Reign of Winter

[Suitably wintery night, with rain and howling wind...]

Setting off, we know to be wary of near by bear traps. Which indeed we find. In my case, by setting it off, but in the case of Mage by getting trapped in it. While we got him out, Hogan noticed a blood trail, it looks like the giant weasel was also once caught in a trap, and recently.

Moving on, we cross a field of ice boulders, and encounter a frightened little girl that is worried about some doll. This would be the doll house, we presume, that we have heard of. However, before then we see images in the ice boulders, of dead figures and grief and loss and it causes great fear to rise in our hearts (in three out of four of our hearts anyway). However, after calming down, it is of no more concern.

The house itself is rather odd, reminding us of the legend of the white witch Baba Yaga [a variant of the Baba Yaga we know], with a house on four legs that look like chicken feet. Inside is a doll, which rises up to strike the bard when he goes to pick it up. We take our turns to beat back the doll, and it proves unsuccessful at throwing magic at us. Although a successful attack does freeze me to the spot. After the doll is cut down, we determine that the gem in one eye is trapping the soul of the girl we saw and free her.

Continuing our path, an explosion of ice catches Hogan, but only mildly scrapes us. Odd, but this is a cruel realm. And continuing on again we are beset by... a giant weasel! It shakes me like a chew toy before it is scared off, but we pursue it back to its cave, and put the poor starving creature out of its misery.

Attempting to spend the night there, we are attacked by another faerie and an are creature, and manage to cut them down, me in a rage, but not until after it cut into me more. Resting on, I am healed, and then we set out for what we believe to be the heart of this area...

[END]