Road to Kebnegard, Chapter Three

Labeling
Monday, December 26th, 987 AD

The girls label all of the jars we got from the pirates before we all go to bed.

Sailing on Ice
Tuesday and Wednesday, December 27th and 28th, 987 AD

Edward speaks with God and finds out that the salves are made out of Christian's babies' blood. We help repair the boat and continue on our way. We pass Rechiza and two river forks before the river starts to ice up.

Ship Stalls
Thursday and Friday, December 29th and 30th, 987 AD

Frost falls on Thursday morning. At the end of the day, the captain sends out people to find out from locals up north how iced up the rest of the river is. We find out that it's pretty iced and that thngs are attacking Chernigov at night. We sleep in a barn and walk back to ship next morning. We all load up and carry stuff until nightfall. During second watch, Ivan is awoken to hear tales of winter wolves that are around the area.

Winter Wolf Attack and Prince Vselov
Saturday, December 31st, 987 AD

Early in the morning, during third watch, the camp is attacked by winter wolves, larger than normal wolves that have a frost breath attack. We kill them all, Reynaldo cleaving two in half from below the snow. He used the Axe's ability to move freely under the snow and positioned himself underneath the exposed underbellies of the wolves and backstabbed them. We take the wolf skins to tan later. We are forced to leave some of the ship's cargo behind in order to make it to Copus by nightfall. Once there, Governor Seasta asks to see us. He tells us that Prince Vselov of Polotsk would like to see us in his palace. We hem and haw because the Polotskian envoy to Kiev called us traitors and we would very much like to avoid other mix-ups. The Prince then steps out of the shadows and invites us in person. He shows us the severed head of his real envoy who obviously never made it to Kiev. He rambles about how he's not sure why the dark woman who took the envoy's place called us traitors except to discredit his own province. We agree to see him in the morning. Reynaldo finds some wine to drink on New Year's Eve.

A Prince of Men and a King of Cats
Sunday, January 1st, 988 AD

We across the river to Orsha to the governor's mansion, where we speak with Prince Vselov and his guest, Snowflake, the King of Cats. We talk about the fake Polotskian envoy and generally agree that it was the same woman who Wong had her ridiculous duel with. Snowflake lets us know that he's looking for some cousins that he once thought dead. Jean-Claude grasps his meaning and lets him know that the Patriarch of Constantinople recently acquired some saber-toothed cats. The Prince informs us that a dwarven female was found in a river with a note that had all but washed away. The only words on the note that could be read were 'Agafangul,' 'Dwarfholm,' and 'Help.' This prompted Reisha to use her Virgin Mary statue to see if her sister is okay. When the statue cries blood, she knows her sister is in trouble and decides to leave the party to travel to Dwarfholm. Ivan decides not to help because he feels saving the world, the quest the party is currently on, is more worthy than saving a town, even if it is his hometown.

End Chapter Three