Jim, Karen, Kelly and Sarah had never really lost control of what should have been a difficult fight. Certainly, the ice elementals were a poor matchup for Jim’s skills and an empowered Karen. The fact that Sarah’s summon was able to keep her largely out of danger was another large advantage, as she and the rest of her party could focus on offense and effectively agility tanking the massive monster.
That is not to say that no one was injured. Despite his best efforts at hardening, Jim’s hands were bloody and bruised and the elemental had most certainly broken Karen’s shoulder with a glancing blow from an ice block. Karen had largely healed her injuries throughout the fight and Sarah had been able to heal Jim quickly with white magic. Kelly had come through the fight unscathed, as she had been stealthed as often as possible and had the speed to avoid the attacks that did come her way from the elemental.
After a full hour of recovery, the team was ready for the next stage of the gauntlet and moved to the location of the spring itself. It was open to the sky, but surrounded by high stone walls on each side. A crevasse in one of the walls wide enough for two to walk through abreast was the only access to the inner area with the spring. The tall stone walls and formations surrounding the spring created the impression of a natural cathedral, which was further enhanced by the formations of ice around the crystal blue water. The ice formations appeared as glowing statues, but statues of nothing recognizable to the team.
They had been told that anything that touched the water would freeze immediately, which was a little funny when you thought about it. The liquid’s unique properties had created the eternal ice formations over ages as the stone box surrounding the spring funneled the mountain winds to carry water out of the pool that then collected in the chamber as eternal ice. After a moment of wonder, Karen and Kelly quickly began to harvest the ice.
Outside of this magical environment the eternal ice would begin to lose its potency, so once they stepped back through the crevasse they needed to move. Each of the women had a special case to carry and help preserve the eternal ice during their return journey, but they also redistributed their gear to free up an additional pack for more ice. Rocky was still waiting for Sarah where they had defeated the large elemental and everyone agreed that Sarah could carry extra ice while riding her summoned companion back out of the mountains.
With the ice in hand they started their push back to Eastern Tear. They planned to follow largely the same path and to minimize rest as much as was safe on the return. They had planned ahead for the need for a quick return trip on their ascent and cleared as many troublesome creatures from their path as possible. Rocky was also still serving as an effective deterrent to many of the natural inhabitants of this portion of Giantspire Mountains. As a result, the trip back to the foothills took just two days, but required all of their focus and a sleepless night.
They had agreed to rest one full night in the foothills and then try to push back to Eastern Tear with their cargo as fast as possible. Sarah had dismissed Rocky as they prepared to enter the forest and was working on another summoning as the rest of the team searched for a good campsite in the fading light of early evening. Just then the sky darkened as a massive shape rounded the mountain they had just descended. The team leapt into action, they were tired and depleted, but they were still ready for a fight. The aerial monstrosity was moving at a tremendous speed as it dove at the party. It was upon them in moments and as it reached the party near the ground someone launched toward the team.
They had had just moments to prepare, but Jim was in a defensive stance with Karen right there next to him with her mace equipped and her enhancement spooling up. Kelly had slipped into the evening shadows with her daggers drawn. Sarah alone stood there shocked. She had no spell prepared as the projectile approached. Had she just summoned that? She didn’t have time to say anything as the rest of the team struck at once.
Jim and Karen moved in unison each attacking from a different side with Kelly following an instant later with both daggers in the back of the attacker. In a fraction of a second a storm of small objects broke off from their opponent. Karen’s mace strike contacted one of the objects rather than her target and it was stopped instantly. It was like she had struck a mountain itself, one so dense that her strike couldn’t even leave a mark on the stone. Jim’s palm strike was similarly blocked, his vibrations were instantly dissipated and his follow-up kick was absorbed by another object. He was pushed back forcefully from his last attack, sending him sprawling on the ground.
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Kelly’s daggers were both blocked initially by the small objects, but she recovered quickly and used her speed to slip her long knife past the defense. Her blade was caught in a thick coating of energy surrounding the figure. She tried to pull her blade back for a followup strike, but it was stuck. The figure whirled on her and the grip of the blade was smoothly deflected into his hand by one of the objects floating around him. Karen used that moment to bring her mace down on her foe’s back; she was aiming a crippling blow at his shoulder, but it didn’t connect, again blocked by a floating object.
The dark figure withdrew something from his belt and threw it into the air, Kelly, Jim and Karen braced for an explosion, but the only effect was a gentle glow filling the area. “Geez guys. A little jumpy?” I said. “I guess I surprised you, so I suppose it is partly my fault, but that isn’t much of a greeting.”
Sarah finally got out, “Stop. It's Harris.”
Kelly looked at Harris and replied, “Yeah. Thanks Sarah. Are you OK, Harris?”
“Yes. Are you OK? Also, how did you get here and what is that thing?” said Karen.
“So many questions. That is an airship that I made. It uses hot air and is controlled by the magical devices that I have been developing. I sailed it as far north as I could, where my path was blocked by a massive storm. I collected some observations on the storms that I’d like to discuss with Galan, so I decided to head back to Eastern Tear to catch up with you on my way to the Emerald Sea. When I got close my magic compass started giving me strong treasure hits moving through the mountains, which I came to investigate. I saw it was you as I came around the mountain and I jumped down to meet you since there wasn’t a good place to land in the hills. The airship does fly really fast because of, you know, magic, so I guess I startled you. Sorry about that. Also, I’m not hurt, but you guys have come a long way since our trek through duck country. You are getting scary.”
“Well we weren’t trying to kill you Harris, but it doesn’t seem like we did any damage either way. I am not sure how far we have come, but it sure feels like we have a ways to go,” said Jim. “Come on, we can set up camp together.”
I looked over the group as we hugged our greetings and chatted a bit about the mission. After some quick mental math, I offered “It will be a little snug, but since your gear is all lightweight for climbing and no one has put on too much weight living in luxury in Eastern Tear, I think that we can make it back tonight on the airship.”
My quip earned me three death stairs and one look of pity for my foolish sense of humor, but no one actually complained. It turns out that a lift back to Eastern Tear sounded pretty good to the team. We used a couple of positional discs and some good old fashioned sisal rope to get everyone and everything aboard. I kept the craft relatively low and flew at half speed, but we easily made the trip back to Eastern Tear in just a few hours.
I maneuvered the airship directly over Eastern Tear. It was going to be tough to land given the dense tree cover, so I fixed its position above the large gardens near Kelly’s residence and we used the discs and ropes to unload all of the passengers and gear. I decided to stay in Eastern Tear for a day and then push to the slime fields under cover of night, stow the ship and slip into the Emerald Sea via my tunnel.
After I smoothed things over with the forest sentries following our dramatic entrance, I caught up with my friends as they were turning their quest in to Beluar. “You have done the citizens of Eastern Tear a great service on this day adventurers. Consider your quest complete. Why with this much eternal ice, we’ll likely be able to freeze an entire vineyard. The whole village will have ice wine for a year. Go ponder your accomplishments and upgrade your classes when ready,” said the old elf.
Karen looked shocked and turned to her party and then to Beluar, “We did all that for wine?”
She was pissed, but Beluar met her gaze and said, “Ice wine. Yes. But you haven’t tried the wine, have you? Of course not, we’ve been close to out for months and everyone has been rationing, but tonight we should celebrate.”
Beluar, Deldes, Delirin, their families, Queakers, the party and me had a great celebration that night. Karen, Jim, Kelly and Sarah shared their tale. It was amazing how much they had grown. The wine was also really quite good. I asked them to contact me in the Eastern Sea when they had finished their class upgrades. I had a feeling that the final challenge was near and that, for us, it would end right where it had started.