The communication wand began vibrating; someone was trying to get in touch with us.
    I tried a Searing Light, which struck a chunk from its side and took out three legs. It let out a hiss as of escaping steam but was slowed not a whit. Phoenix Talon ran toward it and jumped on its head, katana ready....
    What none of us had been aware of was the incredible intensity of the heat concentrated in the creature itself. He had no more touched the thing than he used his Dimension Door and appeared, smoldering and badly burned, next to Septimus, whom he hauled onto the carpet. "Go!" He uncorked one of the potions we had taken from the gnolls.*
    "Lure it to the lake!" Scott shouted, going to gaseous form.
    Its lunge missed me as we retreated, and the entire body burrowed back underground. I had the oddest sensation, as if I had narrowly escaped a very painful death. "It's really rather beautiful, in a terrifying fashion."
    "Hey you! Big ugly worm thing!" Scott yelled to it. "You guys might want to get the hell away from me." We gained altitude.
    The remhorrhaz emerged again and pounded toward Scott. Apparently they're not very bright; he succeeded in luring it toward the lake, gaining on him the entire way. It curled back on itself, all hundred stubby legs hurling it up and forward as it lunged and snapped at him. The wave of heat rolled through him as its jaws passed through his substance.
    It landed on the ice; fracture lines shot out all around it before the ice melted under the incredible heat and dumped the thrashing creature into the water. Every time it tried to claw its way out the ice melted away. Superheated steam billowed up in massive clouds from the lake.
    "Good one, Scott," I congratulated.
    Septimus made incoherent noises.
    "Tell me about it," Talon growled.
    "You're smoldering," the dwarf said timidly.
    "Well do what we can about that," I said.
    "That hurt a lot," Scott informed us. "And somebody's on the wand."
    Far below, it looked as if the creature was a fair way toward drowning. We flew a couple of miles away, keeping a good eye out behind us in case the thing should get loose again, and Scott activated the wand.
    "Hello?"
    "It's Thunderbolt. I haven't made it to Harborview yet, something distracted me that you guys need to know about. I came across a cavern entry-point that some of Gretchen's troops were going into, and I decided to go down and check it out beforehand. It led down to a magma level. But that wasn't the disturbing part, I've dealt with magma before. She's breeding things down there."
    "What kind of things?"
    "She's cross-breeding stuff with daemons."
    "We met an orc like that, a goblin with lycanthropy cross-bred with a daemon."
    "Okay. She got white dragons from somewhere and she's cross-breeding them with daemons."
    "Oh. She's apparently planning to invade Fimbulwinter's place."
    "She's got a growing army of fire-breathing dragons and fire-breathing wolves here. The best use for that would be invading Fimbulwinter's place. I'm heading for Harborview now, there was very little I could do down there, because they were immune to fire. So I lightning-bolted a few of them and ran for it."
    "Sounds good. Better than the giant flaming worm-thing we just found."
    "I thought you should know. Anything you need to tell me? Other than she's apparently breeding goblin-lycanthropes with daemons?"
    Phoenix Talon mentioned the mapping patrol we had run into. "None of them got back."
    "She might be finding another use for the troops that she's pulling back. I don't want to know what she'd be capable of if she managed to someone subvert and breed giants.... I'm heading for Harborview now, I'll take care of things on that end. I'll meet up with you at the assigned spot."
    "Can I borrow your sword?" Scott asked Talon, and spent some time absorbing power from its jolts, while I did what I could for the monk to augment his own self-healing abilities. "That hurt. Let's avoid those in future."
    Billowing clouds of steam continued to rise behind us as we marched on, stopping in the lee of a hill for the night. Once he was feeling better Scott returned to mist form and drifted back toward the lake to see what had become of the thing. The ice was gone, the lake boiling around the corpse of the remhorraz. A small-ish white dragon was flying overhead, and several large figures moved around on the edge of the lake, looking around; ogres, rather than the expected frost giants. At least Scott could be sure none of his party's tracks remained.
    One ogre pulled a red flag out of a sack and waved it around; the dragon flew off. The ogres trudged in the same rough direction.
    "Maybe we should try being a little less conspicuous," I said thoughtfully upon hearing of this.
    "We're not exactly using a brass band to announce our presence. On the other hand, it might be worthwhile once we figure out exactly what's going on, to walk up to Fimbulwinter's front door and knock."
    
    Aside
    Gretchen stalked into her mirror room at the top of her tower. "Show me the western tower," she commanded. "Good, good. The defenses there are sound. Show me the southern pits. Damn! Damn them! Damn them!! Show me the Revolution, show me where they are!" The mirror clouded over. She turned and stalked out, down a long circular stair.
    In the room below lay Dawn, wrapped in chains and encased in amber.
    "You can't hide them from me forever," Gretchen snarled. "I know you are responsible for this. This world is MINE. My will made it, my will shapes it. You will be broken. And then your precious friends will die. For a year now they've been stalking me. That. Will. End. And they'll end up just like these."
    In one corner stood four stone figures: a woman in armor with a peacock design, a man in a full mask and cape with only one two touching the ground, another man in a trench-coat, and a gorilla with a gun.
    
    We kept moving in the morning. Septimus seemed to have settled down a little, perhaps helped by Phoenix Talon's recited tales of our past scrapes and escapes. Patrols were more frequent, we traveled mostly at night, hiding frequently until we reached the shadow of the mountain, dominated by Fimbulwinter's ice palace.
    "Wee bit gaudy," I judged.
    There was a small human community still in residence, supine under the collective heel of the ogres and frost giants who served Fimbulwinter, living in fear of the many wolves, which were specially bred for these lands and like the toads could breathe cold. She had given him the original wolves as part of their treaty; they were smart enough to talk, and were quite likely spies for her as well.
    We were on the outskirts of Ambajejus, and not sure how to find our contact. We were missing Thunderbolt very badly just then. After dark we lurked around the edges of the town, trying to figure out what to do next. As a worshipper of Sutha we had to hope that this Rajid person would not be opposed to our goals; it would purely be a matter of what she wanted in exchange.
    There were an awful lot of torches lit in the town, but the streets were empty except for patrolling ogres, all doors closed and locked. Odds were low that we would be able to walk in and talk to anyone without drawing notice.
    We looked for abandoned houses that might be vampire haunting grounds, and found the remains a of burned mansion, but it was quickly clear that others had very thoroughly searched here before us. If she was there, she was hidden beyond our ability to detect. I looked for cave entrances, hollow trees, anything that might lead to a more subtle hiding place, while Scott solidified at the edge of the rubble pit and asked the darkness, "Excuse me, is there a Mr. or Mrs. Rajid around here someplace?"
    No answer.
    Meanwhile, Talon snuck into town for a look around. Most of the buildings were small wooden ones, hastily constructed; no doubt fires were common with all these torches. One building stood out, a three-story brick structure. He looked in the windows; there were lights there, and a plump middle-aged woman carrying a stack of something farther back into the place. He edged around to the back of the building, looking for another window. He saw the woman come into this room and begin shelving books.
    A face appeared at the window; an old, twisted, withered, no-teeth hag's face.
    He moved, went to the back door.
    "You must be freezing, get in," the old woman snapped.
    "Ms. Rajid?" he hazarded.
    "No. I don't recognize you. Who are you?"
    "My name is Thomas. I am a traveler. We got lost."
    She cackled. "You must have gotten very lost. Come in, come in, wipe the snow off yourself!" She poked him with her cane. "Dear, we have a visitor!"
    "At this late hour? He'll need something hot."
    "I figured this was a special house, it looks different from the rest in town," Talon said, feeling his way into the conversation.
    "That's because the only thing that lives here is knowledge," the middle-aged woman said cheerfully.
    "It's a library?"
    "He's an educated one," the old woman cackled, and thwacked him again. "Have a seat."
    "I was told as I was passing through here that I might want to look up someone named Rajid."
    "Who?"
    "They can't see me," a new voice said softly. "Hi, how are you?" She came around a shelf of books and pulled up a chair. "I'm afraid I don't recognize you. Do I know you?"
    "Not yet, no."
    "Not yet no what?" the old woman snapped. "I know, the tea's not here yet. She's working on it. Unless..." She sniffed the air and made an "ah" sound, and left the room.
    Yet another woman came in through the same door, a young one in a loose blouse and a long flowing skirt. "Here you go," she set a tray down. "Some nice fresh hot chocolate, and how are you? Let me pour for you." She leaned in very.
    "Drink up," Rajid said. "They can't see me, but try and work it into conversation because they can see and hear you. You were looking for me?"
    "Yes, I'm traveling a little further away to the north and I came upon the town in the night."
    "Really, that's fascinating, what do you do?" the girl asked.
    "Oh, I just kind of do odd jobs. I'm, you know, looking for things in life."
    "What sort of things?" Rajid asked, clearly amused by the whole situation.
    "Adventure."
    "Adventure? Ha! Excitement? Ha," the old woman scoffed from the next room.
    "How did you know to look for me here?"
    "Someone mentioned the town to me, and its inhabitants. I was told that if I could find a Miss Rajid, we would have things to talk about."
    "Well, I don't know any Miss Rajid," the girl said. "Let me see what I can do to help. I'll be... right back. Enjoy your chocolate." She sashayed off.
    "She'll be going to get the list of everyone who's in the town, because they keep that here."
    He leaned forward and whispered, "I don't have much time. I and several others have traveled far to talk with you about some very important things, like the rulership of this country. We have a lot to talk about. Once I get out of here, and I'll try to leave as soon as possible, can you meet us...."
    "There's a burned-out old building."
    "Perfect, we've seen it."
    "I used to live there, so I know it quite well. I can't stay away from the library for very long, but we should be able to carry on a conversation that won't arouse their interests too much. I have to say, if you've come all this way looking for me, you must want something very important indeed," she smiled, but it faded. "And you look familiar, somehow...."
    

* This later brought up a debate regarding the nature of the creature's diet, since at 10d10 fire damage per round anything it swallows is going to be reduced to ash and vapor in a matter of moments. One wonders why it bothers attacking living creatures at all rather than living off of, say, anthracite or something along those lines; we are left to conclude that there are trace elements it enjoys, perhaps the piquant whiff of evaporating armor.

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