Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 59 - Frost Giant Fun

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 12 (night) to Readying 13 (early morning) 

Solcha, assisted by the gnome and halfling,  gets to work melting an access tunnel through the ice and to the treasure below. In the room above, Skeef, Goro and Chanee stand guard, worried that the mage might return. No mage, but they are attacked by some weird ice ooze's which cost Goro his magic mace and Chanee his sword. Down below, Solcha breaks through the layer of ice and Usborn is lowered down with orders to grab the detected magic item and as much valuable loot (jewelry and gems) as quickly as she can. The gnome obeys, but is suddenly attacked in the confined space below by some unseen creature. She is hauled out on the edge of death, and the guards from above rush down and help defeat the invisible foe, which disappears once slain. 

They finish scooping up the valuables, leaving the coinage behind to perhaps recover later. They move on, pushing deeper into the dungeon. They pass a pair of stub-passages, one of which ends in a clear pane of ice which shows a raging snowstorm beyond. Next to it is a red box with a  red hammer labelled "In case of emergency, break glass". There was some temptation to do so; but cooler heads prevail. They next enter a chamber with staglatitles and stalagmites carved in the form of great maw through which they must pass. This leeds (uneventfully) to a large chamber with a throne at the far end. Along the walls hang sheets of thin ice as if frozen tapestries; in front of the throne is a rug of white wolf fur. And on the throne sits a frost giant. He does not challenge them, and on closer approach it is apparent he is dead. But his body is well persevered, with signs that some one or some thing has loving carried for the remains. The body clad in the armour and accoutrements shown in the ice carvings seen earlier, which suggests this is the Frost King. 

The party makes a cursory search around the throne and the body, but find nothing significant. They instead at this point decide to move on through a passage concealed behind the sheets of hanging ice. This immediately leads to a smaller, plainer chamber. And here they see a real live frost giant, sitting on a block of ice and sewing a wolf pelt. The giant (Hrorkir)  acknowledges them, and asks what they seek. He is pleased when they say they come to pay homage to the Frost King, and Goro also gently hints they come to recover an artifact of 'great evil' from the kings fallen foe, Morandril Hath. This further leads to questions about the magic user they encountered, Polistera. Through long conversation, the learn Hrorkir was Ragvaldr the Frost King's squire, blessed (cursed?) to live beyond his normal life to care for his fallen king. He refuses to discuss Morandril Hath, saying only that the human hero is entombed here as is only right for the slain foe of his king. They learn that Polistera (and his apprentice Mokron), had been instrumental in helping the frost giants attack the Flann. But also insists that while the apprentice remaned (and was slain) in the final battle as was the King, Polistera had disappeared long before then, after advising the King on how to fight the humans.  Amidst confused ramblings, the party figures out that Polistera had taken over the Frost King (as he had done so to Chanee), and it was really the mage who lead the giant invasion of Tenh. It also seems the dim-witted Hrorkir messed up his instructions of what to do should his King fall in battle; hence Polistera being trapped in the gem all these hundreds of years, tantalizingly close to his real body but unable to get to it until Chanee came along and released him.

With all this Hrorkir is thoroughly confused, and insists they all go speak to Mokron, who should be able to straighten them out.  He leads the puzzled party on with a great stride, through chambers not yet explored, until they get to a room with deep crevasses bisecting the floor. And in the centre of the room, there is a pillar made of a truncated stalagmite on which sits a blackened human skull. Hrorkir is talking to the skull, Hamlet to it's Yorick. The party hears no response, but there seems to actually be a conversation happening? But then suddenly Hrorkir jerks upright, and turns to the party with cold fury in his eyes. And with a roar raises his ice axe and charges. 

The giant lays about with his axe, which when it contacts does mighty damage. And then suddenly there are signs of spell casting from the skull. Something pushes Chanee into a crevasse, the skull disappears, and a small band of goblins suddenly appear out of thin air and attack. It looks grim for the party, so Goro hauls out one of the precious bronze plates he recovered from Avernus, and casts a swirling blade barrier around the giant and across where the skull was last seen.  Hrorkir, now in a berzerk bloody rage, hesitates; and then charges through the barrier to smite the defilers of his Kings' tomb; but alas the giant is cut down by the magical blades, and drops dead in front of the relived party ... 

GAINS

Banded Agate (10 gp) Blue Diamond (5000 gp) Carnelian (50 gp) Coral (100 gp) 2 x Eye Agate (10 gp) Freshwater Pearl (10 gp) Golden Yellow Topaz (500 gp) Hematite (10 gp) Lapis Lazuli (10 gp) Moonstone (50 gp) Moss Agate (10 gp) Peridot (50 gp Red-brown Spinel (100 gp) Star Ruby (1000 gp) Violet Garnet (500 gp) Zircon (50 gp) TOTAL 17 gems, 7470gp. 

Gold ring set with gems (3000 gp) Gold tiara set with gems (6000 gp) Ivory bracelet (500 gp) Jade bracelet (1500 gp) Jade earrings (1700 gp) Platinum brooch set with gems (4000 gp) Platinum ring set with gems (10000 gp) Silver pendant set with gems (1000 gp) Silver ring set with gems (6000 gp) gold pendant (1100 gp) gold tiara (1400 gp) silver and gold necklace (800 gp) silver and gold ring (200 gp) silver crown (500 gp) silver ring (700 gp) silver tiara (100 gp)  silver tiara (600 gp) TOTAL 17 jewelry 39100gp

4 giant arm rings [4x 250gp]

Potion of  Speed

KILLS/VICTORIES

2 Ice Ooze

Invisible Stalker

7 goblins

Hrorkir, the Front Kings Squire 

Mokron the Apprentice (maybe?) 

LOSSES

Surprisingly, none 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 58 - Paladin Possessed!

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 12 (morning) to Readying 12 (night) 

Fully healed, the party moves out and continues exploration on the far sid eof the waterfall. The first chamber they come to is hidden in inky blackness. Chanee concentrates on the room and determines evil lurks therein; and immediately offers to enter the black to investigate.  With a safety rope around his waist, the paladian enters and the party shortly hears him bump into something. Chanee returns in a few moments holding a massive star sapphire, and immediately urges the party onward.  Said party, however, is suspicious. The paladin is being very vocal and pushy and somewhat abrasive; all much at odds with his usual character. He also offers no details of where he is leading them and why. A series of more probing questions and spells (both protective and inquisitive) convinces the party their champion of law and good has been possessed by some evil spirit. 

The party convinces/coerces Chanee into returning to their rest area so the spellcasters can rest and learn new spells. The "paladin" reluctantly agrees. But in the middle of his watch, he used a vial of Nolzur's Wonderous Pigment to make a death pit. And pushes his watch-partner Usborn  into  said pit. Erijay, half-awake, is able to save the gnome with featherfall, but Chanee throws open the door and runs. He is out of sight before the rest of the party can be awakened. But upon pursuit they run into him coming back to them.The apologetic adventurer blurts out a story of being possessed by a malign spirit when he picked up the great gem. It took over his body and compelled him to seek a nearby room, and there enter a secret below-floor chamber where the body of a man lay floating in mid-air over top of a hoard of treasure. And the spirit them left his body and brought this floating man back to life! And, now back in control of his own body, Chanee ran. At this point, they hear from just down the corridor a crashing sound as if a cavern was collapsing. 

Expecting trouble from whoever or whatever this man is, the party retreats to a defensive choke point. After a few minutes they hear the faint fall of footsteps coming towards them; and they see a middle aged man, dressed in loose clothes of yellow and black, standing at the turn in the corridor. And they immediately open hostilities. Spells are slung, and all of the party except Chanee find themselves trapped behind a web spell. The paladin tries to hack down the figure, but magical defensives protect him. And before the rest of the party can burn through the web, the man casts a spell and flees in haste. Once freed, the party tries to pursue, but with a head start the man is nowhere to be found. They do find, however, another  way across the raging underground stream; a natural stone arch bridge, guarded by more quaggoth. And they also find someone or something has removed their pinions and rope at the entrance, leaving them effectively trapped in the ice caves. 

Undeterred, Chanee leads them back to the room where the body was found. What was once a hidden  staircase leading down to the chamber with the body and treasure, is now a pile of ice collapsed from the ceiling above. Using another vial of Nolzur's Wonderous Pigment, Usborn designs an angled mine shaft to penetrate though the rubble and into the secret room. It was as  Chanee described, minus the body. The room was empty but for the end of the now blocked stairs hanging in mid-air, and a scattering of treasure at the  room some 20-30' away. However, when the party starts to emerge from the tunnel, they find there is actually a block of perfectly clear ice floating in the mid-air, and there is another layer of perfectly clear ice between them and the treasure ... 

GAINS

Star Sapphire [5000gp]

KILLS/VICTORIES

None

LOSSES

All trust in Channe 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 57 - Battle Royale

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 11 (morning) to Readying 12 (morning) 

... The party initially holds back and lets the barrage of ice fall around them. They also try various feints to draw their white furry attackers out into the open, but to no avail. Eventually the two holy warriors, Chanee and Goro, have had enough and charge up the icy skope and into melee with the front rank,  quickly seeing there are many more behind the front line. The rest of the party supports with magic at first, but they themselves are surprised with a pair of much larger yeti charge out of any unguarded tunnel and into their flank. These are shortly followed by more of the smaller creatures. This eventually pushes the party back to back on the icy slope fighting front and back, with the most battered and bleeding party members protected in he center.  In the end the party prevails, slaying all their opponents. But their own blood flows freely as well. 

Stepping over bodies, they enter the lair of the slain quaggoth. The large cavern is a mess of fur, feces, bone and flees. However the walls are of interest; frozen in the ice are gems and coins,  the treasure of the tribe. Sorcha begins to melt the ice with her Nessus flame, assisted by Goro and the gnome/halfling duo.  At the far western end of the cavern the party finds a crude images of giants fighting humans. At the center  is a larger and somewhat better image of the Frost King swinging his huge axe at a human holding a twin pair of swords. On the king's helmet shines a huge gem. Secret doors are searched for, and Skeef pokes at the gem, but nothing is found.  

The party moves on into another chamber where a trickle of water emerges from a crack in the ice floor. They follow it into another chamber, this one half rock and half ice. The water gathers in a very small pool, overlooked by the statute of frost giant. The pool actually contains what looks like clay or pigment.  Experimenting, the party finds that the pigment can be used to paint the image of an object, which them becomes real. Greedily, they start to scoop out the contents of the pool, which  causes the statue to animate. They smash it to rubble after a short combat. 

Moving on, they follow a winding passage to a smaller chamber, lit by diffuse sunlight from above. A circle of large icicles hang below the rim of the shaft leading up. Finding nothing else of interest, the party continues on down the passage. They hear the sounds of rushing water ahead and see that the tunnel passes under a raging waterfall.  A pair of giant ice toads block their way, but Skeef is able to befriend them and redirect the amphibians to the feast of quaggoth in the battle cavern. The toads also warn there are more quaggoth waiting in ambush ahead. Pushing on, the party encounters the ambush and makes short work of slaying them, opening the way forward. But, now much injured and low on spells,  they decide to retreat to the magic pigment cavern to rest. Using some of the pigment, they build a solid door across the single opening and settle in to sleep and rest. Thanks to the new door, their rest is not unduly disturbed, and in the morning everyone accepts the bounty of healing spells from the cleric and druid. 

GAINS

7 vials of Nolzur's Wonderous Pigment 

396 pp, 

1058 sp, 

17 Gems [2 x Aquamarine (500 gp) Blue Star Sapphire (1000 gp) 2x Carnelian (50 gp) Deep Blue Spinel (500 gp) Deep Green Spinel (100 gp) 2 x Jade (100 gp) Onyx (50 gp)  2x Rhodochrosite (10 gp)  2x Rose Quartz (50 gp) Sardonyx (50 gp) Star Rose Quartz (50 gp) Tourmaline (100 gp) [Total value = 3270 gp]

KILLS/VICTORIES

19 Quaggoth 

2 Yeti

1 Stone Guardian  

LOSSES

None