The party sets their mind to the task of getting Griminhild’s mural translated. Written in both the ancient runic language of the giants, and the unique stitched alphabet of the scribe Methian, it will be no small task. They know that Quartle, the corrupted amphibian god of water, fertility and fecundity, can translate it. But Quartle’s patience with them was short, and the party feels they’re not ready to take on the fairy Belina to earn his favour. Instead, they ask around Caldbeck and discover there is a tribe of monks that live deep in the mountains known as the Sarec monks. An ancient order tasked with protecting a secret in the glacial depths, they have been around long enough and worked closely enough with the giants to perhaps understand the mural. However, the path will take them across a dangerous glacial field rife with danger. The citizens of Caldbeck provide them with enough supplies for the journey, and they hire on a local hunter who knows the fields and the creatures that live there: the enigmatic and mute Bo McYoungguy.
They head off across the plains: Grub blazes the trail and is able to navigate the shifting ice floes to find the quickest and safest path across; Connor gets sick from eating all the rations; and Kodachi stumbles upon a danger hidden deep in the ice… a massive blue worm that burrows through the ice and snow, erupting forth from it’s tunnel and attempting to swallow Kodachi whole, who ducks into a side tunnel in the nick of time.
The worm charges at the party, thousands of teeth in it’s maw. Bo McYoungguy unleashes a hail of arrows (most bouncing off harmlessly), while Denton and Connor find whatever they can on their sled to throw at the worm’s soft underbelly. Grub reveals that such worms are carrion feeders, and attracted to the stench of rotting flesh, and uses her new mastery over the elemental forces of filth to try to draw the worm away. Unfortunately, her spell backfires, and the beast turns on her instead and swallows the small girl whole.
Inside the beast, Grub tries again to control the bile around her but can’t control her new power with finesse: she is forced to transform into a small lump of coal to survive the crushing and stomach acid; trapped inside as a living tummy ache.
Kodachi finds the creature’s nest and disturbs it, causing the worm to focus her attention on defending her eggs. The worm swallows up the eggs into a safe pouch inside her mouth and burrows deep into the glacier, carrying Grub away from her companions...