Valfald

Valfald Storyline The Uncertain Times The Watchfire Pact Gender Male Race Ice Giant Hometown Icemule Trace Alias/Title Emissary Affiliation(s) Black Cairns Clan

Valfald of the Black Cairns Clan is an emissary of the ice giants from the north. The Black Cairns came at request of Icemule Trace Mayor Talliver Dabbings in an attempt to seek an alliance to stop the lich Zeban (also known as Arnabas) from claiming the Tablet of Life.

During the course of the events in The Uncertain Times, Valfald revealed visions the shamans of his clan had seen.

Valfald now wanders the streets of Icemule Trace. From time to time, he is a target of the Trace Bondsman's messages delivered by new adventurers.

Appearance

a massive ice giant emissary

Towering at twice the height of a tall giantman, the emissary is a figure heavy with muscle and suet.  Thanks to his pallid blue skin and pale eyes, he looks carved of ice, and indeed, he leaves creeping frost in his wake as he walks.  The emissary wears his dark cerulean hair in a long, thick braid.  Despite the savage cast to his features, the emissary is clad in well-made leather garments trimmed with pale wolf fur.

Messaging

With a sigh that sounds like a rumble of thunder, a massive ice giant emissary produces a bone pipe and smoking herbs from a pouch at his waist.  With a bit of flint, he lights the pipe and releases a few clouds of sweet-scented smoke into the air, a thoughtful look on his face.

The emissary stops the courier and has a quiet word with her.  A folded message is handed over to the courier and she tucks it in her pouch for security. (when in the same room as the Silvermule courier)

Memories of the Ice

Below are the visions shown to the adventurers, memories from the ice revealed by Valfald.

Images of a blizzard-tossed night spread across the walls like ghostly watercolors. A mountain, almost too tall to be believed, claws at the sky to the distant west, a vast silhouette against the rising moons.

You can feel the howl of the wind battering at you, spectral but sharp. Your ears are filled with its cries as it soars across the wintry landscape depicted across the walls of the chamber.

There, amidst the snowy landscape and verging on a frozen wood, is a set of ancient standing stones. They are black and carved with runes, stark against the white landscape, and they look to be very old.

There is a shift in the spectral wind, a strangeness that you can feel as much as see. The snow near the treeline surges like something is attempting to push its way out from below.

The snow parts, and a single green shoot erupts from the frozen earth beneath. It is joined by others--dozens at first, and then hundreds, or thousands. The greenery begins to rise, growing unnaturally swift, as a fell light forms at the center of the standing stones.

Like an eye opening, a wavering portal tears itself open in midair at the center of the stones. The greenery continues to sprout with unnatural speed, shoots growing into saplings in mere moments.

All throughout, the snow and ice rages on, but the growth is nothing fueled by nature. Trees, thick and stout as if centuries old instead of minutes, grow to obscure the standing stones, but not before the portal within them stabilizes.

Beyond, you can see a green path, overgrown and wild, proceeding into a place bathed in honeyed light. Despite its beauty, there is something ominous about its juxtaposition with the frigid landscape.

A horrific laugh, gurgling and wet, erupts from the darkness. The images of the snow dissolve away to be replaced with scenes of carnage and sacrifice. Here are bodies strapped to blood-slicked altars, there are prisoners being put to the sword.