Thus Far: Two hundred years since the Dataran horde was defeated the world is covered in ice. The theory is the Darklyte Armor's guardian dragon was killed and left a curse of ice on the world. Zeph the archmage has extended his life and roamed the world trying to put a stop to it. The Ryotians meanwhile have taken advantage and expanded their empire. Elene the daughter of Jerell and Marisana, an elf girl, has tracked Zeph down to urge him to continue the fight. Jaros, a Ryotian bounty hunter is hunting for Zeph.
Elene and her friend cannot seem to keep up with Zeph who took off after the bar encounter. Elene is being reckless in trying. Despite the urging of the friend, she keeps running blindly forward. They end up running into a snow giant!
Zeph swoops in to save the day again. He tells them they are lucky there was only one. Elene's friend turns out to be a tracker by the name of Tahjarra Darren. Seems to be a female Dran, not an elf like Elene. But she is not in it for the Ryotian bounty, she explains her job was to get Elene to Zeph. With that done she is ready to collect and leave.
Zeph offers triple payment if she can get Elene back to a boat and back home. Tahjarra accepts.
Before the deal can be finalized though, he tells them they need to get out of there. He used a lot of magic to defeat the snow giant and every tracker in miles will be headed their way.
He's not wrong. Shortly after they head out, Jaros and his group are sniffing out the location.
Zeph, Elene, and Tahjarra however have already arrived at his hideout. Kind of resembles Superman's fortress of solitude. 😄 He shows them how he's spent half his life here trying to find a way to stop the ice and snaps at Elene a little for accusing him of giving up.
They do not stay long however. After gathering some supplies and talking to Tahjarra about the Dran blade he has belonging to someone far greater than her, the group heads back out.
The plan is to walk as far as they can, camp till morning, then head to the boat. The plan gets cut short as they rest. An attack by the Ryotians happens. Zeph wakens the others to prepare and the fight commences.
Zeph's magic is ineffective against Jaros' Aethrl Armor. Outmatched in every way, Zeph and company get a small beating before being captured.
Luckily for them, Jaros is accompanied by Kezea. He stops Jaros from killing them because the higher ups in the empire have different plans. He orders the elf and barbarian put to work in the mines and the mage to be captured and taken with them. The empress would like to speak with him.
Some pretty good action in this issue. The encounter with the giant was pretty cool. Elene seems to be a spoiled child at this point. She is the daughter of an elf princess, and rather young, so it would make sense. Tahjarra has some potential. G'Dar, the berserker that raised Zeph, barely got any spotlight in the first series. Perhaps Tahjarra will play more of a role this time around.
The biggest disappointment of the issue though is how easily Jaros and the Ryotians defeated them. The fight lasted about as long as the fight with the snow giant. It almost makes Zeph seem useless without his magic. If that were the case and all Ryotians have Aethrl armor, I don't know how Zeph has survived this long! But it is still early in the story so there is still plenty of time for Zeph to shine! But will he? Not sure. He seems kind of emo depressed at this point. 😅
So will the heroes survive? Even if they get out of the Ryotian's hands, what are they going to do about the ice? Is it really caused by the guardian dragon's death?
To Be Continued!