A quick check to the northeast revealed a passageway leading off into the darkness. The Mothers turned their attention back to the shadowy alcoves. Gaspode led the way up the westerly one where he found a ballista, or what might have been a crossbow for a frost giant, resting against the wall of the alcove. He cut the string so as to make it unusable as he could see that the ledges here gave full view of the entire hall. From his new vantage point, he could make out the alcove opposite and it was similarly equipped. Gaspode crossed the floor of the cavern and dealt with that crossbow in the same fashion. He could make out more details of the throne area from here. The throne was made of bone and ivory, decorated with skulls, gems and silver; the hide of a strange beast backed it and before it sprawled the skin of a huge polar bear. An alabaster table had three stools sitting before it on a level just below the throne. The Mothers headed in that direction, Gaspode being drawn by the gems in particular, but they decided to search the lower portion of the chamber first. Here they found another exit, leading to the east from the very southeasterly corner behind the throne. This led, bypassing another passage leading off to the north, to a trophy room of some sort; it had heads and pelts of various creatures, liberally interspersed with armour, weapons and the odd tusk hanging upon the walls. The far end of the room, higher than the rest of the chamber by the height of two giant sized steps, was screened from view by a large tapestry that hung from the ceiling.
Not wanting to get into cataloguing each item just now, the Mothers returned to the throne room and went to the northeastern corner to see what lay there. A series of interconnected passages led to various chambers that might once have been interesting, but now looked abandoned. They did not take the passage that was blocked by another boulder to the southeast, but headed back to the chambers north of here where they had entered this area. This time they tackled each of the boulders that blocked passage, Gebharts great strength helping significantly with the effort. All of the rooms were abandoned except one. This contained a giant female, manacled to the wall by her wrists and ankles. In the centre of the chamber, just out of her reach were all manner of delicious foodstuffs in precious jars and bowls; just out of her reach. She heard the Mothers enter and implored them to leave her be. It took some cajoling to convince her that the party were not here to mock her. It seemed that the Frost Giant Jarl and his lieutenant, a cloud giant, had imprisoned her. She had been scouting in the area, because she had heard rumours of suspicious activity. She had been captured imprisoned here. Once Gaspode released her, she agreed to join with them, hoping that she could pick up some arms and armour to be of assistance in routing the frost giants. When asked she revealed that she, Hunnath, was a storm giant and that she, and her family, lived on a mountain not far away.
The party then went all the way back to the entrance cavern with the wall carvings. They went further to the south than they had been before, taking the first branching passage to the east, which came to a dead end. The next passage to the southeast led to a larger cavern that was supported by natural columns of rock. It had an irregular shape and was too large for their light sources to make it out fully from their first vantage point. Gaspode crept off to the east with Regid to scout out the area. There he found a spur leading off north and then west to a dead end. Further east a larger branch headed off northeast. Creeping along this, they spied some huge frog-like creatures crouching in the gloom. They were white and had a cold mist surrounding them. Returning to their fellows, the two reported what they had seen and the group decided to engage the creatures. Short work was made of the eight ice toads that they found in total, though the creatures icy breath caused some degree of consternation amongst the less snugly wrapped of the party. The rest of the cavern was now open to them to explore. In the southeasterly corner they found a dead frost giant sprawled on its face as if trying to avoid the huge rock-fall that buried its lower limbs. Stretched out in its left hand was a long metal tube, closed at both ends.
Leaving no stone unturned for clues, Gaspode searched the fallen giant. But found nothing of value beyond the obvious metal tube. He checked this for any traps that might be present and then prised it from the dead giants fingers. When they opened it up they found a map of the cave system that they were in, showing the location of the Jarls audience chamber and various other treasure rooms. The Mothers discussed the map but could not come to a complete understanding of which caverns it represented. Gaspode tried thinking of a way of determining the caverns contents without risking attack. He remembered that he possessed a potion of gaseous form, so he led the group back to the passage off the throne room where they had seen another boulder blocking the way. He took the potion and drifted through the rock. Here he saw four polar bears that were looking somewhat the worse for wear. It looked, from the way their fur was shaped, as though they used to have collars around their necks, but that these had been removed. The bears realised that Gaspode was there and ineffectually tried to swipe at him with their heavy paws. Moving through the room, Gaspode could see that there was another boulder blocking the far exit. He managed to get through this, seeing a large chamber beyond that was somewhat better appointed that the communal caves they had seen previously, before having to return to the others in case his gaseous nature stopped functioning. He reported what he had seen and when he was substantial again the Mothers and their allies moved in to put the bears out of their misery.
The well-appointed chamber would have been home to about twenty giants and each had a bed, a locker and a chest. There were also communal chairs and tables where they might have sat together. Nothing remained in the containers bar the occasional article of clothing. A side chamber was possibly even better furnished and ten giants would have lived there, but it had no further exits. None of these chambers sat well with what they might have expected from the map that they found. The southerly exits from this room led to the trophy room that they had encountered earlier, so they moved east, up the steps and behind the hanging into another room, this time all hung with furs and tapestries over all of the walls, with one even dividing the far eastern portion from sight. Huge tables, chairs and chests lay in the western portion, while a huge bed and some other items lay to the east. The Mothers stopped to contemplate the apparent anomaly of the map and to decide their next steps.