View source for 27 - The Name That Wasnt

{{SessionLog
|ID=27
|Title=The Name That Wasn’t
|Subtitle=
|Author=Frostbite
|DatePlayed=10-08-2025
|DateInGame=Day 20
|Log=
The stillness of the ballroom was deceptive. The Jabberwocke’s snores echoed like distant thunder, but the group knew - one wrong move could turn that rumble into a roar.

[[Brolin]] had returned from scouting, and instead of moving immediately, the party fell into the familiar trap of discussion. Too much discussion.

[[File:Ringelrun.jpg|150px|right]]
The topic: the Alicorn’s power to unfreeze the petrified.
The problem: they needed a true name.
The options: a tower-bound knight, the goblins upstairs (all nameless to them), or Ringelrun, the wizard frozen next to the sleeping dragon.

[[Frostbite]]’s scales prickled at the thought of fiddling with anything in that dragon’s room.
"That’s a stupid choice," he said plainly.
The others pressed on anyway.

The plan was simple enough: keep the wizard quiet.
[[Frostbite]] tied a strip of cloth over Ringelrun’s mouth. [[Dhanell]] touched him with the Alicorn, speaking his name.

The flaw became instantly apparent. The moment the magic broke, a cone of frost erupted from his staff with a sound like shattering glaciers.

[[Frostbite]]’s first thought: that will wake the dragon.

<h3>Sprint and Stumble</h3>
Ringelrun, to his credit, read the room quickly. He decided following these strangers was better than waiting to be eaten. The group bolted through the smashed ballroom doors and into the eastern hallway, the floorboards trembling under the impact of the dragon’s head crashing through behind them. Too large to fully fit, but not too large to try.

[[File:Giant.jpg|300px|left]]

They burst into a dining hall - and straight into the gaze of a very large, very hungry female giant. She sat at the far end of the table, tearing into bread and chugging ale.

Her voice boomed:

"PIE. Bring me pie. KELEK promised me pie. Eight layers. Ice frosting!"

[[Ashira]], thinking quickly, conjured a magic berry. With perfect aim, she lobbed it toward the giant’s mouth - only for the giant to glance down at her next bite, the berry bouncing off her nose. The giant glared.

[[Ashira]] stammered, "It’s food. Try it!"
The giant did. She chewed. She swallowed. She demanded cake.

[[Frostbite]], unable to resist, quipped:

"Kelek peed in the cake."

He’d hoped to turn her rage toward Kelek. Instead, her fury fixed squarely on them.

[[Maeve]]’s silver tongue and a sprinkle of magic turned that around just in time, sending the giant stomping out the south door in search of the treacherous pie-promiser.

<h3>Ringelrun’s Mouth Runs</h3>
With danger passed, the wizard turned on them - demanding answers, barking orders, and testing boundaries. [[Frostbite]] shut him down with a blunt:

"You’re not the leader of this group."

Ringelrun relented slightly, but revealed the knight was the true leader of Valor’s Call, and that his cleric companion still needed saving.

When he discovered [[Brolin]] could not lie, he began peppering him with questions. [[Frostbite]] tuned him out entirely, bored already, and slipped away to look for [[Dhanell]].

<h3>The Owl and the Disappearance</h3>
Following a hallway they’d passed earlier, [[Frostbite]] opened a door into a massive chamber. Just behind the door stood a metal fram, making of the big room a cage - or perhaps a home - inside which a colossal owl was frozen in place. Its glassy eyes stared across the distance, unblinking.

No conversation, no bonding, not like this. [[Frostbite]] studied it for a time, then turned back to report to the others - forgetting entirely that he’d been looking for [[Dhanell]] in the first place.

As he rejoined the group, [[Ashira]] returned with her own report: the dragon was gone… and so were [[Dhanell]] and the cleric.

<h3>Cake, Rats, and Reunion</h3>
[[File:Tinnings.jpg|150px|right]]
The southern room proved to be a kitchen. The giant was there, shoveling a massive, eight-layer cake into her mouth. Around it, frozen pixies mid-baking and giant rats mid-lunge had been caught by the same stasis.

[[Dhanell]] entered moments later, the cleric at his side, unfrozen. His story was simple: he’d taken another route to avoid the dragon, unfroze the cleric, and - most intriguingly - met Zybilna’s butler, who claimed to have been absent during the freezing spell.

From him, [[Dhanell]] had learned Zybilna’s true name: Iggwilv.

<h3>Names Don’t Always Work</h3>
With the dragon gone, the group returned to the ballroom. [[Dhanell]] placed the Alicorn to Zybilna’s brow, speaking her name with confidence.

Nothing happened.

Was it not her full name? Was it missing some title? The uncertainty was maddening.

<h3>The Knight Freed</h3>
If the name wouldn’t work on the queen, perhaps it would open the locked door in the tower. There they could also free the knight leader of Valor’s Call. [[Frostbite]]’s wings itched for use, and with some creative aerial maneuvering, the group brought the last frozen hero into the waking world.

Still, the Nightingale door refused them, even with "Iggwilv."

<h3>Stalled at the Threshold</h3>
The crystals, the colored rooms, the queen’s frozen form, the Jabberwocke, the cauldron - pieces of a puzzle they could almost touch, but couldn’t yet solve.

The party stood in the echoing hallway, each lost in thought.
[[Frostbite]] ran his claws over the pouch of crystals.
If Iggwilv wasn’t enough… what was?

They needed another piece. Something they’d missed.

And the palace felt bigger - and more dangerous - than ever.
}}