Kytitia's Katalogue: Kold Kompany (Winter Event RP Musings)

The snow leopardess, Kytitia Pyrrithia, paced around the guild house at her home, Mithril's Bastion, with numerous scrolls of papyrus and stone tablets stacked in neat piles, all carved in her paw with an elegant script. Most of the Gifted (and non-Gifted for that matter) of the Realm of Order well knew where to find her and they were also aware that she had more or less taken a lead position in investigating the nature of the recent deep freeze. She was, after all, the unparalleled, premiere Sorceror of the realm too, so it was only natural that one with both her talent and knowledge investigate such a thing!

While it was true that she quite enjoyed the cold snap, given that she was a Snow Leopard, or snow-mew, as she called herself, even she had limits on how much she could endure. It wasn't too bad for her just yet, the blizzards had only just started blowing in naught but a day or two past.

In the middle of her home, there was a large shimmering, crimson crystal, about her size, secured within a 'bracket' of marble and mithril. It seemed to be pulsing with a resonating ripple of pink magic, which anyone versed in at least a small amount of magic could tell was of the mind-type.

She paced around her home, talking out loud and the crystal would shimmer and pulse, as if it were recording everything she said even as she wrote things down upon the countless shards and papyrus sheets around the house.

"It is now the 23rd Rising of Yranuja, the weather around Istaria seems to be growing more and more hostile and colder, not outside of my tolerance yet, of course, but its starting to have a noticeable effect on those of the Living Races that aren't nearly as well-adapted to the cold as I am. Of course, I'm not completely immune to its clutches either, but I'm still comfortable. Since, about two or three days ago, roughly, intense blizzards embraced the lands and even Dralk itself and the volcanic regions have succumbed to the cold and snow, though, the lava flows haven't frozen yet, which still means that those regions are the warmest. I've noticed that even smelters in varying areas have frozen over and have had to thaw out a few myself, quite the inconvenience!"

She turned away from the crystal and lifted up two of her many marked upon papyrus sheets, "I've taken it upon myself to help lead investigations into these occurrences, but the leads we have had are few. This unnatural weather has been going on since about... roughly the 21st Rising of last Cedeberm and about two weeks ago, the deserts succumbed to the cold and snow. Before that though, all of the warmer regions in our land resisted the cold and snow, but those more temperate did not. As the time passed on, more and more of our land has been consumed by this intense and sudden, what I'm calling, 'Frost Binding'."

She made her way over to some stone tablets that also had writings and etchings, after setting down her sheets of papyrus, "At first, I thought it as merely a... surprising winter storm that would quickly blow over, as did many of the Gifted, although we were quite surprised to see new... odd creatures, like mimics masquerading as gift boxes. The treants themselves though, I think were the first to feel the bite of the cold and reacted aggressively, perhaps feeling that those who had 'invaded' their lands brought this on. There have been more than a few casualties of those... less fortunate, who do not possess the Gift, but an equal number of Gifted have been slain by these enraged creatures. I wasn't too concerned about the treants, however, as they did not appear to be of the blighted kind that first attacked a number of years ago when I was still in training. These seem to be the regular treants, although enraged, of course, so I do not anticipate that the Aegis could have motivated or somehow convinced them to attack."

She set the tablets down, moved to another table, and lifted both a scroll and a tablet, "We first began to really worry about conditions when the deserts froze over and succumbed to the ever-intensifying cold. As for myself, I still didn't see too much to worry about and considered perhaps this was just a year where the weather patterns would be acting a little more oddly. The occasional, bad winter storm has blown through our realm before, of course, and there are areas that are constantly scoured by blizzards as well."

She turned back to the shimmering, pulsing crystal and walked towards it, where she set down the scroll and tablet, then pulled out a book and began thumbing through its pages, "However, because of the growing nervousness of the Gifted around the time the deserts froze over, I began looking into investigating the situation. I've talked with the gnomes both at Winter Vale and in New Rachival itself, but even their miraculously genius minds cannot seem to comprehend this odd weather. I also spoke with an Ancient or two, looking to see if they still had their star charts from their Ancient Rites of Passage. I was fortunate enough to find some that did and proceeded to review the star charts with the Gnomian Rachival Research Labs... or whatever their little organization is called... I tend to forget that, after all, I don't REALLY dabble too much with the 'science' aspect of things, although I am an accomplished Tinkerer. My studies focus mostly on the arcane nature of things with an equal representation of the mystic nature of things. I like to think of myself as an authority on magic, given both my natural prowess with it and my ability to wield and manipulate it to do things thought to be impossible."

She walked over to a bookshelf while reading the book, "I digress, however. Well, that's probably to be expected, I am a Saris after all! At any rate, a few days ago, after these blizzards started blowing through our lands, I felt it best for me to seek the aid of the rest of the Gifted. I don't know how many have actually considered researching this phenomenon, but it seems I postulated many theories that none of the ones I spoke with had considered already... so, I guess that goes to show that perhaps not all of them are taking this nearly as seriously as they should be, though there are a few who seem to be doing so."

She placed the book on the shelf and returned to the largest pile of scrolls in the Guild House, "I've written down all my theories and postulations so that I can keep track of them. Among the many theories I have postulated, or have had presented to me, include: acts of the Aegis and certain factions, magical overflow at places of power, though... on a flip side, a magical shortage at places of power, Gifted experimentation, natural phenomena, imbalances between the planes of magic and existence, disturbances at the Towers of Power, and weakening of the Artifacts of Magic and Power. In order to attempt to find out if any of these could be the case, I assembled two teams of Gifted to investigate two particular theories that seemed to pull to me the strongest. The first being an act of the 'Winter Faction' of the Aegis, led by Gruk the Frigid, I believe. The second being perhaps influenced by those of the Northern Faction, the 'Ritual Undead' consisting of Seliena and those that follow her and Lem the Cold. My idea was to attempt to capture and interrogate those of said factions, hoping to avoid a battle to the death as is wont to happen between us Gifted and the Aegis. I felt that perhaps they may be able to provide some sort of information upon this subject. Unfortunately, neither group was successful in either capturing, or finding those we wanted to interrogate. How odd for them to be... gone at a time like this, it only made my suspicions feel more founded..."

She pulled out a few of the scrolls and laid them out upon the tables she'd had set up near the pulsing crystal, "Today, however, something... quite unexpected occurred... General Sarsilas herself approached us and demanded to know why we would do such a thing as plunge the world into an eternal winter. Needless to say, a number of us were quite surprised to learn that even the Aegis were worried about this 'Frost Binding'." She paused for a moment and looked quite pleased at herself, "Though, funny thing... I think I managed to get a little more information out of Sarsilas than what she might have expected to give, but I'll get to that in a moment."

She shuffled the scrolls aside as she pulled two more from the pile behind her table, "At any rate and with the willingness of the present Gifted to not attack Sarsilas, given the fact that she wasn't aggressive towards us, though she still maintained that sinister demeanor to her, we were able to question her. Of course, this also means that we had to share some of our information with her as well. One of the things I learned about this cold snap is that it could actually be quite detrimental to the Withered Aegis, in fact, equally so as to those of the Living Races. Much as I would LOVE to see them suffer... considering what they did to my parents and me so long ago..." Her paws clenched and her expression darkened before she pounded the table and accidentally burned part of it, though thankfully not her scrolls.

She took a moment to catch her breath and closed her eyes, relaxing herself, "Keep it together Kyt... focus..." She sighed and rubbed her temples as if she were trying to block out a terrible memory and experience, "Back to the topic... we already know there's multiple factions within the Aegis and we did learn that Sarsilas is with the 'Plague Faction', meaning she answers to General Reklar Plaguebearer himself. I suggested to her that perhaps it could be one of the Aegis' factions, such as the Winter Faction's actions, but she didn't seem to agree with that, though she did admit to there being faction-to-faction tensions, which is good to know, if you ask me. She did say that each faction does work to achieve one, ultimate goal... The domination, blighting, and subjugation of any world they enter, but that they don't agree on how to go about pursuing that goal."

She put away two of the four scrolls she had out and pulled out two more, "I attempted to learn if perhaps any of the Aegis' Allies, such as the Kwellens, Vexators, Hounds, Mylocs and others might have shifted their views and goals and be willing to turn on the Aegis as a whole, but she avoided answering the question, which leads me to suspect that such a thing is perhaps not entirely impossible. Her mention of the faction-to-faction tensions also seem to support this suspicion as well. Nevertheless, she did appear to seem quite confident that none of those that serve the Aegis would consider using magic other than that of the blight type to destroy a world, though... I did notice some hesitation as well, which means... perhaps it isn't entirely impossible that a faction within the Aegis MIGHT be willing to use other types of magic to forward their agenda."

She tapped her parchments with her stylus as she continued to compile her thoughts, "Sarsilas, mentioned that she suspects that there may well be a third party responsible for this 'Frost Binding', which gave me an idea. I suggested that perhaps a rupture between the Plane of Ice and the Plane of the Prime could have taken place. One of the other dragons present, Zarnec, I believe, asked about the possibility of an Ice Portal, similar to the Aegis' Blight Portals. Sarsilas told us a bit how Blight Portals work as well, though, it didn't seem to be too far off from what everyone contemplated. She suggested that perhaps it wouldn't be entirely unreasonable for such a thing to happen, although she also admitted to not knowing of any sentient or living things on the Plane of Ice, though... I'm not too surprised there, she is, after all, from the Plane of Blight and generally the Planes don't interact with each other unless by some machination."

She wrote down a few notes on one of the sheets of papyrus, "This led me to believe that perhaps there is some technology, somewhere, that might be used to cause this situation. Of course, most of this is all conjecture, but for the sake of argument, the General did agree to treat the situation as if neither side had done anything, which gives us a sort of partly neutral ground to stand upon and gives us a 'Common Foe' and 'Mutual Interest' to see this situation resolved. After all, neither side wants to be removed from existence and we surely don't want the other to conquer the world. Zarnec, foolishly, I feel, called this 'cooperation' an 'alliance' but I corrected him and affirmed that its not a true alliance, more of a coalition that is mutually threatened by this situation. Either way, I feel we do have to get their help to cover more ground in an attempt to find the culprit."

"I have no illusions that this will be a VERY temporary arrangement and I told Sarsilas that I feel it best for their own agents to search in their own lands and at their outposts. We Gifted hold no illusions that the Aegis aren't friendly and certainly wouldn't pass up the chance to smish a few Gifted, or non-Gifted for that matter, if they run across us. I also told the General that should it appear that those small patrols that are dispatched get out of line, we would quickly send them back to the Aegis in pieces. I also told her that we fully expect them to do the same if we cross too far into their lands as well. In conclusion, however, I did give her a number of rolls of parchment to take notes upon of anything important that their agents find and requested for them to be written in Common Tongue for us to more readily process them with speed and efficiency. She accepted the rolls, but made it clear that she and the Aegis, by no means plan to stop what they do in their attempts to conquer the world. Not that any of those present were very surprised by this, but it only further supports the feeling that this is a very temporary situation."

She looked up as she finalized a scroll and wrote on another, "After Sarsilas departed, I suggested to those present that we might want to investigate at places of Ice's power, such as the Mage's Tower, Tower of Sorcery, and the Tower of Summoning. If anything relating to this 'Frost Binding' comes from the towers... those would be our best bets to investigate, as well as the areas in which our Artifacts of Magic stand guard against the Blight. Unfortunately, I've been too busy to get too much done on this research myself... I'm only one Saris, after all. It'll take everything we...and the Aegis has to get to the root of this problem. Hopefully, we find more answers soon."

She finished her writing and rolled up the scroll before settling into a chair, looking at the shimmering crystal, "You'd better have caught all that, you know. I wouldn't be happy if you didn't." In response, the gemstone pulsed a few times and began playing back everything she'd just said to it, at least, until she waved her paws and cut it off, "Yes, yes, I know you got it all, I still have to make sure you do so! Why did I never get Memni to make me one of you sooner?" She pulled out one of her books from the still-large pile stacked near her chair, "Well, I'd better keep doing research on this... Those Gnomes better make me a member of their Research Assistant team after all this..."

Once more, the Snow Leopardess was in her Guild House, speaking to the crimson crystal in the middle of her home as she paced back and forth, nibbling on her stylus while occasionally writing something upon a sheet of papyrus.

"I'm still working on gathering and compiling information upon the strange nature of the Frost Binding. The weather seems to have stabilized with constant blizzards now and every inch of the land is buried in snow, save for that which belongs to the Aegis, according to details I'd collected from General Sarsilas and personal investigation. Rivers and even the oceans have begun freezing as well, though they are not yet entirely frozen over. It's amusing to see dragons and bipeds curling up against each other to share and preserve warmth."

She chuckled and shook her head, "Even the Lunus themselves seem to be willing to accept the closeness of some bipeds as well. It kind of makes me wonder how those that fully embraced the Lunus ideal, like Saphire from long ago, would be reacting to this situation. Would they even accept curling together now? The blizzards are even blowing through some parts of dragon lairs and we bipeds are keeping our doors and windows closed to preserve warmth. I fear the conditions will only worsen until even those like myself that are adapted to the cold will suffer gravely if this matter is not dealt with soon." She rolled up the scroll she'd been writing on, made her way back to the large pile of scrolls at the back of her home and pulled out a new scroll, which she carried over to her desk and began writing upon it.

"I've developed a new theory over the past few days, based off the process of elimination after taking into account some of what General Sarsilas told me. I've only finalized it today and I fear it could potentially be a world-devastating one if it proves to be correct, so I feel I must take note of it and catalogue it. If you recall, I'd spoken with both the gnomes of the Astronomy Institute in New Rachival and Ancients that have opened the Gate of Embers to enter the Void." She paused for a moment to stretch out her paw, likely cramped up from all the writing she'd been doing recently.

She continued writing on the scroll as she spoke, "It would fall in line with at least one or two of my other theories and from all the information I have been able to compile, it may well be the most promising, perhaps even a critical lead. Of course, this depends upon the theory of a Planar Rupture being true. Nevertheless, I've followed along that line of thinking and it seems quite practical to me, as well as the Gnomes and Ancient Dragons I've spoken with already."

She tapped the stylus upon her desk and dipped it into her inkwell once more before continuing to write, "This would also fall in line with my theory that perhaps the Artifacts of Power and Magic, as well as the Towers might be involved too. After careful examination and observation, I noticed that each of the Towers of Power, both friendly and un-friendly, have intense magic that suffuses them, as well as an aura that encompasses all the magical aspects of each tower. To illustrate an example, the Tower of Magery resonates with every known aspect of Arcane Magic, meaning Energy, Flame, Ice, Summoning, and Mind and also has an aura to it that pulses with the power of each magical aspect of it... always changing, never the same. Another example would be the Tower of Spirits, which pulses with the power of Spirit and Blight and also incorporates an aura similar to the Tower of Magery. The trend holds the same for each Tower."

She paused for a moment and shook her head, "The un-friendly towers are a little more difficult to read. Well, the Aegis ones in particular. I have noticed the most potent magic at the Tower of Atta'nuk in the Staging Grounds, The Tower of the Aegis Temple, just south of the Tower of Bonds, Dusk Tower, and of course, The Tower of Bonds itself. The tower not controlled by the Aegis, the Tower of Abbathes, does, however, radiate an affinity to ice as well and seems to be like some sort of 'holy ground of power' for the pygmies and ogres of the frost, snow, and ice tribes."

She re-wetted her stylus once more and shifted the scroll up a bit so she'd have more space to continue writing, "This brings me to my next point... or theory, rather. Considering the fact that General Sarsilas couldn't think of anyone except perhaps Gruk the Frigid that could wield power with Ice, she seemed to feel that even Gruk couldn't pull off something like this. This leads me to feel that its not magic alone that is doing this. There has to be some sort of machine, or device that channeled immense magical energy to cause a rupture between the planes and that it had to somehow, have drawn power from the Towers of Sorcery, Magery, and Summoning, perhaps even the very Towers that are under Aegis control as well. Not to mention the power of the Artifacts as well."

She hesitated for a moment before continuing her monologue, "After performing numerous calculations at the New Rachival Research Institute, I've come to the conclusion that it could very well be possible for such a thing to happen through the use of the Artifacts' and the Towers' combined magic. The Towers can feasibly channel not just the power of the Artifacts of Magic and Power, but of the Aegis Ensorcelment machines. If the right constellation 'keys' are used, one could channel this immense energy to unlock the 'gates' to whichever realm that would be targeted, in this case, the Ice Plane. I get the impression that should this theory prove correct... and information of it got into the wrong paws... it could be detrimental to the entirety of our world and many others." She paused again as she closed her eyes and sensed to make sure her 'muffling' spells were still in effect, just to be on the safe side, not that she expected anyone to be near and of course, only someone with the power over mind as potent as hers could potentially penetrate them, not that there were many that actually COULD compare to her skill and most Aegis Sorcerors that had ever challenged her had been understandably crippled and destroyed. Never could be too safe, after all!

"I'm understandably reluctant to share this information with the General, but I'd need to figure out a way to say it a bit differently, like how she worded her responses to me when she responded evasively to me. Which brings me to another matter and speaking of said General, she made another appearance today. She passed me a scroll and informed me that their agents in the North and the West conducted sweeps of their lands, but found nothing of importance. They'd not yet managed to search all through their Eastern territories at the time, given the large expanse of that particular territory. There was a bit of conflict when I arrived as well, but fortunately, perhaps my arrival stopped anything too major from happening. At the time of Sarsilas' appearance, however, I'd not yet finalized my theory and about the Towers and Artifacts of Magic and Power, therefore I did not share them, although, understandably, I'm a bit glad that I had not at the time. As I said, I'm rather reluctant to share that information with one such as her..."

She set aside the scroll and looked at a tablet, "Zarnec did indeed work on those communication devices he mentioned though, but he also gave a crystal that looks... suspiciously similar to the very one I have in my home. He made a comment about it being an 'explosive surprise' for Sarsilas, but considering his... erratic behavior and his particular fascination with the General, I fully suspect that something more foul is at play. I have two theories on this matter... First, its one of those communication devices which he could use to pass vital information to the Aegis, acting as a double agent. The second is that its a memory crystal containing information from his alien world that the Aegis could put into use against us."

She etched a few more things on her tablet as she spoke, "I do recall him saying that he was a bit of a 'scientist' and that in itself makes me nervous. Unfortunately, he recalled before I could try to stop him and question him further about the nature of the device he'd handed her. I will pursue this matter and get the truth from him, either by force or persuasion. If it comes to it... I'll strip his mind for the information we need. I will not stand to let a double agent have free reign. It is completely illogical that any firework could faze or harm one as powerful as Sarsilas. Therefore, after both his and Sarsilas' departure, Romirez and I decided that we'll be paying extra close attention to Zarnec. Neither of us trusts him and that friendliness he's trying to foster with an Aegis General is only going to lead to more trouble. Especially after considering the fact that he's already attacked a hatchling after he'd been visited by the General."

"Others have speculated that perhaps he was under mind control and while that may be true, I'll need to do extensive research to learn specifically, what may have been done to him so that I can develop means to protect against it as well as protect other Gifted or Non-Gifted from this influence. To be honest, I'm not too surprised that the Aegis General would still try to use subterfuge and sabotage in an attempt to harm and weaken us during these troubling times. We'll need to watch them even more carefully." The Saris finalized the tablet and set it aside as she sat into her chair and rubbed her temples. So much was going on and she was only ONE Saris! Admittedly, the task before her was quite intimidating.

She quickly pulled out another piece of papyrus and wrote down a list, "Continue research into Frost Binding, monitor Zarnec, monitor Sarsilas, and develop means to protect the Gifted and Non-Gifted from mind manipulation. Having a list always helps keep things organized. The question is... which to work on the most?" She mused as she set the stylus down and reclined in her chair. She tapped the shimmering crystal and it pulsed once or twice and then went dim, she was done cataloguing for the night and certainly needed to get some rest!

The Snow Leopardess reclined in a chair at the table near her Memory Crystal while writing upon a thick piece of parchment as she spoke out loud, once more having the crystal record all of her findings.

"It is now the Twelfth Rising of Yferuba. My research has continued and the conditions have only gotten worse, far more worse than I could EVER have imagined, but I'll elaborate on that in a moment. There's a lot of new information I would like to catalogue, but needless to say, all my research with the New Rachival Research Institute hasn't been proven in vain."

"First things first though, the cold has even started bothering my kittens and I, despite the fact that we are normally well-adapted to cold climates. If you recall fighting against the Giant Ice Beetles in Glacier Canyons or the gargantuan Trudgers on the Isle of Ice, you'd recall their jaws are like the bite of icy daggers piercing into you, chilling you to the bone. The blizzards and cold winds are like that now. To take care of my kittens, in particular, Kytali, since she likes to wear nothing save the sash she'd made from Reklar's scales long ago, I've modified scrolls of fire shield to create a sort of cloak and barrier against the cold to help clothe and protect her."

"I have been working to be able to release these in quantity to the public, though, to be honest, this was more a sort of experimentation with me using Kytali as my first test subject. Since her draconic half is far more dominant than Kylisha's, I felt that it would be better to test it upon her, given her higher flame tolerance. These new fire shields incorporate both ice resistance and ice ward runes on top of the protective, damaging aspects of a regular scroll of flame shield while also generating and holding in heat to keep the user warm as long as they last. I'm thankful I've studied so much about crafting and magic that I can make bold jumps and discoveries like these to use for the betterment of the Living Races. I'll be offering some of these scrolls to a few who might be willing to try anything to keep warm and if they work, I'm sure I'll be able to release them in a much larger quantity, perhaps even enough to keep everyone warm while we work to end the Frost Binding. Of course, that's just a little note of interest before I get into the more... relevant details of this catalogue."

She rolled her shoulders and stretched out for a moment before changing out her sheets of papyrus, "Now, to the meat of the matter. Like I said in previous catalogues, I've been working closely with the Rachival Astronomy Center and Ancients that have an understanding of finding constellations to open gates to other realms. There's been a remarkable break through, but I won't cover all that just yet. You see, I needed to perform further tests and studies to try to validate and authenticate my theories, particularly the ones about the possible planar ruptures. In my research as well as through some firstpaw and secondpaw accounts of events and occurrences, I was able to help the Research Institute, with the help of some Helian Scholars and Ancients, determine that something quite similar to my theory of the planar rupture was actually occuring."

She set the sheet down, lowered her chair to the floor, stepped out, got up, and then pulled out a tome that had the Imperial Seal upon it, which contained the information that all the agencies and her had compiled of their findings. She returned to her chair, opened it, and began reading with one paw and writing more notes on the sheet that she'd set down, "To verify this, we found and identified the constellations that resonate to the Plane of Ice and used them to track its location. The Research and Astronomy Institutes, the Helian Scholars, and myself found that there are times that the planes can... overlap, or 'pass by' each other and thus start to influence or wreak havoc on each other. Of course, we had to develop devices that could be used to accomplish this 'tracking' feature. As such, the Empire's foremost Tinkerers and the Institute's researchers worked together to create it. Unfortunately, we do not yet have the means to make a self-propelled version of this, so a Helian Ancient volunteered to carry the device high above the blanket of icy clouds shrouding our world."

She paused for a moment as she changed out the sheet again to continue writing as she read the book, "After an extended flight, the dragon returned, albeit chilled and frostbitten. I did what I could to mend his extremities, to at least make him a little more comfortable, but couldn't really do too much else at the time, as the information he brought was just a bit more important to us at the time. I'll need to visit him and check on his condition, hopefully the healers were able to help him, but if not, I'll offer to use my blood magic to fully heal him. At any rate, that's getting a little off topic... He told us that he was not alone up there and that something else was manipulating ice magic and that there was some outside means being used to connect the realms, which only served to confirm that my theory that an opening between realms for interaction cannot happen without some sort of outside force."

She tapped her stylus and dipped it into ink before resuming her writing, "To further explore this... connection between realms, my daughter, Kylisha, volunteered to help me and ventured into the Fiery Rift. She noticed that some areas in the Fiery Rift were being affected by the overlapping and proximity of the Plane of Ice. After she returned to me, I decided to go there myself and validated this as well. Further, I asked the Ancient dragoness, Niomira, to take a look in the Void Rift as well to see if there were any parallels between the three realms and it appears that there are. The Plane of Ice is now oriented in such a manner that it is influencing the Plane of the Void as well as the Plane of Fire in addition to the realm of the Prime."

"Currently the Empire and the Research Institute, as well as the Helian Scholars and myself are working collecting more information on who and what could be causing this. We suspect that it may well be something quite alien to our world. We are working on gathering capable Gifted to prepare to battle this, should it prove to be a hostile threat. Considering the gravity of the situation, we fully expect to meet with hostile force. In all my years in Istaria, I fear this may actually be the most grave threat we have ever faced, aside from the Aegis."

She slid the sheet down so she could continue writing, "Unfortunately, we have not heard much from Sarsilas or her agents, thus, I fear that the Aegis may have been observing us and preparing a surprise of their own. I'm hoping that if it comes to a fight with denizens of the Aegis and creatures from the Plane of Ice... that either the Aegis don't attack or they help us. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if they just sat back and let us get worn down, then moved in to attack us when we were weakened and tired. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for any trouble they'll be causing, until then, I'll continue to focus on my studies and research into the Frost Binding as well as refining the scrolls I've developed." She pushed back her chair and set the scroll aside to let it dry before tapping the gemstone and turning it off.