Briana aproached the exhausted warrior, preparing to deliver a fatal blow that would end his life and his usefullness to her. Mericc struggled to rise but Brianna smiled wickedly, spoke a few words and the now familiar pain pierced him at the back of the neck, sending him reeling. The Ice Witch walked confidently, slowly, relishing every moment of this, her...

A few hundred yards away, an ice grim whirled and twisted its way through the snow and rocks and crevasses of the mountainside, making its way towards its master’s cave. The grim was famished, its hunt across the wastes of the mountains had not proven successful but maybe its Mistress would help. Perhaps she would let it dine a little on the morsel that...

Far away, Mericc stared outside the cave at the same landscape his elvish friend was looking at with a dwindling sense of hope. The Guardian could see no way of leaving the cave without risking not only his life, but now the life of a young woman whom he felt obligated to protect. He felt far too weak to make such a journey even by himself and somehow getting...

The guardian raised his head carefully, remembering the pain of the last few attempts. He could still feel that faint throbbing at the back of his neck that flared up whenever he tried to overexert himself and now added to it was something more. He was cold, colder than he should be even considering his predicament. It was a draining sort of weakness that...

Meanwhile, back at the campsite, his traveling partner was returning. Aqualondo brushed snow off of his shoulders and hair as he entered the make-shift lean-to that he and Mericc had hastily contructed in a ring of trees. The Elf was aggravated, not only was his usual emaculate appearance disheveled and wind-blown, but the guardian was not even there. Aqualondo...

Mericc stares across a strange sea and an unfamiliar land. The platform that he stands upon juts out into the water, planks creak and groan as he shifts his weight and looks around, trying to find something familiar to tell him where he is. But try as he might nothing makes any sense. He is obviously standing on a dock in a harbor, but what is this city, and...

The cold air swirled and danced around the inside of the cavern, tracing centuries old pathways through the pillars of ice and snow that had been there for centuries. At first the movements are formless and natural and at other times something akin to a human face, or a wolf’s jaws will briefly appear before disappearing into eddies and whirlpools of...