Auril

Info

Goddess of Winter
The Frostmaiden. Lady Icekiss.
Ageless God Woman
Isolated,Cruel,Enduring
auril_spark.png

§ Interactions
39 #FeastOfTheMoon #TheChosen Singers, clad in snow-white fur gowns, took to the stage. Their harmonies were difficult to discern, but several verses were picked up. Ice kissed flowers caught mid-bloom/Beauty kept in all its grace/Summer's gone to its silent tomb/Stilling in her cold embrace. These were worshipers of Auril. While many Dalefolk looked on in common interest, several were seen reaching into snow banks and anointing their faces. Sovereign of summers lost/General of winter's war/Long live the queen of cold and frost/May she reign forevermore. Praising the Frostmaiden, especially on a winter holiday, very well falls in line with the traditions and religiosity of the region. But the party was unnerved. After the carols ended, the singers were seen speaking excitedly to a hooded woman. Turning to the side, they saw the fair skinned face of Vurnis, once thought dead.
39 #TheChosen The singers moved up the northern streets of Bryn Shander, away from the main crowds of the market. Fern and Crank quickly and quietly worked through the crowd, the rest of the party in tow, to catch up with Vurnis. They found her brushing snow off a child's face, near a small family's shrine to Auril. At first they beat around the bush, but then Oona had enough. "Aren't you dead!?" It seemed that Vurnis believes that some things are miracles. "Those of us who believe, persevere. I hear there are many stranded here in the cold of winter, some wishing to journey to the mountains for Kuldahar. Indeed, they are suffering as they are. It is a cruel world. Remember to endure." Gadget remembered stories the parties told of their first encounter with the dead Vurnis: how she was laid nude and surrounded by runestones on a dais by her sister Ravisin, how her throat had been slit in what was believed to be suicide, and how in their encounter with Sephek Kaltro the possessed sailor also slit his throat yelling in a mixed voice "Witness me!" before turning into slush. Vurnis was a midwinter child, but here she was swaddled in scarf and robe. Whatever this woman before them was, she was certainly alive in service of Auril. Still, in the busy street of a wounded city, without a good idea of her plans, the party had little choice but to let her walk away. Vurnis assured them they would meet again.
39 #TheChosen Asking Vellynne about the once thought dead Vurnis, the wizard did not know. Necromantic powers of that level in Icewind Dale were unknown to her. Vurnis was alive either due to the divine or out of pure vengeance. And if her resurrection was through the divine, there was a good chance she was a Chosen of Auril. In other words, she was a direct representative of the Frostmaiden instilled with a fragment of her power.
27 #FourReghedTribes Bear King Gunvald relayed information about the tribal relations. The largest and strongest tribe is the Tribe of the Elk led by the aging Jarund Elkheart, whose lone heir has died. They are the most domesticated tribe, frequenting Ten Towns. Next in strength is the Tribe of the Tiger, the most xenophobic and the most quick to violence. They're led by Queen Bjornhild, who believes herself to have Auril's blessing. The Tribe of the Bear is next in influence, having lost numbers to both the berserkers and to disputes with the Tigers. They're on good terms with the Elk, but do not venture into Ten Towns as often. Finally, there is the Tribe of the Wolf, less of a tribe and more of a motley crew, led by the psychotic Isarr Kronenstrom, a self-proclaimed Chosen of Malar.
24 #Prisoner237 #RevelsEnd As the prison entered lockdown, the party took the opportunity to talk to Vaelish Gant directly. Azgul got the pompous wizard to talk about his misdeeds - how he masked himself as a merchant and served as Duvessa Shane's aide in Bryn Shander before he tried to overthrow the local government. He was not only imprisoned because of this stunt, but the Arcane Brotherhood had turned their back on him as well. Vaelish still insisted he would've been great for Ten Towns. The best, even. Regardless, Vaelish had learned a thing or two in his time in the north. First, ten years back Auril had a Chosen, a Reghed woman named Hedrun who was dubbed as the Ice Witch. Hedrun had amassed chardalyn weaponry and converted barbarians into a frenzied cult to attack Ten Towns and cow its peoples into worship of Auril. Adventurers had thwarted her at her tower of black ice near the sea Second, during this time Vaelish's study of Hedrun and Auril's cults revealed the presence of a frozen waterfall at the Reghed Glacier. The frozen fall marked the entrance into the depths and a passage to the Netherese ruins of Ythryn.
20 #TheForgottenRealm #ADuergarPlot #TheRimeoftheFrostmaiden Avarice was not all about threats, though. The prodigal wizard was keen to note the party's strength. Perhaps they had aligning, if not similar, goals: She too was after the High Netherese magicks buried in the fallen city of Ythryn; the duergar threat to Ten Towns posed a thorn in her expedition; and Auril's worsening winter made a hostile landscape even less navigable to her pursuits.
20 #TheForgottenRealm #DarkDuchess #ArcaneBrotherhood As told by Avarice, an apprentice of the Arcane Brotherhood named Nass Lantomir had stolen a valuable bauble from Vellynne when they first left Luskan. Nass fled aboard the Dark Duchess, the very ship whose wreckage has since been reported. Hoping the bitch died, Avarice suggested the party investigate the matter. The bauble knew things, she said. Many thing. Things that may uncover Ythryn. Things that may weaken Auril. Avarice insisted she'd gladly guide the party to the core of Ythryn itself if they were to ally.
12 #battle #ColdHeartedKiller Torg's warehouse thinned out later in the evening. When asked about his time on the ship, Sephek attested that those days were in his past life. When asked about the girl, Sephek praised the winter goddess, and spoke of his valiance in honoring her quarry. Battle ensued, and Sephek's true nature was exposed, as he dueled with sword and dagger of ice. He tested the strengths of Crank, Oona, Azgul, and Fern, but was hopelessly outmatched when Hazel and Tetro arrived as reinforcements. Moments before his total demise, Sephek called for Auril to witness him. Sephek slit his throat and his curdling scream began to intertwine into of a woman. In the cold Targos night, Azgul picked up Sephek's now inert longsword, noting its etched runes: Isolation, Cruelty, Endurance, and Preservation.
11 #TheRimeoftheFrostmaiden The bird was no storm eagle. It was a legendary Roc, and it landed on the roof of the Black Cabin and began preening its wingspan of at least a hundred feet with its raptor beak. Soon a voice prompted the party to exit, and after an attempt to stealth away, they soon met with Auril the Frostmaiden. She appeared as a 7 foot tall humanoid with the head of a snowy owl, black talons, cloven hooves, and great curved goat horns protruding from her head. Her cloak and cowl appeared as part wolf fur and part pristine snow. The party later heard legends that this appearance has led to her being called the Cold Crone.
11 #TheRimeoftheFrostmaiden Auril demanded to see the Summer Star, whose magic she detected when its radiant burst fired. When the party resisted, she froze Crank and Oona and used the time to hone her detection of the magical item. She found it, teleporting besides Tetro and clutching the "useless trinket." Her frost began taking it over, the magical creaking and craftsmanship coming undone. With quick thinking the party set up a diversion, Fern using Jarnathan as bait, Azgul creating mirror images of himself about the Frostmaiden, and Tetro casting heat metal on the Summer Star before wild-shaping into a velociraptor and dashing into the woods. The party fled Auril, who looked through the remaining Azgul before teleporting onto the back of her Roc and flying away.
11 #battle After fleeing Auril at the Black Cabin, the party fought against a full strength Coldlight Walker and an initially camouflaged Ice Mephit.
11 #battle #LakeMonster The party fought the plesiosaurus from their rowboats as well as from nearby ice floes after Crank netted it. They were surprised when the beast spoke! It had been awakened by Ravisin to terrorize Ten Towns and convinced by her that if it failed to kill in reverence of the the Frostmaiden, then she would revoke its new-found intelligence. The party, with mixed-feelings, decided it was best to neutralize the murderous beast.
09 #TheWhiteMoose A dying Ravisin seemed pleased with her fate. She explained her malcontent with the Dalefolk for the mistreatment of her sister Vurnis, which Old Huntsman Clive later expressed was most likely her rape. Vurnis was a Midwinter Child, a blessed girl and the fairer of the two sisters. She had left Lonelywood months ago to seek her destiny only to meet mistreatment. She turned to the cult of Auril, becoming a frost druid. Ravisin in her youth was the less fortunate of the sisters: lesser in wits, achievement, and charms. She followed Vurnis everywhere, and thus followed her sister into a radicalized worship of the Frostmaiden.
09 #TheWhiteMoose Vurnis's body laid peacefully atop a closed Elven Tomb sarcophagus, surrounded by four druidic rune stones and clutching a crystal of raw ice. On investigation, Fern noticed Vurnis's throat had been cut and deduced it to be the cause of death, seeing no other markings. The wound must have occurred within the past two moons. While there were ligature marks along the bottom of the body, there was no frost nor evidence of the cold affecting her vitreous humors. Looking at the runes, Hazel recognized them from markings on local shrines of offering she had passed by in Ten Towns. Azgul recalled from his studies that the runes stood for Auril's four tenets: Isolation, Cruelty, Endurance, and Preservation.
08 #TheWhiteMoose Old Huntsman Clive called out to his granddaughter, but Ravisin responded only in derision. Clive gasped at the body of Vurnis, who had long gone missing and was presumed dead. Ravisin blamed the Ten Towners for Vurnis's death, cursing the moral failings of humankind and seething about the need to return the world to nature. Worshiping Auril breathed new life into her, Ravisin said, and it was Vurnis who showed her this faith. Vurnis, who was abused by the men of Ten Towns, was more alive in her death than the party could imagine, Ravisin raved. When the party asked about the moose, Ravisin jeered at them. The so-called moose, she said, was doing a splendid job ridding the Dale of the blight of its human occupants.
08 #battle #TheWhiteMoose Ravisin conjured a dozen wolves to attack the party. The party managed to fend for themselves while they broke the frost druid's concentration, dispelling the wolves. Ravisin wild shaped into an owl and attempted to flee, but was caught by ranged attacks and came crashing into the moon dial. Calling out to her dead sister Vurnis and beseeching Auril to witness her, she cast a maelstrom of ice onto the party and herself, ending her own life.