Date | Location(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
1 | About halfway through the day, you can hear grunting and arguing in the distance. You can’t quite make out what they’re saying over the wind. The party sneaks closer to learn more. It’s a large two headed beast, and Ettin, with a large cage hanging on its back. The cage contains a bear. The Ettin is arguing with itself about whether or not it should eat the goods it carries around and is scattered about the small hill its atop. The party determines that this monstrosity goes by two names, Grotto & Grobble, and can make out some of the bickering: Grotto has been gathering “ammunition”. He’s stock piling to protect the mountain pass. He has direct orders from Ugruk, and if Grobble intends on not helping he is a traitor. A small voice can be heard shouting, but the party can barely make out what it’s saying. Secret determines that she should be able to turn the two heads on themselves, and tosses mad magical shade at each of the heads from the other. The two begin to argue, and just as they begin to fight with themselves the party leaps out and finishes the job. After Grotto & Grobble’s demise, Secret releases a small mouse wearing elegant green armor from the cage he’d been locked in. Sr. Fero, Knight of Malipton, thanks the party greatly for their service to himself and Queen Plop of Malipton. Fero then requests your immediate aid, offering the Gem of Malipton, in exchange for your service. If you help him, he will grant you the town’s greatest treasure: the Gem of Malipton. The party turns Fero’s request down, noting that the entire mountainside is in danger from a greater threat. Fero is pleased nonetheless, and requests you visit them in Malipton sometime soon. The party journeys on, assuming two days left in their quest to find Icespire Peak. | |
2 | The party travels uneventfully. | |
3 | The party travels uneventfully. | |
4 | The party travels uneventfully. By nightfall, the party is racked with chills and their legs are sore from their long journey. They know they are close to the Peak, but cannot travel any further today. Tomorrow they will arrive at the base of Icespire Peak. | |
5 | You wake early to the whipping winds above your small snowy dugout on the edge of the trail you’ve been pioneering for over a ten-day. As your eyes crack open, you can feel crystals of ice fall from your eyelashes and hair. Your leathers and armor feel stiff, and the now scuffed and battered fur cloaks are doing little to protect you from the cold. The early morning stars are just beginning to fade as the dark sky breaks with an orange tint. The untouched snow glistens on the steep incline of the path ahead. You hear the striking of flint as Hovynn desperately tries to start a fire using some old cloths and dried hay she pulls out of the bag of holding you found back in Dragon's Burrow. You can hear the shivering around you as the rest of the party stirs awake. As the fire grows larger, each of you can’t help but circle around it. “The keep from Marldurn’s journals can’t be more than a few hours away. I have no idea what to expect, but we’d best be ready for anything.” The party convenes briefly and then sets out for a few hour hike. They finally arrive at Icespire Hold. A dangerously thin path is set before you. The treacherous stone path is marked by deep claw marks, suspended by precarious looking spires carved out of the mountainside. Reaching high above you is an ancient looking fortress, the craftsmanship reminiscent of the intricate stonework within the walls of Dragon's Burrow. A fresh blast of icy wind cuts through your cloak and armor, stinging your eyes as you take in all that lies ahead. A faint rusty creaking of the giant chains that tether Icespire Hold to the mountainside echoes over the cliffside. Set before you seems to be a path leading to a watchtower, seemingly separated from the hold itself. When travelling beneath the drawbridge... As you travel beneath a large, drawn bridge connecting the tower and the hold, you hear the deep groaning of what sounds like giant metal chains clanking within the guards tower. The drawbridges two sides crash down several feet, and after a moment you can hear the chains move again. Ronan sneaks ahead using his Cloak of Invisibility, approaching the door to the watch tower carefully. In a stroke of terrible luck and then a miraculous feat, he attempts to kick the door open which falls on top of him. Ronan silently launches the door off the side of the mountain and it falls so far the party barely hears a crash. The entrance to the tower seems to be in ruins, with torn apart scorched rubble lying about. Blackened skeletons of cattle, pigs, and horses lie about the rooms before you. Wooden doors remain entirely unhinged and splintered, and the faint smell of sulfur permeates the air. You can make out scraping across stone on the floor above. The party carefully ascends the staircase in the tower towards what sounds to be gears shifting. Secret bursts into the room, prepared for anything, and finds two owl-like creatures. Ansas: “Wait, we mean you no harm! We are members of the Emerald Enclave on official business!” Tyto, a much smaller owl-person, doddles forward, blade above her round head yelling, just as she trips on a pebble and lands face down in front of your feet. Her head rotates all the way around to look straight up at you with scared, black eyes. With a wave of Ansas’ staff Tyto is back on their feet. Ansas: “We have come to seek council with Venomfang. You must let us pass.” The party explains all that they know of—that Venomfang is missing, that a great evil is enveloping the mountain, and that there is another powerful dragon in the midst of the party. After. short conversation, the party helps to lower the bridge and enters Icespire Hold. The thick smell of sulfur returns as you enter the keep, and you feel an immediate relief from the frozen wastes outside. The hold is humid and warm, with still air and the scent of fresh water beckons you forward. Rather than the intricate rooms you were expecting from the map, the hold has been hollowed out into a single massive chamber. The walls and ceilings crafted by dragon fire, the stone twisted and shaped. It’s almost glass like in many places. Scattered around you is the most amount of gold you’ve ever laid your eyes on. Ansas whispers softly beneath their breath After beginning to make their way out towards the tunnel they’re looking for on the south side of the hold, a cool draft wafts through the massive room. Beneath the opening in the ceiling, coins begin to slide down the sides of the mountainous piles of treasure. Suddenly a blast of air enters the room, sending gold and jewelry flying across the room. The party hears a massive roar. Purple flames rip across the top of the cavern, and the heat warms your skin and armor. A deep, guttural voice echoes throughout the caverns: “You’re mine.” Thok’s Husk and Nazuum have arrived. The party battles the two for quite some time, with little help from Ansas and Tyto who flee as the dragon enters. By surrounding the dragon and Thok’s Husk, the party begins to bloody both of them. Hovynn yells to the party to run, but in the heat of the moment none of the members do. After most of the party has taken significant damage from a mix of fire and Thok’s large blade, the tide begins to turn. Thok is knocked off of Nazuum and surrounded by Ronan and Badhron, Askelaad distracts the dragon by throwing money at it, and Gael, Secret, and Brynaeris do significant damage from the sidelines. After being blasted by massive fireballs a few times, the dragon begins to cry out in pain. Brynaeris transforms herself in a giant venomous snake, and slithers beneath Nazuum. With a natural 20 she injects the dragon with all of the venom in her supply. The dragon lets out one last wail while crumpling to the ground. It’s black scales turn back to white, and the purple flames leaking from it’s eyes and mouth fade. Now corned by the party, Thok’s Husk attempts to run. After being struck with an arrow in the back, he successfully throws down a crystal similar to the ones the cultists were using and dissapears threw a glowing portal that appears in the ground. Him and the portal are gone before the party could do anything else. Nearly defeated and entirely exhausted, the party makes their way out of the Hold and towards the tunnel they’ve been searching for. The party is now level 5. | |
6 | ||
7 | ||
8 | ||
9 | ||
10 | ||
11 | ||
12 | ||
13 | ||
14 | ||
15 | ||
16 | ||
17 | ||
18 | ||
19 | ||
20 | ||
21 | ||
22 | ||
23 | ||
24 | ||
25 | ||
26 | ||
27 | ||
28 | ||
29 | ||
30 |
