We searched around the banquet room for this Dulk person, but he wasn't in this room. Meanwhile, something on the table caught my eye. I jumped up on the table and found myself staring at a bowl full of skulls.

I wasn't sure if this was dinner or just part of the decor, but I decided not to ask.

"Dulk is in next room." shouted Krish.

And of course, there was a huge set of doors waiting for us at the end of the banquet hall.

The three of us pushed the huge doors aside and headed into the next chamber.

Two Ricklings came to attack, but were easily defeated.

Another Rickling came to attack, but stopped once he saw that Krish was with us.

Krish pointed and said "That is Dulk. You talk to him! I got important stuff to do now."

Dulk took one look at me, then at Laurenna, in her full armor, then back at me, deciding that it might be better to talk than fight.

"What are you doing here? The master will not be pleased!" shouted Dulk. He looked over at Krish and scowled. "And you come with Krish! Evil, evil Krish! Krish is bad and you are bad for helping him. What is it you want? You should leave!!!"

I gave him my best, intimidating angry wizard scowl, right in the eyes. "I am Eldorf the Wise!" I started. "You know of my reputation with the Tribunal and with the battle involving Dagoth Ur!" Dulk seemed to know of these things, and realized he was face-to-face with a very famous mage. "We are here to investigate the death of all these horkers. We think it is either Karstaag or you Ricklings that are responsible. Are you?" I glared at him, waiting for an answer. Suddenly, Dulk became very defensive.

"This was not our doing!" he replied, trying to sound very innocent. "Not even Krish could have done this! He was too busy here. I was too busy here!"

"So, where is Karstaag, your master?" I demanded.

"The master is gone, gone with the wolves!" came the reply.

"What wolves do you speak of?" asked Laurenna, pulling out her broadsword. "Speak quickly or I'll have your tongue for my dinner tonight!"

I didn't want to ask her if she would really have that for dinner, but it had the right effect. Poor Dulk was beside himself. He was between a wizard and a very angry Nord. "Big wolves! Evil wolves!" he stammered, "Wolves that walk like men! Took the master two days ago! No time for the fat horkers, and Dulk did none of this!"

"So, Karstaag is not in his castle then?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Yes, yes, the master is gone!" Dulk replied. "He must return soon. The wolves came and took him away. Big wolves, evil wolves! Wolves that walk like men! Left Dulk all alone. But the master will be back soon. The master must come back soon."

We let poor little Dulk run off to do whatever it was he was going to do before we arrived, and decided to check out the rest of the palace.

The throne room was just ahead of us. We decided to look for clues as to where these wolves might have taken this frost giant.

We only found a few locked boxes in the room, but no signs of a battle, no dead wolves (or werewolves) anywhere in the room.

I jumped up on the ice throne, deciding to get a feel for the view that this giant creature might have had from this seat of power.

"Ok, sweetie," joked Laurenna, "When you're done playing Evil Overlord of the Frozen Wastelands of the North, we still have a few other chambers to explore."

"Yes, sweetie." I replied with a sigh. It certainly did look lonely there at the top.

We found another chamber that turned out to be the giant's bedroom chambers. There was an odd stench in the room, like rotting flesh.

Well, no clue as to what happened to the giant, who took him, or why, but we certainly found the source of the smell. The room was littered with the bodies of dead heroes (or just plain dead people who were unlucky enough to be within grabbing distance). Some of them looked as though their bones had been gnawed on recently. I was certainly glad Karstaag wasn't here.

"What exactly is going on here?" asked Laurenna. "First Captain Carius is kidnapped by werewolves, then Tharsten Heart-Fang of the Skaal is kidnapped in the same way, and if these Ricklings are to be believed, even this frost giant has been kidnapped by the same creatures."

I agreed. "There are odd forces at work here." I replied. "It may have something to do with those Bloodmoon Prophecies that Korst Wind-Eye started to tell us about. I believe it's time to press him on the subject."

This time, the front door worked just fine for us, allowing our departure without having to take a swim through the icy waters. Once closed, however, the doors refused to budge. Rather than try to figure out why, we decided that our mission here was done, and headed back through the blizzard towards the Skaal village.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we crossed the bridge and arrived back at the Skaal village. The blizzard finally quit as well. We were certainly grateful for that!

Now, it was just a matter of finding Korst Wind-Eye and telling him what we had found.

The man's name was Lassnr, and what a sad tale it was.

"My son, Tymvaul, was getting water, and fell into our well." he said. "I am so lonely without him. Ever since his mother passed, Tymvaul has been my only companion. The pool beneath the well leads to a series of ice caves known as Rimhull. So my boy may still be alive. But I am too frail to search the caves, and everyone else in the village is convinced he's already dead. I must know if he still lives! Please, Breton, will you enter Rimhull and learn the fate of my son?"

I certainly could not refuse such a request. I agreed to assist him.

"Oh, thank you!" he replied. "Since my son fell into our well, I have kept it locked, to avoid any more unfortunate accidents!"

Odd - if his son were alive, he'd sure be having a hard time getting OUT of the well.

"Here's the key." he said, handing it to me. "The well is out back. The waters of the well lead to Rimhull, but there is said to be another, more direct entrance to the ice caves, somewhere outside the village. I know not where such an entrance may be, though it's probably hidden somewhere nearby."   

I had a few of my enchanted items with me, so I didn't see any need to head back to our tent. I figured this would be a quick dip in the well, take a look around, probably find his son had tried to get out of the well, only to find it locked, and probably starved to death. The key fit the lock properly, the mechanism protesting loudly with rusty screeches, then popped open.

With access to the well, I decided to have a quick look around before Korst Wind-Eye returned.