Session 55 (3,000 xp)

Heroes: Sigurd, Storm, Machteld, Malik, Niobhe.

Year 651 MR (1st quarter)

The Heroes defeat the hungry dead, and enter the abandoned palace of the White Witch; there they find only more death, and evil fey creatures teasing and laughing at them. In the main chapel, they find the a statue of ice sitting on the throne of the Queen. An otherwordly voice taunts them, announcing their doom. As more undead raise from the city, the Heroes decide to escape the cursed place.

They travel further north, when the unnatural winter seems to recede, and in the center of a mystical grove they find the Hunter, an ershegh of great power. He owns the last sielshegh gem needed to complete Sigurd's crown. The Heroes reluctantly accept the Hunter's request: to hunt with him for one year, that they may learn to respect nature and its animal children.

As they step into the circle of stones, each of them transforms into a powerful hunter, summoned by the power of their bloodline: Sigurd and Storm turn into direwolves, Malik into a giant eagle, Niobhe into a tiger, and Machteld, fighting of the influence of her Azrai bloodline, turns into a regal lioness with black fur.

As spring sets in, the pack approaches a riverbank, where a Rjuven woman and a man meet each other for the first time.

Year 651 MR (2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter)

The pack protects the man and the woman for one year. They hunt together, they share joys and pain, and they witness their love burgeoning, and the woman bear a child. They soon realise that they are somehow witness of the impossible relationship between the Hunter and the White Witch, and that the baby is none other that Sigurd's mother, Arnora.

On the day of the baby's birth, a Frost Giant with a Mammoth arrives to escort the White Witch back home. The Hunter and the pack fight and win, but the White Witch absconds with the child.

The Heroes go back to their human (and half-elf) form, and the Hunter gives them the sielshegh, and a magic bow to help them in their fight against the White Witch. When Sigurd adds the gem to his crown, awareness of his connection with the whole Rjurik Highlands flows into him.

The Heroes prepare to return back home, and find out whatever happened during their long absence.