Session 9 - The Trials of the Frostmaiden

Session Date: January 7, 2019

Stream Link: Youtube

Session starts with the group having returned to the Happy Cow tavern after speaking to Jarlaxle. Drork heads back to where Sirac was buried behind the tavern and digs down to him, to extract a bit of blood, in the hopes that maybe he can use the magical item Jarlaxle spoke of to locate Sirac's father Artus Cimber. After this the group rests for the night without incident.

Raloric heads into town to find a shop where he can sell some of the bonus gear that he had on him, a Scimitar, a Chain Shirt, and Leather Armor, he gets about 42 gp for the lot and lightens his load.

The group has breakfast and discusses their options. They decide to reach out to Lily to contact Ken and Jarlaxle, and then go check out the Winter Palace in an effort to locate Artus. Raloric talks to Lily and ask her to try to set up another meeting with Jarlaxle.

Rollie guide the party over to the Winter Palace and they check it out. Drork tries (poorly) to inconspicuously stand across the street and then put on the Rose Tinted Spectacles to see if he can find any clue from what happened about an hour ago. Activating the spectacles he says "it's so cool in here i barely need these shades". Meanwhile the others go to a cafe called the Frosty Sip across the way that has a view of the temple, and watch for a while. They order a round of drinks from the barmaid, and Hammerfeet sticks outside to keep an eye on Drork.

Drork looks through the spectacles, and sees a dark cloaked figure, apparently human, sneaking into the temple, through the main doors. He also sees some vandals pushing over tables at the Frosty Sip. Meanwhile in the present time, Hammerfeet notices that in the upper room of the Frosty Sip, there is someone watching out the window, dressed in the same clothing as the mages that attacked the party earlier, and he seems to be watching Drork. Drork and Hammerfeet both head back into the tavern and relay this information to the rest of the party. The barmaid comes back with some frosty mugs of dark liquid, and asks if Drork or Hammerfeet need anything, and Drork orders one of whatever it is.

Drork asks if Hammerfeet knows about Auril or about the Winter Palace in general. He shares that he knows that Auril is the Goddess of Winter, referred to as the Frostmaiden, and is also the one who maid the right that Artus Cimber wears. He also knows that Auril is an evil goddess, but doesn't know much more.

The group then discusses what they wish to do... Drork assumes the cloaked figure he saw going in was Artus, and wants to investigate. They flag the barmaid over again and ask about the man upstairs, and she says "oh, are you talking about Troy? that's Troy Quick he's the owner of this tavern". When asked about the members of the temple, she says she doesn't really go over there, but that some of them come to the tavern and have a meal and drinks on occasion -- they like the cold drinks they serve.

The group finishes their drinks, does a little creeping around the temple to look for alleys and such, and then heads back to talk to Lily. On the way back Drork notices a merchant selling Tupperware™ but says nothing. Raloric finds a merchant (name Kathy) and buys a cloak with a hood.

Back at the Happy Cow, Lily is keeping bar, and says that Jarlaxle has set sail for somewhere, and won't be back for a tenday. While discussing what to do next, Troy Quick bursts into the Happy Cow, points at the group and say "quickly, come with me!". He says that something terrible has happened at the palace, and that the group has the look of adventurers, so maybe we could help. The temple is in total disarray and the corpses of his friends are everywhere. They go ahead with him, Raloric suspecting a trap, and Hammerfeet hesitant to help the servants of an evil goddess.

Troy heads back to the Frosty Sip and says he can alert the guards if we need to. The group enters the temple, planning to pretend to be prospective worshipers. The temple is full of white marble and crystal, and there are a few statues in battle poses, but upon closer inspection they aren't statues, but members of the temple totally frozen and encased in ice. Drork puts on the Rose Tinted Spectacles and looks around, but the place appears to have already been in this state an hour ago.

Moving through the vestibule and into the main sanctuary, the group finds several more frozen corpses, and some scattered frozen blood. The alter has been pushed aside revealing a hidden staircase. Stats tells Rollie to stay behind and keep an eye on Troy. The party descends the staircase and finds a landing area with a frost-covered floor. Raloric does a quick check for undead with his pockewatch and then nearly stumbles into a pit trap, but manages to keep his footing.

Reaching the next room, they find a large central chamber, with a raised platform in the center, with icicles hanging precipitously from the ceiling. upon the center platform is a raised stone dais covered in ice, and a stone pedestal being studied by the cloaked human holding a dagger that is shedding light. Raloric approaches and sees that the cloaked figure seems to be deciphering some text inscribed on the pedestal, and also sees that there are a number of other exits out of the chamber. Drork recognizes the cloaked figure as Artus Cimber, who they have been looking for.

Raloric and Drork approach further, and Raloric calls out to Artus. He's startled a bit and says "who are you!" Raloric tells him that we were traveling with Sirac, and that we were told to seek him out, also that during an attack Sirac lost his life. He screams out in anger and waves his hands at the roof, and a few of the icicles shatter and fall. Drork pulls stats into a nearby alcove and manages to avoid getting hit, and Raloric is hit by a chunk of ice. Artus sees this and apologizes for his outburst. Asked what he's trying to do, he explains that he's looking for the "Mouth of Auril" and is trying to seek answers.

The group offers to assist him in deciphering the text he's working on. Artus is pretty sure it's in celestial, and Hammerfeet says that he can read that language. He moves up and reads the description. it says ***"call out to Auril so she may put you to the test, succeed and you will learn the rest"*** . nothing happens immediately when he reads it, and they don't quite know what to do. They briefly discuss whether they should try to do anything at all, and Drork thinks they owe it to Sirac to help his dad through these trials.

They decide to explore the nearby tunnels, and Drork runs right into a blade coming out of a wall leading into the closest tunnel. They proceed more carefully after this, and reach a chamber with another raised platform covered in ice. The nearby wall has another inscription in celestial that Hammerfeet reads. It says "***terrifying howls can bring avalanches***" not knowing quite what to do, they decide to go to the next tunnel to the south. Drork notices a snow-covered pressure plate and calls it out to the rest of the group.

There is a room with 4 of the clerics of the temple just kind of standing there, and they don't seem to care that the group is passing by, so the group does them the favor of ignoring them in turn, but keeps an eye on them. Past the pressure plate, they find a room with some shelves, books and parchment, and some scattered alchemical supplies. There are also some very small tracks that have disturbed the dust and snow. One of the parchment appears to be a recipe for alchemists' fire, and Raloric takes it. Stats investigates the tracks and exclaims that they're spider tracks.

Continuing onward they find a hallway with a number of alcoves, each containing a statue depicting various races. Human, Dwarf, elven, dragonborn, goblin, and tiefling. The statues also have mismatched heads, however. Past the statues, the party finds yet another of the raised stone platforms covered in ice and another inscription in celestial. Hammerfeet reads it again and it says "***combine the worst of the best and get the best of the worst***" Artus says "let's get on with these trials" and is obviously getting impatient. Hammerfeet steps on the platform in this room and hears what he thinks is the name Auril" whispering into his head in different languages in his head. Drork steps up on the platform and asks what's going on, to which Hammerfeet replies that he hears the name Auril in a bunch of dialects. Upon saying the name, a great creature appears to the south of the group. Snarling with the head of a dragon, the head of a goat, and the head of a lion, as well as dragon wings sprouting from a lion like body.

Drork runs right at it raging and hit it twice in the goat face, cleaving off one of the antlers. Raloric moves up as well, and hits the dragon head twice. Hammerfeet casts crusader's mantle to buff everyone up a bit, and moves up as well, taking cover in one of the alcoves. The dragon head blasts at raloric with a flaming breath, and Raloric absorbs the bulk of it. Stats casts moonbeam on the creature which destroys the lion's head, and then turns into a Polar Bear. Artus comes up and makes 3 quick stabs with Bookmark, his magical dagger. Drork takes another couple swings and cleaves the goat head off the beast. Raloric swings again with his longsword, and discharges the energy he absorbed, defeating the beast, which disappears completely.

The creature slain, they realize they need to step on the pedestal to activate the trial, so they backtrack to the previous chamber where they found one. Stats, still in polar bear form, steps on it and gives his best roaring howl, when nothing happens, he says Auril's name in polar bear language and a Yeti appears to the south, howling madly.

Artus does a triple stab with Bookmark, and Stats the polar bear bites the Yeti. The yeti retaliates with a cold breath attack that Artus seems to just shrug off, but Stats gets blasted. Drork runs up and stabs him in the butt with his greatsword, Raloric swings his longsword, and Hammerfeet throws some javelins. The same pattern generally repeats, with Artus stabbing, Stats biting and clawing, and Drork and Raloric swinging their swords. The Yeti fixes a chilling gaze at Drork, which he resists, but then also swipes a few claws at him. Another round of attacks, and the yeti releases another cold breath blast, bringing Stats out of his bear form, and catching Raloric in the blast as well. Drork swings a final time and the beast dematerializes. The group decides to take a bit of a rest before moving on to the next trial.

The party moves onto the next chamber to the east and finds the same things: a raised platform covered in ice and in inscription in celestial that says "***Watch above and below***". Activating the platform, two Bulettes appear and attack the party. Stats summons a flaming sphere, and slams it into one of them. Hammerfeet similarly summons his spiritual weapon and attacks. One of the bulettes leaps at Drork and knocks him away a bit, Drork retaliates with his greatsword. The other bulette leapfrogs the first and lands on Hammerfeet. Stats uses Thunderwave to blast one of the bulettes away from the group and then threatens the other with the flaming sphere. Hammerfeet attacks again with his spiritual hammer, and then uses Sacred Flame as well. Artus unleashes a flurry of stabs with his dagger. One of the bulettes bites Drork really hard, and takes a few greatsword blows in response. Raloric swings away with his longsword and then uses an action surge to poison spray as well, overtaking one of the beasts and it falls down dead and disappears. Stats uses thorn whip and slams the flaming sphere into the remaining beast, Hammerfeet hits it with his sacred flame and spiritual weapon, and Drork finishes it off with his greatsword.

The group takes another rest, and then proceeds back to the main chamber. Artus runs to the platform and yells "Auril!" The ice melts and congregates into a giant frozen visage of the Frostmaiden. Because they passed the trials and because Artus bears the ring she made, she grants each of the group an answer to any question.

Raloric steps up and asks "Can you tell me why the Giants are stealing historical relics from across the world" to which she replies "Their hierarchy has been shattered and now each one tries to supplant the other to claim the top spot of the storm giants"

Artus asks "Where is the great city of Mezro, what has happened to it?" to which she replies "It's in a pocket dimension, protected until the general is stopped"

Stats asks "What the fuck happened to my family" to which she responds "I do not know, you can ask another question" to which Artus asks "you can ask how to get rid of this blasted curse i have", and she says "it's not a curse, the ring is made from my essence, only the fiery essence of my equal could destroy it"

Drork asks "Where can we find weapons to help us contend with the fire giants?" to which she says "search for the oracle in the spine of the world"

Hammerfeet declines to talk to the evil goddess.

She then says "now begone, before i crush you" and the entire temple starts shaking. The group flees, and the shuttering seems to stop. Rollie is asleep in one of the pews in the main floor. Tempted to loot the building, the group decides not to anger the goddess. They ask Artus to accompany them until the morning when they can have a good discussion about what happened and what comes next, and show him where Sirac was put to rest. He says he needs to continue searching for Mezro, but he agrees to stick around for a bit.

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