Arriving in Caer-Dineval, exhausted and hurt, our adventures hole up in the Uphill Climb. There they meet the paladin, Dezith, who’s kind enough to heal their wounds and let them share his room. The town is at its bleakest – boarded up shops and empty houses. The inn has little comfort to offer – a simple meal of bread and fish soup.

“I’ve been here a couple of days. There’s something not right at the castle. Perhaps you could help me check it out.”

Lucas relates the story he heard from Cora in Bremen – her son went missing in the Tundra and returned a few days later, changed, and wearing an odd crystal amulet. He began acting difficultly and eventually left with two tieflings, heading for a castle somewhere. Perhaps he’d find him, Huarwar his name, at the castle. At the very least he could report back to Cora that he’s alive.

The next morning, the party set off up the bluff to the castle. It’s closed up, but there are torches burning on the circular turrets. They stand outside the large, closed wooden doors, portcullises visible through them. Veomileana sends his owl to investigate – signs of activity, footprints in the snow, but no-one visible. They shout out.

“We’re seeking an audience with the speaker!”

“Speaker Crannoc Siever is too sick to entertain guests.” A voice from the guardhouse above the gates.

“We can help – we travel with one skilled in the art of healing.”

“Speaker Crannoc Siever has no need for your heathen rituals… er… hold on… I have received instructions that you are to be admitted and am to pass on the message that we are delighted to have such an esteemed author visit us.”

“Author?” asks Veomileana, looking around the group.

“He means me.” replies Eifira. “I’ll explain later. For now, let’s get inside”

Doors swing open and portcullis lifts. The party is free to enter the castle. They’re in a courtyard, footprints in the snow speak to recent activity, as does the sound of dogs barking and whelping from a small outhouse. Abandoned marketstalls on one side though, say something different. All is not as it should be here. Ahead of them large double doors leading inside to the keep.

Entering the keep, they meet the servant girl Merl who guides them through to see Throob, a minor functionary, who in turn arranges for them to see Kadroth. A tall, old distinguished tiefling greets them in what may have been the speaker’s old office.

“Ah, the author! I’m told to give you the run of the place. Terrific work. Please make yourselves at home and accept the hospitality of the Black Swords. Do stay away from locked doors though.”

“We’d like to speak to Huarwar.”

“Be my guest, he’s in the guard tower. There’s no compulsion here. Everyone here of their own free will”

The party head to the gate-house. Still no escort. They’re either confident or short-staffed. Eifira tells them about the book she wrote: “I discovered a group of nobles in Waterdeep were making pacts with the devil Asmodeus. When I published it, they sent people to kill me. I escaped and that’s why I’m here.”

“Interesting” Veomilea says. “There is more going on here than we thought. Did you see the amulets they were wearing. I suspect this has something to do with it.”

In the gatehouse they find Huarwar and Fel. Huarwar reacts not at all to the news of his mother’s grief. He is to stay here. “Levistus saved me from death, and now I owe him a bond.”

Dezith grabs at Fel’s amulet. “Hey. I need that back.” The party wait for a change to happen in her, some indication of a spell broken but it doesn’t come. “When Levistus saved us, gave us another chance at life, he gave us these amulets to seal the bond.” It’s not yours to take.

Veomilea examines the amulet, it’s magical but not of a type he can readily ascertain. It feels off, desecrated. He returns it to Fel. “You should speak to Hethyl, she sees the future and she’s been in the Black Swords longer than anyone. In the keep, upstairs”

As the party return in search of Hethyl, they encounter Merl the serving girl in the courtyard. She doesn’t have an amulet. She tells them that all she wants to do is get out from under Zadroth’s thumb. “Promise you’ll set me free. There is evil in this place. A wizard has taken up residence below the castle – there’s a trapdoor in the northwest tower. Just promise you’ll take me with you.”

The party decide to visit the elder. Behind a locked door upstairs, swiftly destroyed with an explosive ice freeze to the lock, they come across an old dwarf, rocking in a chair.

“I’ve been expecting you. I guess it’s nearly time. I have a message from Levistus for you before I join him in the Nine Hells.

Xardorok Sunblight is coming and will destroy Icewind Dale with his duergar horde unless you stop him. His fortress lies in the Spine of the World and he is developing a weapon powered by the heart of dragon. It is not yet time for you to face him. But we will be the ones to defeat him and save Icewind Dale.”

And with that she lets out a long breath, her last. The rocking stops.

“Let’s investigate under the castle. I’m keen to meet this wizard” The party splits, Lucas and Eifira return to Kardoth’s office to talk some more.

Veo and Dezith find the trapdoor and are lead down into an underground cistern. A rowboat tied there that takes them east. In the water there are bodies, weighed down with the chainmail they wore – the remains of the palace guards. A cold storeroom to the north, containing the bodies of four members of the Black Swords. Long dead. Killed in battle. Frozen. Kept here until the ground thaws and makes burial possible. However the Black Swords took this castle, it wasn’t by peaceful means.

A room to the south, reached by the rowboat, and in it an humanoid effigy encased in ice, surrounded by heavy chains. This is an altar, they divine. This is where the cult worships. To the west, a small office and sat at the desk, writing, an albino teifling. She doesn’t seem to notice them, but then lifts a hand without looking up: “Go away. I’ve been told to tolerate you but as you can see, I’m busy.” She wears no amulet but tells the party that she too has made a pact with Levistus and works to prepare for the Duergar threat that looms.

Finding a lever in the room to the east, Veo pulls it with his Mage Hand. A noise, loud, of scraping stone comes from the cistern. A large slab has lifted revealing a further passage east. A door to the north.

The paladin heads in first and is surprised by a scrawny man who swings a chair leg at him, narrowly missing. “We mean you no harm, who are you?”.

“Please, help us get out of here.” More faces come out of the darkness – there are five people here, malnourished, dirty, they’ve been imprisoned here for some time.

“We are the speaker’s staff. We have been locked in here with no food. Please help us escape. The speaker, does he live? And Merl, the maidservant?”

“Here, take these.” The paladin offers up his rations and water bottle. “We have not seen the speaker but Merl, she lives, she sent us down here.”

“Will you get us out.”

“Please be patient, we will help you but for now, you must stay here. We do not have the strength for a straight-up escape right now. We will return. Trust us.”

They leave, resealing the slab that kept them contained and rendez-vous with the others in their party.

“The Black Swords believe we could be allies, Zadroth says it is foretold, shall we commit to help them face the Duergar threat? Perhaps they are the lesser of two evils?”

The party face a decision.