As the day was winding down, our heroes approached the Duke's tower and knocked (well, told the guards they wanted to see the Duke more accurately.) They said they represented a sovereign nation and wanted to talk to the Duke about a trade agreement. Well, turns out the Duke is a well-known explorer and couldn't turn that offer down. The humans were admitted to the tower, but Mang was turned away.

Inside the tower, a grand celebration was underway. The Duke was entertaining guests, and wine and song were in full supply. The Duke had claimed one of the "ice-apes" from the earlier ship as his own, and this turned out to be Einar's deaf-mute sister. Unfortunately, the slave ship had been stricken with plague, and many of the ice-apes had been infected, including Lizbet. The girl was in the upper tower, and Einar went up to treat her while Kirin and Oland remained as guests of the Duke. Lance ran between as a messenger.

Kirin and Oland talked briefly with the Duke and were shown his study, with many of his sea charts and his notes on the world. The Duke said he had been trying to do all he could for the girl, and had sent word to the king to see if there was any knowledge of this strange disease. Strict negotiations were left for later, and the two humans joined the duke's celebration, where they engaged the duke and his right-hand-man, the lion Halia, to a drinking and axe throwing contest. The rules were simple--logs were set up across the room, and you would throw axes at them. If you split a log, you could either take a point or make all the other contestants drink one glass of grog. This turned out to be quite an amusing game, and by the time someone won (Kirin or Halia we think... too much grog) all of the contestants were quite pickled and rather unprepared for the queen's guard to show up and demand that all the "ice-apes" be delivered into her custody.

Turns out the Queen and the King in Grunn were two very different entities. The King managed the laws and the secular affairs of the government, but the Queen reigned supreme as a religious head of state, operating out of a totally separate capitol. The queen rarely involved herself in matters of the people, but when she did, her word was law.

The Queen's men had only gotten word from the king that there was one ice-ape, so there were surprised at finding two, and conducted a search of the tower. Einar, Freya, and Lance climbed out the upper window of the tower into the night with Lizbet. A fire was set to distract the searchers and cover their escape, burning away the rope they used. Not knowing what to do, Lance sought out Mang and headed back to the landing point where their boat still was hidden.

Kirin and Oland were put into a litter carried by great beasts (elephants) and transported a day's travel to a sacred site where the Queen arranged their meeting. Duke Raspak, unhappy that his guests were being taken from him, argued with the guards and agreed to go with them and act as the King's emissary in the matter. The meeting site was an ancient sacrificial monument made of bluish standing stones and a great stone altar, stained with blood. The queen went on about some kind of prophecy and old gods and stuff, and then five artifacts were brought out and placed on the altar. The queen had one of her guards smash one with a stone, and then Kirin and Oland were forced to watch as the small item reformed and rebuilt itself before their eyes.

Kirin was asked to pick up one of the items as a test. He chose one that looked like the hilt of a sword. He picked it up, and it came to life in his hand, a bright colored beam rising out of it and radiating heat. The gathered retainers of the queen gasped, and the Queen chose that moment to announce that the newcomers were indeed "children of the old gods" and that they needed to be destroyed before what the prophets had warned of would come true.

Briefly updated by Kirin, Oland took this moment to strike. He leapt over the altar, dodged a guard, grabbed the queen, and held her sacrificial knife to her throat. (I must point out that this action involved the most incredible perfect series of 20s and 1s that I have ever seen). What was supposed to be a long, difficult fight was over in but a second. Oland and Kirin backed up towards one the great beasts, hauled themselves up on it with the Queen and ordered that no one should follow them lest the Queen be killed. Duke Raspak intervened in the negotiation, and ended up fleeing with the two ice-apes and the Queen.

Hours later, the group rendezvoused with Lance's party at the landing site. Mang was paid off, and the duke convinced the group to flee to his ship where they could escape the country before doom caught up with them. The party high-tailed it to the docks where Halia had the Duke's flagship ready to sail. The queen was left at the docks, bound and gagged. Lance cleverly gave her false information as to where the party was headed, and the ship pulled out of harbor and out onto the open sea.