Laurenna had a good night's sleep but I sure didn't. I kept hearing things sniffing around the tent, and even though it was secure against intrusions, it was just the threat of something sneaking in that kept me awake. I could see why the soldiers didn't like this place.

We got up just as the sun was beginning to push away the night sky. We had a quick bite and then packed the tent away. We continued our trek north, still following the river to our destination. The sky was gray and overcast, refusing to allow the sun to light up the ground and bring any joy to the landscape at all. We had been walking north for only 20 minutes when it started snowing. Light at first, the sky eventually began dropping huge snowflakes, making it hard to see ahead of us.

We pressed on as best as we could, always keeping the river to our right.

Suddenly, we could hear something snorting from nearby, and a splash in the river! It was a Rickling raider, riding a boar. The beast was armed with sharp tusks, and the Rickling was armed with a very large blade. Both of them were armed with a bad attitude towards anyone getting into their territory.

The raider charged right across the river and directly into the summoned longsword I had in my hand, waiting for him. I used the summoned shield to block off the boar's attack, and the sword finished off the raider in short order. I had remembered these fiends from Lokken island, where I had first encountered them. The things reflect any spell you throw at them, so it was important to NOT use any enchanted weapon at all, otherwise the spell would reflect back to me. The boar, on the other hand, had no such charm, but as long as the Rickling was riding him, all it had to worry about was a sharp blade.

The snow was falling harder now, making it difficult to see more than a few yards in front of us. We came to a wide spot in the river, and that's were we found another of the regulars of this island. Reavers - pirates.

Oh, they were very happy to see us, of course, hoping that after they killed us, they'd be able to sell that Royal Guard armor for a pretty penny. All they'd get from me was a bunch of very expensive potions. Of course, that was provided that they won the battle.

One attacked us, and Laurenna managed to deal with him easily. I decided to annoy the rest of them with a spell of God's Fire. Being Nords, they would have ignored God's Frost, but fire....well, that's another thing.

It certainly got their attention. They each grabbed a weapon and ran in our direction.

"It's time I had some fun!" shouted Laurenna, as she pulled out her silver broadsword. I used my ring of weapons to bring out my own curras, shield, and sword, strong as anything, yet light as a feather.

Well, the next thing we both knew, there were swords and daggers flashing everywhere.

It was difficult just keeping track of where everyone was.

One guy tried coming up behind me, smacking me right in the back with his sword. My chestplate protected me from the blow. I spun around and slapped him in the face with my shield, knocking him down on his butt.

Laurenna, having two other Reavers to deal with, was having the time of her life, not having had this much excitement since our journey to Red Mountain.

One by one, the evil bandits fell, leaving us to the spoils of their possessions.

We continued on our trip north along the river, and noticed that the river was starting to show chunks of ice in the water.

It was about that time another berserker attacked, this time a male, and again, wearing nothing but boots and a bearskin helmet. I took him down with God's Fire, doing him in within seconds.

These crazy people up here, I tell you, the cold must do something to their heads.

We came to a very wide section of the river, the area nearly frozen over. Nearby, we came upon a lone wolf, sick with some kind of disease. Laurenna made quick work of the sickly beast. We also came across another bear that seemed to attack from out of nowhere. I was lucky Laurenna saw it first. This was certainly a very dangerous place.

After looking at the area landmarks and the river, we realized we had arrived at the lake on the map. It was completely frozen over, so we crossed the ice to the other shoreline.

If the map we had seen was correct, the village we were looking for was due north of the frozen lake we had just crossed.

I saw a Rickling raider on a boar up ahead, so switching to silver, un-enchanted arrows, I let him have it with 3 or 4 of them. Laurenna used several of her's as well. Between the two of us, we made certain that this Rickling wouldn't bother anyone ever again.

We headed up a hill, and through a stand of trees, hoping that the village wouldn't be too far away.

Finally making it to the top of the hill, I stopped and looked ahead of me. Laurenna came up to see what I was looking at.

There, before us, was our destination.

Now, all we had to do was make nice with the natives, gain their trust, get them to tell us were Captain Carius was, rescue him, and get him safely back to Fort Frostmoth.

Piece of cake.