The party collected themselves and turned to the doors leading to the Hall of the Patriarch. Still suffering the effects of his bargain with death, Varien dragged himself towards the doors, intent on pushing them open. Siegfried politely offered assistance with his prybar. Alec pushed past him and helped shove the doors open. There was the chill of rushing wind as the doors were opened, revealing an ice-covered set of stairs descending further into the crypt. A wave of crackling frost bowled over the party in a wave, as though whatever enchantment was keeping the crypt cold had originated from below. Siegfried shivered and pulled out a self-heating thermos he had purchased in Ieirithymbul. He pulled a tab that ignited a ring of fire that heated the inner wall of the beverage canister, bringing the cocoa inside to just the right temperature. “Gnomish ingenuity,” he said, sipping his hot chocolate, caring not a whit for the soulbound fire elemental trapped within the canister that had just given its life essence to heat the liquid. The party descended the stairs. Their various forms of illumination revealed a chamber larger than any room they’d yet visited. This rectangular chamber was dominated by a great stone sepulcher atop which rested a massive sarcophagus. The lid of the sarcophagus was carved to resemble a human form, head to the right, clad in armour and helm, and holding a greatsword over his chest. The figure was covered with a thick blanket of snow, obscuring his features. A series of waist-high pillars line the edge of the room may have once displayed family treasures, but now stood empty. The room feature ice-shod pillars that held up a vaulted ceiling. On the north wall there was a fresco depicting a scene that Varien recognize as depicting a scene from the Frozenfar. In fact, the landscape was eerily familiar. In the distance, the great mountain Kelvin’s Cairn rises, casting a long shadow over the peak-roof and stave buildings clustered behind walls of polished white stone. A vast glacier provided a natural barrier to the north. The fortified city had a canal system cutting a channel through the frozen tundra towards the Sea of Moving Ice. It was Lorelei, depicted in its prime. Varien blinked as he stared at the fresco. “My home-“ “Your home, I believe,” Siegfried interjected. “Can you see your house from here?” Erwen scratched his head. “I think I know how to get there but I don’t know where ‘there’ is,” he said. The fresco was incredibly lifelike and crafted with such artistry that it appeared to have depth, with shadows that all but spilled out onto the stone floor of the vault. Varien was mesmerized, walking past the stone sarcophagus, trailing his fingers absently through the snow that blanketed its surface. “Erwen, can you locate the Ettin Axe?” Siegfried asked. Erwen shook his head no. “All this time, and I never looked back,” Varien said to himself. He continued to approach the fresco. Siegfried pulled out an extendable ten-foot pole from his bag of holding and began to search the room for traps, working in a grid pattern. Varien noticed that with each step that he took towards the fresco, the image seemed to change. Clouds began to gather on the horizon, lurking malevolently behind the rocky peak of Kelvin’s Cairn. The clean lines of the buildings began to sag and look haggard and haphazard, taking on tilts and leans that made them look unstable and as though the buildings were huddling together to keep from falling over. Windows blackened and the faces of the homes took on gap-toothed appearances. This was no longer Lorelei in its prime; this was the Shade of Lorelei. “A trick of the light, perhaps?” Varien said, as though trying to reassure himself. “How old is this fresco?” Siegfried asked. “That’s the point,” Varien said. “The Deepwinters died out hundreds of years ago,” Siegfried said. Varien prepared a thunderous smite , igniting his sword, and unleashed his divine sense. A strong ping of undeath emanated from the fresco. Something stirred within the fresco, a herky-jerky movement of shadow on the dead streets of Lorelei. Varien found a source of inner strength. “I will not back down, not this time!” he said, charging towards the shape that seemed to be drawing and redrawing itself ever larger as it approached the foreground of the fresco. Something stepped out of the fresco, its limbs elongating as it filled the space in the chamber before Varien. It was a nightmarish amalgam of death and shadow with black horns that seemed to brush the vaulted ceiling of the crypt, and ragged claws of darkness that yearned to rip and tear flesh. Silently, it gazed at Varien with eyes of blue crystal like a demonic goat from beyond time and space. “I am not afraid,” Varien said, looking up at the creature. “Oh no,” Siegfried breathed, recalling his library of Shadowfell lore. “Varien, no!” Alec called out and dashed towards his companion. Bob regarded the horned atrocity. He wiped icy dew from his forehead as he cast holy aura on himself. An aura of holy energy manifested itself like a spotlight around him, imbuing him and his companions. He then quickened a fire bolt and send a bolt of flames towards the creature towering over Varien. As the fire bolt struck home, the creature’s crystal eyes flickered towards Bob for an instant. The creature raised its arms in a beckoning motion, and from within the fresco, shadows began to stir. Wraith-like creatures clawed their way out of snowbanks and hovered in the foreground. Varien’s divine senses were overloaded with the stench of undeath as icy-shrouded wraiths glided out from the fresco towards his companions. Alec began to rage. “Look at this paladin, now look at me!” he bellowed at the creature. “Then look at the paladin and then BACK TO ME!” A cold wind heralded the approach of the silent menaces as the wraiths drifted towards the heroes. As they approached, they manifested icy daggers in their claws. The one in the lead began to blast a cone of icy cold from its hooded face that frosted over Bob, Violance and Siegfried. A second wraith threw an icy dagger at Siegfried, but the half-orc didn’t flinch as it struck his forehead and melted away to nothing. A second dagger, however, made it past his defenses and lodged deep in his body. Another wraith threw a dagger at Violance, which lodged in the nightmare’s barding. The fourth wraith clawed at Erwen, striking him with cold damage. As the wraith struck home, Bob’s holy aura flashed brilliantly and blinded the wraith. The undead creature screeched as it drifted backwards, claws pressed into its hooded face. Reeling, it was blinded by the light. Alec intercepted two wraiths and dodged each of their slam attacks in turn. The shadowy abomination reached its claw down to Varien, who parried it aside with a slash from Fiendsbane. The creature reeled back from the sword’s swipe, and then it refocused its attack, pointing a long, dark claw at Bob. Across the room, Bob shivered, but held fast with his fighting spirit. “No, no!” he wagged his own finger back at the creature. Violance picked Bob up in his teeth and moved him to a safe location behind one of the ice-shod pillars. Siegfried pulled every shadow from the corners of the room and fashioned them into links of shadowed chain. He quick-cast forcecage and locked the abomination in an invisible cage. He then swung Azuredge at the blinded wraith, slashing into its cold, dark heart. “Varien,” Siegfried called out authoritatively. “That thing is still moving. Do your damn job and wake the hell up!” With his second swing he cleaved into the wraith with radiant energy. With each hit, he felt cold rippled through his body. Erwen cast fire storm and manifested a crescent-shaped wall of flames that blasted the icy wraiths. As they reeled in agony, he wildshaped into the form of an earth elemental and began to glide over the creatures, igniting them in additional fiery energy. One of the wraiths was blasted into cinders and steam. Varien felt a wave of necrotic energy wash over him. Sickened, he steeled himself and looked up at the abomination before him, casting a vow of enmity . “You’ve emerged from my own personal apocalypse so I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger until the tarnished remnants of your unholy remains are scattered across the Hells.” He raised his sword. “Let Fiendsbane be my witness.” Varien struck the creature with all the force he could muster. His thunderous smite exploded against the creature, hurling it back against the invisible bars of Siegfried’s cage. Radiant energy crackled over the creature as it staggered. Bob twinned a fire bolt and sent them arcing towards the wraiths menacing his brother. The impacts blasted the creatures. Alec swung Oathtaker at his attackers, his first swing missing, while his second attack struck home against the next wraith, and then slashed back at the original creature, cleaving it in two, destroying it. He shrugged off the sudden spike of cold damage as he turned back to the first creature. “You think you got away with something?” He said to the wraith, stabbing it. The second wraith dissolved into oblivion. The huge abomination regained its balance, stabbing its long foreclaw at Varien. Varien felt a sickening wave of necrotic damage weaken him as the claw struck home. The remaining wraiths were now fully engulfed in flames, but they continued their inexorable advance on the party members. Another wraith unleashed a frost breath on the heroes, sweeping up Burn-wen and Siegfried. Two ice knives missed Siegfried. A wraith tried to slam Burn-wen but missed. Varien felt more necrotic stabs as the abomination poked him again and again. Feeling ever weaker, he stood his ground against the creature. Violance backed away and found a more advantageous position from which to watch the unfolding battle. “Erwen, you’ve got this, right?” Siegfried nodded at the wraiths. The fire elemental nodded its burning head. Siegfried hurled Azuredge at the shadowy abomination, blasting it with radiant energy. The axe returned smartly to his outstretched hand. He threw the axe back towards the creature, bashing it again. He then planted a pillar of lordly might nearby to bathe his companions in healing energy. The abomination pointed its finger at Varien. Nothing happened. The creature curled its finger back, shook its hand, and then clawed at Varien, who parried the incoming blows easily. Burn-wen attacked the nearest ice wraith and then let it attack him in turn, and repeated the strategy with the other wraiths. The creatures continued to burn wildly as they tried to freeze the fire elemental. The abomination stared at Varien as it pointed back at the fresco of Lorelei, and then back to Varien, making a beckoning gesture. “Beckon this,” Varien retorted as he cast a quickened immolation . The abomination was wreathed in flame, but stood stock-still, continuing to stare at the paladin. Varien began to slash at the creature, unleashing smites that blasted thunderous and radiant energy at it. Bob cast a guiding bolt that struck the shadowy abomination. It blasted back against the walls of the invisible cage. Alec felt a wave of necrotic nausea threaten to overcome him, but stood firm. He hefted Oathtaker and began to slash recklessly at the abomination. In response, the abomination slashed at Varien, who cast shield to protect himself against its enervating attack. The shrill screams of the wraiths increased in volume as one by one they began to burn up into steam and cinders. All three were obliterated by Burn-wen’s flames. Varien dodged another attack from the caged creature. Violance continued to hang back. “Let me know when I can help,” he said. Siegfried backed up. “All right. This thing kills in close proximity. Luckily I don’t have to stand anywhere to hit it.” He fired a barrage of eldritch blasts at the creature, which struck home one after the other, blasting it. “That’s right, it doesn’t matter how many times you hit my friends, I’m going to kill you and there’s nothing you can do about it!” The creature swiped at Varien again but missed. Then the towering, shadowy creature turned its attention to Siegfried, and pointed its horrid claw at the half-orc. Siegfried could barely stop himself from quivering in fear as he felt his soul threaten to be torn from his body. Necrotic energy washed over his body, which was suddenly frozen in place. Only his eyes, opened a fraction wider than usual, betrayed any emotion on his part. “Varien, back off!” he hissed. “No, this time I will not back down,” Varien said with finality as he channeled his divine energy into Fiendsbane, stabbing the abomination with a powerful smiting attack. Holy light began to permeate the creature like channels of lighting gouging tracks in stormclouds. The creature began to writhe and shake in silent agony, and pointed an unsteady hand back at the image of Lorelei one final time before making a fist in front of Varien’s face. Then, the creature exploded into wisps of shadow fleeing from Varien’s holy radiance. Varien sat down heavily on the steps of the sepulchre. Erwen dropped wildshape and sat next to Varien, putting an arm around his shoulder. Siegfried felt life returning to his limbs. “Varien, has the room been cleansed?” Varien nodded his head. Siegfried stabbed Talon down into the flagstone and opened his Sequestered Sanctuary. “I have to take a crap.” Varien looked up at the fresco. The stormclouds had receded and Lorelei looked whole once again. He painfully got to his feet and entered Siegfried’s sanctuary. Erwen investigated the sarcophagus. He found that the lid of the sarcophagus lid slid easily to the left on a set of tracks carved into the stone, stopping when the sarcophagus was two-thirds open. Erwen peeked inside. The sarcophagus contained the crumbling remains of the Deepwinter patriarch. Damage done to the skeleton suggested more than one frustrated tomb robber had taken a few cheap shots at the skeleton with the butt of his quarterstaff. Erwen pondered this for a moment. He thought he had heard a soft click as the lid was opening. Erwen beckoned Siegfried over. “I think there’s something with this lid,” he said. “I heard that click too,” Siegfried said. He pulled out his wand of secrets and expended a charge. The wand pointed at the coffin. “Let’s lower the lid,” Erwen said. “I want to try something.” He and Siegfried lowered the lid until they heard the click. It was about three inches from closing. A catch released, and the sarcophagus rotated counterclockwise, so that the head of the carved figure on the lid pointed north. The rotating sarcophagus revealed a stairway that descended down into the depths of the darkness below. “I want to explore,” Erwen said. “And so you shall,” Siegfried said, placing a warning hand on Erwen’s head. “But right now, most of us are dead men walking. Let us rest, and then explore to our heart’s content.” “The Ettin Axe is down there,” Erwen said. “I can feel it.” One by one, the party entered the sanctuary.