Flying Mapping Sneaks
The Mothers decided their best course of action and headed off for the rift as a group. Once they reached a spot about ten minutes walk from the entrance, Jito cast a cloak of invisibility over the tightly huddled companions. Gaspode, the dwarf Regid Ironcrown and Grimath Foon, the jester that they had encountered were to be the scouts. The three mages each cast a fly spell on them and Jito followed this up with an invisibility for each of them and for the ranger, Kurtalla Thinst. Kurtalla walked and the rest of them flew across the ice towards the rift. When they were about to split up they each started chewing on their own hristo leaf, giving them the ability to hear each otherç—´ thoughts. Regid was to follow the route that the Mothers had initially taken on their foray into the rift, seeing if the area had been re-enforced. Gaspode was to scout the area immediately behind the ice wall that the frost giants constructed. Grimath headed further back along the western side, aiming for a ledge that the Mothers had spotted in the distance on their last visit. Kurtalla was staying back near the lip of the icy crevasse, acting as a communication point for all of the others. He carefully covered his tracks before he settled into the snow.
Gaspode entered a number of passages off the ledge behind the wall, finding numerous frost giants as well as a weapons cache and a frozen larder. Some humans were held prisoner in a cage in what appeared to be a kitchen off one ledge. He resisted the urge to take the steeply descending path that he found, leading off the ledge to the floor of the fissure below. He had some mental contact with the others, the dwarf least of all. He was most worried about a gong that hung in a cave behind the guarding frost giants. Grimath found a number of different sorts of giants in different rooms within the glacier. He was able to point out a number of other ledges that they had not seen before. Regid had travelled through the caves that the Mothers had cleared on their first incursion. He saw that there were a few frost giant guards there, but not as many as had been there initially. Moving in from the farthest ledge that he found, and going left at a crossroads in the ice, he came upon a large group of ogres in a couple of caves that lead nowhere else. Heading back to the junction he went southeast and encountered a large group of frost giants who were much more attentive to their guard duties than the rest. They were also strategically positioned in this area to cover all entrances and exits. He could not proceed past the last giant as he was covering practically the whole of the passage. Regid retreated. Meanwhile, Gaspode and Grimath had rendezvoused with Kurtalla and were heading over to where they hoped that they could communicate with Regid, when they were shocked to see a huge two hundred foot long white dragon swoop down over them and head into the rift below. Recovering their composure, the three continued on, found Regid, and returned to the larger group. There they discussed the best point of attack.
The largest group approached the ice wall directly, while the sneaky ones came over the edge of the crevasse to drop down behind it and behind the giants guarding there. Their initial attempts at surprise were somewhat scuppered by their lack of success in connecting telling blows, but with the assistance of Gram Ironcrown and his axe the two giants fell quickly. Once they were all behind the wall, they took stock of their position and tried to figure out what to do next.