With the Thurible of Retribution safely recovered from the spider elves of Chael Rekshaar, Alarion Northsea and the rest of his "team" of heroes returned home to recuperate from their adventure. But no sooner had they arrived in Helmsport than Lorcan, the newly appointed Bishop of the Western Province, tasked them with yet another mission: to investigate rumors of evil activity in the frozen lands far to the north.

Thus, with Duran and the rest of the heroes still searching for the volcano lair of Helkitrik, Alarion, Beran, Quinborough, and Stannis teleported to a remote mining encampment hundreds of miles north of Helmsport. There they spent a few days investigating the area. Alarion and Stannis questioned the locals, while Beran ranged through the nearby wilderness in search of other clues.

To their surprise, rather than reports of evil monsters rampaging in the area, the heroes found instead that the area had been quiet and peaceful for months--even more so than usual! Even the omnipresent ogre and frost giant raids had all but disappeared in recent weeks.

This puzzled the heroes. Surely something had to be going on, else why had the bishop sent them in this direction? Ranging even further afield, Beran found the evidence he sought: a pair of ogres and a frost giant traveling through a mountain pass.

After escaping from the brutish creatures, Beran returned with his allies to track the giants to their destination. This proved simpler than they had thought it would, as the tracks intersected a number of similar trails which all seemed to converge on a single mountain path. The path, in turn, led to a gaping cave mouth in the side of a mountain, flanked by aged and worn pillars.

Entering this lair, the heroes quickly encountered a number of ogres and frost giants guarding the area. Beyond those guards were several winter wolves and a crazed lernaean cryohydra, which the characters managed to bypass.

Finally, they found themselves in a makeshift throne room occupied by a number of frost giants led by a self-styled jarl who augmented his physical prowess with divine magics. During this titanic struggle, Alarion's shadow wolf steed Agathon was slain, and the heroes were forced to teleport back home to safety. In the confusion, Beran and Gree were left behind to escape on their own.

Back in Great Rock, Stannis, Quin, and Alarion recruited Jarvis Osburn to aid the cause, and returned to the vicinity of the Crumbling Hall a couple days after retreating. Though Gree quickly found them, Beran was in hiding and could not be located. Worrying that he might still be trapped inside, the heroes rushed back to the scene of their most recent defeat.

Once again, the jarl's forces overwhelmed the heroes, and they were forced to retreat. This time, the heroes slipped past the throne room and down a rubble-choked corridor through which the giants could not pursue. The hall led to a flight of stairs leading down, and the heroes--seeking to maximize the distance between themselves and their enemies--descended into the cold darkness. What's more, the heroes realized that some ancient magics prevented them from teleporting into or out of the area. Clearly, further investigation was merited.

Below, they found vast hallways lined by many doors, revealing that the area above was only the tip of the iceberg. After resting to regain their strength, they investigated further, encountering some frost giant zombies and then discovering an enormous central chamber dedicated to some long-forgotten deity of the giants named "Stonebones." Beyond that chamber they encountered a great ice-colored dragonlike creature that seemed to long for their blood. Despite initial hostilities, the characters managed to extricate themselves from an unwanted fight and continue exploration.

Eventually, their investigations uncovered a secret tomb dedicated to a powerful, if long-dead, lord of the giants, his frozen corpse still sitting on the granite throne. As it turned out, the tomb wasn't nearly as abandoned as it appeared--the frozen giants lining the walls animated as zombies, while the mummified consorts lying in state on the upper platform proved very challenging foes.

And, of course, there was the ghost of the jarl himself to deal with.

After a pitched battle, the heroes defeated the undead guardians of the jarl's tomb. As they searched the area, they discovered that the jarl's spirit had been awakened when his mighty axe had fallen from his frozen grasp, likely during a recent earthquake. Upon returning the axe to his hands, the spirit grew silent once again.

Among the other treasures in the tomb was an ancient bastard sword that bore the maker's-mark of the famed dwarven smith Durgeddin the Black and the name "Grimblade." This sword was quickly claimed by Jarvis, who noted the irony of one with giantish blood wielding a blade clearly meant to shed the blood of such creatures.

The heroes rested once again, then headed back toward the surface. Surely, with this new blade in hand, and properly prepared for the battle, the third time would indeed prove the charm.

As it turned out, this proved correct, thanks in part to the timely arrival of the ranger Beran (who had been hiding some distance away). The heroes managed to slay Gungir, would-be jarl of the frost giants, as well as his guards and consort. But this wasn't the end of the fight, for as Gungir fell, the heroes heard a great commotion from deeper within the hall. Soon, a horrible scaled creature appeared, with the lower body of a white dragon and the torso of a frost giant. This nameless thing claimed to be the unwanted son of Gungir himself, and had been freed from his eternal prison by the jarl's death. Unfortunately, it didn't seem thankful to the heroes, instead falling upon them in a rage.

Both Alarion and Beran fell in the final struggle, though the rest of the heroes managed to dispatch the nameless thing. Another teleport later and the heroes were back in Blackmere with their fallen comrades.

By this time, their other allies had returned with the third thurible, ending the death-curse upon Duran. Together, the heroes destroyed the last of Helkitrik's magics that held the geological forces of the region captive, releasing the tectonic stresses that had caused so many disasters over the recent months. Alarion's team settled down for some well-earned rest, while Duran set to investigating the disappearance of his cohort Rexander's soul.