There floated two prismatic sapphires amidst a sea of milk. The gems might have been beautiful, were they not glazed with a layer of frost. A glacial, deathly chill would radiate through every part of Emily's body. It was unnatural, magical, sedative. The sheer cold would blind her eyes, creep into her lungs and stifle her frantic breathing, pierce her chest and slow her heart. Its savage bite tightened the muscles and rendered one barely able to move.

After a mere instant of that sharp pain upon being pulled through the portal, Emily would be in bliss. All her woes, all her pain, gone in a moment. A most welcome change would occur, starting on her extremities and exposed skin but rapidly spreading. It was a heavenly warmth, the feel of a hearth inside a warm cottage, sweet as molasses. The ice demon's magical cold was so powerful that Emily's body was nearly frozen. Her damaged nerves conveyed a feeling of robustness, when the cold was already nibbling at her flesh. Her algific flesh would feel a warmth from outside. Her own body was shutting down, already colder than the air around, so she perceived it as cozily warm.

There floated two prismatic sapphires amidst a sea of milk. As the magically induced cold began to overtake Emily, forcing her into a deep sleep, the last thing she would see were the gems. They were strangely beautiful to a sleepy mind, though alien in a way. Emily would no doubt be saddened that her eyes would too foggy to see anything around the gems. That was all just a blur, though the gems appeared strangely clear in her vision. They were serene, deep, azure, like the ocean. Rolling waves, lapping on a sandy shore. The rogue being would fall into a deep slumber with thoughts of that picturesque scene filling her mind.

There floated two prismatic sapphires amidst a sea of milk. The flesh around them was a pallid blue, the color distorted by a layer of rime. Yet even hidden beneath the skin of ice, the demon's visage was heinous. Its face, long pallid from lack of blood and blue from cold, was perpetually locked in an eery expression of contentment and glowing warmth, warped and made sinister by the coating of hoarfrost. That look was the stuff of nightmares; sadistic in the happiness that it displayed as the demon chilled its victims until their blood froze. It mockingly mirrored the looks of those that fell victim to its ice magic, lulled into a sleep and left to thaw in a slave pen, or simply chilled until their blood froze.

The demon, clad in armor of crystalline ice frozen harder than steel, reached down towards Emily's slumbering form. Though it might have once had humanoid hands, the demon's fingers had blackened as its blood had flown to such extremities before freezing for good. The lifeless, frostbit things had then began slowly falling off. What stubby fingers remained had sharp, jagged edges like broken glass. The claw-like hands snatched up the rogue being. Hefting her over his shoulder, the ice wraith trudged away. They were in the courtyard of a great castle, though the bleak redoubt was erected of ghastly ice rather than stone. Kokytos' winds screamed through gaps in the fortress's outer walls, the bricks of ice packed beneath no mortar save loose snow.

The demon carried the girl through the courtyard. The esplanade was desolate, for no plants could ever grow in this frigid hell where the oceans were imprisoned beneath miles of ice and the flensing winds stripped the flesh could strip the flesh off bones. The ice wraith walked with a lurching gait through a doorway, and then navigated the labyrinth of identical, glacial passageways. At long last, they came to a throne room where a demon of massive proportions presided over his domain.

The ice devil and its master spoke for a brief time. Their tongue was harsh and quick. The sounds that reverberated from deep within their chests were akin to the booming cracking of ice, the shrill howling of blizzards, and the deep rumble of an avalanche. The floor shuddered as the great warlord stood. Unlike his servant, the warlord did not take the resemblance of a frozen humanoid. He was a giant, covered in wooly fur, with two great curled horns coming from his head. His arms were great and brawny while his legs were disproportionately short. Jagged, dagger-like teeth stuck out from his maw, giving the warlord a dim and utterly savage appearance. Yet beneath that facade the yeti-demon possessed a low cunning. It was not through sheer strength, but by wicked treachery and careful planning that he had become a warlord and come to control a small swathe of land in the vast realm that was Kokytos.

The ice devil was dismissed with a wave of a hand. The lesser demon skulked away, back to its post outside the fortress. With a few heavy steps, the warlord closed the distance between himself and the sacrifice that had been carelessly strewn on the floor. The warlord's brawny fingers wrapped around Emily's torso, that one hand easily able to lift her off the ground. He dangled the girl in front of his face to examine. He stared down the girl long and hard, wondering what use she would be. Her frail body was battered and weak, and the warlord already had thousands of slaves. He began to contemplate whether Emily would make a good meal, or be an amusing plaything. It was then that the ice devil's magic began to wane. Emily's slumber began to end, though the cold hadn't left her. When she opened her eyes, she would find herself held in front of the gigantic warlord's eye. There floated one prismatic sapphire, amidst a sea of milk.

===---_---===

The Carver heard Zadok. How had Its nemesis been able to devise and set into motion such an elaborate plan, while evading the notice of an equally omnipotent being in the vicinity? It was in the anti-keeper's memories that the guardian found the answer; the empyrean meteorite that Carver had summoned and hurled at the Ripper must have been corrupted. The Ripper was devious, and through Its wretched plotting It might grow powerful enough to win. That could not be allowed.

The Carver redoubled Its effort, gaining a second wind as the realization sunk in that this battle was far from decided. [b][i]"I sense it now. The monster's mind is preoccupied, it responds sluggishly and has went on the defensive. I will press the advantage that I still have while the Ripper is distracted. You must do whatever is necessary to cripple Its efforts. Your memories reveal that the meteorite has splintered into many pieces. You must locate the largest chunks, for those will undoubtedly have been sent to the most promising sources of power. 

Ensure that the Ripper receives no aid. Exterminate or convert any that would align with Its vile goals. If at all possible, it would be prudent to channel energy of creation and holy magic into the unholy artifacts. I suspect that attempting to assimilate such magic will harm the Ripper."[/b][/i]

[hider=Compendium Entries]
[u]Kokytos:[/u] An incredibly vast, near continent-sized chunk of land. A plane of everlasting frost and indescribable cold, it is one of five realms that exist in the world of demons, known as the Underworld, the Infernal Realms, and countless other names. The landscape is surprisingly diverse. There are lakes of frozen fire, great tundras with howling winds that could tear the flesh off of men, massive seas shrouded in complete darkness beneath miles of ice, and the occasionally river so briny or so enchanted that it manages to stay liquid, host to all sorts of aquatic demons and other monsters. Kokytos is inhabited by a great variety of ice demons, and is splintered into hundreds of smaller, warring kingdoms and aristocracies. This realm is unknown to almost all mortals, and can only be accessed through the use of ancient, forbidden, and incredibly powerful magic.

[u]Ice Demons:[/u] Lumbering yeti demons, pale blue ice devils, and elusive frost naiads are just a few examples. The millions of diverse inhabitants of Kokytos are colloquially referred to as 'Ice Demons'. The frost demons are feared by their forlorn kin in the other four realms, and have never failed to utterly break and repel attempted invasions of their realm. There are thousands of factions of ice demons, and nearly every kingdom is ruled by an iron-fisted warlord that has taken the role of aristocrat. The ice demons go to war in massive hosts, often fielding legions of soldiers clad in armor of enchanted ice that has been frozen harder than steel, carrying weapons of the same material or simply utilizing their ice magic as well as the near-universal blood magic of the Underworld.[/hider]