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Using the hastily put together sleds, the Mothers dragged Levi and the human to the ranger cave where their horses were tethered. The dwarves and the elf accompanied them. Once they had reached this relative safety they rested, while the mages learnt spells that would speed them home. In the morning, Jito and Fonesca cast some phantom steed spells and no one had to walk, though the speed of the party was determined by the two sleds and their bumpy progress over the ground. This journey took three weeks, most of the time was taken reaching Castle Crag in the foothills of the mountains north of Arabel, where the Mothers had first worked as border guards. After the Crag, progress was swifter on better roads and using a borrowed cart. On reaching the city, Guthranka took the cart directly to the temple and consulted with the priests there. A time was set on the next day for the healing ceremony for Levi and the other madman. Meanwhile Gaspode sat at a table in his room at the inn counting through all of the coins and gems that they had obtained from the giants. He divided out the money under the watchful gaze of Fonesca, who had some suggestions as to the fairness of the split. The two main new companions, the dwarf and the elf were each given large sums, while the architect, the remaining dwarves and the madman were each given a lesser share. Guthranka came back to the inn and let Gaspode know the cost of the dual healing ceremony. Fonesca also mentioned that she would like to visit her War Wizard friend for some further training. Gaspode managed to stay on his stool at this news, but his face had gone ashen. When Guthranka mentioned the tithe that both she and Levi would have to pay, Gaspode seemed to give up all will, asking her to just state what she wanted to give.

The next day, Fonesca started training with the war wizard which would take her two weeks. Guthranka brought the payments and tithes to the temple of Tyr and the healing ceremony was duly performed. Levi and the human prisoner were cured and stared about them as though new-born. Levi asked to be able to speak to the lore masters in the temple as he remembered some pieces of information from his experiences and needed to sort out a coherent picture of what had occurred. From what he and Guthranka could remember of the temple, the elders suggested that it was a temple dedicated to the goddess Shar. But not a recent temple to her, as the forms maintained and the layout, was that of an ancient version of her cult. In present times worshippers of Shar, the goddess of darkness, night, loss, and forgetfulness, never build temples to her, rather having hidden shrines that move over time. They also mentioned in passing that Shar was one of the oldest of the deities worshipped in the pantheon of gods, her enmity to the goddess Selûne, being one of the oldest conflicts known in existence. Levi was concerned by this, not knowing how the ancient diggings by Shar worshippers could have any connection to gatherings of giants, especially since they were too large to even reach the temple.

The Mothers brought along their hoard of items for the war wizard to identify, once Fonesca had been given instruction. He took them for examination and translation and said that he would speak to them on the following day. When they returned the next day, the wizard told the Mothers that they had a Flametongue Longsword, a Bastard Sword of Giant Slaying, a powerful magical spear, a quiver of magical arrows and a chain that would not show as magical in his researches, but was identified as being part of a ritual that could transport the group to the frozen north beyond the great desert Anauroch by the scroll and map that the Mothers had given him to translate. The giantish spoke of laying the chain in a figure of eight on the ground at dusk. Those who wished to use the device would stand in either loop with one of their number holding the map. When the command word “Grugnar” is spoken, they would be transported to the location “Arrival” mentioned on the map.

Over the rest of the two weeks Fonesca studied and was rewarded with a new spell and the ability to cast more. Gaspode and Fonesca went to inform the Lord High Seneschal of their progress so far with the giant threat. He seemed very pleased that the immediate problem had been dealt with, although he was somewhat concerned about the large numbers of orcs now free in the area. He urged the Mothers to continue on, following the clues that they had found, as he was still convinced that the giants would not have been acting alone. The rest of the group honed their skills in whatever way they could, given the confines of the inn.

The Mothers decided that they should equip themselves before their journey to the glacier in search of some more clues in the lair of the Jarl. They picked up cold weather clothing in the market, garnering themselves a few odd looks in the process. Fonesca also picked up a number of herbs that she hoped would be useful later. Unfortunately the herb seller was poorly stocked, so Fonesca could only obtain a few of each of the preparations on offer. Siosiann and Tettet also prepared for the journey. Siosann found a suit of studded leather armour; some new clothes; a backpack and other sundry equipment. Guthranka also gave her the giant-slaying bastard sword and a ring of protection. Tettet did not need to find any armour, but he did get a pack together before seeing off his comrades.

At dusk they gathered in an isolated spot and Tettet removed the chain from its obsidian box and laid it carefully on the ground. They all stepped into one of the circles of the figure of eight on the ground. Gaspode entered last of all, carrying the map in his right hand. Then he spoke the command word. It was as if the whole world went dark, like the Mothers had raised a dark cloak over themselves dimming the remaining light to less than a candle flame through muslin. Then they felt a sensation of sideways movement, a shifting, not the forward progress that Sigil痴 portals implied. Just as quickly, they found themselves standing on ice, still surrounded by the chain, Gaspode痴 arm still aloft.

In the dusk light they could not make out many features of the frozen landscape. Jito decided to fly up invisibly on his broom to see if he could determine where the rift lay. The others trudged along in the still night, heading northwest. From a height of twenty feet, the gnome still had no luck, so he went up much higher, to about one hundred feet and then he could see the mountains to the east, some others in the far distance to the west and a snaking black gash in the glacier to the west and slightly south. It was extremely cold at that elevation, so Jito descended and the Mothers set off in a more westerly direction. After about three hours of trekking over a slowly undulating ice surface, the Mothers came across a great chasm in the ground before them. They could not see the far side from where they were as some fog and mist was rising from within the rift. Gaspode suggesting resting for the night, so the Mothers withdrew behind some low ice-mounds. There, Fonesca cast her Leomund痴 Secure Shelter spell and the Mothers spent a reasonably comfortable night in the resulting ice building.

In the morning the still invisible Jito went scouting again, following the rift to the north where he found the entrance, or where it was at the same level as the rest of the glacier. Two paths snaked down into the rift. He followed the route of the path to the left, which went onto a narrow ice ledge and had two entrances into the ice wall before the ledge petered out. Jito then decided to fly across to the other path, but he was buffeted too strongly by winds from the rift and he had to re-trace his path and start again from the rift opening. The right hand way was a longer one with a wider ledge, having about five entrances before this ledge also ended. Jito decided to report this back to the group. As usual, the Mothers went left, taking the narrower ledge and entering the first opening. This led to a tunnel hacked out of the ice, but smoothed over time. The floor was treacherous as they proceeded along until they came to a crossroads in the ice.

They went north, which was to the left and after a short crooked corridor they came into a huge, rough, ice chamber where four frost giants were encamped. They roared something in their own tongue as they swept their huge frost-covered axes down on the small intruders. Siosiann and Fonesca were hit in the first charge, but the melee specialists stepped in and traded blows with the giants and kept them from further attacks against the mage. After several blows were exchanged and Fonesca had loosed two volleys of magic missiles, none of giants had fallen and the Mothers could hear the sound of more giants approaching from behind them.

Tettet stepped beneath the swing of the giant closest to him and buried his axe deep in its thigh. Quickly pulling back he managed to slash it again, this time across its belly, before it fell. Fonesca was also acting, firing her missiles deliberately at separate foes, in the hope of felling two at once. One did collapse, but the other still stood against them. Jito痴, Levi痴 and Guthranka痴 blades rose and fell, engaging the two giants before them, but behind, Gaspode was the quickest to react when three frost giants arrived from the corridor. He kept them bottled in the opening so that only one could attack them at once and not only that, but his flurry of attacks when it arrived almost dropped it dead on the spot. A couple of missiles from Fonesca finished it off. With Gaspode holding off the corridor and the rest of the Mothers now comfortably out-numbering the giants in the chamber, all that the Mothers needed was the time to finish the giants off. When this was done, Gaspode searched them for any valuables that they possessed. One of the giants who had come up the corridor wore a golden necklace as a bracelet, so that was taken, but the sacks in the room contained nothing of value.

This cavern had an exit, which the Mothers followed. It went on a looping course, first east then south for over two hundred feet before turning west again, where there was a passageway off to the northwest. Following the main way, the saw that the passage emerged on another ledge over the rift. Gaspode went ahead to scout and he could just about make out the first ledge to the north and that another entrance into the ice was further south along the ledge. The wind was quite fierce here. He returned to the group and they went back to the side passage. There they found a small ice-cave which had a number of barrels and crates stored in it, along with several bolts of cloth. The Mothers retraced their steps further to the crossroads in the ice, noting happily that the dead frost giants were undisturbed. They went east this time, finding a t-junction after about fifteen feet which led to dead ends both north and south. Coming back to the crossroads the Mothers took the southerly route, finding a cave similar to the one to the north, but without the giants. Here four sleeping mats, sacks and provisions were left unguarded.

Going back to the first ledge, the Mothers went south along it, searching for the entrance that Jito had seen. This led to three interconnected chambers, the first of which was empty. Once they entered the second, five winter wolves assaulted the Mothers. The icy breath of two of the wolves, ignoring the armour and magical protections of the party, froze their arms chafed their skin and broke off some of their, now brittle, hair. Luckily the damage did not stop the Mothers stepping forward and cutting these two down before they could do worse and it was not long before all of the beasts lay dead. The Mothers now explored the third room, which was a featureless ice cave much like the others except for the eight blocks of transparent ice that were spaced almost equally around the walls. Each block encased a figure, elves, humans and dwarves. Each also contained an item, that presumably belonged to the entombed person in life: a long box at the feet of an elf; a purse, split, showing the glint of coin in the hand of a half-elf; a human with a hand extended wearing a ring; a small sack at the feet of a dwarf in leather armour; a jewelled belt around the waist of a pale human; a metal tube held aloft by a female human; a battleaxe wielded by another dwarf and finally a human warrior clad in plate-mail but with no weapon in his open hands . The Mothers took some time to ponder this mystery.

The Mothers examined each of the ice-entombed figures in turn. They decided that they would try to free the half-elf with the split purse from the ice, as they thought that he would be of least threat to them. Fonesca took a flame-tongue longsword and gently tried to melt some of the ice. She succeeded in melting some of it and so she asked Siosiann to join her in her labours. They both worked to free the body for about thirty minutes. Eventually the body of the dead half-elf fell to the floor and the Mothers searched it. His purse just contained silver pieces. Fonesca then decided to use a detect magic to determine if anything worthwhile could be obtained from the other ice blocks. After completing her circuit she discovered that five of the remaining blocks contained magical items. Siosann and Fonesca then set about carving up these blocks in order to free these items.

Just over two hours later the Mothers had freed a battleaxe, a scroll tube, a ring, a suit of plate-mail and long box. Stowing these away carefully the Mothers decided that they should rest before attempting to face more denizens of the Rift. Fonesca cast a Leomund's Secure Shelter in the cavern with the ice blocks, using one of the walls of the shelter as a barricade, blocking off the tunnel leading to the room. Unfortunately, Tettet and Gaspode who were on the first watch, hardly even got the chance to sit down, as twenty minutes after the spell casters had begun their meditations, the far wall of the shelter was destroyed by a boulder crashing through it. This missile was followed by a number of others. The Mothers retreated out of the path of the missiles and cast what magic they had available to defend themselves before setting out to attack their assailants. Fonesca covered herself in dust of disappearance. Siosiann cast an improved invisibility. Jito hid his true self behind four mirror images. And Levi cast a wolf-jaws enchantment and then drank a potion of speed. Thus prepared, the Mothers cowered for a moment as Fonesca cast a Sunburst, from her wand of illumination, in the hope of blinding their attackers for a moment so that they could rush them. Unfortunately only one of the enemy seemed to be affected by the spell, so when Gaspode, Levi, Tettet and Guthranka formed themselves as a front rank against the enemy, an organised force met them. But the ten frost giants ranged against them could only come at them two at a time.

The four in front engaged in melee with the giants, slowly whittling the numbers down. Behind them Jito launched sling bullets coated in oil of impact. Siosiann tried to blind two of the giants, succeeding once. Fonesca launched her remaining magic missiles and then had to resort to her wand of missiles to keep effective. Every blow that fell on the front four, though, hurt them sorely. The longer the conflict went on, the surer it became that one of the Mothers would fall. So, it was Guthranka who was caught by a vicious blow from a giant's battleaxe. She fell dead at his feet. Siosiann immediately stepped into the breach, along with Jito, as the two smaller ones and the elf could fight in the same space. Fonesca tried lofting one of the giants’ own boulders back at them, using her telekinesis spell, but to little effect. Levi was almost felled himself before the Mothers faced the blind giant alone. But even this one managed to land a blow against his foes before he fell.

Levi and Guthranka had no curative spells left to help, so it fell to Fonesca's herbs to provide some comfort. After all of her preparations were employed the mage herself crept out to the icy ledge to see if there were any more giants on the way. When she reported that the way was clear, the Mothers briefly planned to camp again in the ice cave, this time with a glyph warding the entrance. They thought better of this after some discussion and decided to leave the rift altogether. Fonecsca again went out in front to see whether the way was clear. As it was, they rushed as quickly as they could along the ledge, carrying with them Guthranka's shrunken corpse. When they reached the end of the rift they headed north, hoping to find somewhere that they could shelter from the elements and the patrols of the frost giants.