T<\/span><\/p>\n he Path of Aganhei lies ahead of us; the frozen remains of the undead, behind.<\/span><\/p>\n I spent most of the night finishing a headband for Qatana. She approached me with the request the night that we left the Storm Tower.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHey, do you have a minute?\u201d she\u2019d asked sheepishly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOf course. What\u2019s on your mind?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI picked this up way back in Kalsgard, but forgot about it until I found it while rummaging through my pack this morning.\u201d She held up a simple bronze headband studded with half a dozen gems of swirling green malachite. \u201cI was wondering, uh, if you weren\u2019t too busy\u2026if you might be able to fashion this for me into a headband that can strengthen my will.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I took it from her and studied it under the caravan lights, turning it over and around. Qatana\u2019s tastes tended toward minimalism. \u201cIt\u2019s lovely,\u201d I\u2019d said, and I meant it. \u201cI like the malachites.\u201d The simplicity of its design had a certain elegance.<\/span><\/p>\n She made a small squeak, shifting on her feet as if someone had prodded her. I looked up expecting an explanation, but none came. Instead she added, \u201cI have enough diamond dust to complete the work\u2026at least when supplemented with some of the crystal shards we took from the tower.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n We had piles and piles and <\/span>piles<\/span><\/i> of purple shards. The unidentified gemstones had powered the storms above the Tower, and we destroyed them by literally bashing them to pieces. They shattered into clouds of tiny fragments as the magic infused in them was released. They almost certainly have no trade value, but that does not make them useless.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOf course!\u201d I\u2019d said. \u201cIt will take me several days, but I can do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The magical cubes we\u2019d found made this process both faster and easier. Spells and furs might keep <\/span>me<\/span><\/i> warm, but my tools and equipment have no such protection. With the cubes it was like working in a heated cabin, only without walls or a roof. No matter how cold it was outside, once you crossed the threshold the chill was just <\/span>gone<\/span><\/i>. Which was weird until you got used to it.<\/span><\/p>\n Qatana looked excited when I presented it to her this morning.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou used the tourmalines!\u201d she said. \u201cAnd you\u2019ve made it beautiful!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I smiled at this. I didn\u2019t strictly <\/span>need<\/span><\/i> them, but the headband itself came from Kalsgard, the ornamental wire from Unaimo, the gem fragments from the Storm Tower\u2026I could go on. \u201cI wanted this to tell a story,\u201d I replied. Almost everywhere that we\u2019d been was represented in some fashion.<\/span><\/p>\n I was actually worried that I had overdone it. The design was a little more ornate than pretty much anything she wore and I was more than a little relieved that she liked what she saw. One very refreshing quality about Qatana was that you always knew where things stood with her. If she said it was beautiful, then she thought it was beautiful.<\/span><\/p>\n And then, very abruptly, she said, \u201cThanks\u201d in a barely audible voice, and she reached out and gave me a <\/span>hug<\/span><\/i>. A big one. I didn\u2019t know what to do because Qatana doesn\u2019t <\/span>do <\/span><\/i>hugs. Not anymore. She doesn\u2019t even like to be <\/span>touched<\/span><\/i>. It was so unexpected. All I could manage was a meager \u201cYou\u2019re welcome.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After making camp tonight, Ivan conjured some fire for the sole purpose of melting the ice and snow around us. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a snow party!\u201d he said, clearly excited.<\/span><\/p>\n It was actually pretty fun, much more than you would think. For weeks the landscape has been a trial at best, and this was a chance to see it not as an obstacle to overcome but instead something to play in and enjoy. It felt good to just be silly for a while.<\/span><\/p>\n I spent a couple of hours creating an ice sculpture of the Dead Man. It won\u2019t win any awards, but that\u2019s not really the point.<\/span><\/p>\n W<\/span><\/p>\n e\u2019ve dropped down into a basin on the Tian Xia side of the plateau. It is enormous: according to the map, it\u2019s roughly 100 miles wide here, at its <\/span>narrowest<\/span><\/i> point, and four times as long. At the wide end, the town of Ul-Angorn sits on the shore of the Ruun Uvas, a huge saltwater lake which is fed by meltwater coming off the ice sheet. It will take us nearly a week to reach it.<\/span><\/p>\n Vankor is still not doing well. Qatana, Ivan, and I talked this over and we\u2019re going to use the restoration spell on him again. We have plenty of diamond dust, Ul-Angorn isn\u2019t <\/span>that<\/span><\/i> far away, and we really need him back. This second casting will take care of it. Qatana will prepare it in the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n Q<\/span><\/p>\n atana cannot always be relied on to help us maintain a low profile. That\u2019s just something we\u2019re going to have to accept, I guess. Part of the frustration is that you never really know which Qatana you\u2019re going to get when we meet someone new. Will she be cordial? Suspicious? Friendly? Hostile? I\u2019ve given up trying to predict how she\u2019ll react to strangers. Honestly, at times it just seems to be completely random.<\/span><\/p>\n She wasn\u2019t always like this. I still remember, very vividly, the first time I saw her after she and her family had vanished and were presumed dead. It was in Korvosa of all places: she was the only one who had survived, and it was Shalelu who had found her. I have no idea how or why they were so far east; I never asked. I was ten or eleven then and Qatana and I spent a couple of days exploring, me showing her the best parts of the city from a child\u2019s perspective. She was distant, hesitant, guarded, and grieving, but also curious and excited. And more importantly, what she did also made sense, even to an eleven-year-old. At least, once I fully grasped what was happening.<\/span><\/p>\n Even a decade later when we would see each other in Magnimar, she was still the Qatana I had grown up with. Yes, she may have come across as rude to people who didn\u2019t know her\u2014OK, and sometimes to those who did\u2014but she was never <\/span>erratic<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n This\u2026what I see now is something new.<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes I feel like there was more I could have done, or something I could have done differently, once she was back in Sandpoint. Those first years were hard\u2014how could they not be?\u2014and they were the years that would have made the difference. Without a family of her own she needed support wherever it could be found, but the thing is, neither of us was particularly rich in friends <\/span>before<\/span><\/i>. Logically, I know this doesn\u2019t make sense, that this isn\u2019t about me, that there\u2019s more to it than that. But logic has nothing to do with it. It\u2019s how it <\/span>feels<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n I bring this up now because we\u2019re only a couple of days out of Ul-Angorn and we\u2019re starting to see signs of human and humanoid settlement. The most significant of them came about mid-day today, when we passed a cabin fairly close to the Path of Aganhei. Even in the faded twilight we could see the smoke coming from its chimney so we decided to stop. I mean, why not? Not counting Katiyana (why would you?), this was the first sign of civilization\u2026<\/span>gods<\/span><\/i>, in nearly <\/span>two months<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n The owner was a halfling gentleman named Kobi, and for reasons known only to Qatana she decided she liked him. After an awkward little greeting where he thought we were headed <\/span>onto<\/span><\/i> the High Ice\u2014we were clearly headed south, but people see what they are expecting to see, I guess\u2014and tried to talk us out of it, he invited us inside just to visit. There was no hiding that we had just crossed, of course, but Qatana just could not help herself. She gave him the highlights of our exploits across the Boreal Expanse: the storms, Katiyana, the Storm Tower, Iqaliat, the white dragon, and even the Dead Man. What do you do at that point?<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not the events so much as it is the attention. Realistically, one halfling living 100 miles from the nearest settlement does not seem like a huge problem, but eventually he will talk to someone, who will talk to someone else, and so on. Word spreads. We were supposed to come to the Crown and disappear, not develop a reputation that calls us out.<\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span><\/p>\n give up. Honestly, I do. It is impossible to keep a group of thirteen adults, including the ones who should know better, from drawing attention to themselves. So I am done trying. I can\u2019t be everyone\u2019s nanny, and I wouldn\u2019t want the job even if I could. I don\u2019t want to be my grandmother. I love my grandparents, but that is not the same as loving everything about them. That is no way to live my life.<\/span><\/p>\n People will either learn or they won\u2019t. Ameiko obviously hasn\u2019t\u2014at this point, whenever she says, \u201cNo one here knows who I am,\u201d it is reasonable to assume that we are in <\/span>imminent danger<\/span><\/i>\u2014and even Suishen has stopped offering advice on what to do about it. The sword and I finally share a common bond.<\/span><\/p>\n We are a danger not just to ourselves, but also to those around us. If we\u2019re going to continue to tempt fate like this, then I\u2019ll just have to be prepared for when someone takes advantage, especially in environments that put others at risk, as happened tonight. I have to pick spells that I can use in close quarters, without harming people and structures, even incidentally.<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking of tonight, that ogre mage was foolish to try and take us all on like that, but hauteur seems to be a running theme there. I mean, he had to know we were not going to roll over and die given what had happened in Kalsgard, right? But I guess he thought he was different.<\/span><\/p>\n In all honesty, his gambit was a good one. While we were all wary, we weren\u2019t really on guard for an oni disguised as a human (though I suppose we should have been, yes?), and even if we were, could we reasonably have kept it up for hours on end? Which is how long he was willing to wait. <\/span>That<\/span><\/i> part was smart, as was the attempt to lure Ameiko away through an enchantment. He just didn\u2019t have a contingency plan that was better than \u201chack-and-slash with sword\u201d, which is what surprises me. But if our enemies want to make it easy on us, I guess I shouldn\u2019t complain.<\/span><\/p>\n The worst part of that was having it all happen in the middle of The Frozen Spike. One second we have Mr. \u201cWhy Don\u2019t You Come See My Music?\u201d surrounded and magically held, and the next there\u2019s an ogre mage standing in his place, chairs and tables pushed aside and bar staff and patrons scrambling to get the hell out of the way or cowering in terror.<\/span><\/p>\n Ten seconds later we had cut him down on the spot. Ameiko landed the killing blow.<\/span><\/p>\n The owner or proprietor, I think her name was Gerta, was pretty distraught. I guess I would be too if something like this happened in my bar. Ivan and I used our spells to fix the chairs and tables, and of course expunge the blood. There was a <\/span>lot<\/span><\/i> of blood. In less than 15 minutes, though, there was not a trace of it left, and I think the bar was even <\/span>cleaner<\/span><\/i> than it was before we got there. A little music, a little dancing, and a round of drinks for everyone, and things were more or less on the road back to normal.<\/span><\/p>\n Maybe I am being hard on Ameiko and the others. Yes, a Tian woman playing a samisen is an obvious giveaway, but so is a five-wagon caravan rolling in at this time of year, looking battered and battle-scarred. There is a reality here that there\u2019s just no way for us to hide or be discreet. Drawing attention to ourselves was just pouring water in the ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n You know who else is well known here? Ulf. I guess that shouldn\u2019t be a surprise. I imagine every caravan stops in Ul-Angorn on the way to Tian Xia so they probably get to know all the Crown guides fairly well. Gerta\u2019s professional assessment? He can hold his liquor. That, and he can be \u201csurly\u201d. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s what came to mind. Obviously, she bases this opinion on how he spends his time between jobs, or on overnight stops. Which is a little unfair. The drinking he\u2019s done on the road with us has hardly been excessive, and you can be surly and gruff if you have the skills to back it up.<\/span><\/p>\n We more or less knew the \u201csurly\u201d bit already, anyway. It was pretty clear from talking with Uksahkka that Ulf had his way of doing things, and you either did them his way or he wouldn\u2019t do business with you. But like I said, his reputation spoke volumes. Even Gerta eventually, albeit grudgingly, admitted the same: \u201cHe obviously must be good at what he does because he gets people across.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ll be here another night.<\/span><\/p>\n S<\/span><\/p>\n parna has made arrangements to have some maintenance and repairs done on the wagons. Strictly speaking, this isn\u2019t even <\/span>remotely<\/span><\/i> necessary, but given last night\u2019s events a little added goodwill can\u2019t hurt. I spent the morning getting us re-provisioned and learned the locals were divided on whether we were saving the day or the source of the trouble. Of course, we know the answer to that but we\u2019ll be keeping it to ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n Qatana interrogated our corpse because that\u2019s just a thing we do now. Like that sort of thing is somehow normal. For once, we got direct answers.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWho were you working for?\u201d she asked.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am an agent of the Five Winds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Five Winds? We have no idea who that is, though it\u2019s certainly a good guess that they are related to the Five Storms and bad with names.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHow did you find out we were here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was waiting to see if you would come.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHow did you get here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTraveled by magic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Her last question was the one we most needed to know: \u201cDid you communicate our presence to others?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d he said. And that was that.<\/span><\/p>\n Obviously, this is not good. They know we\u2019re right here, right now, and will soon learn that we survived. If it was up to me we\u2019d have left on the spot, but no one asked me for my opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n Ivan took care of the body. He conjured a ring of fire around it and just let it burn until there was nothing left but ash and blackened, brittle bones.<\/span><\/p>\n Sparna found a set of jeweler\u2019s tools for me while I was running my errands. I\u2019ll need them for our talismans, which I want to set with some semi-precious stones just to give them a little flair. We still have weeks of travel ahead of us, and this is a good way to use the time.<\/span><\/p>\n There are a handful of dwarves here and they and Sparna have more or less gravitated to one another. A couple of them were in the Frozen Spike last night and I overheard them talking to Sparna, but I played dumb. For one, I\u2019ve learned not to tip my hand just to show off, and two, I didn\u2019t want to butt in on their conversation. And I suppose there\u2019s a three, as well: people talk pretty candidly when they don\u2019t think you can understand them. You never know what you might hear.<\/span><\/p>\n Ameiko, Qatana, and I spent the afternoon together and, predictably, it descended into mischief. I like a little mischief now and then, and the three of us were pretty good at it when we were kids. There was this one time, back before Qatana\u2026well, back <\/span>before, <\/span><\/i>so I must have been 9 or 10 years old. The Flinch brothers had this horse and they were obviously not taking care of it and she was very upset. We came up with this crazy scheme to liberate it without it being obvious that it had been taken. Qatana spent <\/span>days<\/span><\/i> making an enormous fake cocoon, and one night\u2014anyway, it was so brazen and ridiculous that it made sense only to a kid, but amazingly, it <\/span>worked<\/span><\/i>. Well, it worked long enough for the horse to find a new home far away from Sandpoint, which was good enough.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, we visited a little shrine to Desna that was tended by a druid. I was a good girl, and did not burst out laughing when Qatana asked, \u201cWould you mind if we erected a small tribute to Groetus behind the temple?\u201d If you want to really catch someone off guard, that\u2019s a pretty good opening line. From that moment on, I was on board with her idea.<\/span><\/p>\n Qatana\u2019s formal religious education may have stopped a few years ago, but mine has not. Some random druid was not going to win a theological debate with me, and they relented in short order. \u201cJust make sure it\u2019s <\/span>far<\/span><\/i> behind. Maybe on the other side of that pond over there?\u201d That was a little extreme, of course, but I didn\u2019t want to upset Desna, either, so I chose a respectful distance for my task: making an ice sculpture of a grinning skull.<\/span><\/p>\n Side note: it\u2019s really hard to do that when you\u2019re fighting fits of hysterics.<\/span><\/p>\n W<\/span><\/p>\n e started the climb to the Ovorikheer Pass today. This whole area is geothermally active and it just smells terrible. We had to navigate the fumarole fields of Baruun\u2019s Breath carefully to avoid being overcome by the fumes.<\/span><\/p>\n Radella unpacked what looked like a portable alchemy lab and spent much of the evening extracting chemicals from the hot springs near our camp. It\u2019s the sort of thing Etayne would have done.<\/span><\/p>\n When she was finished, she had four vials of what looked like three different substances.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you end up with?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSulfuric acid, arsenic, and cyanide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I am sorry I asked.<\/span><\/p>\n E<\/span><\/p>\n veryone\u2019s pretty shaken up, including me. Gods! Two <\/span>enormous<\/span><\/i> spiders, the biggest I\u2019ve ever seen, hit our caravan. We didn\u2019t even see them until they were practically on top of us. How do you miss something that big? How do you miss <\/span>two<\/span><\/i> of them?<\/span><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t even think. One of them was bearing down on Ameiko\u2019s wagon and I just started dumping everything I had on it. When it backed off, I turned to the other and didn\u2019t stop until it was engulfed in flames.<\/span><\/p>\n The others had to intervene to keep me from incinerating it. Why? Because they wanted to harvest its venom. Again, sorry I asked.<\/span><\/p>\n Olmas went down during the skirmish, barely clinging to life. Sparna, too. We were mere seconds from disaster.<\/span><\/p>\n People are giving me that <\/span>look<\/span><\/i>. Especially Sparna. What do you want me to say? What did you expect me to do? They were gods-be-damned <\/span>spiders<\/span><\/i> the size of a <\/span>whale.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n What part of this don\u2019t people understand?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\nAbadius 3 (Path of Aganhei, The Crown of the World, Noon)<\/h3>\n
Abadius 6 (The Path of Aganhei, The Crown of the World, Evening)<\/h3>\n
Abadius 9 (Ul-Angorn, Night)<\/h3>\n
Abadius 10 (Ul-Angorn, Evening)<\/h3>\n
Abadius 14 (Ovorikheer Pass, Evening)<\/h3>\n
Abadius 15 (Domagalki Forest, Midday)<\/h3>\n