LV50「風霜にわかに」

Haurchefant: The incident with the new frontier hands? No, no, you need not elaborate─I have been following their progress with no small amount of interest.
Haurchefant: Brave men and women all... They do our nation a great service. The existence of a fortified outpost in Mor Dhona will do much to dissuade the Empire from trespassing on Coerthan soil.
Haurchefant: Right glad am I that you have chosen to lend your support to this endeavor. Never let it be said that House Fortemps does not acknowledge the efforts of her allies...or her debts.
Haurchefant: 'Twas in the spirit of gratitude that I arranged for sundry supplies to be delivered to Revenant's Toll. That the shipment should chance to be waylaid by heretics is poor fortune, indeed.
Haurchefant: Poor fortune, I say...yet not without precedent. If you would know the truth of it, these incorrigible villains grow more organized with each passing day.

Haurchefant: This new unity of purpose we attribute to their leader─the Lady “Iceheart.” But though I have devoted significant resources to the task of identifying this woman, we have yet to learn so much as her birth name.
Haurchefant: What we do know is that the heretics speak of Iceheart in reverent tones, and would gladly embrace death rather than betray her. Such loyalty is rare indeed, and I fear to imagine what so committed a collective might achieve.
Haurchefant: The brigands have not yet been so brazen as to risk direct confrontation here in Dragonhead. Some few of their number have, however, been sighted not far to the west of here...and with ever-increasing regularity.
Haurchefant: A visit to Whitebrim Front may bring you the answers you seek. Will you brave the snows knowing what implacable foes may lie in wait?
Haurchefant: Halone's blessings be upon you! Though I take no pride in the admission, many of mine own countrymen are not so well suited as you adventurers to dealing with such foes. Were they dragons, it might be otherwise!
Haurchefant: But truly, I could not wish for a finer ally. You have done much for my house in the past, and I have no doubt but that I shall have cause to celebrate your deeds again ere long.
Haurchefant: Should you learn aught of value, pray return to me forthwith. A warm hearth and a warmer welcome shall be waiting for you.

Drillemont: Misa, is there aught you would ask of me? Pray speak plainly─I am a man of action and need no honeyed words.
Drillemont: ...On the trail of a band of thieving heretics, you say? By the Fury, but you do seem destined to cross paths with those villains.
Drillemont: I must confess, then, 'tis a sad truth that the wilds hereabouts have indeed grown thick with their number. They strike swiftly, without warning, and are canny enough to evade our most able trackers.
Drillemont: But 'tis not merely their newfound organization that confounds us: the heretics themselves seem somehow changed.
Drillemont: I know not what manner of influence this Iceheart wields, but the men we face seem utterly lost in the grip of righteous fervor. 'Tis an unsettling and unnatural zeal.
Drillemont: Mayhaps you would care to question one of their recent victims? As fate would have it, your arrival came moments after a trader was waylaid on the road.
Drillemont: A patrol found the unfortunate fellow lying senseless in the snow, and carried him to our infirmary. Assuming he has regained the use of his faculties, the merchant might recall some small detail that could aid you in your task.

Mistreated Merchant: Tell you what happened? Why, yes, of course! I am quite recovered enough for that! Anything to help catch those cowardly blackhearts!
Mistreated Merchant: I was traveling my usual route to Whitebrim Front when a sudden blow sent me reeling...
Mistreated Merchant: The next thing I knew I was on the ground, and several heretics were rifling through my cargo─arms, armor, crystals...they were taking everything.
Mistreated Merchant: 'Twas then that one of them noticed my bleary gaze, and stalked over to better acquaint my head with his mace. Before darkness claimed me, however, I distinctly heard the words, “return to Snowcloak.”
Mistreated Merchant: I daresay that is where they were hauling my goods, but you'll not catch me rushing off in pursuit! They tell me 'twas a miracle I survived at all, and I'll not trust my thick skull to save me a second time!

House Durendaire Knight: Gah! Draw your weapon, foul─ Wait, I recognize you, adventurer. You are come seeking heretics?
House Durendaire Knight: Then we share a common purpose. We were on patrol when we chanced across one of their raiding parties, and pursued them here.
House Durendaire Knight: By rights, we should have had them cornered in this ravine...and yet, they are gone. Vanished, like icy wraiths.

???: Hmph...

House Durendaire Knight: You glimpsed a woman atop the cliff? Could it be Iceheart herself come to sneer at our folly!?
House Durendaire Knight: And to where did she disappear? The heretics must have discovered a passage through the frozen wall─some hidden tunnel that escaped our notice.
House Durendaire Knight: We have not the men to risk further investigation. 'Twould be best were we to return to Whitebrim Front, and lay our suspicions before Lord Drillemont.

Drillemont: Misa, it appears I owe you my thanks once again. The surviving knights spared no detail in their report.
Drillemont: The men you found out near Snowcloak were some of my finest. That they should be bested so handily... I fear I have woefully underestimated the threat these heretics pose.
Drillemont: While I understand you might balk at the notion, I must ask that you put aside your mission and consider the stolen provisions lost to us for now. 'Twould be ill-advised to blunder unprepared into what may well be the very lair of our enemy.
Drillemont: Pray return to Dragonhead and inform Lord Haurchefant of your discoveries. He will wish to plan contingencies of his own.
Drillemont: As for Iceheart and her fanatics...the freezing heights of Snowcloak will not shield them from our justice for long!

Haurchefant: Your return is most timely. Of their own accord, my thoughts had turned to your task and the progress thereof. I confess, my imaginings tended toward the grim and bloody.
Haurchefant: But you are here now, and I suspect such frivolous wonderings do little justice to the reality of your travails. Tell me, what did you learn of Iceheart?

Haurchefant: ...Indeed. And this transpired at Snowcloak?
Haurchefant: Of all the highlands, that towering wall has borne the worst of the region's brutal shift in climate.
Haurchefant: So inhospitable has Snowcloak become that we have still to survey the area in its entirety. Could its frozen heights conceal the heretics' hideaway? Mayhap a more robust reconnaissance effort is in order.
Haurchefant: Putting such considerations aside for the moment, we still know far too little of this Iceheart. That she is capable of commanding such a band of fanatics bespeaks natural authority, and no small measure of charisma.

Haurchefant: As much as I would like to fathom this mystery with you, the situation has grown beyond my personal purview. I am bound by duty to inform the Temple Knights and request that they bring this matter to its conclusion.

Haurchefant: Given the glowing reports their new commander has garnered thus far, I am certain that they can be relied upon to take appropriate action.

Haurchefant: Though Iceheart's true identity yet eludes us, you have provided us with a point from which to begin. Sometimes it takes but a single stone to prompt an avalanche.
Haurchefant: On the matter of the stolen provisions, I have already made arrangements for a second shipment to be sent to Revenant's Toll. I could not well allow such an honorable venture to be undermined by one miserable setback!

Slafborn: Misa! 'Tis good to see you return to the Toll! How fared you in the frozen wastes of Coerthas?
Slafborn: ...House Fortemps is to send us a second shipment? I must send thanks to Lord Haurchefant for his continued generosity.
Slafborn: Yet even as our town grows in prosperity, I fear it will attract ever greater numbers of those who would do us harm in the name of greed or power. All of us, Alphinaud's new recruits included, must remain vigilant against such threats.