Crystal Caverns

I was a bit nervous. Wood Elves seem to be fairly simple and they aren't usually known for their bravery but this man seemed quite an adventurer. He confirmed that he had been there before and described it as a labyrinth of mines under the ice, filled with orcs but also dwarves who have lived there in isolation for centuries. I couldn't help but be intrigued.

I realised that Talthinar was a druid, a large community of priests who draw strength and power from nature. They are a bit odd really but I recalled that Atouraia had been very helpful and I suspected it was he who told Talthinar of my mission to fish around the world. It was only a moment before I nodded and asked him to take me with him.

He used the same ancient ritual as Atouraia had to transport us to the Great Divide, from where we were to travel to this place on foot. It seems I am spending much time in the north and I am glad for the warm woolen clothes I ordered from Halas. We ran light-footed across the snow-drifts, feet barely touching the ground, until a large stone building appeared on the horizon.

"We must be careful here," said Talthinar. "There are orcs who will try to prevent us from entering the mines."

He muttered some incantations and disappeared.

"Talthinar?"

He reappeared in front of me and waved his hand in front of my face. I could feel my eyes tingle. Then he repeated the incantations but this time I could still see him, although if I didn't stare directly at him he seemed to shimmer and fade.

"Follow me closely and don't stop running."

We ran straight past the orcish guards and into the large courtyard but to my surprise there was no shout of alarm; we were allowed to pass unmolested by those foul beasts. Talthinar quickly lead us to a small building with a glowing crystal ball in the centre. On his command I put my hands on the ball when suddenly damp rock surrounded me and I found myself in a dark corridor: we were in the caverns.

Talthinar led me around the first corner where an orc stood staring straight through us. The caverns opened up into a network of stone bridges.

"Now, jump!"
"What?" This did not seem sensible to me.
"Don't look! Just jump!" He ran off the edge of the bridge.

I closed my eyes and stepped forward and ... floated. I opened my eyes. We were in a large underground pit, the walls studded with crystals. Orcs stood on ledges seemingly unconcerned as we sunk past them. The ground seemed a long way away but I felt as light as a feather and I stared wide eyed around me as I gently fell towards the bottom. Finally my feet touched the ground. Talthinar waved at me from a nearby tunnel and I rushed to him.

"Quickly," he said, "before the orcs realise we are here."

We ran through a frozen tunnel, the temperature dropping dramatically, and turned a corner where I skidded to a stop. A stone fortress stood before us! Talthinar had told the truth, there was an entire community of dwarves here in the depths of the cavern.

The dwarves were not particularly communicative. The guard told me not to be getting any funny ideas and even accused me of looking Orcish! I disdained to speak to them after that but Talthinar persevered and managed to find out that they were the survivors of Froststone, an ancient Coldain city destroyed by the giants. My curiousity got the better of me and I mentioned Thurgadin but there did not seem to be any interest in anything I said. Talthinar did ask about recipes on my behalf and was told that there was a dwarf by the name of Praps Gemshard who held the recipes of this community. Perhaps a fellow baker will be more forthcoming.

We agreed to go fishing first and then Talthinar would take me to meet this dwarf and hopefully find new recipes to experiment with.

I followed him through the dwarven enclave and into a corridor where Talthinar stopped and asked me not to be frightened, which obviously had the effect of frightening me.

"I call upon Tunare to send a Guardian to protect us!"

I cowered back as Talthinar flung his arms towards the sky and in a shimmer of light a bear appeared.

As if to reassure me, the bear turned towards Talthinar and nuzzled his hand.

"He is tame," said Talthinar. "His name is Spike. He will protect you while you fish."

I thought Talthinar said he would protect me, not some wild beast! But wood elf and bear had already continued down the icy corridor. I ran to catch up and found them at an open area with a crack in the ice and a bridge running across frigid water. There was a fantastical creature there, almost conical with multipe waving tentacles which Spike immediately dashed at and clawed to death. Talthinar only smiled and bid me to fish.

I stood at the water's edge wishing I'd brought a cushion to sit down on, and cast my rod. The bear was ferocious, mincing the terrors on the ice around us and then bounding back to Talthinar's side without a scratch. He seemed a loyal companion although I was even more nervous having seen what he was like unleashed. Talthinar seemed very matter-of-fact about it though, so eventually I managed to stop staring at the bear and concentrate on the task at hand.

The water seemed fresh and clear but I caught no fish. I was beginning to believe our trip was in vain when I noticed a large amount of fish scales floating near me.

"Do you think..." I paused as the bear went chasing after another terror. "Do you think something could be in the water? I'm sure there are fish in these waters but I can not see or catch any..."

To my shock, Talthinar immediately dove into the water.

"Well," I mumbled to the bear, "if there were fish, they've definitely scattered now. Is he always so impulsive?"

Spike stared at the water, no doubt watching for his master.

Amid much splashing Talthinar returned to the surface and scrambled onto the ice with an evil looking thing behind him, it appeared to be some sort of cross between a fish and a dragon! Spike dashed towards it and quickly subdued it while Talthinar dried himself off.

"Velium Crawler," he said in a terse voice. "That will have been why you couldn't find any fish."

I shivered to think of such a thing at the end of my line but Talthinar had been so brave that I was almost embarrassed. I pretended it was the cold and cast again.

The water had already settled and it was only moments before a long fish with bulging eyes appeared on my line! A crystalline cave fish! I quickly caught another half dozen which I wrapped up and bid Talthinar to lead me back to the fortress.

We found the dwarf named Praps but he was outright rude to me, accusing me of having ruined my own lands and telling me to get lost! I was about to give him a piece of my mind when Talthinar interjected and began asking about local recipes. The dwarf seemed to calm down although I don't see why they should get away with being so rude to visitors! I'm sure he's never even seen the beautiful valleys of Misty!

At any rate, the conversation was not very enlightening. The "typical" recipes of the dwarves are the same traditional recipes that you find above land, there seems to have been no interest in experimentation here. According to Praps, the fish here were simply inedible, and although he cited recipes that seemed remarkably similar to those of Captain Rohand which have been passed around for generations he had never actually eaten seafood.

I was disinclined to share the fish rolls I keep in my pack as he had been so rude to me. As far as I am concerned, they can stick with their rations and rot in this damn set of stones they call a fortress. Talthinar delivered me back to the Plane of Knowledge where I used a public oven to try to bake the fish we had caught, but to my annoyance the dwarf appears to have been right, every dish I attempted ended up spoiled and in the end I threw the entire batch away.

Still, other than the dwarves it was an exciting trip and I was impressed to have met such a brave wood elf. Perhaps they aren't all quite as simple minded as they seem.