Chapter 24

A passage from Rutger's Journal

 * Having killed the spiders we leave the room up stone stairs into a rough cave and then out into the night.  A clear chilly night, the new moon is imminent – either we have arrived in time or we are very very late.  The cave mouth opens out into a grassy hill, below us we can see hundreds and hundreds of camp fires that surround a lake.  There is a fortress in the middle of the lake – my initial thought was to replicate the ice raft idea that we had before.

S. C.: I spider crawl up to the nearest encampment, while Iggy sneak forwards – Jakar walked through the camp. Ravel sat thinking about something, I sprint and zig-zap towards a copse of trees in the midst of the camp. Seeing the fire behind me I walk calmly down to the shore I bump into a cultist who I scare into silence.

We arrive at the island, a path leads up to a large stone fortress which seems to have been there for a while but has recently been reinforced, the gates are wide open.

Through the gates we could see several small groups of elves, surrounding a circle of chanting cultists, one had a spear, one had a helmet with antlers, one with a torc the final kneels before a cauldron. Two pale elves, one from the autumn fort, and a female with a rag over her eyes has her hands on his shoulder. “The winter leaves” seem to be there – I was told by Iggy – but I’d forgotten about them at the time. 