Session 61

# March 25th, 2021 - The Ice Caves

## Ice Caves

The session began as the party descended the circular staircase cut into the ice of the mountain-top glacier. Their contingent of fifteen dwarven warriors bravely went first. At the bottom of the slippery ice stairs was a ladder that descended into a roughly square room, that looked like storage. As the group filed down into the room they noticed a sickly villager, coughing and not threatening. Lachlan's *tongues* spell was still active, and so he asked the villager what he was doing there.

Mend-nets replied their shaman could not heal him, so he was being left down here away from the others in the relative warmth of the caves in the hopes he overcomes his sickness. The villager did not know much about the ice caves, but of the two exits from their current chamber, the north is where the stink of trolls comes from. Thus, the group decided to first go south, but regardless both exits were downward sloping ice ramps. They would have to slide their way down into the darkness, and some dwarves happily went first. There was a scream from the female, and the other male dwarf yelled back that there was a deep pit at the bottom of the ramp - the female couldn’t stop and slid in.

The party started sliding down carefully, Rachen, Rufus, and Alburt made it down first. Other dwarves had made it down, and as they were going around a slight ledge around the pit along the north wall. The party members went around a similar ledge along the southern wall. In the middle of the southern ledge, some sort of magical trap was triggered and the ice wall gave out. Huge chunks of ice wall erupted outwards shoving the three into the dark pit. There were screams as they hit the side wall, which as they tumbled and slid along the side of the long tunnel they realized it was like a funnel, getting smaller as they tumbled.

Then three emerged into a cavernous dark chamber and landed hard on top of an ice pillar jutting upwards. Rufus caught himself, but Rachen couldn’t stop his momentum and rolled off the platform another dozen feet and slammed into the surface below. As Alburt fell down the tunnel he concentrated and was able to *polymorph* himself into a roc. The giant bird opened its wings after falling through the ceiling hole and barely missed the edge of the ice pillar, circling in the air back around to land safely. Rachen stood wounded but alive, unlike the body of the female dwarven warrior he found nearby. Her neck appeared to have snapped from the fall. Fourteen dwarves remained.

The *polymorphed* Alburt grabbed one of his companions in each of his feet, and flew them back up through the tunnel hole - to the surprise of the dwarves. Alburt then continued exploring through these above ice tunnels. The caves were massive, plenty for the roc to fly through - or a very large dragon to move through. There were two vast chambers nearby, one empty, and the other filled with frozen creature trophies and a fully intact sailing ship! The party was led into this chamber by Alburt and they explored slightly, but decided to return after securing the area.

Rufus could easily tell however that the ship would not fit through any exterior exits, and was clearly reassembled piece by piece, very poorly in fact. On the deck of the ship was a large open chest full of coins and gems, but the halfling didn’t disturb anything. The group had learned by this point that dragons had a connection to their treasure, and if old enough would sense if it was disturbed. The group with their dwarven force continued around the circular tunnel that seemed to ring the ice caves.

There continued to be ice ramps throughout, some going upwards, and others downwards. Everyone could easily slide down ramps, but climbing up them was a totally different story. The dwarves in particular did not fare well scaling the slippery surfaces, and generally stayed atop ramps until the party wanted them to follow. This happened as the group believed to have circled around to the direction Mend-nets said was where the ‘trolls stink was’. Alburt had returned to his normal form by this time, and had summoned his familiar - *the Breeze 3* - to continue scouting chambers.

One of these chambers was filled with the strangest sight. Over a dozen large, white ice toads using tools and inscribing drawing and markings on the walls and over tablets. Other toads were sorting items in floor to ceiling cubby holes in the ice. A few toads looked at the bird as it flew around the room, but didn’t seem to care. Most didn’t even break their attention to acknowledge the intruder, aloof to his presence. Alburt, mind controlling the Breeze, left the toads and returned to the group who had gathered at a nearby chamber entrance.

## Ice Trolls meet Fire Wizards

The dark, rancid smelling space in front of them was filled with floor to ceiling ice pillars, and a thick low mist. It was well over a hundred feet long, and the Breeze flew around the pillars scanning the darkness, first seeing a moving shape. Around the next corner the bird saw the clawed hand, and then black. Alburt snapped back to his senses, and briefly mourned the loss of the third incarnation of his familiar, stating there were indeed ice trolls in the cavern. The group could hear the monsters as they were charging towards them and the dwarves and party in turn ran into the darkness head on.

The dwarves let out battle roars as Rachen, Rufus, and Kiruna reached the trolls first. Then, Alburt let out a magical *fireball* that exploded in a sun burst of fire. The ice trolls screamed in pain as they burned and lashed out, their fire illuminating the space dimly. But Rachen’s *giantslayer greatsword* made quick work of them. Arrows and bolts flew true, and only a single dwarf was killed before all four ice trolls were smoldering corpses. Thirteen dwarves remained.

The group returned to one of the last upward ice ramps they had yet to explore, with some dwarves again boldly trying to climb up first. Again, some of the party members could easily scale the ramps first, and found two more ice trolls greeting them. After dispatching them, they found themselves in a moderate chamber filled with a large tent made of bone and furs. They could see figures inside that had not come out at the sound of battle, and thus the party charged in together. They found two quivering kobolds watching a ‘fire haired’ human woman silently reading over a parchment at her desk.

“Are you here to rescue, or kill me?” the woman asked.

They had found the target of their mission, the Arcane Alliance’s lost wizard, Maccath the Crimson. The group relaxed, and they learned what they could from the wizard. She had been here weeks, brought by the dragon when he abducted the *Draakhorn* - not long after she had discovered it and was returning it to Dragonfell. Robed humans that the party understood to be cultists of the Cult of the Dragon from her description, had come not long afterwards to take the artifact. They gave Old White Death more treasure for it, and she was left here.

The dragon hasn’t killed her because he is using her, to help decipher more of the magical texts he has accumulated. She mused at how this white dragon was the most intelligent she had ever heard of, it may be due to his age. Saying by his size he would certainly be classified as an ‘ancient white’. Maccath showed them through another tunnel to the north into a chamber with a large hole in the west side floor, and three bone shelves on the east. These shelves were filled with magical books and scrolls the dragon had collected over many years.

An extreme cold poured upwards from the pit.

Ignoring the yawning hole, the wizard described how she had become fascinated with the dragon’s collection - and had taken up the challenge. Some of these texts had been stolen from the Alliance at Dragonfell decades before. Then, Maccath acknowledged this was the second of two access pits down into Old White Death’s lair itself. The party said they had already ‘found’ the other hole, the one most used by the dragon’s minions to lower items down to their master. This hole was his more personal access to the knowledge kept in this chamber.

The party was determined to confront and defeat the dragon as since it was home, it would know if they attempted to flee. They went and collected the rope near the other access hole, and brought it back to the library. The rest of their dwarven warriors had made it up and into the library chamber once the rope was secured and they were ready. Maccath warned them that she knew nothing of the lair below, other than it was vast and pitch black. Rachen descended the rope first, descending over sixty feet through the ice pit until emerging through the ceiling hole into the cavernous lair chamber.

He kept climbing down into the open space, but could see a raised section of pillars below. Above him, his party members were climbing down the rope followed by dwarves. There were already piles of treasure he could see around. Rufus had reached the chamber’s space, and was still climbing down when the loud and monstrous roar of the dragon reverberated through the chamber.

“Who dares enter my lair?” Old White Death bellowed.

And that is where the session ended, it was still the evening of the two hundred sixtieth day since the raid on Greenest. There was just under a week until the second meeting of the Lord’s Accord Council.

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