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 12 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 12 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast
Celeste, level 12 Half-orc Sun Soul Monk
Edmond, Level 12 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 12 Thri-kreen Swarmkeeper Ranger
Last week’s battle in the Caves of Hunger had temporarily ceased. The dread wraith was destroyed, but the transformed Fray-digo had merely been rendered unconscious (by the Eyebite spell), leaving the party with several dangerous choices.
Option 1: Stick Fraydigo into the Bag of Holding, and hope for the best.
Option 2: Empty the contents of the Bag of Holding, releasing the captured and regenerated Flameskulls on top of Fraydigo. Run like hell, and hope for the best.
Option 3: Drag Fraydigo into the nearby borehole and drop her down the ice slide, without knowing what’s down there. And hope for the best.
The clock is ticking!
They quickly decide to combine options 2 and 3. Edmond uses his summoned wolf to drag Fraydigo into the borehole (H22), launching both of them down the ice slide and into the gigantic remorhaz nest in H23. Oops!
Thimbleweed then empties the contents of their Bag of Holding into the same hole. The bag holds the four Flameskulls they defeated back near the entrance of the dungeon, now fully regenerated, and full of Fireballs.
The wolf stops just short of the bubbling, steaming pool of water at the bottom. The vibrations trigger the pair of young remorhazes lurking in the water, who rise up ready to fight!
Fray flutters awake as the spell wears off. She attempts to teleport on the other side of the pool, only to discover even larger pools nearby. The entire domed cave is ominously littered with bleached bones.
She runs into a nearby cave just as a Flameskull launches a Fireball down at the geyser.
The remorhazes are immune to fire, however, and the Flameskulls aren’t stupid. Seeing these monstrous creatures they begin floating back up the borehole, while the remorhazes surround and attack Fraydigo.
What follows is a two-pronged battle, with Fraydigo battling the remorhazes and the rest of the party dealing with the Flameskulls emerging out of the borehole (H22).
So the plan partially worked? It was the best we could’ve hoped for!
One fireball nearly kills a weakened Valravn, but Celeste and Thimbleweed rush to the entrance and begin attacking them as they pop up (Whack-a-Skull!). They draw their ire enough that the skulls switch to Fire Rays to attack Celeste, who’s frustratingly immune to their Fireballs thanks to Evasion (and stellar DEX saves).
Meanwhile Fraydigo is losing a lot of health to to the fiery monstrosities. In fight or flight mode, flight is looking increasingly viable. She uses her at-will Misty Step to return to the slide tunnel, grabs a tumbling dead Flameskull, and hurls it into the water as a distraction, while keeping herself hidden.
The ruse works, and she’s able to stealthily (and creepily!) advance back up the tunnel, even while several more dead Flameskulls come tumbling down.
Fraydigo returns as the third Flameskull is killed, cursing Edmond with her Ravenous Hunger, and brutally attacking Thimblweed.
Shocking everyone, the cursed Edmond runs directly into the hole to avoid hurting any of his friends, tumbling into the remorhaz pool, wow!
Thimbleweed barely survives the wendigo attack. On his next turn he and Celeste deal a knock-out blow to an equally near-death Fraydigo. The curse finally ends and Fray returns.
The shaken barbarian refuses to go back down the hole to save Edmond, however. With the Blessing of Auril, she has vulnerability to fire damage, and an aversion to all things warm and fiery. Instead she rushes after the last surviving Flameskull (which is also fiery, but less than the remorhazes I suppose) and destroys it, chucking it down the hole in disgust.
Thankfully Edmond doesn’t need rescuing. As Fraydigo was subdued so too was the curse afflicting him. He casts Expeditious Retreat, disengages, and runs like hell out of the nest and up the slide, snatching up the last dead Flameskull to save in the Bag of Holding.
I suppose the Remorhazes and Flameskulls could keep each other occupied for awhile, both hilariously being immune to each other’s fire, and the flameskulls constantly regenerating after being slain!
The party is badly wounded and shaken from the battle, but at least they know not to go sliding down any boreholes any time soon. They debate on whether to short rest or risk a long rest, but Vellyne reminds them of the pesky vampire still hunting them.
They also remember about the destroyed wraith, and its lair. They return to H15 and follow the ghostly vision into a series of icy walls, which Fray hacks apart. The last hidden room reveals the long-dead body of Drakareth, and the collection of loot he acquired from the other survivors. Most of it is ruined, but the body holds a magic cloak (Mantle of Spell Resistance) and a magic staff (Chardalyn Staff of Charming).
After grabbing the loot the party hunker down for a much needed short rest, and decide that perhaps they will leaving ambushing vampires and lurking remorahzes alone, and focus on finding the lost city.
MVPC – Celeste
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 