The Frost Giant Shaman is somewhere in the complex. The party stands having defeated most of the Jarl's forces in combat. Two Stone Giants are captive and scores of dwarves come spilling into the courtyard from some unseen warren. The party decides to move with haste. Leaving Beleg behind to treat with his fellow Dwarves, they disregard the door through which the Shaman was seen retreating, and head into the manor from the side entrance. They immediately surprise another Frost Giant who works in the kitchen and dispatch him before he can beg for quarter.
A dwarf captive emerges from the crowd saying he knows part of the interior complex and offers to lead the party in. He knows also of a prisoner held by the Jarl in a library. Interest piqued, the party is led on to said library and sees an Eastrun woman floating in a blue fog. She appears to be trophy of sorts. Budokai throws a weighty tome at her and succeeds in moving her to the edge of her prison, but when he reaches for her foot, is pulled in after her. Jarvis and Sabretooth attempt to dislodge one or both of them using ropes, but are unsuccessful until Mai helps.
Once freed, the woman introduces herself as Lu-Chen, a sometime companion of Sir Budokai. Last she remembered, she was in Peakshadow winning purse after purse from an elderly male gambler with gaunt skin and drawn features.
The party presses deeper into the complex. The next two hours are spent exploring the gaudily furnished manor and cataloging its contents. When they emerge back into the courtyard, they find that one of the captive Stone Giants has been torn limb from limb by a crowd of dwarves which must number in the hundreds, perhaps even a thousand.
Sir Jarvis notes that the original path taken by the Shaman still has not been explored and the party cautiously enters that way. In a garden of snow and ice, they discover the Jarl's Shaman shouting down from high above as eight dwarves labor at lifting a giant ball of snow into the ceiling using a crank and hoist.
Before astonished eyes, Lu-Chen transforms into a squirrel and runs up the wall toward the crystal dome. Budokai leaps some twenty feet in the air and lands on the rising snowball before letting a rope down for Jarvis and Sabretooth who clamber up afterward. Mai and Quin exit the manor and use Mai's enchantments to fly up to the roof.
Budokai arrives before all others and despite wearing platemail, manages to sneak across snow to the rear of the Shaman and plunges his blade deep in the wizards back. The magic user whirls to face Budokai with a volley of spells, but Budokai is faster. Before any magic is unleashed, the elderly warrior and thief has dispatched his foe.
A few minutes pass in celebration before a distant explosion is heard and the party realizes that the captive fire elemental is loose in the manor. Mai flies down to reason with the creature but finds herself attacked for her trouble. It is all she can do to distract the rampaging tongues of fire before it destroys the entire manor. When its thirst for vengeance is finally sated, the party regroups.
The great ball of snow is now revealed to be an illusion overtop the Fallen Star which prompted their adventure so many days ago. The party gathers to discuss their next move when they realize that the ungrateful and formerly captive Dwarves are claiming the Star and its ore as their rightful spoil. Several of the party members seek to negotiate with the crowd but they will not listen to reason. They mean to have the star and use its smelted metal to return the natives of Dynkyr from their exile.
Realizing they cannot negotiate with a mob, the party agrees to quit the manor and avoid any further bloodshed. Using the combined powers of Fr. Patrick and the wizardry of Mai, they divide the ore into manageable portions and secret them out, invisibly. They then make haste, before their ruse is discovered.
At the base of the mountains, they recover the geologist, Nor Nidrah who is pleased to identify the ore as adamantite and mentions that the Rane of Dun Balnolmor will be most pleased to hear the tales verified. The party politely informs Nidrah that he can go his own way, as the person with who the King contracted is no longer alive. They mean to keep the ore for themselves. The geologist resigns himself to accept a parting gift of 10 crowns and is given the general direction North, as the party makes for Wanderhalt.