¶ Icewind Dale WIki
- Icewind Dale ran from 2021-07-15 through 2023-01-12
- 60 sessions
- All consecutive weekly except for the following 12 weeks
- 2021-09-02 - cancelled
- 2021-10-07 - cancelled
- 2021-11-24 - Thanksgiving one-shot instead of normal session
- 2022-01-27 - cancelled
- 2022-03-24 - Out of the Abyss one-shot
- 2022-04-21 - cancelled
- 2022-05-05 - cancelled
- 2022-08-25 - one-shot
- 2022-09-15 - cancelled
- 2022-11-10 - cancelled
- 2022-11-24 - cancelled - Thanksgiving day
- 2022-12-01 - Dragon hunters one-shot
- 2022-12-22 - Christmas one-shot
¶ Random Quotes
"Surprise! They're shitters" - Zach W - 2021-12-23
"I think your autobiography will be called 'The Path of Most Resistance' if you ever have one" - Shawn to Matt - 2021-12-30
"You tear into this thing like someone just threw a cat in a bathtub" - Zach to Carmen 2022-01-20
"Don't fart up your own butt" - Scott quoting HBO Show "Minx" 2022-11-17
"I look straight in it's hammer eyes - ' you look very nice today hammer' " - Roger as Ilias 2022-11-17
¶ Session Notes
¶ Session 1: 2021-07-15
Ate some axebeak
Dannika Greysteel
- in Bryn Shander
- Thinks she's figured out the secret to the everlasting winter.
- We need to find some Chwingas
- Small elemental spirits that live in plants rocks and rivers away from civiliaztion, painfully shy, i've never seen one but my people talk of them
- We need to find some Chwingas
- Hands Felryn a weird glowing lantern to find the Chwingas (lantern of tracking elementals)
Bartender's name is "Skramshacks"
Guy walks in and tells bartender there's been a murder in Bryn Shander, whispers who and the bartender looks sad.
bar patrons whispering about the murder
Bearkiller knows that the bulk of dwarven tribes are based out of Kelvin's Cairn
Elder dwarf woman smoking a pipe
- 3 murders in the past month around tentowns (also at easthaven and targos)
- halfling trapper
- ship builder
- glassblower from bryn shander
- each murdered with an ice dagger
- Sephek Kaltro
- works for torgs merchant company
- gets around
- suspect of murders
- victims come from towns that sacrifice people
- Kaltro looked comfortable in the cold
- 100 gold to find and deal with him
- find out where torgs is headed (he will be with Torrga Icevein)
- last known heading toward easthaven
- bring him back to the dwarf woman
- half gold if we can't prove his guilt
- woman's name is Hlin Trollbane.
- Usually found at the Inn in evenings
- Torga Icevein = female dwarf
“Sephek Kaltro works for a small traveling merchant company called Torg’s, owned and operated by a shady dwarf named Torrga Icevein. In other words, Sephek gets around. He’s charming. Makes friends easily. He’s also Torrga’s bodyguard, so I’m guessing he’s good with a blade.
“His victims come from the only three towns that sacrifice people to the Frostmaiden on nights of the new moon. This is what passes for civilized behavior in Icewind Dale. Maybe the victims found a way to keep their names out of the drawings and Sephek found out they were cheating, so he killed them. Maybe, just maybe, Sephek is doing the Frostmaiden’s work.
“I followed Torg’s for a tenday as it moved from town to town. Quite the devious little enterprise, but that’s not my concern. What struck me is how comfortable Sephek Kaltro looked in this weather. No coat, no scarf, no gloves. It was like the cold couldn’t touch him. Kiss of the Frostmaiden, indeed.
“I will pay you a hundred gold pieces to apprehend Sephek Kaltro, ascertain his guilt, and deal with him, preferably without involving the authorities. When the job is done, return to me to collect your money.”
Whale oil lamps/stoves warmed room
Rented a dogsled team for 2 days to go to easthaven
Torgs redirected to the south towards Dougan's hole
- according to the fishmonger
Captain Imdra Arlaggat best person to talk to about any creatures living in easthaven, near center of town
hearing people talking about a heretical wizard that was jailed
- practicing bad magic, killed some people who he hired to go on an adventure with him
heading towards dougan's hole, then back to easthaven tomorrow for the trial and a visit to the orphanage and toy maker in search of Chwingas. Went through good mead on the way there and the lantern started glowing. elva stopped us and said there were spirits destroying her home and stealing her things
Found the chwingas, felryn convinced them to hop into her bag, we got paid by elva, we made level 2
¶ Session 2: 2021-07-22
- Made camp
- Auri used firebolt to start a fire
- Bearkiller cooked up some more axebeak
- Drift didn't like the food and ate berries instead
- Got some looks while going through Good Mead
- Old lady spat at us
- Heading to Dougan's hole
- Getting looks here too
- Stone structure on top of a hill
- Blankets on the ground
- Goods laid out
- 4 people bundled up and selling wares
- Short stocky dwarf
- Handsome gentleman standing around looking
- Sephek is a well-built man in his 30s
- Olive complexion
- Hair pulled back in a ponytail
- No facial hair
- No armor or cold-weather clothing
- Doesn't appear to be armed
- Eyes are as blue as a frozen lake
- Torgs packs up and walks to a house
- Sephek leaves the house after 15ish mins
- Followed Sephek into a barn on the other side of the town
- Epic battle with Sephek
- On death, blue glow left his eyes
- Lay on hands to stop death
- Human said "Please end me, it sleeps now but it will awake again"
- Bearkiller punched the human out again
- Long rest
- Deciding whether or not to stop at the wizard trial before heading back to Bryn Shander
¶ Session 3: 2021-07-29
Woke up - Sephek appears to still be unconscious
Shawn cuts his Achilles tendons
Shawn tries and fails to break his fingers, so Bearkiller does it
His breathing is haggard
Bearkiller Explained that he was alone just wandering and he followed the group because it seemed interesting
Bearkiller Explained to Drift why he is called Bearkiller
A Torgs employee found our barn looking for Sephek
Drift disguised as Sephek and fooled the guy away
Dogs break free from sled on the path. While we are trying to harness them back up, wolves attempt to attack us
Auri scares the wolves away with fireballs
At the fork, Auri notices large storm brewing over sea of moving ice, but Bearkiller thinks we can make it so we try to beat it to Bryn Shander
Storm starts while we are in Bryn Shander.
Drop Auri/Drift off at the Northlook with Sephek's body, and take the dogs back to the stable they were rented from
Bearkiller will walk back to the inn by himself.
Got paid by Hlin for delivering Sephek - split evenly
Bearkiller performs music with Auri by the fire - free rooms and food for the night from Skramshacks
Rumors at Inn:
- In Caer-Konig, local establishments are beset by vandals and thieves that skulk about unseen. The town speaker, a dragonborn named Trovus, could really use some help catching the interlopers.
- In Easthaven, they caught an evil wizard who killed some adventurers. The town militia plans to burn the wizard at the stake. I hear the captain of the guard is looking for adventurers to help with another task that may or may not be related.
- In Targos, a band of adventurers is planning an expedition up the side of Kelvin’s Cairn, hoping to find Oyaminartok, a goliath lycanthrope who can transform into a polar bear. If you hurry, you might be able to join the expedition!
Carmen joined vc exactly at the same time that Danica Greysteel walked into the Inn
Carmen got charm of the traveler's haven from the Chwingas
"We will be the wind breakers" - Auri
Felryn shares a rumor she heard our first visit in the Inn:
- In Lonelywood, beware the dreaded white moose! It attacks loggers and trappers on sight, and the town’s best hunters can’t seem to catch or kill the beast. They could probably use some help.
Party chooses to go to Easthaven and speak with the wizard, hopefully before he is burned at the stake
¶ Bearkiller: Between sessions 3 and 4
Level up to level 3
Dream walking along glacier. Look down and hands don't look the same. Bloody and smaller. Look at reflection in the left and see someone else's reflection that I don't recognize but seems oddly familiar
Debt and regret
Pale white skin, blonde hair, deepest blue eyes I've ever seen. Fear and cold chill me to my bones. It is Mab. Swore oath of conquest to her.
Make sure Auri survives, show Auril she cannot do as she pleases, Drift's fate doesn't really matter
Mab gives me a kiss, the cold doesn't leave me but seems reassuring.
New equipment:
- Frost brand longsword
- 5 restorative ointment
¶ Session 4: 2021-08-05
Woke up, met "Bear" Drift's pet wolf, got breakfast (fish - food is getting scarce)
Try to rent another dogsled - guy trying to charge 10 per day
- Haggled down to 6 gp per day
Head to EastHaven
- see normal signs
- Wood fire is burning, smells somewhat like burnt pork
- The wizard was already burned to death
Imdra Arlaggath
- Head of Easthaven militia
- sending us to White Lady Inn to find a map maker that is trying to map the coastline
- Find 4 fishermen that went missing to the NE of town (Lac Dinneshare)
- Don't suspect foul play
Confirmation that the avalanche that Auri and Drift got caught in was same day as avalanche from wizard, but completely different place
- Survivors heard a whispering voice before the wizard went mad and caused an avalanche
White lady inn
- 2 story building
- "Renaldo with a flourish on the R" = halfling fiddler trying to perform a séance
- Trying to summon "Lady who watches from the lake" who the inn is named after
- Frost forms on the windows and the candles go out one by one
- Something about a treasure in the frost caves
- "chiselbone"
Benefred "Bennie" Bonetinker - halfling bard (Scott) - mapmaker
- Just under 4 ft
- Thin
- Shaggy blonde hair
- Overstuffed backpack with map case along the top
- Pan flute and a lute hanging off
- Wide sash-like belt with a skull hanging off of it
- Studded leather armor
- Rapier
We agree to accompany Bennie to try and find the treasure and the missing fishermen
Found boat called "A Bunch o' Knuckleheads"
- 4 oars
- A dozen empty bottles
- Tracks leading south from boat
- They look humanoid
- Drift hears flapping of birds above us
- I look up and see two harpies descending on us
- Bennie casts dancing lights while we move into the cave
- I fall and Felryn uses gust of wind to derail harpies
- Now in rock caves
** Gem that Bennie pulled out of the wall
- Fell off of a frozen bridge in the cave onto a frozen river
- Bennie casted featherfall on me to break my fall
- Stumbled on camp site
- Party all climbs back down into the frozen river
- Hear the humming down a side cave
- Drift identifies the humming as coming from a hag
- Party decides to bum-rush into the room at the hag
- Hag called my sword a "weapon of Auril"
- Bear attempts to bite the hag, but Felryn blocks him with her sheild, so I stab the hag as she tries to crawl away
- Will-o'-wisp shoots through the room and we hear a giant crash
- Shattered remains of a frost giant holding an axe in the next room. Seems like the hag may have been trying to summon it to fight for her
What's left:
- Still haven't found treasure
- Giant corpse/axe
- Giant hag stew
- Unsearched hag corpse
¶ Session 5: 2021-08-12
Hag went to Neverwinter Academy
Neverwinter academy was destroyed in 1372 DR when it was suffering the whaling death
It is currently 1491 DR (?)
Bearkiller tries to climb waterfall - crit fails - breaks ice and we get attacked by ice mephits and water weirds
- Brutal fight but we won
- Top of waterfall was a cave
- Benny senses treasure to the north of cave
- Auri prestidigitates our clothes wet and warms us with her heat block thingy
Purplish glow at the end of the tunnel that looks like it is natural life from the rime (looks like aurora borealis)
- Wrecked ship at the end of the tunnel
- Bennie says it appears to be the one from his visions with the treasure chest
- I detect undead from chest and Bennie detects conjuration magic
- Bennie opens chest and nothing happens it's just full of gold
- Felryn reaches into chest and something reaches back and grabs on to her
- Killed the hands and the necromantic magic went away (divine sense no longer senses undead)
Short Rest
Search around ship
- Found insignificant fishing tackle and pointed it out to Bennie
- Bennie ranted for 45 minutes about how insignificant it was
I pick up cauldron on the way back out of the cave, but taking the extra path that we haven't taken yet
Drift has conversation with wild dire wolves
Will take the extra boat back with us so we have the room for the cauldron and chest
¶ Session 6: 2021-08-19
Notes missing because Matt missed this session
Images pulled from discord from this session
Recap given following week:
- Brought cauldron back to Easthaven
- Resolved things with family of White Lady
- Sell cauldron to Town of Easthaven
- Went to townhall to see captain of militia
- Cauldron was stolen by 3 individuals on an axebeak
- Someone allegedly tried to kidnap the mayor?
- 5000gp reward to return cauldron and the individuals that took it
- Alive
- Gave us axebeaks to pursue
- They believe the people are headed to Targos
¶ Session 7: 2021-08-26
Hunt for the cauldron thieves:
- Run axebeaks at ~3/4 speed to try to head off the thieves before they make it to Bryn Shander
- Got thrown off of my axebeak in second hour of trip
- Fed the axebeak bread and continued on
- Stopped by guards entering Bryn Shander
- They saw the thieves about 20 minutes ago
- We pass by a church for worshippers of the God of the Sun
- Catch up outside of Bryn Shander and make a plan of attack to catch them ~2 miles ahead of us
- Battle ensues
- Bear viciously mauls a dude and nearly kills him in one move
- First time we've ever seen Bear do anything
- Bear viciously mauls a dude and nearly kills him in one move
- Creature came from mist and attacked Auri - Auri seemed okay with it though?
- Now Auri is unconscious and appears to be braindead?
¶ Session 8: 2021-09-09
Last time:
- Left easthaven heading west towards Targos to intercept cauldron of plenty thieves
- Rode our axebeaks hard and killed one potentially killed another one…
- Confronted thieves right outside Bryn Shander
- Small battle ensued
- Trying to take them alive, but bear got over-zealous and killed one
- Captured the other one
- Leader mysteriously vanished into mist
- After battle:
- Encompassed by smoke with a haze smelling of brimstone and sulfer
- Figure approached Auri and cast some kind of spell
- The figure:
- Auri in a catatonic state floating horizontally in the air
- Those that attacked the figure were close to one shotted on its way out
NOW:
- We have the cauldron of plenty, two axebeaks, a passed out guard
- Appears to be some magic from the nine hells
- Drift makes an Auri Balloon
- Accidentally killed the coughing axebeak while trying to heal it with lay on hands (nat 1)
- Butchered 3 meals worth of meat (un cleaned)
- Smelly and covered in blood
- Getting a little hungry
- Ate a goodberry from Drift
- Heading back to Bryn Shander to stay the night
- From the woods:
- Human creature wearing something made of antlers on his head
- Lower half is not human at all - looks like some kind of goat or ram creature
- Approaches drift and says "You have a message from the Queen"
- Ilias - a humble servant of her majesty => Roger
- Vouched for by Drift
- Satyr
- Felryn explains the creature that attacked Auri as an "Eater of Dreams" Devil Lord from her childhood fairy tales
- Get back to Bryn Shander as the last bits of light leave the sky
- Guards at north gate not a fan of our appearance
- Benny trying to persuade the guards to let us through
- Skramshacks is the inn keeper at northlook inn!
- Take a bath in the bathhouse
- Hooded figure in the corner of the Inn => Rosine
- Asks about balloon Auri
- Short little badger looking creature
- Wizard
- Sahir
- From land far away
- Looking to meet new people and join quests
- Felryn watches the prisoner and cauldron while the rest of us play some music
- Ilias plays a lute
- Sahir plays spoons
- We play about 7 songs - a full set - hour and a half ish
- People come in and throw us money at our feet
- We make 20g - use it to pay for rooms and drinks
- Drift keeps calling balloon Auri a "toy"
- Drift and Bearkiller are very drunk
- Bennie doesn't drink
- Felryn playing intentionally bad music for the prisoner as a torture attempt
- Bennie tells a tale of a "fictional" sinister plot that ends with zentarim agents being behind the evil plot
- Dream puzzle from the dream demon
- Key riddle
- Sahir tells Bennie the dream demon sounds like Ashioc (sp?)
- Another dream puzzle with dwarf skulls
- Number puzzle
- Completed long rest
- Felryn suggests doctor McStuffins to help Auri?
- Ilias uses minor illusion to disguise balloon Auri as an actual balloon (Mickey Mouse)
- Looks like a cheap Mylar balloon from a kids party
- Rent one dog sled and we all head off to Easthaven
- Bring cauldron and prisoner to Town Hall
- Captain Imdra outside of Town Hall and is pleased
- People complaining that cupboards are being rifled through and gear from adventuring is being searched but nothing is being taken
- Chwingas?
- Muddy footprints
- Going into town hall to meet speaker and get paid
- Speaker gives us writ to take to the coin exchanger to be paid our gold
- Always welcome for safe refuge in easthaven and call upon aide
- Free use of the stables
- Dr Howser - most experienced healer
- Writ is worth 6k gold at the money changer's house
- 6006gp / 7 = 7 858gp per player
¶ Session 9: 2021-09-16
- Balloon Auri begins foaming at the mouth
- Brought Auri to DR Howser while Bennie found the shaman at the White Lady
- Shaman is doing a blood ritual (Ronaldi)
- Bearkiller cuts hand too deep
- Two giant snake-like creatures with legs appear in front of us
- I recognize them as remorhaz and they are very deadly and shouldn't be messed with
- Anyone getting close can be hurt by the body heat
- They will try to eat anything smaller than them
- Watched the remorhaz swallow Felryn and Bennie
- Auri creates 20 ft sphere of lightning around the remorhaz
- Lots of dead party members
- Auri cleans up house
- I recognize them as remorhaz and they are very deadly and shouldn't be messed with
- Doctors heard rumors of the break-ins
- Gave the cooks at the White Lady Inn some axebeak to cook for us
- Break-ins seem to be focused around town hall
- Focused on people who spend time on the tundra
- Focused on people who deal with the arcane
- "We were rescuing you from balloon dreams" - Drift to Auri
- A giant stole some mead
- In Caer-Dineval, no one has seen the town speaker for a long time. Locals say Speaker Crannoc has fallen ill, but sinister figures have been seen entering and leaving the castle at odd hours
- Party decides to go to Caer-Dineval for the devil worshippers
Party levels up to level 4
¶ Session 10: 2021-09-23
- Party decides to go after the devil worshippers in Caer-Dineval
- Arcana roll for "devil-ology" = 17
- 9 hells
- Leader Asmodeus
| Layer | Layer Name | Ruler |
| 1 | Avernus | Zariel |
| 2 | Dis | Dispater |
| 3 | Minauros | Mammon |
| 4 | Phlegethos | Belial and Fierna |
| 5 | Stygia | Levistus |
| 6 | Malbolge | Glasya |
| 7 | Maladomini | Baalzebul |
| 8 | Cania | Mephistopheles |
| 9 | Nessus | Asmodeus |
- I have heard given my upbringing in the far north that Levistus (in Stygia) is an ice layer itself and is a punishment for those from cold climates to live eternally naked and cold
- Levistus is enclosed in a block of ice as punishment for something he did to Asmodeus
- Departing for Caer-Dineval
- Deciding to go by dogsled
- Should be there around lunchtime
- We have free dogsleds and dog food now? O.o
- 2 dogsleds and enough food for a week for them (10 days in this world)
- Caer-Dineval is a fairly small town
- Dinev's Rest = Shuttered hotel
- The Uphill Climb = Tavern
- Fishing is a big part of industry here
- A lot of tension / hopelessness in the town as the ferries stopped
- Used to be the primary source of food/goods in the area
- Ferry stopped because Lac Dinneshere is frozen over due to the Rime
- Speaker's name is Cronoc Sever
- Has been ill for months and barely making any appearances
- Strange people coming in and out of the castle (Caer) at odd hours of the night
- Eat some chowder at the Uphill Climb
- Head to the Caer:
- "A sturdy, stone castle devoid of warmth and ostentation squats atop the cliffs overlooking the town and the frozen harbor. Warding the castle entrance are thick, battle-hardened wooden doors. Four cylindrical guard towers have wind-worn flags bearing the town’s heraldry fluttering above their tiled, conical roofs. These towers are connected by icy battlements and parapets. Atop the castle walls and within the guard towers, torches flicker."
- Felryn recognizes "huar (sp?)" standing atop the parapet looking down at us
- "We don't let people stay in the castle overnight anymore"
- "Not since the speaker has fallen ill"
- Scouting Dinev's rest in case we can't get lodging in the Caer
- Weather vane like a rearing dragon
- Ashen looking dwarves appear in front of us out of nowhere…
- (They are Duergar)
- New strange symbol on amulet after fighting Duergar
- Bearkiller believes this to be the symbol of Eldaph the Goddess of peace
- Two tied up Duergar
¶ Session 11: 2021-09-30
- Symbol of amulet is associated with goddess of peace (Eldath)
- Dwarves were Duergar
- Invisible Duergar = invisible thieves?
- Interrogate Duergar about nature of their mission
- Drift really wants to remove their fingers
- Benny converses with Duergar in dwarven:
- Lord Zordelock wants Chardelyn
- He's building something
- Has a fortress in the tundra - gathering Chardelyn there
- Points out fortress on Bennie's map. It is in the spine of the world
- Master Codroth - Speaker's right hand
- Speaker has some kind of coughing sickness making him too weak to go out about town
- Hethyl Arkorran
- Once she gives us her wisdom she'll die
- She doesn't like the fish
- Four statements
- 1. Xardorok Sunblight, a duergar warlord, will conquer Icewind Dale unless the characters defeat him.
- 2. Xardorok has a fortress on the surface, hidden in the Spine of the World. It contains, among other things, a forge powered by the still-beating heart of a red dragon.
- 3. Xardorok has a plan for the systematic destruction of Ten-Towns
- 4. You will die if you face Xardorok too soon. You must test your mettle against the horrors that haunt the farthest reaches of Icewind Dale before they can hope to survive the perils of Xardorok’s fortress.
- Has a seizure and shits her pants then dies
- Drift feeds her a goodberry - nothing happens
- The amulets are desecrated (divine sense)
- Thoob was sent to show us to our rooms
- "I guess the goddess of peace isn't so peaceful afterall"
- Walking towards uphill climb - walk through an area where it feels like the air is way more cold
- 2 figures approaching a bit off in the distance
- Features on face of guy not quite human looking
- Woman not dressed in any winter clothes at all. Wearing a cutoff shirt and a pair of shorts. Has dreadlocks
- Maeve the winter princess and her bodyguard
- Dropped the "Sir Knight" bomb on the group (Addressed Bearkiller as “Sir Knight” revealing that he is the Winter Knight)
¶ Session 12: 2021-10-14
No notes. Matt missed this session.
¶ Session 13: 2021-10-21
No notes. Matt missed this session.
¶ Session 14: 2021-10-28
Recap:
- Party with Maeve accepted
- transported to Targos
- debauchery all night?
- Maeve left in the morning and a militia was gathering outside
- We left
- escaped?
- Headed to Bryn Shandyr
- Narrowly avoided guards from Targos
- Headed back to Caer Dineval to get dog sleds
- Auri flaunted money and thugs attempted to mug us, we killed them
- Rested in Easthaven
- Party heading to Wyrmdoom Crag
- Location where my clan is from
- Opposing clan from Skytower Shelter
- Sunblight = forces of Zardarok
- Looking for White Dragon bones for a stew for Dannica
- Soup supposedly can protect against cold weather
- Heard of some sort of magical whale in the sea of moving ice
- Probably knows where Uriel's island is
- Last seen at Angajuk's Belt
This session:
- Heading towards Wyrmdoom from Easthaven
- Run into a storm at a clearing that would be good for a camp
- Make camp
- Bearkiller recognizes sound of gnolls cackling
- Humanoid Hyena looking creature
- Channel Divinity - Conquering Presence. Frightened is great :)
- Brutally murder the gnolls
- My sword seems to be growing hungry for more kills
- Large white creature jumps out of the woods and pins Ilias to the ground
- Snowy Owl Bear
- Brown patch of fur behind ear
- Was seen before (Session 6)
- Auri is now a walking Wal Mart
- Big production to get the dogsleds across the crevasse
- Long rest
- level up to level 5
¶ Session 15: 2021-11-04
- Encountered a baby yeti
- If young are around, parents are likely around too
- Irritable, volatile, and mean spirited creatures
- ~10 feet away attacking a wild rabbit
- Carmen tries to feed the baby yeti…
- Yeti parents pop out of the snow and start charging us
- Try to outrun them with the dogs
- Drift entangles both yetis with vines that look super unnatural in the snow
- Come across a not fully river that branches in multiple directions
- Flicker of light in water
- Blinds Felryn
- Clan has passed legends of people that have died in the cold
- Fury towards Uriel brings them back to the life
- Embodiment of fury and cold itself
- Cold does nothing to them because they feel nothing
- "Cold Light Walkers"
- Anytime they slay someone, that person turns completely frozen solid
- Spent a day chopping trees to make a bridge across the river
- Drift skips two nights of sleep and is now exhaustion level 3
¶ Session 16: 2021-11-11
- Drift looks bad from lack of sleep
- Person riding an axebeak approaching us from the west
- It's bennie
- He has a pet spirit snowy owl now?
- Ilias is playing rock paper scissors with himself (mage hand) while Bennie and Auri are talking with Drift
- A white dragon has taken up lair in the mountains
- Large crevasse with a singular ice bridge
- Ice troll jumps out of the woods to attack us
- Hateful deadly creatures
- practically impossible to kill
- Seem to be born of winter itself
- Violet blue blood
- We somehow killed it
- Felryn smears troll shit on all of us
- Auri prestidigitates us all and puts the poo back on Felryn
- Carved the heart out of the troll
- Bringing the troll with us to get some cred with the Thunlakalaga clan
- White dragon approaching while we are setting up camp
- Very dramatic conversation between Drift and Auri
¶ Session 17: 2021-11-18
- Play by post between sessions regarding Chardalyn objects
- Text on rim of Felryn's Chardalyn coin says “A deal made, a bargain kept”
- Auri chases Drift out of the hut, Bearkiller follows Auri to protect her (Mab's wishes)
- 5 hours before coming across Bear with Drift slumped over
- Bear comes up to me and licks my face
- Attempt to wake up Drift by yelling at her
- Attempt to shake her awake
- threw amulet into crevasse from the day before and then blacked out
- Bennie attempts to capture the soule from Felryn's coin using his cool lantern
- Spirit wrecks Bennie and Felryn
- Make it back to camp, there's still an amulet that needs to go away
- Whole party is going back to the crevasse, Felryn is pulling a dog sled to make the dogs happy (Drift used speak with animals)
- As we approach the crevasse, we see figures in the distance
- Group of 10 Reghed Nomads
- I don’t know much about them
- Felryn recognizes them as from the Tiger tribe based on Bennie's description
- Felryn runs up to them doing the purple cobra dance
- Felryn wrestles with the leader to try and win some of the belongings we missed looting in an earlier session (crazy card deck thing?)
- We join the nomads for the night
- Drift wants to play cards
- Deck of cards seems to shock Drift as it is opened
- "This doesn't appear to be a normal deck of cards"
- Drift tosses first card to Bearkiller
- cards appear to be made out of ivory
- card has a picture of a rogue on it
- appear to be some sort of tarot cards rather than playing cards
- No divine sense result anywhere near us
- Bennie uses detect magic and senses every single school of magic in the deck of cards (NOTE: Turns out it was a deck of many things)
- Nat 20 for drum performance at my tent
- drummer's trance?
- music becomes incredibly familiar but it's not goliath music it seems like I'm playing music that's familiar to me and alien to me at the same time
- when I come out of the trance I gain a point of inspiration
- DM from Zach with more information
- "You stand over a dead body of an elvish woman, your hands are sore from the grip on your sword. You look down and you see it humming with power, thirsting for more blood. It causes a fog to rise as it is covered in ice. You revel in the sight, you want to kill more, but you can’t. There is someone in your way, standing in front of you is an average size human male with blue eyes and sandy brown hair. He challenges you and says, you will not kill more this day. You snarl and charge at him, as you exchange blows, we feel the hunger of the wolf engulfing you. You heart has turned to frigid ice and you are prepared to kill this man. Your feral instincts are honed, you see he misplaces a step and you capitalize. You plunge your sword through his chest and feel it pierce his heart. You are gleeful as you take in the sight. Off in the distance you see a young woman approaching you with a smile…..is that Maeve? You return to yourself playing the drums rhythmically at the camp with the Tiger clan nomads."
- Drift pulls cards in the middle of the night:
- Ruin. All forms of wealth that you carry or own, other than magic items, are lost to you. Portable property vanishes. Businesses, buildings, and land you own are lost in a way that alters reality the least. Any documentation that proves you should own something lost to this card also disappears.
- This even included clothes, armor, everything
- Throne. You gain proficiency in the Persuasion skill, and you double your proficiency bonus on checks made with that skill. In addition, you gain rightful ownership of a small keep somewhere in the world. However, the keep is currently in the hands of monsters, which you must clear out before you can claim the keep as yours.
- Ruin. All forms of wealth that you carry or own, other than magic items, are lost to you. Portable property vanishes. Businesses, buildings, and land you own are lost in a way that alters reality the least. Any documentation that proves you should own something lost to this card also disappears.
- Familiar with our new location - nearing Wyrmdoom Crag (uneventful day)
- Setting up camp again in tiny hut
- On the way through the mountains, Bennie and Drift convince Felryn we need to pull more cards for the good of the party
- Drift pulls card with medussa-like face and feels as though a curse has taken over her body
- The card's medusa-like visage curses you. You take a −2 penalty on saving throws while cursed in this way.
- Bennie pulls a card (number 13 :O )
- Symbol of demon Levistus consumed his vision
- Bennie draws one more card
- Zach says "oooooo"
- "The cad of the idiot"
- Permanently reduced intelligence by 4 and can draw an additional card
- Idiot. Permanently reduce your Intelligence by 1d4 + 1 (to a minimum score of 1). You can draw one additional card beyond your declared draws.
- Drew the follow-up card
- Immediately lost 10k exp or 0 exp and keep level and HAVE to draw from the deck again immediately
- Fool. You lose 10,000 XP, discard this card, and draw from the deck again, counting both draws as one of your declared draws. If losing that much XP would cause you to lose a level, you instead lose an amount that leaves you with just enough XP to keep your level.
- No choice but follow-up card
- Card with a star on it
- Star. Increase one of your ability scores by 2. The score can exceed 20 but can't exceed 24
- Drift pulls card with medussa-like face and feels as though a curse has taken over her body
- Drift somehow convinces Felryn to let her pull ANOTHER card
- Talons of a bird across each other
- Talons. Every magic item you wear or carry disintegrates. Artifacts in your possession aren't destroyed but do vanish
- The deck disintegrates in her hands as well
¶ Session 18: 2021-12-02
- Felryn crafts cold weather clothes for Drift out of Bearkiller's cold weather clothes
- Drift gets crappy boots out of Abracadabris
- Head east around the mountains
- Arrive at small stream at foot of mountains - free flowing
- 10 ft gap
- speed of river preventing ice from forming at the top
- Drift casts water walk and we walk across the river
- Coffin dancing while carrying the sleds across the water
- Ilias casts silent image to convince the dogs there's a bridge over the water that they can walk over
- 2 legged tracks the size of a full-grown dragon
- not aware of any dragon that walks on 2 legs
- Only thing Bearkiller knows of in Goliath folklore that it could be is a Nightwalker
- A being that stalks about in the mountains leaving a trail of death where it finds life behind it
- Supposedly some creature that was not originally from this world but a mighty mage bound it here
- mage died so the creature roams the tundra seeking things to devour
- Bearkiller is a walking snow plow for the sleds.
- Find the avalanche that Bearkiller heard during his night watch
- Our path is blocked
- Benny finds a new path on his map which is a hidden trail in the ice
- Boulder falling on us
- Felryn stops it but suffers one level of exhaustion
- Getting attacked by white-skinned kobolds
- Throw rocks at us
- They roll another boulder at us, Bennie casts feather falling on it and suffers one level of exhaustion
- I rolled a 34 athletics to stop a falling boulder
- Kobolds were protecting a large egg (roughly size of two bowling balls stacked on each other)
- Ilias grabs it and takes a lot of cold damage from holding it
- Made it to Wyrmdoom Crag
- LEVEL 6!
¶ Bearkiller: Between Sessions 18 and 19
¶ Session 19: 2021-12-09
- We have made it to the Wyrmdoom Crag
- 4 Chwingas playing around dragon bones
- Weird that they're just running around
- Iligan (rootcarver) and Vagu (wildkiller) Thuunlakalaga
- Welcome Bearkiller home
- Guide us to Ogalai
- "This cavern has a domed roof thirty feet high and an open well in the middle of the floor. Two youthful goliaths use ropes and a bucket to draw water from the well while six adults wrangle a handful of exuberant goliath toddlers.
Rough-hewn stairs ascend to the southern part of the cave, where the floor is ten feet higher. Seated in this area next to a crackling fire is a female goliath with gray hair, many scars, and a white cloak made of mountain goat hide. Leaning against the wall behind her is a greataxe with a bone haft. She gnaws on a pipe as she tries to settle a dispute between two goliath children." - Old woman is Ogolai, Bearkiller's mother is in the room as well
- Bearkiller's mother greets him
- "Many summers ago, the children of Wyrmdoom challenged the children of Skytower to a game of goat-ball. During the game, the ball tumbled near one of the griffons of Skytower. When one of our children tried to fetch the ball, the griffon went berserk and grievously wounded her. The game was called off. Hungry for more of the child’s flesh, the griffon haunted Wyrmdoom for days. Our hunters were forced to kill it to protect the child. The two clans have been opposed ever since."
- 60 years separated
- "Goat-ball is a team sport similar to dodgeball. It uses a furry, misshapen ball made of stuffed goat hide and also requires a dozen or more elevated platforms (usually pillars or tree stumps) arranged in a random pattern. Two teams of four players clamber onto the platforms, pass the ball back and forth, and try to knock their opponents off their platforms. A team wins if all its opponents have been knocked out of the game."
- Bearkiller Found his father trying to nurse an injured aarakocra who has a broken wing
- Bearkiller uses lay on hands (full HP pool) to heal it
- Bearkiller brought Drift to the clothing makers for cold weather gear
- Bearkiller tells his story to the Elders and the group is welcome in the meeting as well
- Elders confirm me as the Winter Knight
- Felryn and Ilias attempt the crawl and fail
- Bearkiller joins the hunting party
- Advantage on survival rolls involving hunting for food
- Ogolai mentions one clan warrior (male named Kapanuk) was separated from hunting party during a blizzard and asks us to keep an eye out for him on the way to the Skytower
- Ilias "Young Goat" Thuunlakalaga
- Felryn "Long Crawl" Thuunlakalaga
¶ Session 20: 2021-12-16
- Dead dragon's name was Stygiarus
- Bennie using "Speak with Dead" to speak to the dragon
- Bennie captures spirit of the dragon in his spirit lantern
- White dragon lair - ancient white dragon that ten-towners call "White Wyrm"
- Some claim there is a madman who rides on her back
- Heading to Skytower Shelter (avoiding the yeti breeding grounds as it is during breeding season)
- On a watch one night - See a person walking along the mountain with a goat and a fox
- Auri conjures imperfect waffles out of the magic box thing
- Griffons announce our arrival
- Bearkiller blows both of his level 2 spell slots trying to convince Arn Akkanathi that I am the Winter Knight
- Command - approach
- To force Arn closer
- Zone of truth in an attempt to get him to believe me
- Command - approach
- Arn's one condition to meet is Ogalai's white cloak
- I challenge Arn to one-on-one combat:
- If I win, Skytower comes to the meeting, if Arn wins, he gets my sword
- I beat the crap out of him
- Bennie strokes Arn's ego and convinces him to allow us to stay the night
- Arn introduces us to his husband and his blind mother
- Felryn wrestles some random goliaths
- A giant polar bear has been attacking their griffons and they have been unable to slay it
- Known as Oyaminartok - "The Winter Walker"
- Used to be a goliath that was bitten by a polar bear and now walks the world between both of them
- Can take the form of a polar bear or a hulking bipedal shape
- Elders use her name to keep young goliaths from wandering far from home
- Those who flee hear it laughing as they run away
- Lair is near the temple
- Plan is to stay the night at Skytower Shelter then go to the lair to attempt to kill the "Winter Walker"
¶ Session 21: 2021-12-23
- Drift heals a blind Goliath and becomes an honorary member of the Akanathi tribe - a very unheard of thing
- Drift "vision granter" Akanathi
- On the way to kill the polar bear
- Seemingly out of the blue, a winter storm arrives and we are now navigating through a blizzard
- Worried about the yetis hunting us in the storm
- We are out in the open
- Trying to continue through the storm to get away from the yetis
- Lights ahead in direction of the temple
- Not aware of anything except for temple
- Approach a building that isn't the temple - large hunting lodge
- Orange glow from windows
- Sign over building "Hunter's Workshop"
- Bennie knocks on the door and it opens on its own
- Bennie opens it the rest of the way
- Tree growing on the floor
- Has candles on it??
- Much larger tree past this tree
- Auri notices the small tree is magical
- Door behind us slams shut and locks as Drift (the last person) enters
- Nothing from divine sense
- List of names in elvish
- Alphabetical
- Checkmark or x next to each name
- Bearkiller and Ogalai have X's
- Felryn has a Check
- Ilias has an X
- Arn has an X, Drift had an X that was erased and is now a check
- Bennie has an X
- Woman in a white dress sitting in a dining hall
- "I am the spirit of past remembered"
- There is much I must see
- I must best her to show her my worth
- Transforms from beautiful elvish woman to a banshee
- Visions for each of the group:
- Bennie spoken to by harpers
- Initiation of group known as "the Harpers"
- Joined them because he wanted to be greatly remembered
- Sees them as the stepping stones to greatness
- "Benefred Bonetinker is a name none will soon forget"
- Paavu - Dark-haired man running down the streets - Paavu as he once was
- In town hunting a woman for Queen Mab
- Queen Mab says "She is part of a bargain made and her breath must cease"
- She is my lover - she traded a life for a life to release me as the winter knight
- Snow crushes me to death
- Town covered from avalanche
- Auri - in the winter fey but on the boarder between worlds
- See Mab and another figure
- Auri is a vessel of power (one of two) the power of winters overflowed
- "You chose your mother's side, but he chose your father's side"
- Felryn - Flashback to a younger Felryn with her family, vieing for her parents attention
- Constantly testing feats of strength
- People insulted her for her love of Auriel
- Ilias - Drinking
- "You live a carefree life of trickery and hedenism"
- Wife crying as man storms out of house
- Mother mourning son
- "These are the lives of the families your actions have shattered"
- Drift
- There are no images to show of Drift
- "Your past is a canvas erased. You have nothing to go back to. Only to press forward to."
- Woman gestures to door to the south and we hear it click as she vanishes
- Large Leonin male with red hair
- Ghost of Christmas Present
- Holding a cup of fire
- Vision
- Frigid ice - young woman with dark skin walking with sabretooth tiger
- Trying to get transportation across the sea of moving ice
- Seeking something on the islands
- Transported and see Bennie in Bryn Shandar
- Woman running in streets - something stalking her in the shadows
- "My God! What are you?!"
- A familiar voice says "Your worst nightmare…"
- Voice sounds like the voice of Ashiok
- In the Wyrmdoom crag - goliaths preparing for trip
- Paavu's adopted mother telling Ogalai the Akanathi can never be trusted
- In the Skytower
- Arn's mother wants tribes to be reunited
- "There is but one more set of visions you must see"
- Final door clicks open
- The woman in the vision was Bennie's harper friend - Ashiok is now Bennie's nemesis and likely killed her
- Figure in a black cloak
- No face - just inky blackness
- Holds its hands out - palms up, facing towards us, and closes one fist
- Turns fist over, points a finger at Bennie and Paavu and nods
- Room looks like a kitchen
- Final vision:
- We are in Easthaven
- Giant dragon made of black looking stone destroying the town
- Crushing buildings and killing people
- Geysers of ice erupt, ice mephits and ice devils come out
- Bearkiller asks if that's the dragon in the egg we found
- Points straight up out the doors
- Tree in foyer now has candles lit on it
- Black, purple, and pink flames are lit
- Room of broken door
- Drift ghost answers Drifts question
- Everyone is transported into a pitch black cavern
- Blindsight doesn't seem to be working here
- Even my sword doesn't glow
- Bennie's magic dancing lights do not glow
- Auri thinks we're in the eye of the beholder
- Drift stabs our eyes with shadowy tendrils and we all get 300 ft of Darkvision
- Rickety bridge with many places to fall through
- Cross bridge to exit of cavern
- One room per person
- Bennie's question: How to stop the rime
- Stop Auriel from casting it, there could be more than one way to accomplish that
- Everyone is now trapped on a stage with bars around us in a cage (like birds)
- Audience full of Bennie's in front of us
- Bennie holding a Shawm, Paavu is holding bagpipes, Auri is holding a Lyre, Drift is holding nothing
- We're all wearing the clothes that Bennie wears, and our gear is gone
- Play a song from Bennie's memory, audience cheers and demands another song
- Play another song from Bennie's memory, Auri and Drift do very well while Bearkiller does awful - audience still cheers
- Audience is happy and demanding another performance
- Trap door beneath us with sharp steel
- If you try to open cage door, the trap doors start to open revealing the spiky pit
- Another song - audience is raving, tearing their clothes off, mosh-pitting and frothing at the mouth
- Audience seems to be appeased, cage doors click open and swing outward
- Two more candles lit on the tree - white and green
¶ Session 22: 2021-12-30
- Bearkiller opens his door
- Perfect doppelganger of Bearkiller
- "One question, one truth"
- Stone dragon in the vision wasn't hatched from our egg
- "Your egg contains divine life, that was a constructed creature given life"
- Everybody finds themselves suffocating as they are buried under a great weight of snow
- Dig myself out of the snow. look around and see a flurry of white
- Looks as though we were buried in an avalanche
- Yell out - then see lights above the snow and dig Bennie out of the snow where the lights are
- As we all exit the snow, the enchantment falters and we are back in the room
- Bearkiller is the yellow candle
- Ilias' room:
- Transported into a hexagonal arena
- 4 walls covered in mosaics, each depicting destruction with one of the 4 elements
- "The door slams behind you as you enter this hexagonal room. Four of the walls are covered in mosaics, each depicting the destructive force of one of the four elements. Four nine-foot-tall, stone statues of elementals line the far wall across from the closed door. Above the statues is a row of square tiles with triangular symbols painted on them. Four of these tiles have fallen off and lie strewn upon the floor, which bears the following inscription"
- Four elementals trapped in stone,
- Their elements ordered to lock their home.
- Even patterns against all odd,
- A tile misplaced awakens its god.
- In proper order safely seal these four,
- Or best one of each to open the door.
- The mosaics:
A water elemental crashes through a city wall in a huge wave. In the center of the image is a triangle pointing downward.
An earth elemental looms over a group of warriors. A triangle pointing downward with a horizontal line through it is carved into its chest.
A fire elemental burns through a forest town. In the center of the flames is a triangle pointing upward.
An air elemental gusts through a stormy sky. Within the clouds is a triangle pointing upward with a line running horizontally through it. - "Even" and "Odd" has some significance to the missing tiles
- The statues are starting to crumble
- Look as though they could give way at any moment
- Ilias solves the puzzle
The odd-numbered tiles form a recurring pattern of open triangles that alternate between pointing up and down. Tiles 1, 5, 9, and 13 are upward-pointing triangles, while tiles 3, 7, and 11 are downward-pointing triangles.
The even-numbered tiles display a different pattern.
Tiles 2 and 4 point downward, but the first of them has a line through the triangle.
Tiles 6 and 8 follow the same pattern, but the triangles point up.
The pattern then repeats, with tiles 10 and 12 being the same as tiles 2 and 4 and tile 14 being the same as tile 6.
- Ilias was the blue candle
- Felryn's door:
- Question/Answer was???
- We're all underwater of a frozen lake
- We work to break out of the ice then get teleported back to the room
- Auri's door:
- Auri whispers her question
- Standing in a room with a pyramid of chalices overflowing with smoke (like dry ice)
- Inscription reads: "Blood is life, blood is power, pour it in and have friends devour"
- Ritual knife in front of the chalices with ornate snowflakes
- Bearkiller drinks from a cup of Auri's blood and now feels like he can cast the spell "Wish"
- We now find ourselves in the courtyard of Caer Dineval
- Ashiok is on the other side of the courtyard
- A host of creatures in front of him
- Ice Mephits
- Drift casts meteor swarm. Purplish creatures look a bit hurt, Ashiok looks bruised, All of the Ice Mephits die
- Ilias causes an Earthquake to crush Ashiok with the castle above him and it kills him while he laughs
- We appear back in the room
- All of the lights on the tree are lit now
- Figure standing on other side of the room and can hear someone tapping their foot
- Wearing Brown leathers and a green hunting cloak
- The owner of the shack
- Needs help saving his wife
- Waves his hand and we're all shrunk down to mice
- Flying Raven Mounted Rats (~20 feet above the ground)
- 7 Gifts under the tree
- Bearkiller gets a scimitar:
- Drizzt's sword "Twinkle"
Twinkle functions as a +5 defending scimitar that has a powerful enchantment that makes the blade itself sharper then it looks as its more then likely to strike true. The enchantment placed on Twinkle due to being forged by the elves of old, it cannot be diverted when in combat in order to make the wielder better at parrying an opponent's blows. The star-cut azure sapphire on its pommel glows a soft-blue when any form of danger is detected nearby. The sword is partially empathetic and may impart weak, based emotions upon you at will.
You gain a +5 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
The first time you attack with the sword on each of your turns, you can transfer some or all of the sword's bonus to your Armor Class, instead of using the bonus on any attacks that turn. For example, you could reduce the bonus to your attack and damage rolls to +1 and gain a +4 bonus to AC. The adjusted bonuses remain in effect until the start of your next turn, although you must hold the sword to gain a bonus to AC from it.
- "Ho, Ho, Ho. Merry huntsmas to all, and to all a good night" - Drzzt
- Bearkiller gives "Twinkle" to Felryn - she should absolutely dual-wield the two insane scimitars
¶ Session 23: 2022-01-06
- Still wandering in the middle of the blizzard
- Bennie and Auri getting altitude sickness
- Stop and camp - Bearkiller burns all of the food
- Party of Goliath hunters stumbles on us
- Party and dogs get altitude sickness. Let dogs loose to go back down the mountain
- Make it to the temple
- Dark granite with veins of gold running through it
- Dragon lantern with Bennie
- This is the place that Tiamat gave birth to the dragons
- Bennie argues with Stygerius
- Polar bear thing in the dragon temple
- ~600 years old
- Fight her to prove our worthiness of her help
- Proved our worth
- "What aide do you guys seek from me?"
- Aminotark - Wyrmdoom goliath formerly
- Part of one of the first groups of goliaths that spread to the spine of the world
- came across an odd looking polar bear
- fought the bear, and it bit her
- some kind of magic took over her and some kind of legacy was left to her
- she is now a "walker between the worlds of beasts and mortals"
- Helps people in the mountains that prove they are worthy
- mostly comes across goliaths that run away and try to tell a tale of her attacking them
- has been through the sea of moving ice and knows a path to Auriel's abode
¶ Session 24: 2022-01-13
- We see the sun for the first time since this adventure started (way up high at the temple - sunrise)
- Aminotark is the name of the mantle itself to guide people through the dale
- "I have not had a need for my old name in 600 years and have long since abandoned it. My old name matters not"
- Q&A Session with Aminotark
- Felryn and Ilias trying to hatch the baby dragon
- Drift did some fancy voodoo with Shar
- Ilias talks with Gwynuhvere
- Akanaathi arrive first with gryphons in tow
- Aminotark makes herself scarce
- Thuunlackalaga envoy arrives about an hour later
- Aminotark helps us convince the goliath tribes to reconcile
- "Speak my name when you are ready, and I will help you confront Auril"
- Disappears
- Hear a loud sonic boom and see a bright light flash in the sky
- Run out of temple
- See large black-winged thing take flight in the sky to the west
- loud screech that sounds like a sonic boom and a bright light come out of it
- turns and heads towards ten-towns
- Aarn lends us each a gryphon to fly back to ten-towns
- Dragon thing destroys Dougan's Hole and Good Mead
- starts heading to Easthaven
- We beat it to easthaven by about 15 minutes and alert the guard
¶ Session 25: 2022-01-20
Start the night with a nat 20 initiative for both Paavu and Drift!
Crazy fight with dragon
- dragon tries to run away while militia asks for help with a duergar attack at the town hall
- Bennie and Raquel's character go to help at the town hall
- everyone else chases dragon (Felryn and Ilias are ON the dragon)
- auri gets charmed by the dragon (chardalyn stuffs) and tries to choke paavu to death
- Gryphon is now on a death spiral
- Felryn kills the dragon and the charm on auri ends
- Best animal handling roll the whole campaign (17 lol)
- Gryphon death spiral saved
Vellynne and Bennie have an epic fight with way too many Duergar and a crazy ghost joins the fight too
Bennie frees the white lady to move on in peace
Then they free the speaker from the chair storage room
Dougan's hole has been completely wiped out
A few people were able to escape to Bryn Shander
In Goodmeade, every structure was wiped out except for the meade itself
- A few people were able to flee
We saved most of Easthaven - most of the dead were the militia
We saved the rest of ten-towns
Vellynne: “I need your help to find an ancient city buried under the ice. This city, Ythryn, is a lost fragment of the Empire of Netheril, whose wizards created many of the magic items we find scattered across the world today. It holds magic beyond our wildest dreams. We might even find something there to end this hateful winter. Intrigued?”
The arcane brotherhood has learned that the city is buried deep within the Reghed glacier. There's a magic waterfall - need magic to break open the glacier
"I believe such magic should be found in the fortress of Grimskall"
- built by the frost giants - located in the sea of moving ice now
Speakers have called an enclave to determine who is responsible for such a thing
- Caer Dineval speaker claims there is a fortress in the spine of the world, which is where we saw it launch from as well
¶ Session 26: 2022-02-03
- Discussing how to get Bear back while also getting to Sunblight
- 3 Verbeeg try to rob us on the open tundra
- Giants that resemble oversized humans
- primitively armed
- lots of spears
- speaker of goodmead was killed by verbeeg that was stealing mead from the meadhall
- Least murder hobo we've ever been
- Bennie gives them 45 pounds of food
- Drift heals a broken finger
- The snowy owlbear has found us again O.o
- Carmen somehow manages to gain the snowy owlbear as a companion ?!?!
- Snow storm will be upon us by late morning
- Masterfully stealthed our way into sunblight
- Grandolfo Mutzgart
- Xardarok trying to make her his wife?
- Wants us to kill Xardarok so she can take over. "I have no interest in the sunlit world"
- Looted Xardarok's quarters, triggered a poison trap in his room
- Chardalyn in closet and Chardalyn dragon on map table (both desecrated of course)
¶ Session 27: 2022-02-10
No notes - Matt missed this session
¶ Session 28: 2022-02-17
Last session:
- strange looking creatures in throne room harvesting spores off of a sentient mushroom (Mycanid)
- Auri blasted wayward shot at Xardarok's chardalyn throne which sprayed chardalyn all over Bearkiller
- Since then, Bearkiller's conciousness seems to be as if somebody came up and put him in a chokehold
- Gasping for breath
- fleeting visions of whatever controls him is doing things around him
- Saw it manipulate his sword which grew in size
- threw his shield down and now wielding weapon that seeks to devour souls
- Bearkiller has heated words with Felryn
- Bearkiller Solo'ed a giant underdark creature
- 98 temp hp O.o
- Dwarf walked along the walls of Bennie's spikes in the ground
- Gwert Brighthelm - summer court's knight - come to put a stop to Bearkiller
- Ilias and Bennie opened a door and got the attention of very many people on the other side
- Shinugami Matasuri (the old winter knight)
- Every fiber of Bearkiller's being wants to murder Gwert
And now:
- Smoke fills this warm cavern, which has a ceiling that ranges from forty feet high down to twenty feet high along the south wall. The source of the smoke and heat is a ten-foot-tall stone forge shaped like a pyramid with its peak sheared off. Ripples of heat and flashes of firelight spew from the top of the forge, which emits a deep, pulsating heartbeat. A five-foot-deep trough extends east from the forge, with rows of black anvils on either side of the depression.
Overlooking the forge are four twenty-foot-tall guard towers with gray-skinned dwarves standing behind their low battlements. Stone stairs provide access to the tops of the two towers nearest the forge.
South of the forge is an enormous, five-foot-tall iron platform fitted with cranes and clamps, with short flights of iron stairs leading to the top of the platform. Surrounding it is a clean-up crew consisting of a female duergar with a horn and six hulking bipeds, their white fur stained with soot. They are tossing scraps into a cylindrical container. In the twenty-foot-high ceiling above this bin is a wide, rectangular hole.
- Bearkiller failed first skill check against Gwert - paralyzed for 1 min
- Bearkiller is lit on fire by Gwert
- Auri unstuns Bearkiller after quite a few turns of free damage from Gwert
- Eventually Bearkiller puts the fire out
- Gwert successfully turns the team against Bearkiller
- convinces them that beating him senseless and taking the sword away will save him
- Bearkiller no longer has access to the two handed sword - no longer has knowledge of how to unseal it again
- It acts like a homing beacon (three weapons of Fae are aware of each other)
- Bearkiller can turn the sword back to the insane sword but it has a massive cost to do so (must kill someone he loves)
- Frostbrand sword now +2 and does 2d6 extra cold damage
- Still less powerful but seems not to have been sealed as well
- Shield still in the throne room
- Auri force feeds Bearkiller a potion
¶ Session 29: 2022-02-24
Healing up and some chat with the dwarves
Freed goliath prisoner - he was the goliath we were asked to search for by the Thuunlakalaga tribe (Kapanuk Talltree Thuunlakalaga)
Heart of red dragon beating in forge kept alive by magic
Auri prestidigitates the chardalyn dust off of Bearkiller
Bearkiller gave his old chain mail to the goliath and he found a warpick to fight with us
southern room:
- Inside this room, you can hear loud mechanical noises that seem to come from behind the south wall.
- Standing in the middle of the room, facing the double door to the north, is a seven-foot-tall statue of a female duergar in a scale mail robe. The top of its head above the eyes has been sheared off, making a space for a stone brazier that gives off a flickering flame. Chained to the statue’s pedestal is an emaciated, malformed creature with rubbery, purplish-gray flesh, a bulbous head with a metal plate bolted to it, and sinister eyes.
- mind flayer chained to statue
- duergar priest turns into Weird spiny creature = some kind of devil
- killed xardorok - he coughs and gets back up but now his eyes are solid black
- Can now fire blast of magic out of his forehead :O
- kapanuk destroyed the statue - it exploded in flames and screamed angrily in infernal then xardorok re-died
- Auri awesome portal trap into forge
- devil grins and disappears into a cloud of smoke when we kill it leaving behind the smell of brimstone
We get all of the treasures in the treasure room
Grandalfo frees all of the 10-towns prisoners and claims not to have any interest in 10-towns anymore, but she keeps the mind flayer prisoner
lots of cool loot
¶ Session 30: 2022-03-03
- Trying to convince Velynne to let us stay for the extra manta ray cloak
- Drift has a complete mental break trying to de-desecrate all of the Chardalyn
- Storms off and drinks away all the silver dust
- Felryn trying to bring Drift back to normal
- Drift, Felryn, and Bearkiller pick up a bunch of new character flaws
- Get Gryphons to expedite our travel to the sea of moving ice, Oyaminatark will help us cross the sea of moving ice
- Plan:
- Take Gryphons to Angajuk's bell, Oyaminatark secured us passage across the sea of moving ice there
- Horny walrus attempts to mate with Felryn
- sperm whale with boat on its back accompanied by dolphins
Giant walruses are enormous, ill-tempered creatures as big as elephants. A typical adult specimen weighs at least 12,000 pounds.
¶ Session 31: 2022-03-10
Ilias banana hammock…
300 ft darkvision for an hour from Drift O.o
attacked by weird merfolk(?) and a shark
Turned a corner and saw pale figures making lamenting cries
- Ilias tries to play them music
- Bennie will try to convince them not to harm us
- Drift pours beer on them and they feel better and disappear?
Next cave: 4 Sahuagin and 2 Sahuagin wave shapers
- Felryn jumps from ledge and rolls her ankle
Cliffhanger opening door to massive altar with lots of baddies
- Big dude has 4 arms!!
¶ Session 32: 2022-03-17
No notes beacuse Matt missed the session
Only note is that Drift apparently died this session
Notes from following week's recap:
- Drift dove through portal and then misty stepped back out - it collapsed and the Sahuagin hated us for it
- Shar altar - removed negative affects
- Drift tried making an ultimatum to make shar help Felryn, Shar refused, so Drift killed herself
- Slit her own throat
¶ Session 33: 2022-03-31
Bennie hands Bearkiller the Necklace of Prayer Beads from Shar's temple
At Aurils island
Ice Mephits
Ilias casts a smoke mephit as a familiar to speak with the ice mephit (whose name is Sopo)
- Follow the path to the ice maiden's house, but be careful there are yetis
- Frozen bodies in shipwreck with treasure
- New shipwreck over there
- can show us pretty statues
- "Big people" "owned the island" before Auril
- Really cool ice statues
- Through the blowing snow, you see a grand assembly of ice sculptures across a snowy field at the foot of the mountain in the center of the island. Closer examination reveals that the sculptures are completely faithful to their subjects: bears, elk, saber-toothed tigers, wolves, yeti, remorhazes, white dragons, and other creatures of the North. No mortal hand could create such wondrous works
- "Rising before you is a six-hundred-foot-tall mountain of glacial ice, its peak carved to resemble a gigantic skull wearing a crown. Weaving up the mountain’s southern slope are enormous stairs hewn from the ice. These steps, which extend from the base of the mountain to the base of the fortress, were clearly made for giants"
- Ice sculptures appear to be placed on purpose
- Encounter with Ice Trolls
- Introduced to Shawn's new character: Mips "The Weatherman"
- Gnome
- "Half-buried in snow near the edge of a bluff is a humanoid corpse clad in cold weather clothing. Clutched in one of its hands is an orb made of smoky-gray quartz.
A white weasel bursts from the snow near the corpse and stares at you with its beady eyes. A voice rings out. “Ye gods, I was afraid no one would find us!” The sound isn’t coming from the weasel, but from the orb."
- Professor orb summons a spirit which possesses Shawn's character
- Orb = professor scant
- Orb wants to stay with vellynne, spirit wants orb to stay with Mips
- Fight against spirit
¶ Session 34: 2022-04-07
Auril's Roc taking flight - we all try - and fail - to hide
Auril casts the rime above us
"Rising before you is a six-hundred-foot-tall mountain of glacial ice, its peak carved to resemble a gigantic skull wearing a crown. Weaving up the mountain’s southern slope are enormous stairs hewn from the ice. These steps, which extend from the base of the mountain to the base of the fortress, were clearly made for giants."
"The steps end in front of a double door made from slabs of ice with dragon skulls and bones embedded in them. Carved into the lintel is a single word in the Dwarvish script."
- Word above the door translates to: Grimskalle.
"The icy crown encircling the fortress doubles as a battlemented rooftop. Each prong of the crown extends forty feet above the roofline, and the prongs have 10-foot-wide gaps between them. Situated in the middle of the roof is a nest almost thirty feet in diameter."
Fighting a frost giant in Aurils cave
"In the middle of this immense hall stands a thirty-foot-long, ten-foot-wide, ten-foot-high dining table carved from ice and surrounded by a dozen blocks of ice that once served as chairs. Wooden braces against the west wall hold a pair of fourteen-foot-long bugles made from hollowed-out mammoth tusks. An ascending staircase of ice in the southwest corner has mist rolling down it"
"Six slender, gargoyle-like creatures made of ice squat on ledges twenty feet above the ground that protrude from the wall of this semicircular chamber. Near the back wall, the mist that blankets the floor flows down a staircase made of polished ice."
"The staircase descends into a vaulted chamber. A nine-foot-high railing of sculpted ice hugs the staircase as it descends to the chamber floor, which, like the stairs, is smooth and gleaming. A walrus as big as an elephant is having a grand old time rolling and sliding on the ice, paying you little heed"
- Ilias competes with the walrus sliding across the room
"The passageway leads to an anvil-shaped room with a door set into the far wall. Flanking the door are bas-reliefs of two female frost giants holding greataxes. Runes are carved into the door’s surface."
- In ice and blood, our folk are born.
To our great queen, we raise our horn.
We’ll fight and plunder in the morn.
To Vassavicken, we are sworn
"The passage leads to an anvil-shaped room with a door set into the far wall. Flanking the door are base-reliefs of two male frost giants that have been defaced, their features chipped away. Newer carvings above the door depict the glowering heads of an owl, a wolf, and a goat."
"The walls of this oddly shaped room are etched with elaborate panoramas of winter scenes. Set into the back wall is a door inscribed with a large snowflake. A single word is carved into the lintel above it."
¶ Session 35: 2022-04-14
- Endurance
- Your surroundings vanish in a flurry of snow and ice. When your vision clears, you find yourself in a raging snowstorm, standing at the edge of a Reghed tribe’s camp in the process of being dismantled. The nomads work feverishly to tear down their tents and pack them onto dogsleds. A few of them spot you and brandish their weapons. A tall figure standing among them calls out, “We shall not lie down and die for your pleasure, emissaries of Auril! Begone, vultures!”
- Ethereal snowflakes above our heads again - the mark of an emissary of Auril
- Help the elk tribe break camp and relocate
- Were attacked by the tiger tribe
- following the reindeer
- LOTS of levels of exhaustion are awarded
- Cruelty
- Velynne, Bearkiller, Felryn. The rest sit back
- Your surroundings vanish in a flurry of snow and ice. When your vision clears, you find yourself standing at the edge of a camp, its tents holding fast against a raging blizzard.
- Four elderly people on their knees with their hands bound, imposing figure standing over them
- Bear tribe going to kill the four oldest members of their tribe and eat them because they are out of food
- We kill the elderly people and that's it
- The others robbed the roc nest during the cruelty trial
- "ervation"
- (preservation)
- Your surroundings vanish in a flurry of snow and ice. When your vision clears, you find yourself at the edge of a camp under clear skies. All the fires in the camp are out, and the only sound you hear is the flapping of the tents as the wind hits them.
Closer examination reveals dozens of corpses half-buried in snowdrifts. It becomes clear that a massacre took place here recently. You hear the squawking of buzzards coming from the middle of the camp and see a half dozen vultures picking at two bodies outside one of the larger tents.
- Wolf tribe
- Inside one of the tents: Find a young boy in the fetal position holding a stuffed bear
- Gwynnyvhar takes the child to the astral plane while we hide in a tiny hut
¶ Session 36: 2022-04-28
Fight with Isarr Kronenstrom
Storm suddenly ends - large birds take to the skies
Fight ends. just the one dude plus some birds?
wolf watching us from the ridge
- speaks to Felryn - "The maiden demands the boy"
Final door opens for us
The passage leads to an anvil-shaped room with a door set into the far wall. Flanking the door are bas-reliefs of two male frost giants that have been defaced, their features chipped away. Newer carvings above the door depict the glowering heads of an owl, a wolf, and a goat.
A disembodied voice says, “This way is shut to all but those who pass the tests of cruelty, endurance, isolation, and preservation.”
Arranged about this room are three tablets of ice, each ten feet tall, seven feet wide, and one foot thick. They sit upright in stands that are also carved from ice. Script has been chiseled into the surface of each tablet. Another door stands in the middle of the far wall.
This chamber has a domed ceiling engraved with a giant snowflake. Two caryatids depicting a towering woman stand on either side of a door in the south wall. In the middle of the room is a five-foot-tall, claw-shaped lectern with a white-covered book resting on it.
Beyond the door is a small room filled with mist. Chunks of broken ice cover the floor.
Carmen gains the blessing of the frost maiden!!
Felryn has gained the Blessing of the Frostmaiden. Your eyes become as cold as ice. You gain immunity to cold damage. In addition, you can cast the cone of cold spell (save DC 15) once. You regain the ability to cast this spell when you finish a long rest.
LEVEL 8!!
¶ Session 37: 2022-06-23
AURI IS MABS CHILD!!!!!
Bearkiller is currently paralyzed from the waist down. Plan is to wind-walk to Velynne to see if she has any ideas, then will try calling Mab for help if need be.
-3 intelligence from bad dreams
Bennie's circlet is desecrated
- Auri tries to dispel magic - it fights back??
Bennie tries to dispel magic on Auri's bracelets
- Ice shoots out and now Felryn collapses unconscious, everyone else is petrified, and Auri is the only one unaffected
Wind Walk time
Tiger and Elk tribes battle it out for our fate - elk tribes won (protected us)
Velynne took the spinal chord of the last living elk tribe warrior from the battle and used it to un-paralyze Bearkiller
¶ Session 38: 2022-06-30
Ripped a safe door open and got the attention of 4 green flaming floating heads
Sparkling icicles as long as longswords cling to the forty-foot-high roof of this cavern, the floor of which is strewn with frost-covered blocks of stone and a toppled pillar. Embedded in the east wall is a glittering stone tower that appears to have crashed through the ceiling long ago. The exposed wall is cracked and has a few small holes in it but is otherwise intact.
Frost-covered blocks of stone jut from the floor of this ten-foot-high cave of ice. Perched atop the largest stone is an emaciated kobold with glowing red eyes. It bares elongated fangs as it hisses at you, then scampers away.
Vampire????
- We started owning it and it snapped itself away
Velynne using Arcane eye to scout the dungeon for us
¶ Session 39: 2022-07-07
No notes - Matt missed this session
¶ Session 40: 2022-07-14
Bennie, Mips, Ilias slay the vampire
Bennie removes curse from headband
- (restores 2 of my 4 missing intelligence)
Bearkiller eats a troll heart on Bennie's suggestion to attempt to regain movement speed
- no immediate affect but does feel a tingling
Stumbled on and fought a wraith
¶ Session 41: 2022-07-21
No notes - Matt missed this session
¶ Session 42: 2022-07-28
Last week: Fought some Rhamoraz and fought some Drow
This fifteen-foot-high, U-shaped cavern appears empty at first glance, but a sudden tapping draws your attention to the west wall, within which is trapped a black-robed figure with a golden visage.
Large pieces of stone jut from the twenty-foot-high ceiling of this empty cavern.
On the floor in the middle of this fifteen-foot-high cave is an eight-foot cube of smooth, grayish-green stone that is free of frost.
Halthwin - leaf lady
Charm of restoration - 6 charges - can use two charges to cast greater restoration or 1 charge to cast lesser restoration
Found Ythryn
Leave the charmed Felryn sleeping with the tree lady
The tunnel opens into a vast grotto enclosed by gleaming ice. Consigned to this frozen sepulcher is a fantastic city sculpted by ancient magic and illuminated in a haunting way by green and purple lights that shed no warmth. The city is slightly tilted, its spires leaning away from you as though recoiling from your presence.
You stand atop a causeway of frost-covered ice that stretches toward the city like the dead, frozen tongue of some hideous behemoth out of whose mouth you’ve just stepped.
Green and purple lights cast an otherworldly glow upon the frost draping the silent city. Clawing spires, broken domes, and steeples leaning at odd angles surround a huge citadel.
At the foot of the causeway, a giant statue lies prone and motionless, its surfaces gleaming with rime.
Velynne's brown leather bag on the floor next to the statue
A stone walkway leads to a tower that claws upward and inward, its pointed roof leaning menacingly overhead. Narrow windows pierce its walls, gargoyles cling to its eaves, and a doorway at the tower’s base gapes open.
An arching strut of dark stone rises from this ruined district to a junction high up on the central spire. A gate engraved with arcane sigils is set into the base of the strut.
A maze of cell-lined corridors fills this area.
Peering through the gap in a collapsed wall, you see a fifteen-foot-square infirmary in disarray, with an operating table in the middle of the room. Leather straps extend from one side of the table, into the air above its surface, and fasten to the other side. The shape suggests that something or someone invisible is lashed to the table
An arching strut of dark stone rises from this ruined district to a junction high up on the central spire. A gate engraved with arcane sigils is set into the base of the strut.
Attacked by 3 gargoyles while walking around the city
Construct of Netherese magic
“Faluud” - “faceless”
¶ Session 43: 2022-08-04
Reminder: Bearkiller has charm of restoration - 6 charges - can use two charges to cast greater restoration or 1 charge to cast lesser restoration
- used 2 charges to cure Felryn and Mips of their poison
A canopy of golden leaves crowns the trees inside a sunken basin. The trees grow in stark contrast to their bleak surroundings, their branches swaying even though the air is deathly still.
This colossal building has many lofty turrets in a state of disrepair, the ground below littered with their rubble. A giant-sized door at the base of the structure stands slightly ajar.
The city’s elite wore robes of silk that displayed shifting, illusory patterns.
Penguin (Kingsport) approaches you and hands you a piece of leather. scratched into the leather are the words "HELP ME!"
Epic fight with Scrivenscry
Sinks into portal as he dies saying "Scrivenscry will remember you"
Finally get a long rest!!
Bearkiller: Walk speed is back, dex throws no longer disadvantage, and Intelligence back!
Bearkiller's skin is beginning to feel clammy, and he don't trust anyone - he feels like they're trying to steal from him
Nothic walks into the library as we wake up wearing what's left of Velynne's clothing and her eyepatch hangs off of its back
Velynne dies and whispers "Disease, Karsus, The Nightmare"
- Bennie remembers: Karsus is the wizard that caused the fall of Ythryn
¶ Session 44: 2022-08-11
Reminder: Bearkiller has a charm of restoration - 6 charges - can use two charges to cast greater restoration or 1 charge to cast lesser restoration
- used 2 charges to cure Felryn and Mips of their poison
- 2 charges for lesser restoration to try and cure Mips and Bearkiller of disease
- 2 charges to use greater restoration on Iriolarthas the demilich
Ythryn is tilted but when you walk on it it doesn't feel that way - almost like gravity is altered within the city
Eight tusk-like towers are embedded in the walls of this monumental building, their spires arching over its shattered roof.
This tower reaches upward like a talon, its stonework studded in chiseled runes. A blue light shines from its highest window.
"faceless"
- Fusion of magic and earth itself
- purpose was to hunt down magical items to protect them and bring them back to Ythryn
A tower more than one hundred feet tall has a rotating glass chamber hovering above its ruined summit. Four pointed pillars clutch the chamber’s walls, giving it the appearance of a colossal floating crown.
Avarice and Auri have a moment to speak alone
Pass by House with markings of abjuration on it and a faint blue light in the window
Eight stained glass windows overlook a ruined auditorium. Benches glistening with frost are arrayed in broken rows, facing a raised lectern. A bejeweled goblet rests on the lectern. Steam rises from the goblet’s contents and dissipates in the cold air.
- Each window depicts a wizard that appears to be casting spells
- The spells depicted are blade ward (abjuration), mage hand (conjuration), true strike (divination), friends (enchantment), dancing lights (evocation), minor illusion (illusion), chill touch (necromancy), and prestidigitation (transmutation),
- We each take a turn taking a sip from the goblet and receive a charm
- I gain charm of abjurer -
- Charm of the Abjurer. This charm allows you to cast the blade ward cantrip as an action at will
Encounter:
- Iriolarthas the demilich, with 3 nothics that speak Loross instead of Undercommon trailing behind it (the demilich uses the nothics to open and close doors and clear obstacles, since it can’t do so)
We're now friends with the demilich and the nothics????
The walls of this thin tower are etched with intricate designs of hands and eyes. Silver light flickers from a high window, above which a large, carved eye animates and blinks. Part of the tower’s roof is missing.
Large gashes in the roof allow you to see the dark, icicle-festooned roof of the great ice cavern beyond.
Silver light emanates from a three-foot-diameter glass orb situated atop a two-foot-high cylindrical stone plinth in the center of a thirty-foot-diameter, rubble-strewn circular chamber. Eyeballs drift inside the orb, like fish in a bowl. Some have cataracts, while others are bloodshot or pus-filled, but all turn and gaze at you as you approach.
Ilias asked the orb a question and lost an eye
¶ Session 45: 2022-08-18
Ilias gets some free robes in a random illusion shop?
Fight with lots of blue creatures
- includes giant blue frog like creature in some sort of rage
Ilias hold-personed in a rage while attacking Felryn
- after he took down the owlbear
¶ Session 46: 2022-09-01
Some back and forth to try to free Ilias of his insanity
- Bearkiller's hold person was super useful for this
- Mips casts "remove curse"
Ashiok controlling Ilias?
Greater Restoration to un-attune Ilias from the Axe
A large telescope dominates a thirty-foot-diameter circular chamber at the top of the tower. Gazing into the telescope’s eyepiece is a hulking, frog-like biped in wizard’s robes that pays you no mind as it mumbles to itself.
Adamantine shields cover the observatory’s windows. A large chunk of stone from another building has crashed through the roof and embedded itself in the floor like a jagged stone knife. This intruding fragment bears a strange inscription on one side.
Split the party
Owl bear might be dead - again
¶ Session 47: 2022-09-08
No notes - Matt missed session
¶ Session 48: 2022-09-22
Glowing orbs are set into the walls of this thirty-foot-diameter circular chamber. Four giant hands made of shimmering force hover in the center of the room, guarding a tiny ornamental tower perched on a pedestal.
Fighting some weird glowing golden hands…
Auntie Pinch, Auntie Plunder, and Auntie Pillage want to steal a memory from each of us to eat.
- We start a fight with them
- Most of us fall asleep - Bennie isn't waking up - Felryn had a seizure like Ilias did before
¶ Session 49: 2022-09-29
Professor skant reminder
¶ Session 50: 2022-10-06
No notes- Matt missed session
¶ Session 51: 2022-10-13
Walked into the Museum and Auri immediately triggers a fight against 6 nothics
- Surprisingly small amount of damage taken by the party
Pick up shortsword emanating evocation magic
Suspended from the ceiling of a spacious fifty-foot square antechamber is the glittering, frost-covered corpse of a thirty-foot-long aberration shaped like a funnel, resembling an anemone. A tooth-filled maw at the wider end is surrounded by rubbery cilia, and around it dangle four limp, spindly appendages, each one ending in a clawed hand. At the opposite end of the body is a tail with a stinger.
A frost-covered plaque is bolted to a pedestal nearby, and the entire display is framed by four stone pillars that are, oddly, frost-free.
ADULT PHAERIMM—DO NOT TOUCH!
Dwellers of the Underdark, phaerimm are malevolent aberrations that are master spellcasters and highly resistant to magic. They use their telepathy to control the weak-minded. They strive to erase all other beings from existence and are known to have caused the collapse of the sarrukh empire of Isstosseffifil. They use their tail stingers to inject their eggs into alien hosts.
see the museum’s domed ceiling, which is still intact and a sight to behold. It depicts a powerful mage standing on a balcony of the enclave’s central spire, addressing a sea of Netherese citizens below, who stare up at the figure, cheering
¶ Session 52: 2022-10-20
Fight with some reanimated corpses
ambushed by a pack of wolves
- One of them has a breath attack?
- Lead wolf speaks - "They fear ME more than they do YOU"
- Bennie responds to this angrily, turns into a dragon and attacks all of the wolves at once
- Kills the lead wolf, the rest scatter, revives the lead wolf and we move on
Ice has engulfed the lower floors of this crumbling tower. Pink light pours out of the highest window—a single point of illumination in a dark and out-of-the-way region of the city.
An elderly woman sits rigidly on a black throne, shrouded in ice. She wears a crown of entwined iron tentacles, and her forehead is bruised where the band fits tightly against her skull. An inscription decorates the wall behind her.
- She is alive????
- It's lead enchantress Avara!!
- "Destroy the crown, free my memories, let me have peace"
- Jonathan grabs the crown - fails a save - needs to put it on now.
- Jonathan is charmed by the crown
¶ Session 53: 2022-10-27
Ythryn was held aloft by the magic of an arcane sphere known as a mythallar. The mythallar also had the power to recharge magic items and control the weather.
Ythryn’s mages could extend their lives indefinitely by preserving their brains inside jars.
The wizards imbued certain spells with their own life force, turning them into living entities.
A tower rises before you, straight as an arrow. A faint light shines from in the spire’s highest window, and hairline cracks creep up its walls like ivy.
The tower’s interior walls are sculpted with impressions of humanoid forms pressing out from within—clawing hands and howling faces, captured in stone forever.
Many of the city’s residents owned strange chimeric pets, with winged hares and venomous baboons being particularly popular.
An obsidian tower shrouded in gossamer mist soars before you. Eyes carved into the stonework appear to fixate on you as you approach the entrance. The spire’s highest window emits a purple light.
This tower reaches upward like a talon, its stonework studded in chiseled runes. A blue light shines from its highest window.
¶ Session 54: 2022-11-03
"Averus' tower" is no longer here, 4 bodies in the ground, glass everywhere
Auril = Auri's childhood friend!!! And Avarice = Ashiok - demon calling himself Ashiok is not really Ashiok
A huge anvil chiseled with vivid blue runes rests in the center of a thirty-foot-diameter, thirty-foot high circular chamber. Resting atop it is a hammer adorned with matching runes.
Six armored figures stand guard around the anvil. At the rear of the chamber, the frozen corpse of a wizard lies in a pile of rubble. Blue flames flicker from braziers spaced around the room, illuminating a carved inscription on the ceiling.
"Epitome of fabricated life"
Killed the guards around the anvil
Attempting to smash Auri's bracers
- Heard a whisper "Bring me your items of power, and together we shall destroy them"
- Auri blows one of her arms off and half of her face
- Same with other arm/face/torso :O
Left off with Jonathan healing Bearkiller, Felryn, and himself while we hear loud noises downstairs
- Thumb Thump walks in while Bearkiller and Felryn are trying to help Ilias fit the anvil into his bag of holding
¶ Session 55: 2022-11-17
Matt showed up late:
- Bearkiller's an eagle now?
- Tried (and failed) to shit on the thumb-thump while flying out the window to escape
- Jonathan convinces bird Bearkiller to come back in the tower
- then turns Bearkiller back into a goliath while he's sitting on his shoulder???
Learned stairs are a thing
Found dead Mips in the snow
"Don't fart up your own butt" - Scott quoting HBO Show "Minx"
"I look straight in it's hammer eyes - ' you look very nice today hammer' " - Roger as Ilias
An arching strut of dark stone rises from this ruined district to a junction high up on the central spire. A gate engraved with arcane sigils is set into the base of the strut.
"First, Shield thine heart with a wand from the NetherOak."
“Second, summon a flame in the palm of your hand.”
“Third, a burnt palm loosens the tongue. Shed a secret about yourself for all to hear.”
"Fourth, coax a secret from another."
“Fifth, quench the flame in thy palm with ice.”
"Sixth, hide thyself behind a mask." (Only Bennie and Illias have this one)
“Seventh, trace a circle with the ashes of the dead.”
"Eighth, stand firm in thy circle of death and consume poison"
Lots of secrets were shared as we followed the clues
Fancy magic platform elevator
¶ Session 56: 2022-12-08
Near the apex of the strut, the ceiling of the tunnel gives way to a landing that offers a view of the citadel’s uppermost reaches. Light from a high window illuminates a set of steps that ascend to a pair of mahogany doors in the tower’s face.
"Turn away now! Master Roathos is not seeing visitors at this time"
Ilias disguises himself as the archmage we found rotting and is allowed to go in - tries to convince blue dude to let whole group in
- Ruse seems to work????
Door hinges and pullers are made of Chardalyn
Chamber music washes over you as you enter this ballroom. In contrast to the desolate, frozen ruins outside, a dozen people mill around in here, dressed in flowing silk garments and holding colorful hand masks and feathered fans. Noble courtiers laugh and gossip as servants move among them, offering sugared treats on silver platters.
"Master irilothas is taking us north, he's discovered an ancient frost giant settlement"
Ythryn became doomed on its trip north to the frost giants…
Master Irilothas brought a guest to his study with him
>> Reminder of the fall of Ythrin
High Conjurer Karsus, an archmage of this city called upon powers too great to control, the gods banded together to save this world. The goddess of magic had fallen and the corruption sunk into the fabric of winter. A slow rot held at bay by the magics of the 3 ice powers.
Guest was an albino tiefling?? ---- Ashiok??
Well-dressed revelers mill about, talking loudly to each other while servants carry bottles of wine and spirits around to refill their cups. Behind a rectangular counter, a bald, pale-skinned humanoid serves wine from an ornate bottle.
The members of Ythryn’s orchestra were known across the world of Toril as masters of their art.
Wonders from across the world of Toril were sold at the enclave’s Bazaar of the Bizarre.
By law, every mage was taught the prestidigitation cantrip and was obliged to use it to keep the city clean.
Everyone here is speaking in common even though all of the writing we've found has been in Larose (draconic script)
Avara has rarely left the city "these days"
Avara brings students around to be paraded around like animals from time to time xD
- (archmage of enchantment)
Courtiers lounge on luxurious cushions inside this circular chamber, smoking from long pipes and dining on fruit. Against the back wall is a large harp, its strings being plucked magically to fill the room with haunting music. In the middle of the room, a gem-studded, cubic wooden chest sits on a round marble table with an octopus-shaped base.
Citadel stasis chamber
Ilias gets called out as a fake Avara
Your reflections dance over the mirrored surfaces of this chamber. Eleven alcoves extend from the walls like the points of a star, each one narrowing to a niche where a gently glowing crystal is mounted five feet above the floor. The air seems to hum with pent-up power.
Suddenly, the crystals brighten as rays of energy burst forth one by one to converge in the center of the room. As more of the rays intersect, a translucent figure comes into view where their light converges: a bald man wearing a long, purple gown. His face breaks into a smile as he sees you.
"Everlast"
"The three mages devolved into madness and keep the party going"
"The master opened a dimension to another world to hide when the city fell - but it didn't go as planned"
You ascend into an oval hall glittering with frost. Carvings decorate the walls, and long icicles hang from the ceiling. A ten-foot-radius dome of translucent ice encloses the area around the shaft from which you emerge. At the far end of the hall, two blade-shaped patches of pitch darkness hover in the air to either side of a double door. A glowing green crystal roughly the size of a human fist is set into the arch above the doorway.
Auri disintegrates the dome, the swords come to life and start coming towards us, and that's the cliffhanger for the night…
¶ Session 57: 2022-12-15
Fighting the floating swords
Paavu and Felryn synchronized door opening :)
Lining the far wall of this hall are eight doors, each marked with a different arcane symbol. On the wall above them is etched an inscription in Draconic.
A vortex of glowing stars hangs in the air inside this chamber, slowly rotating on its axis. As the constellations move, they cast radiant starlight across the walls. Eight high-backed chairs, each bearing a different arcane symbol, face this starry miasma.
The walls of this roughly triangular room are filled with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Hundreds of books and scrolls were thrown free of their resting places when the city crashed and now cover the floor. Time and bitter cold have not been kind to them.
“Master Iriolarthas opens the door to his study when three or more of his apprentices—or those empowered by the goblet in the House of the Arcane—are seated correctly in the Chamber of the Ebon Star.”
This large chamber has lain undisturbed for centuries. On the upper level, all around you, are tables covered with wizardly paraphernalia. A soft groaning sound emanates from a shadowy, door-sized rectangle along the curved northern wall.
Staircases to the east and west descend to the lower part of the room, where a sunken library is situated in a twenty-foot-wide, ten-foot-deep circular pit. A ladder running along a circular track inside this hole allows easy access to the many books and scrolls on its shelves.
Perched on the edge of the pit are three aberrant creatures, each one staring at you with a singular, hideous eye. Floating above the middle of the pit is a human skull with wispy, arcane symbols forming above it.
Tiefling avarace passed out
Fighting a lich and some nothics
Weird kite thing on the right here appeared next to Auri when she casted a spell…
Bennie shoots 30 gallons of holy water at the lich (480 d6 damage!!!!)
- (holy fuck!!!!)
level up
¶ Session 58: 2022-12-29
No notes - Matt missed session
¶ Session 59: 2023-01-05
This large chamber has lain undisturbed for centuries. On the upper level, all around you, are tables covered with wizardly paraphernalia. A soft groaning sound emanates from a shadowy, door-sized rectangle along the curved northern wall.
Staircases to the east and west descend to the lower part of the room, where a sunken library is situated in a twenty-foot-wide, ten-foot-deep circular pit. A ladder running along a circular track inside this hole allows easy access to the many books and scrolls on its shelves.
A mythallar looks like an enormous crystal ball held in an ornate cradle. The globe sheds bright light in a 300-foot radius and dim light for an additional 300 feet. The globe draws magic from the Weave that can be harnessed for various purposes. For example, Netherese mages used mythallars to keep their cities aloft and empower their magic items. The bigger the mythallar, the more magic it can hold. The largest mythallars are 150 feet in diameter.
The Ythryn mythallar is a relatively small device—a mere 50 feet in diameter. To attune to this mythallar, a creature must finish a short rest within 30 feet of it, meditating on the mythallar. Up to eight creatures can be attuned to it at one time; otherwise, the Ythryn mythallar follows the attunement rules in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. If a ninth creature tries to attune to the mythallar, nothing happens.
All creatures attuned to the Ythryn mythallar can sense when the device is being used. A creature attuned to the device can use any of its properties, but only if all other creatures attuned to the device agree to allow it. The Ythryn mythallar’s properties are as follows:
While you’re on the same plane of existence as the Ythryn mythallar, you can use an action to cause it to fly in any direction you choose at a speed of 30 feet. All matter within 500 feet of the device moves with it. The Ythryn mythallar and all structures held aloft by it hover in place when not in motion.
As an action, you can cause one magic item you are holding within 30 feet of the Ythryn mythallar to immediately regain all its expended charges or uses. A magic item recharged in this manner can’t be recharged by the Ythryn mythallar again until after the item regains expended charges or uses on its own.
You can use the Ythryn mythallar to cast the control weather spell without requiring any components and without the need for you to be outdoors. This casting of the spell has a 50-mile radius. For the duration of the spell’s casting time, you must be within 30 feet of the Ythryn mythallar or the spell fails.
Featherfall off a balcony on the side of the tower
Beneath the great spire, a luminous fifty-foot-diameter crystal sphere rests on an ornate stand.
Use the mythallar to stop snow within radius of it
Auril after us while we go toward the obelisk
Fight with Auril. Auri uses "wish" spell to send Auril to the ethereal plane
entire group except jonathan paralyzed and scant starts floating towards the fake ashiok
- Scant merges with face of creature ashiok - who becomes viego
- "It's been so long since I've had to give a piece of myself up"
viego grabs auri and avarice (ashiok) and touches the obelisk as we see all of time flash before our eyes
- auri and avarice are passed out and viego is holding the godkiller in his hands
viego reaches into auri's chest and undoes the previous wish spell to bring Auril back
- stabs auril in the chest with the god killer
- Auril = viego's mother??
Bearkiller is now 15 years younger (5 yrs old)
gain 4 levels!!!!!?????
¶ Session 60: 2023-01-12
Viego trying to take Auri and Averace through a portal he opened up
Bennie casts forcecage to stop him
Viego stabs Averace with the godkiller sword
Auri uses Warping Implosion to leave the forcecage
Viego teleports out following Auri
Auri uses Telekinesis to take the godslayer from Viego and throw it to Bearkiller
- Bearkiller gets cut by the sword when missing catching it
- FOV goes dark - see memory of Long Crawl but it's different. I'm being chased by monsters I feared as a child which catch and devour me
Viego steals sword back by putting out his hand - it hits Auri as it flies by her
Auri forms telepathic bond with Bearkiller and teleports away
Viego goes through the portal
Bennie decides we should follow, so Bearkiller tells Auri to come back
Everyone goes through the portal and summons various beasts/familiars
- BENNIE SUMMONS STYGERIOUS!!
Auri gets the godslyaer to Felryn who does 200+ damage to a Remorhaz in one turn and kills it xD
Some battling ensues
Felryn gets to use the godslayer sword against Viego! TONS OF DAMAGE
- Viego seems afraid for the first time
Bearkiller finally does some divine smite on Viego
Auri casts disintegrate to do 202 Force damage to Viego in one action xD
Felryn gets to attack Viego with the godslayer again!
- KILLS VIEGO!!!!
globe pulses and starts to expand, platforms start to fall away
Ilias teleports us away - Auri doesn't come!!!
We did end the Rime - but winter never returned to the dale…
- global warming??
- nobody knows why
- Prayers to Auriel to bring back some semblance of winter
- Icewind Dale becomes prosperous part of the world
"The Wizard's Sickness"
- Mages who studied the arts all went insane over time (story for another day)
Bearkiller returns to Goliath tribes
- Visit from Mab in Wyrmdoom crag
- "I have a duty for you to perform knight"
- "Aurora has chosen a new Summer knight - meet him and remind him of winter's wrath"
- Bearkiller is a dutiful Winter knight until he is eventually replaced
- For shits and giggles, summer knight is Jonathan the frog guy xD
FIN