To Protect the Dragonborn

Surprises on the Ice

There was not much of a road between the college and the point on the map that the orc had marked, so they left their horses at the stable and set out on foot. It was about a two hour hike around a mountain before they reached the ice fields... the sea really, but it was frozen solid enough that some crazy scholar had apparently set up camp out there.

As they looked out at the little mound of ice that was supposedly the scholar's outpost, Farkas questioned how anyone could be living out here. The only way out there appeared to be crossing the floating ice...

Farkas didn't have a problem hiking across the ice fields... when it was all solid ice. He had good balance and was sure footed for someone as big as he was, but when they reached the areas where the ice got thinner and occasionally broke off in chunks, all the balance in the world wouldn't save him if he stepped somewhere too thin to hold his weight.

Duna was small and nimble and was able to hop across the floating chunks before skidding across the last patch to the outpost. Farkas had several close calls, and got splashed with the icy salt water more than once, but he managed to make it...

The outpost, as the orc at the college had called it, was what seemed to be a Dwemer artifact frozen in the glacier, and the ice cave that had by one way or another, formed around it. They found the mage the orc had sent them to find easily enough, but getting answers out of him was another matter altogether.

Farkas couldn't make sense of most of what the mage said, so he took to his usual business of letting Duna do the talking and focused his attention on looking around and smelling and listening for signs of trouble.

Farkas shortly decided he didn't like the crazy old man... at first glance he'd thought he was simply like Esbern, a bit eccentric and old, now gone senile from years of being alone... but the way this guy rambled and laughed and spoke in third person made Esbern look normal.

Farkas also didn't like the Dwemer contraption he seemed so fascinated with (Vilkas had told him Dwemer ruins were haunted or something), and he really didn't like the fact the crazy man was trying to open the contraption, he didn't trust the smell of whatever was inside...

...and then he said something about Blackreach... Farkas tried to remember where he'd heard of Blackreach before... the crazy man did at least tell her where to find it...

Something about the whole situation made his wolf spirit uneasy.

He was relieved when Duna had gotten the information they needed and they were able to set back off.

They were barely passed the particularly unstable floating chunks of the ice fields, still not where Farkas was comfortable to be walking, when they heard a sound that almost made Farkas sick... the not distant roar of a dragon.

"Divines, you got to be kidding me!" Duna complained as she summoned her bow. Farkas swore under his breath as well and pulled out his mace and staff... this was not where he wanted to be fighting a dragon. He was on a large, floating chunk of ice... fortunately large enough that he wasn't likely to break through, but it rocked with every step he took, and he could feel how easy it would be for it to completely dump him into the water. Unfortunately he didn't have time to get to a more stable footing before the dragon was on them.

The glowing, dark purple arrows flew from Duna's bow, Farkas threw fireballs from his staff, and the dragon retaliated with ice. Farkas was relieved it wasn't fire because he couldn't do much dodging. The flashy fireballs got the dragon's attention and after a few passes it's attention was all on Farkas. The dragon's icy breath hit like needles... he was actually feeling the cold... sharp pains that made him feel slow and sluggish as he tried to simply keep firing and outlast the dragon.