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Gaspode quickly searched the bodies of the giants, before the group moved on through the caves to see if any more enemies lay in wait for them. Finding none in the five caverns in this area, the group stopped for a few moments to allow the healers to minister to the injured. Four deities were invoked and much pain was eased in this time. Once the group was ready again, they set off out onto the ledge again and into the final opening before the ledge fell away into the misty rift below.

The tunnel through the ice immediately bifurcated and the Mothers went right, due to the fact that one of their number had gone left previously. Another junction ahead showed a small side passage that was a dead-end. Continuing on the Mothers entered a larger chamber that had one exit to the south. The chamber itself was of little consequence, but the passage to the south had runes carved into the exposed stone floor stopping the party in their tracks. Gaspode examined the runes, determining them to be in the Dethek script, used by the dwarves but in the language of giant-kin. It was a stark warning to shun this passageway.

The Mothers and their allies ignored this and pressed on down the passageway over the runes. Once they had got twenty feet into it they were all overwhelmed with an awful coldness, which sapped the vitality from them. An ominous brown covering sped towards them along the walls of this ice tunnel. The party withdrew as quickly as they could but not before another wave of cold staggered them further. Some were unfit to walk after they had retreated around the corner past the runes. They decided that the only thing to do was to retreat to the fire-pit where the giantesses had been cooking in the hope of warming their frostbitten limbs. Once there, the clerics and druids used up their final curative magics and Gaspode dug deep into the stores of potions to heal their injuries. Realising that without such help they would be vulnerable, the group decided to let the spellcasters pray and meditate while the others watched.

Less than three hours later, however, a band of frost giants approached the entrance to the cave. Initially there were four of them, but another six joined shortly afterwards. Gaspode drank a potion of speed while Guthranka downed one of invulnerability before they stepped in to block the giants from coming at them in the wider cavern. While four fighters engaged the two giants at the front, the supporting party members lobbed spells, missiles and suggestions where required. After three rounds, four giants had fallen, but Gaspode and Guthranka had to withdraw to allow some healing, while Levi and Tettet stepped in to their places. Gamm was passed a speed potion after he dispatched a giant and managed to swig it down just in time to defend himself from a giant痴 axe. When only two of the ten giants were left standing, five stone and five hill giants came along the ledge to lend their weapons to the attack. These re-enforcements were followed into the passage by three fire giants. The Mothers and their allies were disheartened by this turn of events and so thought of other tactics that might assist them. Fonesca attempted a burst of light from her wand of illumination, but none of the giants seemed to be affected. Meanwhile the fighters ploughed through the ranks of the frost giants, reaching back to the stone giants in short order. When the hill giants and the fire giants saw the stone giants start to fall they withdrew, heading back within the rift. The last stone giants ran with them. Gamm Ironcrown and Gaspode were still hastened by the potions that they had consumed and managed to kill one of the fleeing giants while seriously wounding another one. The whole party followed the giants out onto the ledge, trying to ensure that the giants would not get away. Fonesca and Siosiann let fly with fireballs at the retreating giants, catching them as they entered the ice caverns by the furthest passage. In the process of burning all of the hill giants and the remaining stone giant, they also destroyed the last thirty feet of the ice ledge and the bodies of the giants fell into the rift below accompanied by large chunks of ice and a cloud of steam.

Distracted by this spectacle, the party had not seen the huge form of the white dragon that they had seen earlier, reappear over the entrance to the rift and swoop over them, lowering its huge maw to spew an awful cloud of extreme cold over the whole group. Fonesca fell to the ground, a terrible blue hue covering her exposed flesh. Guthranka痴 frozen form clanked audibly against the ice floor as she fell dead. Each of the others was also harshly wounded. The clerics reacted first, Goned Giantbreaker and Levi almost acting in unison, calling down pillars of flame from the sky to crash down upon the body of the wyrm as it circled for a return pass. Kurtalla Thinst, pulled a large bead from a necklace that he was wearing and tossed it at the approaching beast, once it reached its target, it blossomed into a ball of flame similar to the ones summoned by Fonesca and Siosiann earlier. Siosiann herself launched an arrow of acid at the dragon at the dragon as it emerged from the fireball, its wings blackened and bent and it fell, plummeting into the mists below them in the rift. Fearing further attack and in no state with withstand it, the Mothers withdrew into the kitchen cavern with Gaspode already asking Levi about retreating by use of his plane shift spell.