ur'sid was there to greet them and was delighted to see his favourite Cousin.
There was a distinct chill in the air when Rangers signalled the enormous primordial Ice Wyrm was just 10 miles away and closing, and then Jade City closed it's gates and locked down non-essential business. The work on the trench was finished, and work on the Wall extension continued in a frenzy as they raced just to get the wall at the South to head height; by the time the gates were closed, they still kept working, bringing the South of the City defensibility higher every hour.