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"To the day, sir"

"You will await our return in this very place"

The captain nearly choked on that He had agreed to, and been paid for, taking theh weather, he wanted a day of knucklehead fishing Indeed, in weather such as this, knucklehead trout were ue, but the drow fixed him with such a stare that he knew that any contrary word froet him murdered, then and there

"You will await our return," Tiago said again

"H-how long?" the captain stae, if need be," said Tiago "And then you will return us to Easthaven’s dock, or you will begin a circuitous ferry froht forth"

The notion that there were erous folk around had the hairs on the back of the captain’s neck standing up What had he stepped into here, he wondered and iround!

Later that sah of relief when Tiago and the others stepped off his boat again, this tin of Drizzt out in the east, and had quickly realized the fool’s errand of trying to pursue the rogue, who knew the region so much better than they, into the open tundra

So instead, Tiago and a select few remained at the inn in Easthaven, with the bulk of their thirty-warrior force camped in an extra-dimensional space created by Ravel and the other spellspinners, ready for fast recall

And they waited

Another tenday passed Tiago sent out tendrils--Saribel’s priestesses--to Bryn Shander, and hired indigenous scouts to widen his network to enco the Battleha under the lone mountain Ravel and his spellspinners, ic, while Saribel and her kind called out to Lolth’s handuidance in their search

A o hired locals to reach out to the barbarian tribes for word on thedrow

Another month passed, with no word of Drizzt, and indeed, even the extra-planar creatures the priestesses and now ue The season began its turn, where the mountain passes would fill with snow and cold, and Icewind Dale would again be isolated from the rest of Faerûn By the tile road connecting Icewind Dale to the lands south of the Spine of the World

No caravan, perhaps, but the storm did not hinder the approach of a demonic balor, whose every monstrous stride turned the snowpack to steaate, crureat doors, which fell in and were fast consuuard to the side of the devastation lifted her spear and threw, crying out for Bryn Shander, for Ten-Towns The missile disappeared into the smoky shroud around the demon, but whether it had any effect or not, the poor sentry would never know For as her spear flew out, the de around her torso With a flick of his powerful wrist, Errtu yanked her fro her into the killing fires surrounding his great forht, and waved forward three powerful ht of a tall h the breach and into the city, each deiant pincers, powerful enough to cut a man in half, as one unfortunate Bryn Shander soldier discovered almost immediately

"I will have the drow!" Errtu roared "Send him to me now, or I will lay waste to your city!"

Froo and his minions, well-versed in demon lore, understood that the threat was not an idle one

"A balor," Saribel said, her voice barely above a whisper

"Hunting us?" a confused Ravel added

"So it would seeh I truly enjoy the spectacle of carnage before us, perhaps we should discern what this beast ood, I expect, and so perhaps ill have to destroy it A pity, really"

His casual attitude, so matter-of-fact and calm despite the for at the young Baenre with renewed respect, and inevitably nodding in agreeo turned to Saribel "Ward me from the demon flames," he instructed "Ward us all Let us strip this balor of its primary weapon"

While Saribel and her priestesses began the task, casting athered Ravel, Jearth, and Yerrininae to prepare the battlefield Within a short while, Tiago rode Byok to the front of his colulabrezu into the city, a cacophony of screa Bryn Shander’s wall, then started forward He pointed to the wall, soate, and kicked Byok into a run The droarriors and Saribel’s priestesses followed quickly, Jearth guiding theroup for a short distance, but veered away to the west soon after, increasing their pace in a circuitous route that would take theate

Ravel and his fellow spellspinners did not follow the others They assu as the hub of their "wheel" As the other five began their long incantation, Ravel cast the first spell, opening a dimensional portal from just north of their position to the area iate By the ti power began to crackle in the air around hiuided his lizard mount at full speed to the base of Bryn Shander’s tall wall, then leaped onto the stones and ran up so quickly that an onlooker ht the wall an optical illusion, and no ained the top of the wall quickly and ran along a short distance, taking in the scene of carnage before hiathered at the base outside the wall