Rematch
The party is on the Ice Bridge on the of Day 916 with the Ice Devils lying dead on the ice and the White Dragon between all of them on the bridge, it seems they’re making good progress, though the fight is far from over. The White Dragon beats its wings, knocking down most of the party. It rises into the air and disappears into the fog over the icy march. An eerie quietness settles over the area… except for some sort of… tapping? At first thought, it seems as if the ice is cracking, but this seems different. It sounds as if something scratching at the ice. Is something trapped? The scratching gets ever-so-slightly louder. Then a little louder. It gets a little louder and, suddenly, they find themselves flanked, ahead and behind, by a load of kobolds led by an Ice Devil!
10 kobolds and an Ice Devil stand in their way to crossing the bridge, another 10 kobolds behind. Half of all the kobolds have glowing blue eyes, their flesh falling from their bones.
The Assembly faces several dangers during this battle but ultimately prevails despite magical ice walls and various bouts of cold and necrotic trickery. Qarzdaq was even struck down and was on the brink of death before being revived.
The final blow to the dragon, provided by Farron, was as the dragon was about to make a pass with its icy breath. This would have surely knocked at least one more of them down. As the dragon dove directly at them, Farron’s attack struck it, causing it to tumble mid-air and slam into the bridge. All of them managed to evade the crash, through they all took some damage in the process. Could have been worse. Much worse.
The fog in the area clears away and the clouds above begin to part. All but Qarzdaq begin cutting into the dead dragon, hoping to gather anything they can for armor crafting and barter.
Farron focuses on just getting 2 large scales.
Qhortho is cutting a large swath of skin and scales to for crafting into armor.
Aran chooses to pry out some of the beasts teeth.
While he is cutting deep into the gums of the dragon, Aran notices something inside the dragon’s mouth. He pokes at it and it moves initially, then lies still. He realizes this looks an awful lot like the worms that shot out of the Protection Naga in the Ioun cavern. It suddenly scurries away as fast as it is able.
As it is about to leave Aran’s range, he strikes it, but only causes minor damage. Qarzdaq notices this and quickly casts the most intense fireball he can muster, pulling out all the stops with his capabilities as a natural sorcerer. The flames erupt in a glorious blend of red and orange, warming the area and warming his heart. The ever-so-satisfying pop sound from within the flames is perhaps the most important aspect though. As the fireball clears they see the splattered contents of the worm sizzling on the icy ground.
The icy goo comprising the swamp solidifies, revealing an open field of snow moguls. As the quiet settles again, they hear something else. More scratching?? No… this time it is most definitely cracking. The ice bridge is about 20 feet above the moguled ground from what can be seen, but the bridge is likely going to break apart in seconds.
They quickly jump over the side of the bridge, landing in the snowy ground. The bridge fails under the ancient dragon’s weight. The structure and dragon fall 100 feet into a deep cavern crashing hard upon impact. The remnants of the bridge shatter into a gazillion pieces.
The clearing sky allows sunlight to enter the cavern below, but the cavern looks much larger than where the sunlight can reach, casting dim light everywhere else.
Excitement fills the group as they imagine the wealth contained within. Farron makes mental notes of the details as he is most excited about the stories that are yet to come from this adventure.
After spending the night in the tiny hut, the group discusses some options of safely descending into the lair. Ultimately, they trust in Qarzdaq to fly down and have the group jump down as a single object for him to catch them with telekinesis. Surprisingly, to all, the plan works! They land safely… safely into the center of a horde of kobolds.
JACKPOT!
Along one of the walls are skeletons and items of all sorts. As they search through the items and belongings, they come to realize that anyone with any serious clout in battling worldly dangers had eventually ended up here. Based on the ages of the various creatures and items, it seems very likely that each been downed here individually as if the power to go against such great foes only showed itself once in a generation. The fact that the four of them had found themselves here together shows what they’ve been coming to realize over the extended time they’d been on this adventure: this is quite the unlikely assembly of individuals.
Skittering is heard echoing through the otherwise silent cavern. Farron takes watch as the others search through the items.
The kobolds attack Farron head on, but several others harass the others as they search and find clues.
To summarize their loot:
- A skeleton of a short, stout humanoid creature chained to the wall in a very worn wolf-pelt coat and some pristine-looking boots. A short strap attached to its waist is ripped at the end.
- Qarzdaq recognizes the similarities to Burton’s core features and wonders whether this person was from his tribe. Inside one of the pockets of the wolf-pelt coat, he finds a scrap of vellum that must be over a hundred years old! It looks to have been ripped from a book of some sort. Qarzdaq reads the hastily sprawled Elvish script:
I believe I’ve found the use for the giant horn! It is very important that it not fall into the wrong hands as it is the only protection we have from the Great Darkness. I’ve found evidence that it can be used to summon a great beast capable of destroying anything forged of Frost Energy.
There is no telling we can tame such a beast and this could backfire, even when needed, which is why I fear for its use. Still, its use may be the only thing that lets us last moments longer, even if it does ultimately lead to our own downfall. Whether I am right or wrong, the use of this device means that we are in a no-win situation, and this may not prevent our own demise.
My nervousness and excitement are causing me to ramble… I’m concerned I’m being tracked but need to get this message to our elders, yet I need to also keep this message from those that would do us harm. If you find this message in any place other than my journal, I am probably already dead.
I plan to head south, to get as far away from the source as possible, but there’s one more thing I need to do.
- Qarzdaq takes the boots from the creature, which turn out to be Boots of the Winterlands: furred boots that are snug and warm but also provide resistance to cold damage and ignore difficult terrain on snow or ice. These boots will allow its wearer to tolerate up to -50F with no protection, to -100F with clothes.
- A cylindrical container that looks to have a ball of lightning bouncing around inside it. They realize that the only non-natural source of anything like this they’ve ever seen has been at the Inventorship.
- A frost covered scale that is large enough to be used as a buckler. It is too cold to touch with bare hands and even with warm gloves it is too cold to hold more than a minute. Only those that are immune to cold would be able to utilize such an item. The only ones known that might withstand such cold are the magic wielders of the Eyrie. Farron decides to attach it to his backpack.
- A trident with the Kraken emblazoned at the butt end. It seems to glisten as if liquid water is ever-present on its surface, but when touched, it is not actually wet. This immediately brings to mind the Ironborn. Perhaps this is a lost weapon of theirs. Once attuned, they discover it is the Trident of Fish Command, which allows the wielder to command the fish in an area.
- A translucent fiery red gemstone with what looks to be a triangle with a blade oriented inside it. This is the same emblem on Qarzdaq’s artifact. It is probably worth at least 1000 gold to just about anyone due to the gemstone itself, but perhaps more if it had deeper meaning to the buyer.
- A necklace of engraved teeth, each as large as a human hand. Each of the teeth are from different creatures, but are engraved with runes and battle scenes. They determine that the only types of creatures that could have killed such beasts and kept these trophies, to be worn on a necklace, must be giants.
- A cloak of thin burlap that looks to be most suited for a desert environment. Though is appears ragged the finished edges make it look as if this is the intention. If so, this is in remarkably good shape given the stitching. This was probably sourced in Dorne and, given its condition, is likely to have been owned by House Yronwood. This might be useful to Mors Martel. Upon attuning to the item later, they discover it can be used to cast the Sand Cloak spell, but only in sandy environments.
- A strange dusty creature with a small gem lying next to it that looks remarkably like an Ioun stone.
- They search it more deeply and find a package of old vellum. After spending some time with it, they gather it is related to old Westerosi medical teachings related to the humors. It seems like these are almost like instructions for destroying the leader of this undead air magic. They’re not quite sure of the specifics just yet, but this should prove useful.
- They later attune to the stone and discover it is the Ioun Stone of Absorption, allowing the wielder to cancel spells similar to Counterspell, with some caveats…
- Golden mace with a spikey ball at its end. This is reminiscent of the intricate beauty of the Citadel in Oldtown, but you get the sense there is more to this item than beautiful metalwork.
- Pale nondescript bracelet. Turns out that this one is the Fashion of Stellar Phasing Field. No idea exactly what it does, but the wearer can no longer feel the sun’s warmth of their skin. It’s not that it makes the wearer cold, it’s just as if the sun’s rays are no longer impacting the wearer’s skin.
- They later discover that this also requires attunement and this is the Mace of Disruption, which should do wonders against the undead!
- Dagger with two parallel double-sided blades attached to one hilt, each a snake.
- Rapier lightly shrouded in shadows. They discover this is the Rapier of Reciprocation. This one is particularly nasty. Depending on how well the attack hits its target, it changes how the damage affects the enemy or the wielder – and whether the enemy or wielder recovers some health. Oh… and it turns out this is a cursed item, so Farron is now stuck with this taking an attunement slot…
Oldtown
They gather everything of value and teleport directly to Oldtown WITH THE DRAGON’S HEAD, landing just in front of the tavern. A woman screams out, “MY FOOT!” Qhortho rushes over and lifts the head so she can remove her foot.
FARR: That could have been worse.
WOMAN: Yeah, well it could have been better too! What the hell are you… ya know what? I don’t care! I’m not getting involved!
Limping, she runs off around a bend in the road, not wanting to be involved in anything that was about to happen.
They drag the dragon’s head up the street to the magic shop where they’d stolen the Rod of Security. In the process they rip up large swaths of the cobblestone street and leave behind a pulpy bloody mess. It takes some time, but they eventually make it to the shop. As they approach the shop, it suddenly looks as if it’s been closed – and then Qhortho and Qarzdaq are suddenly paralyzed!
Magelis storms out of the shop, screaming at the party about how they can’t just steal from people and that he is getting the authorities involved.
Farron tosses the Rod to him.
FARR: See? I told you you’d have it back in less than two days. We didn’t even need to use it, but this is what we were up against.
Farron motions to the enormous beast taking up the entire street. Almost as if he cannot process what is staring him right in the face, he continues to dig at them.
MAGELIS: You cannot just take what you want when you want it!
ARAN: Calm down. We brought you something for your trouble.
MAGELIS: What?!
ARAN: This enormous ancient white dragon head you see here?
Magelis looks at it again, with confused realization.
ARAN: Yeah. That’s yours. For your trouble. I’m sure you can fetch a pretty penny for it.
Magelis snaps his fingers, removing the paralysis from Qhorhto and Qarzdaq.
MAGELIS: Looks like its missing some teeth.
QHOR: Are you seriously looking a gift dragon in the mouth right now??
Magelis recoils slightly at the correctness of that remark as if his own behavior is somehow beneath him.
MAGELS: How in the hell am I even going to get this in my shop?
QARZ: We can help with that.
MAGELIS: No, it’s fine.
Magelis snaps his fingers and the dragon head disappears. Immediately an extremely loud crash accompanied by glass shattering rings through the street.
MAGELIS: FUCK!
ARAN: Yeah, it’s REALLY heavy.
MAGELIS: Just… just get out of here…
QARZ: Yeah, it’s heavier than it looks. But we appreciate it.
MAGELIS: Just go. Leave. Leave.
QHOR: It was a pleasure doing business with you.
MAGELIS: Please just get out of my sight.
FARR: Do you validate?
MAGELIS: Go.
The party leaves for the tavern up the same road they’ve just completely destroyed.
They get rooms so they can take some time to attune to the items and learn their details.
They go to the Citadel and offer the Mace of Disruption to the maesters. After much conversation and persuasion (and announcing of titles), they speak with the one in charge and learn that this is an ancient missing artifact. They spill the beans about the undead encroaching south and ask that the Citadel send maesters to the Wall. They also tell the maesters about the ravens being intercepted to prevent those south of Winterfell from being notified of the need for reinforcements.
The Citadel agrees to send help.
Qarzdaq takes the Fiery red gemstone to the Western Light in Oldtown. He tells that the gemstone belongs in the Temple and after describing how they found the gemstone, the Northern Light accepts it and thanks him.
They leave for the tavern and inn to rest for the night before heading on to the Ioun Cavern.
We end this session on Day 916 with each member of the Unlikely Assembly gaining 7550 XP (6550 XP for destroying their enemies + 500 XP for each of the 2 items they’d reunited with their original and rightful owners. This brings their current status to 217.35 kXP, just 7.65 kXP more to achieve Level 17! Their next stop is the cavern to see what they can do with their newfound Ioun Stone of Absorption.