Session 8: This Mine of War
The party decided to move on. Hobrek would stay in the prison for a day, taking care for the soldiers and travel with them to White Grave. The party's next goal was Annam All-Father's Temple, three days from their place. It was a long journey. The first day, they encountered hill giants. Three to be exact. The group decided to not engage and just try to bypass them. It almost failed, when the party hid behind a snow dune. One of the giant saw footprints, but was quickly interrupted by the two others. The group heard something about being lost and fault going from one giant to another. They decided to use this as a distraction and leave. The giants in the mean time, beat the shit out of each other.
The third day wasn't an easy walk. Troll saw them from the mountain and started hurling giant rocks that when hit the snow, started to form a giant snowball of doom. You can imagine this as cartoonish as you like, because it was just like that. The party, except for one, escaped their impending doom. Turik was caught and taken many meters down the mountain. Not wanting to leave a comrade behind, they decided to ran to his help, but the troll were behind them. The battle was over pretty quick, just in time for Turik to dig himself out from under the snow. The party had a nice laugh with the dwarf, about him being a snowman.
The temple was ahead, at the top of the mountain. No giants in sight, which was pretty strange, but they decided to investigate. First thing they saw, was a giant ice doorway. For some reason, it got pretty cold and they saw wind blowing from the temple inside, taking snow with it. They entered the icy halls. Many upon many giant runes were inscribed on the walls, each telling stories, signing praises to Annam All-Father. Of course, no other giants were mentioned, just the Frost ones. The party also saw that the giants had to be masters of ice-sculpting, because they made, behind the ice, scenes, pictures and statues that feel like they were three dimensional (it was like those holographic pictures. Moving your head or the source of light, made the scene move), like they were real. After admiring the place, they saw hobgoblin bodies on the way. Many were killed by giants' weapons, just like the one Havi is using, but no giant in sight. They found one more, strange thing. One of the hobgoblins had his backpack ripped out from his lying down body and in it's place, a giant icicle formed. Detect magic indeed showed that it was magical in nature, but they couldn't specify what it was.
They moved on and it got even more colder. Soon they saw what was causing the icy winds. First it were giant figures that didn't move and when they got close, they were actually frost giants... frozen in ice. Eight giants frozen, unmoving. They didn't know if they were alive, but what did catch their eye was the scene the giants made before being frozen. One of them was holding a backpack with a destroyed wooden case, it looked like he gave something to his leader, who had a strange item in his hand. A piece of ice that emanated powerful magic that blinded Garen and Alton, who used Detect Magic. They couldn't understand what it was nor they didn't heard about such thing, but they knew this was a bad thing to get close to. Then they found two of the remaining 3 soldiers (plus the captain). One soldier was sitting and the other looked scared with his hand stretching to the first. It looked like he tried to help him escape the ice, because it formed around them, pretty quickly. Havi wanted to save the men or at least get their bodies, so he used his torch, which had it's fire almost gone, because of the cold winds, to try melt the ice. Unfortunately, the ice didn't even give a drop of water, but then Havi saw that his torch was stuck. He touched the ice with the torch and the ice started forming, rather quickly around it. Scared for their lives, the party checked their feet. Ice was forming around them also. After discussing it, they decided to leave, because they couldn't do anything to it now.
The party moved on to the next place. The days were rough and they had to stay inside a cave for three days, just to move the next three days to the next place - the Unknown Tower. When they climbed a nearby mountain, they saw their goal. A black spot in the distance with a bridge and narrow passage to it. Going from under the tower, would mean a lot of climbing, so they went with the narrow canyon. Here (thanks to this little fucking midget's rolls) they spotted something strange, inside the walls, hidden under snow. Alton deduced that they had to be ice creatures, made entirely out of ice (Ice Elementals, but he failed his roll). They didn't want to engage, so Havi found a small ice ledge, they could walk on and bypass the danger. They went with his plan and the giant ice creatures didn't even budge.
After leaving the narrow passage, they finally reached their destination. A tower made entirely out of perfect stone slabs. No imperfections. Sharp edges. This place was brimming with magic, an aura that made the animals and the halfling happy about this place, but not the rest of the party. There was a problem, the bridge wasn't so perfect. It seems that whatever held the tower, didn't also hold the bridge. Most of it was gone, a hundred of meters down below. At top of that, a snowstorm was upon them since their encounter in the passage and the bridge was all icy. Turik stayed with the animals, while the rest stripped themselves out of gear and crawled on the bridge. Upon reaching the tower on the other side, they didn't see anything that could tell them how to access the place nor signs of the soldiers. Two giant slabs and other around, looked like an entrance, but that's about it. They couldn't know what this place was or even how to search for clues. They decided to leave, but during this, Crom smelled something familiar on the bridge. The wind was blowing, at last, towards him. They decide to investigate the bridge and they found a single glove that had symbols of Nathoud on it. One of the soldiers had to fall down. They hoped it wasn't the captain, because it could meant both of the last soldiers are dead. "He must be in the Circle of Auril."
The journey went well, without any hiccups. The circle itself was in some kind of valley under a single mountain. Long ago, this had to be a massive worship place, because stones reached around the mountain. Sadly, most of it is destroyed, under the snow or worse. The only thing that survived, was the inner most circle. Garen wasn't happy about this place, not even a little. It was irritating him (this was an unholy place). The party asked him and Turik to stay behind and guard the animals, while the rest investigated. No signs of life. No signs of battle. They couldn't find anything, but then Alton saw somebody moving towards them. This beautiful woman of white skin, clothes made of ice, fully white eyes and black as her heart hair, didn't walk, but stood on snow, that moved towards them. The party felt something moving underground. It had to be a massive creature. The woman asked them "What are you searching for here, Warms?" and from here on out, she called them all the permutations of warm or warmblooded.
They started asking her about the captain, but it soon was clear to Alton, that she knew something. "No warmy was here for months, but you." "But maybe around the place, no?" She played with them some more, but didn't reveal anything. The party was convinced that she knew something and maybe the captain was still alive. What they heard from here wasn't very pretty. A prophecy.
Your times come to an end. The Ever Winter comes and you will have nowhere to hide. The signs are everywhere and this Lover of Ice is pleased, because soon you'll be dead.
The party decided to leave. They relayed the information to the rest of the party and went to White Grave. The journey was safe, but long. When they arrived, they saw almost all fires on the walls gone, except for one that was magical, thanks to Yesslick. Turik was scared that something could have happened, so they stepped up and ran to the gates. The dwarf took out a special horn, that was hidden beneath the snow and in a secret spot in the walls. He blew it near the gate, but it didn't gave out any sound, but made the wall move. "This will not last long. Quickly, inside!" The courtyard was completely empty, not a living soul or any bodies. They moved to the main gates, where a dwarf was sitting in one of the arrow slits. The gates were opened for them. Three dwarves were guarding the gate on the orders of the king.
They didn't explain the whole situation. In short, they were attacked by orcs, hobgoblins and creatures from the Underdark, when the mining party was coming from the mines. Bodies upon bodies were on the platform, and then the attack happened. The king ordered the gates to be locked and everybody on the outside, inside. They couldn't afford an attack from two sides. They also said that the fighting still occurs near the hole with the crane and troll. Turik took two men with him, the third was left to check for anybody coming to the gates. The party moved behind. The battle was mostly won and with the aid of the adventurers it was a sure win. During this battle, they saw the hidden powers of the king. When a group of giant spiders and underground reptiles moved on to a group of civilians, he stood before them. His eye-patch fell down, revealing an eye that was of ice. He shouted and from his mouth, ice breath came forth, freezing the enemies. "A dragon!?" they party shouted. Nobody in the fortress was surprised by what they saw.
Turik and the party reunited with Yesslick and Domas. Also they saw the soldiers and Hobrek, the men were helping the dwarves defend. The situation of explained further. The platform was to be sent thrice. Once for the resources and twice for the dwarves, but when the second one came to the top, they saw only bodies, all of 50 dwarves, all dead. Then the attack happened. Hobgoblins and orcs riding spiders on the walls of the hole and walls breaking for more enemies to come out from the hidden tunnels. It was an all-out attack, but they didn't get anything from this. Then they heard a dwarf come with dire news. They found a hole in the treasury, somebody dig a passage and took some of the hoarded treasure. The battle was going for hours, so that meant the thieves were long gone. The tunnel was to be collapsed with the rest that they made. Turik was sent on a hunting party, to check for any surviving or hidden enemies in the fortress. The king asked the party for a talk, because he had to explain everything to them. Yesslick wanted a private talk, before they move to the throne room. The party obliged and talked in their old room.
Here Yesslick told them, that he found out Alton was searching for information about the king. He wanted to explain why there's so little to none information about Domas, because the party deserved to know this. Domas was the adopted son of Ulric III. He was once known as The Elder One, a dwarf with pure white hair and beard that killed his own tribe. Nobody stood in his way, if they didn't want to be killed by him. During of the kings journeys, they found The Elder One lying in the snow, almost dead, with a giant with a cracked skull with an embedded axe in the forehead. The king, that had a heart so forgiving and loving, he could forgive a duergar, told Turik, that was just a young warrior then, to take him to the fortress. There he was unconscious for three days and when he woke up, the first thing he saw was Ingra. When Turik, who was outside, heard a scream, he came inside to see Ingra being strangled by the grey dwarf. In anger, he was struck down by Turik, but was stop before killing him by the king. They still wanted him gone or dead, but the king didn't want to hear any of it. He decided imprisonment. For years, the king visited the prison cell, that was guarded by at least ten dwarves. Here he talked with the Elder. After a while, he wanted private conversations, so only the king and prisoner were alone in the prison. Turik once heard what they were talking about. The king made a deal to the dwarf. "When there'll be an attack on my fortress, I'll give you a weapon. If you defend my people, you'll be let go. No strings attached." and the dwarf laughed at the king "Give me a weapon?! You old fool! You must be joking! The moment I'll be set free from these chains, I'll be long gone and with a weapon!" Ulric smiled to him. "I know you'll do no such thing." This was couple of days before a giant troll attack on the fortress. What the king said, came true. The Elder was given a weapon on the battlefield and fought for the dwarves, killing many trolls and defending the weak. After the battle, the king gave his word. "You can go." he said and the Elder left, but after couple of days returned, just to leave again. This happened many times during a year, before he stopped leaving the fortress and stayed to help. Unfortunately, the king was a very old dwarf and soon left the world, but not before telling his son Babdar, the soon-to-be king, to love his people, even such as the Elder. He wasn't so forgiving or loving. Babdar used the dwarf. He sent him on suicide mission after suicide mission, but the Elder always came back, accomplishing what he was ordered to. This infuriated the king, but this wasn't for long. The duergars attacked the fortress and entered the throne room. When Turik with Ingra came inside, they saw almost everyone dead, even the Elder. The king was dying and Ingra didn't have enough spell, because she used them during the battle in the fortress. The king told Turik "I want... I want to be last on the list... of people you raise. And him..." he pointed at the Elder "I want him to be first... he is my brother." Babdar died that day and Turik with Ingra heard from the living dwarf what happened. When the duergars attacked, a lot of spears were hurled at the people next to the throne. The Elder stood before his king and took a spear to the heart, dying instantly. When raising the dead came, it was too late for the king nor they had enough diamonds for this job. He died as a forgiving and loving person, something his father would be proud. The next problem was who will be the next king. The people unanimously decided that "Domas" will be the next king. After hearing this story, the party didn't want the king waiting, so they left with Yesslick.
Here the king explained their situation. "Remember when I told you, that the dwarves left, because the white marble wasn't selling? This isn't true." then he showed a room next to the throne room. Full of graves inside the walls. The dwarves here died for the fortress, battling against horrors of duergar might. The gray dwarves wanted slaves and used beasts from the Underdark to do their bidding, the spider being their signature beast called Steeder. Their attacks came from their city, south in the Underdark, called Fraaszummdin. Slavery and beast trade was their main way of survival, but this attack that happened, doesn't look like something they would do. The treasury was the key to understanding what they stole, but that would take weeks or months. The king also explained his icy breath. "Dragon's blood. One of my ancestors was a white dragon. This is how much I know."
The party then explained their situation and what they found. The first being the ice shard, they found in the temple. They feared it could be an Aurilite artifact, but Yesslick told them it could not be. "Something that could freeze frost giants? There could be only on thing so powerful and connected to these mountains... the Orb of Ever Winter." He then told them about the legend.
"During time immemorial, thousands upon thousands of years ago, these mountains weren't all ice and snow.
Ulutiu, the Lord of Ice, was a lover to
Othea, the wife of Annam All-Father. This secret relationship went for ages, but during this time, Ulutiu didn't see that somebody loved him also. A white dragon named Valpora. She loved him blindly, but he didn't even notice. She wanted him to at least acknowledge her, so she created the Orb of Ever Winter for the Lord of Ice, so he could create ice realms where ever he would go. When he was given the orb, he looked with disinterest at the it, not even noticing the willful glares of the dragon. He then threw the orb to the side. No emotions, apathy. The dragon went made and flew after the orb, but it already broke on the mountains creating an snow realm that is now know as Icerim Mountains. She started collecting the pieces, wanting to reconstruct the orb and give him again. She cried and this wasn't any ordinary cry. She went for millenia. Thousands of years worth of tears created and ice realm in the mountains that's called the Ice Plateau, where now white dragons dwell, but this isn't the end of the legend. When the romantic relationship with Othea was discovered, Ulutiu decided to leave the world. This made the dragon even more depressed and her tears formed around her, creating another layer of ice over her. This was her ice prison and it is told, she's still there, under the ice and still crying. There must be some truth in the story, since the party found a piece of the Orb. The question is, where is the rest?
The conversation steered to the Auril. They told the dwarves about the person from the circle and the prophecy. "A woman? How did she look like?" and they told Yesslick, who wasn't happy to hear about her. Iyraclea, the Lover of Ice was given to the party. Another legend that was thought to be only that. A woman that is told to be once a Chosen of Auril. Stories about here go a thousand years back and her chosenhood was supposed to be taken away, because the circle went to ruin. Even Garen and Alton, upon hearing about her, weren't happy that the stories were true. The king apologized to the party, because he couldn't make the party, he promised when they left. The fortress now will go grieving and the dwarves will have to decide who will be raised from the grave and list will be long, but the chosen ones will be a few. The party agreed and left as soon as they could.
When they reached Nathoud, they were excepted at the castle. Before they entered, they saw three people waiting for an audience. Two of them looked like mountain tribe leaders and third looked like a tuigan nomad. They didn't stay for chitchat and entered the throne room/dinning room. Here the prince was sitting next to his advisers, Aiden from Almorel, Ebeseu from Narfell and Izmael from Rashemen. They explained the situation to them. The orcs and hobgoblins hold their positions inside the mine and the numbers are in the hundreds. One hundred hobgoblins and another hundred of orcs inside the mines and the palisade. Also a warband of another hundred orcs coming to aid them. The prince wanted the mine and gave Captain Raymond the order to organize the war party, a hundred soldiers. Eb told the party that he will aid them with his people, another hundred warriors from the mountains of Narfell. Aiden greeted the party for the first time, but offered his services - potions for every single soldier and even the mountainfolk. Then dead silence was heard, when the party thought that Izmael Stayanoga would say something. The party knew that they didn't do her job, but it wasn't about that. They never came to her to apologize, that they won't be helping her and the spirits. The prince ordered the party to join the captain right now, but they wanted to explain what they found in the mountains, to which the prince replied "Not. Now." And at least some of them understood.
The party moved with the army and Eb moved on a horse to meet with his men. The both giant groups meet next to the forest that hid the mine and they started planning. After couple of hours of discussion, they heard a commotion. Somebody wanted to enter the tent and talk, the Captain allowed it. It was a red wizard that announced himself as
Edwin Thrul of the Red Wizards of Thay. He came here to offer his services, to which the captain heartily agreed, but was quickly put down by the mage's words. "I'm sorry, Captain, but I'm not here to talk to you, but to the adventurers. They will decide if I'll lend a hand here." this made the Raymond angry at the party, but he stayed quiet. Alton recognized symbols on the wizard's robe. He was a member of Guild of Foreign Trade an organization within the Red Wizards. Their only goal was commerce. They respected the laws of the land and never broke them, because their reputation would be at stake. Nor did they sell anything that could be used in a crime, like potion of invisibility. Edwin had a simple deal for the party. "I'll help you, under one condition. In the future, I'll come with another proposition. I want only for you to really think about it, not discard it outright." This was a great deal for the party. A wizard that was actually a master of Evocations (the boom-boom spells) and willing to help them for such little. Garen was suspicious, but hearing about the Guild of Foreign Trade, he was more willing to accept the offer, to the surprise of the mage. The party accepted and the mage joined the war effort.
Did I say fuck the party rolls? Yes, I'll say again. Fuck them. The party decided to split up. Alton would use the Wand of Silent Image to create distractions on the field. Crom with the mage and couple of soldiers were going next to the palisade, for the mage to take down the siege machinery. Havi wanted to take care of the orc leader, while Garen would be an inspiration on the field. Everything went well for the party. At first, the armies were hit by the catapult, but the orcish army, that was standing before the gates, couldn't wait, even after getting orders by the hobgoblins. The ballistae had to shot at the orcs and humans. The rest had great rolls. Havi had a tough time, because he had to down the leader in three turns, he did it in the second to last attack, but not before getting his health to half hp (I had bad rolls, because I would killed him outright there). After the orc army was decimated, the palisade was next. The party entered the camp with the soldiers. While the latter were taking care of the hobgoblins, the adventurers attacked the leader. Again, I had fucking bad rolls. He was on a dire wolf with a lance. Everybody who knows DnD rules, know that this is fucking devastating when the guy charges at you and crits. You're instantly dead. 2x damage because you charge. 3x damage because of crit. It makes it 6x the damage and he would have something like 6d8+48. It would kill almost anybody on the team, if the roll was good. Unfortunately, it went good for the party and they killed him in the fifth round, but not before getting the DPS, Havi to half HP.
The party was victorious and so was the army. The orcs were mostly dead. Those who couldn't run, were taken hostage and probably let loose in some mountains and killed. Hobgoblins the same. The party looted some magic stuff from the leaders and left the rest for the army, because a lot of people died during the siege. Grieving families would want some compensation. Then the party searched the leader's tent. Here they found, in Goblin, messages to other hobgoblin groups. Apparently, the main part of the army was stationed in some kind of fortress deep in the mountains. Nothing was mentioned were exactly. Numbers were frightening. The hobgoblins counted themselves in the thousand, while the orc were many more. They also found information about the iron ore. It was transported to the fortress by underground passage ways, but the information about what, where and how were on "need to know" basis, so the hobgoblin leader here didn't know shit. Only those that came for the ore, knew about how to reach the fortress with the ore. The last thing they found was a letter in an unknown language.
Alton used Comprehend Languages to understand the message, which thankfully wasn't in code.
Dear Gratlug the Fearless,
I write these letter as a plea and warning. My sister's, Zerrana meddling into our plan, is unfortunate and can mean our end. Do not listen to her words! You were slaves and she will not let you be something else. Leave the mine as soon as you can. The orcs are uncontrollable, leave them as a sacrifice. Why? Because this is a warning. The group called "Custodians" are coming to the mine with soldiers from Nathoud. You may have a chance to win against them. If you can't leave, without being seen with your army, then fight for your life and leave at the soonest. We must devise a plan for the invasion.
Dresinyon Mizz'rynturl,
Archmage of house Mizz'rynturl
They knew about the mage, but now a sister is mentioned. The drow. The duergar. Slaves of hobgoblins and orcs. Now an invasion. This wasn't good news. They decided to go back to Nathoud and tell the prince about what they knew.
They could, at least, speak in private. They explained everything they found, talked about the prison. The found ice shard, that they told the prince to get some help and take it from there, to which he agreed to do. They told that Captain Richard is apparently taken hostage by the Aurilites. Told him about the prophecy. Drows, duergars, dragons and stuff. This went over the head of the prince, he said that he only wants to rule this place and see it prosper. He doesn't really care about this adventure stuff. He asked for help once more, which was also a reward from him. He'll give the party a land to call their own in the west, near the mine. They would civilize the region, find more information about the drow and get ready for this invasion. The only thing he asks, would be armor and weapons that the party would produce in their settlement. Specifics about all this would be given by their new adviser, who they will meet near the mine, but first - they'll need to rest.
This marks the end of Chapter I. The party will be given land to rule over. For those interested, we'll be using Kingdom Building rules from Pathfinder:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/kingdom-building It will take me some time to prepare stuff and the party decide who will take what spot in the council of their new land. How long will they last? Who knows. Thank you for reading up to this part. I hope we'll still play and finish this campaign.
