The encounter with the mother remorhaz left the party fatigued, and they took refuge in her old residence. The creature had hollowed out a large cave in the cliffside, where they found the rusted remains of armor and coins from an unlucky past adventurer. Amid the rubble, Ajuni found an Enhanced dagger, and they spent the next day resting and rubbing the rust off the coins while Tobias experimented on Geronimo. He successfully implanted the remorhaz's fiery cores into the beetle, who would now operate with full function in the cold.
Ajuni was sure that the maps told them to descend the sharp cliff into the fog below them, but Tobias was hesitant. Mormeros tested the drop with his bag of beans, but could not ascertain how far they fell by sound alone. Eventually, Marcus convinced everyone to take a leap of faith; as they passed the cloud barrier, Ajuni used a Spell Scroll of Feather Fall to slow their descent onto the jagged cliffside. Stretching for miles below them was an incredibly large, permanently frozen, lake: the Everglass.
The flat lake offered no shelter against its biting winds, which seeped into the party's bones even when on a bedroll. Using Momo's broken glowing beans as a sort of bread-crumb trail, they braved the barren expanse, and all except Tobias felt the effects of the frigid cold. Mormeros, particularly, was brought to near-death by the trek, and Marcus had to carry the tiefling assisted by some of Tobias' magic. Just as they felt they may succumb to the Everglass' barren brutality, they reached the lake's northeastern edge and found shelter along a cold stone ridge. With Mormeros limping along, they finally made it to Giantsbane! The skeleton of an impossibly large Giant had been pierced into the mountainside by an equally impossible sword, and under its pelvis was an entrance into the Upperdark.
The last of Tybus's instructions were to "follow the tunnels lit by Nightlight", but Ajuni quickly found that some of the paths contained swaths of dead nightlight, clearly trod on by other interlopers through the tunnels. They made their way as best they could, following the half-elf's Driftglobe to ensure Marcus could see below the earth. Choosing a path less traveled, they found a Fire Lichen-covered dome blasting geothermal heat. The party gathered around a makeshift cabinet carved into the stone filled with Dark Dwarf lichen liquor, but Ajuni noticed movement behind stalactites. Two Flumphs, Queez and Ploom, approached them with trepidation.
Seeing they meant no harm, the Abberations quickly made friends with the group, wrapping themselves around the heads of Marcus and Mormeros. Though the tiefling didn't trust them, the flumphs indicated their friendliness via a kind of emotional Telepathy. They seemed to recognize the concept of the Silver Dragon, and offered to guide the party in the right direction. As the party rested in the geothermal vent, they also discussed their dwindling rations, and Queez excitedly informed them about how to make "sporebread" from Bluecap. Indicating it was on the way, Tobias believed he could make the loaves using Geronimo as a makeshift oven, so the party agreed to make a pitstop to gather rations.
The flumphs lead the group to a multi-leveled cavern bisected by a cold stream. The bluecap grew on a high ledge, close to a wall of Torchstalk, and the party fanned out to look for threats. As Ajuni and Marcus began to harvest, they were ambushed by Hook Horrors hidden on ledges above! At the river below the groups, Mormeros blasted flame up at his foes, which ignited the torchstalk behind them; the mushrooms exploded flame onto the Hook Horror, as well as on Ajuni and Marcus. At the other side of a cavern, Tobias and Geronimo effortlessly dispatched another ambusher without taking damage.
Queez was crushed nearly immediately under a hook horror's massive claw, but Ajuni saved them with healing magic, and the floating pancake grew resolute enough to assist Marcus in the fight. In a snap of sword slashes, spells, and stingers, the three made quick work of the foe in front of them. Having not left the river below, Mormeros attacked the last hook horror with the most deadly weapon in his arsenal: a short conversation. His insults, laced with magic, lead the creature to a psychic suicide, and everyone was safe.
Satisfied, the tiefling looked back towards the cold stream in front of him, and was immediately attacked by what looked like a cloak. A Cloaker had been following the group for hours, unbeknownst to them, and it attached itself to Mormeros, trying to pull him into the river. The warlock managed to stumbled away from the water but could not pull the Cloaker from his head until Marcus leapt on it from above. The creature detached itself and let out a loud magic-laden moan, but the sound came off more sexy than fearful as The Swine penetrated it against a cavern wall. The rest of the party beat the Cloaker back until it finally again resembled its namesake, and finally, the cavern was quiet.