Session 084

# The Eldritch Frost Worm is Slain

**Age of the Wolf, Year 5, Autumn, Laelun Toil 2, Day 9**

*The party succeeds in slaying the eldritch frost worm and claims its heart. Fang Li foolishly trusts the party, and is immediately taken prisoner and suffers the amputation of her hands. After some disagreement, the party decides to press forward and assault the Rime Citadel immediately.*

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## Player Characters Involved

* King Nygäär the Fey Blooded Rogue/Fighter/Crusader played by Dana
* Esbjörn Fireforge the Fire Giant Blooded Barbarian/Cleric/Surtr's Chosen played by Greg
* Heiða the Dread Necromancer/Crusader/Valkyrie played by Justin
* Vindr Skreevarson the Mongrel Blooded Human Scout/Ranger/Cleric played by Donnie
* Jor the Emberwrought the Giant Blooded Human Transmuter/Beguiler/Human Paragon/Ultimate Magus played by Jason
* Irrian the Shadowborn the Human Shadowcaster played by Koski

## The Worm is Slain

After noting Esbjorn's attack on the larger frost worm, Nygaar came to a surprising realization; fire actually healed the creature. Hoping to close the distance between himself and the beast, Nygaar attempted to activate his boots of translocation, but the magic inexplicably failed. Jor watched from nearby, and with a mind-boggling leap of intuition and intellect he realized that the failure of boots could be explained because the area was protected by a weirdstone, an esoteric magical gem used to fortify castles and strongholds and prevent extra-dimensional movement and scrying. Calculating quickly, and knowing that Esbjorn had been able to transport himself out of the large worm's gullet, Jor was able to deduce where the boundary of this magical protection began and ended. Vindr, meanwhile, simply wanted to make space between himself and the large worm, and sprinted across the battlefield firing arrows as he went. Unfortunately, the tough hide of the massive magical creature largely protected it from harm.

To the north, Fang Li stepped forward and attempted to activate her own magical item to transport herself closer to the action, and was similarly stymied. Frowning, she waited to see how the battle progressed, much to the chagrin of the heroes who judged that she was hanging back intentionally. Jor, meanwhile, attempted to curse the beast, but even his powerful seidr was unable to have an effect. The two remaining worms, one small and one large, counterattacked. The small worm bit Heida with its jagged fangs; fortunately, Jor's magical protection had toughened her skin to the point where the beast failed to harm her. Esbjorn was not so lucky, however. The eldritch worm succeeded in biting him once more, and Esbjorn fought in vain to escape its massive jaws. Fortunately, Jor recognized that the large worm was outside the protection of the weirdstone, and acted quickly. Jor wove powerful magic to borrow a slice of time from the future, and pulled it into the present so that he could act immediately. With a wave of his hands, Jor made Esbjorn disappear, leaving a cloud of motes in the worm's massive mouth, as Esbjorn reappeared nearby alive and well.

Recognizing that the large worm was far from slain, Heida vanished herself, and sprinted into position to attack. As she reappeared following her attack, the party saw that she had cloaked herself in a swirling nimbus of shadow energy that spun and flowed around her, preventing any creature nearby from being able to anticipate her attacks. With a successful sword strike, and shouting out commands and attacking in such as way as to maximize her allies openings, Heida enabled her closest comrades Esbjorn and Nygaar to score extra strikes on the beast as well. Seeing an opportunity to inflict maximum damage, Irrian joined the fray, firing a sizzling black lightning bolt across the battlefield and striking both the small and large worm that remained standing.

Unfortunately, Irrian killed the small worm, and the subsequent explosion also detonated the unconscious worm Nygaar had neutralized only moments before. The battlefield erupted in the frozen shrapnel of flying viscera. While Vindr and Nygaar somehow avoided being meaningfully harmed, the rest of the party was not so lucky. Jor and Esbjorn suffered massive damage from the flying chunks of worm flesh, with the Harii wizard especially harmed. Jor was in a daze following his disruption of time, and the heroes paused momentarily waiting for him to recover before they finished the large worm once and for all. Vindr peppered the beast with arrows, and once Jor regained his senses Nygaar and Esbjorn fell upon the creature with reckless abandon. Nygaar struck the killing blow, and the large worm erupted in a massive detonation of fire, ice, and deadly shards of tissue and gristle. Near death, Jor once again bent time to his will, and called into being a massive wall of thick magma twenty five feet high that glowed with a dull red heat to protect himself from the blast. The spell worked, and the wall absorbed the detonation and protected all those standing behind it to the north.

## Fang Li is Taken Prisoner

The dust of the explosion slowly cleared, and where the eldritch frost worm had slithered just moments before, only a massive throbbing heart remained. The party turned towards Fang Li, eager to deal with the foreign witch. Seemingly out of character, Fang misjudged the situation, and approached the party with confidence, assuming that their bargain still held. Heida, thinking about what the spirits had told her, knew she only had moments to save Fang's life. Rushing forward, Heida called out in the tongue of Asgard, telling Fang to surrender quickly. Heida then changed her tone, and berated Fang for not living up to her part of the bargain and staying out of the line of fire in the battle against the worms. Irrian and his shadow elemental recognized Fang as an enemy member of the Umbrian wizards guild, and approached her menacingly. With no hesitation, Irrian drew upon his strange magic, and draining shadows erupted around Fang. The party watched as Fang's essence was funneled into the plane of shadow and she collapsed unconscious and drained of vitality.

At this, the heroes pondered what to do with the witch. In the background, all but Heida were surprised to see the undead corpse of Harald arise and begin to clumsily search for his lost battleaxe. It seemed that Heida had ensured that Harald would continue to serve them until his debt was paid, even beyond death and after being eaten alive by the frost worm. Nygaar frowned and rolled his eyes; his companions were well aware of his dislike for the undead. This moment of levity was broken quickly, however, as the heroes disagreed on what to do with Fang as she lay helpless at their feet, facedown in the snow.

Heida argued persuasively to keep her alive, invoking the warning from the spirits, much to Vindr's displeasure. Ultimately, it was decided that the witch should lose her hands, and that the party should take her captive for the time being. With the decision made, Vindr pulled his axe and stepped forward, eager to remove Fang’s hands as retribution for his prior bewitchment. Eventually the group decided that Esbjorn should be the one to perform the gruesome task, since Kappi Högg Brandr’s searing razor sharp blade would make clean self-cauterizing wounds and increase the chances of Fang’s survival.

The group quickly stripped Fang naked and looted her unconscious body. During that process, Heida noticed that the witch was covered in strange foreign tattoos that radiated conjuration magic and depicted stylized tigers. Then Esbjorn stepped forward and grasped Fang’s hands. In a ceremonial fashion, he intoned the names of each of the Fire Javelins that had lost their lives due to the orders given by Fang. As he uttered the last name of his kinfolk, Esbjorn swiftly and precisely brought Kappi down, cleanly amputating Fang’s hands at the wrist. Fang awoke for a moment, screaming in horror and agony, before passing out once more from the shock and pain. The vorpal edge of Kappi Högg Brandr’s blade had cauterized the wounds; with a quick spell of healing Heida ensured that the wounds would not fester. Fang effectively neutralized, the party ordered their newly undead servant Harald to sling her over his shoulder.

The battle over and Fang dealt with, the party discussed what to do next. Some wanted to fall back, while others thought it best to press forward and sack the Rime Citadel at once. They debated for a time, and took the opportunity to heal themselves of the many wounds they had suffered in their fight against the worms. Ultimately the party decided to press forward. They heard the war cries, drumming, howling of winter wolves, and war horns echoing down to them from the citadel, and realized the giants were waiting for them to approach and face them. Rushing into the mountains, the heroes climbed for perhaps fifteen minutes, the magical storm whipping high above their heads. As they reached the summit of the mountain, and saw the army arrayed against them, the heroes paused on a steep slope to prepare themselves. It had been a long time coming; it was time to face the frost giants once and for all.

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