120 Quasi Plane of Ice

Xing Lei stumbled, nearly sliding back down the risky slope he found himself fighting against. He'd been here for days it seemed, yet the storm that howled in his ears and coated his eyelids in thick frost showed no signs of letting up. His twin trails left by his frozen legs was already filled in, any sign of where he had emerged from the astral sea was long lost. The oddest occurrence was crossing from there to here had apparently summoned his physical body, he still had no idea how he went from astral projection to frozen koboldsicle but here he was vainly trying to stave off exposure with his flicking drained qi.

The frozen wasteland showed no signs of life, he'd seen no signs of life, civilized or otherwise, in his long march across the landscape. Yet something told him that if he kept going this way, he'd survive. Wiping away the ice and snow that threatened to seal his eyes closed he trudged onwards, forcing his ever stiffening body through the deepening snow, ever careful to not fall, for if he sank into the freezing mounds he was sure he'd freeze as solid as his clawed toes felt.

For the umpteenth time he cursed the demonic god Tyrix, had that self serving monster not kidnapped his soul he'd likely be recovering fine beside his mate. No, instead he was trekking across some blasted wasteland, who knows where in existence! Cursing at himself under his breath he continued forward, forcing his freezing body to move even though it wanted to just lay down and rest, but he knew let alone this reptilian body, were he still human, to lay down in this storm was to be frozen to death in short order, buried forever more.

Grudgingly he climbed a tall mound, shielding his eyes from the freezing sleet as he tried to sense what he felt at first. It had been faint, he almost had missed it originally, but when he focused he could feel something this way. Exhaling he prepared to march on when the hill he stood on shuddered, the sound of cracking ice echoed into the distance as the kobold swiftly slid down the far side of the shuddering mound, glancing back watching the hill, rather than collapsing rising higher behind him.

Narrowing his eyes he flexed his hand and an elven blade appeared from his storage ring. The drow made blade gave off a bloody glimmer before the frost coated the dark metal. Xing Lei backed up as the 'hill' shuddered throwing off great clumps of snow. At first the kobold thought he'd missed a sleeping beast buried in the snow but when he saw what was revealed he couldn't help but curse and started to sprint away, for rather than a flesh and blood creature, the hill was in fact a loosely hovering mass of frozen ice. Two burning wisps of blue-white flame was buried in its 'face' and both were staring right at him.

With no mouth, two tree like lengths of ice lifted at either side of the frozen body and a murderous bellow shattered the stillness of the falling snow. Xing Lei had no clue what kind of monster it was but at first glance he could tell it was some sort of spirit, likely animating the ice to give it that vaguely humanoid look. Yet it hovered above the snow and swept after the fleeing kobold in a rage over being disturbed. Normally Xing Lei would just smash the thing and move on, but with his spiritual essence essentially running on empty barely keeping the temperature from killing him he had no reserves to fight such a brute!

Rushing through the snow he cursed harder watching various hills in the area rising and shuddering in response to the first creatures bellow. Xing Lei stopped counting after ten or so, while each looked different they all seemed to be the same sort of spirit, and all equally pissed off at being rudely awoken. The kobold was darting between the things as they all pressed in trying to swat him with their stiff ice arms, thankfully none of them was overly agile, but each struck blasted the snow off the thick ice beneath telling the tale that getting struck even once would likely see them shattering his cold scaly body!

Before too long however the spirits were clustering around the swiftly moving kobold, boxing him in as they swung completely unconcerned for the others pressing in. None seemed to care if their fellows strikes tore at their icy bodies and for a time he moved to cause as much friendly fire as possible, but the hope they'd destroy each other swiftly died as he watched their icy forms shifting and reorienting, completely unconcerned if they were made smaller or thinner.

He even struck with his drow forged blade a few times, but the heavily enchanted weapon could only chip off the faintest of pieces. In fact, if he had caused any meaningful damage none of the ice spirits seemed to react in the slightest! Eventually he ended up summersaulting off the face of one to escape his encirclement (smiling slightly to himself when one of its fellows smashed the face of the spring board he had used). Free of the cluster he ran on, to deal with this trouble he'd need a better battleground than this open field filled with angry spirits.

Xing Lei ran desperately, practically clawing his way through the deep snow as a horde of rather angry ice elementals plowed through the drifts behind. The inhuman bellows of rage carried for a long way, drawing even more of the things into the chase. How odd the sight must be for any scrying wizards peeking into the quasi plane to see a growing horde of elementals chasing a fleeing kobold, and actually losing ground on their home turf!

After several miles Xing Lei slowed his speed, he could feel his already destitute qi reserves guttering out like a melted candle on the very end if its wick. Still, more pressing was the fact for the last yard, the storm seemed to have... stopped? Glancing around as his breathing normalized he indeed saw that rather than a blinding expanse of falling sleet, the area he was in was devoid of even gently falling snow! He was still pretty much up to his armpits in the stuff, but no new was falling to try and bury him. Glancing around curiously he tried to find the source of the strange (for this plane) weather.

Turning slowly, Xing Lei stared back the way he had come from. Eerily silent a wall of the ice spirits stood floating behind a shimmering wall. Sleet ran over this invisible impasse, unable to cross as he had. Even the elementals did not cross this divide, rather to a one they turned drifting back into the dreaded storm. Others simply collapsed by the barrier, the falling snow soon obscuring these hills as they had once appeared. Turning, the kobold could sense what he had felt at the start, it was here in this region that even spirits wouldn't trespass into.

Shaking away his thoughts, Xing Lei setup a makeshift camp. While the freezing temperature was still bitter, without the sleet he could at least make a fire to keep himself warm while he shifted his attention to reclaiming his depleted qi. Awakening after a few hours he looked to the fire pit that was soon to reside in a small water filled basin and stretched. Having his spiritual reserves back to what they should be he felt more confident continuing forward towards the goal he felt.

Walking onwards it was several miles before he saw a disturbance in the wasteland. As Xing Lei crested an actual hill, stabbing his blade into the ground a few times to check, he was treated to a sight he did not think he'd see here. A town! While the tall dark wall surrounding it obscured most of the details, it was an honest to heavens sign of civilization! Darting down the hill he raced towards the open gate house, rather surprised that a short line of beings was stood up before a grim looking figure in frost covered armored.

Every few minutes this large figure waved one of the line standers forward through the gate before inspecting the next. Xing Lei found this line up even stranger than the icy wasteland itself, all manner of beings from humans in thick robes to undead in tattered garments each waited patiently to be allowed through. With no other option, soon a kobold joined the queue. The line was much like any city he'd been to before, travellers, merchants and mercenaries comprised the visiting populace while the resident guard scrutinized them in turn before waving them in.

It was not until his own turn that the guard glared at the kobold, "You are not on the gate list."

Xing Lei was unperturbed and nodded simply, "I am a lost wanderer seeking shelter and a way ho-"

Before he could finish the guard cut him off, swinging forward. An ice cold badge was slapped onto his chest, the freezing cold of the sigil cutting through his protection like it were not but air. He could feel the could cutting through him painfully almost as if the cold was attacking his soul! Grimacing he stirred up his spiritual powers to fight back when he felt the guard squeeze his shoulder. "Do not resist outlander. The sigil will give you access and protection while visiting the Rime. You have twenty four cycles to find your way home or you will be expelled from the city." Waving Xing Lei through with no further word he motioned to the next in line.

Xing Lei absently rubbed where the sigil sat, the metallic badge appeared to be some sort of ice phoenix with its wings spread wide, in its claws was a scroll with strange runes that likely said 'visitor' so he could do little else but step into the city. The sight that greeted him made him want to run outside to check again, but the sprawl before him rose upwards and outwards far more than what he had seen from beyond the walls. Outside it looked like a city comprising mostly of single story ice huts surrounding an icy keep, but now inside it seemed that each hut was actually a representation of a district comprising many structures...

As he wandered the streets Xing Lei truly wondered where Tyrix had dragged him? Was he really still on the same world he started? These questions rose inside him as he walked down a market street and saw a sheer ludicrous amount of races. Elves whose skin was translucent like ice, a penguin dressed like a pirate, orcs that lifted flaggons of ale with short elven children carrying strange sling like staves. Even stranger creatures talked and traded further along he went, while he had heard the mainland was diverse, he did not hear that there were races as there were blades of grass!

Stopping by a tavern quickly cleared up his confusion. Apparently Rime, this city, was the hub for the quasi elemental plane of ice. A lesser plane existing somewhere between the major elemental planes of Air and Water, its busy state was due to being the primary provider of elemental ice fir other hub cities across the planes, literally everyone in the planar ways came here at some point for long lasting ice, though it was extra busy due to the elemental lord having skipped town some century before and the local powers that be had finally decided to storm the keep and reclaim rulership of the domain.

From the rumors, if the current leader less state continued, in the next century Rime would lose its elemental barrier and it would be buried under the eternal sleet storm so SOMEBODY had to plant their ass on the throne to prevent a major hiccup not only in planar trade but also to keep everyone who settled here from being buried in an icy grave. The patrons were also able to clear up the cycle question, apparently a cycle was a planar day, which for here was about sixty three hours by most prime planes.

As Xing Lei stepped back on the street he felt a little relieved that he had a fair bit of time to find what he needed. All that was left was figuring out exactly what that was! A way home was obvious but the pull he felt wasn't gate related, the portal to get back home was on another plane accessed from a portal outside the city. Yet something inside the city was calling him...