The first year of the third Reckoning

Outside of Tantlin, Stygia

The dark cold skies were filled with wilds gusts of winds and the occasional flash of lightning. Even the wild Erinyes and Spinagons refrained from flight during the hell spawned storm.

Reinhardt ignored the frozen rain but he grabbed the rail of the ice skiff as it hit a large chunk of ice. The makeshift vessel started out well but was shaking violently as of late. He wanted to complain but considered against that course of action. Kyle had enough to worry about and it wasn't like voicing his displeasure would change things. Reinhardt had been shaken on the river Styx, tossed in the caves of Pandemonium, and even blown by the winds of Norwold, a few bumps would not faze him.

"Something is wrong," said Kyle over the storm as he voiced Reinhardt's thoughts. "The ice around Tantlin is normally smoother than this."

"That's how I remember it as well, but I have been her for awhile. I just thought the locals have really let the demesne slide. I didn't want to say anything for fear of hurting your Tiefling pride," chuckled Reinhardt.

Kyle shrugged and reduced the skiffs speed as they approached frozen city of Tantlin. "The customer is always right you know. You paid in advance, you can say all you want as long as I have your jink in my pockets."

Reinhardt smiled and then saw several vessels similar to the one Kyle was piloting embedded in the ice ahead at awkward angles in the distance. As they drew closer, with his keen eye sight Reinhardt spotted more wrecked vessels, some were only rafts while others were as large as galleys or triremes. While he spent most of his time in the wilds of Stygia and spent little time near Tantlin, Reinhardt didn't recall any ship graveyard and wondered if that was a recent addition by the frozen lord. Since Levistus was trapped in ice, it would surprise Reinhardt if he froze a fleet of ships in his own honor.

"When did they put this here?" asked Reinhardt, pointing to the ships off in the distance.

"This..this isn't right. I don't know what that is, but it was not there before," said Kyle as the Tiefling's eyesight caught up with Reinhardt's. The tiefling reduced the skiff's speed some more as he began making a wide turn. Reinhardt noticed that the vehicle was more suited for straight movement than changing course, as the on of the skiff's sleds left the ice with a groan. No sooner as the vessel's course drew tangent to the graveyard of ships, the ice suddenly cracked as a large red maw full of teeth crashed into them.

The iceskiff flew out of control and skidded towards a flow of ice and snow. It was a miracle it didn't begin to roll and spin top to bottom. Reinhardt easily incanted a fly spell and simply stepped off the ship before it crashed, while Kyle attempted a daring, and much more painful escape by jumping and rolling along the unforgiving ice.

As the red maw withdrew under the ice, Reinhardt's eyes spotted a massive form swimming under the floe beneath them. He hopped out of its direct path and waved Kyle to do the same.

"What, what is it?" asked the bleeding tiefling.

"It looks like a giant fiendish shark, a megladon I think is its correct name," said Reinhardt calmly as he raised his spear above him. As the shark turned around and approached him once again, Reinhardt said a word and reinforced his spear with magic, before throwing it directly into the ice below him. Reinhardt's magic easily phased through the ice and into the water, striking the beast squarely in the head, before twisting into the water and returning back to his hand. "I haven't been in Stygia for awhile, but where there's fiendish sharks, there's normally…."

Gibbering shouts surrounded them as angry fishmen charged them from the ice.

"Sahuagin!" shouted Kyle as he fired his rough bone crossbow into an approaching humanoid.

Reinhardt expected the patchwork weapon to break or at least misfire, but it's aim was true and it pierced the shark man's heavy shell armor easily. The Sahuagin looked almost as surprised as Reinhardt was as it clutched the bolt and slumped on the ice.

"There's more, dozens of them!" shouted Kyle as he began reloading and attempted to fall back. Reinhardt knew retreating was useless unless some sort of magic was involved. Even without his multifaceted eyes he saw they were surrounded. Sahuagin were common obstacles in or near the Styx and its tributaries, and such ambushes were common in the less frozen areas of the underworld river, however to see them so close to a major city such as Tantlin was a different matter. Were things that neglected under Levistus?

A shark man with a crude tooth studded club, hopped out of the cracks in the ice and took an overhead swing at Reinhardt's head. Reinhardt easily timed the blow, and skewered the creature midflight with his spear and casually tossed his flopping corpse to the side.

Kyle in the meanwhile gave up on loading his weapon and swung his crude crossbow at an approaching Sahuagin. The shark man batted the weapon away with his large shell shield, sending the crossbow flying from Kyle's grip as well as flinging him into a pile of snow.

Reinhardt took a step towards the fallen Kyle, as the shark men threw their tridents and spears at the both of them. Before the crude projectiles reached them, he made a grabbing motion towards the ice and raised a circular wall of ice to protect them. The Sahuagin quickly adapted and began attempting to toss their spears into the top of their frozen cylinder, but most simply rattled off the wall and fell harmlessly or overshot the target altogether.

"You're a wizard?" asked Kyle in surprise. The Tiefling took the time to catch his breath and reload.

"Of course I am," scoffed Reinhardt. "Did you think I reached Stygia through a simple portal."

"Actually yes, chant knows there's enough of them in the Cage," said Kyle referring to Sigil as he caught his breath. Reinhardt offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet. "If you are a spell caster, why didn't you simply fly or teleport to Tantlin. Also, despite our magical background, as a rule Tieflings make poor spell casters. Even our favored bloodlines of sorcery are no match for even mortal casters."

"Well consider me persistent then. As for why I didn't choose an alternate mode of transport, let's say I prefer to keep a low profile, " said Reinhardt. He saw the silhouettes of multiple fishmen on the other side of the opaque ice wall and considered his options. It would be easiest to simply fight, but he was worried that Kyle wouldn't make it. Also , though he had no doubts about victory, he didn't want to attract attention, or at least not yet. A missing tribe of Sahuagin may or may not raise suspicions but Reinhardt didn't want to risk that currently. Best to retreat and reach Tantlin before he made his next move.

"Drop the wall and we'll use our darkness spells, you get out of here and I'll try to follow. I don't care if you teleport or fly, but just get out of here," said Kyle. The tiefling clenched his fists and small small wisps of darkness emanated in his hands. "You can generate darkness right? You aren't like that loser I keep hearing about from the Prime that can raise the temperature of his skin to a slightly discomforting level."

Despite their fiendish bloodlines, tieflings were essentially non magical creatures save for their race's ability to generate darkness. Not all Tieflings possessed such a power, but enough did that it was a point of pride for the majority of them, to the point that most Tieflings trained to fight while blinded. "Of course I can, even if I wasn't a Tiefling, I'm still a wizard remember. "

As the pair readied to charge, the Sahuagin were one step ahead of them. Instead of dropping the ice and rushing out to meet them, the ice below them cracked and several angry fishmen began clamoring into their protective circle ring. Most were armed with trident, and their light sea shell harness, while others were much bigger versions, almost the side of ogres. One particularly ugly one, had a bestial tooth filled face and even sported fourt muscular arms.

Reinhardt was fairly sure that contact with the water this far from the main Styxian River was safe, but after his prior experiences he hopped back and balanced himself on a block of ice. Kyle on the other hand was only thinking offense, he produced a previously hidden dagger and began stabbing the nearest Sahuagin with wild abandon regardless if the water splashed on him. The Sahuagin was probably stronger, but was both a height and position disadvantage from the frenzied tiefling, as he took several stabs to the head before flopping into the water lifelessly. Kyle had little chance to celebrate though as two more fishmen took their brother's place.

Instead of jabbing a Sahuagin, Reinhardt calmly rammed the haft of his spear into Kyle's stomach, then tossed the surprised Tiefling into the air. Kyle's limbs flailed everywhere, but before he landed into the shark man infested waters, Reinhardt fired a pulse of cold into the ice below them refreezing the shattered surface with a new sheet of heavy ice, with several still bodies embedded in it. The particularly large four armed fishman was only partially embedded in the ice, and began thrashing and breaking the sheet surrounding him. Reinhard simply took a step back before kicking him full force to its chin and knocked the creature out.

"Oofff," grunted Kyle as Reinhardt offered him a hand and picked him up again. "Thanks for the save, but tell a guy when you're gonna do that ok?"

Reinhardt nodded and tapped the ice below them. "That will hold them for a bit, but there's a lot more of them than I expected. "

Kyle flipped the dagger in his hand and deftly caught it. "My original plan still stands, unless of course you can teleport us out."

Reinhardt shook his head. "I rather fight our way out than teleport randomly in Stygia. I'm not positive but the longer I'm here, the more I believe that this place is riddled with wards and teleport anchors from all the wars and civil disputes. I don't make magical mistakes, and I've already made one shifting while arriving, a second might send us under the ice…or worse."

"Whatever. Okay…on three then. One…two…" counted Kyle, but before he could finish he was interrupted by gibbering shouts of fear and a familiar chittering noise.

Though they couldn't see through the opaque ice wall, they saw the shadows of the Sahuagin flee. Some weren't so lucky though as their shadows fell as they retreated. Soon the gibbering shouts were replaced by splashes of water as the route was completed.

Kyle held a finger to his lips. Reinhardt agreed to his silent suggestion. While whoever or whatever was out there chased off the Sahuagin, that didn't mean they were of a friendly disposition. In fact, given where they were the opposite was more likely.

"Hello in there," shouted a high feminine voice from outside. " My boys and I saw your little ice boat take a tumble outside, and we decided to help out."

*klick klack klick*

Reinhardt recognized the sound. It was the language of the Gelugons, his people.

"Oh right Jarzxin, they're probably scared witless," said the feminine voice. "We mean you no harm. We've been hired by Lord Ghorsh to rid him of these Sahuagin raiders. Tantlin is supposed to be a major city, given its on the most important river way and all, but trade is down to the influx bandits from Levistus' rule."

"It's cool, I think I know these guys," said Kyle as he slowly exhaled. "Just watch your step around them, they're umm googlyions…Ice Devils…those heartless bastards will rip you apart if you cross them. If you have some jink, I would suggest you reward these cutters to get them on our good side. "

Reinhardt suppressed a smile as he dropped the ice wall. Though they were his 'people' that didn't mean they would be friendly. They were more than likely to continue where the Sahuagin had left off, but there was something about seeing creatures of his own race after so many years that was oddly comforting.

With a wave of his hand, the ice wall dropped revealing the grisly scene around them. A dozen chitinous monsters were picking over the bodies of roughly twenty slain Sahuagin. Their sharp mandibles and powerful claws easily ripped apart the much smaller Sahuagin corpses. Reinhardt suddenly felt a rumbling in his belly as the old urge to pop one of the fishmen heads into his mouth struck him.

"There's a few more trapped under the ice," said Kyle in a nervous voice. "My friend and I will gladly share them with you."

One of the Ice Devils lowered its head and stared directly at the terrified Tiefling's eyes. The creature slowly clicked its mandibles and breathed a small frozen cloud of mist into Kyle's now terrified face. Reinhardt nodded in approval, and made note of that particular intimidation tactic.

"Oh quit it Jarzxin," said the high feminine voice. "We're paid by Ghorsh to rid his little city of the bandits plaguing it, not frighten simple merchants."

Reinhardt scanned the area, and to his surprise saw a young woman step out behind one of the Gelugons. She was thin with sky blue eyes and long platinum blond hair tied in a pony tail, with pale skin similar to Kyle's and his own, except instead of wearing mismatched armor or a fine practical robe like himself, she was dressed in a ridiculously impractical suit of partial silver chain mail, with white leather boots and gloves; one that seemed appropriate at a high costume ball but a terrible outfit to wear in the frozen wastes of Stygia. Reinhardt thought she looked somewhere between a princess or an exotic dancer , than a denizen of the pit.

"Don't let her fair appearance fool you," warned Kyle with a low voice. " I bet she's one of those thaumaturgist, or maybe she's a disguised Ice fiend more savage than any of her minions."

Reinhardt suppressed his laughter.

The woman slid towards them in wide circular arcs, easily skating on the ice with her dainty boots. Just before she reached them she leaped into the air and did an amazing double twist in the air , before landing and spraying a shower of ice just to the side of them. "Greetings travelers. By the order of Lord Ghorsh, I welcome you to the designated free trade zone city of Tantlin. My Gelugons and I would be happy to escort you to…wait…you're Reinhardt…Reyzenhart…." She said as her calm demeanor suddenly began to stammer nervously. The Ice Devils at her command lowered their heads and began clicking and klacking in excitement.

Kyle shrugged and turned to Reinhardt. "Are you famous or something? I've never heard of you."

Reinhardt hadn't expected Kyle to have. The last time he was here was over several millenniums ago, and Tieflings had notoriously short lifespans. Reinhardt ignored Kyles' question and took a step towards the woefully underdressed woman. "That is I, and it seems my reputation precedes me. I'm at a loss though, I apologize for not recognizing who you are, though there is a familiar air about you."

The young woman's eyes grew wide and jumped towards Reinhardt. He barely caught her midair as she hugged him tightly while wrapping her legs around his waist. "It really is you! I can't believe it!" she said before kissing him on the cheek.

"Well even if you don't know her, she certainly knows you. I'll be over there with the Ice Devils while you two catch up," said Kyle with a relieved voice. The tiefling then cautiously maneuvered around some ice devils to give the pair some privacy. "Sup? err crazy weather we're having? " Kyle asked an Ice Devil in the distance as it tore apart a Sahuagin.

Reinhardt looked at the young woman and stared into her blue eyes. "I'm sorry miss. I still don't know who you are."

The young woman smiled and nuzzled her nose next to Reinhardt's "Of course you don't. You've never seen me like this before. It's me, Greta! "

Reinhardt still had no idea who she was. He would definitely have recalled a vivacious young woman like her if he had met her in the past. Then he paused and craned back his head and looked at her again. "Wait Greta….Gretaxus?"

"You do remember!" she said as she hugged him again.