Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 56 - Across Vale and Under Glacier

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 6/ Thief 6) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 5 / Fighter 6) 

Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 5) with henchman Usborn (Gnome Fighter 2/Illusionist 2)

Chanee (Human Paladin 3)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 3 / Thief 3)]

Date/Time

Readying 9 (mid-day) to Readying 11 (morning) 

... In the distance ahead of the party lay the frozen expanse of the lake, flanked to the east by forest and then snow drifts, and to the west by the steep avalanche slope. After Skeef spends some time speaking with a tree to learn a little more about the valley, they head into the pine wood. The plan is to keep close to the lakeshore and then, when they emerge from the other side, decide  which route to take towards the glacier. Passing through the trees, they encounter ghostly forms of frost giants which puts fear into Chanee and Baqua. But the figures disappear as soon as they reach the party, causing no irreparable harm. 

Leaving the wood, they choose to make the slow trudge across the snow drifts, angling toward the smoke/steam they observe rising from the wooded slopes to the east. Along the way they pass one of the tall rock spires on this side of the valley, and are startled to hear a woman's blood-curdling scream coming from that direction. Suspecting a trap, but unable to ignore a possible damsel in distress, Chanee leads them around the rock outcropping. Skeef and Baqua take the lead, trying the approach stealthily. But down from the slope above charge a pair of grotesque creatures the size of a stag but with a strange mix of animal features. Including mouths of jagged bone ridges, one of which bites Skeef. The rest of the party now engages with a range of magic and muscle, and the two creatures are slain. Chanee makes some monster jerky, while the rest of the party searches. They find scattered about the valley floor a range of bones - goat, dwarf and some type of robust humanoid.   They also find a scattering of gems amid the dwarf bones, plus the shattered remains of a wagon containing copper ingots as well as a hidden bag of coin. 

It being late in the day, and since jerky making is still in progress, the party camps here for the night before headed on towards the rising steam the next day, They they find a hot mineral spring, a pool of milky white about 5' across. The search the area and find nothing of note except a parboiled dwarf head in the pool.

Moving on towards the glacier, the party approaches the stream and waterfall that plunges out from under the ice sheet. Reaching a point where they can look down into the stream bed, they see a pair of winter wolves feasting on some prey. With Skeef speaking to them and Chanee reluctantly feeding them jerky, the canines do not attempt to add party member to their meal. The druid pumps them for information, and also convinces them to not eat their donkeys; it is immediately obvious the pack animals cannot enter the dungeon with the party as the only obvious entrance is the ranging stream. The wolves, currently with bellies full, agree. But Goro also casts a pair of glyphs of warding on the area they stake the donkeys just to be sure.

To enter the dungeon dry-shod, Solcha flies into the ice tunnel, setting spikes and running rope until she reaches dry passages to the east and west. The party follows using the rope to work along the side of the ice tunnel, and then turn into the east passage. They descend over a sharp 15' drop to a chamber of smooth ice, which breaks under their feet with a loud echoing crack. From here they come to another drop into a room filled with beams of sunlight entering from above, reflecting colour off a haze of ice crystal dancing in the air. Making their way down the drop (Goro quite quickly and painfully), they enter the cavern and have to choose which of the myriad exits to explore. They head for the one to the immediate right, and as they approach, they see a group of white furred humanoids appear on the edge of that rise, ready to pummel the party with chucks of ice ... 

GAINS

2 x Azurite (10 gp), Chrysoprase (50 gp), 2 x Golden Yellow Topaz (500 gp), Red-brown Spinel (100 gp), Sardonyx (50 gp), Turquoise (10 gp), Zircon (50 gp) [1280gp TOTAL]

100gp

80sp

KILLS/VICTORIES

2 Leucrotta 

LOSSES

None

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 55 - Through Winter Snow, Up Mountains Steep

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 6/ Thief 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 5) with henchman Usborn (Gnome Fighter 2/Illusionist 2)
Chanee (Human Paladin 3)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 3 / Thief 3)]

Date/Time

Fireseek 5, 577 (morning) to Readying 9, 577 (mid-day)

The party re-groups in Nevond Nevnend to drown their frustration and plan for new adventures. Solcha told the party that while she was carrying out her scholarly work in their absence, she spared a few moments to study the tome "Of Fabulous Relics and Artifacts ... etc etc" and came across several tales of noteworthy magical swords that might be of interest. In particular the party was intrigued by the story of Monandril Hath, the Golden Atman and hero of the Flan from before the time of the great migrations of the Oeridians and Suloise. Morandril was noted to carry  twin swords Tangarar “Flamebrand” and Amroteth “The Shard of Frost”. The legends say that when the frost giant jarls invaded deep into the plains of Tenh during the Winter of the White Wolves, Morandril first lead the Host to defeat the invaders and then entered the mountains alone to find and fight the Frost King in the Vale of Ice. The power of the frost giants was broken for a century, but Morandril never returned and it is said he paid for the victory with his life, and remains still in that frozen vale.

The thought of recovering these two legendary swords of elemental power seemed a worthwhile endeavor, so the party starts gathering cold weather gear, and mules and sledges for the long journey into the Griff Mountains at the height of winter. They consult the sage Gylpi Evell, who as able to confirm the tale and give ancient directions to this Vale of Ice where the lair of the Frost King lay buried beneath glacial ice. They also consult a dwarf by the name of Zorak, a miner, merchant and occasional traveller in this part of the Griffs. He tells them they would find few friendly faces apart from perhaps a few of his people working the old copper mines. This part of the Griffs is filled with mostly giants and monsters and dangerous winter conditions. 

The party is somewhat surprised when Solcha's henchman Usborn reports for duty with a companion; one they recognize as the surly halfling server at the "Hellgate" tavern in Oxton. It would seem the two had hit it off during the long days Usborn spent in the seedy establishment waiting by the gate for the party to return from Hell. The party somewhat warily welcomes the halfling, figuring more help was good, especially since Goro could not join them right away due to duties at the temple. The cleric would follow them shortly.  

Beginning their journey under snowy skies, the party had first to traverse the high plains along the border between the Duchy and the Bandit Kingdoms, a place where few lived. During their several days travel, their most reliable companion was bad weather. On their first night they also inadvertently set up camp atop the winter den of some giant poisonous snakes. A short combat ensures before Skeef was able to use his druid skills to calm the snakes and end the bloodshed. But not before  Baqua has fallen to a poison bite. The halfling's body, already frozen stiff, is tossed atop one of the sledges in the hopes that Goro would arrive quick enough to cure poison.  

After a second encounter with a gorgon hiding in a small herd of escaped cattle, they enter the mountains proper. Keeping the Zumber River on their left, the party plunges into the snow drifts and ice for many days of slow and cold climbing. On one day Skeef triggers a sudden avalanche, and is saved only by Solcha's quick featherfall that keeps him from being buried alive. On a blustery blizzardy day, Usborn ends up snow blind and must ride the sledge for a few days as she recovers. Another day brings an encounter with playful giant otters, who tumble their mule (but thankfully not their sledge of supplies) into the river. The mule is saved by a combination of the party's strength and help from the now chastised otters. 

After more than two weeks of mountain travel, they reach the point where the sage had told them their  trail must leave the riverside. Climbing alongside a smaller stream and up a steep valley, another couple of days brings them to a headwall. Climbing up the mountain face deposits  them in a long and narrow hanging valley. Solcha used her fly  spell to climb above the snow covered pine forest that blocks their view to get a lay of the land. Apart from scattered patches of pine forest, a large frozen lake dominates the upper end of the valley some 5-6 miles away. Above the lake hangs a glacier where they assume the lost lair of the Frost King is located.  The valley to the west is dominated by steep slopes and overhanging snow, while to the east the valley wall is less steep but a series of rocky spurs hems in the valley floor. Solcha also notes two areas where smoke or perhaps steam (for Gylpi Evell had told them of hot spring the in Vale) rise into the air. One close but on the opposite side of the outlet stream that tumbles down the center of the valley; the other on the east side of the valley close to the glaciers edge. 

The elf lands and the party proceeds on foot. Passing through the pine woods, they encounter a trio of winter wolves. The creatures, obviously hungry and ill tempered, let them pass unmolested. Skeef's guess is the party did not look to be the easy picking the wolves desire. After several hours moving slowly through the woods, they party emerges into the open and could better see their destination ... 

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

1 gorgon

3 giant poisonous snakes [defeated] 

LOSSES

Baqua 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 54 - A Disastrous Success

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 6/ Thief 6) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 5 / Fighter 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 3)
[Svagola (Human Fighter 4)]

Date/Time
Needfest 577 Earthday (afternoon) - Fireseek 4

The party ignores the sigil for now and instead focuses on taking care of the trio of cultists behind the locked portcullis next door. The first step is to hide their captive in the armoire. Then they truss  up Chanee as a fake 'prisoner', while the the other three don the cultists robes. They bluff their way through the portcullis, and then suddenly turn on the cultists. This does not go as planned, for very shortly all four have been ensorcelled by hold and/or fear. Now they are all bound and gagged, and their equipment taken from them. And are then unceremoniously pushed one by one onto a similar sigal in this room.

They end up teleported to another non-descript cult room, and are quickly lead through a series of chambers lined with books and filled with cultists frantically searching through them. Their captors lead them to a final room where two obviously high priests (Corvan of the Lightless Dark and Tarabus of the Ebony Dark)  sit at a table scanning more ancient tomes. After some mocking interrogation, Corvan makes an interesting offer. The party's freedom in return for Goro's help in performing a ritual that will shut the gate to Hell in the shattered alter stone; the  ritual must be performed by a good cleric.  Corvan points out having uncontrolled and chaotic arrival of diabolic denizens is no better for their cult than it is for the surrounding countryside. When asked, he does tell the party that the temple was not always here but that the above ground 'cube' has a life of it's own, moving on it's own volition to sites of great evil and taking the cult with it. They are relatively new to the snow covered slope, and the alter split after their arrival, a result of some terrible rumbling and quaking from under the mountain.  

In return for a contract of safe release and return of their stuff (minus what they stole form the cult), Goro agrees to help. After a night of prayer, the cleric blesses some holy oil and following the cultists instructions, successfully closes the gate. After a few tense moments, the party is led outside to the snowy mountainside, their weapons and gear are all left in  pile at the edge of the clearing. Annoyed and disappointed , they gather their things, recover horses from the nearby farmstead, and begin the cold and blustery trek back to Nevond Nevnend. Their  annoyance is only increased when on their last day before entering the plains of Tenh, a trio of griffins from the mountain crags attack and carry off a pair of their horses. But they get back to civilization in one piece, and report the success of their task to the the High Priest at the temple of Heironeous, the Glorious Sonnen Tarrikastier.

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

1 cultists of Moloch

LOSSES

none