06/10/2020 - Forge fighting, final farewells and goliath goodbyes

## TL:DR

* The group followed Fredericko into the star forge where they found him casting magic at the very unstable-looking Perpetuum ring, which appeared to be focused on a frozen ancient dragon.
* A fight ensued. Azurial eventually killed Fredericko.
* The group investigated the ring and dragon. Realised that the ring was holding the dragon in a temporal stasis, and that the ring was very damaged and in need of lifeforce to fix.
* After fixing the ring, the wild magic and crazy shenanigans across the island seemed to subside.
* Said goodbye to the giants, got paid 5000 GP by the Jarl for their efforts.
* Found the druids (who had taken over the pirate fort), had a big party with them. Told Daeron and Daeha about their mother and where they could find her body.
* Just as the group were about to leave the island, Rocky dropped the emotional bombshell that he would be staying behind (sad times). He needed time to find himself and had to work off the cost of the potions he had acquired from Hulvar, the giant brewmaster.
* Happy that the mission had been, but sad that Rocky was gone, the group sailed back to Ilbidor, already excited for their next adventure.

## Into the forge

Having been healed by Rocky, the group made their way over to the star forge where Fredericko was thought to have teleported. The entrance to the forge glowed an ominous red-crimson colour and vibrations shuddered around the room. Breena reminded everyone that the notes they had found suggested that at least five people needed to be sacrificed in order for Fredericko to animate the artefact, so maybe only some of them should approach? This was sensible, but as many people had already died in the vicinity of the forge, the group decided it probably made no difference if more of them approached, and would hopefully reduce the change of anyone else dying if they all went.

Ves cast pass-without-a-trace and the group moved right up to the platform before the forge. On the other side of this platform was a large hole, bathed in red-crimson light, that led down to another corridor. As Kayalith peered down the hole, a bolt of red light sparked up and struck her in the chest. Thankfully the bolt didn’t seem to affect her, so the group carefully climbed down the hole. Most people managed the climb very well (even Narko), though Cobb struggled somewhat as he was still carrying Leo in the “bitch box”.

## The ring and the dragon

The corridor at the bottom of the hole was blocked by a sheet of ice with a penguin-sized ice tunnel caved into it. This tunnel clearly led to the source of the red-crimson light, and the hums and vibrations here were noticeably more intense. Leaning out of the “bitch box”, Leo could hear Fredericko shouting and chanting in a harsh guttural language that he did not recognise. As they listened, another red bolt sparked out of the tunnel into Rocky, thankfully causing him no harm. Breena was the only one who could fit into the tunnel, and peering through she could see a large chamber and what appeared to be the front claw of a large unmoving white dragon. Realising that whatever Fredericko was trying to do was bad, Breena darted into the tunnel to take a closer look. Creeping to the end of the tunnel, she saw the full dragon reared upright on its front legs, its mouth open and glowing blue. The dragon was clearly frozen and was directly in front of the Perpetuum ring, which was vibrating violently whilst pulsing erratically with a red light. Unable to see Fredericko, Breena moved forward until she spotted him a few feet behind the ring, staring at it whilst chanting. However, before she could sneak back to the others, Fredericko suddenly turned towards her and chuckled: “you have meddled with my affairs for the last time!”. He then fired a ray of frost that sent Breena darting backwards.

## Forge fight

Hearing action from the other side of the tunnel, Azurial jumped into action. Activating his sunblade he began to melt/carve large chunks out of the ice sheet. Aided by the club and hammer of Kayalith and Leo, Azurial quickly carved out enough space for the others to squeeze through. As Rocky cast heroism on Azurial, Kayalith uttered some words and unfurled a large banner emblazed with golden runes that seemed to emanate courage and defence. With the tunnel now open, Ves and Narko dashed up to Breena. The ring, which was now sparking violently, fired a red bolt towards Fredericko, who swore angrily. Breena noticed that the sparks coming off the ring appeared to be hitting the ice behind and creating strange forms that shifted and turned within. As Azurial charged forward, Fredericko fired a lightning bolt at the group, knocking Narko and Breena unconscious, before beginning to chant with increased fervour. Cobb ran forward and lobbed a rock at Fredericko. However, a still chanting Fredericko raised his arm and sent the rock spinning back towards Cobb.  Thankfully, Kayalith’s banner deflected the rock harmlessly into the tunnel wall.

Having been healed by Leo, Breena got up and lobbed a firebomb at Fredericko. Sadly she missed, but did notice that the fire splash that hit the dragon was deflected by some arcane magic.  The ring was now pulsating extremely violently, and fired out red bolts at Leo and Azurial. Seeing Narko fall, Rocky quickly brought him back with a healing word, allowing Narko to fire an arrow deep into Fredericko’s body. Full of rage at being in the same room as a white dragon, Azurial charged forward towards Fredericko. Shouting a mighty vow of enmity, Azurial raised his sunblade and plunged it towards the penguin’s body. Fredericko desperately tried to invoke his shield, but Azurial was not to be denied, and his sunblade passed straight through into Fredericko like a skewer. Then, with a flourish of his blade, Azurial wrought Fredericko’s body into two. As the chanting died from Fredericko’s lips, the ring shuddered violently before dying down to a steady hum.

## Investigation time

With Fredericko dead and the Perpetuum ring no longer sparking, the group had time to investigate what the heck was going on. Azurial immediately checked out the dragon, confirming that despite being frozen it was definitely still alive. Concerned by this, Azurial and Cobb collected some of the chains used to drive the mining equipment and set about tying up the dragon’s body. As they did this, Azurial noticed a large scar across the dragon’s chest, above the heart, and recalled that an ancient white dragon named Ourvakathar, or the White Terror, had had such a scar. Breena also investigated the dragon, realising that the ring was somehow holding it frozen in a temporal stasis.

Leo and Ves decided to look at the Perpetuum ring. Leo suggested casting detect magic, but Ves sassily pointed out that obviously it was magic so this would be pointless. Leo was keen to cast identify on it instead, but Azurial and Narko suggested waiting until after a long rest just in case touching it hurt Leo and he needed healing. Ignoring this, Leo looked at it closely, realising that even in its dormant state it still tremored and flashed slightly, with occasional sparks coming from a series of tiny cracks across the ring.  He also observed the detail of the ring, with its ouroboros shape, scaled texture and tiny red-gemmed eyes from which the red light was emitted. As Leo prepared to cast identify, the giants, Azurial and Narko gathered around the dragon, ready to strike it if Leo’s spell somehow caused it to unfreeze. Reaching out his hand, Leo touched the ring. As soon as he did this, he felt a painful lurching sensation, as if his very being was being dragged into the ring. Releasing the ring, he immediately felt both injured and weak, as if his very lifeforce had been sucked into the ring. Looking closely, he watched as the ring shuddered slightly and some of its cracks healed. Not wanting to lose any more health, Leo decided to forgo a second attempt at the spell.

Finally, Azurial investigated Fredericko’s body. He couldn’t find anything of interest, so he asked Ves to take a look. Unfortunately, Ves was too disgusted by the blood and gore of the two-piece body, and didn’t find anything of note either. The search of Fredericko’s body reminded Breena that he had thrown a rather rude bag at them in the previous fight, so she rushed off to collect it. Sadly, it was empty, but Breena kept it so she could investigate its magical properties later.

## Rest and reinforcements

With everything studied as much as possible, the group decided that a long rest was very much needed. They also decided that it might be wise to ask the giants of Fellberg what they wanted to do about the ring-dragon situation considering it was their home right above it. Kayalith agreed this was a good idea, so went off to get some giant reinforcements whilst the others rested.

The group decided to rest just outside the forge area, where they could still see the entrance to the dragon chamber, but weren’t close enough to be hit by any errant ring-bolts. Ves asked Rocky to get some bedding with her from the dormitories they’d stayed in previously. Rocky thought this was a very forward proposition, but Ves reassured him that he wasn’t her type. Whilst waiting for the bedding-crew to return, Leo asked Narko if he’d consider pulling him around in a chariot if he ended up being paralysed forever. Narko agreed on the proviso that Leo refrained from any more horse jokes. Breena spent her time looking at the strange figures in the ice, which now seemed to be frozen. She was pretty sure that they had somehow been born from the sparks of the ring, and that now the ring was dormant they were dormant too. After building a truly epic pillow-fort out of the all the bedding, the group went to sleep. Narko slept particularly well, despite his earlier head injury, and the fact that Azurial shrank back to normal size like a particularly noisy balloon half-way through the night.

The group awoke to the sight of Kayalith, Narrow Bones, the Jarl and about 30 other giant reinforcements. Seeing Leo struggling to get up, Narrow Bones went over to him and cast greater restoration, fully healing his back. The Jarl then asked for a situation update. Ves explained that the Perpetuum ring was suspending an ancient white dragon in temporal stasis and that the ring had probably been causing all of the magical shenanigans all over the island.  She went on to say that they weren’t sure what to do about the ring. They could either try to fully heal it (by touching it as Leo had, which had healed its cracks) or try to destroy it. The issue was that either or both of these actions could cause the ring to release the dragon…

## Ring restoration

To aid their decision of whether to heal or destroy the ring, Leo used the divine magic bestowed upon him by Rilifane to consult the Universe for aid, asking it what the outcome of destroying the ring would be. Leo immediately got a feeling of intense woe, suggesting that destroying the ring was a very bad idea. Narko then turned to the Jarl and make it clear that in his opinion it was up to her whether they left the ring as it was or tried to heal it. The Jarl was undecided, but made it clear that they hated dragons and with 30 of them plus Azurial-the-dragon-slayer could probably kill it quickly enough if it did wake up.

With the general consensus that healing it was a good idea, Rocky stepped forward and grabbed it, taking several bolts of force damage. Concerned for Rocky’s wellbeing, Narko eventually dragged him off, admonishing him for letting it take so much of his lifeforce. Ves also touched it, though not for as long as Rocky. This seemed to do the trick, and all of the cracks on the ring healed over, leaving it blemish free and now just vibrating very gently. The ice surrounding the cavern also seemed to deaden, suggesting that healing the ring may have reduced or even stopped its influence on the landscape.

With the ring now fully stable, Leo cast identify on it. He felt a disconcerting pull on his mind, as if the ring was trying to drag him into a new dimension, but he managed to shake this off. He learnt that the ring did not require attunement, its magical construction and working was far beyond his arcane knowledge, it was hellish and infernal in origin, used to manipulate and control creatures, and required the life-force of other creatures to power. He also realised that is needed a constant supply of life-force, so the giants would have to continuously come down to heal it. With all of this information conveyed to the Jarl, she told the group that she would ensure the chamber was very well defended so that no other wanna-be Fredericko could get in again.

## Fellberg farewells

The group then made their way back to Fellberg, with the severely weakened Rocky riding on Narko’s back. As they passed the site of the previous fight, Narko suddenly remember Dagger, the pirate prisoner they had rescued/captured! He was nowhere to be seen, so it was assumed he’d got himself free and run off. The journey to Fellberg was uneventful, with the once lively ice now seemingly benign and void of any nefarious ice critters.

Back in the city, Rocky immediately ran off to find the giant, Hulvar Brewmaster, from whom he had acquired the potions and borrowed the staff of healing. After thanking Hulvar for the staff, and making it clear that it had undoubtedly saved several of their lives, Azurial noticed that there were many other potions on display in Hulvar’s shop and inquired how much a potion of giant size would cost. With a chuckle, Hulvar estimated the price at a laughably unaffordable 100 – 120K GP, but did offer to trade some less expensive potions for the copper dragon skull Azurial was holding. Ves was initially uncertain about this as she was of the opinion the skull should go back to the guild, but as it had no obvious historical significance and it wasn’t magical, she eventually acquiesced. Noticing that Breena was a fellow brewer, Hulvar offered her a range of potion ingredients in exchange for the skull. Eventually, Breena chose to take enough Venn rune fragments and oil of the slipcap mushroom to make 2 potions of truth and a potion of slipperiness.

After bidding farewell to Hulvar, the group went to see the Jarl. The Jarl thanked them for their bravery in dealing with Fredericko and the ring, adding that the previously encroaching ice had already begun to recede from their caves. She then confirmed that the group had truly earned their place among the Jotun and would always have a home in Fellberg if they wished. Finally, she handed the group a huge sack of 5000 GP, and proclaimed that the groups likeness and story would be immortalised in carvings on the walls of Fellberg. After ensuring that Kayalith and a very proud looking Cobb would remember all of the group’s actions for the carvings (including the “run around”, which made Kayalith roll her eyes), the group bowed to the Jarl and left.

On the way out of the city, Narrow Bones approached Narko and told him that he believed the rune-tablet was now ready to share his secrets with him. And indeed, as Narko pulled it out of his bag he saw that the once blank tablet now glowed with golden runes (#levelup). Breena then asked Narrow Bones if he could do the group one final favour and restore the health that Rocky had lost to the ring. With a smile Narrow Bones cast greater restoration on the goliath, which not only restored his lost health, but also caused him to regain the height he had lost previously! This made Rocky very happy, and the group bid farewell to Narrow Bones and Fellberg with big old smiles across their faces.

## Druid farewells

On the way down the mountain the group noticed that the weird bees, icy shenanigans, weird weather and mists had all disappeared. Passing by Aravae’s home, the group were sad to find her lying still on the edge of her flower bed, the unnatural wild magic that had sustained her now gone. After suitably arranging her body in readiness for her family, the group moved on, with Rocky looking particularly pensive.

Leo checked on his soon-to-be-awakened plant and was excited to see some early sprouting! Ves used druid craft (no wild magic!) to expediate the plants growth, causing a shoot to reach upwards with a strange “eeeuurggghhh” noise.

The group reached the druids by nightfall, and were told that Agatha and the other leaders were at the pirate’s fort, which they had now taken control of. At the pirate fort, they found Agatha ordering some disgruntled looking pirates to round up any guests they had on the island and leave. Seeing Dagger among the pirates, Narko asked him whether he would return to piracy, warning him that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if he came across him pirating again. Dagger chuckled at this, and they both agreed it was highly unlikely that archaeologists and pirates would have any reasons to meet in the future…

With the pirates sent away, Agatha thanked the group for breaking Fredericko’s mind-controlling equipment and for sorting out the island’s general wildness. She then invited them to a big celebratory party in the castle that evening. Leo expressed his keenness to get pissed. Rocky joked that Leo could get “leg less” again.

As the others partied, Ves wrote up her report to Dr T before seeking out Daeron and Daeha with Breena. The two explained how they had found Aravae, that she had always loved them, hadn’t wanted them to see her in her undead state, and didn’t think ill of them for not finding her. After describing how they could find her body, hugs and tears were exchanged, and Daeron and Daeha set of to find their wife/mothers body.

As the night drew to a close, Rocky found Ves and asked her to send a message for him with her “magic teleoporty paper”. After Rocky promised that the message contained nothing dirty, Ves agreed. Breena tried to sneak a peak at what was written, but she couldn’t see.

## Goliath goodbyes

The next day most of the group felt pretty good - though Narko was exhausted having suffered horrible insomnia all night. Thanks to Ves’s water-walk spell, the group quickly made their way across the bay to the Wildmane, even remembering to bring the penguin-poo covered rowboat with them!

As soon as the group boarded the ship, Rocky immediately strode over to Trimaeus, clapped him on the back, and handed him Chris the box. He then returned to the group with an uncomfortable look across his face and with a sigh broke the news that he would not be returning to Ilbidor, and would instead be staying on Khaldaria. Looking concerned, Narko asked how long he would be staying? Rocky paused, before asking each of the group where they came from. As each of them in turn explained where they’d come from, Rocky explained that he was only “Rocky from the Pink Pony”, and had nowhere that he could truly call home. Now the group were officially Stone Giants, this was the closest he’d ever come to having somewhere to be from. Rocky didn’t want to just be from the guy from the Pink Pony who didn’t know anything of the world, let alone himself, anymore.

Across the bay, Leo noticed three giants walking together on the shore, recognising one as Hulvar the Brewmaster. They were eventually met by a large polar bear that suddenly morphed into a very bemused and slightly afraid looking Eddin. Seeing the confusion on the group’s faces, Rocky smiled and admitted that he had asked the giants and Eddin to come. He then admitted that he had not been telling the full truth about the potions and healing staff he had acquired. Fighting hard to maintain his composure, Rocky explained that hadn’t actually been able purchase any of the potions from Hulvar with coin, but had agreed to work off the cost with labour, explaining that he had felt he had no choice but to do this. Breaking down into tears, Rocky spoke of losing someone very important to him in Gimble, and that when he died Rocky wasn’t there to do anything about it, and even if he was there he could have done nothing to stop it. By obtaining the potions he had given the group the best chance of surviving, and if working off the debt was the price to pay for nobody else dying, then it was a price worth paying. Importantly to Rocky, he was now volunteering his time instead of it being taken from him like it had been at the Pink Pony. As the tears subsided, Rocky continued that he wanted to make a real difference to the island, and by introducing the giants to the druids he hoped to ensure peace and stability across Khaldaria for decades to come. Without another word, Narko strode forward and embraced Rocky with a big bear (centaur) hug. The others piled in for a group hug, with Rocky continuously repeating that nobody else dies.

As the hug broke up, Rocky dived overboard onto the water below. Looking Narko dead in the eye, Rocky pulled out Rosie and appeared to stick something to her, before launching the hammer straight at the centaur’s head. However, just before impact, as the metal had almost begun to glow with the sheer speed of travel, Rosie blinked away leaving nothing but a piece of paper fluttering in the breeze. Catching the paper, Narko unfolded it to reveal a beautiful if childish sketch of the entire group. As the party were poring over the drawing, without another word Rocky turned away from the Wildmane and walked towards the shore. Eventually, having looked up from the drawing to see Rocky walking over the sands towards Eddin and the giants, the groups thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of angry French shouting. Turning around, they saw that Trimaeus had opened Chris the chest, who was quite angry. Inside Chris was a piece of paper with the words “Rocky, the Free Gollaf” written in a childish script. Beneath this was a neatly coiled pair of nipple tassels, a pouch with 332 GP and the sapphire Rocky had originally found in the chest with a note saying, “for Blagden”.

As Trimaeus turned the ship towards Ilbidor, the group returned to their respective cabins with mixed feelings. Happiness at the success of their mission and the good they had done on Khaldaria, sadness at the departure of Rocky, and excitement at the thought of the adventures that lay ahead of them.