Date: 722 AH
Key Figures: The Seven Bows (Lítillfólk Rangers), Einar One-Eye (Giant Warrior), Jarl Hakon Ice-Heart (Frost-Fang Warlord)
The northern trade settlement of Frosthaven was a prosperous, neutral waystation nestled in a narrow, defensible gorge. Its peace was shattered when Jarl Hakon Ice-Heart, a brutal Frost-Fang warlord seeking to control the region's trade, descended upon it with his entire horde—three hundred of his fiercest warriors. The settlement's few giant guards were slaughtered, and its people faced annihilation or enslavement. In their desperation, the elders sent a lone, swift runner to find help.
The call was answered not by an army, but by individuals. From the frozen wilds came seven Lítillfólk Swarmkeeper Rangers, each a master of survival and guerrilla warfare, known only by the names the Frosthaven folk gave them:
Bjorn the Bee-Lord: Who fought with a swirling, furious cloud of winter-hardy bees.
Kara the Raven-Caller: Whose eyes were a murder of sharp-beaked birds.
Leif the Ice-Viper: Who commanded a nest of frost-adders from the crevasses.
Ragna the Snow-Fox: Followed by a pack of cunning, white-furred foxes.
Sigrid the Gnat: Whose swarm was a blinding, biting mist.
Torsten the Badger: Whose loyal, tough-skinned brood could undermine any foundation.
Ylva the Wolf-Sister: Who fought alongside two massive, silent winter wolves.
Their leader was a disgraced, one-eyed giant warrior of the Stone-Shield Commonwealth, Einar One-Eye, who had sworn an oath to protect the weak after failing his own clan. He saw in the Seven not an army, but a weapon.
Einar and the Seven did not plan to meet the horde in open battle. They would turn the gorge itself into a deathtrap. For three days and nights, they prepared:
Einar's Wall: Using his colossal strength, Einar built a makeshift but sturdy barricade at the gorge's narrowest point—the "Choke-Point." It was not meant to hold forever, only to funnel and delay.
The Swarmkeeper's Gambit: The Seven and their animal allies laced the canyon with horrors.
Bjorn's bees harvested sticky, flammable resin from ironwood trees.
Leif's vipers were gathered in hidden pits along the approaches.
Sigrid's gnats were bred in sacks of rotting meat, ready to be released as a blinding plague.
Torsten's badgers weakened the structural integrity of the canyon walls at key points.
When Hakon's horde charged the gorge, they met not a shield wall, but a nightmare.
The First Day: The Frost-Fang vanguard was met by a storm of stinging bees and biting gnats. They laughed at the "insects," until their exposed skin swelled and their vision failed. As they stumbled, blinded, Ylva's wolves and Ragna's foxes harried their flanks, dragging down stragglers. Einar stood at the barricade, his massive axe cutting down any who made it through the swarms.
The Second Day: Hakon, wiser, sent warriors to scale the cliffs. They were met by Kara's ravens, which pecked out their eyes, sending them tumbling onto the spears of the defenders below. Leif's vipers, released from their pits, slithered into the giants' camp that night, their deadly frost-venom claiming dozens.
The Final Stand (Third Day): Enraged, Jarl Hakon led a final, full-frontal assault. At the battle's peak, Torsten's badgers completed their work. With a great roar, a section of the canyon wall, strategically weakened, collapsed onto the heart of the horde, crushing Jarl Hakon and his elite guard. The remaining Frost-Fang, leaderless and broken by the unnatural warfare, fled in terror.
The Battle of the Frozen Gorge became a legend sung across Niflheimar.
Einar One-Eye regained his honor and founded a new order of giant warriors, The Gorge-Wardens, dedicated to the protection of the small and the defense of narrow places.
The Seven Bows vanished back into the wilds, their true names unknown. They became folk heroes, symbols that courage and cunning could topple brute strength. It is said that in times of great need, a Swarmkeeper Ranger will appear from the frost to aid the desperate.
The battle proved that a united front of giant and Lítillfólk, fighting with intelligence and the very land itself, could defy impossible odds. It is a permanent reminder to all would-be tyrants: even the smallest bee can defend its hive, and a canyon can hold the ghosts of an army.