the snowflake project

Kos was sent for by the emperor himself, and entered the city unopposed. Aryenne attended court to see Kos and the emperor speak to each other. Kos quickly exposed the emperor’s weakness – his inability to make a unilateral decision. Kos demanded an audience with whoever had real power over the empire – and thus earned a stay in the imperial dungeon. Though he could easily escape, he felt his message had been heard and would be responded to.

Aryenne dug deeper than ever into the secret workings of the empire, and discovered the dwarves that were at the center of it. She tracked one down, and convinced him to meet with Kos. The dwarf explained everything to Kos, and then convinced the emperor to set him free.

Kos met with the Council of Kings, the dwarves who truly ruled the empire behind the scenes – but was met with denials. Achi’s scattering of the imperial forces left the empire too weak to march to meet the Griind. The best they could do was recall their forces and defend the capital, hoping to at least preserve that kernel of human civilization. Kos should be thankful that they could do even that! Kos offered them some food for thought – rather scathingly, and left.

He parted with Aryenne, and grimly set off to meet his death fighting the Griind on the frontier of human lands. Those loyal to him, camped outside the city walls, broke camp and joined him. While he was in the city, Torik had managed to raise funds and equipment sufficient to arm everyone. Kos’s army marched back west, the way it had come, to a range of mountains that separated human lands from the wasteland beyond, where the Griind came from. They set up their defense in the only known pass – the likeliest place for the Griind to come through.

Meanwhile, Sky-Kicker traveled back to his tribe, north of the Griind wasteland, and told them what had happened – the Griind were rising again. Sky-Kicker gathered his tribe and marched through the wasteland towards the pass.

One of Kos’s lookouts saw an army marching toward the pass from the west. The alarm was raised and tension mounted – almost none of the men had ever seen real combat. Soon they saw it was the Elves, and they relaxed. But as soon as Sky-Kicker’s tribe reached the pass they reported that a massive Griind force was on their trail.

The battle lasted days. Kos and the elves worked their magic, but the onslaught of Griind never ceased. There were too many of them, and the humans and elves were in danger of being over-run. On the third day, a cry of despair rose from the rear ranks – monsters had been sighted approaching from the east. As the Griind ran over their forces in the west, the defenders of the pass watched grimly as hulking forms waded through the dust of battle in the east. Then Kos recognized the massive forms for what they were: Imperial golems! He doubled his efforts to encourage the fighters, and golems, imperial soldiers and dwarves armed to the teeth plowed through their ranks filling in every gap in their defenses.

The new defenders gave Kos the respite he needed to work with the elves to close the pass with magic, blocking it off. The Griind were defeated.

Back at the capital, Aryenne never gave up her inquest into the prophecies of the threat from the west. She learned that this was only the beginning, and found disturbing passages about the Eldest and their lost island home.

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