Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
Original character art by Jimmy McClure.
Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Chat with us in the Official Discord Server.
Support the channel via Patreon!
Previously on Rime of the Frostmaiden
Starring:
Valravn, level 6 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 6 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast
Celeste, level 6 Plant Spore Servant
Edmond, Level 6 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 6 Gnome Swarmkeeper Ranger
In the middle of the dragon siege, Ravisin the frost druid channels a divine ritual to create a powerful weapon. The duergar saboteurs, and their insectoid monstrosity, have other plans.
The Umber Hulk that crashes up from the floor is controlled by a shrunken Duergar Mind Master, who’s strapped onto its back with a tank-like turret for protection.
So much comes down to the initiative rolls in big boss battles, and this is no different. Half the party rolls exceptionally well (20+), allowing the 1 hp Valravn to flee into the back room, and both Celeste and Fray to charge right up to the Umber Hulk.
Two more duergar emerge from the hole in the floor, and the Mind Master’s control allow them to avoid the Umber Hulk’s gaze. The hulking insectoid takes some severe blows from Fray’s axe, but swiftly begins tearing into the enraged Fray using its triple multiattack.
The Hulk’s Confusing Gaze creates an interesting challenge for the party, stunning Valravn once, and causing the injured Fray to randomly flee down the tunnel from where it came from, where she meets a third Duergar who nearly ends her with his war pick.
Edmond impressively climbs on top of the Umber Hulk, preparing to level his arm cannon right in the Mind Master’s face, after the party are unable to successfully hit him thanks to his superior cover.
However, his plans change when a duergar attacks Ravisin. Seeing the still-chanting, channeling druid spit blood and stagger backward motivates him to jump down off the Hulk, grab her, and drag her into the other room. The heroic move earns him Inspiration.
Thimbleweed attacks from the safety of the back room, first trying to pelt the hunkered Mind Master, unsuccessfully, before switching to the beast itself. Later he risks stepping into the danger room and exposing himself to the gaze, briefly stunning him.
Valravn casts Slow, nailing a duergar and the Umber Hulk, and critically reducing its triple attack to only one. That’s three for three on amazingly devastating uses of that spell!
He orders Celeste the spore servant to drink another enlarge potion from Good Mead and grapple the beast, forcing it to turn its gaze toward its duergar allies, stunning them several times while it tries to break free.
The battle is full of back and forth drama and tension, with the biggest coming from Fray in the tunnel. After heavy hits from the Umber Hulk and duergar she’s staring at the brink of death, but remains enraged, drinks a potion of healing, and uses Second Wind. She then promptly murders the duergar in the tunnel, then turns her attention to the Hulk above.
It’s the turning point in the battle. With Fray back doing her thing, Celeste remains grappling the Hulk, and combined with Slow nearly nullifies the entire creature. Fray kills one duergar, and Valravn the second, using his Chardalyn Gauntlet. He casts Suggestion on the Mind Master, telling him to run home to his mother.
Despite a +2 WIS save and magic resistance, the Mind Master fails, exits through a top hatch, and hauls ass back down the tunnel!
The fight is won, with Valravn sitting at 1 hp the entire time. Argh!
The bloody Ravisin has the sense of mind to thank the Marshals, as the zone of cold sucks all the air into the bird cage and the blue flame within, then dissipates. Her entire body begins transforming into a block of ice, as she explains the sacrifice this weapon demands.
She holds aloft the cage. Now instead of a blue flame, there sits a perfect ice sculpture of an owl. She refers to it triumphantly as the Avatar of the Frostmaiden, even while her arms and legs transform into ice.
She warns that it’s powerful, but the duration is questionable, and to wait until the dragon is upon them. The cage itself cannot be open by anyone except a Speaker of Ten Towns, and unfortunately Speaker Waylen lies in several pieces around the town hall.
And because Edmond spend that extra effort to save her and allow her to finish the ritual, she lets them in on a secret: whoever unleashes the avatar will meet a similar icy fate as her.
With that, her entire body becomes a block of ice, the cage in her frozen clutches, and Fray has to take her axe and hack away at the icy body to free it. Hopefully, it was worth all of this.
The Chardalyn Dragon blasts a nearby building, sending tremors through the ground. The Marshals brace themselves, but the dragon simply flies over them, hitting other buildings. Perhaps the duergar and dragon are coordinated in their assault.
Either way, the party is free to short rest in the town hall, before getting the hell out of Easthaven and onward to Bryn Shander, where they hope to make a stand before the dragon arrives.
MVPC – Edmond
Live post-session discussion:
Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
Support my channel via Patreon!
RogueWatson 