Opalia was gone in the morning. Fortunately, the path she'd taken to the surface was easy to follow. It almost seemed as if she'd wanted to be followed, though the trail of debris she left in her wake may simply have been the natural consequence of an angry goliath stompingthrough an underground cavern.

Farra and Keth, along with their goodbyes, could offer only sheepish, blushing half-explanations for why they had not noticed the enormous woman storming off.

When the rest of the party caught up to her, they were relieved to find her sitting quietly atop a ridge, staring out over the ruins of Ruldheim. There were no Francos in sight, but the smoke of morning cook-fires rising from the direction of the cave-in suggested they were still in the vicinity.

"There you are."

Cora tried to announce herself as she approached Opalia, getting low though there was little chance much else than her elven chain would catch in the morning light.

"Seen anything we should know about?"

The subject of attacking the Francos, not attacking the Francos, did not come up. It was foolish to go over the same ground with Opalia over and over, especially since her argument had as much likelihood to end in their deaths as any other. They'd simply need to pursue any decision they made as one, and with all their strength.

Opalia brooded on a raised ridge not far from the cave's exit, her auburn mane whipping in the early morning winds.  She gazed out over the vast northern tundra, and any who approached the precipice could see that her eyes were fixed upon the rising smoke from distant cookfires.

When Cora spoke the giantess turned and a bright grin spread across her features, "Bright skies to you, little CORA!"  A glance past the half-orcess chef revealed the rest of the fellowship emerging as well, and Opalia waved to them.  She answered the follow-up question with a nod toward the distant site of the cave-in, "BAD KING-MANS still dig.  RULDHEIM town is clear, but just as dead as they did leave it."

Opalia rose to her full towering height and pronounced, "We have full day to travel to cave-dig NOT-SEEN and make ready to for best squishing of BAD KING-MANS.  There is time to stop them, before they harm more."  She looked over her comrades and asked bluntly, "What now, little friends?  Do we face enemy of all good northerfolk, or do we FLEE?"

In reply to Opalia (msg # 3):

"Flee. Flee while there's a chance to save more by gathering our forces and protecting the sword, not handing it to the Francos. But you're not really asking, are you Opalia?"

Cora looked at the same cookfires, the same dawn, the same digging that the goliath did, and saw an enemy entrenched. Hard to attack, but hard to get moving as well.

"All I ask is we make a decision we can live with."

At that Cora looked to Opalia

"Together. If you fight, I fight. But if we run, you run with us."

Arvid sighed in relief upon sighting Opalia and offered a silent prayer to Ildiko for keeping her safe. A difficult discussion lay ahead however, and inevitably some would be disappointed regardless of the outcome.

"Opalia," he said softly. "The North is full of dangers. If we turn our back on a lesser evil to confront a greater it is not cowardice. It is an acknowledgement of our circumstances."

"Kann, the Great Mountain, rendered unto Fergus a vision. That way," he said, thrusting his finger towards the distant cookfires. "Lies blood and death. The shadows feast and only grow in strength. There is vengeance, but no peace. Not for Ruldheim. Better the riders who fear the tunnels than the qiqion who fear nothing."

Opalia was not angry anymore, just determined.  She answered Arvid, "OPALIA does not seek VEN-JENCE, but to stop KING-MANS from making more blood and death.  If we flee now, BAD KING-MANS will burn and kill MORE good norther-folk for as far as the horses will ride.  This is TRUTH, all of us know it.  If we do not stop it, GOOD FOLKS will die and it will be OUR fault."

The giantess thumped a fist to her breast and declared, "We are STRONG with power to stop them.  Little evil or big evil, the weak die the same if none defend them.  The strong do not turn away and leave the weak to mercy of BAD foes."  She turned to Cora and said, "That, OPALIA can NOT live with.  We are better than that.  We must be."

In reply to Opalia (msg # 6):

"Are you comfortable with killing the children of Ruldheim then, Opalia? Because that's as good as what you'd be doing, leaving them to the tender mercies of Garduk's shadow hounds. Children will die, and it will be YOUR fault. Because you weren't strong enough to listen to reason. Because you chose weakness, chose your own pride."

Cora did not like talking to Opalia this way, did not like how frustrated the goliath made her sometimes. They'd have agreed months ago, but there was so much riding on this that Cora felt all she could do was try to walk the knife's edge. She looked down, clearly pulling herself back towards some semblance of a plan.

"I'm sorry. If the rest of the party thinks we can do it, we'll fight. But if you're the only one and you won't come with us . . . perhaps your mother will help you mount an assault. And if we kill the Francos here, Ruldheim is through. The children, Farra, Keth, they all are fleeing again. Because the qiqion won't be stopped with trick doors and bearipedes, they won't have the teachings of their faith in their mind when they see children. There won't be the faintest hope."

She looked to Sikuaq, to Caell and Fergus

"We can't kill our way out of the Francos, not without killing their entire country. Maybe we can kill the Kingsmen, maybe we can turn Garduk away, maybe Fergus' vision is wrong. Maybe the King won't send more men to look for the ones that went missing."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:14, Tue 13 July 2021.

"Please, Cora," Arvid said, holding up a gentling hand. He hated to see the group falling upon itself, and especially did not like the tone or aspersion heaped towards Opalia though she was perfectly capable of standing up for herself. "We may not always see our paths the same way but we are friends, all of us."

He turned and looked up at Opalia, silently contemplating her chiselled features. "If Kann in his wisdom is correct, and the qiqion are drawn to the smell of death Ruldheim may well be next. Fergus saw a half dozen of them in his vision. They hunt by scent. The one that fell upon us in the squall tracked a handful of us through driven snow. Here there is a village littered with trails several hours away only on open plain."

"If they do make their way down into the tunnels when we are far from here - that is something you will have to live with." Arvid did not say this coercively or with prejudice. He merely needed to know that Opalia had considered her intention from all angles.

"Can you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 11:41, Tue 13 July 2021.

Caell was happy to see that Opalia hadn't gone far. He had feared for a while that she had left them. When the discussion came to the matter of what they were going to do next, Caell had to search his own heart to reach a conclusion for his own part.

"If we leave Franco folk where they are, they die." Caell was confident that was Fergus' vision. "No need fighting them if we want them dead. We just do nothing. If we go to Franco folk, it would be to save them. They deserve our protection? I don't know. They want our help? I don't think so." He shook his head.

"I don't want Franco folk to die or become terrible shadows, but I think we have more important things to do."

Opalia glowered at Cora and shot back, "It is OUR fault they now hide in caves to starve.  The BAD KING-MANS got to burn RULDHEIM because we let them go, before."  She eased up a bit after Cora cooled down and apologized, and gave a nod of acceptance.  Arvid's challenge was similar, though he did deliver it more nicely.  The giantess had not considered the possibility of qiqion coming to hunt in Ruldheim, and it was a not-nice thought.  Qiqion were fearsome magic beasts, but the King's Men were soldiers with horses and malicious intent.  Who could say which was the more dangerous?

After some ponderous pondering Opalia answered, "I would not in-danger RULDHEIM.  This is why BAD KING-MANS must be stopped!  You think RULD-KIDS are to die no matter what we do.  Not-good."  This was very troubling, but then the ideal solution occurred to Opalia, and she was quick to share it, "OPALIA knows what we do!  First, we squish all KING-MANS.  Then we wait in big victory, until BAD SHADOW-WOLFS come to feast.  Then... we squish them!  All bads are squished, and all are safe after."  A predictable plan considering the source, but quite foolproof, Opalia reckoned.

Despite having solved the quandary with her perfect plan, Opalia was given pause by the further explanation of Fergus's vision and Caell's reminder that the King's Men would die anyway.  The giantess went to Fergus the wise-dwarf and knelt to speak to him, "Wise FIREBEARD?  KANN has showed you the BAD KING-MANS all dead, YES?  Little CAELL is right, that if this is so then maybe it does not have to be US to do squishing..."  Opalia seemed to be coming around to the idea of leaving the King's Men to their foretold doom, although one concern occurred to her, "If SHADOW-WOLFS get the KING-MANS, then what if they come to hunt RULDHEIM next?  That is still a problem!"

Sikuaq had bitten her tongue in the hopes that Opalia would come around to a broader way of thinking on her own, or with the guidance of her closer friends.  But she was stuck on the fate of Ruldheim and the children sheltering somewhere beneath their feet.  She could not see beyond the immediate threat.  The anatka reasoned it was her giant heart that prevented wisdom from creeping into the goliath's thinking.   Certainly not the worst of traits, but most troublesome given their current situation.  Sikuaq's hopes rose momentarily when Opalia latched on to Caell's interpretation of Fergus' vision, but those hopes were dashed upon the ice of the tundra mere moments later.

She'd had enough.  Sometimes direction could not be reached by consensus.  Her eyes seemed to spark from their normal icy blue, and a small wisp of vapour rose as the butt end of her staff melted the thin layer of snow atop the ground.

"Yes it is a problem!  So are the wolves in the hills over there," she waved a hand dismissively.  "So is the lack of food growing here.  There are many qiqion hunting the Qopol Qalak already, feeding on the strife and taking new lives when convenient.  And there are worse things than qiqion, all released because of these pointless wars."

"Running from one localized confrontation to another will not solve things.  If Ruldheim is your concern, you can stay here and protect it with Farra and Keth.  Fight off the King's Men, if they come.  Fight off the qiqion, if they come.  Fight off Garduk, if he comes.  But all you fix with those actions is this one little patch of land in the whole of the Qopol Qalak.  Maybe it becomes safer in this one place, but everywhere else continues to suffer."

"There are hundreds of Ruldheims scattered across the North.  What about them?  Why is here worthy of all our attention and none of those other places?  They all deserve our help."

"When I encouraged you to think bigger last night, this is what I meant Opalia.  We must take the actions that minimize the pain and suffering to all the Ruldheims.  Actions that will end the full threat of Garduk."  Only then did her gaze soften somewhat, as she considered the steadfast goliath.  "You have a big heart, Opalia.  But it leads you astray here.  The war must take precedence over the battle.  We have what we came for, now we must take the next step to defeat Garduk.  As much as we might wish to crush the King's Men, that is not the step we need to win this war."

"We must head to the dwarven stronghold and enlist our final allies, to gain the strength we need to win the final confrontation."

Fergus still had to reach upward to place his hand on Cora's shoulder, even when she was kneeling. "When I communed with Kann, I worried specifically upon Ruldheim. Yet the vision I saw was not in caves. It was topside. Francos. Ruldheim will be safe, Opalia. I know it will!" He realized he was trying to convince himself as much as he was Opalia. But the vision was clear, even if it wasn't complete. 'Ruldheim will be safe," he repeated.

"And if I'm wrong... if somehow I misread Kann's message and I lose Farra again... It will kill me. And no amount of Opalia's wrath will matter."

Opalia was visibly relieved by wise Fergus's certain reassurance.  She laid her big hand on the old dwarf's shoulder in mirror of his, and gave him a big nod of comradely gratitude and solidarity.  Before she could give reply, however, Sikuaq stepped up to speak with resolute authority.


The giantess rose to listen to the anatka's wise proclamations, and was impressed as ever even as she herself was chastised.  The words made her think of all the north and its many peoples threatened by Garduk and the BIG PROBLEMS happening in the shadow lands of biggest trees and much-fighting.  Opalia did want to help all good peoples against big dangers!  She had been worried the BAD KING-MANS would threaten even more good peoples, but now she was assured they would receive the destruction that was justly due to them.

Opalia stood before Anatka Sikuaq, tall in wisdom if not in stature (by Skykeeper reckoning), and saluted her with a fist to breast and inclining her head.  "You are mighty of spirit and of wisdom, little ANATKA, and you are much-right.  The northerlands will give BAD KING-MANS their reckoning, and so RULDHEIM and other good norther-folks will be not-dangered from them any more.  We do have BIGGER foes to fight!"  The giantess grinned and declared, "Let us go, little friends, to DWARFEN STRONG-HOLD!"

Arvid smiled faintly and breathed an inward sigh of relief. It was time to go.

Cora watched the cookfires as the sun rose more, growing grim as she flexed her hand. Though she delayed, once the rest of the group started moving she sighed, turning as she shielded a shaft of light from her face.

"Well Opalia, hope you can wait until we take a rest for food. Was going to make flapjacks, but we make those for dinner! Any objections?"

Cora had what she needed to hit the road, but couldn't speak for everyone

"Gather your things and I'll see if I have some oats we can use to stop the hunger. If there's cookfires . . . we need to move."

Fergus, having never been to the ancestral capitol of the dwarven kingdom himself, had only directions from Thori Reddigger to go on:



Fortunately Arvid, Valaku, and Caell knew the region well, and between them they found a relatively easy route east across the flat plains of the Frozen Wastes. The party circled north around the Kelley's Ridge and the other peaks to arrive in the lower bluffs the dwarven smith had spoken of. Somewhere amidst all this land sloping steeply down to the mighty rivers that fed Lake Ildiko was the entrance to the tunnels, if Thori was to be believed.

Finding it would be no simple task, not only because of the treacherous landscape but because an enormous herd of aurochs was grazing in the river valley. Several hundred of the creatures were spread out all along the slopes, and while they were grazing peacefully and seemed to intend no harm to anything around them, that would be a different matter if they were provoked.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:12, Sat 17 July 2021.

Cora paused as they looked out at the aurochs, not able to keep a smile from her face as she pulled her scarf down and breathed the air

"Well, it's not Franco soldiers!"

She smiled at the others and looked to Valaku and Sikuaq

"I've never seen so many in one place. Is there a trick to not making them mad? Would we be better to circle round, or can we just avoid their young and walk slowly?"

"I'm not sure that we can," Arvid said, standing atop a ridge with a flat palm shielding his gaze as he peered out across the rivervalley. "Avoid them, that is. The entrance could be anywhere along there. We'll have no way of knowing until we start hunting."

"Keep away from the young. The herd will encircle them and box us out but the bulls may charge if we get too close."

"Slag and rust," Fergus complained. "Would be a lot easier to spot a cave if there weren't hundreds of aurochs in the way."

He scanned the steep slopes for openings. "I wonder if Little Ildiko might  be able to scare them off."