Cold Thunder: Naoise Grave

Naoise’s Grave — Cold campers

Rest has returned the Hero to their feet, but the lightning strike left both them and Galanoth motionless, and the Dragonslayer still struggles to speak. Victoria admits that she underestimated Iona’s power. The snow has closed the eastward route again, and the allies cannot keep an army warm indefinitely. Caoimhe urges them onward and names Artix, Rhubarb and Abel among those still needing rescue, surprising Galanoth. Nearby, Brentan and Celestia are investigating the caves where Naoise lies. The expedition must stop fleeing long enough to find out what they contain.

Henry and Kieran do not yet agree on what the armies have done. Henry says the people put in chains were mistaken for Iona’s loyalists; Kieran sees another invading force taking advantage of a rebellion. Felix and the Hero point out how often Skye’s invasions coincide with resistance to its rulers. Victoria insists that this army came because Iona’s emissary kidnapped her friends, not because the rebels had made Skye vulnerable. She orders Henry to learn the terrain from the Fianna and follow her written instructions if the enemy approaches.

Henry mistakes Caoimhe for Kieran’s daughter, and Felix corrects him. Kieran repeats that the crown took his child and that he believes she died in an academy; Henry answers with grief for his own brother. Caoimhe is herself an academy escapee, and Kieran begins to question what she was taught about the cursed Dragon’s grave. He agrees that the Queen should investigate rather than make the army risk the snow. Galanoth insists on joining the Hero despite their shared injuries. If a Draconic threat waits inside, he wants to face it for his friend.

Naoise’s Grave — The crown and the people beneath it

Victoria does not ask the rescue to settle her dispute with the Hero. They can still be angry with her. She says returning home is impossible while the storms threaten the sea and that she will not abandon the Fianna to Iona. Galanoth’s rescue has become entangled with the fate of people who distrust her, and facing Skye’s Queen now seems the best way to help both groups.

Leaving Tara on the throne was another decision made without the conversation Victoria wanted. With Warlic beside her, Tara can protect Greenguard while remaining safe from Skye’s war. Victoria remembers losing her father and Brittany without farewells and wants her little sister cared for even if she never returns. Brentan remembers a quieter Victoria who secretly became Robina the Hood; even Brittany had acted surprised by the tournament revelation. He says Robina once robbed him, but he had prepared a carriage of gold as a willing admirer. Their memories briefly return the rulers and their friends to a life beyond the campaign.

A further uncertainty traveled with the fleet. When spies reported Skye’s approach to the Empire, Victoria expected war on two fronts. Then Gravelyn’s messenger brought the package. Victoria says she respects the Empress and finds it painful to think of her as an enemy, but thousands of subjects depend on her judgment. What she saw in that package has not made trust simple, and this account does not yet reveal its contents. Meanwhile Henry’s forces have rejoined the main party and Granville’s contingent has moved ahead, another reason Victoria needs her plans and smoke signals understood. Brentan also says Henry’s brother spent time in their care before dying of disease. Their relationship is thorny, and he promises to explain the truth when Henry is farther away.

Naoise’s Grave — Felix chooses his service

Felix is back in Greenguard’s royal service by his own choice, yet the losses that brought him there remain raw. He now names the secret Dethrix used against him: a man he cared about, which the king exposed to Felix’s father as the reason he would not marry noblewomen. That man and Felix’s mother were taken hostage. After the rebellion, Felix learned that both had already been killed. The forbidden research he performed to keep them safe had been extorted for nothing. Alteon’s mercy and Victoria’s welcome matter against that history, without undoing the harm or his guilt.

He tries to ease Caoimhe’s fear of the caves by questioning the academies that taught it. He thinks Iona wants people afraid to examine what she keeps hidden there. His explanation of the surrounding magic is also tentative: Fiamme strengthens Greenguard’s fire through Galanoth, while Haeos sends Elementals and Kyanos apparently supplies hostile Ice. Their former friendship may explain that alliance, but Felix does not know every Avatar’s decision. His own forbidden knowledge will soon become a choice about how to defend these people, not simply a reminder of Dethrix’s command.

Naoise’s Grave — The cold wind guides

Till When? begins by thinning the ravens whose calls could expose the camp, then asking Caoimhe why they gather. She links them with prisons, including Eblana and Naoise’s grave, and remembers arguments over whether their cries mock prisoners or demand freedom. Energetic Feud then confronts the Energy Elementals that have driven other animals from the forest. Victoria takes their hostility as a sign that the Planes are choosing sides and has her mages test what aid might remain available.

Glacial Seal sends the party to Brentan and Celestia at the blocked tunnel. Ordinary fire cannot melt the ice, but the Priestess hears Dragonlings and a large adult breathing beyond it. In The Cold Wind Guides, ravens and Elementals fight around the barrier; the native task requires six Frozen Lightning, ten Warm Raven Tears and the opening of the way. The cached account lists four Frozen Lightning, a source discrepancy retained separately. The ice gives way as soon as the Hero touches it. Victoria wonders whether it was meant for them and whether the barrier shares a cause with the unnatural storm. Neither question is answered here.

Cold Callers follows the Ice Guardians into the cave. Victoria initially calls them proof that Ice has sided with Skye, then notices behavior that seems to invite pursuit rather than stop it. Destinies Lost finds restless Dragonlings and name tags for prospective Dragonlord partners. Galanoth says Dragonslayers leave such young Dragons alone, making their presence in a land without known Dragonlords troubling. The party advances through signs of captivity and unfinished lives rather than finding the simple monster den the royal story promised.

Naoise’s Grave — Together in death

Of the Sorrows brings Iseul back into the story, alone after her wounded retreat. The party incapacitates her and examines Naoise’s huge skeleton beside the remains of a Dragonlord. Iseul accuses Victoria of attempting necromancy; Victoria protests that an infiltrator of Undine should know better, especially with Galanoth present. The quakes inside the mountain are not something either side can readily explain. Celestia recognizes Naoise and Deirdre as a pair, recalling the contests through which he became her partner. From the remains, she judges that Deirdre died first and Naoise carried her to their resting place.

Deirdre’s armor is punctured from behind, her bones broken on a rack and most teeth missing. Brentan recognizes torture; the thought that teeth may have been sent to loved ones gives the remains another cruelty beyond death. The Hero asks whether Naoise’s invasion, like the present one, was prompted by his partner’s kidnapping. Iseul dismisses the suggestion without an explanation of her own. When the living Dragon’s growl interrupts them, the group turns toward it. Brentan jokes about the Hero’s authority among Dragons and his own luck in having once thrown sand at them, showing a warmer acceptance of the friend whose true nature startled him. The Hero still refuses Galanoth’s suggestion of letting the Fianna stone Iseul, remembering Indradeep’s help.

Naoise’s Grave — The Dragon made a prison

Cold-Blooded Torture leads through Ice Elementals to the source of the roars: a living Dragon chained to the ground, with a huge lightning rod driven through the body. Echoing Cries finds the Dragonlings’ spirits clinging to the only adult they have known, turning their need for comfort into another torment for the prisoner. Celestia identifies Volgritian, Great Dragon of Energy, and says the young are not his brood; his progeny would not have been permitted to hatch while he lived. The distinction is hers, and does not turn the cave’s ghosts into evidence that he has died.

Dragon’s Seal requires calming Volgritian before any rescue can begin. Galanoth compares his danger to Akriloth’s even in chains, while Victoria insists that he could be another victim of Iona. Celestia already knows the story of the Dragon’s resentment: she heard former consorts complain that Haeos ignored thefts from his hoard. The optional, repeatable Reactive Inductor task preserves the work of cutting his gold chains and the larger problem of the rod that drains his power into an orb. Victoria asks what will happen when it fills and why Haeos permits this. Its wording documents the prison’s operation without settling every purpose for the stored energy.

Naoise’s Grave — Victors write history

Beneath Volgritian, Celestia finds another skeleton. Iseul breaks free and refuses to let the party carry the discovery back to Undine for Sparagmos. Iseul reaches for the red-orbed staff held by the hooded remains, and a red glare floods the cave. The interruption becomes a blinding, disorienting encounter. The Hero calls for their companions and is instead told to look into a Shadow. A voice declares that they have been lied to, and memories of Mabel’s account of Skye’s invasions give way to scenes that contradict it.

One vision shows Deirdre warning Naoise that they have been tricked and that he will be used to crush a rebellion. Another shows Morgana and Duncan responding to an abduction from their castle at night. Duncan resolves to go to Skye and bring the captive back, promising that the Elves will burn. These scenes reframe the invasions as responses to kidnappings, but the captive’s exact identity and relationship are not supplied by the interrupted words alone. The new account of a rescue motive also stands beside the devastation those invasions brought.

The challenge then reaches the Hero’s own explanation of the Old Worlds’ Order: its warning about the Voice in the Sea, Cold Thunder and the Flame of the Beyond, and its supposed inability to locate them precisely. A voice calls this a lie and demands to know who told it. The Hero asks whether the presence is like Infamy, while accusations of liar multiply until coherent questioning is overwhelmed. The scene disputes a framework the Hero has relied upon; it does not yet explain every falsehood, its author or the identity of every voice.

The vision’s next figures have names. Eire tells Bananach that Tanaris, her father and the God of the Storms, has been killed and that Haeos’s followers crowned their new king on his corpse. She blames herself for welcoming lost Elves into their home. Bananach says the Avatar does not yet distinguish Good from Evil, and calls her kindness a weakness while acknowledging that it made their own meeting possible. Eire refuses a world in which kindness must be weakness. They resolve to go together into the Shadows. When the Hero addresses Bananach, the response is a demand to repay the favor by bringing threats, lies and myths to an end.

Naoise’s Grave — What each witness carries

Victoria says a staff showed the others visions too, and that whatever Iseul saw sent her fleeing. Celestia saw Volgritian reject an ancestor of Iona who wanted to become a Dragonlord, followed by Haeos’s intervention on behalf of his favored Champion’s family. The Hero describes the founders whom the Dragon has been made to guard: Eire, daughter of Tanaris, and the overthrow of a home that welcomed the Elves. They conclude that the royal family repeatedly used kidnappings to trigger invasions during rebellions. Victoria asks whether Duncan might simply have wanted conquest, and whether an entity so shadowy deserves their trust. Her questions remain part of the account.

Brentan cannot speak freely about what he saw and asks the Hero to read it when he writes it down. Later he insists that someone may be listening and that friendship means finding a way to share the burdens falling on the Hero. Galanoth also has a revelation to report: someone they know is helping Iona. Neither message is completed here. The newfound history has opened more questions even as it changes how the party sees the war.

Naoise’s Grave — An offer of peace

Iona arrives in person, and Victoria trusts that Henry and the Fianna have carried out her instructions. Skye’s Queen offers peace amid the ashes of Eblana and Loughshine, blaming Mabel’s death on Iseul and offering to imprison her. She proposes talks at the Hill of Lia, sacred ground where her ancestor was crowned. Brentan asks whether that means Tanaris’s corpse, and Iona asks who Tanaris is. The claim of goodwill now sounds against both the party’s experience and the visions they have just described.

Victoria marvels at how easily Iona lies, comparing it with her own awkwardness in disguise. Iona’s courtesy gives way to contempt for a sheltered girl whose crown and Champions, she says, were handed to her. She insists she fought for her own crown against her father’s wishes. The quarrel turns personal, but Victoria has prepared more than a verbal answer. Iona has come expecting to confront a Queen; her opponent intends to fight as Robina the Hood. Fire erupts from the cave as Victoria springs aside with the Hero, cutting off Iona’s boast. The supposed peace meeting becomes a fight.

Naoise’s Grave — On Robina’s terms

Galanoth takes the fight to Iona, who mocks the Champion frightened of his own fire. Celestia calls on Volgritian as well. His energy blasts follow Galanoth’s flames out of the cave toward Iona, who holds her own against their combined assault. The Queen of Skye vows to make a legend from killing the Champion and destroying the Dragon she calls traitorous. Even their combined power does not bring a simple victory. Celestia asks how a ruler who is not the Champion of Energy has gained such strength, while Caoimhe warns against treating Iseul’s retreat as proof the danger has passed.

Felix reaches for the Chaos magic that once harmed Greenguard, apologizing to Victoria but choosing to turn it against Iona’s bloodline. He wants to reawaken the anger of the damaged land rather than let his life be wasted. Meanwhile, Kieran teaches Henry the terrain. Following Victoria’s instructions, the Fianna and Greenguard’s troops divide into smaller groups, shed heavy armor and set traps beneath the trees. Iona discovers her enemy behind her and cannot find the army she expected to command. Victoria credits Henry’s quick learning and her opponent’s sheltered nobles. Her terms are the forest’s shade, local knowledge and ambush, rather than the formal battlefield Skye’s forces prepared for. The scene returns to Greenguard’s camp, where Skye’s armored soldiers lie fallen around the fire. The fight continues with its balance changed.