What the Snow Won’t Bury

The blizzard has passed, leaving only silence and snow—a vast white shroud that covers the body of Mycha. His still form, motionless in the frost, is a sight that stops the party in their tracks. Kilijan acts first. His mind races, calculations forming in an instant. There is no time for mourning—only action. With an urgency bordering on desperation, he forgoes one of his own attunement slots, using his artificer’s genius to craft something unprecedented: a mechanical heart and lungs, not merely constructs, but arcane-bound devices attuned to Mycha’s very essence. They pulse faintly in his hands, ready to become a permanent part of his fallen companion. Greg kneels, placing his hands over Mycha’s chest, whispering a prayer to Silvanus. The divine warmth of resurrection surges through his fingertips, but the spell alone will not hold—not without the artificial organs Kilijan has created. The fusion of technology and divine magic is something unnatural, something never meant to be, but it works. With a sharp gasp, Mycha returns to life. The first thing he hears is the wind howling through the trees. The second is the faint echo of a voice through his ring: "I found you. I finally found you." Before they can fully process what has happened, the wolves come. Drawn by the scent of blood and weakness, a pack of frost-touched beasts emerges from the snow-covered trees. Their eyes glow like ice, and their breath misting in the cold air is unnatural—too thick, too heavy, as if their very existence is woven into the winter itself. The party fights them off, forcing them to retreat into the deep woods, but the battle leaves them winded, their exhaustion from the journey compounding. They do not linger. Silverfall is near.

The gates of Silverfall rise before them, half-buried in snow, the guards standing stiff at their posts. As the party approaches, the guards exchange wary glances but do not bar their way. The moment they step inside, a third soldier calls out: "You’re expected. Captain Gavir Morlo is waiting for you at the barracks." Something feels off about their tone. The party follows, moving through the streets dusted with fresh snow. Silverfall is quiet—not in the way of a sleeping village, but in the way of a place watching, listening. At the barracks, Gavir Morlo, the captain of the guard, greets them with a firm nod. He is a broad-shouldered man, his beard laced with frost, his expression unreadable. As they speak, the party quickly realizes the truth: He does not remember their sixth companion. He recounts their previous dealings, names them all—except one. Faeriel is absent from his memory. When they speak of their battle with Auril, he listens, but his response is grim. "You drove her back? Good. But she’ll return with the next Winter Arch. She always does." The weight of this statement lingers. The Frost Maiden is not vanquished—merely waiting.

At the Shattered Lantern Inn, rooms have been prepared for them in advance. But the party does not remember ever booking them. Kilijan, in the quiet hours of the night, finally finishes deciphering the third song from the poem "Of Immortal Mountains and Mortal Men." The meaning becomes clear: The party decides to make their way to Evereska to find Mordenkainen. During a rest on their journey, Elminster appears and asks them why they seek the destruction of the Soulmonger. He warns them that Acererak, the one who constructed the Soulmonger, will not be an easy foe to defeat—nor will confronting Mordenkainen. Elminster then reveals five capes, which he calls the Capes of the Leaves. He explains that he spent the last few decades crafting them from the capes of Lorilon, Malcer, Raijin, Bambara, and Darius. The five Capes of the Leaves bear their names accordingly: Cape of Leaves, Lorilon; Cape of Leaves, Malcer, and so on. These are magical artifacts that can only be activated in places of immense magical power, such as the Outer Planes. Odd suggests trying to activate them in the Phandelver Spellforge. Elminster teleports them back to Phandalin, where they ask Fossa to help activate the capes. It takes Fossa one year to activate the first cape and another year to activate the other four. Equipped with these powerful magical garments, the New Leaves decide to visit Mordenkainen. Neverember protests, urging them to first travel to Neverwinter and restore the city. However, they decide otherwise, promising him that they will deal with Neverwinter once they have confronted both the Soulmonger and Gambino. However, Gambino beats them to it. When they arrive at Evereska’s mountain, they find only the bodies of a horde of lightning dragons. Investigating Mordenkainen's devastated tower, they discover his simulacrum—a clone designed to house his consciousness in the event of his death. Yet, the simulacrum is not animated, leading the party to conclude that Mordenkainen was not killed, but kidnapped by Gambino. Since Elminster is their strongest known ally, they decide to seek him out, traveling to the Dalelands, where rumors suggest he is in hiding. On their way, Arahna suggests taking the southern route through Jagomir and Westgate to reach the Dalelands. In Jagomir, a small village on the shores of the Lake of Dragons, Arahna reveals that this was the hometown of her late husband, Omihi. They continue traveling and, upon reaching Westgate, learn that a powerful wizard has summoned a floating island above the Thunder Peaks to the north. They make their way up and discover that Neverember has betrayed them, siding with Gambino and revealing their plan to find Elminster. A battle breaks out between the party and Gambino, who quickly gains the upper hand. But just as he is about to strike the final blow, he is stunned by Lena, the young psion girl, who appears floating above him. Lena tells the party to run—but they refuse. Neverember rushes toward the stunned Gambino and steals a Ring of Three Wishes from his hands. He then casts a wish spell to kill Lena. As Lena falls to the ground, the party screams in fury, and the leaf patterns on their capes begin to glow, releasing a mighty energy beam. The beam cuts the floating island in half, and it begins to plummet toward the earth. In a desperate act to save the party from the fall, Arahna sacrifices herself, plunging to her death, while the rest manage to reach the ground alive. As they watch the island crash into the mountains, they hear Elminster’s voice: "Do not seek me. I have made it my mission to protect only one life from now on—my daughter’s, far from the Material Plane." Their path is set before them.

Greg’s Journey into the Cave Driven by an unshakable feeling, Greg traverses the caves near the Pale Mill, where the drunken mill caretaker, Walion Muss, warns him of a song echoing from below. In the depths of the cave, he finds something disturbing—a note, crumpled and half-burned. The ink is smeared, the words frenzied. Some sections are completely erased, as though something wanted her words forgotten. "The tunnels hum. I feel it in my bones. The others don’t seem to notice, not yet." "I followed the sound tonight. Deeper than I should have. The light of my lantern caught something ahead—a figure? A shadow? No. It was... wrong." "I refuse to be swallowed. I refuse to be unwritten. Remember me." The paper ends in a jagged tear, as if it was ripped away. Manasa’s Visit to the Frostlight Chapel At the Frostlight Chapel, Manasa speaks with Egan Monrose, the aging priest. The air in the chapel is too cold. The flickering candles seem to barely keep the dark at bay. Egan knows something. But his voice is quiet, fearful. "The cold bites deeper these days, doesn’t it? But it’s not just the weather." His hands shake as he polishes the symbol of Voryn, The Frostwarden. His gaze drifts to the shadows between the candle flames. As if expecting something—or someone—to emerge. Weneon’s Discovery at the Frozen Well The Frozen Well in Silverfall hides a secret. As Weneon approaches, he sees the ice is not natural—it shimmers, as if something beneath it breathes magic into the frost. Inside the frozen surface, a hand is trapped beneath the ice. A small, frostbitten hand. Tattooed on the skin is a chilling message: "The song is louder here. I can't... remember... but I know it's still watching." The handwriting is familiar, but Weneon cannot place it. Whose words are these? On the palm, musical notes are written. Weneon, unwilling to let anyone else find it, digs into the ground and buries the hand beneath the snow.