The Ice Ring - Wrote by gniht

My journey began somewhat by happenstance. I was travelling through the Gathol Labyrinth Delta when I found a most curious door upon which someone had scrawled the Avogadro constant. Of course this piqued my interest and I simply had to explore further.
Beyond this door I found rooms filled with golems of various types, some of which were quite sturdy and difficult to dispatch of. Among the golems I found some made entirely from enchanted steel. Even after I rained magic down upon them, I was able to recover some scrap iron from one of the hands that my magic had not completely disintegrated.

Upon close examination I realized that the scrap iron had latent magical properties, perhaps left over from the golem enchantment process. I began to speculate as to what one might be able to create from it, and set forth to collect more bits of this metal . After I had gathered three chunks of the scrap iron I ventured down to the loadstone mines and used the forge there to refine the iron and craft a steel band.
Upon completing my forging I immediately went to quench the band and where steam should have come billowing out of the water there was nothing. It was already cool to the touch even before I could quench it?! Most curious! I wondered if perhaps this innate cooling property could be enhanced...

Earlier upon my travels I had acquired other items which my intuition directed me to keep, and among them was a 'hint of cold.' I reasoned that perhaps this could be of help as well.
But as a sorcerer I follow my intuition moreso than my reasoning and my intuition was telling me that more was needed. Something primal in nature, something innately of ice itself... and as fate would have it, just as I finished my pint of ale I realized the bard was singing of just such a thing! It was a ballad, an ode to a once beautiful child who was quite unusual. She was never happy in the summer or fall, and would lay upon the brick walkway flailing her arms as if to make snow angels. The desire in her heart was so pure and so strong that eventually as she grew the world around her grew colder. Eventually it was said that an entire mountain of ice formed around her and she lives there to this day.
I sensed this was more than just a tale told by a minstril and the next day I travelled east out of town and then as far north as I could. The weather was quite frigid and I had to do battle with many frightful creatures indiginous to the cold along the way, but eventually I found myself at the base of a mountain.

Climbing this mountain would prove most hazardous, and certainly took more strength and agility than I could muster. It was only through a coctail of clever magical enhancements that I was able to ascend to the top, and even once there I had to continue to muster strength.
In the I could see the frozen keep of the ice queen, but between us a most hazardous looking lake covered by ice... and it proved to be most precarious! Slipping on the lake from lack of agility I fell and the ice cracked, and I fell deep into a frigid pit. If only I was a bit more lithe I wouldn't have fallen... or perhaps if I had been stronger I may have caught myself!
Fortunately I survived the fall, and eventually managed to fortify myself with magics again to make the climb back out, and across the lake. Now it was time to face the ice queen and her minions! I blased through the front of her keep, using a storm of ice. I wanted her to hear and see my mastery of the element as I entered! After a long battle with her and her minions I managed to finally defeat her... yet to my dismay I did not find the final shard of ice I was hoping for... yet even after she was destroyed i could sense her slowly reforming from the mountain - as if it was part of her. I thought it best to leave before things got a lot colder during the night, so I activated my portal stone and went to the inn for a pint.
It was a somber occasion, and I was quite deep into despair when suddenly the most happy thought occured to me! No two snowflakes are the same! When she reforms perhaps she could indeed contain within her the essence I so desperately seek? There was but one way to find out.
The next several days, each day I ascended the mountain, and again I faced the queen and defeated her... until one day amidst her shattered corpse I discovered two quite amazing things...

Firstly, within her frigid remains there was precisely what I had sought! A primal bit of elemental energy: it was a shard of ice so pure the light coming through it looked almost blue. But moreover, her throne itself had been destroyed in the battle, and beneath it was a passage.
Too curious not to check, I ended up slipping down the passage and could not get back up... but what did I find below? A curious magical orb atop a short pedistal. It seemed to be some kind of magical device the queen used to fuse together moisture from the very air itself into crystals of ice. Immediately I realized the potential. I placed my steel ring, my hint of cold, and the ice shard within this 'fusion' and waited... and waited... but nothing happened. Could it be I had done all this for nothing?! In frustration and anger I let forth a primal scream and spontaneously cast a cone of cold onto the fusion - half hoping to destroy the whole of it... but then something amazing happened.

The fusion used the magic from my spell and absorbed together the items within, which fused into a shimmering band of frigid delight!
The Ring of Ice was born!
- Ylgu, Sorcerer extraordinare and connoisseur of ale.


(TL; DR)
3 scrap iron in forge makes steel ring.
put hint of ice, steel ring, and shard of ice in the fusion
cast cone of cold on the fusion.
get yer ring and port out.
then shroud yourself in frigid elemental shields of bliss and live out your days a happy caster in a magical winterland of glorious ice storms.

All the best - Ylgu

Wrote by gniht


The Publish Contract has been received DONE!

the ring made from scrap iron is called iron ring, not steel ring

done and fixed.