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Previously on Rime of the Frostmaiden
Starring:
Valravn, level 9 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 9 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast/Fighter
Celeste, level 9 Half-orc Sun Soul Monk
Edmond, Level 9 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 9 Gnome Swarmkeeper Ranger
Programming update: No D&D next week — I’m on vacation. Live show resumes August 19!
Roll initiative!
After surprising a trio of feasting perytons with a Gust of Wind spell, three others descend on the party, viciously raking them with talons and teeth, then flying out of reach with their auto-disengaging flyby.
Though heavily wounded from the maddening winds, this level nine party has plenty of tricks up their sleeve.
Edmond feeds his summoned sabretooth tiger a potion of flight, taking to the air and air-pouncing the nearest peryton, knocking it to the ground (we fudge a bit on flying speed granted from the potion, but c’mon, flying tiger!).
Fray rages, uses her Boots of the Vind Rune to ascend, grabs another peryton, and begins hacking it with her axe.
Thimbleweed, Valravn, and Celeste are perfectly capable with range attacks (Celeste being a Sun Soul monk with Radiant Blasts). Valravn shows off a new spell, Raulothim’s Psychic Lance, which he flavors as a Convenient Brain Aneurysm, assaulting the minds of three of the perytons.
Half the perytons die in the opening volley, while others struggle to escape the ongoing Gust of Wind.
Then the Goliath corpses begin to stir.
Two of the corpses jerk and stand upright, blinding light pouring out of their undead faces. Coldlight Walkers!
The undead target the two surviving perytons and annihilate them, then turn their attention toward the party.
Undeterred by this sudden change in enemy composition, the marshals charge forward, nearly killing one of the walkers with combined blows. Valravn and Thimbleweed hang back to shoot from afar, but the others lay into the frozen undead, easily making the CON saves again the blinding light.
One walker gets several nasty hits on Fray, but her with her rage she barely feels it, and soon the undead are put down, ironically having been far less threatening then the seemingly less powerful perytons.
After a hilarious bout of very poor Medicine checks, Celeste determines that the undead goliaths had died of exposure to the elements, and all the corpses had nasty burn wounds.
Burn wounds? From a white dragon?
Heavily injured, the party settles down for a short rest to recuperate, then follows the trail of bodies and footprints into the nearby cave.
Instant warmth surrounds them, which is also weird for a white dragon’s lair. Edmond uses his summoned foxes to scout forward while the party cautiously advances through the winding tunnel. The tunnel opens into a vast cavern dominated by a large, bubbling pool of water.
More goliath bodies lie nearby. But what really draws their attention is the skeletal remains of a dragon.
Fearing another undead situation, the party… waltzes over and begins poking the bones. Thankfully for them, nothing happens. They determine that this dragon died recently, and even its bones bear the signs of terrible burns.
That’s when a pair of monstrous creatures rise from the bubbling pool. Half insect, half serpentine, with large bug eyes, jagged teeth, and a gaping maw. Remorhaz!
The party sets to work battling these two creatures, and quickly discover that attacking them in melee range sprays them with boiling liquid, ouch! Celeste shows off her subclass’ convenient range attacks, while everyone but Fray tries to keep their distance.
When Edmond hurls a flashbang grenade to blind them, the tremor causes the water to churn. From beneath the depths rises a much larger, fully-grown remorhaz. Momma is pissed!
The adult remorhaz surges forward and chomps on Edmond, dealing 40+ damage and grabbing him in her jaws while she pulls back toward the water.
The others continue attacking while Edmond escapes via Gaseous Form, hilariously bending into the steam rising all around them.
The remorhaz also “attacks” via lair actions, including falling stalactites and blasts of bubbling water, as well as defensive steam surrounding it.
The marshals are able to defeat the two younger remorhaz while Fray does much of the tanking, but when momma re-emerges she clamps down on Celeste.
Without magic to aid her, Valravn heroically Misty Steps onto the creature’s back (and realizing it’s just as hot as the bubbling pool!) while Fray leaps with her magic boots.
Celeste frees herself with an Athletics check and leaps away, while Thimbleweed’s chardalyn arrows begin to go awry, inflicting him with incapacitating madness.
The beast dives into the water in an attempt to dislodge Fray and Valravn. It successfully knocks Valravn off, then clamps on, downing the bard in one nasty hit.
The others, including an escaped Edmond, focus everything on the monstrous creature, epically destroying it while Fray grabs Valravn’s body, gives him a potion of healing, and leaps back toward land.
The battle is won, and the nasty creatures are slain. The remorhaz had apparently killed the dragon and moved into the cave to create its own lair, and neither the goliaths nor the party were prepared for it.
All the goliaths are dead, but the party help themselves to the deceased dragon’s treasure hoard, then return to Chief Arn to report the sad, yet avenging, news.
The Chief is satisfied that they died warrior’s deaths, and impressed with the marshals for destroying a significantly more powerful threat. He agrees to the peace summit meeting, and to restart the goliath winter games with the Thuunlakalaga tribe.
Peace has been brokered, and the goliaths will be much more willing to help the people of Ten Towns. Not to mention upgrading Fray’s goliath-made Runic Axe!
I also believe a level up is in order.
Programming update: No D&D next week — I’m on vacation. Live show resumes August 19!
MVPC – Edmond
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