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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 (played by Chris/Valravn)
Edmond, Level 12 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 12 Thri-kreen Swarmkeeper Ranger
After back to back harrowing battles, the party decides enough is enough. It’s time to find this damn lost city already!
Thankfully there is a path of least resistance, or so they hope. The vampire clearly lairs somewhere to the north, while the nearby borehole in the ground leads to a vast cavern full of dangerous remorhazes.
But a southern tunnel twists toward the southeast. During a short rest, Fray attempts to commune with Auril, her new goddess, and asks if they’re on the right path to Ythryn.
The Frostmaiden’s only response is a subtle, cool breeze blowing in that direction. Down the tunnel we go!
Fray, who has spent zero class resources or hit points in the last two sessions thanks to the transformation, leads the way, charging around a larger cave with a thinner sheet of ice on one side (H31). She stops abruptly as the Thing in the Ice attacks her mind, probing through her thoughts.
The others are immediately concerned. Is she transforming again? We just went though this!
The icy wall flashes, and the party swears they see a large, shadowy, tentacle creature writing on the other side.
Edmond cautiously approaches Fray, but he’s struck still as well. Seems the creature isn’t limited to just one victim!
Now the party is extremely worried. After seeing a magical effect ensorcelling his friends with detect magic, Valravn casts dispel magic to try and end it on Edmond.
But the effect proves too strong. In response, Edmond, still vacant and slack-jawed, thorn whips Valravn in response!
Valravn isn’t done yet. He next tries the calm emotions spell, and this time sees a wonderful result, as the anti-charm effect lifts the dominating effect on his allies. Both of them have to make saves against madness. Edmond fails, but his would-be frightened effect is canceled by calm emotions. Nice!
(The DM rules that calm emotions can produce a zone of anti-charm for 1 minute. So the party hauls ass past the terrifying creature).
Entering the southwestern tunnels, the party decide to split up, because of course they do. Nearly every room is trying to kill them and there’s a vampire stalking them who loves attacking when they’re separated. And yet, who doesn’t love splitting the party?
Valravn, Celeste, and Thimbleweed head west and experience terrifying visions from a cavern full of mirror-like walls (H32). Thimbleweed experiences vivid hallucinations.
Vellyne and Fray head east, then south, discovering a room full of Ythryn debris, including chardalyn (“BORING!” declares Fray). Edmond would later nab some pieces of raw chardalyn.
Edmond heads further east, finding a large stone slab in the middle of a small cavern (H35). The slab is oddly free of frost, but it looks very similar to the previous stone slab they visited (H8, Session 70) which allowed Edmond to cast the arcane eye spell.
After carefully examining the slab, Edmond reached out to try and activate it, only to have his hand stick to it. The slab produced a pair of large tentacles and a toothy maw dripping in acid. A spitting mimic!
The mimic wasted no time attacking its grappled foe, and Edmond was grateful for the temporary hit points provided by Valravn during the short rest.
The rest of the party rush to help him. Fray lays into the monster, scoring a hilariously low damage critical hit, while Celeste blasts it with her radiant strikes.
Edmond takes a brutal beating from the creature. He aims his arm cannon up into the creature’s mouth and blasts it apart with the beam cannon. Nice.
The mirror cavern leads to another fork in the caves: north and south. Again the party decide to split, with Valravn, Thimbleweed, Celeste heading north and Fray, Vellyne, and Edmond heading south.
The northern team hit a dead-end in a U-shaped cave, but a faint tapping draws their attention (H33). Encased in one of the icy walls is a robed humanoid figure with blue skin. It seems capable of moving a small finger, but otherwise appears frozen.
They debate on how to release a figure, looking through various fire spells or blades, before they realize they have the perfect solution — drillbot! They set the little robot down and have it do its thing, with careful instructions!
The rest of the party follow a longer tunnel south until it opens up into a large cavern. In the middle of the cavern are several broken walls and big trees bearing purple fruit (H36.
Edmond wants to grab some fruit, but both Fray and Vellyne wave him away from it. The last thing he touched tried to eat him!
They carefully avoid the trees and find other tunnels branching out, including some small empty caves (H38), and a lenthy tunnel heading deeper down (H39). It’s down this tunnel that Fray feels that cold wind blow, urging her in that direction.
At the same time, a voice calls out to them. It’s in heavily accented Elvish, and only Vellyne understands. She casts comprehend languages on Edmond, allowing him to respond (DM Fiat, didn’t want to have a three-way conversation with Vellyne translating!).
The voice asks who they are and what they’re doing. Edmond plays it safe but truthful, saying they’re searching for the city. The voice knows the city, and believes they must be “the masters.”
A plant-like humanoid emerges from one of the trees, an ancient dryad, and introduces herself as Hathowyn. She was taken by the masters and put in the city long ago. They made more trees like hers, and they all bore delicious, magical fruit.
Edmond asks politely if he can have some, and she consents, warning him not to eat too many at once. He grabs nearly a dozen. Eating one gives him the magical ability to cast cure wounds once at 3rd level, which he immediately uses.
The dryad can’t leave her grove, which has sustained its magic despite being separate from the city during its fall. She warns of danger all around them, most of which the party has already encountered.
Edmond tries to convince her that they’re going to bring back the sun, which the dryad hasn’t seen in very long (though that’s because she’s stuck in a damn cave!).
She doesn’t want them to leave, however. She hasn’t had anyone to speak to in so long. She casts suggestion on Edmond, compelling him to stay and protect her from the dangers of the cave.
As if on cue, several mutated humanoid figures stumble out of a nearby cave, each with a single, piercing eye.
We’ll deal with this new threat next week!
MVPC – Valravn
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