7th Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Jarrus and crew explore further into the ToEE ruins

Part 1 - The Temple Ruins

After retreating from near death by black pudding, Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac returned to camp where Janziduur was able to apply some healing. Jarrus inspected his armor and weapon and saw the damage the pudding had wrought to the metal. It was still functional, but some of the magic had been worn away, making it less effective than it once was. Perhaps there is a way to restore its luster, but for now, he would have to make due. After discussing what to do next, the party decided to rest overnight and then delve in again, hoping to find the source of the evil that still taints the land and whatever was creating these monstrous undead.

Before venturing back into the temple, Janziduur cast Negative Plane Protection and Protection from Evil on each of the three party members. They then went exploring. Whatever was left of the black pudding was gone. Exploration of the remaining, accessible portions of the third level of the temple seemed clear, though there were plenty of track marks around to indicate zombie bugbears have been roaming around. The upper levels were completely collapsed, as were portions of the third level, so, after exploring as much as they could, the party took the steps down to the fourth level.

"This is where we fought Hedrack and came face to face with Iuz," Jarrus told a skeptical Othmar. The air down at this level was very cold, though not quite freezing. Luckily Othmar was able to find some clothing and an extra cloak in a storage room on the level above, after the pudding burned away what he had been wearing before. Six more bugbear zombies were found on this level, and they were as tough as ever. They were slow and didn't hit very often, but they sure packed a punch, as Jarrus lost more than half of his hit points in a tough fight. But the group eventually prevailed and were able to move on.

Further up the hall, as they approached the altar where Iuz had been summoned, a crack appeared in the middle of the floor and widened as it went down the hall. The party had to choose to be on one side or the other and chose the left side. On either side of the altar, the statues of Iuz and Zuggtmoy still stood, looking as menacing as ever. The four hallways that led to the demi-planes were completely collapsed and inaccessible. The crack in the floor, now a wide fissure, continued past the altar into the room beyond, where the treasure chests were located (which had previously triggered demons to be summoned). There were still four chests in the room. One was open and empty (having been previously looted by the party the first time through), one was broken across the floor with its contents spilled out, just as the party left it when they ran away to escape the demons. One was still closed and another was now open, showing the 25,000 or so platinum pieces ready for the taking. Othmar was about to start filling his pockets when Jarrus shouted for him to stop. "Messing around with these chests is what got us in trouble last time," he said. "Don't touch anything." As if they needed more warning, there were two new, sinister additions to the room. On opposing walls, two human bodies were nailed, their skin peeled away and tacked to the wall in a gruesome display. Their cloaks were intact, black druid cloaks, similar to ones worn by mysterious men the party had seen before. Their blood was dry, but otherwise these bodies were reasonably fresh.

The party moved forward, now entering an area never explored before. A round room and a dias that previously held a throne. Both were ripped apart by the fissure that ran through the middle of the floor. Here, the air was even colder, coming up from the hole now in the floor, where a strange purple glow could be seen. The fissure exposed a staircase below the temple, though this appeared to be the work of someone or something entirely different. Dardac noticed that there were human footprints here, going down, and the party decided to follow into the depth far below the Temple of Elemental Evil.

The stairs went down more than 100 ft. into the cold darkness. Only a very faint purple glow illuminated anything, and the continual light the party had been using seemed only to brighten an area of 5 feet around them. At the bottom of the stairs, they came to a hall leading south to an octagonal room with four exits (north, south, east and west) including the way they came in. Inside that room, laying against the wall on the east side, were two dead bodies. These bodies also seemed somewhat fresh, and were dressed in the black druid cloaks that have become familiar. As the party began to look around, a voice boomed out of nowhere saying "LOOK ABOVE YOU TO KNOW YOUR FATE."

Jarrus looked up and the domed ceiling became translucent, revealing an infinite violet hue through which floated glowing black runes. Jarrus was immediately able to understand the runes, which said:

"Those whom I find unfit, I place on my left"

"Those who succeed, I place on my right"

"The chosen may come before ME!"

The ceiling then faded to black and became opaque again.

(DM's Note: Clearly there is a dungeon on top of which the Temple of Elemental Evil was built. Which dungeon this is might seem obvious to some, but I'd like it to remain a mystery for my players, so no discussing it in the comments, please.)

Jarrus decided this meant they should go right (west), and off they went down a short hallway into a hexagon shaped room. Within this room were five strange formations, resembling small trees. An opalescent black tree, a deep green tree, a metallic crimson tree, and indigo blue tree and a smoky purple tree. Each tree had fruit-like growths on it. Jarrus picked one of the fruits and it crumbled to dust in his hand, and he took some form of damage. Othmar tried to do the same and the fruit again crumbled, but Othmar didn't take damage and instead seemed, somehow, changed for the better. Jarrus tried again and took damage again, and decided it was best to stop messing around with the trees and brought everyone back to camp for healing and rest. Othmar, now curious, decided they should return and start picking multiple fruits to experiment with and, so, the next morning they returned to experiment. Othmar's experimentation did not go so well, as, after picking one particular fruit, a blackness started to crawl up his arm, disintegrating him as it went. Jarrus, acting quickly, cut-off Othmar's arm before the mage was entirely disintegrated. Othmar was now one-armed, unconscious and barely hanging on to life. But this didn't stop Jarrus and Dardac, both of whom picked fruits of their own without taking damage and felt much better about themselves for it. NOW, they were done with this place, and decided it was time to abandon this dungeon and go to Furyondy.

And so they carried Othmar's unconscious body to the surface where Janziduur healed him (though she couldn't fix his arm) and they took their boat back to Verbobonc. In Verbobonc, Jarrus put up money with the Temple of Trithereon to advertise for adventurers to come down to the area around the temple and help clear it out of monstrous infestations (though no words about the temple itself). After that, they took the boat up to Stalmaer in the Gold County of Furyondy.

Part 2 - Off to Furyondy

It has been known to the party for a while that Jarrus' mother is Countess Kyaren Rhavelle of the Gold County in Furyondy. She left her adventuring partner and lover, Jarrus' father, Correal Sunleaf, when Jarrus was still pretty young. The Countess' older brother had died, leaving no heir, and so she left her family behind in order to take her place in the political landscape and protect her family's legacy. Jarrus stayed with his father, who was now a cavalier without a lord, being trained in the ways of warfare and chivalry. With his father dead, Jarrus was now returning to the only family he has.

The first stop was the town of Stalmaer, along the Att River (a tributary to the great Velverdyva). Jarrus tried asking around there about the whereabouts of the countess, which only drew suspicions from the local militia. They then decided to travel up to Libernen, the seat of government for the Gold County. There, they approached the palace gates and, after some discussion with the guards regarding who Jarrus was, were let in to meet with the chamberlain/butler, a tall man in colorful garb named Jorgen. Jorgen informed Jarrus that the countess was not in the palace, but was currently at her country estate. A carriage was summoned, along with servants for the trip and four knights to escort the party (not that they needed an escort, but protocol for VIPs was being employed).

After a few days, the party arrived by coach to the Ravelle estate, nestled in the beautiful countryside of the Gold County. Upon pulling up to the estate, they were greeted once again by Jorgen (who must have used some form of magical teleportation to beat them here) and they were led inside to the great hall. Inside were several people who looked like nobles or other people of importance, drinking wine eating food. Soon, Countess Ravelle came down the stairs, eager to great her long lost son. Jarrus bowed to her formally, rather than embrace her as she wished. Nonetheless, the countess was pleased to see her son and began introducing him to the others in the room with great pride. Some of the folks in the room were:

• Baron Jemian of Littleburg
• Gellain, Ambassador from Veluna
• Rafendyl, "Gildentongue" - Half-elf bard from Highfolk
• Schyzer - a human mage who seemed uninterested in socializing
• Jelleneth - a young human woman who serves Trithereon and appears to be a fighter of some repute
• Sir Kiprien Rahlden - Knight of the Hart from Castle Hart
• Tobian Rushkane - A flamboyant Backluni man

There were several other petty nobles and merchants in the room, but Jarrus was not introduced to them all.

DMs Note: It is now the 10th Day of Patchwall, CY 580. Jarrus and his group will move to an online game as they do a lot of social interaction with the countess and her guests. These interactions will likely not make it into the blog, so we will pick-up with this group again when and if they get back into a tabletop-worthy adventure.

6th Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Continuing in the Glacial Rift

It seems like most of our sessions lately have been 5 hours of mostly one big fight. This was no different. Giants have a lot of hit points and take time to kill . . .

The party searched around the smelly cave of the yetis and found two sleeping snow leopards up on an ice shelf. The floor in the area was smooth as glass and very slick, so the party knew better than to walk in and get pounced on when they fall on their backs. Cadwin decided to charm one of the leopards, which worked because it woke up and didn't attack him. Unfortunately, Cadwin had no way to communicate with the charmed creature and Pontus, who looked like a delicious meal, was standing right next him. The leopard pounced on Pontus, who was forced to kill the animal, but not before the second leopard woke up and pounced as well. The barbarian only suffered minor injuries before the rest of the party jumped in and helped finish off the other leopard. After using a Spider Climb spell to get to the ice shelf, the group determined there was nothing of value, and decided to move on.

Heading south along the rift ledge, they reached another series of caves. Cadwin's superior hearing determined that there were giants in these. Sarril cast Invisibility 10 ft. Radius so they could sneak inside and get surprise on the giants. The plan was successful, and Bukro was finally able to show the party what he could do with a triple backstab (the answer was over 100 points of damage and enough to kill a giant). Unfortunately, it was a one-time move that then leaves him exposed. With more giants coming up from another corridor, the group quickly found themselves facing 10 giants. It was a difficult fight which consumed most of the party's remaining healing and other spells, but they managed to prevail.

Knowing they were running low on spellpower and hit points, the party needed to rest of the evening. They decided split into two groups. Cadwin, Luapan and Sarril would search within the caves where the giants came from while Dalron, Pontus and Bukro (all three with 18 strength) worked outside to pile giant bodies in front of the cave entrance. As the three fighters worked on giant bodies, 6 more giants came up from the south along the edge of the rift. Knowing they couldn't take them all on without help, Pontus and Dalron turned the corner to try to ambush them as they came by, while Bukro made a run for it into the cave structure to alert the spellcasters. Unfortunately, half of the giants chased Bukro, and with their long strides were able to catch up to him. One giant cut him down, but just as he went down, he used his innate magical ability to summon four Dancing Lights in the shape of an exclamation point, and sent it 120 ft. down the hall. That turned out to be within 10 ft. of the distance needed for Sarril to see them.

While Dalron and Pontus fought brave and hard, Sarril cast Fly, grabbed Luapan and sped down the hall toward Bukro. Seeing the drow lying bleeding on the floor, Luapan immediately cast a healing spell on him while Sarril read a scroll of Repulsion. It turns out that Repulsion was a great spell to use in this situation. All three giants in the hall were pushed out of the cave complex and over the rift, falling to their deaths. That left only three more to deal with, which wasn't too hard. Unfortunately, at the end of the battle, most of the party was severely injured and there were no healing spells left at all. The party realized they needed to get out of the rift if they were going to properly recuperate, so they promptly exited.

With a barbarian, a ranger and druid, finding a safe and secluded place to rest in the mountains wasn't difficult at all. They went into a small cave away from the rift and rested for two whole nights. They are very aware that the hill giants they were trying to beat here will have likely arrived by now, but there was little they could do about it. They had killed 22 frost giants in total, which they figured was a good portion of their forces, so they've struck a blow either way.

It is now the morning of the 1st Day of Patchwall, and the party is ready to make another foray.

5th day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Now to pay those frost giants a visit. . .

The party had to decide what to do with nearly 100 freed orc slaves, an elf and human prisoner, and a ton of paperwork - evidence of what the giants have been up to. They also knew that some of the hill giants escaped, and could be on their way to frost giant jarl to warn him. They estimated the giants would get there in a couple of days and the party had no way of catching up to them, but they could beat them there if they used the teleportation device they found. Doing so would leave the prisoners at the mercy of the orcs, who could not be trusted, and no one reporting back to Lashton in Istivin about what was found. They toyed with the idea of sending the orcs after the escaped giants, but again realized that not being able to trust them was problematic and they didn't want to replace raiding giants with raiding orcs. In the end, they talked to the orcs, who agreed to return to their tribes, and decided to send the elf and the merchant prisoner to Lashton to report. It turns out the elf prisoner, whose name is Oaklock Gilderlief, is a capable fighter/magic user and the party had plenty of extra equipment to give him, including a spellbook for which he was forever grateful and indebted (its good to have allies in the world). With Oaklock on his way to report to Lashton, the party used the magical chain they found to teleport to the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl Grugnir. They hoped that getting there before the hill giants arrived would allow them to sneak in unexpectedly.

The plan seems to have worked. They found themselves high up in the southern Crystalmist Mountains standing on an ice shelf with cold wind whipping through their hair, but otherwise nothing around. Giant tracks were obvious in the snow on the ground, telling them they must be in the right place. They followed the ice shelf as it sloped down along a fissure. This must be what was meant by the Glacial Rift on the map they found. Speaking of maps, among the papers they found in the hill giant chief's war ready room was a map of the rift itself. (The map didn't tell the players much, but it sure made the DM's job easier).

When the party realized that any one of them could slip and fall on the ice and potentially fall to their death, they decided to tie ropes around their waists and connect themselves to each other. At least several of them would have to fall in order to for the whole party to go. Pontus, who was used to these conditions, pulled out a pair of manticore spikes to use as ice picks should he slip. The only one who had trouble was Dalron, and after several slips and the party struggling to get him to his feet, Luapan decided to cast levitation on him and pull him along like a balloon. That worked fairly well.

The shelf continued down some stairs near, but not quite all the way, to the bottom of the rift. From there, the shelf continued around the rim of the rift and led to a series of caves to be explored. Sarril cast Invisibility 10 ft radius and they all went, invisibly, still tied together, into the first side cave. They found a total of seven frost giant guards, not quite on duty. Four in one room, three in another. Guessing that fireballs and other massive area of affect spells might cause a cave collapse, they decided a sneak attack by the melee fighters was in order. They wanted to see what the drow could do. Unfortunately, the drow, even with his attack bonuses for backstabbing, couldn't hit the first frost giant. He was, however, now visible, and the rest of the party had to cut the ropes connecting them and leap into battle. Of course, Dalron is still a giant-killing machine and Pontus can still take a ridiculous amount of damage and, between the two of them, they soon took out the three giants in the first room.

The noise brought the other four, but Sarril and Cadwin were ready with lightning bolts, which seemed safe enough with the ice. It wasn't enough to kill them all, but it did enough damage that Dalron finished them off in short order. Seven 14 HD frost giants down - easy peazy.

Exploring further they came across a winter wolf mated pair and their three pups. Cadwin sprung into action, casting Animal Friendship on the male and asking it to communicate to its family that the party are its friends. It worked, and the party now has a whole family of winter wolves for now. Around the corner were eight bodies frozen in ice blocks, each holding something of potential value. They understood the breaking or melting these blocks could cause a cave-in. Not only that, but the chance of collapse would be cumulative for each block destroyed. If the party wanted something, they needed to prioritize the order. Luapan cast Detect Magic to determine which blocks contained magic and Pontus used his newly acquired flametongue sword to melt those first. One body looked like a cleric, but with a holy symbol no one recognized (a hand clutched around an eye), and was wearing a ring of fire resistance. Another body had a wand and another a scroll. The party had the smart idea to have the smart idea to have the winter wolves re-freeze the bodies after the melted them to restore the ice column and fill in the cracks that were forming. That actually worked and reset the percentage chance of collapse after the first two bodies were recovered, after which the winter wolves had exhausted their breath weapons for the time being. The last body they were able to recover was wearing a full suit of magical plate mail, but just as Pontus got the body out (he was sliding the bodies out of the room), the room collapsed on his. Pontus took considerable damage, but the party was able to dig him out.

After this, the party headed back to the stairs and crossed over to the other side of the rift. They entered a cave that had a foul, musty smell. As they moved closer to explore, a horrifying creature carrying a magical longsword leapt at the party to attack. This foul beast was intelligent, had white fur and piercing blue eyes drove fear into everyone who looked at it. But no one had to look at it for
long as Dalron quickly dropped it where it stood. It's tremendous howl, however, brought six more from the other room. These were not carrying swords, instead swiping ferociously with their claws. Pontus soon learned when these things got both claws on someone, they grabbed and squeezed, doing both physical and cold damage. The cold damage was reduced, thanks to a Protection from Cold that Luapan had earlier cast, but that was little comfort when being crushed to death. But the party was soon victorious again, though starting to burn through healing spells.

And there it was that another session reached its scheduled end. It is the morning of the 6th Day of Brewfest, CY 580 and the party just killed 7 yetis. This fun is just getting started.