At the suggestion of Harshnag, the party rode back to Bryn Shander to try and find out why the Frost Giants are so interested in attacking the Ten Towns. Specifically, they’ve found scouts trying to spy on Bryn Shander itself, which is more central to the rest of the towns, and would require more effort from the Frost Giant scouts to spy on.
They ride back to town and return the axebeaks to the stable to lent them. They decide to split up, with Aroboe and Bohdan going to talk to the Speaker, a woman named Duvessa Shane, and Trowa and Alphonse going to talk to Ghesh, and see if either know what the town might be hiding that would attract the attention of the Frost Giants.
As they were waiting to speak to the Speaker, Bohdan and Aroboe were hassled by a would-be thief. The girl, Beldora, doesn’t seem phased when Bohdan points out their weapons, and how foolish it’d be to steal from trained adventurers. Once done, the two head in and talk to the Speaker. Duvessa has been trying to keep the populace calm, and rally the help of the other Ten Towns. However, they are aware of people being smuggled into town somehow, and have little knowledge how it’s happened. As the daughter of Harshnag, they are willing to let Aroboe and her friends talk to some prisoners they believe were smuggled in.
Meanwhile, Trowa and Alphonse spoke with Ghesh about the people he’s smuggled in. However, it wasn’t how they thought. Despite using the building and supplies sent to him by Faint Drop to help the refugees, he actually hasn’t used the teleportation circle for that purpose. He points out that the circle is only connected to the other major cities, and wouldn’t be able to get the refugees in without a new circle being created. Instead, he used more mundane methods, like cracks in the wall, bribing some guards, and most recently, flinging a young girl and older man right over.
The two groups meet up, and share information. While Aroboe heads to the prisoners, Bohdan pieces something together and heads out to find the thief. He tracks down Beldora and gets her to reveal she was smuggled into town at the same time as an older man. However, she didn’t know who he was, and when Ghesh assumed they were getting in together, he paid her to go with it.
In the prison cells, they found this mysterious older man. He seemed unperturbed about the coming onslaught, and they did their best to get information out of him. While they tried to reason and threaten him, Trowa starts whistling an old tune his master used to sing. The man was intrigued and sung with the young mage. After some back and forth, Trowa revealed that he recognized the older man as the legendary adventurer Artus Cimber.
Cimber had disappeared in a search for an artifact called the Ring of Winter. He had brought it to the frozen north to try and see if it could be used to appease a raging Auril, the Frost Maiden. However, the Frost Giants worried him, so he decided to lay low, and prevent them from getting the ring. He’s willing to let many die in war with the giants, as he believes leaving the city would leave him vulnerable to Frost Giants and if they got their hands on the Ring of Winter, their Jarl would become unstoppable and ravage the world.
They realize he doesn’t know about the teleportation circle and offer him a way out of the city with no threat of being caught by the giants. Once he’s gone, they’ll use the knowledge of where he’s gone to try and parley with the Frost Giants.
